Buying an iPhone at Walmart (product provided)
March 30, 2009
As you may be aware, I’ve been one of Walmart’s Elevenmoms since last August.
This year, Walmart started carrying the incredibly popular Apple iPhone at its stores that supply AT&T wireless service. In order to see how Moms (and in general, the average phone-buyer at Walmart) experienced the in-store process of buying the iPhone, we were asked if we wanted to participate in a program to evaluate & review the entire procedure at stores near us. It was a voluntary program, in return for which, we’d be allowed to keep the iPhone.
Despite my still unbridled affection for the Palm Treo 680 I’ve been using for about a year and a half now, I’ll admit that I was very curious about the iPhone and so I signed on for the review.
The Shopping Experience
A few of my fellow ElevenMoms had headed out before I had a chance to and reported back that not all stores seemed to have them. Given that a day spent with a squirrelly 6-year-old, driving from one store to another in order to find one that carried it near me sounded like a quick way to kidlet meltdown and parental frustration, I made a list of stores within reasonable driving distance, with their phone numbers, and handed it off to GeekDaddy.
Why hand it off to GeekDaddy? Well, to be honest, I’m not terribly fond of making phone calls. I have a tendency to get frustrated rather quickly when on the phone and figured that it was probably the better idea for him to call.
First, he called the store we usually shop at. He was transferred to the Electronics department and the guy at the phone desk. The response of “iPhones? We don’t carry iPhones” followed by being disconnected was certainly not what we expected – but it turns out that it was the better idea to have GeekDaddy call, because that would’ve set me off! When GeekDaddy called back to verify the information, whomever he spoke to (no name was given) only let him know “we don’t have AT&T phones” when directly queried. Unwilling to continue to drag info out of Mr. Less-than-helpful GeekDaddy moved on to the next store on the list.
This experience was night & day from the first one. I have no problem sharing with y’all the fact that Randy Brown on the phone desk at the Walmart at Chambers & Parker Rd in Aurora CO (Store #1689) was not only pleasant but incredibly helpful.
He told GeekDaddy that “not all stores have an agreement with AT&T – we only carry Verizon phones here. The stores that potentially have them are I-70 & Tower (#5334), E Hampden (#3566), Centennial (#3313), I-70 & Quebec (#3533) maybe Aurora Mall (#1492).” Seriously… he not only told us why some stores carried and some didn’t, but he also provided a list of nearby stores that should have them. That kind of customer service is refreshing.
Calling the rest of those stores let us know that many only had the 8-gigabyte iPhone in stock, and we were looking for the 16-gigabyte 3G iPhone. Two of the stores had the 16gb and they were about equidistant from Case de GeekFamily… but one of the sales reps was incredibly brusque and only quoted the price for the 8gb when asked if they had iPhones, and when asked if that was for the 16gb he replied that they ‘only had that in white’ and rattled off the price again.
At the other store, the Centennial store (#3313), the young lady on the phone was not only pleasant and polite, she was helpful and didn’t require GeekDaddy to drag information out of her slowly and painfully. So we opted to go there.
In The Store
We really should’ve taken the kidlet with us, but you know, some days you just don’t feel like dealing with it if you don’t have to and she was at my Mother-in-law’s playing away – so GeekDaddy & I just figured we’d run in and get it taken care of.
At the phone counter, we were met with a smile by a young woman named Shaina Lotko. Shaina was the one who had been so helpful on the phone earlier! She was also incredibly pleasant and professional in person – despite being nearly 7 months pregnant. Seriously, you can check with GeekDaddy but I’m fairly sure I was never that nice to anyone at any point when I was pregnant… so it was kind of notable!
Shaina was also terribly apologetic and sympathetic throughout the lengthy signup process that followed. Apologetic despite the fact that none of the delay was inside her control.
Over the course of the next hour and a half, I watched her have to consistently re-enter information that she’d already entered at least once. Sometimes having to do so multiple times. There were 2 systems – AT&T Wireless’s system and Walmart’s system – both of which seem to have be written by programmers who were of the ilk of student I used to have to fight the system to flunk when they couldn’t really pass my intro classes.
Seriously – the databases are clearly not well-architected and tables not linked. It was bad enough that both moved at the speed of dark and were clearly not talking to each other – but that they required the sales rep to continually enter information already entered with each new screen? Reprehensible.
Shaina did her best to be engaging while waiting for each new screen to enter and to allow her to go on to the next. But despite that, the process still took an hour and a half. This would’ve been unbearable had my 6 year old been with me instead of my husband. Even GeekDaddy’s legendary patience wore thin over the course of the signup. I can’t even imagine how frustrating it would be with more than one squirrelly, bored child.
Still – that fault lies with those who set up the process, not those who have to use it. Sadly, I expect that most Moms and buyers would not necessarily be aware of that… and might get frustrated with the sales clerk. I rather wonder if that might account for some of the less-than-cheerful voices on the phone. It must be frustrating to deal with customers who blame you for something taking this long when there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.
After we finally got through the lengthy setup process, Shaina helped us with adding on Apple Care and getting a bluetooth headset for it. She didn’t even break a sweat when my Walmart gift card with the money to pay for the phone & setup didn’t want to slide right through. She entered it manually and got us checked out and on our way as quickly as possible.
