Part 2 AT&T CHEATING ME OUT OF IPHONE TRADE IN

RE: AT&T suspended and canceled my trade in credit 

The last week of September/First of October I went into my local AT&T store to purchase a new phone with the special they were offering on iPhone 14.  I had a iPhone 8 to trade in and was told that I would receive $300 credit that would show up after a couple of billing cycles with my new phone.  This was also confirmed online on ATT.com.  When I was in the store they did not have the phone I wanted, and so I had to order my phone and it was shipped to me.  I ordered my phone through AT&T.  I also called and spoke to a rep regarding the trade in because I was leaving next day to fly out of state and then fly out of the country.  I would then be gone for 21 days and would not be able to turn in the iPhone 8 before I returned at the end of October.  It was confirmed that it would not be a problem.  I also had other questions that rep walked me through on, such as international calling, data charges, etc. 

When I returned to the States, I was very sick (I have doctor invoices to prove that I had to see numerous physicians) but that is besides the point.  I promptly took care of getting ready the iPhone 8 to return and sent it back.  I would like to point out that I never received a return box or any specific instructions on how to return the phone but I was able to get the shipping label, the instructions for the return, and in fact was sent an email with shipping updates (DHL) as the phone was on its way to AT&T receiving department.  

I followed the progress….and was surprised at how long it took for the device to be received 11/23/22….but then if you look it says that the trade was complete 11/08/22. How does that make any sense?!  I received another email stating that my return/trade in had been approved. 

About the first week in December, I received a sketchy cryptic text that I was only going to get a single amount for the phone but no more info.  AT&T allows way too much scamming to go on, so I called AT&T again directly and spoke to a rep about the text and told her that I had turned in the iphone 8 to AT&T because of the $300 credit promised for the trade in.  She looked at our account.  My husband had turned in a phone about two months earlier, and she confirmed that indeed she could see that I was also scheduled to start seeing the same $9.73 credit monthly for 36 months for me.  I couldn’t see the December bill yet because it wasn’t available yet.  Actually I had to wait until 12/13/22 to see my bill.  On there it showed what appeared to be two payments because it said 2 of 36, $19.46 credit.  And there had not been a 1 of 36 in the previous month’s bill (November).   Please see screen shot of 12/7/22 bill.  

In my January 2023 bill, I noticed the price increase and went thru the bill to see what had changed.  That’s when I noticed that I didn’t have any credit from my trade in applied towards my charges.  

I called AT&T rep (Audrey)to find out what was going on.  From that point on, to the end of our call, I spoke to one rep, and then was transferred to loyalty department to speak to two other people.  That took over 2 hours while they were waiting on the “back room” group to determine what was going on.  Later I made another call to speak to another rep (Mary).  No one seems to be able to give me a straight story.  But I was told that the credit was canceled because “I had not turned off the location “where’s my iPhone” on the device.  That was an outright lie, because I most certainly had done that, I had reset the phone, cleared the device of the SIM card and followed the instructions that are on the AT&T site (forum has it also) on what to do to return your phone to AT&T.  The device was pristine, it has always had a phone case, and glass screen protection (Zaggs), in fact that screen protector was still on the device!!  That is an expensive screen protection.  The error WAS NOT MINE! There is no doubt in my mind about that.  I know what I’m doing.  Period.  For AT&T to lie about this to me, and with zero communication to me.  I’d like to point out that AT&T has both my cell phone and my email address and could have reached out to me if there had actually been a problem.  But NO ONE, ZERO PERSONS were willing to do anything but give me ridiculous reasons of why they were not going to honor a contract with a phone trade in on a new device.  I would never had sent my phone to AT&T if I had known that they were going to scam me out of monies due.  In fact I could have sold my phone to a third party.  

The big thing is this.  I’ve been a AT&T customer for over 20 years.  And not just cellular.  We have our internet and tv cable (WIFI) (UVERSE) with AT&T.  As I figure it, in that time period, a (Edited per community guidelines) estimate is that we’ve given over $72,000 to AT&T in those 20 years as customers.  AND THIS IS HOW AT&T TREATS ITS LOYAL CUSTOMERS!?  So do I have any interest in remaining a AT&T customer….nope.  Not with that kind of treatment.  This is also on top of waiting since June for AT&T to come out and install a new buried cable.  I had a technician come out, he confirmed the issue at the street, explained the splicing, and what was the problem as to why we lose TV/Internet daily at night.  In June someone came and put out flags, but then no one ever came and did the cable.  Finally three weeks later, I called a rep and said, I needed to mow the lawn and could no longer wait for someone to take care of the cable before mowing.  But no one ever came.  I realize that is a separate part of the same company but it just shows me, that AT&T is a mess….

RE: AT&T suspended and canceled my trade in credit 

The last week of September/First of October I went into my local AT&T store to purchase a new phone with the special they were offering on iPhone 14.  I had a iPhone 8 to trade in and was told that I would receive $300 credit that would show up after a couple of billing cycles with my new phone.  This was also confirmed online on ATT.com.  When I was in the store they did not have the phone I wanted, and so I had to order my phone and it was shipped to me.  I ordered my phone through AT&T.  I also called and spoke to a rep regarding the trade in because I was leaving next day to fly out of state and then fly out of the country.  I would then be gone for 21 days and would not be able to turn in the iPhone 8 before I returned at the end of October.  It was confirmed that it would not be a problem.  I also had other questions that rep walked me through on, such as international calling, data charges, etc. 

When I returned to the States, I was very sick (I have doctor invoices to prove that I had to see numerous physicians) but that is besides the point.  I promptly took care of getting ready the iPhone 8 to return and sent it back.  I would like to point out that I never received a return box or any specific instructions on how to return the phone but I was able to get the shipping label, the instructions for the return, and in fact was sent an email with shipping updates (DHL) as the phone was on its way to AT&T receiving department.  

I followed the progress….and was surprised at how long it took for the device to be received 11/23/22….but then if you look it says that the trade was complete 11/08/22. How does that make any sense?!  I received another email stating that my return/trade in had been approved. 

I spoke to a AT&T rep because my Dec bill showed 2 of 36 credit, like they had combined 2 months and posted it on one bill.  She confirmed that it was correct and that my trade in was approved.

Now, no one seems to be able to give me a straight story.  But I was told that the credit was canceled because “I had not turned off the location “where’s my iPhone” on the device.  That was an outright lie, because I most certainly had done that, I had reset the phone, cleared the device of the SIM card and followed the instructions that are on the AT&T site (forum has it also) on what to do to return your phone to AT&T.   The error WAS NOT MINE! There is no doubt in my mind about that.  I know what I’m doing.  Period.  For AT&T to lie about this to me, and with zero communication to me.    I would never had sent my phone to AT&T if I had known that they were going to scam me out of monies due.  In fact I could have sold my phone to a third party.  

PLEASE SEE BELOW ATTACHMENTS!

Please note the instructions found on AT&T, and show me where it says there about the location option being turned off.  It doesn't!!  I most certainly did everything and more, including toggling off the location option.  This disgusts me.  It should be a warning to all AT&T customers!