Re: Phone Trade-ins

Andrew wrote on Sat, 7 Dec 2024 21:07:35 -0000 (UTC) :

Basically, you can't lose as you pay nothing for Android Galaxy phones, and you pay about half price for Apple iPhones.

Just to be clear, I don't know how long they give you to transfer the data
from the old phone to the new phone, except that they seem lenient on that.
For example, after I factory reset three random flip phones as my trade-in
for three new Androids in April or May of 2021, I sent T-Mobile the three
"trade-in" old flip phones the same week that I had received the new three
Samsung Galaxy A32-5G phones. T-Mobile didn't seem to be in any rush.
Remember, they have a "lien" on your bill for the entire price until they
credit you anyway, each month, for two years, so they're not worried.
As for the iPhone, you need to transfer the data which the T-Mobile store
will be glad to do (and you might need new SIM cards, which I forgot to
mention T-Mobile charges $10 then, now $20 each for, which I successfully
argued should be free, so they didn't ever charge me for the new SIMs).
However, they will let you hold on to both phones, the old iPhone and the
new iPhone until you've successfully transferred the data. We took about
three weeks, as I recall, the first time, and about two weeks with the
recent trade of the iPhone 12 (from 2021) for the iPhone 16 Pro (2024).
Again, you'd have to ask the trade-in entity (which was my carrier in my
situation) what their rules are... but T-Mobile USA didn't seem to be
worried at all about how long it took for us to transfer the data over.
They even send you a post-paid shipping box to send the old phone back to
them for the trade, where again, as always, only the phone & battery is
required (none of the accessories are of interest to T-Mobile USA).
I suspect their leniency is due to the fact that they have a "lien" on your
bill so they can't lose money if you never send them your trade-in phone.
YMMV