Heads up on anyone who returns mobile phones to carriers by mail....

[dvcgirl67]

This is a new one to us, although I read lots of similar accounts once I googled it. We've been with AT&T for over 16 years. For the last ten or so, we get a new iPhone every year (sometimes every other year) when it comes out in the fall. They ship the new one to us and then instruct you to place the old phone back in the same box, apply the shipping label they included and drop off at the USPS.

So, we received the new iPhone 15s the day they shipped. As usual, we had to sign for them. Theft is a huge issue on iPhone release day apparently, and the thieves sometimes follow the delivery trucks on these days to steal them from porches. The next day after DH set up our new phones, we followed the instructions as always and I dropped them off at the USPS and got my tracking numbers.

I usually hear back within 7-10 days that they've received the old devices and we're not charged....and that's that. I didn't think much of it when I didn't get a text from AT&T, but then today we got two boxes from them....with old broken burner phones. A letter in each box said the return couldn't be completed as these were the wrong devices....well, duh, obviously. Apparently the USPS ships the phones to a third party "agent" who then ships the phones to AT&T in bulk. So the thieves are likely in that third party company. They open the box...which they know is likely a later model iPhone....slip in two garbage phones....and ship them to AT&T who says..."nope, wrong device". I was able to get AT&T to confirm via text and e-mail that we will not be responsible for the missing devices. I'm guessing they accept this as "breakage" in their world. Next time I'll see if I can just drop the phones off at an AT&T store, or just go back to the old method and just buy the phones directly from Apple.

 

[cvjw]

When I got my 12 a few years back, I mailed my old iPhone back to AT&T via the USPS mailer they supplied. It didn’t get there for weeks. I was getting email after email telling me time was running out to return my trade in. Guess it got lost in the mail for weeks and then miraculously found. Not doing that ever again.

Now we take our trade in phones to the AT&T store and hand to an employee, who gives us a receipt that they were received.

 

[dvcgirl67]

When I got my 12 a few years back, I mailed my old iPhone back to AT&T via the USPS mailer they supplied. It didn’t get there for weeks. I was getting email after email telling me time was running out to return my trade in. Guess it got lost in the mail for weeks and then miraculously found. Not doing that ever again.

Now we take our trade in phones to the AT&T store and hand to an employee, who gives us a receipt that they were received.

I’ve never heard back later than a couple of weeks. I’ll never mail them again, that’s for sure. I was surprised how quickly AT&T gave in, but I guess they accept some level of loss.

 

[DCLMP]

We traded in our old phones at the AT&T stores when we switched from T-Mobile to AT&T last week. It would take 5 pages to explain what a nightmare T-Mobile has been with discontinuing service. We were with Sprint for 15 years and had no recent issues.

Instead of explaining it here, I'll be writing a letter to the FCC. Cell phone companies are the worst when something goes wrong. All their customer service has been outsourced to third world countries and the mergers have left us with only three big companies. It's good to hear AT&T came through.

I would suggest anyone who switches carriers to research it thoroughly. Reddit is the place to go for all service nightmare scenarios. I'm sure there are multiple threads on losing trade-ins too.

 

[nw6675]

Our local UPS store was stealing them. Thankfully we weren't impacted. We go to the Verizon store now to be safe.

 

[CynBeth]

When DH and I decided last November or December to trade in both of our iPhone 7s for the regular 14 the Verizon store we went to that we got the new phones from would not take our old phones they gave us a box we had to send them back in after we set up our new phones ourselves at home. I can’t remember if we had to do UPS or FedEx.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I have my old one right here... I am needing to send it back, I just have not done it yet. I may stop by a ATT store and see if they will accept it in person (and give a receipt). I did see with the paperwork you can buy insurance @the PO, I may do that if they won't accept them that way.


In a related story, I remember cancelling a cable TV service before. We got a bill for like $300 for missing equipment. I called them and was like, missing equipment? I have a receipt here from handing in the equipment to somebody at a local office... *please hold* "oh yes, you can forget that bill".

 

[dvcgirl67]

I have my old one right here... I am needing to send it back, I just have not done it yet. I may stop by a ATT store and see if they will accept it in person (and give a receipt). I did see with the paperwork you can buy insurance @the PO, I may do that if they won't accept them that way.


In a related story, I remember cancelling a cable TV service before. We got a bill for like $300 for missing equipment. I called them and was like, missing equipment? I have a receipt here from handing in the equipment to somebody at a local office... *please hold* "oh yes, you can forget that bill".

I wouldn't ship it if your ATT store will take it. But my husband remembered last night that we began shipping them because our local ATT store wouldn't take them....we had to ship it. Not sure if that would be the case now, but I won't ship them anymore. After this contract year is up we'll likely go back to buying the phones through Apple directly and then selling them on eBay when we want a new one. That started to feel like a hassle to DH...which is how we ended up in this Next plan, which is actually pretty expensive. I don't know if I'll switch carriers just yet because I don't want to deal with what DCLMP when through, but I know we'd be spending much less on a monthly basis by ditching this Next plan.

Then...when we sell the future iPhones, I probably would get insurance to ship to buyer. My FIL was scammed recently when he sold a golf club on eBay for a couple of hundred bucks. Buyer said he never received it, which wasn't true....but eBay always sides with the buyer.

On the AT&T mobile site, there's a "community board"....like here...haha. But it's just people asking questions, but mostly complaining about issues. With this issue, the ATT "help desk" immediately responds to the customer to say they'd like to help them privately via DM. So...would seem like they'd like to keep this issue private. When people buy phones from Apple or Samsung...or whoever, they have the option to go with any carrier. When you buy a phone from AT&T....they've got you. They're not making money on those phones....in fact, they often lose money on them. It's the plans where they clean up.