More details on the Walmart Family Mobile plan
Walmart Family Mobile in an intensely good plan, though it does have its merits. Rather, it’s because of the fact itself that Walmart is getting into the cellular business. Since the initial announcement we’ve heard a few more details that help clear up questions about the service. You’ll probably want to know those if you plan to purchase the service, which is available starting today, September 20. First, after initially writing about the service I received an email from Walmart PR saying that the Walmart Family Mobile is not an MVNO. I was confused, but the rep explained that T-Mobile would handle all the billing and account information. In other words, it’s T-Mobile prepaid service with Walmart branding. Or at least that’s what I took from it. I’m not sure if this means that Walmart Family Mobile is not an MVNO, but it certainly does function differently than other MVNOs. Boy Genius Report also filled us in on some details. Each family mobile plan can include up to five lines. Again, the first line costs $45 per month and each additional line costs $25. You can purchase WebPakTM cards for additional services, like data above the initial 100MB per line allotment. It also allows you to call internationally to 14 cities at 5 cents per minute. As for phones, they’ll have available five phones at launch: the Nokia 1661 for $35, the Samsung t139 for $50, the Samsung t749 for $150, a device similar to the Samsung Gravity for $100, and the Motorola CLIQ XT for $250. You can also choose to activate any unlocked GSM handset for a $25 activation fee. You can, of course, pay your bill at any Walmart store nationwide. ]]>
Since it’s not an MVNO, does this mean users get the benefit of TMO’s roaming as well as TMO’s own towers? This would make a lot of difference.
It’s also good that you can bring the GSM phone of your choice.
I’m pretty certain that it will include only T-Mo’s primary network.
The best thing about this entire plan is that byod is available. The ONLY Walmart exclusive brand to allow it (Straight Talk and Common Cents have no byod because their partners, Tracfone and Sprint prepaid don’t have it either for their other brands).
But it is not really truly prepaid, it’s more a month to month postpaid. A slightly different take similar to Tmobile’s Even More Plus plans.
Other pluses are data rollover, full Tmobile roaming coverage, and the add a line fee being only $25.
Minuses include no unlimited data, some markets are not paticularly well covered by Tmobile and the activation fee as well as no cash option/refill card option.
The question mark to me is if Tmobile handles their billing/accounting, who handles customer service?
Hmm…That’s interesting. Given your description of the relationship, it’s definitely not an MVNO; it’s a T-Mobile prepaid offer under the Walmart brand. With an MVNO, the host operator doesn’t handle billing, ops, etc.; they only sell wholesale minutes and manage the core network.
Depending on the perspective of T-Mobile and Walmart, it could be T-Mobile licensing the Walmart name, or it could be Walmart paying T-Mobile to manage the program!
Mvnos vary in their makeup. Sometimes an mvne or middleman handles everything between the mvno and the host carrier. Sometimes the mvno does everything except provide the network. And there are lots of hybrids in between. Walmart can say it’s not prepaid, which it’s not. But whether or not it is an mvno is something that has some room to debate.
Forgot to note that typically with MVNOs (and even host carrier prepaid brands), roaming off network is NOT permitted. Currently that’s a means for them to differentiate prepaid and postpaid, as well as consider operational costs. Bring your own device is a huge plus. Cricket also allows for this.
Not having unlimited data, however, makes this a good plan, but certainly nothing spectacular or overly competitive.
I think the targeted demographic will be comfortable with the Walmart brand, and I expect promotions and bonuses for people with a Walmart prepaid debit card to follow.
I checked the coverage map and it looked like T-Mobiles full network including roaming.
I got info from Wallmart store yesterday. Nowhere does it mention or offer the family plan. $45 for 1st person and up to 5 additional lines for $25.00 each. Do I have to purchase on line for this deal?
Thanks,
Mary
It would be nice foe people to explain what the MNNO AND BYOD (Bring own device?) mean. Not everyone who read’s these posts understand. ME being one of them.
I called walmart back on the 15th Of SEPT when I first read about the plan online and they had no clue what I was talking about. I called 1800walmart and was told someone would call me on the 20th when the plan rolls out. NO CALL. Then I called the store on the 20th and the walmart associate had no info on the plan other than what phones were for sale. Couldn’t tell me who handled customer service, NOTHING. Mary, you can go to Walmart.com and look for Walmart family plan under cell phones and it shows $4 first phone and $25 EACH additional, but not much more info than that. I have str8talk now and they are a bunch of morons. I hope this service is not outsourced overseas also.
I don’t know how Walmart expects to sell these plans when the rep’s don’t know a thing about the plans. I went to the store to see the phones and the two fools behind the counter were whispering and playing games the whole time and didn’t even look in my direction. I would have got their attention if I really wanted service that day, but it makes me think twice.
MVNO NOT MNNO
Honestly, I still think Straight Talk is the best plan out there. The coverage is great, and the price is even better! I pay $45 a month for unlimited data, minutes, and texts. It’s quite a deal, especially since I’m always on the phone as a small business owner.
I was reading over the terms and conditions since we are thinking of getting this Service. People are missing another fee to get you started.
1) You buy the Phone – $40-$150 depending on Phone
2) You Buy the Plan – $45-$145 per month depending on % of lines
3) $25 per line Activiation fee (One time)
4) Taxes + Regulatory fees.
Not such a great deal now.
can you use any tmobile phone or does it have to be an unlocked tmobile phone?
Whats up with this…When I went to Walmart the section that said”Walmart Phones (the rack was empty) just cables hanging there??? And when I checked the web site, there is no mention of it??
I have Wal-Mart family mobile and so far, I am not happy AT ALL. My main reason for choosing this plan was that I could use my Motorola Cliq XT from t-mobile. I have had problems since the beginning. At first I couldn’t use the internet, despite purchasing a “webpack”. Then, despite being able to send and receive text messages when I first activated the account, a few days later my phone was no longer receiving incoming text. I called Walmart Family Mobile and they tried several things, but to this day I still can’t receive text messages. Then, they finally got the internet working, but for some reason, 300MB of data was depleted in 2 days. I had t-mobile previously, and I never used more than 260MB of data per MONTH. This is outrageous. They even deplete your webpack when you use picture messages or 411. I think that if you use internet AT ALL, then Wal-Mart Family Mobile is NOT the way to go. They are going to have to do better with how much they charge for internet if they want to compete with Boost & Straight Talk. Not to mention the problem with text.
(NOTE: My webpack of 300MB was depleted despite the fact that I never used a picture message or 411, and my internet was down most of that time!)
I just got the Walmart Family Mobile because I have a T-Mobile phone and my T-Mobile bill was $98 (which is what I pay each month) for unlimited minutes, text, and data, plus handset protection. I am tight financially this month so paying $25 for the Walmart sim card activation (the first month of service is free) and I could still use my old phone is a great deal to me. I can still go back to my old service when I’m ready but I needed a quick way to save a few bucks this month until I get caught up on my bills.
“I don’t know how Walmart expects to sell these plans when the rep’s don’t know a thing about the plans.”
They didn’t roll out the training modules until a week before the launch and we didn’t get to play with the kiosks to tinker with the signup process until they went live. Also, IIRC, we were only made privy that the modules were up by our department manager. If they didn’t tell us then we might not have known about it until it was live and people were asking about it.
Also note, the one thing a lot of the customer literature didn’t mention was the $25/line activation fee.
“…for some reason, 300MB of data was depleted in 2 days”
IIRC, the Cliq runs Motorola’s variant of the Android OS.. Are you sure you didn’t have any apps running in the background which uses data services? Things like downloading from the market, streaming video or audio, running apps with Internet permissions are all things to look out for. Use Wi-Fi if your phone supports it and you have an available connection. Heavy PDA data usage probably isn’t a good recommendation for these plans.
Just heard about this plan, went down to our local Walmart to inquire. The employee spent a lot of time with us explaining the plan. He was extremely knowledgeable. He also related we can purchase our phones elsewhere as long as they are unlocked, or have a SIM card. For us, who just text and call, and don’t use the Web frequently, it appears this will be a great plan.
I left AT&T for this Walmart Family
Mobile plan….what a nightmare!! Had
endless dropped calls and phones that
would not work (the $100 Samsung). Store
reps couldn’t help me. T-Mobile will not
get involved, either…so no reliable
customer support!
Within 10 days…I returned to AT&T….
would NOT recommend this as a dependable
phone plan AT ALL!!
What everyone seems to be forgetting is that every new type of service regardless of what it might be (cable, internet, phone, ect.) will have bugs that need to be sorted out when they first start out. Before anyone says that they should’ve had everything situated, how could they have know they would have those problems? Give them time and everything will get better. I don’t have the service myself yet, but I do plan on getting it.
I have this plan myself for me and my B/F, and we absolutely love it! We already had TMO phones and didn’t have to buy phones, just the SIM cards (for activation). No, it’s not the best, but it is certainly better than the worst. When you are on tight budget, and are not able to get a contracted plan on another provider, this one will work. The reps @ customer service have been SO helpful, as well as the Wal-Mart people. Any question I have had, they have answered in full, and if they didn’t know the answer, they got it for me. For the price you pay, you get decent coverage service, and customer service (Much better than the CS reps @ some other Pre-Paid plans). Hope this helps and Happy Holidays!
I have a question that may not have been answered here…if I missed it sorry…but I wanted to know if they charge extra for roaming?
Well, I have had my Walmart Family Mobile (WFM) for 3 days now.
We are new to Family Mobile. We came over from Sprint and I have had a TON of issues when trying to activate my sons phone.
We went through 8 activation packs before “I” figured out what the WFM people were doing wrong to activate it.
This would not be a big issue, but I was forced to go sit in the returns line everytime to return the packs. I invested 7.5 hours to get ONE phone activated!
Everything is up and running now, but I tried to get a phone number by texting to google 46645. From what I have learned this is called short code texting.
Nowhere on the website does it say that WFM does not support this form of texting. They speak about texting to and from foreign countries and the costs associate with it.
WHY do they not support short code texting? I cannot text to google, my blog, facebook, etc. this is a MAJOR flaw in the WFM offering and they do not even acknowledge this failing of the service compared to real cell phone companies like Sprint, ATT, Verizon and T-Moblie(which backbone WFM rides on)
I do NOT understand this?!
I have contacted Customer Relations (CustomerRelations@myfamilymobile.com)to let me know what the plans are for utilizing standard cellphone company technologies like short code messaging and when they will be implementing the availabilities.
Over all the experience I have had with WFM has been a C- and sliding to a D rather quickly.
I just wanted to follow up since I’ve had the phone for awhile.
Regarding dropped calls…that is because it’s on T-Mobile’s network…that’s not Walmart’s fault. When I had regular T-Mobile I had the same dropped calls I have now. T-Mobile is cheaper but the signal is not as good as AT&T or Verizon. It’s just a fact.
Also as another person said, be careful of apps running in the background and using up your internet minutes. Configure your phone so that it has to ask your permission before it accesses the Internet. Or use WiFi. I have had good results with the free $5.00 I got with my sim activation…I still have $3.00 left and I’ve had the service for almost a month. But I only use my phone’s internet to occasionally check my email.
I was a t-mobile customer for 8 years. I switched to the walmart family plan about 2 months ago. switching over was easy. I made 1 phone call to the walmart family plan center I’m a girl walked us through the hoprocedure about 15 minutes.
I had T MOBILE flex plan @ $158 a month for 1500 min, Unlimited text and WEB/DATA. For 2 phones. I just flipped over to the Walmart plan, this is almost the best deal ever. We had T-mobile phones to start with and to start this service it was only $25 a phone for the kits. I will be billed for the monthly service. I have 2 web phones so for me this is the only downside to the service.
I have been using Walmart Family mobile now for 4 months. I have a samsung Vibrant. I live in Houston Tx, I travel major roads every day, areas where one can expect coverage as good as it gets according to their web site coverage maps, I get dropped calls every single day, calls that never make it through to my phone, and constant connectivity issues. I have contacted their tech support about these issues several times, and no improvement. lesson learned! you get what you pay for! this service is sub par at best (I’M BEING VERY KIND HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)Also the call quality sucks! I have used Cricket in the past and even that was better!!!!!!
I had WFM for about 6 weeks, even though its from t-mobile, a tmobile sidekick & blackberry curve would only work for phone. No data, picture messages, apps or web. The both require a specific data service and walmart dont offer it.