Summary
So, can you get an iPhone at Walmart without too much trouble? Yes, if you’re willing to be patient. I don’t know how long it takes to get one through an Apple store, given that I haven’t done it, but I do know that I wasn’t expecting it to take 1 1/2 hrs even though I knew exactly what I wanted.
Here are my tips if you decide to do it:
- Leave the kids at home. It’s just too long to have squirrelly, bored kids underfoot. Nevermind if you have questions first!
- Call ahead. Make sure the store you’re heading to has AT&T and has the phone you want in stock.
- Bring a book. Or something to distract you. I don’t know that you’ll be in a position to go shopping while the process finishes – there was the occasional question that couldn’t be answered just by looking at my Driver’s License, so you’ll probably need to be nearby.
- Don’t blame the clerk. If the process takes the 1 1/2 to 2 hrs that seem to be standard with the ElevenMoms, you can rest assured that it’s not the clerk’s fault s/he is just inputting things in the order they are asked for.
Meanwhile if you do decide to buy an iPhone at Walmart? Make sure to get the survey receipt so you can give them feedback on the process and if you get great service like I did from Shaina Lotko? Get the name of the person who helped you. Because it’s clear that not everyone has the patience it takes to do that job and still maintain a cheerful disposition – so it’s always good to let a store manager know when they’ve got an employee who does.
Administrative Note: the preceding post was not compensated monetarily. However, in conjunction with the review program, the phone and service were paid for by Walmart. This is often referred to as “soft compensation” by bloggers and advertisers. Since the point of the review was of the purchase process of the iPhone at Walmart, no review or endorsement of any sort for the iPhone itself is included herein. Neither Walmart nor any other agency had editorial input into this article, nor was the author in any way encouraged to represent anything other than her own personal opinion of the process.
Comments
10 Responses to “Buying an iPhone at Walmart (product provided)”
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I suppose if you weren’t getting a free iPhone you just shared the exact reasons to avoid buying an iPhone at Walmart. I know there were initial flaws in the process last July at Apple Stores, but hopefully Att & Walmart can iron out the time consuming process. My experience at the Apple Store was incredibly smooth and rather delightful, having an Apple rep share first hand tips after purchase.
denise: absolutely agreed… I hope Walmart and AT&T do iron out the process – I can’t imagine how frustrated I would’ve been if I had thought I could go shop or something during the process or if I had not already called around.
But I think the whole reason they had us do this is so that they know where the kinks are in the system so they can fix it *before* it’s a huge issue!
iPhone, all the hype but what do you really get? an mp3 player/mac/phone? are they really all they are cracked up to be… I mean for the expense. If they were a bit less on the wallet, ok, I can see the value, but someone needs to put these phone manufacturers in their place, I bought a cell phone to make calls, if I want to browse the web, I have my pc/laptop. Who wants to look at a webpage on that tiny screen. I mean, thats why they make larger monitors these days, everyone is squinting from the tiny lcd’ and gidgits and gizmos that bleep and go bump in the night. Again I am not knocking the “iPhone” lovers of the world, but I mean on launch… c’mon, really, stand in line for 3 days before, OMG (I know it is far removed from “launch” day) but still. It’s insane.
“Twittrblog” — Okay… no offense, but there’s no way that you read the blog post before commenting… since it said absolutely nothing in regard to the value of the iPhone.
In fact, the very last thing in the entire post says “Since the point of the review was of the purchase process of the iPhone at Walmart, no review or endorsement of any sort for the iPhone itself is included herein.”
But then, you wouldn’t need that to get the main jist of the article – since the entire thing is about the process of buying one, not about whether or not you should own or want one.
But thanks for the effort!
Got an iPhone about a month ago. Took less than 20 minutes at the AT&T store. That included setting up a new account, as I was not a current customer. I was shocked at how quick and easy it was.
Bob – see, that’s what I was wondering… everyone I’ve talked to that got it elsewhere seems shocked at how *little* time it takes. Hopefully whatever the glitch is at Walmart, they’ll get it fixed!!
Honestly, the lack of help, expertise on product and long delays is par-for-the-curse at the Walmarts near me.
Glad you managed to find some good employees. I have no doubt they exist, like the mythical unicorn, I haven’t had occasion to meet any.
Maybe Colorado just has better Walmarts.
Congrats on the iPhone, now I am the only one of the three of us who doesn’t have one. (but I love my G1, so that’s ok. And it took me about 5 minutes to get it at the T-Mobile store..)
T.
Firstly, I have issues with you handing off your phone list to the hubs. Why? Because in our house, it is usually the hubs handing the list off to me (except for the fact that he doens’t actually make the list). And typically for the same reasons you hand off the list. ROFL. I say (to him) to make the dadgum calls already (right before I end up making the calls myself). Just saying.
Secondly, we have been considering them, and already have AT&T, so I guess our holdup is deciding that we really want our contract extended. My cell phone, although somewhat new, is still archaic in function. Of course, I thought I wanted “something basic” but I should have known better.
And I’m not getting an iPhone w/o Hubs getting one, LOL! So, now that you’ve been able to play with it some, what do you think?
I heard y’all were reviewing the process, but yours is the first one I read. The info is great, especially the summary. We’ll probably go back to the AT&T store we went to originally, but if going to Walmart, I’d make a note to get a babysitter.
Christy
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