Don't let what happened to this T-Mobile customer's phone happen to your device
What is the worst thing that a phone rep could do to your phone when you bring it with you to a carrier's nearby store? Well, he could drop the phone which anyone would be extremely upset about. But there is something that arguably would be worse. Suppose you brought in several phones that you wanted wiped (in other words, you wanted to erase the data on these devices) and the rep accidentally grabbed your daily driver together with the other phones and wiped all of them including your current device.
That's exactly what happened to a T-Mobile customer and a rep. The customer and the T-Mobile employee had done business before and he had helped her do a deferred trade for her covering multiple devices. She came into the T-Mobile store that morning seeking to have those devices wiped before being returned and the rep accidentally picked up the customer's current phone along with the others and wiped the whole lot of them.
The rep said that he had erased her new phone after he had wiped the other units. We have to credit the rep for owning up to the mistake as he wrote on Reddit, "It’s kind of my fault for not paying attention/noticing it was a new phone." He didn't understand, and frankly neither do we, why the customer didn't say something when the rep picked up her current phone because he had already done a transfer for that device and there was no reason for it to be lumped together with the handsets she brought to be wiped. In other words, all the work needed to be done to her daily driver had already been completed.
"Recently deleted TikTok off a guy's phone during the whole TikTok ban where you couldn’t re-download it. He was FREAKING out, lol. Luckily it was a Samsung phone so I was able to just install TikTok via an apk file directly instead of through Play Store and crisis was averted."-iMortal_KB, Phone rep
The rep admitted that he should have paid more attention and noticed that it was a new phone. To make matters worse, the only backup she had to use was a few years old and could not be used. So this would be a propitious time to remind you to backup your phone more often. Having a current backup would have saved the day. Also, if you ever bring your current phone into a carrier store for the rep to look at, be alert! Make sure you know exactly what is going on with your phone at all times.
The T-Mobile customer was SOL and was forced to setup her phone again. In addition, photos and texts that she didn't backup are possibly lost forever. Imagine that this happened to you; it could unless you are fully aware of what is happening to your daily driver when you bring it in to a carrier store. If you can get away without having to give up control of the device, you can assure that what happened to the T-Mobile customer won't happen to you.
Other reps who joined the Reddit thread said that they usually let the customer press the button that initiates the data wipe. Doing this takes the blame for accidentally wiping a new phone away from the rep and puts it on the customer.
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Things that are NOT allowed: