Why Wal-Mart Will Refuse to Sell You Prepaid Cell Phones
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A few weeks ago we came up with the idea of doing some activation guides for the prepaidreviews.com site. My boss asked me to run up to Wal-Mart and grab every prepaid phone they sold. Now, I’m not a big Wal-Mart fan (reading The Wal-Mart Effect definitely had an impact on me) but they had the largest selection, so off I went. What should have been a 30 minute trip (like over 50% of Americans, I live within five miles of a Wal-Mart) turned into a four hour ordeal. I’m still in awe of the entire fiasco. Note: associates names have been changed for privacy issues.
I head to the electronics department, find the nearest salesperson and tell him I’d like to buy some prepaid phones. The prepaid phones are locked into the racks and require a sales associate to unlock them (it’s at times like these I’m in love with the online shopping revolution). A very nice associate named Tom tells me “no problem” and locates a set of keys to open the racks. He asks me which phone I want and I say, “I’d like to buy one of each brand.”Tom gives me a puzzled look, and I quickly explain that I work for a website that reviews the phone providers and we were working on a project and needed one from each carrier. Tom smiles and makes small talk about how he goes online sometimes to find car parts (at this exact moment, I realize that not everyone spends 12 hours a day online). He collects my phones (seven in total) and walks me over to the register.Then another sales associate named Tara looks at me, then at Tom and finally at the phones and says to Tom, “you know he can’t buy all those phones”. Tom looks puzzled for a second and then his eyes light up with recognition. He turns to me and says, “I’m sorry sir, she’s right. We can’t sell you more than two phones”.
Me: “What do you mean you can’t sell me more than two phones?”
Tom looks at Tara, who looks and me and says, “It’s the law sir. We can’t sell any individual person more than two phones”.
Me: “At one time?”
Tara: “No, total.”
Me: “You mean I can’t come back tomorrow and buy two more phones if I purchase two today?”
Tara: “Not if one of us is on shift. Now that we’ve seen you, we can’t sell you more than two phones.”
Me: “Are you serious?”
Tara: “Yes, sir.”
Me: “Why can’t I buy more than two phones?”
Tara: “We can’t sell them to you by law.”
Me: “What law? Why would it be against the law for me to buy more than two prepaid phones?”
Tara: “Because they’ve been commonly used in drug deals.”
Another female sales associate who had by this time to come over to hear the commotion - I didn’t catch - nods in agreement.
Me: “So you’re telling me you can’t sell me more than two phones, because I might be a drug dealer?”
Tom: “It’s not that we think YOU are a drug dealer sir. That’s just the law.”
Me: “So what if I was a grandmother, with more than two grandchildren, and wanted to buy each one a phone for Christmas?” Tom: “We could only sell you two.” Me: “So, I’d have to bring a second person with me, pretend they’re not with me, and purchase two phones and have them purchase the third?”
Tara: “If we realized that was what you were doing, we couldn’t sell you the phones.”
Me: “This is insane. Can I speak with a manager?”
Tara: “He’s not here at the moment, but I’m next in charge.”
Me: “Fine, please ring me up for the T-Mobile and the Virgin Mobile phones then please.”
This was crazy. There was actually a law that prevented me from purchasing more than two prepaid cell phones? Yes, because, if I make my living dealing drugs, I’d respect that law and not go to 14 different stores purchasing phones instead. I was completely livid with whoever made this “law” and I now was short several of the prepaid phones I had been sent to buy. I hopped in my car and headed across the street to Circuit City.
I quickly saw the Verizon booth and walked over to buy a phone. I informed the sales associate that I wanted to buy a prepaid phone. She asked me which one. I said it didn’t really matter. She told me to come pick a phone and she’d activate it for me. I explained to her that I needed it un-activated and after getting a puzzled look, why I needed it that way.
Verizon Associate: “I’m sorry Sir. I cannot sell you an un-activated phone.”
Me: “Why not?”
Verizon Associate: “I’m not really sure. But that’s our policy.”
Me: “So, I can buy an un-activated Verizon prepaid phone in Wal-Mart, but I can’t buy one un-activated from Verizon?”
