LIED TO, MISREPRESENTED, BAIT AND SWITCH - ATT LENOX SQUARE MALL

January 10, 2015

District Director, AT&T

Dear Mr. Le:

On the 28th of December our family took a trip to the Lenox Square Mall.  We went to the Apple Store first because my son, Nick a college student, was interested in trading his iPhone 5S (16Gb) in for a new iPhone 6 (32gb) and signing up for The Next Program for his phone.  We are all (4 of us) on a Family Share account.  The kind customer service guy at the Apple Store told us that the AT&T store would more than likely give my son more trade in value than they could.  At that time he told him that the Apple Store could only authorize $260 in trade-in value.  He told us there was a new AT&T store inside the mall so we went to check it out.  The gentleman at the front desk (out by the mall aisle) of your AT&T store welcomed us and asked how he could help.  My son told him what he was looking to do.  The gentleman looked his phone over for trade-in value and told him the phones trade-in value was $300 given to him in the form of an AT&T Visa card which he could then use to make payments on his new phone which would be charged to our combined bill.  He then said, “the only thing is we don’t have the iPhone 6 in stock”.  He said he could order it and have it shipped in one to two weeks and on the day Nick receives it he could go to any AT&T store and trade-in his phone and receive the $300 Visa card.  We asked specifically about him living in VA and him getting the phone in GA and whether or not the AT&T stores in VA would give him the $300 Visa card since he isn’t buying the phone from them.  He said it wouldn’t matter and any AT&T store would issue the $300 Visa card to him.  JUST TO MAKE SURE, I went to the lady at the store (that this gentleman had spoken with to get clarification) and asked her flat out, “If my son, Nick, purchases this iPhone 6 from you today (12/28/2014), waits for this iPhone 6 to come in the mail from you in one to two weeks (1/04/2015-1/11/2015) and then once he receive the iPhone 6 he takes his iPhone 5S in to sell they will honor it and give him the $300 Visa card there?”  She responded with a definite “YES!”  I told her my concern because; he was buying a phone (not in stock) and not being able to conduct the trade-in right then for the $300 Visa Card (can’t be without a phone for one-two weeks while waiting on the shipment of the iPhone 6).   They BOTH assured us he would get his $300 Visa Card.  Without the Visa Card for $300 he would not have made this purchase!

So current situation:

He received his iPhone 6 and promptly went to the Lynchburg, VA store to trade-in his phone for the $300 Visa Card.  They told him his phone was only worth a $175 Visa Card.  WHAT?  Wait a minute we had a deal!  Your store personnel clearly stated that when the new phone shipped and he had it he could go get his $300 Visa Card from ANY store.  When our son told us what happened I did call the Lenox Square store.  I spoke with Manager “Daniel”.  He first told me that the $300 Visa Card was only a “November Buyback” and that our son couldn’t get the $300 Visa Card in December.  After explaining the story to him he said it was only good for “December” purchases.  Clearly neither he nor the employees know for sure what the policies and prices are for trade-ins.  All we know is we were making a business transaction with AT&T employees, in good faith, and what they were telling us about the trade-in was true.  What we have is misrepresentation and disregard with words that don’t mean what they were intended to mean.  We were falsely told, after checking with two different individuals, that he would get the $300 Visa Card.  We were lured into a bait and switch situation where now my son is tied into a two year contract and instead of getting the $300 Visa Card he is being told he will get $175. 

This is NOT acceptable business practices and by such we are asking for this to be corrected and the promised amount (a $300 Visa Card) trade-in be granted upon turning over his phone to the AT&T store in Lynchburg, VA where he resides. 

We are very, very, unhappy and ask that AT&T stick to the deal that was made.  If the $300 trade-in was a December only event then they should have said, “oh by the way…when you get this iPhone 6 shipped to you it will be in January and the $300 Visa Card deal will not be in effect then.  Do you still want to proceed with this transaction?”  If the $300 Visa Card deal was only a NOVEMBER BUYBACK deal then it shouldn’t have even been offered to a customer to entice him to purchase and be tied to a two year contract with AT&T.  Either way not acceptable.  Please make this right.

Sincerely,

[Edited for privacy-please do not post personal or unique information such as but not limited to full names, employee ID numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, etc.]