I had upgraded both my wife & daughter's iPhones online, trading in two old phones we had lying around. Rather than wipe the trade-in phones myself & send them to at&t in the boxes provided I took them to this location - AS I HAD OTHER PHONES IN THE PAST - to have the store both wipe them and send them back to at&t (so I wouldn't have to rely on the mail and to provide a record that I had turned them in). Again, not only had I done this as recently as March 2025 (with a Samsung phone), but I explained this to the employees at the store. NO ONE MENTIONED ANYTHING ABOUT IT BEING A PROBLEM, but the phones had not been charged (they were ooooold!) so the guys asked if I could charge them at home and come back the next day which I did.
This day I dealt with Ish. I EXPLAINED WHAT I WAS DOING AND AGAIN RECEIVED NO PUSH-BACK. However, Ish could not get either phone's Apple ID to register correctly. And it was apparent that he assumed all customers were idiots and anything that went wrong was due to user error. He insisted my wife change her password despite me explaining that she had no problem logging in with the same information! My daughter had a similar situation (worked for her, but not in the store) and ultimately we just gave up. Then Ish said, "I do this all day, you'd be surprised how many times people think their information is one thing when it's actually something else." I reminded him all the information provided worked fine, just not for HIM. I then asked if someone at the Apple Store might be able to help and he dismissively said something to the effect of , "Sure, give it a shot."
At the Apple Store the person at the Genius Bar hit more buttons on my daughter's phone in 20 seconds than Ish did in 20 minutes! She found a couple of things at&t missed, including a managed app that was interfering with the Apple ID server...AT&T SECURE FAMILY (no joke)! It took her about 3 minutes to remove this and viola, the phone connected fine. While she was wiping that phone she started on my wife's phone and ran into the same issue as in the at&t store, but rather than assuming the problem was an incorrect password she correctly identified it as an issue with the phone not communicating with the server. So she took out a laptop and somehow gained access the phone using some program. In about 5-8 minutes THAT phone was being wiped as well. Here's the clincher: I asked her if anything she had done could NOT have been done at the at&t Store and she said, "NO."
Now I'm back at the at&t store, with two wiped phones and all I have to do is drop them off (or so I think). Ish is waiting on another customer as are all the other employees. Finally a woman comes over and rather than ASKING what I need, ASSUMES why I'm there. I gave her the update (leaving out the part about how this store's incompetence forced me to drive to Glendale!) and one of the phones. She entered some numbers into a pad, looked at the pad quizzically, then left to go speak with Ish on the other side of the store after which she sat down at a computer. After about 5 minutes a walked over to see what was up. She told me when she looked up the phone it said it had a value of $1. (Technically true, but it had a higher value if you used it as part of an UPGRADE.) I asked her why she was looking at trade-in values; I wasn't trading the phone in. I had already explained this was an upgrade ALREADY IN PROGRESS and I was simply dropping off the phone rather than sending it in. (AGAIN, NO ONE IS TELLING ME I CANNOT DO THIS)
Then a guy next to her started talking loudly about "creating expectations." I had no idea what he meant, but at this point my patience was gone so I took my phone back and that's when I noticed the loud guy was actually the Store Manager (*chef's kiss*). His tag said 'Eddie' so I confirmed that was his name and he replied "And that's all you're getting." At the end of my rope, I told him that his employees were effing incompetent (except I didn't use effing...lol). Eddie reacted as if I had taken a d*mp on a display counter or slapped someone, marching me out of the store while yelling, "No one bad mouths my employees!" I'm telling him they can't even wipe a phone; He's telling me to enjoy my $1; I'm asking if he learned that line in manager school - the whole thing was pretty silly.
When I got home I called another at&t store and explained what I was TRYING to do and they explained that yes, at&t did change things. Now, if you've already started the trade-in process, YOU CAN NO LONGER DROP YOUR PHONE OFF AT A STORE & must send it in the box that comes with the new phone.
Set aside the incompetence of not being able to do what the Apple Store did (including recognizing AN AT&T APP!!). Set aside Eddie's testosterone-fueled management style. The Burbank store had THREE separate chances to tell me what I was trying to do wasn't possible anymore and avoid all of this! Was it stupidity? Arrogance? Or just not listening? Does it matter? read more