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The cell phone sales at the Walmart stores are a Vendor. I looked into it and just was close to same experience and sketchy. Hardly no phones and couldn’t get phones, reps covering 3 or 4 stores by themselves. Ordering online is directly from Walmart using carrier but extra discount is monthly x 24.
ymmv
In this case, the discount came off the purchase price of the phone, after they raised the price by $50. $1050-200 = 850. So then AT&T finances the AT&T on an installment plan. Because my 128gb iPhone 12 was going to cost the same, I went with this deal. Fingers crossed that they don't screw up anything with my plan.
 
I just upgraded two 6Ss to XRs which have the same trade in deal as the iPhone 12 — $700 for an iPhone 8 or newer / $350 for a 6S.
I received and activated the new phones and then took the old ones to a corporate store to trade-in just like I did with my 12 and my sons 11.
The corporate store refused to take them.
They claimed that the $700/$350 trade in was not in their systems for any phone except the 12.
I showed them their own website but they refused to budge.
So now I’ve got to mail them in and hope that they get evaluated honestly.
 
I just upgraded two 6Ss to XRs which have the same trade in deal as the iPhone 12 — $700 for an iPhone 8 or newer / $350 for a 6S.
I received and activated the new phones and then took the old ones to a corporate store to trade-in just like I did with my 12 and my sons 11.
The corporate store refused to take them.
They claimed that the $700/$350 trade in was not in their systems for any phone except the 12.
I showed them their own website but they refused to budge.
So now I’ve got to mail them in and hope that they get evaluated honestly.
Yeah, I see that the promo is still available. Try a different COR location. Keep going until you find one that will take your trade ins. It is going to be your persistence vs a high probability of getting screwed doing mail in trades.

Do you know how to identify COR vs authorized retail? The locations that allow appointment scheduling are the corporate stores on AT&T website AFAIK.
 
Do you know how to identify COR vs authorized retail? The locations that allow appointment scheduling are the corporate stores on AT&T website AFAIK.

It was a corporate store but it wasn't the one that I'd used in the past.
I'll try my usual store today.
The one I tried I picked because it listed "Trade-ins" right in the description of services offered on AT&Ts website.
:mad:
 
It was a corporate store but it wasn't the one that I'd used in the past.
I'll try my usual store today.
The one I tried I picked because it listed "Trade-ins" right in the description of services offered on AT&Ts website.
:mad:
Yeah, some of the reps don’t want to do it because it likely does not generate any commissions for them.

You could try this if you are about to run out of stores to go to. When you go to a store and get a rep, talk to him/her privately and say that you understand that trade in transactions don’t generate commissions. So here is a $20 bill to thank them for their work on your trade in. That is more likely to grease the wheel for you.

Yes, on principle no customer should have to do that. But, you will spend more money just to buy your own return labels (because you will want to insure your trade ins) and eventual trade in success not assured.
 
Im merely curious can you trade in an iPhone 12 for credit to apple thats in the middle of these payments ? Isn’t the payment a locked in agreement between you and att ?

I could trade my iPhone X in that was still in the middle of a contract but I paid $550 upfront for it , it was the 2 year contract subsidy price and structured differently
 
Im merely curious can you trade in an iPhone 12 for credit to apple thats in the middle of these payments ? Isn’t the payment a locked in agreement between you and att ?

I could trade my iPhone X in that was still in the middle of a contract but I paid $550 upfront for it , it was the 2 year contract subsidy price and structured differently

They know...It would be like selling a leased car. You Pay. AT&T will demand their money...
 
They know...It would be like selling a leased car. You Pay. AT&T will demand their money...
Wasn’t planning on getting iPhone 13 anyways just curious

that was my suspicion

just didn’t know if you could do what you want with it and keep making payments

i mean you could sell it privately and still make payments as long as youre upfront it’s on subsidized installments
 
Wasn’t planning on getting iPhone 13 anyways just curious

that was my suspicion

just didn’t know if you could do what you want with it and keep making payments

i mean you could sell it privately and still make payments as long as youre upfront it’s on subsidized installments

I would strongly assume that it's locked to AT&T. If true, and it likely is, it's unsellable, without their releasing the lock on it. Release lock, you pay the balance.
 
These American carriers are all the same "meh" when it comes to deals. They get rid of contracts but fiddle the books to keep you for 2 to 3 years by offering it's customers monthly credits over that duration. Not sure about you guys but the old days of subsidized handsets weren't too bad. And to add insult they still lock most their handsets out of the box even when paying in full during check out.
 
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These American carriers are all the same "meh" when it comes to deals. They get rid of contracts but fiddle the books to keep you for 2 to 3 years by offering it's customers monthly credits over that duration. Not sure about you guys but the old days of subsidized handsets were too bad. And to add insult they still lock most their handsets out of the box even when paying in full during check out.

