[2022.12 Update] Based on recent phone calls from group members to Costco and the emails they received, Costco should be paying the shop card rebate for iPhone purchases. Since Costco is issuing it proactively, I believe payment is only a matter of time. Please be patient and wait a bit longer.

Thank you for your recent mobile phone purchase from Costco.We are aware that some Costco members have not received the promotional Shop Card associated with a purchase and activation of a mobile phone through Costco that are past due. We are working on a resolution to the issue.Shop Cards that are past due will be issued to all eligible members as soon as possible.If you have already received the shop card, please disregard this email.We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We value you as a customer and appreciate your business.Sincerely,

Costco Member Service


Another part of the rebate comes from T-Mobile, and it is said to be mostly fine. However, there has also been no official response from them.

The latest news

A big piece of news broke today: the mobile phone sales department inside Costco has been wiped out, with all 1,800 employees laid off. This sales department was run by a third-party company, Wireless Advocates LLC. Reportedly, since this morning employees have been unable to log in to the company systems, and the company’s Twitter and other accounts have also been deleted. It looks like they have taken off.

Many of you may have previously followed our published guide to buying an iPhone in a Costco store and purchased an iPhone. But according to messages from group members, these rebates have been sitting there after being received, with no processing and no cashback paid out yet (September rebates are still in the received status). If you did this deal, please make sure to keep following the related updates, or you could end up losing a lot. Hopefully Costco will step in and offer some compensation.

This iPhone promotion was heavily exploited by everyone (both Americans and Chinese members went hard), and it looks like they probably lost a lot of money and realized something was wrong, so they laid people off and ran...

This is the layoff image circulating online

Group members all said they lost a ton

There are several possible outcomes

  • Costco and T-Mobile issue all rebates as normal: Personally, I don’t think this is very likely, since all the materials are with the original sales company, and paying everything out would probably cost a lot of money.
  • Class-action lawsuit: Since the company has already run off, bankruptcy is probably inevitable, and the money will be distributed to the laid-off employees first. There probably won’t be much money left for rebates, so the only option may be a class-action lawsuit against Costco or T-Mobile.
  • A third-party company takes over: Although this would be the best option for users, given the attitude of the original company just running away, it seems unlikely that another company would step in...
  • Costco and T-Mobile take over and compensate part of it: Personally, I think this is more likely. After all, if a large company really faces a class-action lawsuit, it would still have to pay a lot, so it might be better to proactively compensate part of the rebate.