Bell's Trade-in Program

[KarenLipski]

I just upgraded my phone and plan with Bell. I had a Samsung Galaxy S9 and upgraded to the S22. I went through the process to send my old phone back and was told I was eligible for a $100 credit for my old phone if it "passed" inspection when returned.

I wasn't concerned because the S9 was in pristine condition. I kept it in a case, with a screen protector, since I first received it. It did not have so much as a scratch on it. I did a factory reset and charged the phone fully. Before packing it up I turned it on and it went to the set-up screen like it would if it were new.

Today I received an email saying the phone was "inspected" by one of Bell's technicians and, because of it's condition my credit was going to be $0.

I was appalled. The assessment had several yes/no questions and here are their answers compared to mine (in brackets):

Does the device power on, charge, and navigate to the home screen? ...... No (Yes)
Are there signs of general wear and tear? .................................................. Yes (No)
Is the screen cracked, bent, or lifted?  ........................................................  No (No)
Does the device have any LCD failures?  ...................................................  No (No)
Are there any issues with the touch responsiveness, keyboard/buttons  .... Yes (No)
Does the device show signs of severe physical damage?  .........................  Yes (No)

The phone turned on and went to the set-up screen fine for me just before I shut it down and packed it. It was fully charged and did not have so much as a tiny scratch anywhere on it and yet their assessment said "signs of severe physical damage"? Did they check the correct phone?

Their email also said that they would not be returning the phone to me. This is absurd. Essentially they are saying "We inspected your phone and it is junk .... but we're keeping it anyway". To put it mildly, that is preposterous. If you don't think the phone is good enough to give me any credit then send it back to me and I will find someone with better taste in excellent condition phones than your technicians.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with Bell's trade-in program? Is this a scam where they say they will give you a credit, "assess" your phone as "unacceptable" but then keep it and "recycle" it anyway?

I'm not a happy Bell customer right now.

[BellAntgio · Accepted solution]

Hey there @KarenLipski, 

Welcome to the Community. 

When choosing to complete your Trade-in online and sending the old phone in the mail, depending on how it was packaged could be the cause of said damages. 

To learn more, check out Trade-in program. Once on the page give the sections Frequently asked questions and Offer details a read.

Once there you will find details such as;

Once I have traded in my device, is it possible to get it back?

All trade-ins are final. Once you have mailed your phone or your device is accepted by the store, it cannot be returned to you under any circumstances.

[CDawkins]

This is so wrong I can't even comprehend how you can get away with offering $0 but then keeping it for yourself. You can't tell someone that their phone is worth $100 but then come back and say "it's worthless, but we are going to keep it anyway!" This should be sent back to the customer with the customer paying the applicable shipping charges.  Completely unethical!

[Latts29]

Did they even send you a picture of this so called physical damage? If you have a pick of phone before you put in box and they can't provide evidence of what they received (coming out of box)I would have a huge issue as well.  Good luck with this.  I know the wording in documentation is phone won't come back to you but they shouldn't be able to reassess the value with out providing some proof or providing a send back option.  I completely get not sending back to people who change their mind this is not that.  The wording is exactly why I am avoiding sending back a perfectly good phone they could resell and make $ off and just say it was destroyed when recieved.  I have trust issues lol 

[Afnewf]

I tried to trade in and the link wouldn’t open.