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Don’t use Apple’s Trade-in program for your AW.

heyyitssusan

heyyitssusan

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 9, 2014
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10,302
As much as I love Apple, this is my first time using their trade in program. My S0 is 3 years old, and I figured it was time to upgrade to the S3. Once everything was set up on my S3, I decided to initiate a trade in on Apple’s trade in program and was quoted $50 on an AS gift card. OK, fine, since it’s that old, I was happy to get anything for it. At the very least, I could’ve used it on a new sport band.

Once I mailed my S0 off, I get an email a few days later saying that my quote was changed to $0 because my watch wouldn’t power on. I knew that wasn’t right because I was just playing with it making sure find my watch was off. I called the company, couldn’t do anything for me... said that the techs are trained and that’s what their final decision was. Apple couldn’t do anything for me because Brightstar is a third party company and they don’t have any say on their decisions.

Fast forward, I get my watch back today and lo and behold. It powers on just fine.

Needless to say, I’m pretty annoyed right now. It seems like my only other option is to sell it on eBay or craigslist, because it doesn’t seem like the reputable trade in sites are still accepting them, which is why I did this in the first place. BuyBackWorld seems to be my only other option, but they want the band that came with it and the charger.. no thanks.

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Sure. You had a problem. But that’s like getting an over cooked hamburger at McDonalds and then telling everyone not to go there.
 
heyyitssusan said:
Definitely use it to your hearts content, but if my watch powers on just fine, and they’re disputing that it doesn’t, there’s gotta be something going on behind the scenes there.
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Just to clarify, Apple uses a third-party company called BrightStar that actually manages the trade-in credit. Two different things with separate rules that Apple has very little control over.

Also, You’re not going to achieve anything by insisting others in your thread title to not use Apples trade in program, when others have had lots of success. Its dismissive and unnecessary.

Not to mention, I personally don’t think Apple has to even offer a trade in program, which is nice for those who are seeking to upgrade to receive at least some credit towards their used Apple Watch, who want to at least avoid places like ebay.
 
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Let Go, FB, Swappa or Craigslist (last resort imo). You’ll get a lot more. That trade in program is a joke. I would understand if it was a seamless experience but honestly the above mentioned are so much easier and more reliable.
 
cynics said:
Let Go, FB, Swappa or Craigslist (last resort imo). You’ll get a lot more. That trade in program is a joke. I would understand if it was a seamless experience but honestly the above mentioned are so much easier and more reliable.
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I agree, you'll get much more selling it yourself, rather than just trading it in.
 
This happened to me with gazelle. They said my phone was in bad shape (scratched glass) and lowballed their original offer. I declined and got the phone back. It was in perfect shape, not a scratch. I’ve never used them since.

That being said, I can’t believe they’re were going to give you 50 bucks for your series 0 watch. I tried trading in my S0 42 stainless steel and after punching in my serial number on the site, I was told I cannot trade it in for money (literally worthless), but they would happily recycle it for me.
 
I traded my SS S0 at CEX. They gave me £120 for the watch and £8 for the band. I bought a 38mm S3 LTE for £225 boxed like new with nearly a full years warranty from Apple :)
 
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honglong1976 said:
I traded my SS S0 at CEX. They gave me £120 for the watch and £8 for the band. I bought a 38mm S3 LTE for £225 boxed like new with nearly a full years warranty from Apple :)
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I can't believe they would offer you £120 for a Series 0 Apple Watch?

AT CEX online at least, they'll only offer £70 for a Series 1 42mm Space Grey Aluminium....


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abdulkar.im said:
Mine was the SS model and I went for the voucher. I traded in the watch, strap, nike band and headphones. I used the voucher they gave me plus £20 to purchase the S3 LTE and band :)
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I knew it! :)[/QUOTE]
If you are going to buy from there anyway, get a voucher! I got lucky with £120. I would have got about £85 cash (at the time).
 
If you're going to sell your Apple Watch, why not try SWAPPA.COM? I've bought and sold items on there, (phones, and AW), and the purchases are guaranteed, no hassle as long as you're truthful in your descriptions, and the prices that one can get are way better than any "trade in program", or what you can get on E-bay. (No, I don't work for them, but it's a good deal so I thought I'd pass it on)
 
oeagleo said:
If you're going to sell your Apple Watch, why not try SWAPPA.COM? I've bought and sold items on there, (phones, and AW), and the purchases are guaranteed, no hassle as long as you're truthful in your descriptions, and the prices that one can get are way better than any "trade in program", or what you can get on E-bay. (No, I don't work for them, but it's a good deal so I thought I'd pass it on)
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Agreed. Swappa is actually a very good tech site that’s more oriented than eBay is. And also, I will not sell anything tech related on eBay, way too much fraud with Apple products and I find that the same thing could happen with other selling sites, but far less with Swappa and others having positive experiences.
 
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Amazon has pulled **** like this on me before. I was very close to sending in my Sport S0 to Apple for $50. I decided to opt for Best Buy ($63) instead. Bought a $5 band off Amazon and will keep my original. Gonna take it into BB tomorrow and see if they give me any hassle, I hope I can keep the charger.
 
BeatCrazy said:
Amazon has pulled **** like this on me before. I was very close to sending in my Sport S0 to Apple for $50. I decided to opt for Best Buy ($63) instead. Bought a $5 band off Amazon and will keep my original. Gonna take it into BB tomorrow and see if they give me any hassle, I hope I can keep the charger.
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Best Buy has a fairly easy process, they will inspect the watch, make sure it powers on and then they will allow you to accept the credit in store if you want.
 
BeatCrazy said:
Amazon has pulled **** like this on me before. I was very close to sending in my Sport S0 to Apple for $50. I decided to opt for Best Buy ($63) instead. Bought a $5 band off Amazon and will keep my original. Gonna take it into BB tomorrow and see if they give me any hassle, I hope I can keep the charger.
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For $63 i would rather just give it to someone in my family.
 
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Relentless Power said:
Best Buy has a fairly easy process, they will inspect the watch, make sure it powers on and then they will allow you to accept the credit in store if you want.
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Yes, I've done trade ins before with BB. I guess the only hassle they might give me is about the charger. We'll see..

honglong1976 said:
For $63 i would rather just give it to someone in my family.
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Well true. But the S0 is pretty slow, and obviously is not getting more updates. I've found for people to really enjoy the experience of AW, they need(?) to wear it daily. And if you have a slow watch, you're not going to be as motivated to do that. So the nice gesture could actually backfire.
 
BeatCrazy said:
Yes, I've done trade ins before with BB. I guess the only hassle they might give me is about the charger. We'll see..



Well true. But the S0 is pretty slow, and obviously is not getting more updates. I've found for people to really enjoy the experience of AW, they need(?) to wear it daily. And if you have a slow watch, you're not going to be as motivated to do that. So the nice gesture could actually backfire.
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I had an S0, and all the stock apps were pretty quick and acceptable. Third party apps were awful. If it did resting HR, I would have kept it still.
 
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