An AT&T customer shared an experience they had recently with an authorized retailer when they tried to upgrade to the iPhone 16. What should have been a straightforward process ended up costing them a few hours with customer service so that they wouldn’t leave with less credit than advertised. Fortunately the ordeal has a happy ending because customer support came through but not everyone may be that lucky.
The user wanted to upgrade from their base model iPhone 13 to the iPhone 16 Pro. Advertisements running in the store itself made it seem like the iPhone 13 could be traded in for $1,000 of credit. Now they may have been mistaken and misheard the ads but when the store manager corroborated this claim the user thought everything was good to go.
Yet when they returned two days later after completing the setup and phone transfers they were told that they would only be credited $830 instead. This was relayed to the user by a different employee at the AT&T authorized retailer and unfortunately the second person was correct.
Turns out that the store manager was mistaken and falsely confirmed multiple times that the trade in would net the user $1,000 in credit towards the iPhone 16. This was only true for an iPhone 13 Pro or newer and the standard iPhone 13 did not qualify. A $1,000 credit for the standard iPhone 13 hasn’t been a thing for AT&T users since last year.
Coming from an iPhone 13 you get a camera control button and AI on the iPhone 16. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Not one to give up on something that was confirmed to them, the user spent two and a half hours on the phone with customer support. AT&T customer service eventually came through and credited the user’s account with the extra difference.
What happened here was a mistake on two fronts in my opinion but the store manager was definitely more in the wrong. Should the user have double checked the promotion for upgrading to the iPhone 16? Absolutely. But getting it wrong in the first place falls onto the manager.
Thankfully no harm was done this time due to AT&T’s customer service. In fact people think that the poster who shared this story got an excellent deal and most users would’ve had to just accept the loss of $170.
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This mishap soured the user on going to authorized retailers and they swore they would only be visiting retail stores from now on. While I think it’s fine to use these stores, this just further proves that you need to remain vigilant when upgrading your phone lest you end up losing money for no good reason.
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Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.
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