Cell phones meant for charity get sold on eBay

Some Cingular Wireless customers feel deceived and angry after cell phones they thought they had donated to charity, were instead sold on eBay, reports WBIR.com.

"Colorado realtor Lydia Bliven got a new cell phone in July and offered to donate her old phone. "Our impression was (that it was going) to a local battered women's shelter," says Bliven.

John Ebbinghaus had a similar experience at a Cingular Wireless store.

"The salesperson asked 'Would you like to donate the phone?'" Ebbinghaus recalls. "I said yeah, that's no problem, what do you donate it to? And he mentioned a women's shelter."

But the phones never made it to a women's shelter. Both of the phones were purchased on eBay by Carol Winslow in Norfolk, Virginia.

A Cingular Wireless spokesperson said that the company "takes this situation very seriously." Anne Marshall of Cingular says this was a case of "an employee acting improperly."

According to the Coloradoan, it could be difficult to charge the former Cingular employee who allegedly took phones intended for charity and sold them on eBay, because customers who donated phones had given them to Cingular. For theft to occur, it has to be something of value," O'Malley said. "That's hard to assess because they basically gave it away."

emily | 10:10 AM | SMS Fund Raising and Charities |
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