The also rip you off when you cancel. They sent me 2 bills after I canceled my account and then charge you an extra $5 service fee for making your payment over the phone. Once your account is closed I could no longer log onto the website to pay online or do the automated pay your bill service on the 800 number. Then they do not accept checks, so you only option is to pay the service charge.
I went to walmart to confirm that the $45 plan has three way calling or conferene calling but the do not know about it.
Dose the t monlie phone need to be unlocked to work with this
I have been using straight talk over a year now, but I decided to try the walmart because I could use a Iphone with it. I am very dissapointed with the service, not only does the internet have issues at times, they also charge for 411 (straight talk does not, they will even send a text messge to you for free with the number) then the bill came, yes its 45 but then you get xtra charges on top of the taxes, the cost will be over 50.00. I paid 47.00 from straight talk with unlimited talk, text and internet and I never had any problems with the internet. So I am choosing to go back to straight talk
Surprisingly where I live in MS, its actually a good area for T-Mobile coverage (an improvement from the past) but as most people know, MS is not the most urbanized state in the country so if you do travel a lot on non-major highways, your chances of dropping a call does go up. Thats why I left Virgin Mobile and Ready Mobile because of the limited coverage area so you have to be aware of this if you are deciding on choosing this plan.
I’m currently with Straight Talk and although their customer service bites and their available phones arent the best, their plans make up for it. They’ve added a few more phones so although its not as good as WFM’s flaghship phone, the average person won’t mind.
I currently have Tmobile and travel to an area that does not have Tmobile coverage..however, I pick up AT&T, some USA Airadigm, and a STCLDMN service when I am out of the Tmobile area and it seems to work fairly well. Very rural area, so to get 2 bars with AT&T is good… My question is, will the WFM really work off of the same roaming towers as regular Tmobile does? So many mixed comments about this, anyone know for sure?
You can never get out once you cancel. I canceled my account after 3-4 weeks, after that time I can no longer make payments online or in the store. They also said they do not accept checks or payments by mail.
The only way to pay my final bill was to call in, and they charge a $5 service charge. So I paid it off, then got a bill a month later for the $5 charge, the only way to pay the $5 fee is to call in and pay another $5 to pay for the last fee. By doing this they can charge you $5 a month forever.
I switched over from Verizon and activated the walmart plan. I was paying verizon between $220-350 a month and now i only pay $70 for both lines. The only drawbacks i have seen were the low quality phones available(instead i got a t mobile phone at Costco and put sim card in it from walmart), GPS doesnt work and some T mobile Apps) and the lousy walmart in store service. The Call, texting and email have all worked though and when calling from US territories and cruise ships, i havent been charged $2-6 a minute like verizon.
just switched from t mobile contract and i’m pretty satisfied. $70 bucks plus taxes is not too bad for unlimited talk and text for me and my boyfriend. The only con to it would be the t mobile network. not so great coverage at my house but we have home phone service. But its so cheap i dont care. their customer service is excellent. They actually speak English. i got all my questions answered easily. i was going to go with straight talk but i’ve heard they suck
People are asking if you can use a lock T-Mobile phone with walmart familymobile. Yes you can use any lock T-Mobile phone with the walmart familymobile sims card. It’s the same thing as T-Mobiles postpaid service just with walmarts name on it. But do not go to the real T-Mobile store to get a T-Mobile phone. Cause if you go there to get a phone you will have to set up account with them. Go to a store that sells T-Mobile prepaid phones and just put your sims card in it and your good to go. I have got me a T-Mobile prepaid phone and put my walmart familymobile sims card in it and it works fine. And of also the people at walmart wont tell you this. They will other tell you that you can use a unlock T-Mobile and that is not true. This is cause they are not allowed to tell you this info. Hope this helps.
I have had tmobile since 2004,I love it. I decided to buy my neice a ph for christmas. So I went with the WFM. She uses it mainly for texting,so its perfect for her. One problem,don’t know where to pay the bill,since I’m in Houston and she is 6hrs away. Can someone post customer service number so I can get location on where to pay? Thanks!
T-Mobile is horrible. I’ve never used them before and thought this would be a great way for us to save money. Wrong – no bars, constant dropped calls. Of course Walmart can’t help with this because the actual service provider is T-Mobile. Call them several times and was advised they are aware of the issue and have on file all my calls regarding this. When asked what the plan was to fix it guess what, that’s right no plan. They do not plan on doing anything with this to correct it. So in the end what are we really saving – NOTHING. T-Mobile being my provider is responsible, Walmart promoting this little joint venture is responsible for being able to educate the consumers on the products and companies they are endorsing. We are looking for better options and will be tossing this one out. Major disappointment and I would never recommend T-Mobile service to anyone. I would strongly suggest against it.
I live in West Texas, I looked at the coverage map, it looks like where I will need the phone it will work. I would be getting lines for 3 people, I know it’s $95 for 3 lines. WHat I cant seem to find out though is about how much the taxes and fees are. I had asked a sales rep. and they looked at me with a blank look. I don’t know anyone who has the plan. I pay for 3 people now $161.00 a month. All I wanna know is if I get this plan, will it be cheaper. Does anyone have an idea? Thanks
we got this plan in Oct. we like the plan, I like the fact we can check usage online at as we have teenager and we can check the texting and to who and how often, as I have a problem with seeing kids doing these everywhere. walmart offers online where can limit phone usage (individual phone lines) and block if need be, also certain times of the day.
TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! When I called in January to set up 3 lines, they incorrectly set up one of the secondary lines as the primary acct which means that me, the REAL Primary Acct holder that is actually paying the bills, can’t see any usage information on the other 2 lines or make any changes in the acct. It is March 6 & I have called 4 times trying to resolve this issue & keep getting text from them saying it is fixed, but it isn’t! THIS CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS!! I am looking for another phone plan. MORONS!
