[Google Pixel XL Questions & Answers] aholeinthewor1d:
I actually got really lucky yesterday. I looked online and the only best buy that had them in stock was an hour and 10 minutes away from me. I called customer service to confirm. So then I wanted to talk to someone IN the actual store before driving there and confirm the return process and also make sure it was there. Figured out that if you call your local best buys number it's nearly impossible to get someone from that actual store and not customer service. I pretended to have a question for the Geek squad and once I got them on the line asked for the mobile department.

So I talked with them and confirmed they had it..told him what was happening with mine and he said it was no problem and he will set one aside for me. He mentioned something about "processing the return" so I wanted to clarify with him what was gonna happen. Best buys $10 a month deal is different than Verizon's. I was worried that if he processed my return and did the purchase from scratch that it might somehow mess this loop hole up and I'd be stuck with Verizon's 2 year bill credits. Thankfully this guy was familiar with EXACTLY what I was talking about. He said they don't know how it is different than Verizon's deal but said he is totally aware of it. So he said he would talk with someone about the exchange process and call me back. Over an hour later I had to call them again. He told me I had two options and he said the first option is something they aren't really supposed to do. He told me they would literally just swap them out and not process any kind of return/exchange with Verizon. He said the only downside to this would be if I ever wanted to trade the phone into Verizon I wouldn't be able to because the one on my DPP would be the original IMEI not the replacements' IMEI. Second option was to process a return and set it all up from scratch. He said we would then have to call Verizon to fix the pricing and get me the $10 deal and that it most likely would be with Verizon's bill credits though.

Naturally I jumped on the first option and told him I'd be right there. Then I asked if I HAD to activate the replacement there and he said "yea that's normally how they have to do it". I then explaied to him how I can't unlock the bootloader if it installs the software update during setup so I need to take the SIM out and skip the setup so I could unlock with my computer at home. Again he knew exactly what I was taking about and said he would ask the other guy again and call me back. 10 minutes later he called back and said "yea we can do that it won't be a problem" so I told him I'd head up there right then.

So I get there and it was as simple as handing him my box (they didn't even look it in).. he did some kind of magic on his computer.. as he was doing this I opened the new one..took out the SIM and skipped through the setup..enabled developer options and turned off automatic updates.. then he gave me a receipt and that was it!

What started out as a confusing nightmare because no stores had them in stock so I was worried about a replacement shipping with the new software.. ended up working out easier and better than I could have imagined.

I got so LUCKY that I dealt with the person I did at that Best Buy becasue the people at my best buy would have been clueless and not done anything like this for me.

Phone is already unlocked and updated now :)