Since I saw someone else managed to get some help via direct message to the moderator, I tried that, to no avail. The bottom line, as others seem to already know, is that Dell support is so disconnected from the third-party recycling/trade-in program that they cannot help one get status. The last straw was when I was told a few minutes ago that support might help me but since the system was out of warranty any help would be fee-based. LOL what a joke. If anyone is thinking of using this program, my advice is, don't. 
I sent in a system to the recycling program, not worth a lot but I figured better than a landfill. I know from FedEx tracking that they received it on May 4. Still no status on the recycle and trying to contact customer care has been completely useless - calling the different 800 numbers suggested gets me an automated system that isn't able to understand questions about trade-in/recycle, chat couldn't help, I was given an email address twice to use that simply bounces back with errors (user not found), etc. Seems to me there would be a way to contact the recycling group directly but I have yet to find one. Anybody know how?
Recycling can't get status