Walmart Family Mobile?

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bastage

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Mar 4, 2010
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So due to my wife & her employment at T-Mobile ending earlier this week we are dropping t-mobile service. We have 5 lines & all are android smart phones (from oldest to newest, G1, MyTouch 3g, Vibrant, G2, MyTouch 4g). We are basically looking for the cheapest option to keep all the phones working with data. From what I can find WalMart Family Mobile is it & since they use the T-Mobile network we will keep 3g data speeds even. I Went through & added up data usage for the whole family & everyone but my wife is pretty low (& she was only high because of Pandora which she can do from wifi). So I anticipate that the 40 dollar GB should be enough monthly for everyone (rest of the family was only using about 350-400 mb combined a month). Unlocking the current phones is not a problem since we will be getting the subsidy unlock codes from t-mobile directly.

Question basically is has anyone had any problems or experiences with walmart family mobile?
 
Nobody has any experience with what seems to be the cheapest prepay in the country?
 
I didn't even know that service existed. You learn something new everyday...
 
bastage said:
Nobody has any experience with what seems to be the cheapest prepay in the country?
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i made a thread on it a while back, my family is swapping to it soon as well (on ATT now, service is meh compared to T-Mobile in our area), from what i can tell its god and fine, love how the data is a hard limit, you hit the 1GB limit and you cannot get more data(no overages, as i understand it)
 
Well I an on walmart now buying my activation kits.so I should be able to report on there activation and porting process soon
Posted via Mobile Device
 
As a former employee of wal-mart I can tell you this, they reallllly tried to push this to the employees. If you currently have T-mobile then your service will be exactly the same when it comes to signal. As Wal-mart's cell service is powered by them. So if you're happy with that then you should be fine. However, I do not know if your current phones will work with the WM setup without unlocking them first.
 
It looks like the t mobile phones don't even need to be unlocked. I put a wm sim in the locked g2 and it displayed family mobile with no sim error. I activated the account and as a pleasant surprise the activation kit also gets you the 1st month of service in addition to the 5 bucks of data.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
If you're dropping Tmobile so they loose your business/money, the'll get it anyways if you go to Walmart (they pay for use of Tmobile's network).
 
Zurginator said:
If you're dropping Tmobile so they loose your business/money, the'll get it anyways if you go to Walmart (they pay for use of Tmobile's network).
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the idea of going to walmart is to save money on the OPs end, not because of T-Mobile themselves....
 
Zurginator said:
If you're dropping Tmobile so they loose your business/money, the'll get it anyways if you go to Walmart (they pay for use of Tmobile's network).
Click to expand...
No were leaving tmobile because as my wife is no longer an employee we are no longer getting her employee discount (which was quite substantial) and we are looking for the cheapest service that meets our needs.

Well about 15 hours after my initial call the port requests are completed on all 3 lines (other 2 have to go on a separate account due to different area code). Request was seemless for the most part. Basically we were sitting down watching a movie & I Got a sms from tmo saying that my "myfavs" had been removed & then my phone flashed to no service, changed my sim & before I had it powered all the way on the 2nd number did the same & imemaditly there after the 3rd. Took about 10 minutes & all info was showing on myfamilymobile.com for all 3 lines. Also noticed a perk where you can set blocked numbers for free. Most carriers charge for that. So far I am fairly impressed. Just waiting now for some data usage to track to verify that its not rounding up to 1mb every time its accessed for billing purposes & everything will be happy.
 
That blows... My friend left T-Mobile last year to work for AT&T, and he still gets all 5 lines on his employee discount.
 
entropism said:
That blows... My friend left T-Mobile last year to work for AT&T, and he still gets all 5 lines on his employee discount.
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Was he T-Mo direct? there on the ball with direct employee's because the discount is huge. But if he was working for any 3rd party on behalf of t-mobile chances are it will never get caught. Its the same with most big companies. Basically an employment check is done when you start the discount & then nothing more unless you call & tell them. I have a friend thats getting like a 60% discount from sprint that we both used to get due to an employer we worked at in 1998. He left in 1999 & still gets the discount.
 
He worked for an indirect but when the company took control of all the indirect "limited" stores, well, you know the deal. $10 per line is one hell of a deal. Better than Sprint's, which are just amazing really.
 
entropism said:
He worked for an indirect but when the company took control of all the indirect "limited" stores, well, you know the deal. $10 per line is one hell of a deal. Better than Sprint's, which are just amazing really.
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Yea it is one hell of a deal. He basically fell through the cracks in a good way then. Normally though it certainly doesnt happen like that. I know several employee's & several more Ex Employees & typically there right on track for the 7 days of reduced price after you leave & then the account gets shut down.

