THREE TRADE IN - DO NOT TRADE IN YOUR PHONE

[TradeinScam]

 Upgraded early through Three. Gave me a trade in option, £249 offered for my trade in. I have sent off as instructed, received (eventually) a confirmation from Ingram Services Ltd that they have my device and payment has been sent on 22/10/24. It may take up to 5 working days... 8 working days later and still no money in my account. Having done some research, there's lots of customers who have had the same issue. Having emailed 5 times, called countless times to be left on hold for literal hours whilst working from home. This is becoming very concerning and feel there is an underlying scam happening within Ingram services Ltd associated with Three. 

I'm at a complete loss of what to do at this point. I will be complaining to the ombudsman but there is a time lag for this. In the meantime i'm down £249 or my old handset. I will be cancelling my contract with immediate effect if this is not resolved. 

Mod note: Post subject edited to soften tone

[Kala]

Have recently traded in my iPhone 13, when sent off the only problem with the phone was slightly lower battery health, they’ve come back and said my phone is no longer worth the £150 they originally quoted and only worth £30 as it has a cracker/damaged screen…I didn’t send it cracked and packed it into the orignal packaging because I didn’t believe the cardboard would protect it enough!

[JonathanB]

Hi @Kala,

I'm sorry to hear this, all valuations are subject to a final reassessment when the device is received by the team. I'd recommend to discuss this further with them over the email, they can perhaps provide evidence of the damage, or if you'd rather not proceed with the trade in then my understanding is that you can ask for the device to be returned to you.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Johnmc1986]

I had same issue, I traded in my phone for a trade in offer of £369, after 2 weeks no email or anything, was advised by store staff who took the old phone to call the trade team, did that and they had no record of the booking or the IMEI number, got passed about various departments, I now have someone from the complaints team calling me twice a week with an "update" just to be told they've escalated it and waiting for a response, trade in was back in January.

[JonathanB]

Hi @Johnmc1986,

I'm sorry to hear about this, so just to check there's not been any official email sent from the Trade In team to advise they received and were assessing the device? And the device was sent for you by a Three store in January?

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Johnmc1986]

The trade in team have no record of any trade in booking, what they did manage to find matching email address or post code was a booking for a return. I have explained to your complaints team this and that Ingram said they'd be happy to speak with the complaints department, I have also gave the complaints team the details of the store in which the phone was given as it was all dealt with in store, the store manager is aware of the ongoing complaint, so again if the complaints team spoke with the store this may get resolved but they will not, iv also got proof of the trade in on my receipt, I have been informed today with the complaints team that they can not resolve the issue as they can not locate the phone despite the store taking possession of it, despite they have the details of the store to speak with and despite me offering to email a copy of the receipt, they closed the case and have said they have credited my three air time account the value as a good will gesture which I refused as that's not what I opted for and was not agreed too with the staff in store. This is a complete scam, you may pay out to other customers with smaller trade in values but for higher trade in values it's brushed under the carpet so they don't have to pay out. Now opening a case with the Comms ombudsman 

[Sam1504]

I have been with 3 for years and never had any issues, however I've been having problems claiming trade in promotion for my old phone after upgrading. I came across this conversation after a google search and see that it is not an uncommon issue! 

I have spent over 6 hours on hold to the trade in team and sent 4 emails, all of which say they will get back to me within 24 hours - none do. Finally got through today and they have no record of the trade in request so I need to go back to 3 to request it, which I have done over a period of around 2.5 hours today. 3 now tell me that to receive the promotion payment for my old phone, I'll need to cancel the new contract, return the new phone and then sign up again!!!!! Absolutely ridiculous! Absolute SCAM! I'll be moving to another provider pronto! 

[DaveH6018]

i have just used three trade in, after the horror storeis i have read i thought FFS, i sent phone off on monday and its all been approved i didnt get my full value only because i submitted my phone was 256gb and it was only 128gb, but i still got what its worth  ,  £815  

[logan79]

omg no way i have traded my old phone in september 1st and i have waited until now to get my £480 refund .I have had about 10 phone calls and done live chat the staff are useless they dont help at all they just keep saying they will open a case.Then 2 days later i get a text to say its closed.I requested mine to be paid into my bank account and i even rang last week to speak to payments and give my bank account info again and still no money into my bank so as its gone on so long i will raise a complaint to give them one last chance to pay me or its going to the ombudsman as £480 is mine and i wont be scammed at all .I say its time we exposed three for the scammers that they are as i assume from reading the refund failings on here there could be alot more people not getting the money and this is fraud and theft all the money they dont pay out could be in the 1000s.

I have kept all my proof of contact with three also so all the timers ive been told id be paid is utter bull.

[PeteG]

Hello, Logan. 

That's disappointing to hear. It's much longer than I would have expected it to take, as most are processed quite promptly. 

I hope that in the process of logging your complaint, the issue causing the delay is identified and resolved so that you can get your payment. 

Pete.