topic Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it in Get Support

Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

Indirab09 — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 20:41:00 GMT

So I went to my local Walmart I'm Calgary, and asked for a PM sim.

The lady told me she can't sell me just the sim. She said they can only sell plans and Sims together.

Is this true? If so, where else can we get just the sim??

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

koimr1 — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 01:32:50 GMT

@Indirab09wrote:
So I went to my local Walmart I'm Calgary, and asked for a PM sim.

The lady told me she can't sell me just the sim. She said they can only sell plans and Sims together.

Is this true? If so, where else can we get just the sim??

That doesn't seem right, she must be wrong. For example, if your phone is lost you will need a replacement SIM for the new phone you'd need to get. There's even a section in PM's Self-Serve to change your SIM (without changing your plan).

Go back and set her straight or wait until someone else is doing her shift. 🙂

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

JDT — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 01:32:53 GMT

Yes, apparently Walmart has recently stopped selling SIMs alone - they need you to sign up for a plan with them.

Your alternatives are to try Wow Mobile, or to just order a SIM online directly from PM.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

koimr1 — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 01:34:36 GMT

@JDTwrote:
Yes, apparently Walmart has recently stopped selling SIMs alone - they need you to sign up for a plan with them.

Your alternatives are to try Wow Mobile, or to just order a SIM online directly from PM.

Oh wow, then I'm wrong. My apologies @Indirab09.

This just seems so wrong.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

NDesai — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 01:53:46 GMT

Wow, mods have confirmed they are not supposed to force users to activate on a plan. Either PM did not tell us if that has changed or that Walmart rep probably wasn't told.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

Luddite — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 01:59:00 GMT

It's the particular Walmart store acting this way. You can fight with them or switch your purchase to a different source.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

computergeek541 — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 02:06:51 GMT

You could try a few other Walmart locations if there are any nearby or one of the other Public Mobile partner retail stores. For orrdering a sim card directly from Public Mobile, the website is cardering directly from Public Mobile, the website is https://store.publicmobile.ca/products/triple-punch-sim-card .

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

wetcoaster — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 02:10:35 GMT

@koimr1wrote:
@Indirab09wrote:
So I went to my local Walmart I'm Calgary, and asked for a PM sim.

The lady told me she can't sell me just the sim. She said they can only sell plans and Sims together.

Is this true? If so, where else can we get just the sim??
That doesn't seem right, she must be wrong. For example, if your phone is lost you will need a replacement SIM for the new phone you'd need to get. There's even a section in PM's Self-Serve to change your SIM (without changing your plan).

Go back and set her straight or wait until someone else is doing her shift. 🙂

@Mary_M's post here: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Retail/Purchasing-SIM-s-at-Walmart/m-p/224150#M248 supports your position (which I share...)

However, I'm curious why we have so many reports like the op's recently? As in: Who makes that decision about what / how services have to be sold. We obviously don't know how many different stores we are talking about, but it looks to me like this is not just an individual misinformed front line staff or a rogue cell department manager...

And who knows how exactly the process works and if/where that personal information is stored outside the Public Mobile self serve portal.

Time to stop by at the local Walmart cell desk for some "research" one of these days - if I'm not satisfied with their procedures I might actually consider ordering a spare SIM online, keeping it around just in case. No other source for SIM cards in my neck of the woods.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

mimmo — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 02:12:24 GMT

@Indirab09 send @Mary_M the Walmart info in calgary. She is looking into it based from the thread mentioned above.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

Luddite — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 02:20:05 GMT

@mimmowrote:
@Indirab09 send @Mary_M the Walmart info in calgary. She is looking into it based from the thread mentioned above.

Forget about it. Telus can't control Koodo reps. What impact do you think they will have on Walmart? The "retail" plan (mini) fiasco was probably a Walmart requirement to carry PM SIMs.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

Korth — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 02:32:54 GMT

If it's a hassle then don't bother with Walmart. You can also buy PM SIM cards at WOW! mobile boutique (Marlborough Mall, CF Chinook Centre, Sunridge Mall). Or order them online.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

bbdata — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 04:29:51 GMT

Such a strange policy for a single store to adopt. It feels like a detached upper management person just made a blanket statement for all SIMs.

I had a similar experience a couple months ago where the person at Walmart insisted to activate the account for me otherwise the SIM is considered final sale. I denied it, informing them that I already have an active account, and the SIM I am purchasing was for a family member and I am perfectly capable of doing it myself.

I can only speculate two possible rational reasons.

Liability; they want to be sure a customer's sim is working to avoid the complication of complaints and returns from human error.
Commision; which I don't believe is relevent with PM? (I couldn't be wrong.)

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

Lg85 — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 04:39:17 GMT

I had a similar experience when I asked to purchase a Public Mobile SIM card at Wal-Mart in Calgary. The first two guys I asked, he didn't even know what Public Mobile was. I told the second guy Wal-Mart is an authorized retailer for Public Mobile. He then asked his supervisor, who fortunately, knew what it was. So he went into a drawer by the cash register, and took out a stack of Public Mobile sim cards and gave me one. Seems like a lot of employees do not know Wal-Mart sells Public Mobile sim cards.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

Indirab09 — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 04:42:46 GMT

Thanks everyone.

I got one from wow mobile.

Quite ridiculous for authorized seller to pull off that stupidity.

I'm surprised Public Mobile allows this.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

CalgaryBen — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 04:59:23 GMT

@Indirab09 I had a similar experience, and decided to stop wasting my time running around and trying to find a PM SIM card at Walmart (which doesn't even have signage for PM, while the logos for Koodo, Telus, Virgin, Chatr, etc. are all over).

Go to Market Mall, Sunridge, Marlborough, Chinook Centre, South Centre, or CrossIron Mills and find the Wow! kiosk, and get it from there.

I'm curious -- which Walmart were you at? I had no luck at Sage Hills. Was going to try Royal Oak or even Airdrie Walmart, and then decided to save myself the grief and just headed to CrossIron, found the Wow! kiosk, and got what I was looking for with no hassle or wasted time (unlike Walmart, where the rep kept trying to push Koodo or something else on me).

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

Stormy — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 16:06:25 GMT

Just had the same BS at the Walmart in Pickering. Was told that one of the reasons was for fraud prevention. What kind of fraud are you going to commit with a SIM card?

Was also told that Walmart was told by the Koodo reps that the activation in store was required. Like I am going to let some half trained monkey (no offence to the monkeys out there) set up my account when everything is online and self-serve.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

mimmo — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 16:13:02 GMT

@Mary_M I know you are looking into this just one more to add to your list.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

Stormy — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 18:46:44 GMT

Just came back from the local WOW Boutique and got a SIM no problem. In fact the guy couldn't believe some of the BS that Walmart was saying.

P.S. For what it is worth while talking to the guy, they do get a commission for activating/setting up a PM account. Only $5, but that could be another reason for the BS from Walmart.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

mimmo — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 18:49:20 GMT

@Stormywrote:
Just came back from the local WOW Boutique and got a SIM no problem. In fact the guy couldn't believe some of the BS that Walmart was saying.

P.S. For what it is worth while talking to the guy, they do get a commission for activating/setting up a PM account. Only $5, but that could be another reason for the BS from Walmart.

The truth finally is revealed.

Re: Where to get sim, Walmart not giving it

szh — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 17:19:18 GMT

I had the same issue when trying to purchase a Public Mobile SIM at the Walmart in Kanata. I ended up ordering online instead.