Ask the Slot Expert: Tripped up by "up to"

I've needed a new cell phone for a year or so now. Well, I don't actually need a new phone. I need a new battery for my five-year old Samsung Galaxy S6. There's an authorized Samsung repair facility two blocks from my regular Starbucks (nearby, that is) that can do the replacement.

I think Samsung prefers that you buy a new phone rather than replace the battery. The battery is technically "non-removable". The procedure for replacing the battery is online and involves disassembling much of the phone. It's definitely not a procedure I would try without guidance. I don't even like taking apart my key fob to replace its battery. Furthermore, the procedure looks like one that could easily go wrong even with experience.

In Samsung's defense, it's probably impossible to put so much into so small a package and have an easily replaceable battery.

I've been looking for a deal on a new phone the past year or so, but all the good deals from T-Mobile were BOGO. Or, rather, BOALGO -- buy one, add a line, get one free. I don't need two lines or two phones.

Maybe I could save some money by trading in my old phone. Cell phones lose value faster than cars. My model wasn't even listed on the eligible trade-ins list.

Samsung sent me an email with a good offer on a new Galaxy S21 5G, so I checked T-Mobile to see if it had a deal too. I was really excited to see that it had a deal that didn't require activating another line and, as an added bonus, my old phone was on the trade-in list. Granted, it was in the lowest tier, but I was happy to get $200 for trading it in.

I went through all the pages to select my new phone and indicate I was trading in my old one. When I finally got to the checkout page, it said that I was getting an $8 credit for my old phone.

What happened to $200? I went back to the page with the details on trading in your old phone. The heading on the section with my phone did not say "Save $200". The heading was "Save up to $200".

Drat. Tripped up by "up to" again.

I say "again" because this isn't the first time I've seen the bucks and missed the disclaimer. I've gone through the process of specifying my trade-in expecting to get the dollars in the heading only to be offered an amount that isn't even enough free play to get me to go to a casino. An amount that is so low that it's not worth the effort to box up my old phone.

At least one of the phones listed in my tier has a trade-in value of $200. Maybe only one, but at least one. Just not the one I have.

I'm really disappointed in myself that I got caught by "up to". How many times have I seen signs in casinos saying that machines pay "up to 99%"? I never miss the "up to" on those signs. And I know that in the group of machines to which the sign applies, at least one of them pays back the amount on the sign. Maybe only one, but at least one.

Here are the latest figures from https://www.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases.

Click here for the latest Covid data.

Last week I wrote about how Australia and New Zealand quarantine international travelers for 14 days when they arrive in their countries. I was pleased to hear in last week's announcement about new travel rules that President Biden directed that federal agencies require international travelers to quarantine upon arrival in the U.S. I wasn't pleased that I couldn't find any details about how the quarantine requirement was going to be carried out and enforced.

The CDC updated the After You Travel page on its website today (02/02/21). The quarantine requirement will be strictly enforced with bold type ("...stay home and self-quarantine..."). No one would dare defy bold type.

I've read that the name Operation Warp Speed has been retired. It never made sense to me to name a project after something (faster than light travel) that is impossible (theoretically, at least, and certainly with today's technologies).