I just spent over an hour and a half trying to get my airpods charging case replaced/fixed. They informed me that it would cost the same to fix the case as it would be to buy new ones, so I ordered new ones with them. As I was finishing checking out and about to be on my way, I tried to take my old case back but the lady wouldn't let me have it. I couldn't figure it out until the supervisor informed me that the deal Best Buy has with apple is that every time someone brings in their old case and buys a new one, Best Buy will literally take it from you and send it back to apple so they can refurbish it and sell it to someone else... without compensating the customer. That is stealing.

I was really shocked and ended up having to cancel my order and had now wasted over an hour and a half.

Be careful trying to buy a new case with Best Buy.

I'm trying to buy a new case online but apple wants the serial number before I buy another one and I'm afraid they're going to try and take my case as well. If anyone has any experience with this kind of a thing, please let me know how it went and if they ended up stealing your old case.

Edit: a lot of people are having a hard time understanding what happened.

TL;DR I went to best buy wanting a replacement charger for my airpods pro. For some reason they tried to take my old case even though I paid for a brand new case and they didn't give any type of discount or anything to justify taking my case. It's like someone buying a new phone battery and the store tries to take the old one to back without compensating the customer.