The later doesn't happen that often, but I did have an incident where I was caught overseas by my carrier, and they offered me a ridiculous price for coverage, not as good as a local sim, but close, because they still got something out of the deal, if I wanted to keep the same number. I'm sure people that tried to call me would get tagged with a 'service fee' for calling my local number in country', so they still get to screw someone. Lucky me. Funny how that works.
 
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Locked phones were locked to the carrier, and the number.

No they're not. Well, on older CDMA Spint and Verizon, yes. No such issue on GSM.

I used to upgrade every year on the 2 year contracts. I get the latest phone, my parents got my 1-year old phone and we either gave away or traded in the 2-year old phone. We'd just swap out the SIMs on the year old phones. It worked out better than getting battery replacements since it was $200 subsidized for a new phone and $100 for Apple's battery replacement service.
 
Locked phones were locked to the carrier, and the number. Otherwise why the bug up people's butts about selling/buying locked phones, right?

because locked in this day and age means financed in some capacity or a contract commitment in lesser scenarios

people don’t want to be left holding the bag if you buy from someone who skips payments and gets a bricked phone

also there’s the obvious reason that it may not be the carrier they use or they want it unlocked for peace of mind / travel
 
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because locked in this day and age means financed in some capacity or a contract commitment in lesser scenarios

people don’t want to be left holding the bag if you buy from someone who skips payments and gets a bricked phone

also there’s the obvious reason that it may not be the carrier they use or they want it unlocked for peace of mind / travel
Financed phones should remain locked until paid off I agree. But believe it or not many Android devices are locked regardless of it financed or not.
Real life example, I bought a S21U device recently from Best Buy it's carrier locked on TMobile and not financed . One has to go through hoops to get it unlocked. So much so, that I have a case with the FCC about it.
 
Financed phones should remain locked until paid off I agree. But believe it or not many Android devices are locked regardless of it financed or not.
Real life example, I bought a S21U device recently from Best Buy it's carrier locked on TMobile and not financed . One has to go through hoops to get it unlocked. So much so, that I have a case with the FCC about it.

Even if phones are not financed, some can be deeply discounted (prepaid in particular) so it's understandable carriers want to recover their subsidy. It's usually in the terms how long of a service is required before they'd unlock.

I remember getting a couple of AT&T Prepaid iPhone SEs for $120-150 from Best Buy which we used with our AT&T postpaid service. Unlock eligible after 6 months.

Now at full price, yeah, devices should definitely be unlocked.
 
Even if phones are not financed, some can be deeply discounted (prepaid in particular) so it's understandable carriers want to recover their subsidy. It's usually in the terms how long of a service is required before they'd unlock.

I remember getting a couple of AT&T Prepaid iPhone SEs for $120-150 from Best Buy which we used with our AT&T postpaid service. Unlock eligible after 6 months.

Now at full price, yeah, devices should definitely be unlocked.
That's what I meant , when one is buying a device without subsidy then it shouldn't be locked in any way. It's bad enough that we only have 3 main carriers in the USA, plus the sim locking. Nice little cartel they have going.
 
because locked in this day and age means financed in some capacity or a contract commitment in lesser scenarios

people don’t want to be left holding the bag if you buy from someone who skips payments and gets a bricked phone

also there’s the obvious reason that it may not be the carrier they use or they want it unlocked for peace of mind / travel

And Apple's lock...
 
One thing I’ve been unable to answer is whether the monthly credits would be jeopardized in the following scenario.

Keep the iPhone 12 in a drawer as the payments+credits are still being applied monthly, and buy an iPhone 13 or 14 or whatever completely outright (full price, unlocked) and use my SIM card in that. I’ve heard conflicting thoughts on this.
 
One thing I’ve been unable to answer is whether the monthly credits would be jeopardized in the following scenario.

Keep the iPhone 12 in a drawer as the payments+credits are still being applied monthly, and buy an iPhone 13 or 14 or whatever completely outright (full price, unlocked) and use my SIM card in that. I’ve heard conflicting thoughts on this.

i have no reason to believe you wouldn’t be able to do this
 
I did not realize that when upgrading last year to the iPhone 12 Pro that it was a 30 month lease with the opportunity to upgrade after 15 months (as opposed to 12 months on a 24 month lease in the past). Now I'm left wondering if I wait until the 15 months expire (i.e., January 2022 to upgrade to iPhone 13 Pro), or buy out my phone and trade it in through Apple's upgrade program (which allows for 12 month upgrades)...
 
I did not realize that when upgrading last year to the iPhone 12 Pro that it was a 30 month lease with the opportunity to upgrade after 15 months (as opposed to 12 months on a 24 month lease in the past). Now I'm left wondering if I wait until the 15 months expire (i.e., January 2022 to upgrade to iPhone 13 Pro), or buy out my phone and trade it in through Apple's upgrade program (which allows for 12 month upgrades)...

upgrade in what sense? Restart with the next program ?
 
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