One thing to note is if you decide to trade in in store after your original purchase, you have to take it back to the same store if you want a refund on your original purchase method and receipt, the option which offers a higher trade in value. If you go to a different store, the employee’s handheld will give them an error message if you try to get the refund on the original receipt, and you’ll end up with a gift card for 10-20% less than the original offer as if you hadn’t bought a new iPhone at all. So much for incentives to buy a new phone.
I don’t know who comes up with these silly rules that make trading in an old device more difficult. Even the employee didn’t understand the error message, and it wasted both our time and the employee’s time. That was our experience yesterday, and it isn’t explained anywhere on Apple's website.
A trade in at Apple should be a trade in. It’s crazy the trade in value depends on whether you trade it in by mail or in store, and whether you go to the same store or a different one.