Every Drawer
Has One.
A phone that died years ago. Still in there — and still full of working parts. Somewhere in London, another phone needs them.
It’s Not Dead. It’s a Donor.
Most of what’s inside a dead phone still works.
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The face Screen and glass
Cracked faces are London’s most common phone death. A donor face brings one back.
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The eye Camera module
Outlives nearly everything. Sees again in someone else’s phone.
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The heart Battery
Still holds a charge, in a phone that won’t wake up to use it.
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The brain Logic board
Even when it’s the thing that failed, single chips get lifted off and transplanted.
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The lungs Charging port
How a phone breathes. Wears out on the living — donors keep the spares.
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The spine Flex cables
Never sold separately. A donor is the only place they come from.
What Happens to Your Device
Five steps, in this order. Nothing is opened before the data is gone.
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You Hand It Over
Walk in, or ask about posting it. Name and an email — that is the entire form.
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The Data Goes First
Storage wiped or destroyed before a single screw comes out — confirmed in writing.
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We Check It’s Really a Donor
Worth more repaired or sold? We say so and hand it back — or offer to buy it, if it is new enough and dry.
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Parts Come Out When Needed
Not all at once. A donor can wait months for the person who needs that exact part.
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You Hear From Us Once
One message when a part goes into someone else’s device. The rest goes to a licensed WEEE recycler.
Plainly: not every device yields a usable part, and some never do. We would rather say that here than dress it up and disappoint you in six months.
Your Data Is Destroyed First
This is the part people actually worry about, and they are right to. We recover data off dead phones for a living — so we know exactly how much survives a factory reset. We don’t rely on one.
Rather take the storage out yourself before handing it over? Do. The rest of the device is still useful, and you keep the drive.
If it still powers on
Full wipe, verified. Encrypted devices get their keys destroyed too — that is what makes a wipe final rather than optimistic.
If it doesn’t
The storage comes out and is physically destroyed. A dead phone and a dead chip are not the same thing.
Either way
Written confirmation, dated, against your donor number. One sheet, no jargon.
What’s Still Alive in Yours?
Answer three questions. The diagram shows which parts survive — and whether yours is one we’d pay for.
exploded view — your device, layer by layer
As a rule of thumb: screens, cameras, ports, batteries and a surprising share of the chips on a dead board all outlive the device they came in. Answer the three questions and we’ll be more specific — or skip the quiz and just bring it in.
The Wait. The Call.
What actually happens after you walk out — told honestly, months included.
Where donor parts end up most: phone repairs · board-level work · data recovery — where a matching donor board is sometimes the only way to get someone’s photos back.
If It’s Worth Money, We Hand It Back
Devices come through the door every week that are worth more than the sum of their parts: a two-year-old iPhone with nothing wrong but a cracked screen, a MacBook that needs one connector re-soldered, a console with a £20 fault. If yours is one of those, we will tell you — and then you have three ways out, none of which is a bad deal.
Repair it
Usually cheaper than people expect. We quote before anything is opened, and the decision stays yours.
Sell it yourself
We will tell you roughly what it should fetch and where. A private sale beats any parts price — including ours.
Sell it to us as a donor
Under about two years old, working or not — and as long as it has never been under water — we may buy it outright: cash, or a voucher against any repair. Newer parts are the hardest ones to source. One caveat we won’t hide: heavily serialised parts (recent iPhones above all) limit what a donor can give, so the offer is made at the counter, after we have seen the device — never by a slider.
An ordinary donation stays exactly that: no cash, no credit, no voucher. What you get is the data handled properly, the working parts kept in service, and one message when yours saves another device.
What We Take — and What We Don’t
Condition barely matters. Category does.
We Take
- Phones
- Tablets
- Laptops
- MacBooks and Surface
- Desktops and Mac minis
- Consoles and handhelds
- Drones
- Drives and SSDs, dead ones too
- Devices missing pieces
We Don’t
- TVs, monitors, CRTs
- White goods
- Smartwatches
- Loose batteries
- Anything not yours to give
Not on either list? Ask before you make the trip.
If the battery is swollen or punctured, tell us
We will still take it — a swollen battery is a normal week here. But say so when you hand it over, and carry it on its own rather than loose in a bag with your keys. Do not press it, charge it or put it in a pocket on the way.
Your Donor Card
Every donated device gets a number, and you get a wallet card with that number on it — the size of a bank card, because that is where it will live.
It exists for one practical reason: when a part comes off your device months from now, the number is how we know it was yours and where to send the message.
Prefer no message at all? Say so when you hand it over and we will note it. You still get the card and the data confirmation.
The Movement Starts in a Drawer
Nobody knows how many dead devices London keeps in its drawers — everyone knows their own. No campaign, no collection lorry: one drawer at a time, because the parts shortage is real and the fix is already sitting in your kitchen.
Empty yours
One device, two minutes over the counter. That is the entire entry fee — here is where to bring it.
Multiply it
Run a drawer amnesty at your office or school — a box in the kitchen for a fortnight does it. We handle collection, data destruction and the paperwork. Start with business services.
Spread it
Writing about repair, e-waste or the right to fix? We’ll open the workshop — the bench, the microscope, the donor shelf, the numbers we can actually stand behind. hello@fixfactor.co.uk.
Questions People Ask
Do you pay for donated devices?
For most donations, no. The exception is newer devices: under roughly two years old, working or not, and not liquid-damaged — corrosion makes every part a lottery, so wet donors stay donations. Where a device qualifies we pay cash or offer a voucher against any repair. One honest caveat: heavily serialised parts (recent iPhones especially) limit what a donor can give, which is why the offer is made at the counter once we have seen it — never by an online calculator.
Can I change my mind after I have handed it over?
Until we start taking parts out, yes — call or email with your donor number and we will put it aside for you. After that we cannot, because by then pieces of it are in other people’s devices. Note that the data is already gone at that point either way; that step happens first and is not reversible.
How do I know the data is really gone?
You get written confirmation of what was done to the storage, dated and tied to your donor number. If the device powered on it was wiped and verified; if it did not, the storage was removed and physically destroyed. If you would rather not take our word for it, take the drive or storage out yourself before you come — the rest of the device is still worth having.
Will a part from my device definitely get used?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. It depends entirely on whether someone walks in during the next year or two needing exactly what your device has. Popular models get stripped quickly; unusual ones can sit for a long time and sometimes go to recycling untouched.
Do you take devices that were never repairable in the first place?
Those are often the most useful ones. A phone that is bent in half still has a good camera, a charging port, connectors and a battery in it. Water damage is fine too — corrosion tends to be local, and the parts away from it are usually untouched.
Can a company or a school donate a batch?
Yes, and it is worth talking to us before you box anything up — batch handling, collection and the paperwork side work differently from a single device over the counter. Start with business services and say roughly how many devices and what they are.
Do I get a receipt for tax or WEEE purposes?
You get written confirmation of the donation and of what happened to the storage. We are a repair business rather than a charity, so it is not a Gift Aid donation and there is no tax relief attached to it. If you need documentation for business WEEE compliance, tell us before you hand anything over and we will be straight with you about what we can and cannot evidence.
Where do the parts you cannot use end up?
With a licensed WEEE recycler. Nothing goes in the general waste, and nothing leaves here with readable storage in it.
Related
Where donated parts most often end up, and where to find us.
Got One in a Drawer?
Bring it in whenever you are passing. Two minutes over the counter — and the drawer gets its space back.