Verizon Associate: “That’s correct.”
By this point, I’m looking around for a Candid Camera like gag show (I’d say Punk’d, but I’m not a celebrity no matter what my mom thinks seeing my bylines online might mean). Disappointed, I walk over and find a phone from Amp’d Mobile (my Circuit City only carries Amp’d and Verizon prepaid phones).
I take my un-activated Amp’d Mobile phone up to the register. As the cashier is ringing it up I ask her, “Just out of curiosity, if I wanted to purchase ten of these phones right now, could I?” and watch her look at me like I’m some kind of freak in response. “You can buy as many as you want,” she replies. I feel compelled at this point to prove that I’m not a freak, and tell her what Wal-Mart told me, “I only ask because Wal-Mart just told me there was a law that they couldn’t sell me more than two phones.” For some reason, I immediately feel fear. What if she rips the phone out of my hand realizing I’ve already bought my mandated by law limit of two prepaid phones? I try not to look nervous and await her answer. She mumbles, “Well, if there is a law, no one told me” and hands me my bag and receipt.
I head out the front door of Circuit City, tuck the bag under my arm (after checking to make sure you couldn’t see through it to realize what was inside) and head into Office Depot next door.
I locate the prepaid phones and see that they have TracFone, Net10 and T-Mobile available. I pick up one of the TracFone models (the C139) and one of the Net10 models (also a C139) and stand there staring at the twenty dollar price difference between the two identical phones (Net10 is really TracFone, so the “double the price” difference made me chuckle).
I shake my head and take my two new “illegal purchases” to the register, leaving the T-Mobile I had already purchased at Wal-Mart behind. I wait in line and eventually hand the phones to the cashier to ring up.
Repeating the process, but choosing my words more wisely this time I ask, “If I wanted to buy ten of these right now, could I?” The cashier looked at me and said, “I think we only have eight in stock.” I smiled and said, “but if I wanted to buy them all, I could?” trying not to look guilty as hell. She looked confused. I said someone told me there might be some law against buying a large amount of prepaid phones. She responded with, “well, maybe because we have such a small selection, we weren’t told about this law.” At this point, I was the one looking confused. I was too tired to point out the flaws in that statement.
I took my phones and headed back to the car. I had five phones in all. I felt a somewhat perverse sense of joy at knowing in spite of “the law” I was racking up prepaid phones. Not because I wanted to break the law. But because from the moment I was told about it, it was the stupidest thing I had ever heard and here I was proving it. But, at the same time, I’m starting to wonder why two stores hadn’t heard of this supposed law. I still needed more phones.
On my way to the next store, Target, I called the office and explained that I had “run into a problem” and that I’d explain when I got back. I then called a friend and asked him to see if he could do an online search on this supposed law and see if it brought anything up. While I drove the ten minute drive to Target, I started to wonder. Since Wal-Mart was the only store citing this law of the three I had visited, maybe this was a Wal-Mart thing and not a legal issue. I pulled into the Target parking lot, parked and headed inside.
I found the prepaid phones, but like Wal-Mart, they were locked into the rack. I hit the button to call over a sales associate and waited. A woman who looked annoyed that I was interrupting her came over and asked what I needed. I had already perused the phone selection while waiting and saw they only had one that I didn’t already have in my possession - Boost Mobile. After she unlocked my selection, I asked “If I wanted to buy ten phones right now, could I?” She had already gone behind the register and gave me an even more annoyed look and replied, “So now you want ten?” I told her, “No, I just want to know if I could buy ten” to which she responded, “If you can afford it.” Wow, I guess she really paid attention to the “we care about customer service” video she watched during her training.
Purchase in hand, I headed back out to the car. I now had six phones. I was completely convinced this was a Wal-Mart issue at this point and Wal-Mart number 2 (as I said, there are three in our county) was my next stop.
