Walmart Wireless

[daman7676]

Hello all - new to the forums and wanted to see if anyone else has had experience purchasing from Walmart Wireless online?

 

I just ordered a Sprint Galaxy S3 - it was the cheapest I could find anywhere as of now. I'm currently on a family plan with my primary line contract expiring in Apr 2013 and my secondary line already fulfilling it's 2 year commitment. I'm upgrading from an EVO 4g.

 

I ended up calling them to ensure that upgrading my line wouldn't affect the 2nd line. Also, some of the fine print regarding not moving the phone to a different line for 181 days kind of put me off. In the end, the rep was very helpful so far as to conference call in Sprint so we could get them to drop the $36 upgrade fee. I wasn't going to go through with my order unless that fee was waived.

 

Has anyone else had any experience ordering a new / upgrade phone form Walmart Wireless? My phone is enroute and I have 14 days to return it if something doesn't seem right.

 

Thanks

[SpenceSouth]

I always do best buy. You are locked in after 14 days, but you can still exchange your phone up to a month later. Their prices are usually the best too.

 

I wonder if good Walmart competition will shake down the prices more....

[WiWavelength]

I am always wary of third party retailers. In almost all cases, you are signing a secondary contract with the retailer to try to ensure that you do not do anything that would void the retailer's commission from the wireless carrier. That is why you cannot move the device to another line within 180 days. If you do anything that violates the secondary contract and affects the retailer's commission, the retailer can charge you an ETF, even though you have done nothing to violate the contract directly with the carrier.

 

This is yet another reason why the contract-subsidy model needs to go away.

 

AJ

[daman7676]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I was definitely leery of the 180 day condition. I don't have any plans to move the phone anywhere but just don't like having that extra layer of "control" placed on my purchase.

 

For $80 less than anywhere else, no tax and free shipping, it was a hard price to beat.

[SGT516]

Wal-Mart is OK for prepaid phones but that's where it ends for me.

 

I will only deal with a corporate store or online directly from Sprint.

[daman7676]

Just wanted to give a brief update with my experience with Walmart Wireless.

 

Overall, it went quite well. I ended up calling their 'order by phone' number instead of doing it online. I have a family account and wanted to make sure this upgrade didn't affect my second line.

 

Once I placed my order, I was able to track the status online. My SG3 was shipped and delivered on time. Once I received it, I used the same online status tracking to activate the new device. I actually encountered an issue and had to contact Walmart Wireless - I used their online chat feature. Within about 10 minutes, they had my device activated.

 

I checked my account online via Sprint.com and confirmed that my second line was not affected, my bill was the same and my new phone was activated.

 

All-in-all, my experience was great - $80 off retail, no tax, free shipping.