SIM card experience at Walmart Northgate Mall Edmonton

[Durvalesteves]

Walked into the Wallmart at Northgate mall up to the wireless counter and there was nobody there and an employee told me that the gentleman had just stepped out, so I had to wait for about 10 minutes, when he came back I was the first on line I told him what I was there for, to by a SIM card and he told me that he couldn’t sale me one the only way for me to do it would be for him to activate my phone and I told him to do so, and my phone within 10 minutes was hoked up with Public Mobile. I had a good experience with Wallmart very good service other than the 10 minutes wait and my reception with pubic Mobile has been also good so far, this has been my second week of activation.

 Good experience.

Durval.

[cavemantoronto]

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@Acatie wrote:

Interesting. My Walmart (in Ontario) also forced me to activate in store when I wanted to do it online. Took the guy over half an hour too. Not a great first impression but I’m not going to blame PM for this guy’s incompetence. 

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I see that Public has asked before about details about this before so they can try to talk to the retailer.  Send mesaage to moderators if you want to give feedback.

[Acatie]

Interesting. My Walmart (in Ontario) also forced me to activate in store when I wanted to do it online. Took the guy over half an hour too. Not a great first impression but I’m not going to blame PM for this guy’s incompetence. 

[krazykiwi · Accepted solution]

@Durvalesteves I had the same experience at Walmart in St Albert. I asked to speak to the manager of the department, turns out he was that department manager. I pointed out that according to PM he was not suppose to be doing that. He said it came from the head office. I reported the individual and the store to PM and have not seen anything back yet. I will go there today and see if anything has changed. If not I will be filing with CCTS.

[dna2016]

@Durvalesteves and @Murco, thanks for sharing your experience, and good to know that you were pleased with the service you received.  Although others have mentioned that technically it's not a good experience because the Walmart rep advised you that you can't just buy the SIM and walk out, and you have to activate in store, in my opinion at the end of the day as long as you felt good about the experience, then it was a good experience.  We all may have slightly different expectations, and yes the rules are that retailers should not be forcing people to activate in store, however for you both you had no issues with it, and it went smoothly, hence your experience being a good one.  

Personally I would have made something up to get the SIM and walk out, I don't like these retailers forcing customers to do what they don't have to do, for me I would not like that experience, but I'm glad you both were ok with it.  Thanks for sharing.

[will13am]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

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@Durvalesteves wrote:

Walked into the Wallmart at Northgate mall up to the wireless counter and there was nobody there and an employee told me that the gentleman had just stepped out, so I had to wait for about 10 minutes, when he came back I was the first on line I told him what I was there for, to by a SIM card and he told me that he couldn’t sale me one the only way for me to do it would be for him to activate my phone and I told him to do so, and my phone within 10 minutes was hoked up with Public Mobile. I had a good experience with Wallmart very good service other than the 10 minutes wait and my reception with pubic Mobile has been also good so far, this has been my second week of activation.

 Good experience.

Durval.

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That's not a good experience if you ask me.  Based on the Public Mobile policies, the store was not supposed to refuse the sell you the sim card separately. What they did was force you to activate there when is sounds as if would rather have done it at home.  Who wants to stand there and wait for the person to do it for you?  There is no benefit to the customer to do it that way unless you don't know your way around a computer too well or don't have access to one to do the activation yourself.  In fact, with the current Public Mobile promotions, customers are actually better off activating online at home.

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+1,000,000!  Frankly I am beyond tired of seeing this type of situation reported repeatedly here.  If Public Mobile won't reign in the bad actors, then perhaps the customer should.  If it happened to me I would take the case to the CRTC/CCTS. 

[computergeek541]

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@Durvalesteves wrote:

Walked into the Wallmart at Northgate mall up to the wireless counter and there was nobody there and an employee told me that the gentleman had just stepped out, so I had to wait for about 10 minutes, when he came back I was the first on line I told him what I was there for, to by a SIM card and he told me that he couldn’t sale me one the only way for me to do it would be for him to activate my phone and I told him to do so, and my phone within 10 minutes was hoked up with Public Mobile. I had a good experience with Wallmart very good service other than the 10 minutes wait and my reception with pubic Mobile has been also good so far, this has been my second week of activation.

 Good experience.

Durval.

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That's not a good experience if you ask me.  Based on the Public Mobile policies, the store was not supposed to refuse the sell you the sim card separately. What they did was force you to activate there when is sounds as if would rather have done it at home.  Who wants to stand there and wait for the person to do it for you?  There is no benefit to the customer to do it that way unless you don't know your way around a computer too well or don't have access to one to do the activation yourself.  In fact, with the current Public Mobile promotions, customers are actually better off activating online at home.

[Murco]

Welcome to PM.  I am also in Edmonton and have been very

happy with the service.