I located the electronics section after a minute or two (this Wal-Mart is much newer and set up differently than the first one I visited) and found they had two phones I didn’t have. I walked up to the register to have the sales associate (who I later found out was Ann) unlock them for me. She was having a conversation with a man she had already finished ringing up. Ann finally finishes her chat and asks me if she can help me. I show her the two phones I’d like - a Cingular Go Phone and a Verizon Wireless prepaid phone (in all of its un-activated glory) and while she is unlocking them, I ask the same tired question, “If I wanted to buy ten of these right now, could I?” and Ann looks at me and says flatly, “No.”
AH-HA, this wasn’t a law at all but a Wal-Mart thing! I ask Ann why I can’t purchase more than two cell phones. She replies, “Well, there is a certain type of business that is interested in these phones, so we cannot sell more than two to any one person in any one day.” I ask, “So I can’t buy the phone because I might be a drug dealer?” thinking back to what Tara at Wal-Mart number 1 had said and she responds, “Well, yeah, that is one type of business who likes these phones. But, what I was referring to were cell phone dealers.”
I’m more than a little confused, and Ann can see this, so she continues on to explain to me that they’ve had a problem with cell phone dealers coming in and buying up the prepaid phones and selling them as contract phones after replacing the SIM cards. I ask Ann, “So, this is a Wal-Mart policy then, and not a law?” and she confirms that to be the case. I ask her for the number to call Wal-Mart corporate and she walks away to locate it. After a few minutes, she comes back, “1-800-WAL-MART”. I buy my phones and head out to my car, dialing 1-800-WAL-MART as I go.
I bounce through some voice activated menus and finally get a human on the phone. I explain that my local Wal-Mart stores have informed me that I can’t buy more than two prepaid phones and that it was a Wal-Mart corporate policy. I explained to the person on the other end of the phone that I’d like to know WHY it was a Wal-Mart policy (never revealing the stories Tara and Ann gave me). She explained that only district managers could quote store policy to me, and that if I’d give her my zip code, she’d give me the number for my local district manager. We exchanged information and I hung up. Next, I dial the number for the district manager. A woman answers the phone and explains that the district manager is busy and that maybe she can help me. I explain that the main Wal-Mart number told me only a district manager could quote me policy, so I’d just leave a message for him. She responded that my information “wasn’t correct” and that she could quote me store policy if I’d simply explain to her what I needed clarification on. By this point, I’m back at the office. I walk in with five bags containing eight phones, four hours after I’d left with my phone glued to my ear. I wave away the stares silently going “where the heck have you been and why do you have bags from every electronics store in the county?” and walk over to my desk.
I explain to the woman on the phone that I was told I couldn’t buy more than two prepaid phones due to a Wal-Mart policy and that I wanted to know if that was true and if it was, why. She told me she’d check and give me a call back. A few minutes later, she calls me back and says that yes, it is indeed a Wal-Mart policy not to sell a person more than two prepaid phones. However, she said that the official policy was that they “could not sell more than two phones per person, not per household, per day”. So, Tara was clearly not listening on Wal-Mart policy day. I asked why this was an official policy (again, I stayed mum about what Tara and Ann had told me) and she said she wasn’t really sure, but that she could find out and give me a call back.
Feeling a sudden pang of full disclosure, I told the woman, “In the interest of full disclosure, I am going to tell you that I’m a writer for a prepaid cell phone site and I’d suggest having the manager call me back with the reason behind the policy, as it will be quoted in an article I plan to write on my experience today.” She said, “You’re a reporter?” and I said, “Somewhat” and she stammered, “I’ll have someone call you back.” And that was the last I ever heard from Wal-Mart on the topic as my subsequent calls were never returned.
I sat back in my desk and it was then that I felt the eyes piercing the back of my skull. “What was that all about?” one of my co-workers asked motioning to my phone and then looking at my pile of bags on the floor and the pile of receipts I had taken out of them while on the phone and placed on my desk.
