Charged for a Returned Phone (Next Upgrade)

Greetings @Cutiefruity01!

Thank you for reaching out and welcome to the Community Forums! This is definitely a concern, and I am more than happy to look into this for you!

I have sent a private message to your forum’s inbox. May I ask of you can please check, it would be much appreciated!

Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing back from you!

Jackie, AT&T Community Specialist

Hello,

I am having the same exact issue and it is maddening.  I have saved all my transcripts with the reps that I have chatted with so that I have written proof of my conversations with the reps.  I turned my phone in to an AT&T retail store and it was confirmed that it was submitted back in Nov. 12, 2017.  I even called their customer service line while I was in japan when I saw I was being billed $1149 for the iphone x that i traded my Samsung S8+ for.  Please note, they have had my phone for 3 months at this point.  I have confirmed with multiple reps that the phone has been turned since November.  I have been sent to the store 3 times now, and every time I am sent there I end up spending 2-3 hours waiting.  This past weekend I confirmed that it was noted as submitted since 1/28/2018 and this is in their system after I visited the store.  I contacted AT&T via chat again today (2/5/2018) at this point and now, its not found.  This is theft at this point.  They have my Samsung S8+ that I paid for, AT&T lost the phone between the AT&T retail store and the AT&T warehouse.  So why am I being charged for someone else's negligence?  This should be internally handled by AT&T and not by the customer, let alone force the customer to pay for something that they should not have to.  This is on going for 4 months now.  The best part, I cant get a hold of anyone above a customer service rep, and they are telling the customer service rep to tell me to go back to the store!  There is no way to get them to call the store because they rather you do their job for them.  I pay over 330 dollars a month for multiple services and a single line.  The customer service I receive is really abysmal.  I am at the point where I am willing to contact legal council because this is just to the point where its ridiculous.

I am having the same issue currently with my service. I returned my device on 5/18/2018 at 3:31pm via the instructions given to me. I have my receipt which seems to be of no use to me. It's been a month so far and there is still no tracking on the device except for the acceptance scan when I dropped it off. I've spoken to at least 15 AT&T reps and only 2 have actually tried to help. The last rep I spoke too today told me that I have to find an AT&T store, have them print me out a newgistics report, take it back to the post office I returned the device with and show them the report and see what they say. I asked him to tell me what the next step was if the post office would not take responsibility and he could not answer. What I would like to know is what happens to people who are disabled. People that can't get to a store to investigate a package return. Does AT&T ONLY supply service to everyone except people with disabilities??? Why are customers who follow the rules being punished? The overall customer service from AT&T is horrible. The policies in place are not customer friendly at all. A rep today felt like he needed to tell me that this is my problem alone and its not AT&Ts  problem and if I continue to complain he would rescind the credit he placed on my account. Letting me know he is on the job 13 years which only tells me that they've had customer service problems for at least 13 years. I've spent the last several hours filing a complaint with the post office, I've emailed newgistics for a report and I've gone to the post office where I dropped to package off only to be told the same thing which is they no longer have the package. I've basically spent half the day working for AT&T and I still will have to wait to get ALL my money back for a phone I don't have.

Wow!  This sounds exactly like what I have had happen.  Where has customer service gone??  AT&T is quite happy to help when you need to buy a new device, but when you fulfill your terms of the contract they charge you and take your money without any repercussions.  I have also spent at least 8-10 hours on the phone trying to remedy their charge for $574.44 for an iPhone X I returned on the Next program.  I have shared the tracking number of THEIR label sent via email to me every time and AT&T cannot even go to the website they sent me to track the return!  This is so crazy and such bad support.  We have been with AT&T for 30+ years, but it has gotten so bad.  I don't know what else to do to get a person that can comprehend how to track their return labels?  

