1. Phones 4 Charity is NOT a non-profit organization they are a registered LLC in the state of California.
2. Their mission is not to help charities but to line the pockets of their owner Steve Hopwood.
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 (somewhere between 45 days and never). Then Phones 4 Charity’s parent company P4C Global 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.
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.
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.
Phones 4 Charity generates a “Phone Drive Report” which is given to your organization itemizing what they are paying to the charity on your behalf but they NEVER tell you or the charity how much they REALLY got for the phones. They write the charity a check and then, the charity is supposed to send you a “Donation Reciept” but there’s a 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!….
So 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! 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. These blanketed charities send him donation reciepts which he in turn writes off as charitable contributions. Which is why YOU NEVER RECIEVED A DONATION RECIEPT FOR YOUR PHONE and you aren’t going to.
This post was submitted by Colby.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
My name is Joe Hampton and I am a volunteer who works with Phones 4 Charity. I am writing this in the hope that people will read this and know that the previous post is a complete hoax! The woman who wrote it is named Ythsta Resovich or Tammany Prather. She is an ex-employee of Phones 4 Charity.
YTHSTA RESOVICH / TAMMANY PRATHER WAS CAUGHT STEALING $1000′S OF DOLLARS FROM PHONES 4 CHARITY. SHE COST THE COMPNAY OVER $90,000 IN DAMANGES WITH HER THEFT. She was stealing money from charities and from Steve Hopwood and then putting it in her own pocket. She is about to be convicted any day now. If you want to look her up, her criminal case in the CALIFORNIA SUPERIOR COURT case number is LA060818 and her next court date in Van Nuys Superior Court is 3-26-2009 at 8:30am room 100 if you would like to get the transcripts of the case, you can do so by contacting the Van Nuys court reporter’s office at (213)893-9759.
It is absolutely shameful that she is still trying to hurt Mr. Hopwood and the great company that he has built. Almost all the money that is generated from the collection of these phones goes to the charitable cause they are meant for. A very small administration fee is taken for the processing of these phones and that’s it. Some times Phones 4 Charity actually loses money with these phones.
P4C Global is another company that Steve Hopwood owns. Its primary function is the wholesale procurement and recycling of cell phones and E-waste. A lot of the money that is made from P4C Global goes towards the operating costs of Phones 4 Charity. Steve Hopwood is a good man and is working to help others in need have better lives. I do believe in god and I think that people like Ythsta Resovich / Tammany Prather who are out to hurt people for their own greedy needs will have a higher power to answer to eventually.
I hope that this in some way helps to vindicate Phones 4 Charity and Steve Hopwood of any wrong doing.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Joe Hampton
March 26th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Phones 4 Charity is a wonderful up standing recycling company. I know of many charities that have used them, and compared their pay out prices with other recyclers. Phones 4 Charity pay out prices were higher over all
I think before a post is posted on the internet all the facts should be checked out. The woman who posted the incorrect information it is a disgruntled employee posting lies. She was caught stealing money from this company and now most likely will be going to jail.
She has posted to this site a a form of vengeance.
Phones 4 charity pays the same as all the other recycling companies. They are also green and keep the scrap phones out of the land fills. All you have to do is ask them for their current pay out list for phones and check is against other recycling companies, most of their pay outs are higher. The name of this site is bust a thief. A thief is posting lies to this site. I think that the internet is amazing tool, but it is a easy way to hurt people. Before information is posted it should be checked out first. I suggest you call the Van Nuys Superior Court and see who the real thief is here.
Thank you for your time
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:25 am
Phone 4 Charity is a good recycling program. I checked what they pay for their phones they pay as well or better than any of the other programs. If you have a cause that you wish to raise money for; phones4chariy is the program to use. They never claimed to be non profit themselves. What they do partner with you, they teach the non-profits how to be in the cell phone recycling business. There is no cost for this program to the nonprofit. Phones 4 charity will send you as many boxes as you wish. All the boxes have pre-paid shipping labels. phones4charity will even make a sticker to go on the box with the non-profits logo and mission statement on it.
All you need to do is go to their website at http://www.phones4charity.org and request a current price list of what they pay for phones. Their pay out is higher on about 75% of the phones on the list then other recycling companies. Phones4Charity cell phone recycling program is a green program. Earth Day is coming up soon, please remember if read things on the internet about companies always check out all the facts.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sue Mayer
April 18th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Ythsta (aka Tami Reinhardt, Ythsta Prather, Ythstamaney Resovich, Madeline Reinhart, Annette Besson, ..the list goes on-and-on) is a con-artist. She’s a thief. The list of whom she has taken money from, failed to pay rent to, failed to make the final car payments, failed to pay horse boarding fees, hay bills is very long. In addition she steals from employers, and steals from boyfriends. She steals from roommates. She steals from charities. She creates faux charities and takes people’s money. She scams disability. (She took Katrina money!!) She uses other peoples social security numbers. She pretends to have cancer — and steals from cancer charities. She abandons animals, she abuses animals. She claims she is a pacifist, but,has no problem in verbally attacking and threatening physical violence.
Ythsta is a psychopath. She lies so much and so often that I doubt she knows what is the truth. I have NO DOUBT that she was “colby” who posted the terrible things about phones4charity. It’s what she does.
How do I know this? I was a victim of her 5 years ago, and tried to get her punished for her crimes. I’ve spoken to more than three dozen other victims of her.
Why is she not caught? She skips out on court, she exploits the holes in California justice system, and she moves around A LOT. She lies to DA’s, she lies to officers, she gets unsuspecting people to lie for her. But, nevertheless, there are warrants for her arrest in several counties in Northern California, and a long, long string of civil cases that she’s lost (and never paid) in more than a dozen counties.
She’s a busy, busy girl. In fact, she always has several scams going at once, and several addresses (many are private p.o. boxes). She has a way with men…and gives herself freely if that’s what is needed.
Please, do not believe the negative posting about the Phones4Charity. I do not know the company, but know the m.o. of a very, very evil, sick woman.
I am able to backup what I say, and provide references…if the host of this site cares to contact me. It’s a shame that such a nice site has been taken advantage of by Ythsta.
April 18th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I know of two cold cases which are out to find Ythstamany Prather. Please email me at jantaylor2007@gmail.com