If you donated phones to this company believing that they were a Non-Profit please contact us. We want to speak to you.
How you were scammed.
Here's how it really works. You give some unsuspecting REAL organization/Business your used cell phone thinking it will REALLY help a legitimate charity (or you mail it to Phones 4 Charity directly).
Phones 4 Charity will give the Real charity between $0.10 (0ne dime) and $5.00 for your donated phone. Then Phones 4 Charity's parent company P4C Global then sells that same donated phone to used cell phone dealers, and refurbishing companies in China (thus your phone truly does go to an under-developed country!) for anywhere from $10.00 to $200.00 dollars. (yes we have actual invoices from small companies who purchased phones from P4C Global graciously provided as proof and evidence)
Average cell phone "Drives" net under $100.00 for the actual charity (usually consisting of 30 or more phones) and on average $1500.00 for P4C Global. Less than 1% of all Cell Phones donated generates more than $.25 for your charity... but all of them help to generate over 1 Million Dollars per year in profit for P4C Global Inc. (http://www.p4cglobal.com/) and 90% of that goes directly into the pocket of the owner Steven Hopwood. P4C reported revenue of 2.4 million on Hoovers.com for 2007, less than $100,000 total was distributed by Phones 4 charity in that same time period.
Do the Charities know?
They don't have a clue, intentionally, they are kept out of the phone gathering loop, instead it works by having good people like you, and your church, school, business or other group do all the work of gathering the phones and sending them in. You never get ANY direct contact with your charity. Your Charity never even knows you are doing this on their behalf until/unless they get a check from Phones 4 Charity. Don't be disheartened we are in the process of getting this information to the charities, through legal channels.
Phones 4 Charity generates a "Phone Drive Report" which is given to you (your organization) itemizing what they are paying to the charity on your behalf. They write the charity a check and then, the charity is supposed to send you a "Donation Reciept" but here's the catch. The Charity also sends an identical reciept to Phones 4 Charity!!! "for their records" which then gets used by Phones 4 Charity. LLC as a write off!....Your hard work is barely noticed by your charity but greatly appreciated by Mr. Hopwood gets not only your money but a write off as well!
So the charities are sent a copy of your "Phone Drive Report" and the paltry check. Mr. Hopwood drives a Mercedes and lives in a multi million dollar home. The Charities are as much a victim as you.
What happened to the phone I mailed in?
It was sold, as all of them are, and the profit was pocketed by Mr. Hopwood. No charity ever recieved a "Phone Drive Report" or any compensation related to your phone. Two or three times a year he blankets 3 or 4 charities with $250.00 checks to "cover his ass" but P4C Global recieves several hundred phones a month that are never documented, and for which charities are never paid. Which is why YOU NEVER RECIEVED A DONATION RECIEPT FOR YOUR PHONE. and you aren't going to.