“Well,” I said, “Wal-Mart has a corporate policy on not allowing any one person to purchase more than two prepaid phones in one day.” My co-worker responded, “Why on earth would they make a rule like that?” I answered, “Well, I’m not really sure. From what I can piece together from the reasons I was given by store employees, they think I’m a drug dealer, or a cell phone dealer, but either way, it would seem that Wal-Mart has decided that buying more than two phones likely makes me a dealer of some kind and has a blanket policy refusing to sell more than two to me in one day.”*
The fruits of that day’s labor - eight phones in all
*Please note: As mentioned above, we were never able to get an official comment from Wal-Mart on why they have this policy about prepaid phones. I’m only recounting my experience and interpretation of the day’s events. Phone calls requesting clarification for the reason behind this policy were not returned.
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I think if they just said company policy from the get go it would have been a little bit easier to swallow. Companies can set up any policy they want even if it doesn’t make much sense.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 10:57 am
I wonder if Wal-mart have any restrictions on how many guns you can buy at one time?
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 11:30 am
True, they do have the right to set up any policy they want. But if their policies end up hindering the consumer, then, well, it’s not a good policy.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 11:31 am
Having been in the cellphone business a whie, the reason behind it is very simple: these phones are fairly heavily subsidized by the carrier or store. They make up the loss in expensive minutes, or longterm plans. They also tend to be sim-locked to the carrier to prevent customers from buying these subsidized phones and using them with cheaper plans, but those are easily defeated. If you buy umpteen cellphones chances are you’re not going to be a heavy user of their minutes. In other words, this is simply WM protecting their profit margins. In Europe, where I operate, the same is true for lots of supermarkets and department stores doing cheap phone promotions.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 1:34 pm
As a former Wal-Mart manager I have to say that Wal-Mart policies are geared toward protecting Wal-Mart (profitability) and nobody else. I am now a local small-business owner and I have been told by current Wal-Mart management that they wish to discourage me from buying products from their store for resale. I do not do that because they sell low-quality merchandise but I can understand that they are threatened by every aspect of competition. As far as prepaid phones are concerned, Bram is correct in his assessment. Wal-Mart makes a commission on all contracts for full-service phones so they wish to prevent other dealers from cutting in on their profit.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 2:38 pm
You’ve got to be kidding me! I read this whole long rant titled “Why Wal-Mart Will…” and the last paragraph just says you don’t know WHY?!
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Actually, it does say why they won’t let you buy prepaid phones - if you want more than TWO is the reason. What they don’t seem to know definitively is why buying more than two is a problem.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 2:44 pm
It is probably not just the Drug dealers and people like that. It is mostly the illegal immigrants. The people who bring them across the border will usually set them up with a phone and other stuff to get them started. It is well known in the cell phone market that if you speak Spanish you can make a killing and if you are close to Mexico even better.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:04 pm
The Simple reason for this is that wal-mart have under priced so much that in this case it is hurting them. They are selling these prepaid phones for cheaper than they are actually buying them for and then making a small amount of money back from the carrier. They are afraid and have probably had other cell phone dealers and just regular people buying them and reselling them for a profit. It is their own fault. They shouldnt try and underprice everyone out of business and then wonder why it would come back to hurt them in any way.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Rubber neck corporate response! Remember last summer when 3 guys hit the news as possible terrorists. They were arrested after buying 80 phones from Walmart.
Arrest Story
The case was thrown out lacking evidence.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:09 pm
BFD. Wal-Mart won’t sell you more then 2 phones, who cares.
You may as well write about K-Mart not letting you buy more then two folding tables that are on sale.
While the article was written fairly well it had no climax and relatively pointless.
That’s my two cents.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:18 pm
I was curious so I tried going to walmart.com to see what would happen. I was able to put lots of different pre-paid phones in the cart, but if I tried to change the quantity of any particular phone to something more than 2 I got an error saying “We’ve changed your requested quantity to what is available for purchase now…” and the quantity gets limited to 2.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I can shed some light on this situations for you. The Wal-mart issue deals with laws about selling cell phones. They have no control over the laws passed by lawmakers. As for the Verizon store they don’t have control either and they were probably third party. When these franchise stores buy phones from the service provider they pay full unactivated price. Its set up so they only make money off phones that are activated. If the compay has a few stores they pay the same price you would buy for. Most people would say alright well then as a customer service standpoint you should just sell us the phone. This from a business standpoint however doesn’t work. Shipping on a hundred plus phones can run a campany a couple hundred dollars. Therefore every time the business orders phones and sells them unactivated they are running a loss. That loss might be only five or ten dollars to the business but it also ties up inventory and forces them to pay hundreds more dollars to order more phones.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Man thats screwed up.