Will we be able to see the actual txt message that my son sends? Because I’m planning on adding him
I’ve used this since day one launch Sep 2010. First off you are on the T-mobile network plain and simple. If you have dropped calls using tmobile in your area you will have the same with WMFM. I use a tmobile branded HTC HD2 and it works great. Same coverage in metro Phoenix as Sprint. The data isn’t cheap but carries over month to month. Take a second and realize that you will only be paying appox $82.00 per month for two lines of unlimited talk and text. So the difference between that $82 per month and your expensive Verizon or ATT plan can be used to buy the data for this plan. You get one gig of data for $40 and it is shared across all lines and it carries over month to month. You can turn data on or off per line via the web. You can pay our bill via the web using a debit or credit card or online check. You can buy data minutes over the web the same way. You can pay your bill, buy a data pack card, and get customer service at any Wal mart store. You may have to change some APN setting to get a non tmoblie phone to work for data. No biggie deal if you have any tech savy at all. Customer service has been great for me. I ported two numbers from Sprint and they were up and running within hours. Do not use this plan if you stream anything or use lots of data. I’ve done the math and I’m saving $50 per month over sprint. I monitor my data usage and use wifi most of the time. Keep your 3G / Data radio off when not in use to avoid background data charges. And yes, tethering works fine in both windows mobile and Android.
Basically, you can use any tmobile phone and it doesn’t need to be unlocked. If you use an ATT phone it will need to be unlocked and it will only have 2g internet.
Data is bill in 1.00 MB increments for .05 each. So on any given day if you use any data at all the minimun you will be charged is .05 even if the data you used is less than that. But checking a few emails, light web usage and a few twitter udpates per day only cost between five and twenty cents per day. Do the math!!!
worst bill paying proccess i have every been through. you have a suck system… for the rest of my life i will tell everone who will listen on what poor service walmart and family mobil have
Nothing is perfect, even more so when it involves money. I have NOT had any problems with either of the lines I purchased in October. I recently inserted my SIM into a Motorola Defy and it works great. I moderate myself on data usage. Excess is not necessary. As the associates have learned about the service, they have become more and more helpful. Unsatisfactory costumer service of inadequate Wal -mart employees is not a reflection of this service. It is a reflection of their supervisors. I recommend for budget conscience people and those who do not stay on their phones all day.
A question for the folks using this service. I am with Tmobile now and would like to eventually switch to this plan. I get a discount through my work for my Tmobile plan currently. Is the billing through Tmobile? I believe I will still get my discount for the WFM so long as this is still all handled through tmobile. Any thoughts?
Chris, No you will not be able to keep your discount that you have with Tmobile as far as I know.
I’m in West Texas and have been using wfm for about two months. I have been very happy with the service. I use it on my iPhone and free 100 mb lasted all month. I just use my wifi. And use my webpack for google maps and emails. And for people using tmobile phones u have to change the apn address I’m the internet settings. And add the apn for mms. That simple family mobile will give u there apn adress.
I’m debating whether to sign up for this plan. No one could tell me exactly how much I would pay with taxes and such. The staff at Walmart couldn’t tell me when I called. They gave me the number for family mobile. I called and it was all automated. After I punched zero about ten times and called back and punched zero some more (ten to twenty times) I got a customer service agent.
She couldn’t tell me how much the bill would be for sure. I asked for a supervisor and even she couldn’t tell me. Apparently they are contractors and don’t handle the billing. I think you get bills via your phone.
She said they are hoping people do stuff themselves which is why it was so hard to get a live person. I suggested they could have a press zero for an operator feature and that isn’t what they do.
When I asked about taxes she suggested I contact my city. I called back Walmart and asked how much people paid for two lines in taxes who lived in my city and they couldn’t tell me even though the Walmart I called is in my city.
I don’t see why they can’t tell you the total cost ahead of time when someone out there must calculate it before sending the bill via the phone.
Reading previously posted comments I was surprised about reading about five dollar fees for paying over the phone. The two ways the supervisor told me I could pay by phone were to have it automatically taken out of a checking account without the need to call in. The other option if I wanted to pay by phone was to call in and pay each month.
I don’t shop Walmart much so I don’t want to go in and pay in person.
She didn’t mention a five dollar charge but then again I didn’t ask and never even thought about it.
I would probably pick the 54 dollar Samsung flip phone as the reviews are better for it than the 35 dollar Nokia.
Another problem is I’d like to transfer my phone numbers but I can only do that if I shut down my prior service and what if I don’t like this one?
To add to the complexity if I go over the new billing cycle by one day I get charged by my present plan for a whole month. Certainly something to keep in mind. Plus if you transfer phone numbers to Walmart’s plan I am told to allow up to ten days but they say it is usually the same day, not more than several days at most. I am a week out for a new billing cycle for my present plan.
Coupled with some of these reviews I am not sure what to do.
I wish this was easier.
I am still confused about WFM. Sure I am paying way too much with ATT for 3 lines but I have unlimited data; unless ATT does what they did to home internet by capping the data usage I can beat the crap out of their mobile network. I cannot get a handle on what 3 lines for $95 will actually cost. T-mobile, well ATT is buying it but I can travel the US and get coverage with ATT. I am not sure if you can use the Iphone on WFM and transferring other lines might be a nightmare. Also the apps on the Iphone wont work with any phone due to the IOS. I am at the point of pulling more services from ATT but finding a reasonable cost No Contract plan that has good coverage is a mystery. No one has even said how does Skype works with WFM. Sure its data/voice but now I can get calls via Skype fine either with WiFi OR can I make calls using Skype and be charged for a min of my prime time. I like the idea of WFM for an economical perspective if you need it only for voice and messaging. I don’t like what I am reading about Customer Support at WFM. I am beginning to understand what it means when they say “you get what you pay for”. I am looking for unlimited calls and messaging for a budget cost not a nightmare with a endless number of bucks spent. WFM you are not making me feel comfortable.
I hate it. I love the low price, but I hate the service. My calls drop in the building where I work, in the car, in my home, etc. Also, I am unable use Google voicemail with this service, and I am unable to receive Bank of America safepass text messages, account alerts. I called customer service and was told that they do not support my phone (Mytouch 3G slide) and that I should call Google (?????). Also, I was told that WFM doesn’t support short text messaging. Another downside, what’s the use of having a 3G phone if downloads and web usage drain my webpak? And some picture message download successfully, most don’t, and I receive Network Failure messages. I’m willing to pay additional $$ for better services and convenience and find another plan!! WFM is not the plan for me.
