Returned phones either weren’t received or were late. Now I’m being charged.

Unfortunately, you should have saved the USPS receipt .   3 months later there's not going to be any records for the postal service even when it's successfully traveled through.

And yeah I am that trusting (not) that I have saved trade-in receipts for four trade-ins.  Two were done in 2022, and two were done in February of this year. 

Along with a stack of Amazon receipts for packages I shipped back 

Please don't say you 'can't afford' the $800 charge. You don't WANT to pay $800 - is different.  Because if you couldn't afford it you wouldn't have upgraded at all, paying sales tax, new cases new screen protectors etc. 

You can try filing a better business bureau complaint.  The complaints are forwarded back to AT&T upper Management and someone will contact you. 

 But you have no records to back up the claim that you mailed your phone.  Not going to be easy without 

It takes 3 billing cycles for credits to be applied. That's on all of the advertisements and paperwork associated with the promotion.

Hello @steeb67,

Thank you for reaching out to us. We understand that you are looking to know more about the Trade-in process. We are glad to help you with it.

Firstly we would like to thank our Ace's for providing the relevant information. We value your time and business with us and your concern regarding the trade-in process is understandable. Let me explain to you how the process of trade-in works: Once our team receives the kit it will be reviewed by our experts to check if the details filled in the trade-in page are correct and check if the device meets the requirements to be traded, and once it is checked the price will be calculated, and gets reflected in your bill. This procedure is to make sure that everything goes right.

This is the reason the Trade-in credits gets reflected within 1-3 billing cycles and the maximum is 3rd billing cycle. For more informations regarding Trade-in you can check here.

We trust this information will be of a great help!
Do reach out to us if you have any other concerns so that we can assist you accordingly.

Thank you for contacting AT&T Community Forums.

Kevin, AT&T Community Specialist.

I’m more concerned with the $800+ that I was just billed because they say two separate returns were either never received or were delivered late. I can not pay an additional $800 in fees all at once. If I can’t get this reduced I need to at least be allowed to make payments each month.

Hello @steeb67, thank you for writing back to us.

We would be glad to assist you.

I am going to reach out to you via DM to look at your account details, and help you further. Please look out for a DM notification from us.
 
Thank you for contacting AT&T Community Forums
Jack, Community Forums Specialist

the trade in kit should be in the box with the new phone... instead there's a return kit in there in case someone wants to return the phone they just ordered... which, to me, obviously, seems counter intuitive.

Why is that counter intuitive? Everyone who orders a phone might want to return it. Not everyone who orders a phone wants to trade in a different phone. It makes sense to include the materials which apply to everyone with the order.

Also, the delay in providing those materials allows people time to confirm they are happy with the purchase before trading in a phone. Once the trade in is checked in at the post office, there's no going back. If the trade in materials were included, people would be more likely to send the trade in right away. Those who change their minds can return the new phone, but can't get the old phone back again, leave a significant portion of those without any phone at all, and zero value for the trade in.

@Set2mil33 It seems AT&T Help is responding only to the second poster, who really doesn't have an issue. You should escalate by filing a BBB complaint.

You haven't mentioned any actual issues you've had at this point, just that you didn't understand the trade in promotion process. Fair enough, but if that's the case, of course you're going to hear the same thing over and over. 

There are very few promotions carriers offer to new customers that aren't also offered to existing customers. AT&T, for example, offers a promotion if you bring your own device, but those customers aren't using the new phone promotion, so it's kind of a wash. There are some promotions which require buying fiber and wireless. Verizon and TMobile are very similar. 

Be aware that if you do not stay with AT&T for the full 36 months, you will not receive the full value of the trade in promotion.