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My trade-in to Apple had a revised down value, I believe erroneously... anyone else experienced this?

spaceballl

spaceballl

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2003
2,938
362
San Francisco, CA
Hey there!

I just bought a new M4 Max MacBook Pro, and i traded in my old M1 Max. The trade-in value was roughly $1100, and today, I get an email that the value has been revised down to $850. It says it's because of "incorrect product or serial number." I mean... I know I put the product number in correctly, and I literally did copy / paste for the serial number so I think there's some kind of mistake.

It looks like I have no option to have them re-check or to talk to a human. My only option is for them to return me the device. This makes me nervous...
  1. They say the serial number is wrong so what if they actually send me back the wrong device?
  2. If it gets damaged in return shipping to me, I won't be able to re-sell it again.
According to itswothmore, which is where I sold my last iPhone, I can get $1140 for my MacBook. That's a lot more money than $250 so a big part of me is saying to just get the device returned to me.

What do you think? Thanks in advance!
 
Yes, it has happened to me. The price offered on my M2 Air was $685.00. I got an email saying the value was reduced to $135.00 because the screen polarization layer was separated causing white spots. They sent me a picture. The white spots were the lights from the ceiling reflected on the screen.

The company that Apple is using is for trade-ins is scamming the entire system. The company finds interesting ways to significantly devalue the returned device. They provide the low ball value, and sell at the higher value. I am not so uncertain that the company actually damages the device in the process of evaluating the trade-in.

In my case they had a photograph of the back that was very blurry showing the serial number. There was nothing on the screen image they sent that proved it was actually the device I sent in. As far as I know the company used a different image to represent my screen.

Fraud is the term that comes to mind.

I called Apple and they offered to look into the issue. It took three phone calls to convince Apple the trade-in partner was incorrect. Apple agreed with me and gave me the original amount offered.
 
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There are reports of that behavior on here, several threads about it. I've traded in a few things myself without problems, and it's hard to say how prevalent this is.

One school of thought is "don't send it in, bring it into an Apple Retail Store." That's fine if there's one nearby; for me that's a 4-hour round trip so not worth my time (I'd rather get $250 less, if necessary, than have to make that drive). Your mileage may vary.
 
i always do my trade ins in person. see them moving a phone around me gives me a bit more confidence. the worst is they nicked 50$ off my iPhone 11 Pro Max due to the defective screen but i expected that off the max trade in value but after 5 years not complaining one bit. just get rid of it!
 
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I recently traded in an iPhone 11 and a 7 Plus. No problems with the 11, but they knocked my 7 Plus down to nothing because of “white spots”. Funny, the display was perfect when it was handed off to FedEx, so either it was damaged in shipping or I got hosed. It was only $35 and it was just collecting dust in a junk drawer, but still irked me a bit.
 
What's weird about my issue, different from everyone who has responded here, is that they are saying my serial number isn't matching or that the device isn't what i said it is. That's just objectively not true. If they said it was scratched or something, then I mean... okay... it's not... but at least it's somewhat subjective. This is just inaccurate.
 
I had a similar experience with my serial number. I entered it in apples website to see the value for my M1 Max. I guess it didn’t like the serial # because it made me enter the details in manually. After doing so it said I had about $1100 trade in value.

Then a few days later I used the Apple Store app to check again (and since I was already logged in) it pulled up my M1 Max for trade in but offered me ~$1350! I was confused why and realized it had the wrong specs! (4tb instead of 1tb ssd)

Did you use the Apple Store app by chance to buy your new MacBook?
 
mathiasinthe314 said:
they knocked my 7 Plus down to nothing because of “white spots”
Click to expand...
Those “white spots” are more than likely the overhead lights reflecting on the screen. The clueless idiots pulled that stunt on my M2 Air. The people they use to “inspect” are really clueless or are doing it intentionally.
 
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Just here to vent and rant when I saw this post. I would never in a 1,000,000 million years deal with Apple trade in via mail again in my life. When I traded in an intel MacBook to get the M1 Air in November 2020, that was the absolute worst experience with any store in my life I think. they never sent the return box. I contacted them four times saying where is the box and they never sent it. they eventually charged me $750 for "not returning" my trade-in. I spent so many hours on the phone with people who seem to have no ability at Apple to do much of anything other than take notes. Made a dispute with Apple Card charge during that time. I truly baffled me how a transaction could have went so so so wrong with me just begging can I please talk to someone who can actually help me.

Eventually I got the charge reversed and a box showed up. It seems like it was around Christmas time. (ordered M1 on day of release iirc, 11/10/20).

I'd be afraid of what a third party inspector (do they still use Phobio) would say about the condition of a device that I knew was perfect when I sent it. I do have the luxury of an  store about an hour away. But I think if I did a trade in I would probably drive 3-4 hours and make a day trip of it (if it was a high price machine) before I would ever deal with Apple trade in via mail.

I have in the store traded in an iMac Pro, the m1 air, and an iPad Pro, and two of the kids entry iPads. took 10 minutes and got gift card right then.
 
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raythompsontn said:
Those “white spots” are more than likely the overhead lights reflecting on the screen. The clueless idiots pulled that stunt on my M2 Air. The people they use to “inspect” are really clueless or are doing it intentionally.
Click to expand...

Wouldn’t surprise me. It has taught me that the 40 minute drive to the Apple Store will be worth it next time I have trade something in.
 