Dont use Family mobile service. They are a ripoff. If you cancel They will still charge you for months afterward. And guess what after that. You can only snail mail them a request to undo the extra billing. wait about 2 months and they will deny you and then send it to collections. DONT USE OR YOU WILL BE SORRY
I was a little skeptical about this plan but I am about to switch from sprint to the walmart family after my boyfriend his service and is very pleased with it. He unlocked his AT&T motorola bravo phone (android) and activated it with the walmart plan. Other than a few dropped calls here and there, the plan works great. He purchased the $40 additional data and has not had to buy more data for almost four months (he uses wifi whenever possible). He discovered that the GPS he paid an additional $10 dollars/month for when he had AT&T was a waste because the phone has GPS with the walmart plan that he does not have to pay for. We were also able to look at a youtube video and talk on the phone at the same time. Maybe it depends on the type of phone you get, but I am definitely going to switch from Sprint and save the money. I can deal with a few dropped calls. It happens occassionally with every network.
JUST A WARNING TO ALL: THE WALMART PLAN HAS THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE. I TRIED TO CANCEL AND WAS TOLD THAT THERE WAS NO PHONE NUMBER FOR CUSTOMER SERIVCE–THIS FROM A SUPERVISOR. ONLY EMAIL AND SNAIL MAIL ARE ACCEPTED. BE WARY OF THIS COMPANY THAT TREATS DEPARTING CUSTOMERS SO SHABBILY
The Picture message feature does not work. You cant send any photos, and you cant get any help from the customer service.
Our family decided to use the Walmart Family mobile. Up until recently, we did not have cell phones. This was our first experience with cell phones and Wow, what a mistake choosing Walmart Family mobile. The initial cost was over $200.00 for 3 phones and activating charges, etc, etc.etc.. We cannot make or receive calls from an address I am at 50% of my time. I’ve called and called and called their customer service. When I can reach a person, whom I can understand, they submit a trouble ticket….but nothing happens. The phones work ok and there is no problem with the sim cards. 3 months later and I’m still not receiving calls to the address I am at 50% of the time, and yes, the address is in their ‘green zone’. I am not talking about a few dropped calls. I am talking about no phone calls, made or received and no text messages AND NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. I sent many e-mails, no reply, sent letters to both Walmart and T-Mobile, no reply. Walmart Family Mobile cell is the WORST DECISION we ever made. I have stopped several friends and family from making this same mistake and I will continue telling others about the poor phone coverage service and the poor customer service.
What a Rip Off
I’ve used the service for about 6 months now and I have to say that I have never had a problem with them. My data is fast. My phone calls are rarely dropped. And my wife and I both use Android smartphones with no issues at all. When we go out of town and there is no coverage out switches to another network just fine. I only paid $50 to start the service on two phones. Didn’t get a bill until next month. And it’s been $80/month every single month. Not a$ more. So I am sorry to hear all of these people having issues. But for me I get 4G on my Galaxy S 99% of the time and recommend the service to everyone that I know complaining about their high phone bills.
I have the Walmart Family Mobile and it has worked perfect for me so far. I have 3 lines for a cost of $90 per month plus taxes which comes to an average of only $115 per month total, including unlimited minutes and text messages! I am out in the sticks and was worried that my Family Mobile service would not be available there or at least there would be a lot of dropped calls! I was using AT&T previously! And I was delighted to find that I have no problems with coverage anywhere so far with Family Mobile! I buy Data MBs for $40 which lasts me over 3 months as I use WiFi whenever possible as my first option! Just traveled from NY to Florida round trip and had no coverage problems! Best part is as FM is using the T-Mobile GSM service, I can use any T-Mobile phone and it does not have to be unlocked! Just put the FM card in the T-Mobile phone and wala, you got service. I am presently using a T-Mobile Garminfone Andriod phone on Family Mobile, with absolutely no problems! You can also use AT&T phones, but they have to be unlocked first! switching from AT&T to Walmart Family Mobile has been the best cell phone move I have ever made! I am just hoping that if the AT&T/T-Mobile goes through, that it won’t screw up my Family Mobile account! AT&T was far too expensive! It was costing me $165 for 3 phones, with no unlimited minutes nor unlimited texts! And every time we went over minutes it was a killer financially! I highly recommend Walmart Family Mobile!
all i want to kno is , how much is it to upgrade to another walmart family mobile plan ? because i have one of their phones and love the service . just need to kno how much it is to upgrade to another phone . someone please let me know .
WARNING!!! walmart family mobile BLOCKS free text alerts generated by Banks, Logistics companies, there is no way to receive it – period.
I have the plan for about 6 months and I agree that Customer Service is very bad. I wold say worst service I ever experienced. I had problem with porting my older number for about a months. Now they mess up with my bill. For 2 lines I receive a bill for over $100. They keep promise to fix it, but still no results. I know that it is Indian programmers, what to expect more. I was thinking to file a small claim since they keep overcharging me. Does anyone else has this issue. CS told me that I am not only one. I wonder how many?
i like it. Never really have any problems. Only downfall for me is that the $200 phone i bought sometimes is really glitchy and certain apps don’t work. Also youtube never works. But texting/callng wise which is most important to me, seems to work good.
I like it so far , unlimited minutes and unlimited texting and I got a $5 wepack (100mb) for free so far I just used only 17mb but I wanna know does the wepak rollover next month ? or its gonna delete the whole mb for next month ? thank you
have had service for two months now in the (RDU) area, and haven’t had any problems at all. I switched from Verizon whose signal may be only a tad stronger, but WFM is a much better value. My wife and son love it. We pay $110 and some change per month, and the data just rolls over until you use it.
I have only had to call customer service once, when I opened the account. I don’t have any plans to cancel the service, but if I do I will let you know about my experience. So far, it’s all good. Best value in wireless if you don’t use tremendous amounts of data. A 2gig card is only $40, so do the math. Even if my family of three used it all (which we don’t), we’d still only be paying $150ish for three lines per month. I love it.
so when u activate the service for two lines all u have to pay is the 50 dollars and it gives u service for a month? qnd for two line just 80 something with taxes n fees?
I have had the service for a year now and have had no problems. We have 4 phones – three for teenagers. I love that there are parental controls so I can adjust how many texts or mins they can use, if needed. My bill, with taxes is just at $136 a month- can’t beat it for unlimited texting and talk for 4 phones. I add data as needed- but we are mostly using the phones for the talk/text options.
