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Unable to purchase PM SIM card from Walmart AND London Drugs without activation

UFO
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I told my friend about PM and he was interested in porting his # to PM.  He doesn't want to wait for the sim card to arrive in mail so he decided to buy it from retail stores that sell PM SIM card (the ones listed on PM website).  Unfortunately, both walmart and london drugs' rep said they will not just sell him the SIM card, he has to activate a plan in the store in order to get one.  

 

In the end, my friend just gave up and decided to not make the switch.  I honestly feel if PM wants us to refer friends, then they gotta make it easier for potential customers to get a SIM card.  I understand that they can always order one online, but those promotional plans are gone without notice.  It is hard to potential customer to order SIM card online and HOPE that the promotion is still there when the SIM card arrives.

 

 P.S. The reason why my friend didn't want to activate in the store is because he wanted to get the $25 credit for both him and me.  This offer wasn't valid if you activate in store.  

14 REPLIES 14

UFO
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

It's good to see that they added mobile shop to the list.  I have way more trust in mobile shop than Walmart or London Drugs.

SSB
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

 

I don’t know how many cases, this is really happening though.

Many PM mobile community members acting like a PM independent dealer to set up their ‘friends’ and scooping up many cards.

 

As far as I understand retail has some type of channel support to aid in any activation hiccup, or port issues.

this is immediate and not done by a moderator team 48hrs later.

 

I’m not saying it isn’t possible,

but number ports are also not necessarily problems from retail, but more likely, the other carrier, or not enough information by the porting customer was given to secure a timely port, such as proper account number etc...

 

the retail teams are there to make PM less complicated for many, and to be honest, other than internet savvy mobile shoppers, the growth that PM is seeing is partially  due to retail, than solely an online presence. Remember the line ups outside a single TELUS corporate store to simply purchase your PM SIM card? Remember that time?

Wasn’t fair then either. They would sell out of SIM cards very *very* quick, and you have to wait until they announce more, and stand in line again.

This is thankfully no longer occurring, wouldn’t you agree the present choice of purchasing your SIM with online offers or activating in store with retail offers is a good choice for the consumer? 

 

@SSB, but in many cases, the retailer is messing up, and service is not *fully* working when they leave.  Ports have not completed, accounts are not being setup without error, and some just outright are not usable.

 

Public Mobile has said repeatedly, SIMs can be purchased outright, and subscribers can activate on their own.  Originally, this was the only option.  Retailers got greedy, and wanted a piece of the action.  This is screwing us over.

SSB
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

The problem is,

the PM SIM cards are in low supply at the two retailers, and demand for the service is extremely high. Especially with these back to school promos... 

i have noticed some Customers want to purchase multiple sims from the retailer and no wonder they want to limit the sim sales to only one or even none in some circumstances mentioned before.

 

if they are activating 10-15-20+ customers a day, with customers in store, and some people want to purchase 5 or 10 SIM cards no wonder they won’t sell them out right.

a limit of one should be good, but then again these are the only retail sales outlets for public mobile, and seeing how they have no customer service, they prefer the activation take place, and the retailer get the sale, activation credit or commission.

 

for those savvy on activating a sim, sure buy one.

Problem is those on RFD or Facebook trying to abuse the system and activate all their friends and getting tons of credits for services, then giving it to them. It likely happens more often than you think and this could probably be why some retail is limiting SIM sales.

 

Just order your sim online, wait.

let retail do their promotions for those that need the activation support and ensure their service is running by time they leave the store.

 

Just my observations.

 

ottawa
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@Wonder_why wrote:

This not the first time people report Walmart not selling Sim Card,no use to complaints here,no one will ever going to listen,who is losing business 


Right. First, it's not like WM says "we don't sell SIM cards", it's "due to very low inventory, we're only selling with an activation until we get more cards". If I believed it were true, it would make sense. It happens I don't believe it. 🙂

The reality is that PM needs WM more than WM needs PM (true of most WM suppliers). PM may well write and tell WM they're getting complaints, and WM might remind the reps to give a plausible reason, but in the end it's not going to make a difference. I was able to get a couple of SIMs from WOW in time for the last promo, and I ordered one from PM last night to have it on hand for this promo. I can keep $11.30 tied up if it means I can respond faster and get a friend to move to PM in future (and if I provide the SIM, I'll do the activation with them, and there's no chance they'll forget the referral).

 

It would also help if PM could track the order date. Last time they did the 25/25 promo, I didn't realize it was order...wait...activate and I was trying to set up a friend 2 days before the end. Of course that wasn't time for a SIM to come. If we could tie activation to ordering of SIM, it would be easier. But it's not, and we only make that mistake once, right? 🙂

 

=aw

 

@UFO

Smiley Happy

Completely understand.  Everybody situation is different.  Everybody has the ultimate choice to either activate instore or at home.  

