T-Mobile G1 coming to Walmart for $148.88
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 28th 2008 11:58AM
posted Oct 28th 2008 11:58AM
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WHAT????
I DEMAND STORE CREDIT FROM.... CATHERINE ZETA JONES!!!
So you're saying they're only going to be in 1 out of every 100 Wal-Marts...
This means that if you go into a T-Mobile store and ask for a G1, and say that it's $148.88 at Walmart, you'll get it for $148.88. Any T-Mobile company store will price match!
Really? Cool, thanks man. I'm planning on snagging one for sure.
tmobile does price match?! do you need proof that there is a cheaper price?!
Price war! Hear that, Verizon? Price war!
Screw the price war, Verizon needs to get on board with the feature war :)
i hope they will sell the white one as well!
Did anyone read the first line of this post in Morgan Freeman's voice: http://xkcd.com/462/.
This is a tempting offer though. It seems like a pretty decent phone.
Haha, win. XKCD rocks, i don't even need to click the link, i know what it leads to, heh.
-Taylor
This is why I bought mine on the amex.
I don't think Amex does price match anymore.
Well at least its on the company amex :P
Nice. Gotta love the free market. I'd really like to see some aggressive marketing for the phone. The ad I see on TV is okay, but I'm sure they can afford to boast a little more.
a friend of mine got one, it feels pretty solid, like a rock...
Is your friend upset about the lack of a headphone jack?
It is solid, like a rock. It's also ugly as a rock. (I have one, and I love it, but let's be honest.)
And I just ordered mine from T-Mobile on Friday.
And UPS just delivered it. :)
what can brown do for you?
Can't wait to order mine tomorrow from T-Mobile UK, should have it on Thursday/Friday :) And then I'll geek out forever
Waoow... hey $31.00 is still something you can buy some extra stuff for G1 such as the screen protector or something..lol..
Is it YOUR forum? I saw this link the other day, and purposefully avoided it because i assumed you were hawking your own site. Don't do that, we don't like it. If you want to advertise contact engadget, don't post in the forum.
-Taylor
Why Alex... aren't you clever. not. If you're going to shamelessly advertise could you at least make it useful or funny or something? Recommending people buy a screen protector with the money they just saved and then linking to your "forum" where you also happen to sell G1 accessories is fucking lame.
I'm going to wait until they upgrade the hardware by adding a 3.5mm screen, improving the processor and perhaps adding multitouch and let the Android software mature a bit before buying my first Gphone. It's just not worth getting yet. Besides, I'm not upgrade eligible until next year anyway.
i, for one, do not want a 3.5mm screen. Something larger would be nice on a touchscreen phone.
Doh I meant 3.5 headphone jack. Haha.
Best Buy already sells the G1 in stores. So Wal-Mart won't the be first.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9105461&type=product&id=1218023510008
Fancy! I'll be sure to pick one of these up when I'm buying my Wal-Mart exclusive AC/DC album. *shakes head*
Oh, that's gonna piss some people off...
Not as much as the people that got the blackberry pearl flip for regular price, I saw it for something around $50 at Sam's
So iPhone is to Best Buy, while G1 is to Wal-Mart?? That seems rather fitting.
No, not a fan of either phone. Just saying.
The G1 is at best buy too. I went there last night and taught the reps a few tricks!
Im getting that phone since it has a good price
and my contract is about to end.
Cool!! Now if only I lived in one of the 4 blocks that T-mob has 3g coverage...
Not hatin' the phone...just the network.
4 blocks?? go on tmobile.com and click coverage and data coverage you will see there that the 3g network is growing so rapidly that its updated numerous times in a day. its already in the 20 major cities and is planned in many more for the end of the year. do some research before you critisize, just cause the city you live in isnt 3g doesnt mean the phone wont still be amazing cause it still is.
I want this phone. but Verizon has been awesome in my area and I'm not sure about T-mob's service.
Same for me, except I'm on a two year plan for Verizon that started this summer. I guess hopefully in two years Verizon will get this phone, knowing their aptitude for getting nice smartphones.
True, the phone IS good, but T-mobile's
service SUCKS!
Speak for yourself, I've never had a problem with it.
I'm new to T-mobile... if we call customer service and politely express our disappointment in the price disparity, are they likely to credit the difference?
If not, could one just return the current G1 for a refund and go get one at Walmart? Or is there a re-stocking fee?
Of all the carriers, I'm guessing T-Mo is most likely to do something, especially given the precedent set during the whole Apple/ATT situation last year. Nevertheless, never guaranteed. I'd intended to call and see if I could get credited $120 since I was about 3 weeks away from qualifying for the $179 price.
I will say that they've not yet charged my card for the purchase. Mayhaps this is all part of the script?
The association with Wal-Mart doth en-cringen my very being, but it's not like there's a carrier they don't sell...
