Walmart not selling sim card on Black Friday-Bradford Ontario

[sim367sim]

Hi All,

I'm new to public mobile. Last week I went to the walmart(Bradford Ontario) to purchase public mobile SIM so I can port my number. Sales guy at wireless counter said they are not selling SIM card as they are busy with Black friday sales. Same thing happened to one of my friends 2 months ago.

Is it normal at Walmart stores?

[amandaeandrus]

I found a similar thing when I bought my sim card at Walmart. I told the lady what I wanted and she said that if I was just buying it and setting it up myself then she would sell it to me, but said that if I wanted help activating it then I was going to have to come back another time. It was 6pm on a Sunday in Kitchener, Ontario ... I guarantee she didn't have anything else that she needed to do.

[smp99 · Accepted solution]

Somebody on RFD posted a pic of a Public Mobile vending machine at the Dufferin Mall in Toronto. Brilliant!!  Looks like it takes both cash and credit 

[stonechucker]

The locally available SIMs should have just been placed in Telus owned/rented/leased properties.  Get rid of the third party vendors.

I've been saying this since day 1 of the retail launch.  I will continue to say it.

[smp99]

Or sell over the counter at Telus/Koodo stores. No activations, just SIMs

Let Walmart do activations if that's what they want.

[mimmo]

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@stonechucker wrote:

Public Mobile has requested (originally) that partner retailers sell the SIM cards.  Allowing for in-store activations was a change for the retailers, that never should have been allowed.

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I'm mixed on this statement. It goes against the  original philosophy of PM online only, no retail etc.   but now that there are lucky and chatr in retail locations PM "had" to go there as well to get a little more visibility, not much since it usually consists of a logo and maybe some pamphlets located where no one can see them.  

[stonechucker]

Yes, Walmart is extremely bad at doing what Public Mobile has requested.  This has been an ongoing issue since it began, and frankly, I'm not surprised, as Walmart is one of the worst retailers known in the world.

Please send to Mary_M, the details of these instances so that Public Mobile can 'coach' Walmart again on what is expected.

Public Mobile has requested (originally) that partner retailers sell the SIM cards.  Allowing for in-store activations was a change for the retailers, that never should have been allowed.

[mimmo]

yes this is par for the course with walmart, especially since there is low comission on sim card sales.

when  possible the community suggests avoiding walmart and going to other retailers for sim cards.  ie mobile shop (superstore/loblaws) k-mobile, wow mobile.

I also sggest you send a private message to @Mary_M  with the walmart location details time etc. of the occurance.  Mary is trying to track walmart issues, hopefully one day get the message across.  

[will13am]

Yes, this is quite normal behavior at the Walmart kiosks.  Generally, much better service can be expected from the other retail partners.  This issue has been brought to Public Mobile's attention with little change.  If you have the energy, contact Walmart and complain.  The cell kiosks are not owned and run by Walmart but the face of Walmart is at stake.  Just tell them that you are disappointed with the cell kiosk and that their performance will affect your future patronage with Walmart.  Hopefully enough complaints will improve performance.