Thinking of trading in a Pixel 10 for the new Pixel 11? Read this first

For smartphone fans who always need to have the latest and greatest handset, trade-in deals can be a great way to upgrade every year without needing to pay full price every time. And while that normally works fine, when you’ve got hundreds of dollars on the line, all it takes is one small glitch in the process for you to have a very bad day. Sadly, that’s exactly what a number of Pixel users seem to be dealing with right now, as they report some confusing issues that are interfering with trade-ins.

Over on Reddit’s Pixel sub, Pixel 10 owners are sharing their frustrations with trying to trade last year’s phone in for a new Pixel 11 on the Google Store.

Google advertises some solid Pixel 11 trade-in deals, offering up to $1,000 off if you’re trading in a Pixel 10 Pro Fold. So it’s not at all surprising that plenty of people with Pixel 10 phones took the company up on the offer. But to hear their tales, the whole trade-in workflow just utterly falls apart, delivering inconsistent messaging about whether or not the trade-in has been accepted, with many ultimately seeing their cards still charged full-price.

Worse, they say that Google’s unable to retroactively issue trade-in credits, leaving them stuck paying a lot more for the Pixel 11 than they wanted to.

One as of now still unconfirmed theory suggests that there’s a problem with a partner company Google’s using to process trade-ins, and its system isn’t properly configured to handle Pixel 10 devices.

We’ve reached out to Google in an attempt to verify these reports, and to ask the company for comment. So far we have yet to receive a reply, but we’ll update you with anything we’re able to learn.

If you’ve traded in a Pixel 10 towards a new Pixel 11, tell us about your experience in the poll above — and swing down to the comments if you’ve got any additional details to share. Has this been bad enough to turn you off trade-ins in general?

Thanks to Shaun, ZJR, and Poetstylez!