Very cool article.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:29 pm
In my Wal-Mart training, they were really vague on a lot of things. They also tend to really blur the lines between ‘company policy’ and ‘law.’ I think part of it is because you’re more likely to bend the rules if it’s just policy than if it’s law and the other part is that the information gets filtered through so many channels before it reaches the associate that nobody really knows the full truth.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Remember the arab guys who were arrested for buying a ton of these. They were “terrorists” because one had a picture of a bridge and a bunch of cell phones. Typical clueless LEO arrested the guys, then had to release them without any charges. It was then established they’d buy the phones, change out the sim cards and sell them back in their country of origin for a profit. Expecting Wal-Mart employees to know anything is goofy.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I had this happen to me when I worked at Target. A guy tried to buy 5 phones at a time, but when the manager came over, he said we could only sell him two. After buying two, and yelling some more, the manager allowed him to buy the rest, but only with two on a receipt. So this isn’t limited to Wal-Mart, it’s just a poorly followed guideline.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I was a video game store, and the day after thanksgiving took every cheap phone radio shack had, but they limited you 2 per person, and said dealers not welcomed.
So not just walmart has the policy, radio shack as well had the policy.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Wal-Mart has ALL kinds of weird issues - mostly due to the fact that they like to be the ‘moral’ police. I assume it is from some kind of ‘family values’ thing -
Did you know that EVERY CD you purchase at a Wal-Mart is a ‘clean’ CD? You don’t even have a choice of purchasing a ‘parental advisory’ CD! - which doesn’t make any sense - because you can buy an R rated DVD just down the isle.
So I imagine the first girl had actually been told the ‘drug dealer’ story - as part of the ‘family values’ package you have to buy into there to be an employee.
Just another reason not to shop there.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I guess if you want to buy more than 2 cellphones from Walmart they have to be made in China.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Im my town we had a story of people buying many phones. They were later arrested and authorities found plans to use the wireless phones as remote explosives to blow up a bridge. From that point on stores limited purchases.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 4:01 pm
As a Target electronics employee I can tell you that Target has the same policy about 2 phones in effect. I assumed you didn’t buy a huge amount of phones from that rude team member but the register will limit us to selling 2 phones per transaction. We have had numerous problems with cell phone dealers buying 10 phones before this policy was put into place. Personally if you wanted to buy one of each phone we sold, I have no issue with that so I would just do multiple transactions from multiple registers and sell them to you, Wal-Mart was simply being rude when they told you that. I do get upset when specific phones were purchased in quantities buy some guy and then I have none left when real consumers come looking for the phone. I think these policies are both a blessing and a curse
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Worst Article Ever. You certainly are not a reporter, and I think you made half of this up.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 4:06 pm
The practice that Walmart and RadioShack and other retailers are trying to avoid is called arbitrage. These phones are discounted at retailers and these retailers recieve commissions based on these phones being activated. If these phones are not activated, the retailers are just turning phones, not making anything on them. Phones like the NOKIA 1100 Trackphones, came be unlocked and sold in markets like china for much more than they cost on the shelves at walmart.
Cellular dealers often build complex buying plans to collect 500-1000 of these phones and sell them overseas. Retailers placed limits, because they were not making money on the transactions. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060217-6205.html
shows how tracphone has tried to stop this practice.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 4:07 pm
As much as this rule may seem odd, I doubt that it is an inconvenience to many consumers. I found it odd that you would choose to semi-bash Wal-Mart for being consistant with their policy at several location. No one is forcing you to buy your phones at Wal-Mart, and I don’t hear everyone cry when every other store has a product on sale - limit 2 per customer.
Get over it.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Frank, I couldn’t have made this up even if I tried and I never claimed to be a reporter. Thus my response of “somewhat” - it is easier than explaining the online media world, what a blog is and what I do for a living.
