OnePlus's 'Any Device Any Condition' is practically a discount, not a trade-in (Update: Statement)

Update, July 25, 2024 (06:24 AM ET): OnePlus has offered the following statement for the issue:

After further investigation, we have identified that recently some users did not receive official communication from our partner to send in their old devices as part of our ANY device in ANY condition trade-in deal. The issue has been fixed and those who are interested in this trade-in deal will be able to participate in our ANY device in ANY condition trade-in deal across our current OnePlus product portfolio. Users should be aware that they will receive a separate communication from our partner to trade-in their old device as part of our program.

Original article, July 15, 2024 (04:56 PM ET): When is a trade-in not a trade-in? When it comes time to upgrade to a new phone, plenty of us like to save a little money by exchanging our old phone in the process. It’s certainly a lot easier than trying to find someone to sell it to yourself, and you can sometimes discover incredible offers that feel like they’re paying you more than your old hardware is worth. If you’re shopping for a new OnePlus phone, though, you might want to pay careful attention to the details of the trade-in offers OnePlus lays out before you, because one of them is not quite what it appears to be.

When you’re shopping for a new phone like the OnePlus 12, you’ll see two similar trade-in buttons: “Trade in Eligible Device” and “Trade in ANY device in ANY condition.” The former is your traditional trade-in experience, where newer, more expensive devices are worth more money. The latter, as OnePlus explains in its FAQ, is essentially a $100 credit for recycling your old device, “a guaranteed recycling reward” — OnePlus doesn’t actually want your phone. But as we spotted some Redditors talking about in a post started by user bigshiba04, it doesn’t seem that OnePlus ever checks to see if you go through with the recycling — essentially making it a free $100 discount.

The way it’s supposed to work, you get that $100 reward immediately, then you have to contact the recycling partner OnePlus uses, get a pre-paid shipping label, and (hopefully) at some point package up and actually get around to mailing in your old phone.

That sounds positively ripe for abuse. Granted, the list of eligible devices is reasonably inclusive (at least for models sold through carriers), and even includes bizarrely generous offers on hardware like the LG Wing (which no one should be using in 2024). But especially for import flagships that the list misses, it might be incredibly tempting to claim the $100 recycling credit, and then still go ahead and sell your old phone to a third party.

We’ve reached out to OnePlus with some questions about its intentions with this program, and attempting to confirm whether or not there’s any system in place to verify that shoppers are complying with their agreement to send their old phone in for recycling. We will update our reporting if we hear back.