The company I dealt with online calls itself cashforlaptops.com. They are located in Nevada, use several addresses there in different cities, and their real name is Laptop & Desktop Repair, LLC. I used their online site to get a quote on selling my used laptop. I answered their screening questions honestly: the laptop was 3.5 years old and would not boot. (In fact, I answered more than honestly because there was no place to tell them the weird way in which it could be booted.) The screening program had me wait while it calculated their offer on that information. It offered $164
I got nearly one email per day after that reminding me to look for the shipping box and be sure to send the laptop quickly to get my cash. I got one final e-mail saying they’d received the laptop and would get back to me in 5 days with their final offer. After that, I never heard from them, even after I e-mailed back asking the status.
I looked up their 800 number and called them. The guy on the phone claimed they’d been calling me for days—a complete lie—my cell phone never rang and there were no messages there or at home. Then he said there were “scratches” on the laptop and it was only worth $60. More lies! Scratches worth $104?! The case had the small marks you would expect on a USED laptop, which is what they were supposed to be buying! I was so taken aback, I just said, Send me the $60.
Later I was irritated at being scammed, looked up internet reviews, and saw other similar complaints against them. They had no BBB rating so I filed a BBB complaint on the above facts. Their rebuttal was that the offer of $164 was for a “pristine” laptop, that I could have asked them to send it back at their expense (they never offered this, and I admit that I wasn’t smart enough to ask), and now they were the legal owners of the laptop, period. What their website says is: “Sell your Laptop for Cash! Our concept is simple. Working or not, sell your used and previously owned laptop and notebook computers.” It doesn’t say” “Sell us your pristine laptop that shows no external sign of ever having been used.”
So, they successfully scammed me, but I hope you read this before they scam you. They got a lot of valuable laptop parts (memory, screen, keyboard, etc.) worth a great deal more than $60. And I got an object lesson about looking up internet reviews and BBB ratings BEFORE dealing with a company I’ve never heard about before.
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