Sometimes it's just too good to be true. We ran a story recently about Microsoft's latest trade in promo which says they'll give up to $250 store credit for working smartphones and tablets.
The offer states user who bring in a 'working smartphone or tablet may receive upt to $250 of store credit, possibly towards a Surface 2.'
Of course, the fine print is that to be eligible for trade in, product must power on and be in fully functional, working condition without broken/missing components, cracked display/housing or liquid damage, cannot be password protected, and include original chargers/accessories.
What they don't tell you is that you can't just bring any working tablet or smartphone. There's an actual list of products that they will take and if your device isn't on that list then your'e not getting a rebate.
I was at the Toronto Eaton Centre Microsoft Kiosk earlier today to see if my old LG G Pad Android tablet would be worth something towards a new purchase. The tablet was in great working and cosmetic condition with all accessories in the box and definitely fell into Microsoft's criteria above.
The Microsoft Guru, or sales associate, didn't even look at my device. He pulled up a webpage and once he saw that there was no LG product in that list told me they couldn't accomodate it.
Oddly enough, Hhe suggested I go all the way to the Yorkdale Mall Microsoft Store, because,"they accept more products there," and quickly dismissed me. He didn't bother to call a superior or call another store to verify.
I get that there are certai products that are so bad or unpopular that Microsoft won't even take them as part of their rebate program, but I don't understand why they don't make their list of accepted trade-in devices available. It would just save interested parties a lot of time and grief.