I live in Florida. What is the tax/surcharge added each month? I pay T-Mobile around $160/month for three lines, unlimited talk & text. The basic charge is just $90 ($45/$25/$25) on family mobile, but what is the tax each month?
I bought 2 phones on september 9th at 4:30 i the afternoon. when walmart activated the phones they missed the field that should have been filled out to keep our same phone lines. We went all weekend waiting to get this problem fixed as these lines are our link to our business..after being told that this would be corrected on September 10 by noon, we were then advised that “their technicians at family mobile” don’t work on the weekends. Schocking to me!!! Really??? I was then PROMISED BY A FAMILY MOBILE CUSTOMER SERVICE REP that I would receive a call from her peronally at 8:00pm sharp on the 12th of september to finally have this all corrected. This of course didn’t happen!! At 9:30 pm September 12th, still no call. I took the phones back to Walmart on Tuesday the 13th of September. I received a bill today for 21.43. I called their very rude, unhelpful and very customer unfriendly customer service representative..His name starts with a J—-. I truly hope that you never have to talk to this moron. They actually employ people like him. Very Sad!!! I would not recommend Family Mobile to anyone. I can’t make any comment to the use of the phones, simply because we didn’t use them. I was advised that simply..don’t pay us the money and I’ll send you to collections! I have never been sent to collections in my entire life. Terrible company and even worse customer service.
MAW: regarding your question about the total bill for 3 lines…I just got my first FULL bill and it’s $112 with taxes and fees. Hope that helps. I’m loving the plan and phones much more than Straight Talk.
We originally had Verizon for YEARS and this is almost identical service and ease of phone use-but MUCH cheaper ($158/mo with Verizon). We have unlimited talk and text now vs limits with Verizon and Straight Talk.
It seems like the reviews are very skewed because one person loves it & another hates it for whatever reasons. Most important seems to be getting a good phone, finding a experienced salesperson to assist you, and being in a larger city never seems to hurt connectivity to towers. Wondering how it works in Taylorsville, Utah. It is hard to decide if I would like it without trying it but I am not sure where geographically all the comments were made from in this forum. Any suggestions? Seems some people are very happy, I am hoping this could be me. With VZ now and have been overpaying for years now to have a phone that works & besides the high cost it is by far the most amazing service available if you are willing to pay for it. Now with two children I am not wiling anymore. HELP Tif
My wife and I tried signing up for Family Mobile, but they refused to transfer our numbers, since we have a different area code on each phone. As these phone numbers are deeply important to our professional lives, as we have established deep personal and professional connections with these phone numbers, abandoning a phone number was not an option.
Like so much with Wal-Mart, this plan is not a full solution to your needs.
does the roaming on family mobile work as good as t mobile, my friend has a t mobile phone that works perfect at my cabin. my family mobile has no service.
t mobile has a free boost for better roaming, can you use free boost for family mobile.
Stay away from family mobile. Bought four phones @ Walmart. Associate set up entire account on store computer. When I got home no coverage at all. Seems I live in gray area. Store should have known that because system would not take home address gave work address. Cancelled all phones within three days. Got bill months later saying I was being sent to collections.
Also, forgot to mention if this helps someone else.
There is a .97 fee per phone/line per month. (we have 2 phones) and so far on my 1st bill, the taxes are about $4.28 for the 1st line ($45 line) and $2.68 (for the $25 line). So, it is looking like about $10 for two lines per month for taxes and fees.
The only other thing I haven’t been able to get clear on yet is paying the bill on line through my personal bank’s online bill paying service which is how I like to pay all my bills.. so am still working on how to do that with their customer service. Since their only option is to pay online with credit card, bank account debit card or auto pay.
Hope this helps.
My husband and I just bought 2 WFM phones 2 weeks ago. Reason for the change was to get away from contracts. So, far the phones have worked fine.. we bought the T369 and the T139.
I found I missed my Android smartphone so I talked to the clerk at the store and they said I could buy a T-mobile hone and put my WFM sim card in it from one of phones that we would be turnign back in which was the (T139).. letters were just too small for my husband so he took the T369 and I got the Tmobile Android Samsung Exhibit II 4g phone and put the simcard from the T139 in it.
I love it and so far it works great. I can text, make and receive calls and get on and cruise the web.
The only thing I am unsure of is what “Use Packet Data” means on my phone as well as whether I could check the box for “Data Roaming?” Customer service I have free nationwide roaming nationwide but tell me I need to contact Tmobile for the specs in operating this phone since it is not a “quote” a WFM phone.
And the only other question I have for Tmobile is 3g or 4g never lights up on this phone? Now granted I am not in a 4g area even though it is 4g phone but my other Droid at least lit up 3G where this one doesn’t.. any ideas if I may have a bad phone in that dept? And is that possible when everything else works?
I realized I stepped out of the boundries here in wanting my Android back but so far, minus these couple of questions.. things seem to be working fine.
Perhaps someone reading this blog might have some idea?
Thanks!
Ive had it for almost a year now with no problems 2 lines end up being 76$ thats the taxes included we were paying $130 from tmobile and it wasnt unlimited anything. I Havent noticed any difference in service from tmobile at all i live in las vegas and it works great here. as far as the data webpack i havent used it much but you would be surprised how far even a 20$ card goes unless you are a hard core data user the webpack is a good deal plus it rollsover if your a light to medium data user like just texting pics and stuff and some light surfing it works fine and $20 lasts a while. would be nice if they eventually just decide to offer unlimited data in some kinda plan may work better for those data junkies im sure they will eventually.The problem with tmobile data is it slows down after you use so much anyway so that whole thing is kind of a joke really so id never go back to tmobile anyways its a ripoff for what you pay. As far as some of the earlier people complaining about customer service then youve obviously never dealt with tmobile cause they are the worst period.Ive used several companies and i really wouldnt say any of them provide good customer service companies are greedy and they just want your money they dont care thats how the world is these days. For the price you really cant go wrong with the walmart family mobile its basically tmobile at a way cheaper price.
I had altell which just got bought by verizon. I have had nothing by problems with verizon. I just got 3 Walmart mobile plan phones. Yes i was scared of t-moblie. This is the cheapest and best plan i ever had. I went to my Litchfield, Mn. walmart. I asked alot of questions, and switched. I bought 3 lg phones, and i minutes, they were all working great. This was my first smart phone, so it took me awhile to use it. I called customer service and they walked me through everything. I cant say enough good things about Walmart and Family Mobile. I am so happy to be away from verizon.
just got two lines from wally world. sofar so good. lost contacts though. but no problem, ican redo them.
