Wow - wish I had known this. I had four activations last month with AT&T, and one of those was the XS Max I returned.
So if I’m doing this on IUP, can I do the same thing? I haven’t ever seen that screen or gotten that option. Is it only if you pay full price up front?
I tried this method on the IUP with AT&T, and it didn’t work for me. I put in my old sim before turning on the device for the first time, and it activated normally, so I thought I was in the clear. I saw no upgrade fee on my account activity for approximately 10 days; however, when my bill printed, the fee was applied. I called AT&T, but they wouldn’t relent, so I returned the phone to Apple and bought another sim free. I called AT&T again, and I told them that I had returned the IUP phone, and they then removed the upgrade fee.
On the sim free phones, I’ve never had an upgrade fee.