A Perplexing Pixel Purchase, Return, and Do-Over ⭐

Two weeks ago, Google mistakenly rejected the mint condition Pixel 10 Pro XL I had traded in, forcing me to return the Pixel 11 Pro I had purchased. It was bad timing: The email arrived just a few days before my wife and I traveled to Berlin Germany for IFA 2026, and my 15-day return window was closing. So I did what I had to do and reset and rebooted the Pixel 11 Pro and then shipped it back to Google.

That was a Wednesday and we were flying to Berlin on Monday. On Friday, I received another email from Google:
We made an error processing your recent Google Trade-In. Due to a system error, we incorrectly processed your recent Google trade-in as $0. You will still receive the full quoted value of your trade-in. Please allow up to 10 business days for processing.
The full quoted value of the Pixel 10 Pro I had traded in was $600. (This had cut the price of the Pixel 11 Pro I purchased to from $1099 to a bit over $520 after whatever fees.) Anyway. It didn’t matter as I had already sent back the Pixel 11 Pro. And two days after that email, Google emailed again to acknowledge that it had received the return and had refunded me $528.94.

Left hanging was that trade-in. The email noted that the trade-in credit I had was $600, as before. But it didn’t say anything about the phone itself. Would Google keep it and let me keep the credit? Or would it just send it back?

I figured it had to be the latter and that we would come home from Berlin a week later to find it sitting there in a box on our dining room table as we have a neighbor who graciously handles packages for us when we’re away. And so we flew to Berlin a week ago Monday, I attended the Lenovo Innovation World 2026 keynote and associated meetings and other events at IFA 2026, and my wife and I spent a few days roaming around one of our favorite cities before flying home this past Sunday. This past Monday was Labor Day here in the U.S., so we had a day to try and wind down from all the traveling and time changes.

There was just one thing.

What if Google kept the Pixel 10 Pro and I kept my credit? Was it even remotely possible that I could then buy another new Pixel 11 series phone and trade in a second Pixel and get the new device at an even lower price? This possibility was enticing for all the obvious reasons. The base Pixel 11 Pro I previously purchased costs $1099, as noted, and the $600 credit would lower that price to $499 before fees. The Pixel I use daily is a Pixel 10 Pro XL, and that phone was worth $650 on trade. So I could get a more expensive Pixel instead. A base Pixel 11 Pro XL is normally $1299, but once you subtract the two trade-in values, that falls to less than $100. A no-brainer.

I waited to see whether Google ever emailed me about the trade-in. It did not. I checked the Google Store website to see whether the $600 credit was there. But it was not. I heard and saw nothing to indicate what Google had done with the trade-in.

Obviously, I was busy in...