Forum Discussion
Promotional Trade-In Credit Never Applied to Account?
Several months ago, I moved from Sprint to T-Mobile and traded in my paid-off, fully functional and cosmetically near-perfect iPhone XR during a promotional offer to “Get an iPhone 12 on Us” with any Apple trade-in in good condition.
I had a solid, grandfathered in price at Sprint, but after reviewing all of the conditions of the promotion, I realized that I could potentially be saving money with a new phone if I met all of the promotional requirements.
So, I went in to a T-Mobile store and spoke with a representative who, after inspecting my phone, determined that I was eligible for the full promotional value of the phone, and we began the process of switching my line from Sprint to T-Mobile. This process required ''porting" the number from Sprint to T-Mobile. It usually only takes a few minutes, however, my porting was significantly delayed. I waited in the store for about 45 minutes, before the representative told me I should likely come back several hours later before store close to finalize the process, as they believed the port would have finished by then.
When I returned, the port was not complete and the store representative told me I would have to come back in the morning to finalize the process and finish my trade-in. When I spoke to the representative, I asked if this would effect my promotional credit, as it was the ONLY reason I had any desire to switch from Sprint to T-Mobile. The representative, who I believe was a sales manager, assured me it would not effect the value of my trade-in promotional credit whatsoever. They informed me they would leave a note on my account, affirming the value of the trade-in even in the unlikely event that the promotion expired the next day (which they did not believe to be the case) as I had started the process the day prior and the process was delayed due to T-Mobile's devices.
I came back the following morning to finish the trade-in process, and the sales representative who had helped me the day before was not working, nor did the store signage reflect the same promotion it had the evening before. I spoke to the available representative who had no knowledge of the creation of my account in the first place, so the process had to be started over completely.
As this happened, I spoke with him about the promotion I had received the day before and mentioned the name of the sales associate who had helped me and guaranteed my promotional offer. I asked him to guarantee the promotional offer as well before finishing the process, because if it was no longer valid I could not afford the change in phone plans. He gave me all assurances that he understood the situation and would ensure the credit was applied, then completed the process.
While going through all final documents after the process was complete, I saw that the credit applied for my trade-in was listed as "$7.39/billing cycle" - $33 LESS than the promotional credit I was supposed to receive. As soon as I saw this, I called T-Mobile customer service and informed them of the situation and the error. They then assured me that it would take up to two billing cycles for the change to appear, but that they had applied the promotional trade-in value to my phone.
After one billing cycle, I did not see the credit applied to my account or any documentation of the correction, so I reached out to customer service to verify that it was on record. Once again, I was told there was no record of the correction, and was quickly promised that they would personally ensure the correct price was given to me and immediately applied to my account.
After two more billing cycles, the proper trade in credit still did not appear, and I have reached out to T-Mobile every month since and have gotten essentially the same reply from all customer service agents - with absolutely no action on my account despite all assurances.
At this point, I am exhausted and extremely, extremely frustrated. I feel that my money is being stolen, as I never would have made the switch to T-Mobile were it not for the promotion I was promised. I made the switch and signed the contract under the believe, as was told to me by T-Mobile, that I was getting a significant promotional offer. I am now paying over $40 more a month than my original Sprint plan, a price which I did not budget for nor did I consent to, and am locked into a contract at that price. I have had to make other adjustments in my monthly bills because I can get NO assistance from T-Mobile despite this wrong doing being entirely their responsibility.
HELP!
Same thing happened to me in a T-Mobile store. I traded in a Sprint iphone last summer for a $730 credit towards a new iphone for the same price. They are continually billing me for half the amount, no matter how many times I have complained. They keep telling me it's resolved and it never is.
I’m really close to filing a “bait-and-switch” complaint with my state Attorney General’s office.We had the same issue as well. We went from ATT to T-Mobile under the impression we could get up to $800 credit for our X and XR trade in. We were told $122 was a quote but would be evaluated for the remainder credit.
It's been four months and no more credit has been issued. We handed over immaculate phones over $1500 and received $244 in credit.
When we signed up it was a newer employee that said we had all these benefits and come to find out all we got was one year of Netflix. We were falsely advertised a bunch of promises and T-Mobile hasn't came through with any of them.
I'm the the same boat. I feel scammed. My original rep told me I'd get $200 trade in credit yet so far I only see $21 and no promotions listed in my account.
And I just got off with customer service who "gave me his word" that after two billing cycles I would get my promotional credit. There is no documents showing my promotional credit on my account or given to me by my original rep. No confirmation code. Each person I've seen in person gives me a different story of what might have happened and shrugs.
I believe after what I'm reading online, this trade in thing is a scam to lock customers into a new plan giving them the runaround when we try to reach out. Someone is eventually going to put in a class action lawsuit.
If I were you, tell them you will put in a bad BBB rating and review. I feel that's the only way they will resolve this.
UPDATE: I talked to someone that finally sounded more knowledgeable and they offered me $80 goodwill credit and apologized my rep made a mistake in offering a promo that didn't exist. It still sucks I'm out $100 from originally promised, but at this point I can't get my trade-in device back and it's a pain to do buyers remorse. Last time I'll ever do a trade-in with them…it's too risky and reps are all saying different things.