This is exact same thing happened to me last year!!!!!  I was forced to “eat it”.   This year when I upgraded for the “Next “ program after 12 mos I made sure to only take the phone to a counter where I could get a receipt, which I did, to a UPS Store in a town about 45 mins away at my earliest convenience.   The tracking information stated that the device was received to the processing center on the actual due date.  I thought all was good.      A week or so later I was still getting texts and emails about my equipment not being received and my account being charged.  Low and behold the phone shows back up on my porch with a note saying they couldn’t accept my phone after the due date...  again mind you...  due date is when the device actually shows delivery to AT&T.    Talked to a nice gentleman with AT&T and he added notes to the account and basically said the device was actually received on the due date and that they were to accept the phone upon its return.   He sent a shipping label to return the device again.  A week later I call to check on it, they do some research and tell me they in fact received the device and would be crediting my account in 1-2 billing cycles.  I’m thinking great!   Then today, again, that dang phone shows up on my doorstep AGAIN with another letter again stating that the device was received after the due date and it was now mine and that I owed the balance.     I called AT&T again and spoke with an extremely passive aggressive agent whom i asked and was repeatedly refused to escalate my call and kept requesting the same information over and over again seemingly to get me to admit that I did something wrong, which I did not.    I finally got a manager on the phone and although she was very nice, she told me there was nothing she could do and that maybe I could go trade in my phone at a local store.  I’m beyond frustrated and I’m currently investigating other carrier options to switch over my 4 lines and 3 tablets to.  I Have lost all respect for AT&T and do not remotely consider them to be a reputable company.  I will be expressing my opinions to as many and all possible.

A year or so ago i attempted to return a phone with a prepaid label and envelope sent to me by AT&T, they of course said they never received the phone and had no way to track their own label.  In my own naivety, assumed that AT&T could track their own labels and didn’t physically get a receipt when I dropped it at the post office.I was totally there was nothing they could do and that there was no further recourse and I was forced to “eat it”.   This year when I upgraded for the “Next “ program after 12 mos I made sure to not only take the phone to a counter where I could get a receipt, which I did, to a UPS Store in a town about 45 mins away at my earliest convenience. The tracking information stated that the device was received to the processing center on the actual due date.  I thought all was good. A week or so later I was still getting texts and emails about my equipment not being received and my account being charged. Low and behold the phone shows back up on my porch with a note saying they couldn’t accept my phone after the due date... again mind you... due date is when the device actually shows delivery to AT&T.    Talked to a nice gentleman with AT&T and he added notes to the account and basically said the device was actually received on the due date and that they were to accept the phone upon its return. He sent a shipping label to return the device again. A week later I call to check on it, they do some research and tell me they in fact received the device and would be crediting my account in 1-2 billing cycles.  I’m thinking great! Then today, again, that dang phone shows up on my doorstep AGAIN with another letter again stating that the device was received after the due date and it was now mine and that I owed the balance. I called AT&T again and spoke with an extremely passive aggressive agent whom I asked and was repeatedly refused to escalate my call and kept requesting the same information over and over again seemingly to get me to admit that I did something wrong, which I did not.    I finally got a manager on the phone and although she was very nice, she told me there was nothing she could do and that maybe I could go trade in my phone at a local store. I’m beyond frustrated and I’m currently investigating other carrier options to switch over my 4 lines and 3 tablets to. I Have lost all respect for AT&T and do not remotely consider them to be a reputable company. I will be expressing my opinions to as many people and all avenues as possible.

We were in the same situation as many of you. I posted about it here earlier, but my post has been removed.

Long story short, we contacted the Better Business Bureau yesterday and today our situation was resolved and the charge for the phone removed. So I would suggest to anyone not getting satisfaction, go to the BBB website and make your complaint known.

AT&T sent me a defective phone under my guarantee. I returned my phone in the box provided with the label provided and I dropped it at the window in the post office. A month later I received a debit on my card bill for $750. for that phone. I am now in 40th minute and 4rth transfer trying to speak to a human being about the problem.From this site, this appears to be a common problem. I will let you know if they resolve this problem.

Exact same issue happening with me now! I am going to contact the Better Business website now!

I returned my phone on 11/26/2023. I received an email 2/2023 stating AT&T didn’t receive my phone. I called AT&T support and provided my tracking number, they stated the phone was picked up by their agent. I reviewed my bill today and was charged for the phone. I call AT&T today inquiring why they are charging me for the phone, and they then state they received the phone but the phone was a complete different phone. They sent me pictures of the phone and it was a broken up Samsung phone. I spoke with two representatives and they could not do anything, and would not credit my account. I will be escalating this, and leaving AT&T after 15 years. They have a scam going on and people are taking advantage of people, and the customers are being penalized for this scam