Beware of the iPhone trade-in promotion not so "guaranteed" value

[eddiedmv]

Just wanted to add yet another posting on this topic to make people aware of the recurring problems regarding the trade-in service.

I got a new iPhone 5s at the Apple store to replace my iPhone 5 16GB which is less than a year old and in pristine condition (always in a case with screen protection). It was appraised at $300 based on the ongoing promotion for "Good" condition, even though it meets the "Excellent" criteria.

Mailed it a week ago with some hesitation due to the fact that shipping through USPS is not traceable and I'm assuming it is not insured either.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an e-mail today with my gift card ready to be used. However, it was for $231 instead of $300 with no explanation provided for the reduction in the final value.

I called the toll free number right away and filed an escalation, they had no information about the reason for the lower final appraisal. I requested an explanation or have my phone shipped back. I also stated that if the lower value is due to malfunction, the phone still has 1 year left of AppleCare+ coverage.

Now that I'm reading other postings on the topic, I'm not optimistic that the escalation department of the trade-in 3rd party company will ever get back to me.

I'll give them a few days as requested by the phone representative before I escalate to Verizon corporate, since the 3rd party recycling vendor is damaging Verizon's good name and jeopardizing the business of long time Verizon customers being scammed out of $69.

I'm holding off on trading-in a second iPhone 5, good thing I did not send both at the same time.