Some employees at the store will refuse to do it if the trade in kit was already shipped though so YMMV there
Yep when I went to the store, they said if you wanted to trade in there, you would have to buy the phone there and not online. Of course, that means you probably won’t be able to get an iPhone on launch day, but if an in person trade in is important to you, then I don’t think waiting an extra month is going to be the end of the world.
No system is perfect. I suspect 99.99% of people have no issues with their trade in. Out of the massive amount of iPhones traded and there’s going to be issues and someone is going to be unhappy. It’s kind of like going on Amazon and looking at reviews on a item that’s almost 5 stars but there’s that one review that says the item is just absolutely trash but you get the item and it’s perfectly fine.
I can only speak for the two phones I’ve mailed in and had absolutely no issues. Not to say I wasn’t worried that somehow they would get lost or damaged in the mail.
The only thing I don’t like is you have to turn off Find My before you mail the device in. I think that’s just asking for theft. They should have a better method like logging into a special account they give you and turning on Find My with that so at least if the phone was stolen, it’s only good for parts. That would discourage people from taking them as much.