And On topic. I Have had to call family mobile 3 times now & I Must say there customer service was well above par. Two times it was simply for account setup & activation (first time for 3 lines setup under my name & the other time for the remaining 2 lines to be setup under my mothers name since we have different area codes). The 3rd call was because my voice mail wasn't working. Both activation calls I got someone in Guatemala. Thick accent's, but nothing ridiculous or hard to understand. Both were very very polite & helpful. The call regarding my voice mail I got a rep in Illinois. When I Called & explained the problem & what I needed to do she was quick to point out that it wasn't supported, but she would try just the same. 1st try she got it working (issue was I use google voice mail & the call forwarding number has to be manually changed since there is no end user way to provision this with WFM). I accidently hung up on here when testing & she called right back to complete everything & make sure the issue was resolved.

Overall I was very impressed with the setup process & customer service as a whole. Essentially I dont think there was anything they could have done to make the process any more seamless.

As I mentioned earlier I was worried about how data was calculated. Basically I was worried that I was going to be charged 5 cents each time the net was accessed even if a full MB was not used. Well it definitely appears that this is not the case. After almost a full 24 hours on WFM we have only used 3MB. This is less then we should normally since me & my wife both stayed home yesterday where we have wifi, but it definitely looks like this is going to work out very well.
 
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so the data is actual usage, not rounding up ? good to know

voice mail works fully right ?
 
W.Feather said:
so the data is actual usage, not rounding up ? good to know

voice mail works fully right ?
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Yes & yes.. And my wife, & mother in law had no VM issues using the regular VM. Mine was just different because of it being google voice.

So far the only reason I can see to not go with WFM is if tmo has shitty coverage or you use alot of data.. To compare the cost though to 5x smart phones with unlimited voice & sms with 200mb data per line WFM is only at 185 a month where as say AT&T is at 375. I haven't done a cost comparison with any other carriers yet, but I intend to later.
 
well Tmo has good coverage for us, better than ATT, and no idea on data usage, ill be buying 1GB "blocks" with WFM......i'm an add on line, so i wont be a primary on the account(AKA not my choice where we go, i was just asked to research WFM lol)
 
Yea the data to me is a major plus. I am on wifi most of the time so having it rollover is a major bonus. Not as good as the unlimited we had with tmo, but no monthly fee is a major plus. And you can pull up your past bills to get a history on data usage. Another MAJOR advantage is no data plan requirement with smart phones. Honestly a couple of our 5 would have probably dropped back to regular phones if they had to pay monthly for data.

Oh another disadvantage is that picture messaging thats normally included with your text plan with most carriers is 5 cents a message (1mb of data from the data pack) which if you do alot of picture messages could add up. But I do just a few a month.
 
So Unlimited Voice, SMS & 200 MB data for 5 lines..

WFM 185 (no tax even)
AT&T 375 + tax
Tmob 290 + tax
Sprint 460 + tax (this includes unlimited data which accounts for some of the big cost jump)
Verizon 450 + tax (also includes unlimited data)

Cost wise monthly WFM is the clear winner unless unlimited data is a necessity. Also of note though WFM has the most expensive phones since there is no subsidy. if your like me & upgrade constantly from CraigsList & ebay then this doesn't matter.

So yea I am obviously sold.
 
all phones for us are unlocked ;)


the picture message part is interesting, then again if i get a gig plan i wont have much issue doing picture messaging it seems



question though, with data, once you hit say the 200mb amount, your "cut off" until you buy more data right ?
 
Yeah data is pre paid. So no overage. And its shared amongst the family. So where the others would have some under using and possibly others over using wfm would still work where others would have overage
Posted via Mobile Device
 
So 3 days into it with normal usage on 3 Smart Phones... We have used .85 in data.. & we arent doing anything differently then we were before. So I have to say they aren't doing anything underhanded with there data. At this point were looking at a grand total of about 110-115 a month for 3 smart phones including our data. Coverage has been exactly what we are used to on tmobile (which is very good in our area). Still get service everywhere I go other then WalMart which was expected (& ironic).
 
bastage said:
Yeah data is pre paid. So no overage. And its shared amongst the family. So where the others would have some under using and possibly others over using wfm would still work where others would have overage
Posted via Mobile Device
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so i cant tie data to specifically my phone only ? (I will be paying for my own data, dont want others to rack up the data and me end up payign for it)
 
Not exactly. The web pack can be disabled from lines do no data access for those lines, but data is pooled so no matter what line buys the data all can access it.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
bastage said:
Not exactly. The web pack can be disabled from lines do no data access for those lines, but data is pooled so no matter what line buys the data all can access it.
Posted via Mobile Device
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so if i'm reading correctly, you can disable data to certain lines......so we could say disable the data to 3 lines, leaving it only allowed on one line......right??

two of the phones are basic nokia Xpress Music phones, though two are android(HD2 with Hyperdroid and a MyTouch 3G)
 
W.Feather said:
so if i'm reading correctly, you can disable data to certain lines......so we could say disable the data to 3 lines, leaving it only allowed on one line......right??

two of the phones are basic nokia Xpress Music phones, though two are android(HD2 with Hyperdroid and a MyTouch 3G)
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Yep.. Moral is that as long as everyone is responsible with the data (ie no audio/video streaming) that 40 dollar webpack should last some time (at least a couple few months).
 
well the intent is that i am the only one using data


youc an tell which phones use the data right ? or does it just lump em all together ?
 
