You might remember the name Cash4iPhones: we shared one reader’s conflict with them around the time of the last iPhone release. Consumers have two main complaints about this company. They claim that it sends high initial offers that plummet once your device is in their hands, and they are impossible to reach.

The same company does business under a few different names, which are variations on the same theme: CashForLaptops.com is another well-known site of theirs. The situation profiled in the New York Times this weekend follows the pattern we’ve seen before: a customer described his phone and mailed it in, and saw an initial offer of $75 fall to $8 once the company had his old phone. He tried to complain about the decrease in their offer, but found it impossible to reach a human being at the company.

The New York Times’ Haggler columnist wasn’t any more successful at navigating the company’s phone tree, but he was able to find contact information for their outside counsel, who contacted the customer and sent a check for $45. That’s not the happiest ending, though, since there are literally thousands of Better Business Bureau complaints against sites in the Cash4(gadget) family. This is apparently a company that doesn’t count on any repeat business.

The Shrinking Cellphone Offer You Can’t Refuse [New York Times]

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