iPhone 13 Pro AT&T/Apple Trade In Question

[NativeTxn]

I got the 13P through Apple, using the AT&T $1,000 trade in promo on my 12P.

I talked to Apple and can go into the store or use the kit they sent to send it back to Apple via UPS.

Which is the better route?

I’m tempted to go in store to know that they have it in hand, but it sounds like the rep was implying that they would basically take the trade in kit, package it, and still ship it.

Is that the way it works? Would the apple store be able to provide some sort of receipt showing they actually got it?

 

[jordanwiththeflu]

Go into the store and personally hand it to one of their reps. I've worked stories of packaging mysteriously arriving "broken" or damaged and At&t not giving proper credits.

 

[NativeTxn]

Go into the store and personally hand it to one of their reps. I've worked stories of packaging mysteriously arriving "broken" or damaged and At&t not giving proper credits.

I’ve heard bad stories about AT&T but is Apple bad at time too?

 

[uncming]

Has anyone done this in the past and got their ATT credit later? I’ve seen a few posts around ATT losing the phone return and will consider going to the apple store to make sure its accepted. Does it credit right away when you conduct the trade in right away?

 

[jordanwiththeflu]

I’ve heard bad stories about AT&T but is Apple bad at time too?

Oh I'm just speaking on AT&T. Misread your post and didn't notice you're going through Apple. Then yeah, I'd feel safe sending the device to Apple.

 

[BustAGr00ve]

I tried to persuade an AT&T corporate store to let me trade in my iPhone 12 Pro Max in person rather than mailing since the location didn't have any iPhone 13 Pro Max in-stock. I explained that when I did trade in from 11 to 12, it took months to get promo billing credits and that I've read stories where trade-ins get 'lost in the mail'.

 

[andyx3x]

I’ll never send my phone to a carrier again. I believe they all use a third party company to process these returns.

Last year I traded in my pristine 11 Pro Max to get the 12 Pro Max on T-Mobile. Well after 2 months my bill credits stopped and they said they never received my phone. I gave them tracking info and the CSR basically accused me of mailing in an empty box. Well after researching it they found my phone. It was a real hassle though. They couldn’t reinstate my promo so I had to call in monthly to get my bill credit applied. I finally had enough of that and got in touch with Twitter customer support and they just issued me a credit for the full trade in value of the phone so I didn’t have to deal with it anymore.

This year I went right to the Apple Store on launch day and handed them my phone when I got the 13 Pro Max. No mailing in any device for me. Unless it’s to Apple. I would consider that.