Yes, happened to me when I traded in my MBP M1 Max. Came down by $130.00. I went with the trade but will now only do in-store trade-ins.
 
spaceballl said:
Hey there!

I just bought a new M4 Max MacBook Pro, and i traded in my old M1 Max. The trade-in value was roughly $1100, and today, I get an email that the value has been revised down to $850. It says it's because of "incorrect product or serial number." I mean... I know I put the product number in correctly, and I literally did copy / paste for the serial number so I think there's some kind of mistake.

It looks like I have no option to have them re-check or to talk to a human. My only option is for them to return me the device. This makes me nervous...
  1. They say the serial number is wrong so what if they actually send me back the wrong device?
  2. If it gets damaged in return shipping to me, I won't be able to re-sell it again.
According to itswothmore, which is where I sold my last iPhone, I can get $1140 for my MacBook. That's a lot more money than $250 so a big part of me is saying to just get the device returned to me.

What do you think? Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

I just wanted to add that I woke up this morning and the same thing pretty much happened to me. I literally copied and pasted the serial number from my mac when I was entering the information, so I have no idea how this could have been mistaken. I contacted support about this and they confirmed that this shouldn't have happened and put in a request to re-evaluate it.

I don't think this will change anything, but its really curious that the exact same thing happened to me too. If they do not budge on this, I am curious as to what condition it is going to come back in (it was in perfect condition) and will post an update on the outcome.

Very frustrating!
 
PunishedSnack said:
I don't think this will change anything, but its really curious that the exact same thing happened to me too. If they do not budge on this, I am curious as to what condition it is going to come back in (it was in perfect condition) and will post an update on the outcome.
Click to expand...
Do not budge with Apple. Be insistent and ask to speak to someone with a higher level of authority. Ask to have pictures sent showing the serial number on the back of the case. If that does not match your original serial number, then someone has switched devices. The serial number should match the original purchase documents for the device. If the numbers do not match, then file a report with the local police and have it sent to Apple.

My tin hat says that someone, or many someones, are switching devices, faking problems, or are just so far left on the bell curve that drinking through a straw presents a challenge. I also think these people are doing the switching, faking problems, either because they are profiteering by switching devices, or the trade-in company is endorsing such behavior to the company's benefit.

I don't know how it really works. Does the trade-in company sell the products back to Apple to be refurbed and placed on the refurbished store? Or is the trade-in company really the one running the trade-in store? In either case it is to the benefit of the company to lowball to the individual and then sell back to Apple, or on the refurbished at a significantly higher value. The term consumer fraud comes to mind.
 
Hey there,

Just to close the loop on this... I called Apple this morning. It took a while to get through the robo prompts, but the good news is that the first person I spoke to was able to open an investigation into the matter. She said it would usually take 3 business days for them to get back to me, but in this case, it only took about an hour! An hour after getting off the phone with her, I got the following note from Apple:

Screenshot 2024-11-25 at 10.45.40 AM.png


I understand the perspective that some people have about not returning items via mail, and only doing it in person. This is the third or fourth trade-in I've done via mail, and it's the first one that's gone sideways, but it ended up being resolved pretty easily in the end. All good here. Nice customer service, Apple.
 
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spaceballl said:
An hour after getting off the phone with her, I got the following note from Apple
Click to expand...
Good for you. It only took an hour for Apple to resolve my issue with diminished trade. I was given an Apple gift card which I did not want. I wasn't going to spending $600 in the Apple Store in the foreseeable future. I called back and got Apple to put the amount against the charge on the Apple Card. That is what was supposed to happen, but didn't.

I still think (tinfoil hat) that the company that I used in handling the returns is scamming Apple and the people that return items. Something is very much wrong with the trade-in process with the company I sent my device.

There may be more than one company involved. The one I used really tried to scam me.
 
A quick (unfortunate update):

So I called into Apple today to get a status report on this and the rep told me that they could not do anything because the trade in partner is claiming that I sent them the 16-core gpu version. Naturally, this infuriated me because I KNOW what I bought.

After I calmed down a bit, I decided that I would try again, this time armed with some hard evidence to support my claim. I am looking for the apple store receipt for the laptop as the order is not appearing on apple.com, but the AppleCare+ I bought for it is in my email! Of course it says 32-core GPU. When I called back into support to give support this evidence, I remembered that I still had the box (I hadn't gotten around to recycling it yet) and sure enough 32-core GPU with a matching serial.

I requested that I would be sent a photo of the serial number with the laptop powered up as recommended by Ray. I'm super cynical about people these days so my money is on fraud instead of this being a mistake if the third-party trade in partner checked again and are trying to stick to their lies. I'm REALLY glad I was lazy this week and didn't put the box in the bin.

Of course I am even more annoyed of the situation now. Please keep your fingers crossed for me because I am suppose to get a call from the person that did the inspection 😅

Edit: I just wanted to add to the pile of people that have said to never do the mail-in trade-in.

Edit 2: Of course its resolved now after I am forced to dig up evidence. The odd thing is that if this was a simple mistake, my request over the weekend would have revealed the error and everything would be fine, instead they tried to fight me on this and it has left a VERY bad taste in my mouth. Anyone know where I can find any corporate contacts for Apple? It probably won't change anything, but I'll feel better making a complaint to them about this.
 
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