Trade In Phone Scam

Well since the marketing and fine print is published on their page is not misleading,  that's not true.

And hundreds of thousands successfully have gone through these deals with AT&T, and are receiving credits on their phones as advertised, it's not much of a scam.  

I'm not saying that there haven't been mistakes. There have been people who have not met the qualifications, mostly they didn't read the qualifications and follow them. There have been a few people who were lied to and told that they qualified when they didn't. But that's an individual problem.   And there have been people who misunderstood what was required of them, did not read the requirements, or refused to follow the requirements and thought they would still get the deal.  

    My very favorite is the woman who took part in the trade-in deal and then complained here that she didn't get the bill credits for the trade-in deal because she was told her phone didn't qualify so she didn't trade in a phone at all. Somehow thought she should still get credits even though she failed to trade in a phone.   

Good luck with that ...

This is not the trade in experience we want you to have @Robbobmc51. 

Thank you for the response @formerlyknownas.

When trading in a device it can take up to 3 billing cycles for your credit to reflect on your account.

• When did you trade in your device? 

If it has been longer then 3 billing cycles, we can meet in a direct message to take a closer look into your account.

We look forward to assisitng you.

Marilyn, AT&T Community Specialist

My concern is the follow through with your promises. I have been promised "fixes" by AT&T in the past, to see them never happen, hence my concern. When I am looking at a contract or billing statement that says 1 0f 35 payments for the trade-in, it's a little disconcerting. I feel like my payment would be no different than an agreement to pay the next 34 installments. If that's difficult to understand, hate it for your confusion. 

As for the "peanut gallery's" response to my post, you have way too much free time on your hands. 

Thank you for responding back to us Robbobmc51.

We know the importance of receiving what you were promised, and we're here to take a closer look into this for you. Let's meet in a Direct Message so that we can get the bottom of this . You will find a chat icon next to a bell icon at the top of the page. Our next message will appear there. 

We look forward to assisting you.

Marilyn, AT&T Community Specialist

I'm feeling the same way.  This whole process feels like a SCAM.  I returned my phone to AT&T but it got lost by USPS.  When I called to see what was going on they keep saying go to USPS and find the phone yourself we can't help you.

Finally after that failed I realized I had an older phone that would qualify for the trade in but at that point I was told it was past 30 days and that there was NOTHING they could do for me anymore.  But I've been trying to resolve this with AT&T PRIOR to the 30 days being up.

Even though I followed AT&T instructions to the letter they blame me for the phone lost.  Then I tried to return the new phone they said they wouldn't because it was after 30 days.

At every step AT&T seem to be screwing me over on this process.  I'm so mad that I'm thinking I'll just pay off the phone and move to T Mobile.  Maybe they'll treat their customers better.

Finally, although Nelson on the Social Media team was helpful everyone else I spoke to at customer service was incredibly unhelpful.  Frankly, most of them couldn't understand (or wouldn't) understand what the problem was and I had to keep repeating myself over and over again.

I want to stress what angers me the most is that there is a solution.  I have a phone that qualifies for the trade in to replace the phone that USPS lost.

Everyone wins.  Except AT&T won't even consider it because it's not past 30 days.  But, like I said, I've been trying to resolve this BEFORE the 30 days were up.  It's taken this long.

Is it my fault USPS lost the phone?  Is it my fault it took this long for AT&T to try to help me.  Doesn't seem like I'm at fault here but yet I'm the one being punished for everyone's else mistakes.