Trade in value disparity...

[Gary02468]

How do people not get that?

Because it's not true. They offer you far more than the traded-in phone is worth--but only if you're willing, in exchange, to spread their trade-in credit over time. That's the deal they propose. It doesn't appeal to me (or to you, I gather), but for some, it's a bargain.

I even sent an email to my state Attorney General alerting him of this practice.

"Alerting" him? Like, you imagine your Attorney General was unaware of this widespread practice, openly advertised by major corporations, until he received your email? But anyway, I'm glad you wrote to him. Please do tell us how he responds.

 

[chamomiami]

Just went to the att store and picked up my phone and traded in my old note 10+. Got home and looked at the paperwork. The trade in paperwork said tradein value was 95 dollars????? What gives? thought I was supposed to get 1000 in credits!!! or did I miss something? Since I live in another town from the store, I tried calling the store. Found out I cannot call the store directly but got to go through a call center in Texas. I am not opening the new phone box till there is some sort of clarification. Any thoughts while I am waiting for a call back???

One thing is the value for them of the device and another thing is the amount of credit they will give you later for the trade in, in my case with tmobile they received my s21 for $57 and was already credited to my account but, later they will be credit in a monthly statement the $400 they offered the time I did the trade in... A good tip for you, since you say you are far from the store, next time read all the documents and ask all the questions before you leave the store... They have all the answers.

 

[donm527]

So... AT&T received my iPhone 8 as my trade-in worth $1000 towards my S23U so I am stuck with AT&T for another 36 months ... but the $1200 S23U only cost me pretty much $200 and totally satisfied with the deal... gimme the S23U for $200 and I stay with you a while.

I do think the way they do the math is silly...

Get the S23U for $1200 and they break down the payments over 36 months at $33.34 / month.
At the same time your $1000 trad-in will be credited to you over 36 months at $27.78 / month.
So you'll see both line items in your bill every month and that comes to a monthly increase in bill of $5.56.

Yeah I will they would just say, "Monthly charge for S23U minus trade-in: $5.56" but it all adds up the same and you still agreed to stay with them for another 36 months whether you got the full credit and paid the difference at beginning or broken down like this over 36 months. But as long as the end of the day it's the same result, oh well.

And I can sell my S22U privately and pretty much not paid anything for my S23U. Doesn't feel like I'm being taken/theft to me lol.

 

[Serkle K]

So... AT&T received my iPhone 8 as my trade-in worth $1000 towards my S23U so I am stuck with AT&T for another 36 months ... but the $1200 S23U only cost me pretty much $200 and totally satisfied with the deal... gimme the S23U for $200 and I stay with you a while.

I do think the way they do the math is silly...

Get the S23U for $1200 and they break down the payments over 36 months at $33.34 / month.
At the same time your $1000 trad-in will be credited to you over 36 months at $27.78 / month.
So you'll see both line items in your bill every month and that comes to a monthly increase in bill of $5.56.

Yeah I will they would just say, "Monthly charge for S23U minus trade-in: $5.56" but it all adds up the same and you still agreed to stay with them for another 36 months whether you got the full credit and paid the difference at beginning or broken down like this over 36 months. But as long as the end of the day it's the same result, oh well.

And I can sell my S22U privately and pretty much not paid anything for my S23U. Doesn't feel like I'm being taken/theft to me lol.

I probably would have done an AT&T trade in, if they offered a 1TB device. That was really the only thing keeping me from going with them. I've been with AT&T since the early 2000s, so another 3yrs isn't a deal breaker.

Sent from my SM-S918U1 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Talderon]

So... AT&T received my iPhone 8 as my trade-in worth $1000 towards my S23U so I am stuck with AT&T for another 36 months ... but the $1200 S23U only cost me pretty much $200 and totally satisfied with the deal... gimme the S23U for $200 and I stay with you a while.

I do think the way they do the math is silly...

Get the S23U for $1200 and they break down the payments over 36 months at $33.34 / month.
At the same time your $1000 trad-in will be credited to you over 36 months at $27.78 / month.
So you'll see both line items in your bill every month and that comes to a monthly increase in bill of $5.56.

Yeah I will they would just say, "Monthly charge for S23U minus trade-in: $5.56" but it all adds up the same and you still agreed to stay with them for another 36 months whether you got the full credit and paid the difference at beginning or broken down like this over 36 months. But as long as the end of the day it's the same result, oh well.

And I can sell my S22U privately and pretty much not paid anything for my S23U. Doesn't feel like I'm being taken/theft to me lol.

T-Mobile has a similar trade program.

Here is what's going on:

1. They won't lock you into a contract because it has fallen out of favor and no one wants that
2. They give you a massive "rebate" for a trade to entice you to take the deal
3. They spread this "great deal" over 24/36/9999999 months and write in the payment plan that:
a. If you cancel service before they pay you the "rebate", you will OWE THEM the remaining rebate amount
b. If you sell this device without paying it off, it cannot be unlocked and can be reported stolen/black-listed

So no, you are not locked into a service contract, but they still have you by the short hairs.

HOWEVER, in some cases, like mine, I am okay with this because T-Mobile has been treating me VERY WELL and I really have no complaints and do not plan to migrate to another carrier, so I can live with this, knowing all of this up front.

Too many people don't get into the finer details and just think they are not under any kind of contract, when, they really are.

This is also one of the main reasons people choose a finance option OTHER than their carrier.

 

[Borgie]

I see they have taken away the $100 accessory credit and added onto the trade in values. Now 700 for the S22 Ultra instead of 600. Not quite enough yet for me to trade up, need to bring the out of pocket to 400 instead of 500. But maybe its enough for some of you. This is for the unlocked version

 

[donm527]

Accessory credit mean no free upgrade to 512gb?

