Do Not Fall For This Scam if You’re Upgrading Your Phone

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When I upgraded my phone recently, I was told I had to buy a specific accessory. Here’s how you can avoid wasting your hard-earned money. 

Recently, I bought a new cellphone because my current phone was getting pretty outdated and it did not have very good battery life anymore.

I was happy to find out that I could get a good deal on a new phone by trading my old one in, and I spent quite a long time going through the purchasing process with my sales representative. It always seems to take a while for the rep to check out the deals and enter the information in the computer.

When I was just about to check out, after being in the store for much longer than I wanted to be, something unexpected — and very unpleasant — happened. Here’s what occurred.

My phone salesperson tried to scam me into buying an overpriced accessory

After I’d spent about 45 minutes going through the purchasing process, it was finally time for me to pull out my credit card and buy the phone. And that’s when it happened. The salesperson brought over a case and a charger and asked me which accessory I would be buying.

When I told him “neither one,” he insisted that I had to buy an accessory in order to purchase the phone. I explained to him that I’d be getting my own custom photo case and that I already had a charger and I absolutely was not going to purchase either item.

I once again said no, he told me he was going to ask his manager, and he came back and said the manager also agreed that the policy was I must buy an accessory. Unfortunately for him, I had checked the internet while he was “asking” his manager and I found this is a common scam. Rumors online suggest that the sales reps are required to push accessories to get their full commission and essentially lying to customers and claiming phones are only sold as part of a bundle is the way some go about it. This is extremely dishonest, and falling for this scam can have a negative impact on your personal finances.

Based on some advice from Reddit, I told him I wanted to speak to the manager directly and I then informed the manager I’d be calling the corporate office immediately to ask about this requirement. All of a sudden, the manager told me I’d “misunderstood” and that I didn’t “have” to buy the accessory, they just “wanted” me to have a case and charger “for my own good.”

This was directly contrary to what I had just been told, so obviously they changed their tune because they knew they were violating policy by trying to bully me into buying an accessory. Of course, I could have just walked away, but it would have been a ton of wasted time and I just wanted my new phone.

Understand your rights as a consumer

As I paid for my phone, I saw other sales representatives pull the same scam with several other customers who were buying phones of their own. I would have intervened and informed them they didn’t have to buy the item, but unfortunately there was a language barrier so I couldn’t — and I saw the other customers shaking their heads but then getting stuck with the accessories in the end.

The sad reality is, sometimes high pressure sales tactics can cause you to waste money from your bank account and it is up to you to know your rights as a consumer. If you visit a phone store and the sales rep tries to force you to buy an accessory, know that you do not have to do so, and consider threatening a call to corporate if they try to tell you otherwise.

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