I am a long-time unlimited plan member, and was seeking to take advantage of the upgrade promos that was being offered for the iPhone 13. I initiated the upgrade and trade-in via a call to the Sales Rep in the last week of October, and was quoted $850 as a trade in value for my iPhone X. Note that this was the hard number offered to me by the sales rep, I was never quoted "up to $850" at any point in the conversation. Initiating the upgrade and trade in on the phone was probably my first mistake, because I have no documentation of the initial offer made to me by the sales rep.
Later, I checked online and saw that my phone trade in was being valued only at around $145. Concerned, I called the VZW CSR line and was assured that I was going to be offered $850 and that they were documenting it on my account that this was the case.
When the trade in was received and verified my VZW on their website, I was unfortunately not surprised to see that the trade-in value quoted to me twice in October and early November was entirely different. Verizon "adjusted" my trade-in value from $145 to $550; when I called VZW CS about this, I was told by the rep that there was NEVER a $850 promotion, and that I was only ever eligible for the $550, despite me NEVER having heard that number quoted at any of my calls to VZW CS over the last month. The VZW CSR I spoke to was entirely unhelpful, and told me to "be happy for getting nearly half off your new phone instead of the market value". Excuse me, but why should I be happy with being gaslit and lied to multiple times?? This is straight up abuse of customers by Verizon.
In short, do NOT initiate a trade-in and upgrade via a phone call, or if you do, INSIST on documentation from the start when you are quoted a value by the sales rep, because my experience is far from abnormal, based on the number of class action suits against VZW for bait and switch scams. If this happens to you, immediately report VZW to the FCC and FTC fraud department, as this is a classic scheme that will continue as long as they are not held responsible.
Oh no! I'm so sorry to learn about the experience that you had when you upgraded to the new iPhone 13 and traded in your old iPhone X. I would love to review all the details of your account and the order at the time the upgrade took place. I'm sending you a Private Note. Please respond back to that message. -Kevin
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