I am going through this right now. I went through my app on my old phone under my login, went to upgrade, when asked about trading in my phone, I marked yes and they valued my phone at $800. When I get my bill, it shows that I am to make monthly payments when I was told that with my trade in and down payment I wouldn't have a monthly payment but would have a credit. Have got the run around for several weeks now and talking in circles. I call them out and demand for them to listen to the recorded phone call. Workers document different than what they tell the customer. It is ridiculous. Still working the problem. Not giving up
We got the same issue. We had 4 lines. Only 2 lines got the credit monthly, and another 2 lines got nothing.
We are still dealing with T-mobile on the iPhone 13 trade-in rebate. We have been calling them many times since January 2022. Every single time after the call, they said they took care of it, and the credits should be reflected to the account in a month or two. After 2 months, we still hadn't seen the credit. Then we called again, and they said it was declined. What were they talking about? When we submit the rebate, the system showed approved. Also, all 4 iPhone were purchased and trade-in the same way. Why did they only approve 2 of them?
My wife and I are so tired of dealing with them. I am almost at the point that I give up the credit, and switch to AT&T. I really can't deal with T-mobile customer service anymore. From what the accent of the representatives, they were not in US. They just read whatever showed on the screen.
Same thing happening to me. I kept my phones with the promise of a lease buy-out in Nov. 2021 and still being double billed and charged for the devices that are actively listed and paid-on in my TMobile account.
I could’ve gone to another carrier — this promotion seems very bait & switch.
- https://community.t-mobile.com/accounts-services-4/t-mobile-does-not-honor-the-trade-in-promotional-values-offered-to-customers-in-the-online-shopping-cart-42159?postid=157333#post157333
T-Mobile does not honor the trade-in promotional values
I had the same thing happen to me. Bait and switch for sure!
TMobile Puerto Rico also blocks me from reaching out to TMobile US so I was stuck with the bad customer service in PR. Do you know what did work? Write on their Facebook page so everyone can read. This still didn't fix the issue for me since I STILL DID NOT GET WHAT WAS OFFERED IN STORE AND I SIGNED ON FOR but I did receive an extra $200 off my last bill in essence bringing what I was going to pay for my phone in the end down even more. Will I stay with TMobile? NO!!!!! This was the second promo (can't be a coincidence) I got burned on so I assume it's a usual tactic for TMobile to mess with their customers hoping they don't catch it on their monthly bill or they just get tired of calling over and over again and seeing nothing happen and quit and except the fact that they are getting robbed. This is my last TMobile contract since I am stuck under it for a while longer. I appreciate the extra $200 but it all would have been much easier for everyone had TMobile just honored what was offered to me at the store and what I contractually obligated myself to. In my eyes TMobile as a business (not their employees) are just a bunch of cons and crooks. That's bait and switch, it's illegal, it's a crime and a bad business practice and it should ultimately be punished. I am still waiting for someone to reach out to me for a failed promo on 2x1 for smartwatches and this was almost 2 years ago. I ended up paying full price for both and since I caught on to it when I was almost done paying for them they told me contact their customer service division through written letter….. NOTHING HAPPENED! Lost $475 on that failed promo.
WRITE IT ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE FOR ALL TO SEE!
Such a scam. I got my phone March 2021. Suppose to pay $5/m for my phone but this still charge me $27. No…. I gave you my trade in. I still have to call EVERY SINGLE MONTH to make them fix my bill and it's the same run down "so sorry this won't happen again". I try to be so nice because it's not the reps fault - but I just tell them yes it will. Now I am so over I just don't pay my bill on time, turn off auto pay, and then make them give me like $80-100 in credits because I am so annoyed I can't call every month.
After doing this so many times I told them I need out of the contract and I won't be paying the early termination fee because they have failed to properly bill me every month for 1.6 year. They agreed to it, but then I would loose the rest of my trade in credit and had to pay the rest of the phone off. I decided against it because they owe that to me…. plus their internet is the only service I get where I live.
It sucks because I love the service/Internet…. want to get an Apple Watch… but not if they can't hold up their end of the agreement, month after month. I mean, in the beginning they even charged me for TWO phones!! I don't even have two phones.
This is obviously a reoccurring/common scam and this should get on the news. They know what they are doing…….
I am seeing a similar scenario. We traded in my husband and son's phones when switching from sprint to T-mobile. We were assured that the trade ins would be accepted but that the trade in would not be applied to the account until the phone was received at the main T-mobile branch. I had called to check on the trade ins and was assured the credit would be applied to my account, however, a year and a half later the trade-ins were never applied. The company basically lies and promotes misleading promotional information. We could have sold our phones on our own and received the money, but instead this very corrupt company took our phones and made a profit off of our phones and the sale of the over-priced phones. I will be paying my balance off and switching carriers. I will be filing a complaint with the FTC and FCC. This company needs to be investigated for their misleading information and corrupt means of managing business.
