How do phone trade-ins work? Do I need to send in my old phone first, so
the seller can verifiy its qualifications, or do I get to keep my old phone
long enough to get the new one working, and then send my old one in?
Or....?

--
croy

croy wrote on Sat, 07 Dec 2024 12:45:35 -0800 :

> How do phone trade-ins work? Do I need to send in my old phone first, so
> the seller can verifiy its qualifications, or do I get to keep my old phone
> long enough to get the new one working, and then send my old one in?
> Or....?

I don't know how they do trade-in phone processes in the UK & Europe (maybe
others on this ng can let us all know so that we all learn from each
other), and I don't know how pre-paid phone plan trade-ins work, but I do
have experience with post-paid trade-in processes for my USA T-Mobile
phones (currently Samsung Galaxy A32-5G phones & an iPhone 16 Pro Max).

Plus a half dozen or so iPads & Android tablets, only two with
free-for-life SIM cards which are limited to 200MB per month.
<https://i.postimg.cc/nhpbcP50/tmopromo04.jpg>

1. The only correct answer is from the entity (a carrier perhaps?)
who is performing the trade-in process... and even then....
call them twice and ask the same question, you can get two
different answers. Ask me how I know this.

2. I've done iPhone and Android trade-ins with T-Mobile USA, so I can
only tell you how "they" handled their trade-in process (& even then,
every trade-in deal can be different).

3. For the iPhones, T-Mobile gave me half off the old iPhones and sent
me the new iPhones and at first "debited" me the full price until
I sent in the trade-in old iPhones and then they instantly reduced
the cost and charged me monthly 1/24th of that cost on my bill.
<https://i.postimg.cc/YC1B906F/tmopromo01.jpg>

Note that the old iPhones must be *evaluated* by T-Mobile where the
rules are they must not have a broken screen & they must power up.

Note that you do NOT send them the charger or cables or case.
Just the phone with the battery in it.

Note that you have a "lien" on your bill for 24 months of that
half price of the iPhone. This "lien" is reduced by 1/24th
every month until it goes to zero and at that point, T-Mobile
automatically unlocks the phone from their factory over the air.

I only had to pay the $20 California sales tax of 10% on the MSRP.

4. The rules were similar for the handful of Android phones, only the
trade-in for the Android phones was that we had to give them *any*
phone whatsoever (even an old flip phone or kyocera or whatever!).

That old phone (any phone whatsoever!) had to not have a broken
screen and it had to power up - but that's all it had to do.

Again, they didn't care about the charger or the case or the cables.
Just the phone with the battery inside of it.

In this case, they gave us full price off so the handful of Android
phones were free. <https://i.postimg.cc/Xq5SpS4D/tmopromo02.jpg>

Note that you have a "lien" on your bill for 24 months of the full
MSRP price of the Android phone. This "lien" is reduced by 1/24th
every month until it goes to zero and at that point, T-Mobile
automatically unlocks the phone from their factory over the air.

5. In the case of the Android phone, I broke it twice (because I
experiment with phones so most of the bricking was my own fault
most likely, but that doesn't matter).

T-Mobile replaced the phone twice, under warranty, where they
insisted that you bring the broken phone to the T-Mobile store
to get it evaluated before they hand you your new replacement phone.

For this, T-Mobile charged $20 the first time, and then a year later,
for the second phone, it was $25 dollars (due to inflation alone).
But I argued I shouldn't have to pay that so they credited my bill
both times, meaning the warranty was free (but I had to pay for my
gas to get to the nearest T-Mobile store to effect the swap).

At the store, T-Mobile offered to bring over my data and setup from
the old phone to the new phone, but since that's so trivial to do,
I told them I'd do it myself (since I plan ahead for that by years).

So the phone was free, and the two replacements were free.

I only had to pay the $20 California sales tax of 10% on the MSRP.

6. There is no contract with T-Mobile so the cost of your monthly bill
does not change (other than the sales tax you have to pay initially).

There is no extension of your bill period because it's already a
month-to-month bill that you can cancel sans penalty at any time.

However... if you do cancel, say, oh, after about a year, then
you owe T-Mobile the remaining "lien" on the phone, which, even
if that happens, means you got the phone for half price.

Basically, you can't lose as you pay nothing for Android Galaxy phones,
and you pay about half price for Apple iPhones.

YMMV

Andrew wrote on Sat, 7 Dec 2024 21:07:35 -0000 (UTC) :

> Basically, you can't lose as you pay nothing for Android Galaxy phones,
> and you pay about half price for Apple iPhones.

Just to be clear, I don't know how long they give you to transfer the data
from the old phone to the new phone, except that they seem lenient on that.

For example, after I factory reset three random flip phones as my trade-in
for three new Androids in April or May of 2021, I sent T-Mobile the three
"trade-in" old flip phones the same week that I had received the new three
Samsung Galaxy A32-5G phones. T-Mobile didn't seem to be in any rush.

Remember, they have a "lien" on your bill for the entire price until they
credit you anyway, each month, for two years, so they're not worried.

As for the iPhone, you need to transfer the data which the T-Mobile store
will be glad to do (and you might need new SIM cards, which I forgot to
mention T-Mobile charges $10 then, now $20 each for, which I successfully
argued should be free, so they didn't ever charge me for the new SIMs).

However, they will let you hold on to both phones, the old iPhone and the
new iPhone until you've successfully transferred the data. We took about
three weeks, as I recall, the first time, and about two weeks with the
recent trade of the iPhone 12 (from 2021) for the iPhone 16 Pro (2024).

Again, you'd have to ask the trade-in entity (which was my carrier in my
situation) what their rules are... but T-Mobile USA didn't seem to be
worried at all about how long it took for us to transfer the data over.

They even send you a post-paid shipping box to send the old phone back to
them for the trade, where again, as always, only the phone & battery is
required (none of the accessories are of interest to T-Mobile USA).

I suspect their leniency is due to the fact that they have a "lien" on your
bill so they can't lose money if you never send them your trade-in phone.

YMMV

Chris wrote on Sun, 8 Dec 2024 01:31:58 -0000 (UTC) :

> croy <croy@spam.invalid.net> wrote:
>> How do phone trade-ins work? Do I need to send in my old phone first, so
>> the seller can verifiy its qualifications, or do I get to keep my old phone
>> long enough to get the new one working, and then send my old one in?
>> Or....?
>
> Not sure about Android, but with Apple you register your trade-in and send
> it off once you've received the new phone and transferred all data etc.
> They then check it and send you the trade-in value if it matches what you
> claimed.

It should be noted that nobody on Android needs to "register" their phone
with anyone other than with the carrier.

Only Apple require locking your identity to the phone with the maker of the
phone. Google does not even need to know that you exist even for a Pixel.

Apple also murdered privacy in that they require your identity and 2FA
which even Google doesn't require. Hence privacy is impossible on iPhones.

Worse, Apple locks every app you download from their App Store to that ID!
Even for free apps!

Again, even Google doesn't stoop that low to murder your privacy.
Only Apple.

Anyone who claims iPhones are more private, is influenced by (brilliant)
Apple marketing, as only Apple murders privacy by requiring personal ID!