Best Buy Store Purchase

[Kimberly6]

I bought a S20 note from bestbuy on sale on 12/19/2020. I found out that I've been paying an installment fee every month because I bought the phone on sale.. ATT also told me my phone was not unlocked as I was told from bestbuy.

Why was I mislead about my phone being unlocked and why does bestbuy not tell you that if you buy a phone onsale from bestbuy that ATT will charge for the difference. I am very angry that bestbuy would mislead me after being a loyal customer. This seems like deceptive trade practices since no one informed me of this and I was told my phone was unlocked. ATT was adamant that was not sold to me unlocked. I'd like to have answers before I turn them in for deceptive trade practices

[Kimberly6]

I've paid the installment fee to ATT. I paid my phone off when I left bestbuy with my bestbuy credit card.

[Allan-BBY Senior Social Media Specialist]

Hey, Kimberly6,

We appreciate you taking the time to reach out to us on this, and I can of course understand you being concerned by this. I'm not sure what you mean by an installment fee, that was directly caused by you purchasing the phone on sale rather than full price? Can you please explain? It is correct that carriers often charge for the phones they sell with an installment billing plan, where the purchaser buys the phone from the carrier via monthly installments divided over a specific number of months (usually 24 month); this would be regardless of whether the phone was on sale or not.

Most often when a phone is sold as being unlocked, it is unlocked until the purchaser activates it onto a specific carrier's service. Once activated onto that service the phone most often locks itself to that carrier. With that said, the carrier should be able to unlock the phone once specific conditions are met. It sounds like this phone is locked to AT&T, and if you are working to switch to a different carrier I would suggest reaching out to AT&T to request they unlock the phone from their service.

If you want me to look into this purchase, please send me a private message with the following information. Please send me a private message with your name, phone number, email address, and order number. To send me a private message simply click on the message button in my signature.

Thanks,

[Kimberly6 · Accepted solution]

I was told by Bestbuy in Fort Worth that the Bestbuy where I bought my phone (in weatherford.) Was suppose to explain to me there was a 50 dollar installment charge added to my ATT bill for buying the phone on sale. IF I had been told that the payment to Bestbuy was a down-payment, I would have bought it full price from Samsung or paid the 50 dollars up front.
Bestbuy in Weatherford Tx needs to step it up and let people know they're not actually getting the phone for a lower price. According to BB in Fort Worth, they are suppose to do that. And they didn't.
The problem was solved. Thank you.