That’s terrible, I had a similar experience with apple in 2020. I was going to stop buying apple products after that.
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Ultra 2 Trade-In Damaged by Apple
- Thread starter chicagofan00
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At this point I really truly do not have a desire to be buying a new Apple products…but I’m sure come September of next year I’ll cave and end up getting a new iPhone at the very least. I’m just disappointed that for all the years I’ve bought phones, watches, laptops, or desktops and the lack of care or support received over this issue is essentially non-existent. The goodwill gesture was basically the rep himself feeling bad for me and him giving me as much of a credit that he can do without needing any additional approvals, it wasn’t even ”corporate” caring.
They sent me an Apple TV 4K and AirPods for my trouble. All, I wanted was a functioning iPhone. The refurbished iPhone they sent me. I gave away. I would never use a used item. I lost $930 Canadian dollars.
push it higher up. keep hammering on the lack of documented damage both when you turned it in and when it arrived for unpacking. ask for documentation of their SOP for documentation regarding damaged products upon receipt and delivery.
last option would be to request legal's information and serve a small claims. it isn't just your word against theirs because there is documentation that does not note the damage and would have ordinarily. the burden is on them to explain why they didn't document the damage if it was there upon receipt of the device.
I believe he contacted Tim Cook's executive relations team and after review they denied his claim. I don't think it goes up any higher. If I'm incorrect then maybe @chicagofan00 can clear up the process he's gone through. If he can't get this cleared up, I don't blame him for being upset with the way this situation was handled..
It seems you may be the victim of "those other people" who try to pull scams of all sorts to try to take advantage of situations of this type, causing Apple's trade-in partner to be wary of such.
Being one of those wierd guys that Always Does The Right Thing Even When No One Is Looking myself, I do try to call the bad guys out when they are bragging online about how they took advantage of this company or that.
I'm currently dealing with a messed-up trade-in myself, though in this case I am muchly to blame (as I used the same shipping label for my trade-in as I used for Wife's).
In my case I may only be out $111 bucks, but yours has helped to inspire me to do in-person trade-ins whereever possible.
I read that he had emailed Tim Cook but that they hadn't responded to him. These conversations seem to be the normal channel support but it's true we don't know. I was basing my advice on the phrase "without needing additional approval," which indicates to me they (Apple) still haven't exhausted all support channels/options.
That’s correct, I emailed Tim and that got me into contact with executive customer relations. They investigated the matter further and came back and told me that the third party company doing the trade-in work insist that no damage was done in transit to them nor in their possession and that it was received in a damaged state. Therefore my request to be made whole was denied and all that the executive relations person could do was to offer the smaller amount as a gesture of good will on his part.
Not too sure how I escalate further if I still didn’t get made whole after emailing Tim?
How much were they going to give you for trade in if you don't mind me asking?
That's unfortunate. There really isn't a higher escalation per se but if the person said this is as much as they can offer without further approval than it may be worth asking them to ask for those approvals before giving up.
This is the stage I was at that I explained earlier where I shifted the conversation to the experiencing not holding up to the expectation that was set for me by Apple. The conversation took the form of me being a longtime customer and that relationship had built up a certain amount of trust and this third party, which certainly has a vested interest in not being truthful regarding their apparent involvement in breaking the watch, has somehow tarnished your Apple experience, which you're not accustomed to. There was an additional element in my case where an Apple employee had made certain statements that led me to believe/expect certain things so you may not get the same level of traction that I did. But if, for example, you were led to believe that dropping your watch into the box would be a no muss, no fuss type of situation because of something an Apple Genius or advertisement led you to believe, that would be a good basis to make that argument. You can reiterate the documentation certainly attests to your watch not being broken because the damage is supposed to be remarked in the case file upon receipt.
Now, your last option is to request where you can serve legal papers so you can proceed with a small claims suit, which I think you have a case to make there. Just know you'll have to follow through with that, it can't just be a threat, because your conversation with support will almost certainly be at an end. They won't be threatened into conceding and won't be able to assist you any more after you threaten a lawsuit so don't do that unless you're actually at an impasse, unwilling to accept their offer, and intend to follow through with filing a claim.
$365. Probably could have gotten more via private party sale but the ease of being able to just send it off and trade in for instant credit has always been why I do it. Usually it has been a seamless experience with little to no effort involved….
I did explain how this was a disappointment in experience given all my previous experiences with trade ins and overall with Apple in both my email to Tim and in my conversations with the individual from executioner relations. I’ve done many trade ins without any issues and followed all the same process and procedures on my part without ever having a hiccup in any of it.
Something about this experience just seems off though. The third party claims that the package was not damaged upon arrival to them, the shipping company said there were no issues during transit when Apple contact them about it, and the third party company says the device arrived in the condition they photographed it in and sent it back to me. All I know is that for an absolute fact it was in excellent condition when I boxed it up and after it was dropped off with the carrier something happened but at this point it seems there won’t be any way to determine when or how.
In the end this is a learning experience and having to go to small claims court over the remaining $200 between their goodwill gesture and the trade in value just doesn’t seem worth it in the end, which I suppose is what they are counting on. This will for sure be the last time I do any mail in trade ins and will now just go to the store directly if I choose to keep with Apple Watches.
I just was in the local store yesterday for my daughter’s watch needing battery service and they took it and sent it off. I took photos of every inch of that watch to ensure it gets returned in the exact same condition so we’ll see how that experience goes.
You won't receive you daughters watch back, they replace the watch with a remanufactured watch so it will be in like new condition. So they offered to give you half the trade in value or half the cost of a new watch?
Half the trade-in value.
Oh, the store rep made it sound like they swapped the battery out on the watch. If they swap the watch with a refurb, I guess I will then have to work with Verizon to get her cellular plan switched over to the refurbished watch? Sigh…
They are sending the device direct to our house since they gave that option rather then having to return to the store to pick it up.
I meant you should be able to switc plans by going to Apple instead of Verizon, IIRC.