Walmart refuses to sell standalone SIM

[4n2t0]

I told my brother about PM (because it rocks!) but when he went to our local Walmart (Hurontario St & Bovaird Dr in Brampton, Ontario) he was told by the employee working at the mobile kiosk that she could not sell the SIM without signing him up for a PM plan (despite being told that Walmart had a SKU for the standalone SIM - Walmart # 31400295 - $10) What's the deal? Is she trying to protect some kind of commision? If so, isn't what she's doing illegal?

[DonForgo]

Walmart mobile reps are not Walmart employees, they are employed by a third party, the Walmart store managers wouldn't be able to do much.

Those reps don't make commission on selling the Public Mobile SIM, maybe $2 at most into their gross profit, that they are lucky if they make 20% of, so each SIM might net them $0.40. 

They would rather try and push to sell you on a post paid agreement with another provider, so that they can make a lot more commission out of it.

Also, buy from Amazon, it's like $7.50 for a SIM delivered right to you if you have Prime...... 

[chank]

I too tried to buy a couple of SIM cards for later registration from the Walmart store at Stockyards on St Clair Ave on 7 Dec 2019 and was refused. I was told they would only sell me the card if I register there and then with them.

I ended up buying them from the Loblaws at East Mall/Burnhamthorpe, although I was given a hard sell for Freedom plans.

[Korth]

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@samcat wrote:

I tried to buy offline when I was activating but it was difficult to find a place to buy - although I hadn't tried walmart. In the end I got in online, they ship it to you free

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I've learned to buy straight from Public Mobile's own site. No added costs, no added delays, no excuses, no extra complications.

I don't understand why more people don't do the same thing.

And it makes me ask... why doesn't Walmart just do the same thing?

[buiya]

Honestly, Walmart has so many issues and I try to avoid them like plague. Their customer service is so poor and doesn't represent Public mobile as they should

[samcat]

I tried to buy offline when I was activating but it was difficult to find a place to buy - although I hadn't tried walmart. In the end I got in online, they ship it to you free

[Korth]

Blank SIM cards cost about $0.25 each in bulk. But then there's added costs of registering, coding, printing, shipping, etc... Lucky now sells their SIM cards for $4 each, which is probably fairly close to the MVNO's real break-even cost.

PM used to give away their SIM cards for free but too many lazy scammers exploited the price to make a buck without any regard for the end-user of the brand or the brand itself - so those days are gone. And I can understand PM wanting to charge a "break-even" price so they don't lose money when new customers sign on then abandon PM shortly afterwards. Kind of backwards that customers have to pay for the key to unlock an ongoing subscription cost, but the expectation is so embedded that it won't ever change. I don't pretend to know the numbers but I think it's fair to say the SIM card pays for itself after a customer pays the service subscription cost a few times.

I think PM should just charge ten bucks up front for the SIM card then refund (credit) the ten bucks back to active accounts after, say, 90 days. Regardless whether you bought the PM SIM card online or offline, official or unofficial vendor. It would still let PM advertise "OOLALA! GET A FREE SIM CARD $0 ($10 refund to active accounts after 90 days, conditions apply)" and it would let new customers understand what to expect before they start griefing about paying extra for SIM cards. It's like advertising "INFINITELY UNLIMITED DATA (throttled slower than a snail stuck in glue)" - it's small costs for big returns, happy customers is more customers is more sales is more profit. 

[Luddite]

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@4n2t0 wrote:

I'll be honest, it upset me to find out that my brother was being potentially fleeced. It also left a bad taste in his mouth but thankfully he understood that this was probably an isolated event. I wonder how many other potential PM customers have shied away by this type of tactic. I got the store managers name and I plan to speak with him in person but I think PM should at least inform Walmart that their SIM's can be sold as a standalone product.

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@4n2t0 Use the store locator to find the offending Walmart and leave a review to notify PM: https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/store-locator

[darlicious]

Wal-Mart is the one retailer that has consistently mentioned on the community as refusing to sell a stand alone SIM card. It I very hit and miss as to whether you will recieve this kind of sales service at your local walmart. It is important to remember that the mobility department in Wal-Mart stores are independently owned vendors under the Wal-Mart umbrella. The leasing deal and accompanying licensing agreement they negotiate with an individual Wal-Mart location and the licensing and authorized dealer agreement walmart head office has negotiated with public mobile has an obvious disconnect. Judging by the amount of complaints on the forum and those who have chosen to enter a review and take it further to complain to @Alan_K or other public mobile employees seems to not be a top priority for pm to address publicly or privately with Wal-Mart or perhaps the agreement in place has an expiry date that pm is waiting for to address the situation.

 Unfortunately for potential pm customers that Wal-Mart is the most accessible retailer in their area they can leave without SIM card, disappointed, disillusioned, time wasted and with a negative retail experience need to not only vote with their wallets by boycotting Wal-Mart but maybe it's time to start a grass roots campaign to have both walmart and public mobile address this issue once and for all. I for one refuse to shop at Wal-Mart for the simple fact they are an American retailer and I prefer to support Canadian ones and small businesses whenever possible as well. It's getting to a point that Wal-Mart could have its own category on the community. I you live in a smaller town with limited or no access to pm SIM cards consider a bulk order of cheap pm SIM cards and set up a little side business offering pm SIM cards for sale it creates an oppurtunity to add more referral rewards to your account. There is many a craigslist listing offering free simcards in exchange fir using their referral codes.

[4n2t0]

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@cellphoneuser1 wrote:

@4n2t0 If a store won't sell, the easiest thing is to buy it from another store. If you're are at a mall, a sim shouldn't be hard to find. Is it worth the time to argue with the employee or manager?

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It is most definitely worth arguing with a employee or manager, especially if they're completely wrong. I grew up in an era where people where held accoutable for their actions and took responsibilty for their mistakes. Nowadays, most people just can't be bother to do, well, anything.

