I'm a new Verizon customer. I bought four phones for the household. On my own phone, I took advantage of the $1,000 promotional credit to get an iPhone 16 Pro. The extended holiday return period as stated on my paperwork is January 12.
I've decided that I don't like the iPhone 16 Pro. I'm used to larger (Plus/Max-sized) iPhones. I visited a corporate Verizon store today in the hopes of exchanging my iPhone 16 Pro for an iPhone 16 Pro Max.
On their computers, the local Verizon reps only saw an option to return the phone, not exchange it. They claimed that returning the iPhone 16 Pro would cause the promotion to be lost, and if I purchased a new iPhone 16 Pro Max outright, it would be ineligible for promotions, because I was no longer considered a new customer/line.
They called Verizon customer service to try to initiate an exchange that way, and we spent 1.5 hours going in circles. The Verizon telephone rep said that because the iPhone 16 Pro was financed, it could not be exchanged for a different device.
So the situation, as I understand it, is basically this:
I can't return a new iPhone 16 Pro without losing the promotion (i.e. any replacement device will not "adopt" that promotion). But conversely...
I can't buy a new iPhone 16 Pro Max on a promotion because I'm "no longer a new customer" (despite my brand-new line being within the return period).
This seems like a "heads I win, tails you lose" proposition. If this is how it actually works, the return period isn't especially useful. You are locked into a device unless you are willing to lose your promotion, and ineligible for a different promotion? You only have one chance to pick the "correct" promotion.
Is this actually how it works?
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