Trade in device Issue

@Love_Me37 this is a public customer based forum. You just posted all your personal information for the world to see. Be prepared for scam calls. This is not a way to reach AT&T customer care. No one has access to your account. You should remove your personal information.m ASAP.

ATT deals with trade-ins in extremely chaotic matter. I spent hours and hours with different agents on the phone and via chat. Most of them are not aware how to deal with trade-in issues. Also they say someone will call back and nobody ever does. After 3 months of wasting my time, I sent a complaint to FCC and someone from president office got back to me in couple days. Very unfortunate that they can’t take care of their loyal customers without escalation. Good luck! 

Also, ATT claimed my phone was damaged when received. I opened a case with post office and they alerted me to 2 things: first, ATT uses third party shipper which takes over from US post office. It’s ATT’s choice to use them.  Second, ATT creates therefore owns shipping label, so they should be responsible for the shipment. In these circumstances, ATT should issue a credit to the customer and then try to recover the amount (if product was truly damaged) from the shipper. That’s how normal companies operate. Hope this helps! 

As mentioned by other customers in this thread, go to the BBB and file a complaint. 

Customer Service is a waste of time and the Trade-In number is to a third party contractor (Hyla) that will literally tell you nothing and do nothing for you. 

Go to the BBB and you will receive a call and or email from someone in “The Office of the President” who will apply the promotional discounts you qualify for and you will be done with this. 

Sent in 2 phones 8 months ago.  Just went through hours of run around with ATT.  I am looking into a (Edited per community guidelines) (Edited per community guidelines).  They have no response other than to tell us that we are basically out of luck.  Someone needs to stand up to these horrible business practices.

This AT&T  phone trade in process really needs to be improved!!!
 I just went to the post office to get insurance for my sending  my older phone to att. The shipping label I received from att that had the address, invoice number, and others numbers on the front of it, the post office said I could not use that label and get insurance. So I had to write out all the adddress and numbers again, plus my return address on a separate piece of paper and tape to the box containing my old phone (I did not trust the flimsy bubble envelope that att sent to protect my old phone from damage. So I put my old phone in a sturdier box and packed it good.) I then had to pay for insurance and tracking.  
 Why don’t we have the option to turn in the phones to a local store? I have several less than 5 minutes from me. 
 If my phone is turned into Att in good shape and without getting lost in the mail, they will apply a $700 credit to my account. So it is not something to play around with, or be so inefficient, cumbersome, and have issues with USPS losing your device.  
 Plus with Usps shipping delays it makes the time to send the phone in not very long. It is currently 45 days I believe (1 month and half) from purchase of new phone, for att to mail the return instructions and envelope, this is hoping it doesn’t get lost in the mail. And then you pack and ship off to att. Att needs to focus on and help its customers with a problem laden process.
 I am not a fan of the AT&T trade in process currently. 

 ATT please work on and fix!

@va3592yoshi

I agree, the entire system is poorly designed. Just wait until your phone is received and processed by Hyla, the 3rd party trade-in contractor AT&T uses. Your phone’s trade-in value may be decreased to the point where you do not qualify for the $700 in bill credits - even if it was sent in pristine condition. 

Then you get to start the process of having AT&T honor the promotion you were seeking. 

The good news is that you have found these forums and know that a BBB or, even better, an FCC complaint will get AT&T to honor the promotion.

If your trade-in value is decreased to the point where you do not qualify for the bill credits you believe you should get, DO NOT waste your time with Customer Service and certainly do NOT call the trade-in department. CS will direct you to Trade-In and Trade-In will tell you “we will escalate your inquiry to Tier 2, please wait for an email from Tier 2”. That email will NEVER come. 

If you have problems, file a dispute with BBB or FCC immediately. Time spent with AT&T CS or anyone else is just wasting your time.

Read these forums, you will see that the above course of action is the only way to solve trade-in issues. 

@Qdad

 Thank you! I had not yet read some posts and the posts about Hyla! 
 That sounds terrible!

Thank for replying with all the additional information!!! It might have taken me awhile to read the other posts, and know what could happen with this current process. I will see how it goes and will possibly follow those steps you suggested, if it gets to that point.

 Thank you for commenting and for the other posters, for helping others know how to deal with this current messed up process!

Thanks!

I have had the same issue with the trade-in program. When I went to upgrade my phone after spending two hours at the store they told me they did not have any in stock so one would be sent to me. I was told to send my trade-in back in the same box. When checking my status I was told I sent it to the wrong place. I was on the phone for three hours and was finally told that I would receive an email stating that my account was credited within 30 days. It has been 60 days and still have not received a response. I have sent several emails And no one has gotten back to me. Yes I believe this is a scam, a way they can keep your good trade-in phone. I had to pay $199 to be eligible for the promotion. So I am out a lot of money on the deal. It is very frustrating every time I go to Att, I have an issue. Last time I had to contact corporate to get this situation taken care of. It looks like I’m gonna have to do the same again. it’s sad that it is more difficult to get a new phone through AT&T then it is to buy a new car. 

@Teresahedrick1, it seems like there is a training issue with some of the representatives wherein they instruct customers to send their phones back in the box their upgrade comes in. This is not good information and AT&T can rightfully tell you, "You did not send your phone to the right place using the correct packaging".

You may be in for a large time investment with CS

I'm not sure if an FCC complaint will get you very far since technically you did not follow the terms of the promotion - even if you say you were told to do so.

Have you been back to the retail location and spoken to the representative that told you to send your old phone back in the new phone box?