Tyler - the phones were not on sale. I wanted to purchase them at full price. Sales increase demand - this was not the case. I also did not try to buy them out of one particular carrier. I wanted one each of the carriers they had - and they had a minimum of five phones from each carrier.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 4:12 pm
every time there is a terrorist bust they find trunk loads of these phones.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 4:12 pm
And thanks to everyone posting their experiences and knowledge of the retailer side of the cellular industry. It has been interesting to research every angle that’s been posted.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Engadget Mobile on the topic
ABC News on the topic
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 4:40 pm
What, don’t you guys watch The Wire on HBO? There was a major part of the storyline a season or two back about buying “burners”, prepaid phones they could use once or twice and dump in the trash, and the difficulty of the cops getting “blanket” warrants to wiretap them.
Cool show, btw. Ranks up there with Deadwood and Sopranos for “politics in action”.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Now your ready to do some drug deals apparently, or maybe conduct some terrorist business.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 5:08 pm
[...] it is the law - which is what happens when you tell people to do things without explaining why. Why Wal-Mart Will Refuse to Sell You Prepaid Cell Phones: He collects my phones (seven in total) and walks me over to the register.Then another sales [...]
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 6:30 pm
The prepaids are sold below their true cost by the plan providers. Organized groups were buying large numbers & selling them to locations outside the US where they are unlocked for use by service providers other than originally intended. The groups were making $5-$10 profit per phone when they sold them in bulk…
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 7:00 pm
As “Cell Dealer” above states, Radio Shack and other dealers are paid a commission on every phone sold. I am personally responsible for the “five cell phone limit” for Sprint phones. Back in 2000 I had a man come into our store and buy 30 phones at a sale price that was half the normal price. Later that same day a woman came in and bought another 20 phones. The next day the man came back and wanted to know if we going to be getting more of those phones. I said the district was out and delivery of more was known. He confided that if we did get more in, to please call him, and he gave me his number, in Jamaica! Turned out he was buying them from us and reselling them for triple that price in Jamaica. The next week we got word that we could not sell more than five phones to any customer, activated, nor more than two phones unactivated. The district manager tol me we lost $10,000 on my two transactions. And the customers who did want that phone to use, left empty-handed. As a stroe corporate manager what woul you have decided?
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 7:03 pm
You sir are an idiot. I would assume, and your second rep makes this seem the reason, that Wal-Mart doesn’t profit on these phones. Much like their CD’s, video games, etc. they are there to get people in the door and small dealers would buy up everything to resell at a profit. Rather than coming to this obvious conclusion you spend hours and hours compiling and writing this story. I’d fire you.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Wal-Mart does make money on these phones, but not much. As for the 2 phone rule, that is a policy that Wal-Mart created to ward of heat from the federal government. In some cities over 50% of the GSM (T-Mobile and Cingular) phones are purchased by third parties and taken overeseas and sold. The reason is because GSM phones can be used with foreign sim cards overseas.
These phones, believe it or not, have been linked to terrorist activities; ie bombmaking. These phones can be connected to a bomb and when called, they trigger the bomb to blow.
That my friend, is why Wal-Mart refuses to sell phones more than 2 at a time.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 9:30 pm
quit complaining. i work at a retail store now where we sell prepaid phones and we cant sell more than 2. we had a bunch of foreign people come in and buy like 15 at a time once. they had hit up the local dollar general stores and such and bought a lot from them too. the police got suspicious and we can only sell 2 at a time and we have to see a driver’s license and write down the information in a book. if they refuse…too bad, i dont have to put up with their crap. but yeah dont blame the guy at the desk… he’s just doing what he is told.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 9:42 pm
my guess is that it is because walmart might actually be losing money on every prepaid unactivated phone they sell (at least for verizon). Thats why some stores will only sell them to you activated on service.
