Regular reader and commenter Joel V. recently caught a bit of nasty fine print by Verizon Wireless in a new TV commercial.
Most viewers would understand the ad to say that if you trade in any cellphone in any condition, Verizon will give you a free iPhone 16 Pro. It would be reasonable to assume that you have to buy a plan from the company because they are simply not just handing out free phones without any catches.
*MOUSE PRINT:
What our consumer caught was this tiny disclosure that was on the screen for about one-and-half seconds:
Rather than the trade-in offer being good on “any” phone as the commercial explicitly states, it is only valid on these three brands: Apple, Google, and Samsung. What about people who own a phone from Motorola, LG, ZTE, OnePlus, or another brand? They’re out of luck apparently.
Additional terms of this offer are not orally stated in the commercial. But like a similar offer we dissected last December (see prior story), Verizon buries the full details in a three-second on-screen disclosure in tiny print toward the end of the commercial. Those terms include the requirement to purchase the iPhone 16 Pro for $999.99 (either pay upfront or be charged equal monthly payments) and get 1/36th of the purchase price back in a billing credit rebate each month for three years. You also have to sign up for Verizon’s most expensive plan, Unlimited Ultimate, for about $100 a month.
We asked the company why it advertised this trade-in offer as applying to “any” phone when in fact it only applies to three specific brands, why it doesn’t orally disclose other important requirements, and whether they are going to change the commercial. The company did not respond to multiple inquiries.
Consumer World has asked the National Advertising Division of BBB National Programs to take on this case because of the deceptive nature of the commercial.
AT&T pulled the same thing a few years ago with the Samsung S23 series. First they accepted my trade-in, THEN the games started. I’d get the 1/36th amount credit one month and not the next. I’d have to call every other month and spend an hour with a foreign agent to get it applied again. Finally, they said my trade-in wasn’t acceptable. After I got the BBB on them, I got a call from an executive who applied the remaining credit but it came off the total bill for the service and the phone cost. My advice is NEVER fall for these trade-in “deals”, especially from the “Big Three” cell phone carriers.
That’s the latest corporate game. Farm all CS overseas to untrained, unknowledgeable scriptreaders to act like the moat around the castle. Waste customer’s time, annoy the heck out of them in hopes they just go away. Vote Blue this November if you want to keep ANY sort of customer advocacy and regulation
Thank you! I could have written this myself!
I’m normally on the more lax side of issues with disclosure and etc. The reason I emailed Edgar about this one is specifically is because they really drill in the, “Any phone” it’s all over the commercial over and over again.
As Edgar mentioned, those may be the dominate companies, but there are A LOT of other phones out there that somehow don’t fall under the “Any Phone” umbrella.
Those are typically the most expensive and valuable ones. Those are the ones they want
But dontcha wonder what happens to all those used phones that they collect, as some of the ads say, “in any condition”? You never hear about the big three offering used phones for sale. My own theory is that they just melt them down, wanting to get them out of the field, so they don’t lose sales by their ending up on eBay, Amazon, and others.
Dan… Better phone get sold on the secondary market where a refurbisher does their magic and then resells them.
Dan – Verizon does sell used phones on its website, they call them “certified pre-owned”. In fact, they have more of them for sale than new phones. I read that they stage these offers to because used phones are more in demand than new phones now thanks to inflation pinching everyone’s wallets. Too bad it’s a shill game, as usual.
No surprise…as expected. Typical BS.
Good job following up with the NAD. So sick of ads like this. It’s a game of “what can we get away with?” I don’t know why everyone doesn’t just use MVNO’s
Even Samsung ‘lies’ about their trade-in of ‘any Samsung’ phone for a huge discount on the latest model. I own a Samsung Galaxy J3 Orbit that I bought through my provider (PagePlus), every time I try to find out the ‘trade-in’ value of my phone (which is in excellent condition), Samsung tells me that my phone doesn’t qualify because it was specifically made for the provider? It’s still a Samsung phone!