7 On Your Side: Tech device recycle business stiffing customers

DEER PARK, Long Island (WABC) -- Complaints are mounting about a start-up tech company that promises to turn your used devices into cash, with many customers saying they're still waiting on that payment.

And when 7 On Your Side confronted the company, the employees weren't exactly hard at work.

Guzu was chosen as one of the America's fastest growing companies when it launched in 2011, and its owner lauded in several articles for his green efforts. But six years later, consumer advocates say hundreds of former customers are seeing red while looking for their own green.

Former customers Paul McCarthy and David Morganlander were beyond frustrated with the Deer Parktech recycler, which claims to pay for everything from iPhones to computers to video game consoles.

Morganlander was promised payment on his iPhone6 via Chase QuickPay within one to two days, but four months later, he hadn't seen a dime.

"I was like, this is great," he said. "I'm in. Sold. Done."

McCarthy, on the other hand, did see a check for the tech he turned in. It was originally for $900, but it bounced.

"They said they would send out a replacement," he said. "Basically, never heard from them again."

And they're not alone, as hundreds of people claim they never received their checks.

"They have over 350 complaints, 212 unanswered," said Claire Rosenzweig, head of the New York Better Business Bureau. Guzu received an F rating from the BBB. "They were not getting their money back, and if they were getting checks, those checks were bouncing. So there was a real problem as far as delivering what the company was promising."

Guzu is located in a strip mall, and when we paid them a visit, we found employees playing ping pong. After we walked in, the match and the music stopped.

Absent was Guzu's founder, Hesam Meshkat, who later did answer us with an apology and three customers' payments.

"I was like OMG, thank you, thank God Channel 7 called me," Morganlander said. "I didn't think I was ever going to get the money back."

The owner chalked up our viewers' problems to "administrative mistakes." As for the hundreds of BBB complaints, Guzu says it has "resolved most outstanding complaints" and was in communication with the BBB to have them update their system.

But the BBB said it still has the same number of unresolved complaints, totaling 212. Late Monday, Guzu's owner said he was making preparations to address these complaints.