Yet when they returned two days later after completing the setup and phone transfers they were told that they would only be credited $830 instead. This was relayed to the user by a different employee at the AT&T authorized retailer and unfortunately the second person was correct.
Turns out that the store manager was mistaken and falsely confirmed multiple times that the trade in would net the user $1,000 in credit towards the iPhone 16. This was only true for an iPhone 13 Pro or newer and the standard iPhone 13 did not qualify. A $1,000 credit for the standard iPhone 13 hasn’t been a thing for AT&T users since last year.
Coming from an iPhone 13 you get a camera control button and AI on the iPhone 16. | Image credit — PhoneArena
What happened here was a mistake on two fronts in my opinion but the store manager was definitely more in the wrong. Should the user have double checked the promotion for upgrading to the iPhone 16? Absolutely. But getting it wrong in the first place falls onto the manager.
Thankfully no harm was done this time due to AT&T’s customer service. In fact people think that the poster who shared this story got an excellent deal and most users would’ve had to just accept the loss of $170.
This mishap soured the user on going to authorized retailers and they swore they would only be visiting retail stores from now on. While I think it’s fine to use these stores, this just further proves that you need to remain vigilant when upgrading your phone lest you end up losing money for no good reason.
