Trade in lost, then found and now not honored? Help Please

[ppowers911]

Can anyone help me?

I have been with Verizon for many years and I am still in shock at this treatment by Verizon customer service. This is madness, and not the kind of support that I had expected from Verizon. Never in a million years. And yet here I am.

On May 26 2022 I signed up for the upgrade offer of an iPhone13 pro max, with an $800 trade in value on my old iPhoneXR. I had just paid off my old iPhone XR ,but this was a great deal for me, so I accepted the upgrade. On May 28th I picked up my new phone at my local Verizon store (from a locker in store.) I had kept the old phone to run a backup, which I subsequently used to setup the new phone. I then used the trade in return kit provided by Verizon to return the old phone, which I dropped off at UPS on June 1st.

3 days after that my Verizon app showed that the trade in process was completed. All good right? Wrong!!

When I logged into my Verizon account I would now and then see a message stating that I needed to return the old phone. I wasn’t concerned as I had returned it and the records should get sorted soon. When I continued to see this I contacted Verizon via chat and was told to be patient as many returns received (plus I had that message in my app saying the the trade in was complete). I continued to monitor my Verizon app for the update and tried not to worry when the trade in discount was added, then removed from my account. In November, the status on my return had finally changed. The new status in the app was that the trade in was returned but the value was $0. HUH?

So, I immediately contacted Verizon, via online chat, to determine exactly what was going on. I was initially told that I was out of luck because I did not return the phone. I explained that I did return the phone timely, do they not have a record of this? The chat rep checked everything he could find and there simply was no record of my trade in being received by Verizon. I asked why did my Verizon app show the trade in as completed? I then sent a screenshot to the rep who had no explanation but assured me no trade in was received.

I then remembered that I had had a cracked screen shortly before (a week, a month, I don’t know how long exactly) the offer acceptance and upgrade initiation, and the Verizon warranty folks (Asurion) had elected to replace the phone. Perhaps this had caused the confusion? I was put on hold again while the chat person checked this out. He then found the correct phone serial number, return status, etc. They did have my trade in after all. So, NOW all would be well, Right? NO

After the chat person talked to his manager, they decided that yes I had returned the phone timely, but that since it was now 6 months since the original upgrade they could not give me credit for the return. I was out of luck and now must pay full price for the new phone, without any promotional value or any value period for the old phone. Note that the trade in was the same make model and color as the one it replaced while using the Verizon warranty service. I returned the phone that was active on my account when I agreed to the upgrade.

It is not my fault that Verizon was expecting the wrong IMEI # for my trade in, nor is it my fault that when my trade in was received it was not credited properly to my account. Also, how does this make my trade in worth $0? This feels like a bait and switch to get my old phone for free, and also get me to pay full price for the upgrade. If I had not mentioned to the chat support person about the warranty work, my trade in would still be lost.

I had anticipated having this issue corrected, giving me the agreed trade in value for the remaining payments in the agreement, plus some sort of credit for the months I had been overpaying on my bill while patiently waiting for the lost trade in to be found. 


Certainly there is a better solution?  Please help.

[vzw_customer_support]

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-Carter

[vzw_customer_support]

Please reach out to us via a Private Message for account-specific help. 

-Carter