Ultra Mobile has a problem with Walmart, is faster with VPN, and reuses phone numbers

VPN
1

Hi,

I bought an Ultra Mobile SIM card at Walmart last week, and I also did last year. In both cases, I experienced 3 issues.

Activation wouldn’t work without customer service

Activating their SIM is supposed to be easy : go to the website, enter some numbers, get a number (or do the same with a phone bot).

But, instead of just working, it responds with a generic error (same with the phone bot), and I have to call customer service instead, once to come across with someone saying the card is invalid and there’s nothing to do but return the SIM card, then twice to come across someone who will change the card status from “cold” to “available” so that I can finally activate it from the website (this year they asked for the receipt before proceeding).

And that’s not all : this was with a starter kit, but initially I wanted to buy a SIM card with a plan included (so that I wouldn’t have to pay the card and the plan separately), but turns out all those are expired and the only way to see is to open the package and read the information on the card itself, which initially means buying first (after the first return, the Walmart associate did agree to open a few more to see that these were all expired).

Download bandwith is low unless you use a VPN

At 6 PM in a small town :

  • Without VPN : 1.4 Mbps down, 24 Mbps up ;
  • With VPN : 21 Mbps down, 26 Mbps up (at the cost of higher ping though, of course).

People call you while expecting someone else

Last year, two different people called me looking for a certain Ms McDonald, and this week, not only someone called me looking for a certain Michael Campbell, but I also have been receiving texts notifying me of activity on various online accounts under the same name, leading me to believe that as long as I have this phone number, I could steal that person’s data if I wanted to, this is very bad.

WTF ?

If anyone can explain any of this, please do.

2

This is a copy of the OP’s original post in case they decide to delete their post/account so that others searching can find it later:

Hi,

I bought an Ultra Mobile SIM card at Walmart last week, and I also did last year. In both cases, I experienced 3 issues.

Activation wouldn’t work without customer service

Activating their SIM is supposed to be easy : go to the website, enter some numbers, get a number (or do the same with a phone bot).

But, instead of just working, it responds with a generic error (same with the phone bot), and I have to call customer service instead, once to come across with someone saying the card is invalid and there’s nothing to do but return the SIM card, then twice to come across someone who will change the card status from “cold” to “available” so that I can finally activate it from the website (this year they asked for the receipt before proceeding).

And that’s not all : this was with a starter kit, but initially I wanted to buy a SIM card with a plan included (so that I wouldn’t have to pay the card and the plan separately), but turns out all those are expired and the only way to see is to open the package and read the information on the card itself, which initially means buying first (after the first return, the Walmart associate did agree to open a few more to see that these were all expired).

Download bandwith is low unless you use a VPN

At 6 PM in a small town :

  • Without VPN : 1.4 Mbps down, 24 Mbps up ;
  • With VPN : 21 Mbps down, 26 Mbps up.

People call you while expecting someone else

Last year, two different people called me looking for a certain Ms McDonald, and this week, not only someone called me looking for a certain Michael Campbell, but I also have been receiving texts notifying me of activity on various online accounts under the same name, leading me to believe that as long as I have this phone number, I could steal that person’s data if I wanted to, this is very bad.

WTF ?

If anyone can explain any of this, please do.

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3

The reason the download is slow is you used fast.com which is owned by Netflix and uses their servers. Since ultra has a 480p video limit you won’t see over 1.5mbps, VPN can get around it. Try using speedtest.net which will tell you real speed without VPN.

4

  1. Check expiration date on back of package as should be labeled. If you can’t see till you open up, I suggest opening up discretely (without ripping package) in store. However sometimes people do this to steal activation code so someone could have done this already. If this is the case go to Walmart and say someone stole codes and they will let you exchange for packages in the back they haven’t been put on stores yet.

  2. Check speeds on Speedtest.net to see full speed. Ultra (and almost all carriers) do throttle all video and social media sites to 1.5Mbps so testing on Fast.com shows this speed. As you found out a VPN can bypass this throttle.

  3. The FCC requires all phone numbers for all carriers be recycled, it is luck of the draw who had your number before you and what they registered. You can buy numbers off NumberBarn for porting in but would still have to look up the number beforehand to see if used on various accounts.

5

I don’t think it would be an absolute given to expect that you will get a phone number assigned that has never been used by anyone before, and this is not unique to Ultra Mobile. I have had this with Visible before and Google Voice. Why don’t you call and ask for a number change? Why don’t you get a Google Voice account and set up a GV number that you could make sure doesn’t have a digital footprint by googling it before you actually set it up, and then port it to your account? I don’t know Ultra Mobile’s policy on number changes or if they allow port ins after the account is initially set up.

6

Nothing there is unusual or a problem with UM specifically.

Wally should have better inventory control

7

ultra has a 480p video limit

Then there’s still a reason to use a VPN.

8

You can also use a free textnow number, provided you look up who had it last

9

If you can’t see till you open up, I suggest opening up discretely (without ripping package) in store

There’s no choice actually. It’s an envelope-like seal, and you have to open it to see the expiration date. But, as I said, the Walmart associate allowed me to open the packages in front of them to check for expiration dates.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that starter kits are impssible to activate without customer service intervention despite not having expired.

You can buy numbers off NumberBarn for porting in but would still have to look up the number beforehand to see if used on various accounts.

I’m a tourist, so I don’t care that much about receiving random calls and texts, however, the major issue I see here is potential for ID theft.

10

You can buy numbers off NumberBarn for porting in but would still have to look up the number beforehand to see if used on various accounts.

Or textnow, even better cuz it’s free.
VoIP’s are typically really clean and almost never show on sites like FPS

11

I mean a VPN still won’t be as fast as the network without the VPN, so since downloads themselves aren’t throttled speedtest.net without a VPN is the way to test

12

VoIP’s are typically really clean and almost never show on sites like FPS

13

You can buy numbers off NumberBarn for porting in but would still have to look up the number beforehand to see if used on various accounts.

Or textnow which is free

VoIP’s are typically really clean and almost never show on sites like FPS

14

downloads themselves aren’t throttled

So Netflix’s speedtest is throttled but Netflix’s video isn’t ?

And what if they go to something else, like YouTube ?

15

No, Netflix speedtest uses Netflix’s servers, essentially the speedtest is testing video streaming speed. YouTube and most other streaming sites will be throttled as well, you can use a VPN to avoid the 480p throttle

16

you can use a VPN to avoid the 480p throttle

That’s what I meant earlier lol