Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

[Mike A4]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

Best Buy will price match as long as they don't see the sold out, just show them the web page of Walmart on your phone.

 

[PepperdotNet]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

So I'm guessing the Lumia 650 will be a gophone and on $30 sale at next Black Friday.

Any idea how much AT&T is losing per device here? Their initial outlay has to be more than $30 per unit. Or is Microsoft taking the risk and only getting paid based on AT&T sales results?

Normally, I'd feel some ethical dilemma about buying a subsidized product - which the company makes money on only if you use it to subscribe to their service - and then unlocking and unbranding it so it can be used for some other company's service. But considering what AT&T does to their devices so that even unlocked, there are issues on other carriers (band 12 missing on this phone, AWS missing on others, etc) - I have no issue with it at all.

 

[Gunbust3r]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

Any idea how much AT&T is losing per device here?

I would say they are not loosing anything. $30 is probably close what it costs to make. The big scam is them making you think that $700 handset is putting them in the poor house to design and manufacture...

 

[editguy]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

So I'm guessing the Lumia 650 will be a gophone and on $30 sale at next Black Friday.

Any idea how much AT&T is losing per device here? Their initial outlay has to be more than $30 per unit. Or is Microsoft taking the risk and only getting paid based on AT&T sales results?

Normally, I'd feel some ethical dilemma about buying a subsidized product - which the company makes money on only if you use it to subscribe to their service - and then unlocking and unbranding it so it can be used for some other company's service. But considering what AT&T does to their devices so that even unlocked, there are issues on other carriers (band 12 missing on this phone, AWS missing on others, etc) - I have no issue with it at all.

If AT&T was losing any money on these, I don't think they would be willingly unlocking them.

 

[wgs84]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

Nope, just grab one and if your feeling technical flash the T-Mobile rom. Check out XDA.

If you're comfortable with flashing roms, I highly recommend you do this if you're planning to use the ATT version on T-mobile. It enables Wi-Fi calling, the ability to set the connection speed to 2G/4G/LTE, and Band 12 support.

 

[grobinsonpa]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

I got a 640 from Best Buy on Black Friday...Great phone for $29... People pay $200+ to have their screens replaced on their Apple Phones

 

[NiteCourt]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

So I was able to get one from Walmart yesterday fro $32 + tax. Phone is still in the box, never opened, never on. I submitted a unlock request yesterday and got this today: "Unlock request number: (removed)
Thank you for contacting AT&T about unlocking your mobile device.
Unfortunately, your unlock request was denied because:
You haven’t completed 6 months of paid service as a Prepaid/GoPhone? customer.
You can submit a new request once you complete 6 months of paid service.
Questions? Please call 800.331.0500, or dial 611 from your AT&T wireless phone.

Sincerely,
The AT&T Customer Care Team

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE
All replies are automatically deleted."

Any other way to unlock or is it a return trip to Walmart?

 

[anon(6078578)]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

Just got my unlock code and now this phone is already working on T-Mobile

 

[NiteCourt]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

How? I followed the instructions. Phone is not even out of the box. All I got was "Unfortunately, your unlock request was denied because: You haven’t completed 6 months of paid service as a Prepaid/GoPhone? customer.
You can submit a new request once you complete 6 months of paid service."

 

[anon(6078578)]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

How? I followed the instructions. Phone is not even out of the box. All I got was "Unfortunately, your unlock request was denied because: You haven’t completed 6 months of paid service as a Prepaid/GoPhone? customer.
You can submit a new request once you complete 6 months of paid service."

I take it you selected "Non-AT&T Mobility customer" as Customer Type when completing the form on the Consumer Device Unlock Portal?

 

[gcyoung]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

People pay $200+ to have their screens replaced on their Apple Phones

$100 including tax. Just had it done on my wife's phone. It's quite reasonable, actually.

 

[anon(6078578)]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

I wonder how many unlock requests in a certain period do they allow for non AT&T customers. Does anyone know?

 

[NiteCourt]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

I take it you selected "Non-AT&T Mobility customer" as Customer Type when completing the form on the Consumer Device Unlock Portal?