Posted on June 21st, 2007 at 11:56 pm
There is a rather easy hack for this. Walk out side and look for 5 people. Now I prefer looking for what most people consider ‘bums’ the worst the smell the better the choice. If all of the bums have been chased off by the walmart greater police then choose walmart next to a big box home store (aka homedepot) they seem to have a never empty pool of local labor available. Higher these plebes, give them cash, walk each in to the store have each request two phones. Walk them all up to the register and as they are rung up give each the cash to pay for the phones and a few extra bones, hey these guys gotta eat. Take from the phone. Now you have followed Walmart policy, no one person bought more then 2 phones from them. Not only that you helped a few members of the proletariat (the very people walmart claims to support) earn enough for a Dollar Meal. Finally you got to show the other walmart shoppers and staff where they are dragging their wages to as support a beast that is in a race to the bottom. Its a Win all around!
Btw the same trick works for students that have money stored on their campus food account. Bring in a few bums and buy the lunch when you need to burn through that cash you aren’t using. That will teach them to steal unused account balance.
Posted on June 22nd, 2007 at 12:35 am
Actually there is a law out there were you can only buy 2 prepaid phones at a time. As an employee of a major retailer I know this for a fact. Its part of Homeland Security. In some adds for major retailers it will actually say Homeland Security. Retailers can be fined heavily for selling more than two prepaid phones on a receipt.
Posted on June 22nd, 2007 at 12:45 am
It could be some agreement that walmart has made with the people they buy their phones from. Wal-mart always negotiates for the lowest price and they can do it because they move so much merchandise. So part of their agreement might limit the number of phones they can sell to one person.
Posted on June 22nd, 2007 at 12:04 pm
As a former Target electronics employee, I can say that I was told that we could not sell more than two prepaid cell phones at one time. The reason was because they were being sold at other stores under contracts. I guess the woman at Target was not listening on that day either.
Posted on June 23rd, 2007 at 10:17 am
As many people have already commented, and what is actually fairly obvious and widely practiced by retailers, products are sold underpriced leading to a losses. It’s a type of sales promotion. It’s a common marketing pricing strategy. Products sold like this are known as ‘Loss Leaders’.
Posted on June 23rd, 2007 at 10:35 am
*typo.
‘..a loss’.
Posted on June 23rd, 2007 at 11:04 am
Actually it’s a provider rule at least in ATT(Cingular) , you can only buy 3
Posted on June 24th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
I worked in LP for one of these stores. The problem with the multiple phones thing isnt necessarily a “drug dealer” issue. Drug dealers mainly use Boost Mobile phones because lookouts can beep someone of the cop’s coming without taking their hands out of their pockets.
The main reason I heard was that the phones are being shipped to the middle east to be stripped and used as remote detonators for IEDs (I reckon they do this because they dont have radio shacks over there).
We were told to watch them, and that our info would be forwarded to the Department of Homeland security.
So yeah, not drug dealers, not a thing to get you to buy their plan (who really needs more than one phone anyhow?), more a terrorism kinda thing. For some reason in our area it was ALWAYS middle eastern folk, not being racist, just pointing out an observation.
Posted on June 27th, 2007 at 3:31 am
[...] weeks ago, Steve ranted to y’all about his less than ideal experience when trying to buy a slew of prepaid cell phones. We thank all the commenters who posted reasons [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2007 at 9:41 am
[...] and apparently, you can’t buy more than two prepaid cellular phones per day at Walmart. Is this the stupidest rule or [...]
Posted on July 11th, 2007 at 8:55 am
[...] So there is evidently a policy from wal-mart that they will not sell any more than 2 prepaid phones to one person. The reason? Pretty much they underpricing everybody so much dealers, and pretty much anyone on the street, can go buy the prepaid phones at wal-mart without any service and resale them at a profit. The truth is Wal-Mart sales the phones cheaper than you can buy the phones directly from the dealer as one of their agents or somewhere else. Evidently Wal-Mart has this vast need to sell that many prepaid phones that they are selling them probably cheaper than what they are actually buying them. In which they make the money back from the service providers after they are activated. Which by their pricing can not be very much that they are making per phone. You can read the full and actual story at this blog. [...]
