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bbones828's profile

New Member

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2 Messages

Saturday, March 18th, 2023 4:32 AM

Trade in policy at retail stores vs corp stores

I understand that att has their corp stores and retail stores. and that from the comments the retail stores seem to have more issues because they're not actually att employees. 

My issue is about the policy of trading in an old phone for promo credit at a retail store vs trading it in at a corp store.

I upgrade last month through bestbuy and went to local att store and did return of old phone for trade in credit with no problem.

this week i upgrade a different line through bestbuy again and went to same local store, where i was told they couldnt do it. and the employee who did it for me last week was wrong. I then went to corp store and was told by them that the store actually can do it, they just didnt want to.

so where does it state that only corp stores will take the trade in phones for a promo credit? if that is the policy, i cant seem to find the actual text of it.

I've seen reply's to other comments/complaints that you have to do it at a corp store but no link attachment or text actually says it.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

1 year ago

All details about promos and deals are listed on the AT&T website. That is the only deals or promos that AT&T will honor. A Corporate Store should honor what is on AT&T's website and give the customer all of the salient details. A Retail Store, at least some of them, will not be as forthright with the details in hopes of making a sale. If you do business with a Retail Store you've actually done business with them and not AT&T so that's who you have to work with. AT&T has little to no control over what the Retail Stores or outlets (BestBuy, Sam's Club, Target, Costco, etc) do or their business practices.

You can file a complaint with the BBB and that will go straight to Corporate. Someone from the Office of the President will contact you can they MAY be able to help.

New Member

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2 Messages

1 year ago

you say that all details are listed on ATT website. I am saying its not. you provided me the same info I already stated. theyre are different. i get it

Im looking for the specific terms of the trade in promo about how to return old device when going to a retail store vs a corp store. 

one employee at the retail store states they cant after a different employee just did it last week. so where's the actual fine print?

whats stopping the retail store? pure laziness on their end to do anything that wont produce a sale for their "retail store"

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

1 year ago

Retail stores play by their own rules being as AT&T Corporate has no control over them. That's why we suggest you go to AT&T.com and look up the trade-in plans and carefully read thru the TOS's. The Corporate Stores must abide by them to the letter and a Retail Store SHOULD, but they quite often leave out details or misrepresent the plan to the customer just to make a sale and then just pass that along to AT&T. That's one of the problems. If you purchased or updated your devices thru them, and then went to a Corporate Store, it's unlikely that the Corporate Store can help you much being as you didn't do business with them. That's why I never do upgrades or purchase my phones thru AT&T. It shouldn't be that way but it is. I just purchase our phones outright, unlocked, from the mfr and then take it to a Corporate Store (that I've verified) and do the SIM thing.

File a complaint with the BBB.

New Member

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142 Messages

1 year ago

Some authorized retailers just don't meet AT&T standards. I've seen horror stories from Prime for example: unauthorized lines, non-consensual insurance, next-up on every phone. It just depends on the location. I've heard an equal amount of good experiences from these stores as well. Just need to look at the reviews online to set your expectations.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

1 year ago

@CyberSec380  To be clear, not all Authorized AT&T Retail Stores intentionally mislead potential customers but there are enough complaints about them that it pays to just go to a Corporate Store if one is close by. AT&T doesn't monitor how a store operates once they get the contract from whomever owns the particular Retail chain in a given area. Unfortunately these contracts are multi-year so not much can be done until it's time to renew contracts. Hopefully AT&T Legal will at that time consider all of the BBB/FCC complaints that have been sent to Corporate and very carefully look at how the contracts are written and makes some changes. Online reviews are usually cherry picked and far from accurate in a lot of cases.

It's not a bad idea to go to AT&T.com, find the deal or promo you want, print out the information and then go to a store and see if they offer the exact same deal and see what they say. If it's not exactly what is online at AT&T, then you are being mislead just to make a sale. I would also never go to kiosk in Sam's Club, Target, Costco, BestBuy, BJ's, etc. They are sometimes worse than a brick and mortar Retail Store. 

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