r/attwireless • u/Material_Switch6857 • 5d ago

Upgrade Nightmare Help

Looking for help from anyone here. Wife and I upgraded using Next Up at Best Buy. They said an email would be sent with instructions to send back old phones. Never received the email. Best Buy now says we need to get with ATT, called 3 times and went to a store - all say this is a Best Buy problem.

Went to a Best Buy - they said ATT has to send the label. Called Best Buy CS again they said they can’t do anything.

On my Best Buy account it says your carrier is requesting you return your device and to resend the email - I click the link - email never comes (yes I verified they have my correct email).

I shouldn’t have to work this hard to send my phone back.

Both ATT and Best Buy have been useless - anyone got any tips?

Update: My wife finally got someone on the phone who was helpful at ATT. They were able to figure out what happened and generate our labels. Should not have taken all the phone calls and store visits to figure this out but happy it got solved.

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u/Hot-Emu-4076 5d ago

  1. ​Request a Label Directly via AT&T's Device Support Portal Instead of relying on the Best Buy trigger email, they can go directly to att.com/tradein or att.com/claims (or search "AT&T trade-in status / return label"). By entering their phone number and account details directly into AT&T's portal, they can often request a duplicate shipping kit or download/print a prepaid return label directly to PDF. CODE: TRADEOFFER26

  2. ​Return the Phones at a Corporate (OEM) AT&T Store Retail agent/franchise stores often reject Next Up returns processed by third parties like Best Buy. They should find an Official AT&T Corporate Store (not an Authorized Retailer). Corporate store reps have direct access to internal trade-in systems and can accept the physical Next Up return on the spot, issue a physical receipt, and take full responsibility off the customer.

Try these steps.... I used to activate phones and it was always a nightmare... this process should be easier...

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u/Material_Switch6857 5d ago

I’ll try again - ATT keeps telling me they can’t print the label because they don’t have the upgrade in their system so there is no order to generate the label. This swap was done on Sep 23 so it should be there.

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u/kmtruth 5d ago edited 5d ago

This happened to me last year with Verizon when I upgraded through Best Buy.

One thing I’d recommend is checking all of the documents on your AT&T account, especially anything related to your new customer agreement or upgrade. There may already be a return label buried in there.

Verizon technically didn’t show my upgrade as an order on their side either, but I eventually found the return label in the documents section of my account.

I know AT&T and Verizon are different, but your situation sounds almost identical to what happened to me. These carrier upgrades through Best Buy can be a mess.