Here is what I did. It wasn't explained at the time but are the terms I have come to understand. This post is not about what I'd do in hindsight, but I'll start with that anyway. In hindsight I would have passed on the deal. Paid $650 for my Pixel and sold my device personally. Why doesn't matter. I'm stuck with two options only now. Here's the deal...
In my situation I had an iPhone 7 128GB Matte Black fully paid off and off contract with AT&T. But regardless just know I wasn't explained the agreement terms and should have known better, period.
I was really just trying to check out the phone in person before ordering through Google Store. The representative told me that I could get the phone for free.
I did dig pretty deep with my questioning and in the end it was simply put that the max trade offer for my device and port over with any ETF would be $650. Since I didn't have any ETF or contract and the iPhone 7 was laid off the Verizon rep said that the bill would be $0 a month for the phone.
I was told the trade was $650 against the Pixel $650 and only had to pay taxes on the Pixel. Was told my monthly bill would be $20 line access, $70 for 8GB, $11 for insurance, minus 25% discount on data plan for employer discount (the institution I work for has a work perk set up) plus taxes.
So with $0 on the phone and 25% off the data plan it made sense to port and not waste time buying and selling the device myself. It wasn't until after the completion of everything that they went over what to expect in my first 2-3 bills.
I was told that it would take 2-3 bill cycles to straighten out the trade. They said the Pixel was $27 a month for 24 months to pay $659 total and because it takes a few months to catch up I'd pay 1st month prorated and be charged $27 for the device. Said it might happen first 2-3 months and then the next month I'd get get a credit to my bill for any of those charges.
That's when I said, okay so once that is straightened out I'll just get a bill for the line, data, and taxes. That's when they said yes, I'd also get a $27/month credit until the Pixel was paid off. I don't want to get into the semantics here, but bottom line is whether they omitted info intentionally or I didn't ask enough...I am somewhat locked in for 24 months.
They did give me a Pixel for free. They are giving me $650 for my iPhone 7 BUT they are giving me that $650 in credits over a 24 month period. Which is obviously not the same as cash, right?
So.....options. I can stay where I'm at cause there is no depreciation issue. At any point say, like tomorrow I could pay $650 to pay off the device. They still owe me $650 so I could use that as credit for a different phone or if I ported out I'd have I'd have negative balance for $650 and they'd cut me a check.
What I'll likely do is sit tight for a year, they'll owe me $325 in credits and at that point if I want a new phone I can pay off the $325 and take a $325 credit to offset and upgrade or port out and get a check for the $325 overlaid.
All in all this whole thing is odd. Had I known the iPhone would be credited over a 24 month period I'd never have signed, that said I own the mistake, and CAN get out with no LOSS but it takes some out of pocket money that you then get back a month or two later. Its a deterrent to pay off early or leave. I'm not deterred. It's cool at this point. 2 days ago, yesterday, I was extremely angry.
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