Does anyone know if I can buy Walmart Family Mobile phone and drop my regular TMobile sim card in it and have it work ? my son needs a new phone and we are not due for an upgrade and he found one on the WFM plan he likes.
The Walmart family plan May look good on the outside but they lie when they say that you can cancel your plan at anytime. While your can cancel your plan they forget to mention that even if you cancel your bill a day after their new Billing cycle,thw plan will stay in effect until the end of the cycle and you are left stick with an extra bill you have to pay. They totally mislead me into thinking that they were the good guys. But like all the rest has shown their color. While they present a good face,if you try to cancel your plan that’s where they get you……shame on you Walmart!
PEOPLE PEOPLE AND YES I AM SHOUTING, DO NOT, DO NOT GET WALMART TMOBILE PLAN, YOU WILL BE SORRY. YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE INCOMING INTERNATIONAL CALLS; THAT FLAT FEE OF $95 FOR THREE LINES WILL INCREASE TO $115/#120 PER MONTH AFTER THEY ADD REDICULOUS FEES AND TAXES OF $20 OR MORE DOLLARS. AND YOU CANNOT DISCONNECT UNTIL AFTER THE END OF YOU BILLING CYCLE. I REPEAT… STAY AWAY. BE HAPPY THAT I AM SAVING YOU THE HEADACHE AND LOSS OF TIME AND MONEY!@!@!
Nancy, Yes you can buy the prepaid Walmart phones and drop in your son’s sim card it will work. I have the Android that my hubby bought for me which I did the same thing.
I’ve had the plan with 3 phones for 14 months. I was with T-Mobile before for 12 years. Thy would not negotiate a better plan (of course) so I thought I would try Walmart. What did I have to lose….if I wasn’t happy I could just move on to someone else. I see no difference in coverage and we drive the whole country on business. Texting and internet is fine except “Short Codes” which are bank texts etc. for security confirmation. That took me by surprise and enoyed me, but I found a way around it with my bank. All in all it’s a fine plan with a hicup but has saved me over $700.00 in a year with no real problems.
This is the BIGGEST RIP OFF!!! One big joke!! Wal-mart should be ashamed!
Bird, I was just rudely informed by a Wal-Mart associate that you cannot drop your regular T-Mobile sim card into one of the WFP phones. Argued with me when I told him I had read customer feed back stating that you could. Did you have to do anything to unlock your prepaid phone to get it to work with your “other than WFP” tmobile sim card?
We got our plan a little over a year ago, we had tmo a long time ago, and before WFM we used straightalk. We loved the straightalk service (had service everywhere) but the phones were a joke. we paid a little over $90/mon with straightalk, we now pay just over $76/month. We use WIFI as much as possible and have $25 of the $40 we orginally put on our phones webpak when we set them up almost a year ago. I only had to buy 1 phone since my wife still had her tmo phone. We found that the internet will not work if you use a tmo IMEI when regestering your phone (not sure if this has been fixed by WFM yet) so we just used my phones IMEI when registering new lines. I have since bought me a newer TMO phone off craigslist, as well as her, and we have no issues, other than the no shortcoding 🙁 sad but liveable. so for the price, and if TMO works in your area, the service is very good.
People just love to complain…the service rocks, and it saves me about $120 a month over my old provider.
Folks, I recommend you only look at the bottom line (what actually leaves your wallet or bank account) rather than the headline prices on all phone services. First, I want to be clear as it’s only found in the fine print for WFM that if you have phone numbers in different area codes, each one with a different area code has to be a separate account meaning that you’re paying the $45 rate plus fees per phone, not the additional line fee. I found that out first-hand. I’m looking at the bill for one phone on one account canceled after 8 days of WFM service and the total was $15.97. Included in that is a charge for $0.97 for regulatory programs fee and $3 for government taxes and fees. Since I canceled the account, I cannot pay online and have to either pay at Walmart Money Center or pay by phone. Since pay by phone is a $5 charge per account, I went to Walmart Money Center. I made a total of 3 different visits to Walmart Money Center and their own system would not allow me to pay. I got the $5 charges waived by calling T-Mobile from the Money Center and having the Walmart rep work with T-Mobile to get the $ charges waived. Also note that you cannot send in a check as they don’t allow it. I asked if there was any way that didn’t have a fee attached and they said that what I was doing was the correct way. When I said that Money Center couldn’t allow me to pay the bill, they said they didn’t have any alternative answer to fix things. I hate it when you do everything honestly and properly and still lose time and have to deal with companies like this.
If it helps, in my previous comment, I am billed in IL, so the taxes for you may be different. My bill end date is 3/22/12.
THIS COMPANY IS SHOTTY AND DOES NOT WORK , I SADLY HAD THIS SERVICE FOR 3 MONTHS AND IT NEVER WORKED FOR ME , I THOUGHT IT WAS MY PHONE THAT WAS THE PROBLEM. SO I TOOK MY PHONE TO TONS OF WALMARTS TO GET IT FIXED. HAD THE SIM CARD REPLACED, IT WAS THE SERVICE, CANCLED IT , BUT I GOT OVER CHARGED , BEING A WALMART EMPLOYEE , THEY OVERCHARGED ME , BUT THEY DID NOT WANT TO REFUND ME FOR WHAT THEY OVERCHARGED ME OR THE CRAPPY SERVICE!!!!!! AND I WORK FOR THE COMPANY.
I will never recommend this company to ANYONE!I got the service and everything kept acting up with my service and i paid the bill always on time. Finally I got fed up with not being able to have phone calls without it messing up and never having my txting work. So, I canceled the service and the walmart employee told me the service was deactivated and also said I would never be billed again for the service since it was shut off. A month later I recieved a bill for almost /$200. I called to find out what was going on and of course they tried to blame it on the walmart employee saying they must not of turned the service off. They still are trying to make ME pay even though it was walmarts SHITTY ASS service!!!!!!!!! If anyone is thinking about walmart my family mobile plan… DO NOT GO THROUGH WITH IT!!!! They will tell you whatever you want to hear so they get you to buy their service and in the end you are fucked over. Because of walmarts bullshit company my credit is now going to be fucked up because i refuse to pay for somethin I DO NOT OWE!!!!!!!!
