Can someone please explain this to me...

Why do the trade in credits get applied monthly instead of giving the customer the option to apply it all at once to the cost of the phone? More importantly, why don't you explain this to your customers before they go through with the trade in? If I had known this was how it worked, I wouldn't have gone through with it.

I was told the opposite, actually. I was told that I would be able to apply the full credit either to my bill(s) or to the cost of the phone. I was told that it would reduce my monthly payments for the two new phones to $11 and $8. Instead of that being the case, I will get $20 in credits applied monthly over 30 months.

Why aren't your sales reps honest with customers about how these things work? Or perhaps the reps are not properly trained to help customers make an informed decision that they will be happy with. Not only did we have to switch to a more expensive plan (we were already on an unlimited plan but were told that it was too old and no longer existed) which raised our service from $170/mo to $200/mo, we were also unintentionally deceived regarding our second trade in device.

It did have a small crack in it, but the sales rep told us it was still eligible. Other than the crack, it was in perfect working condition. She said it was any year, any condition. We signed the paperwork, we paid the sales tax totaling $300, we switched all of our data over to the new phone.

Then, when all of this was said and done, the female sales rep we were dealing with suddenly left work for the day and we were pulled aside by a different rep. He told us that the cracked phone wasn't in fact eligible for the trade in, because we traded it in for an S23 Ultra and the "any condition" promo had ended for that phone 3 days prior. We would either have to find another device to trade in or pay the full price for the phone. This was after we went through the process, there was no going back.

They apologized and said that it was their mistake, but they couldn't do anything. The following week I spoke to their manager and apparently this has all been resolved, they pushed the credit through anyway since it was their mistake.

I'm still waiting for the 3rd bill to come through to see my credits appear. When we dealt with the manager, who helped is get the trade in credit for the cracked phone, he explained that this credit would appear differently than the first one, that we would be able to apply it either to the phone or to the bill. When he said this, I was a bit confused because I thought that was how all credits worked.

Now I found out that I'll be seeing the credits slowly trickle in at around $20 a month. I was later told by a corporate rep over the phone, that the promo for any condition indeed had not ended, that it was still ongoing even to this day. I'm not sure why I've been receiving all of this conflicting information, but you guys need to get yourselves together.

Not to be rude, but seriously, you're playing with people's hard earned money. Not to mention, the majority of people who suffer with these issues are the elderly. This plan belongs to my Grandmother and Grandfather-in-law. They're in their 80s, this stuff is very hard for them to grasp. It's very stressful and confusing for them. So I help them. They've been loyal customers with AT&T for over 20 years.

So my question is, why are the credits applied monthly instead of all at once, but more importantly, why wasn't that explained to us when we were at the store, before going through this whole confusing process? And why did the AT&T store say the promo had ended when corporate service reps tell me it's still in effect?

Any and all insight or guidance you can provide would be most appreciated.