Posted on July 19th, 2007 at 8:29 am
[...] But apparently Wal-Mart is still phone-shy after the incident and has implemented a policy masquerading as a law to thwart anyone wishing to buy more than a couple of phones. From Prepaid Reviews: [...]
Posted on August 4th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
[...] goes a long way in helping explain the Wal Mart incident. They have been selling Tracfones for as long as we can remember, so it would make sense that [...]
Posted on August 8th, 2007 at 9:01 am
[...] Why Wal-Mart Will Refuse to Sell You Prepaid Cell Phones Feeling a sudden pang of full disclosure, I told the woman, ?In the interest of full disclosure, I am going to tell you that I?ma writer for a prepaid cell phone site and I?d suggest having the manager call me back with the reason … [...]
Posted on August 21st, 2007 at 1:09 am
Here is why they DONT WANT to sell you more than 2 phones. A couple of years ago they arrested several terrorist in the west coast with thousands of prepay phones and guess who sold the phones to them. WALMART. for that reason they dont want the bad PR. now take the 2 phones and be happy.
Posted on August 31st, 2007 at 11:13 pm
The carrier or private label dont care about the price after all they dont make money off the phones they make money of the plans. So the cheap price is not the reason is the bad PR they got several years ago about the terrorist buying prepaid phones from walmart.
Posted on August 31st, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Boy that was an amazing storey you told, I did not know that bying a cell phone was such an issue. I can’t believe one of my favorite stores has such a assinnine/stupid policy. boy this makes me think twice about bying a phone at wal-mart. Boy im lucky I don’t need more than two phones. WOW Wal-mart is amazingly dumb.
Posted on October 16th, 2007 at 8:28 am
I found this article on accident, searching for “Go Phones”. Very funny article. The conversation between you and the Wal-Mart employees sounded like Catch-22. Heller would be proud!
Posted on October 26th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
[...] giving: limiting unauthorized resellers. As you know if you’re a regular reader of this site, that’s nothing new. Apple suits are giving us the same old song and dance. From spokeswoman Natalie Kerris: [...]
Posted on October 29th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I am a wal-mart employee,and i agree completly with kc’s comment.
Posted on November 2nd, 2007 at 5:41 am
I had the same thing happen to me. I have 3 girls and was in walmart trying to get 3 prepaid phones for them. The manager tells me it’s a law that they can’t sell more that 2 because of the terriorist act. When I informed him that I worked for the government and I would check it out, he looked as if I knew that he was lying. It’s amazing how people us the law for their own good.
Posted on December 22nd, 2007 at 4:34 am
As a Connection Center associate at Wal-Mart we now can only sell one prepaid cellphone per person. And 2 prepaid phones per party! and all this is per month. Its company policy And Also a Law Through the FBI but some stores are not aware of this law Here at wal-mart we also have to sell them activated!! This helps prevent Reselling and Making of IEDS OR VBIEDs which are the number one killers in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan!! If caught you can do prison time and be sued by every company like t-mobile tracphone att/cingular movida virginmobile and more!
Posted on January 18th, 2008 at 12:18 am
[...] If you’re new to the site, you may want to subscribe to the the feed.By this point, we know that certain companies will only sell you one or two prepaid phones at a time. It’s company policy, but a few retailers are trying to pass it off as law, which it is not. [...]
Posted on February 1st, 2008 at 11:30 am
I really think that Wal-Mart should sell prepaid flip camera phone for a low price like $30.00 for teens who can’t have real phones that are not prepaid.So please take what I said in consideration of doing because we really want prepaid flip camera phones.
Posted on April 7th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
That reminds me of a few Christmases ago. My mother and I were going to a party and were stocking up on batteries for the cameras. (I believe they were lithium ones?) Anyhow, at the cash register they could only allow us to buy a little under half of what we wanted.
A few days later, my cousin (who doesn’t exactly hang out with the right crowd if you know what I mean) heard about what happened. He told us about how certain kinds of batteries can be used to make illegal drugs.
I thought something similar to what you mentioned in your article. … If I was a drug maker, couldn’t I simply go to 10 different walmarts to stock up?
Posted on April 14th, 2008 at 8:32 am