Loving the S23U but the S22U is a solid phone… $400 out of pocket not worth it to me. $300 max and that includes it being a 512gb model.

Otherwise I’d wait for S24U and the deals they will offer then. Rumors saying new processor will out perform iPhone 14 Pro benchmark numbers. I have no doubt you can get as good if not better offer then.

I see they have taken away the $100 accessory credit and added onto the trade in values. Now 700 for the S22 Ultra instead of 600. Not quite enough yet for me to trade up, need to bring the out of pocket to 400 instead of 500. But maybe its enough for some of you. This is for the unlocked version

 

[Borgie]

Accessory credit mean no free upgrade to 512gb?

Loving the S23U but the S22U is a solid phone… $400 out of pocket not worth it to me. $300 max and that includes it being a 512gb model.

Otherwise I’d wait for S24U and the deals they will offer then. Rumors saying new processor will out perform iPhone 14 Pro benchmark numbers. I have no doubt you can get as good if not better offer then.

The storage upgrade went away the day the preorder ended. Not a big deal for me as I never go close to 256 used. I couldn't care less about accessory credit. How many wireless chargers can one have? LOL I'm normally one who has to have the latest and greatest, but they have always had great trade ins for the unlocked. I would do it for 400 out of pocket, otherwise I will wait. I was really hoping for the Fold5 to have the S Pen embedded, but it doesn't sound like that will happen. I may still go with the fold 5 or just wait for the s24 or even s25. who knows.

 

[donm527]

Yeah I never get close to the 256GB either... But I rather have the 12gb ram over 8gb for a little future proofing. It hasn't been lately but I have been known to keep my phones for 2-3 years... Samsung, stop offering ridiculous offers that make it practically cost nothing to keep on upgrading! LOL,

I never see them but I hope I will be able to find similar type of deals when the iPhone 15 come out. About time to upgrade both my wife's and daughter's 11 Pro and 12 Pro.

 

[cohoman]

So, ATT was supposed to give me $1000 credit for my S21 trade-in, but when I check my account online it shows I'll be getting $800 credit instead. I hope this is a glitch on their website, as I'm expecting monthly credits for $1000/36 = $27.78. I won't know for sure until I see my first bill.

I got my first bill after upgrading to the S23 with ATT's pre-order deal. I traded in my S21 for $1000 credit but I see that ATT is only giving me credit for $800. The monthly credit should be $1000/36 months = $27.78 but my bill shows a credit of $22.23 ($800/36 months). When I contacted ATT, they said I would only get $800 credit because that is the cost of the S23 phone that I upgraded to so I'm getting a free phone over the 36 months. This is not what I was expecting at all. Anyone else in the same situation?

 

[donm527]

Interesting. I wonder if anywhere in the purchase/trade-in they added in some asterisk in fine print and it maybe says $1000 trade-in... *up to the value of the cost of the new phone? Sucks both ways... sucks if not stated and they just decide it that way in which you should take it up with their CS and see what they will do for you... Sucks if it is hidden in some asterisk/fine print. But worse case it still sounds like it covers the cost of phone.

 

[cohoman]

Interesting. I wonder if anywhere in the purchase/trade-in they added in some asterisk in fine print and it maybe says $1000 trade-in... *up to the value of the cost of the new phone? Sucks both ways... sucks if not stated and they just decide it that way in which you should take it up with their CS and see what they will do for you... Sucks if it is hidden in some asterisk/fine print. But worse case it still sounds like it covers the cost of phone.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have trusted ATT and I should have taken screenshots of the offer screen and ordering process. I did save a screenshot of my online chat session with ATT support who assured me that I would get the $1000 credit even if the phone I was purchasing was selling for $800.

 

[kide#WN]

So, with today $700 trade-in value for S22U, I see $50 cheaper final price with my employee discount for S23U 512 GB compared to the price I paid during pre-order time (including pre-order bonus and "free" memory upgrade).
Shame on Samsung.

 

[Gary02468]

So, with today $700 trade-in value for S22U, I see $50 cheaper final price with my employee discount for S23U 512 GB compared to the price I paid during pre-order time (including pre-order bonus and "free" memory upgrade).
Shame on Samsung.

By selling my S22U online instead of accepting Samsung's initial trade-in offer--and thereby increasing my Rakuten cash-back as well--I got a much better final deal a month ago than I can get now. And even if that weren't the case, why would it be "shameful" of Samsung to offer a slightly lower price now for a slightly older phone?

 

[Serkle K]

By selling my S22U online instead of accepting Samsung's initial trade-in offer--and thereby increasing my Rakuten cash-back as well--I got a much better final deal a month ago than I can get now. And even if that weren't the case, why would it be "shameful" of Samsung to offer a slightly lower price now for a slightly older phone?

I was also contemplating not trading in because it would give me more cash back via Rakuten. But given what I already got back, it was, combined with my trade-in, almost half of what I paid for the S23U. I can't complain right now. And it saved me the headache of trying to sell my phone privately. In the future, I may just keep and sell though.

Sent from my SM-S918U1 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Rose4uKY]

Yeah I was worried about selling our phones outright but 500 plus my Ratuken has 140 and the $150 accessory credit plus the free memory upgrade we did good. I got a $35 health care discount also and my husband got an extra $50 promo cause his work discount didn't work so we're good. I am fine with what we got. And if I really want too and still haven't decided I can sell my buds and make 150 or so but I'm good for now.