Walmart on Black Friday

[magicspeller]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for someone who has experience selling cell phones at Walmart, or who has purchased a phone there on Black Friday.

I am planning to "upgrade" from an Android phone to an iPhone XR (probably). I know that no one knows for sure what offers will be available at Walmart on Black Friday this year, but last year they offered a $300 gift card with an iPhone purchase, and the experts are expecting something similar this year.

I have two questions for anyone familiar with past offers like this:

1. To benefit from the special offer, is it necessary to add a line?
2. Does Walmart provide the same upgrade offers as my carrier (Verizon in my case)?

Verizon will give me $320 trade-in value when upgrading my phone to a new iPhone. If I could take advantage of this and also receive a gift card or other Black Friday benefit without having to add a line (or even if this were a good possibility), it would probably be worth waiting.

If not, I might as well upgrade right away through Verizon, knowing that it's unlikely Apple will be offering any XR deals.

I would appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks!

 

[hang-the-9]

1. that will be listed on the offer when it comes out, many rebates/deals are with new line activations
2. that you will also need to compare when you see the offer

The future is hard to see.

Is your phone dead that you can't wait to find things out in a month or so?

 

[magicspeller]

Thanks for the reply, hang-the-9.

I know that nobody can know for sure until the actual offer is advertised. I was hopeful that somebody might be able to tell me how it worked last year. It might be completely different this year than last, but at least it would tell me what I might possibly expect and whether it would (probably) be worth the wait. The future is hard to see, but the past can make it easier.

Is my phone dead? Not exactly. What it does it does amazingly well, but it's missing some functionality that's import to me.

I unfortunately have to wear hearing aids. For about 4 years now, all the major hearing aid manufacturers have offered "Made for iPhone" hearing aids (https/support.apple.com/en-us/HT201466) , which will stream music, phone calls, and TV shows directly to the hearing aids. I have had that functionality with my old hearing aids and my Android phones, but it has required an intermediate device that is not only expensive and inconvenient, but it doesn't always work as well as I would like.

About 2 1/2 years ago, I could see that my 9-year-old hearing aids were nearing end of life and I started looking for new ones. In that time, I've seen numerous promises of a "made for Android" hearing aid, but none have never come to fruition.Last year Phonak announced that they had a new hearing aid line that would work with Android exactly the same way as with iPhones, but it turned out that they were far from equivalent. Google is finally working an OS solution, but that may take another year or more.

I've tried several brands of hearing aids but during that time, I've been missing direct Bluetooth connect capabilities. I've been very happy with my Android phones (and my wife tells everyone that I'll never buy an Apple product), but I've finally given up and am resigned to the fact that I am going to have to switch.

In fact, I was ready to switch a year ago, but when Phonak made their announcement I believed them and went ahead and upgraded my expensive Android phone. It was the wrong decision and I've been suffering for it.

Yes, I could wait a few weeks more, but it would mean a few more weeks without Bluetooth streaming and phone calls and with my wife constantly asking me to turn down the TV volume.

I've been waiting all this time and could wait another month if I thought there was a possibility of saving some money, but yes, I am really impatient at this point....

Thanks again for the response.

 

[hang-the-9]

I am not familiar with the hearing aid setups, but it does seem like the link you put in has a bunch of options. Really up to you, since you will be waiting till black friday anyway, the only thing that guessing about possible deals for then will do is just give you more things to fret over. Or just get a iPhone 8 or something now. Heck, even the 6s is a pretty good model and you can find those for about $200 for a clean one.

 

[magicspeller]

Thanks. Ironically, just yesterday Phonak announced a new hearing aid that works equally well for both Apple and Android, and at least as well as past Made for iPhone hearing products. This came out of the blue, and I hope that what they're saying is true. If so, I won't be switching after all.

So now I'm definitely in hold mode again!