I call dibs on props for saying the (guh)-phone would be down to $150 by December!
i did just that.
i just spoke to a csr there and she claimed she had not heard about this until my call (meh!)
after she and her supervisor looked up the links to this story, i was told that there's nothing t-mobile can/will do at this time b/c WM buys from them, and can sell it for whatever they please. i asked if tmobile will offer 30$ credits for the customers that trusted them and i was told, again...not at this time.
the csr did tell me that although i couldn't cancel my order at this time, i could refuse delivery to the product and it would get shipped back to tmobile, voiding the new contract (i'm not sure if i believe this though). she then agreed that i could go to WM and and signup there, getting the phone for the cheaper price. she also told me to write to tmobile via the link on their site (which i did this morning).
i mean, i'm probably not gonna refuse delivery just to get it at WM (no reason to support them in this), but it just sucks that they would do this to their customers.
forgot to add...
the csr rep told me that even though i'm on the second list of pre-buyers (bought it after 10/3 but b/f 10/23) and i'm not officially supposed to get the phone until 11/10, that many of those in this same tier have been getting their phones already....and that i could be getting this message w/in the next 48 hours.
she was probably blowing smoke...but i thought i would add this in their.
o yeah...and it looks like google finally took down their add for the phone sometime this afternoon/evening. i'm wondering if there's any connection b/t that act and this story.
@ds
I called at about 9:30 Eastern and got the same basic response. I also asked if there was any leeway with the 22nd month on a 24 month contract/11th month on a 12 month contract requirement for the rebate that gets the phone down to the advertised $179 - no dice.
However, I intend to call again as the rookie tend to be the one's working at night. I got credited for a tm overage after I called back and talked to a second rep that seemed to get it. I'm gonna hang on for until about the 3rd, but I'm pretty sure this one's going back. I'll either wait for the holiday price or wait to see who picks up the HTC S740. If I haven't seen an on-screen keyboard by December, I'll be done with it all for now anyway. I'll just play with PCLOS in the interim.
Are there any downsides to not buying directly from T-Mobile? WIll switching my current number over be more of a pain?
Any guesses as to when or if we will be able to get one of these with a pre-paid/non-contract account?
You already can get it without a contract, but it's $400.
Does anyone know what the Wal-Mart price will be if you don't get a contract? The T-Mobile site is like $400.
I'm wondering this too. I'm in a contract now w/ T-mobile, but would like to not extend it. Plus, I only like signing one year contracts. In the past when I bought phones w/out contract for Sprint (my other acct), I usually went on ebay.
I'm still debating on this phone in general. I don't like the way the G1 looks, the fact that it has a pull out keyboard (I'd prefer a hard numerical keypad), etc.
But I really want to have Google on the go and want to keep T-mobile.
What the hell? I just got mine on Friday and they're already dropping the price?
I'm going to try calling customer service and see about talking them into a discount.
Does anyone have any info on when its coming to Canada? I asked people in a couple of cellphone stores, they've never even heard of android :(
So far it looks like the G1 is lackluster at best. It's missing features that even cheap phones can do and is certainly no iphone killer.
Excuse me for my ignorance, but those features would happen to be....
Leave it to Wal Mart
I would go to my local ghetto Walmart to save $30 just because Target is not carrying it.
Walmart buys their own G1 phones and receives a commission check from T-Mobile, so they don't care how much the sell it for as long as they make at least 3% and get customers to buy accessories for the phone while they are there.
Anyone know if you have to get a data plan with these? Just curious, because I don't really need 3G since I'm in college and there's wifi everywhere on campus. Not that I'm actually in a position to get one of these though. Also, it would be cool if they had hotspot@home on these like they have on the Blackberry flip phone, that sounds like some pretty cool technology, especially with T-Mobile's sometimes less than perfect reception.
The G1 doesn't show up on their phones list when you search for HotSpot compatible phones, so I'm guessing that isn't an option. Apparently you can activate it using a prepaid SIM, so you could pick up a prepaid phone at the same time (for another $20) and use that to activate it.
I'm tied to AT&T... being part of a family.. you can't really do much.
I just hope Android gets some cool phones with AT&T
as much as i want to get the Black Berry Bold
these cheap prices are making me want to reconsider...
So far there are no plans to bring it to canada. I was just wondering if I can download the android OS and use it on my Moto Q instead of using windows mobile? Does anyone know if that is possible?
God it is so tempting... my T-mobile contract is about up... I just know they are going to come out with a newer better version in 6 months and just piss me off... haha
Anyone have a list of which Walmarts?
I spoke to my local Walmart here in San Diego where we are covered by 3G and said there was a big pow wow meeting and wont actually get the G1s til November 10th.
,Michael Martin
http://www.googleandblog.com/
Does anyone know if it will be available at wally online??
I just received my new T-Mo G1 and it looks pretty slick. I'm actually a manufacturers representative that pitches T-Mobile on accessories for their growing lineup of cell phones. Working so closely with T-Mo I hear about all the new phones and accessories long before they actually launch. One of the accessories that T-Mo will be offering to consumers for its G1, Behold (aka T919/Roxie) and the new T929 is a military grade film screen protector. It was developed by a company called eShields, LLC and their Patented product is called iShieldz. For those curious about their product their web address is: http://www.iShieldz.com
The price of G1 at Walmart is the full $179.99 with a two year contract, but if purchased it there you recieve a $50 Walmart gift-card
Great phone just got mine but the neglected to tell me that I wouldn't have service for 24hours so google could update my phone. So if you can't go without a phone for 24 hours than I suggest you try something else. Love the phone, it is very sturdy.
To check the availability in a store near you visit:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10745553