This is the WORST customer service I have ever experienced. They transferred my phone number without my permission as I had cancelled the service and returned the phone the day after I bought it. If you call the customer service number, they understand but have no authority to do anything except tell you to email the credit request department. That person totally missed the point that they did not have my permission to transfer my number and said that “per their research” I owed them money for the time it took me to get my number back. It’s been two months, numerous phone calls, emails and contacting Walmart Corporate offices and still no resolution. One of the managers at the store where I purchased the phone even had to email them as they don’t even have the ability to call someone that could actually do something about it. After a week of not hearing anything, he had to resend the email. I have little faith that the company will ever do anything without getting State and Federal authorities involved. I have filed a complaint with the FCC. I encourage everyone else to do the same. If there are enough complaints filed, maybe the FCC will step in and protect the consumer. Now it’s time to contact my state’s Attorney General, the Better Business Bureau and our local consumer advocate. I refuse to pay for a service that should never have been connected!
Kayla – Contact the three credit reporting agencies = Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Tell them you are in a dispute with Walmart Family Mobile and provide them with all of your information regarding the transaction, receipts, cancellation paperwork, whatever you have to support your claim. Try to do it before the account goes into collections if at all possible. Everyone has the right to dispute a collections claim against them, be professional, explain what happened and why you are disputing their claim. The credit bureaus will often work with you to try to clear it up and clear your record. And, as I said in my other statement, file a claim with the FCC, your state’s Attorney General’s office and the Better Business Bureau. Maybe Walmart will take notice and clean up the issues with the vendor handling their mobile plan.
Not true guys, I can get short message texts from my bank, the local radio station, credit union, etc. I think a lot of the bugs that were there back when the service was first offered have been cleared up. So far, I’ve been quite satisfied with WFM (as a previous T-mobile customer).
so let me try and save you some time. Yes you can take a T-mobile phone and put it on a Family Mobile account and even the other way around if you ever wanted too. An associate will not be able to tell you the total amount of your bill because each zip code is a different tax rate and can get pretty complicated with all the factors. When you go into one of the Walmart stores to ask for help ask for a connection center associate. An electronics sales person may have no idea about the phones.
You cannot pay your final bill by mail at all. You must pay in the store for an additional $0.88 fee or call them and pay an additional $5.00 fee. If the pin is incorrect, you cannot access the account by phone to pay it at all.
I tried to pay mine, but the pin was changed. They claim someone in my household called to change it, but I’m the only one with account access. Needless to say, it was a frustrating phone conversation with customer service. They refused to take my payment and kept referring me to the store. Now I have to take the time to try to pay my final bill. I hope that’s not a major problem to do in the store, as well.
I don’t agree with having to pay additional fees on the final bill just to make a payment. That alone will keep me from ever using their service again.
Family mobile is a joke. DO NOT GET THIS SERVICE, you will end up as frustrated as I am. I never did get any service after it was activated. I paid 25.00 for the sim card and activation fees, never received service. Then they had enough nerve to send me a bill.
Worst Company I have ever dealt with. They are charging me for service on a phone that was returned during buyer remorse period. Customer service reps over the phone cannot do any adjustments. I have had to email all receipts…I have not heard back from anyone in weeks and they are still charging for a service I do not have!!! BEWARE
I would not recommend Walmart My Family Mobile through T-Mobile at ALL. This is by far the worst phone company I have ever dealt with. The phone was purchased and activated late September for my daughter. In mid-December, the phone stopped having service (only available for emergency calls) after I had just paid for it a week ago. I called customer service after she didn’t have service for two days and they told me it was still in service. The representative had me restart the phone a few times and after a few tries, it was able to make calls again. However, that only lasted for two days before it showed no service again (couldn’t make/receive calls, texts, etc- not only in our town but anywhere we went).
Since the plan is advertised as no-contract, I figured I would just let the days run out (which would have been end of December) with the phone inactivating itself like how all other no-contract phones do. However, to my surprise, I received a bill in early February (although it was dated January 19th) stating I owed EVEN WHEN THERE HADN’T BEEN ANY SERVICE SINCE MID-DECEMBER (the phone is still working- meaning it turns on/off, etc but does NOT have service- can’t make/receive calls/texts/etc) and that the service would be suspended for non-payment. Anyway, I forgot about it until March when I called to pay for it and they told me it was TWICE the amount of the last bill I received. I was furious! I explained that the phone hadn’t had service since mid-December and that I had called previously about the phone not working and that if they checked the records, they would SEE that the phone hasn’t been used since mid-December (because it wasn’t working). First, the guy was saying that I added data service which caused the increase. Then he said he wasn’t sure and that the only way to get it resolved with through email with customer relations and he gave me the email to customer relations. I even took a picture of the bill I received stating the cancellation and last payment due of $36.91. Their customer relations argued about it stating it wasn’t a complete bill yet because my service didn’t end until February (when it hasn’t been in service since December AND when the letter dated 01/19/15 stated the service was canceled for non-payment). Their customer service is so, extremely poor and after going back and forth a few times, I went ahead and paid for it through the phone system a few days later for the increased amount (since you can’t access the account online after it’s closed, and they charge if you pay through a rep). I didn’t want it to become more of a hassle and be handed to a creditor. Today, I received ANOTHER bill for an even higher amount!!!!!! Grrrr, I have never been so angry with any phone carriers in my life!!! To say the least, the service is a scam!!!!!!!!
I was hoping the no-contract plan would work for me. Well, sometimes things are too good to be true! I bought the sim card and registered it but we couldn’t get it to work. I took back to the store and they couldn’t get it to work either. I never asked for a refund as I figured the package was opened and therefore useless. I chalked it up to a $25.00 mistake. NOW, I get a bill in the mail for past due payment. I called to cancel the plan and they could not do that as I don’t know/have a pin# They told me to e-mail customer relations. I did and was told once again they could not do that for me without a pin# They said I have to go back to the store, with two forms of I.D. to cancel the plan! All I wanted to do was pay the past due and cancel the plan that I didn’t even know I had! Terrible service in the store and terrible customer service reps who can’t do anything!!! Beware buyers-!