I did, it was the last one on the line to choose. Then entered the IMEI number and it identified the phone correctly. Filled the first name, last name, email address, did the captcha text and submit. Clicked on the link in the email and today got rejected. Story of my life.

 

[anon(6078578)]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

I did, it was the last one on the line to choose. Then entered the IMEI number and it identified the phone correctly. Filled the first name, last name, email address, did the captcha text and submit. Clicked on the link in the email and today got rejected. Story of my life.

I would be contacting support. It seems they're treating it as if you selected the Prepaid / GoPhone option and not the Non-AT&T Mobility Customers one. After all how could you satisfy the "never had an AT&T wireless account" and need "at least six months of paid service" at the same time?

Prepaid / GoPhone?
?The device must be active for at least six months of paid service.

Non-AT&T Mobility Customers
?You?ve never had an AT&T wireless account and you meet the General Requirements for unlock requests

 

[tgp]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

I did, it was the last one on the line to choose. Then entered the IMEI number and it identified the phone correctly. Filled the first name, last name, email address, did the captcha text and submit. Clicked on the link in the email and today got rejected. Story of my life.

Try again. For me, AT&T's unlock portal has been somewhat of a crapshoot. Denied one time, given the unlock code the next (same phone).

 

[ajj3085]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

I wonder why this is the norm in the world

A country like the US with average incomes above 30000USD have the 640 priced at 30-40USD while in countries like India where average incomes are maybe 1500USD the same 640 is priced 100USD or higher

Do US companies give subsidies for their devices?

Not for things like GoPhone, which this sounds like. The price difference could also be due to tariffs / taxes / duties imposed by India.

 

[DSR11]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

Unlock before you use it (via ATT) website, then use it on TMo.

I did that, and it was a pretty easy experience. I'm glad I bought mine before XMAS, as it does look like they are not getting anymore. its sold out in every store i looked in NJ and NY.

 

[tgp]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

I wonder why this is the norm in the world

A country like the US with average incomes above 30000USD have the 640 priced at 30-40USD while in countries like India where average incomes are maybe 1500USD the same 640 is priced 100USD or higher

Do US companies give subsidies for their devices?

This doesn't really answer your question as to why, but almost everything is cheaper in the US, not just phones. For example, right now the average price of gasoline is about $1.77/gallon, which converts to about 0.42 euro/liter.

There are only a few things I can think of that are consistently higher priced in the US. They include health care and cell phone and internet service. Otherwise the US is a big permanent discount sale to most of the rest of the world.

 

[rhapdog]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

Really enjoying the new 640 I picked up. I already had one, but when I upgraded to W10M on it, I found it was more responsive and less buggy than what I already had on W10M on my existing 640. I noticed I had a few apps that were "hung" and unable to properly install, so I think one of my Fast Ring updates went bad, and I had never reset it. After restoring to my new phone and running with it, I used WDRT and flashed back to 8.1 on my old one, then re-upped to W10M Fast Ring. Now they are both doing great. Never would have thought of doing that otherwise.

When I bought my tempered glass screen protector for my first one a while back, they sent 2 by mistake. I already had the spare one ready to go when I picked it up. Makes it an even nicer deal for me. Got a new case on the way, now I'll have 2 full-functioning phones ready to go. I'm real happy with that.

This doesn't really answer your question as to why, but almost everything is cheaper in the US, not just phones. For example, right now the average price of gasoline is about $1.77/gallon, which converts to about 0.42 euro/liter.

Yeah, I just paid $0.59/gallon this morning for 35 gallons of gasoline, filling up both my car and my wife's. It was actually $1.49/gallon, and I had a $0.90 per gallon discount code as a loyalty customer. Man, that felt so good. Max was 35 gallons, so we ran out both tanks and took in both cars for a fill-up. Gotta love it.

 

[tgp]

re: Walmart sells the AT&T Gophone for a low price!

It was actually $1.49/gallon

Even that is cheap! We're barely under $2/gallon where I live. But hey, I'm not complaining. I have some traveling to do in the next couple months, and these prices make it a lot easier on the wallet.