just bought my first walmart sim

[mimmo]

Just bought my first walmart sim.

went to walmart, asked the sales re for a PM sim, she said we have them locked up and before can sell it to you i have to give you a disclaimer.

started off  "there is no cutomer service, everything is done online or by talking to someone via 611"  if you are ok with this then i can sell you the sim.

after 5 minutes of paperwork, buying card, then a sales receipt which i had to sign saying i accepted there were no refunds on the purchase. I said it would have been quicker to buy it online and she said that onine takes 6 weeks to arrive....  

Honestly if i wasn;t already a customer i would have rethought the sim purchase.

@Brooke_C I think you need to send some sales material to walmart and your other brick and mortar distributors, or rethink them.  they are not doing you any favours.

[NDesai]

Nice to read people's experience on this. Looks like some Walmart stores wants to be cautious and make you sign papers. I have seen PM ad cards out in the open at Walmart. I did not go to buy one. I just went to check when they started selling them. The rep came to me asking about it, but i had to run away for something else before i could talk to him about PM.  

[alanbrenan]

@mimmo

My best advice for you - if you're the campaigner type - is to engage with management next time you're by Walmart and encourage them to make the transition a lot more seamless. While it's been pointed out to me before in my topic about Saint John's WoW boutique, retailers have no obligation to upsell Public Mobile as they likely receive no incentive or bonus for doing so, I think even one person's voice could change everything for that store and future potential customers. Especially from a veteran member of the community!

@crtowns 

I have to comment that he definitely went above and beyond board. I'd seriously invite him to participate in our forums so we can all give him a high five for stellar service! It's great you had that sort of reception. If you want more people to have an encounter like that one, you really have to encourage it when you see it!

[TCity]

Just want to point out I also had a smooth experience buying sim cards at Walmart. I asked the mobile guy for them and he unlocked his cabinet and sold them to me right away. No disclaimer, no paperwork, no fuss. Bringing this up as I hope the hassle the previous poster ran into was an isolated incident.

I also think the sim cards should be located with the other prepaid vouchers/cards. It was a bit difficult to figure out where to go for the sim cards. 

[crtowns]

I had a great experience buying my first PM Sim card today from my local Walmart. I went to the electronics section where they sell cell phones. There was a young guy working there. I asked him if they had PM Sim cards, and he smiled and got excited and said "Yes!". He ran over to a locked cabinet, asked me how many I would like to purchase and confirmed with me that I knew how the whole PM system works. 

I asked him if they sell very many of these SIM cards. He said yes and that it's been getting quite a bit more popular in the last little while. 

I asked him if he knew much about PM and whether he would recommend it. He said it's a great option for those who own their unlocked phone outright. He was paritcularly impressed by the move to the TELUS network. 

I asked him if I should expect any challenges porting from TELUS. He said "absolutely not, it will be seamless." He did talk to me a bit about the towers, and said that if I was to have any issue at all that would be it. He showed me how to check that the phone was connected to the right tower and everything if I had an issue. 

Just before I left, he through the two SIM cards I bought and my receipt into a scanner, and scanned it real quick. Then handed them to me. He mentioned something about having to send that off as proof. I didn't have to fill out any paperwork or sign anything. It was very quick. I hardly noticed him do it as he talked to me about how great PM is.

Not bad service for a teenager working for Walmart!! I was very impressed. 

He made me more confident and excited about coming home and activating my SIM card. 

By the way, the porting and activation was seemless and we had no issues. It went perfectly.

Thanks PM! Great job Walmart.

[frenchonion]

I was afraid I might have similar experience from some other posts I read, how they might try to discourage you from buying it and trying to sell you other phone plans.

Fortunately the Walmart I went to last week didn't give me any issues. Just asked the mobile phone counter guy if they carried the Public Mobile sim card, he said yes and then got it out of a locked compartment (not a see-through window display case) and I paid for it. Would be nice if they hung them out so people can see they sell them.

[will13am]

That is BS having to do paperwork to buy a SIM card.  I don't think that public mobile can sell online for less.  Retailers would sue them for undercutting the price.  Suppliers cannot sell for less.  This is what customers asked for, the option to buy from retailers.  Retailing has an expense that is passed onto the consumer.  

[DarthFraser]

I did not have the same experience at Walmart, thankfully.

Although, I did call first to see if they had any, and got the response of "What's a SIM?" So after that I decided to just go in and ask in person.

The Mobile girl was very friendly, got a SIM out of lockup and the sold it to me for $10 and that was that, I went on my way.

[Wonder_why]

---

@Mana wrote:

Wow! Why are they making it so difficult???

They should just make it available at the cashier stations where all other carriers prepaid cards are hanging. It should be no questions asked. 

---

I agreed, PM should only sell online like before $5.00 each not $10.00

[Mana]

Wow! Why are they making it so difficult???

They should just make it available at the cashier stations where all other carriers prepaid cards are hanging. It should be no questions asked. 

[closng]

That's terrible, Public Mobile will never get any new customers with the hassle that one needs to go through to get the SIM, nevermind that sales rep!