 

The problem with these vendors is that Public Mobile has no control over them and each store has different policy.  With Walmart and now some London drugs, they won't sell you SIM alone because they cannot make a commission if they don't activate in store.  With WOW mobile, a lot of reps don't like to activate since they don't get a commission.  Always call ahead to vendor to make understand their policy. 

 

You can contact moderator about each store, but from a recent mod conversation from another community member, it looks like that it is not helpful.  The moderator told the member to contact Walmart supervisor/manager, etc....  Why waste time contacting moderator then?

 

Wonder_why
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

This not the first time people report Walmart not selling Sim Card,no use to complaints here,no one will ever going to listen,who is losing business 

will13am
Oracle
Oracle

Koodo authorized dealers is another option.  Not sure why it is not well publicized. 

UFO
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

You are absolutely right.  🙂  One thing to point out is that, this is my close friend and we wanted to get the best deal 'together', not as an individual.  If this 'friend' is someone like my husband, then it would make sense to activate online (a total of $50 in credit + $1 off per month, rather than $45 + $1 off per month).  I am just trying to say there there are diff situations and sometimes activating in store isn't the best solution for everyone.  But I appreciate you spending the time dissecting the situation for us 🙂

 

To be honest, the intention of my post is to let people know that Walmart and LD are not selling SIM cards on its own as described on the website.  I hope PM can do something about it so people don't waste their effort driving to diff retails stores hoping to get a SIM card but got rejected by the rep.

 

 

 

You are right in your interpretation.  If your friend activates online at home, both of you get $25 credits.  

 

However, if you friend activates at Walmart, he gets free SIM card, $25 credit (Walmart promo) and $10 friend referral (he gets $45 value) .  You only get $1 ongoing credit.  For your friend, the best deal is to activate instore.  For you, the best deal is for your friend to activate online.  (but he only gets $15 value).  

UFO
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

Actually there is a reason.  The $25 referral credit for both me and my friend is only valid if it is activated online.  This offer is not valid if you activate in store.  So if my friend activated it in store, he will get $10 credit and I will only get $1 off per month.

 

At least that's my understanding when reading the promotion fine print.  I can be wrong in my interpretation.

drmartin
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@UFO wrote:

I told my friend about PM and he was interested in porting his # to PM.  He doesn't want to wait for the sim card to arrive in mail so he decided to buy it from retail stores that sell PM SIM card (the ones listed on PM website).  Unfortunately, both walmart and london drugs' rep said they will not just sell him the SIM card, he has to activate a plan in the store in order to get one.  

 

In the end, my friend just gave up and decided to not make the switch.  I honestly feel if PM wants us to refer friends, then they gotta make it easier for potential customers to get a SIM card.  I understand that they can always order one online, but those promotional plans are gone without notice.  It is hard to potential customer to order SIM card online and HOPE that the promotion is still there when the SIM card arrives.

 

 P.S. The reason why my friend didn't want to activate in the store is because he wanted to get the $25 credit for both him and me.  This offer wasn't valid if you activate in store.  


Well there's no reason NOT to activate in-store, to be honest.

You get a free SIM card, and you're still allowed to do a referral - you just need to be clear with the Phone Subscription Engineer (is that what they're called?) that you have a friend as your referral already.  At WalMart the PSE allowed me to enter all the information myself so my credit card and personal information was only handled by myself directly on the PM website.

ottawa
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

If you have access to WOW Mobile, they seem to be more open to selling just SIMs.

 

Also, you might want to order a $10 SIM yourself and have it on hand. PM quotes 5-7 business days, so there's still time to order now and have it for this $25/$25 promotion. And if you miss it, you'll be ready for the next promotion, or even if there's no promotion on, the next time a friend asks about PM and you tell them they get a $10 credit if they give you as a referral. You can sell them the SIM for what you paid ($10+tax) and save them waiting, or going to WM and getting suckered by a salesman who "mistakenly" thinks the online offer stacks with the retail offer. 😞

 

That's what I'm doing, I'll invest $11.30 in a SIM to have it on hand. I can even help activate it and make sure the referral goes in. 🙂

 

=aw

NDesai
Oracle
Oracle

@UFO Uhmm, up until now, only some Walmarts were known as the bad retail store that do not provide sim card without activation. Now that you mentioned London Drugs, buying sim card only looks to be YMMV. We already reported several stores and Public Mobile team confirmed that they do not suppose to do that. I have no idea what exactly they are doing when we report certain stores, but they have told us to report any stores that leave customers unhappy to the Moderator_Team using the format below:

Store:

City:
Date:

Feedback:

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