[CannonFodder]

That's true enough.... different locations no doubt have differing availabilities, but, for instance, around here, although they're not located in the same malls, there's a Walmart, a Real Canadian Superstore, & a London Drugs, all within 2 mins. drive of each other, and they all sell P.M. SIMs. These things are available ALL OVER, so if one store has some shady rep giving out false info, it's easy enough to take your business elsewhere.

[cellphoneuser1]

@4n2t0 If a store won't sell, the easiest thing is to buy it from another store. If you're are at a mall, a sim shouldn't be hard to find. Is it worth the time to argue with the employee or manager?

[CannonFodder]

Seems like that particular rep, at that particular Walmart, is behaving a wee bit shady....

[4n2t0]

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@yanzhiqiang wrote:

I found local stores including Londondrugs and ItalkBB, Both store said thay dont have PM sim card.

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It's funny you mention that because at first the Walmart employee that refused to sell my brother the SIM without a plan told him that they didn't sell PM SIM's at all. I had to find the Walmart SKU online and check that stores stock before she would even admit having them!

[Jeet]

I didnt have problem with Walmart. I bought PM sim yesterday and he told me that if you activate here its free or else u might have to pay 10 bucks. As i didnt have time to activate in store, i just bought it and paid. 

But i would report if somebody refuses to sell or wants to us their referral code to MODERATORS with store address. Public Mobile needs to knwo these things.

[emount]

That's the customer's problem, though. This is just like the annoying windows popup that asks if you're sure you want to do this thing that could mess stuff up... Actually, you're not allowed, because we assume that you don't know what you're doing. Obnoxious.

[emount]

I'm one who had no problem with Walmart. I went to the store because I wanted to set up service the same day, otherwise I probably would have ordered sim online. I just asked if they sell sim card for PM, they said yes, said they had to do something with it on the computer for a moment, then handed it to me. Cost $10. No problem.

[CannonFodder]

I mentioned this in at least one other thread here, but it bears repeating, for the sake of other folks that may run into the same sort of thing.

I had a similar experience at London Drugs, i.e. although they were willing to sell me the SIM, without doing the activation themselves, and leaving it up to me to do online, they didn't recommend it, only because they absolutely WOULD NOT replace the SIM card if my online activation somehow got messed-up, whereas they would replace it if it got messed-up by them trying to activate it. It wouldn't surprise me if the Walmart rep, in this case, was doing the same thing, due to repeated customer SIM self-activation failures.

[Korth]

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@yanzhiqiang wrote:

I found local stores including Londondrugs and ItalkBB, Both store said thay dont have PM sim card.

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I've learned to always keep a spare PM SIM card handy. For scoring promos and referrals. Most people want somebody else to get all the scary complicated tech phone stuff working and if you can't do it immediately (because 3-7 days wait for a SIM card) then they'll often just go to a vendor instead. Not a waste of ten bucks because you get it back from the referral anyhow. 

[jimbobs]

I suspect incompetence and/or greed by those people at Walmart.  I very much doubt that it's a Walmart thing. 

But this puts me in mind of some weird and questionable behaviour I saw at Walmart years ago.  I mentioned to one of the staff that they had a great deal on (automotive product) as I picked some up.  A day or two later, I noticed that the shelf space was empty.   I saw the same staff member and asked him about it.  He said that he'd told some of his colleagues about the deal and they'd bought out the stock along with family and friends.  While I didn't care personally, I thought that it was a pretty unfair way of operating.

[yanzhiqiang]

I found local stores including Londondrugs and ItalkBB, Both store said thay dont have PM sim card.

[Korth]

Walmart has been criticized a lot in this community - a lot of people report bad experiences with Walmart reps, especially when they decline to sell SIMs (or issue free SIMs) and refuse to accept promos.

I think it's more likely miscommunication or misinformation than corruption or fraud. Maybe Public Mobile doesn't communicate effectively with Walmart. Maybe Walmart doesn't communicate effectively with their floor staff. Maybe Walmart issues conflicting directives when they're training. Walmart basically hires and promotes based on sales performance, not on technical expertise.

To be fair, there are always new PM customers who've had satisfactory or wonderful experiences with Walmart - they just don't visit these forums to complain so there's no obvious feedback. And there are always new PM customers who get scammed by other vendors/retailers (not Walmart) who've basically installed themselves (and their surcharges) as middlemen when they set up new PM accounts. 

[4n2t0]

I'll be honest, it upset me to find out that my brother was being potentially fleeced. It also left a bad taste in his mouth but thankfully he understood that this was probably an isolated event. I wonder how many other potential PM customers have shied away by this type of tactic. I got the store managers name and I plan to speak with him in person but I think PM should at least inform Walmart that their SIM's can be sold as a standalone product.

[ChuckYeah]

@4n2t0 I would take it in my own hands and call Walmart and ask for the manager. If they say that they do sell the sims, I'd tell your story and ask for the SIM free if you return to their store. If they say NO, I'd send a message to @CS_Agent and ask if Walmart is required to sell you the sim or not. If it's one person or one (or more likey a few) Walmarts doing this, they may be violating an agreement made with PM. (Speculation only) 

[cynical_manatee]

Yes, i can imagine someone trying to use their own referral code this way, and it is probably against terms of service. I would go to another carrier to buy the sim or online through Amazon. Also you should report this to PM customer support, they probably would want to know that someone is abusing their product.

[ChuckYeah]

I just bought 6 SIMS from my local Walmart today. Have heard this before. I'm guessing Walmart must push another provider. Today, the Walmart attendant said, "With Public Mobile, you should know you have to get your support online." Without missing a step, I said, "I'm one of the people providing the support!" He didn't have much to say after that.