Lost Trade In

If you did the trade in with Apple, you sent the trade in to them.  AT&T has nothing to do with this.  I haven’t heard of a trade where you send to phone to Apple and then Apple sends the phone to AT&T.  Also, not sure how you suddenly get a $500 bill of 6 months of installments.  If you bought the phone from AT&T, and are paying AT&T, you get charged the installment payment on every phone bill since you bought the phone.  If they got the trade in, then you start getting offsetting credits on the monthly bill.  If you bought the phone from Apple, and are paying the installments to Apple, not AT&T, I believe they will charge you the monthly charge assuming you got the credit, but will backcharge if the trade in isn’t received by a certain time.

From the description, this seems like an Apple issue.

I'm confused as well. We traded in our existing ATT phones at the Apple Store for new 13 pros and signed an ATT contract in store. The Apple Store kept those phones. We've been paying ATT since December and had to wait a few months for the promotional credit to kick in. The bill we received in June for $500 was a result of taking off the last 7 months of promotional credits (7 x $30 or whatever) since they are saying they never received the traded in phone. They keep asking me for a tracking number but all I have from Apple is the in-store receipt with the serial numbers and IMEIs as well as the ATT Next Installment contract from Apple.

How are you paying the monthly installment for the price of the phone?  Is it on your AT&T bill?  If so, then it’s strange that AT&T would have given the credits immediately before receiving the trades and then taken them away later.  Also strange that Apple will take a phone in trade on behalf of AT&T, instead of giving you a shipping label for you to send it direct to AT&T for trade.  Anyway, if that’s how it worked, not sure what the recourse is other than maybe filing a BBB complaint against Apple.  If Apple was expected to turn the phone into AT&T, then they need to be the ones to prove that they sent the phones to AT&T and that AT&T received them.

😲

Since you do have receipts from the Apple Store for the trade in, it's on Apple entirely to provide tracking on the phones.

Since the trade-in offer is through a third party recycler, AT&T would have been entirely out of it. 

@formerlyknownas that was my assumption as well! Apple made it sound on the phone like they never mail the trade-ins to ATT after a promotion and I was never able to get ahold of a manager of the physical store. Thankfully, a very nice ATT rep from Reddit was able to contact me and provided me with a "benefit of the doubt" credit since clearly this is an Apple/ATT problem! Glad it is over, but still an entire day of phone calls I will never get back!

I traded in an iPhone in December 2021. After the 90 days "waiting period" for my credit, I started calling. Now I call every month. AT&T can't find my trade that I mailed in. AT&T has been willing to provide monthly credits while they resolve this - at least through May 2022, but they aren't willing to give me the full $800 credit that I am entitled to. I have been an AT&T customer for at least 12 years, probably more. It doesn't seem that customer loyalty has any value. I'm fed up and planning to switch carriers.

Hello @emh526, we're here to help with your trade in credits. 

Since it takes 3 months for the trade in credits to be applied and that time has passed for you, we would like to invite you to a DM (Direct Message). Please check your Direct Message Inbox (it’s the chat icon next to the bell icon in the upper right corner of the Forums)

The trade in credits will not be applied as a lump sum, they will be applied in equal amounts over the term of your installment agreement. Catch up credits will be issued once the credits start. Credits will not exceed the lowest of the device cost or the max credit amount. 

No worries; we'll be sending you a DM to further assist you.  

Crystal, AT&T Community Specialist 

I understand that I won't get a lump sum. My point is that I've been told that without ATT locating my trade in, I'm losing the total $800 credit however it get applied.

I appreciate your help - being new to this forum, where do I access the DM? or has it been sent?

I am having this same issue right now. AT&T is saying it’s been too long and they won’t credit me back. It’s supposed to be 1000$ credit. I am considering dropping AT&T and Apple entirely. 

@RyanTaylot

Please don't resurrect old threads. Create your own new thread.

If your problem is the same as the original poster, they turned over their phone to Apple. Apple does not participate in AT&T's trade-in program. Turning a phone over to Apple gets you a one-time credit from Apple