W.Feather said:
well the intent is that i am the only one using data


youc an tell which phones use the data right ? or does it just lump em all together ?
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You can track the usage on a per MB basis on myfamilymobile.com. So you will be able to see who is using your data if they shouldn't be.


One thing I did notice about the data billing is that it does infact rount to the nearest MB for billing, but it does it on a per day basis.

http://img811.imageshack.us/i/datao.png/

Thats the data usage tracked for my line since we opened the account which was the 6th. Seems pretty straight forward & on any other service I would ahve paid a minimum of 2 bucks for data (based on 15/mo) where I have instead paid only .75 for the same 4 days of usage.

As for shutting off the lines data abilities its very very simple. On the main login page there is a checkbox next to each name (you assign the names to the numbers) & you uncheck the ones who you dont want to have access.
 
aww, sweet, so it even tells you how much money worth they used :D

that seems like it will work out quite well then, but since no one else even remotely is interested in using data the best way will be to disable data on all the lines......


seems nice and easy :D very user friendly.......just wish they had an unlimited data plan though
 
W.Feather said:
aww, sweet, so it even tells you how much money worth they used :D

that seems like it will work out quite well then, but since no one else even remotely is interested in using data the best way will be to disable data on all the lines......


seems nice and easy :D very user friendly.......just wish they had an unlimited data plan though
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an unlimited data plan would be nice, But then its a monthly fee that you may not take full advantage of. being as I dont stream music or video to my phone often I think I will save a fortune on the data plan compared to any other carrier
 
Family Mobile is dirty cheap, and you can theoretically used any GSM phone.
Its not a pre-paid service, it is no contract post-paid with pre-paid data.
Also there is no credit check either.
 
Evosunny said:
Family Mobile is dirty cheap, and you can theoretically used any GSM phone.
Its not a pre-paid service, it is no contract post-paid with pre-paid data.
Also there is no credit check either.
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Exactly.. Honestly unless you are a heavy heavy data user this is probably the best priced service hands down. In 8 days we have used 3.15 in data split between 3 phones. & This is not trying to go easy on it. We are all still doing our email & everything else as we have previously. I have also used the GPS several times with google maps while away from home.
 
I will be switching to this as soon as I receive my activation kits in the mail. I currently have 2 lines with 750 min, unlimited texts, unlimited data on one phone and 200mb on the other and my bill is 140 a month. Switching to this should save me at least 30 a month.
 
Perilous said:
I will be switching to this as soon as I receive my activation kits in the mail. I currently have 2 lines with 750 min, unlimited texts, unlimited data on one phone and 200mb on the other and my bill is 140 a month. Switching to this should save me at least 30 a month.
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How much data is actually being used will bed the determining factor in cost. As long as the phone with unlimited is actually staying under 200 mb a month the monthly bill would be 70 plus a 40 dollar data pack once every 2.5 months or so.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
when you say 3.15 in split data you mean 3.15mb of data total between 3 phones right?

Just doing the normal check of e-mail/weather/GPS ? (this is about 90% of what i need 3G/internet for), plus the occasional web browsing as well ?
 
W.Feather said:
when you say 3.15 in split data you mean 3.15mb of data total between 3 phones right?

Just doing the normal check of e-mail/weather/GPS ? (this is about 90% of what i need 3G/internet for), plus the occasional web browsing as well ?
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Yep..& I Do quite a bit of surfing from my phone too. Looking at my usage the most anyone has used in a day was 50 cents. & That was mapping a location while out & kinda not following it so it rerouted a shit ton. About 5 hours of running around like that.
 
sweet, good to know, hope we switch over soon

any idea with doing something like i heart radio ? or pandora ? obviously wont last as long, but shouldnt use up a whole lot right ?
 
W.Feather said:
sweet, good to know, hope we switch over soon

any idea with doing something like i heart radio ? or pandora ? obviously wont last as long, but shouldnt use up a whole lot right ?
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Streaming audio is 2nd behind streaming video for most used. My wife was using several GB a month before just with pandora. Now she is only using pandora on wifi.
 
o_O several gb's a month with just pandora? (i mean i have a Cowon S9 i use for my radio, sometimes i forget its battery actually dies, and end up w/o music on campus).....good to know though......guess once i swap over ill know for sure how my data usage ends up being.
 
W.Feather said:
o_O several gb's a month with just pandora? (i mean i have a Cowon S9 i use for my radio, sometimes i forget its battery actually dies, and end up w/o music on campus).....good to know though......guess once i swap over ill know for sure how my data usage ends up being.
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Indeed. I would look into your data usage before hand though.

The data billing on WFM is a double edged sword. If your a light user its a blessing because it gets you a reasonable pay per use rate. but if your a heavy user it can end up quite expensive. For example a couple months ago my wife used 3.4GB.. We were on tmo unlimited so no harm done. On wallmart family mobile that would have been 140ish dollars worth of data. Even on a 2gb plan from AT&T with overage that would have been only 45 dollars..

So it really comes down to data usage for the overall value. If your like us though & typically have wifi available its awesome.
 
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