A Cheap/boring/plain ISP- BUT still it's an ISP. *Challenge Yourself W/O*
Written: May 05 '04 (Updated May 02 '05)
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Wal*Mart has spread it’s monopoly to the internet. Yes that’s right Wal*Mart now provides dial-up internet service at a bargain price of $9.94 a month. Is it such a bargain? Read on and see.
After paying near $30.00 for AOL’s dial up connection for almost 3 years and 9.0 seeming to not be much better than 8.0 at the time - I was fed up. While doing my weekly shopping @ my local Wal*Mart Super Center I picked up a FREE disk for Wal*Mart Connect Online Service. Only $9.94 a month and many brags on how fast and great the service would be. A man behind me in line saw me reading the disk and said that he has the service and it wasn’t bad. On the advice of a complete stranger I tried it. I got home and downloaded the disk into my computer. It has been quite a while since first started using this service so I can not say in all honesty how long it took to download. I do remember that once everything was downloaded that it was very easy to sign up and sign on.
Once an account was established and I signed on, the home page opened. It reminded me of a extremely dull AOL. Nothing flashy– AT ALL. The customizable tool bar has your standard buttons like back, next, reload, stop, print and read/create mail buttons. There are also favorites, Home(Wal*Mart Connect's home page NOT Wal*Mart.com), IM, People, and Shop Wal*Mart.com shortcuts. Then the last 2 button are stock quotes and weather. Most of everything is grey with the exception of the nautical blue buttons and the red Wal*Mart Connect symbol.
The home page itself has the standard channels and tool shortcuts. There is also a headline news ticker that will give you the story behind the headline if you click on it. There are various other Wal*Mart ads for the rest of the page. You will not mistake the Wal*Mart Connect home page for ANY other.
Pros
What I do like about this service is that if you really want internet service but can’t afford it you CAN get by with Wal*Mart Connect for less that $10.00 a month – for unlimited service. I mean to tell you – I used to pay $40.00 a WEEK in just formula & diapers - $30.00 a month for an ‘extra’ on one income is not an easy battle to justify.
7 email accounts I don’t know anyone who uses that many but you can.
It is really easy to navigate if you have at least a little experience on the internet and you can still get instant messaging from anyone on AOL and Earthlink, that I am 100% sure of.
Surprisingly there was actually a local number available in my area. I am extremely limited to the amount of ISPs that have local numbers for my area. Even with DSL I only know of one provider in my area.
I have not received any junk mail that I did not agree to getting so my mailbox does not get spammed out like it used to with AOL. Pop ups are very minimal too.
Besides the regular credit card drafting way of payment, if you have a Wal*Mart card, you monthly fee of $9.94 can be charged to your Wal*Mart card. I, myself know better than to even think of applying for one. I can hear it now I’m sorry ma’am you credit card has been denied – the credit limit has been maxed out after only 2 days. You may also pay via personal check for an additional $5.00.
Connection has never been a problem with the IM exception you will see below. I can probably count on one hand how many times the line was busy or was did not connect but the 2nd attempt has never failed me.
Cons
What I HATE about Wal*Mart is that the browsing is extremely SLOOOWWW. Seriously folks! I keep a game of solitaire going in the back ground when browsing. No Lie. It is terribly slow.
I also have noticed that when receiving the 1st IM from someone that I frequently get booted due to a WM connect error. This may be an isolated situation, but if it were my computer it would boot me every time I got an IM right? I am not sure but I get booted about 4 out of 5 initial IMs. If I initiate the 1st IM then I do not have the problem.
You like those cute icons that move? Forget it Wal*Mart Connect offers only those icons that came out when icon first came out such as various sports balls, lips, a flower, some cheesy looking aliens, the yin yang and peace signs are there as well. All of which look like they were cut out of a cartoon. Oh yeah no fancy smiley faces either. You can see other’s (AOL/Earthlink) cute icons and yes they move but you will only see plain old yellow smiley faces here.
Checking your email from another computer is next to impossible. I have tried and was successful once I think. **************UPDATE: Checking your email from another computer is only possible if the other computer has the Wal*Mart Connect software loaded. I am not sure why this is as email is an internet thing and not a software thing but this is what I understand from the foreign customer service rep I spoke with.End of update***************
Once I even called the customer service line and asked for help on this issue and was more flustered by time I got off the phone with the CSR than I was when I called. I ultimately hung up on her because she kept telling me to go to places I had told her I had already been and that WE had already tried in an effort to make sure I had did it correctly. What should have taken 10 minutes took almost 45 without accomplishing anything. My ONE experience with customer service did not go well at all.
Overall
After writing this I realize that Wal*Mart Connect has way more pros than I thought. I just can't get over how slow it is - even for dial up it's just ridiculous. That one reason is ALMOST enough to override all of the pros.
I will stick with Wal*Mart Connect for now until something else better becomes available in my area with a more reasonable price. It’s not all that bad. It's just slow and has no frills what so ever. Think AOL rip off and a very cheap one at that. It’s the bare minimum of internet service, nothing else. Kind of like store bought tortillas – they’re ok but the scratch-made ones in good Mexican restaurants are always better.
The only reason I would recommend Wal*Mart Connect is if you are in a pinch and just can’t live without internet service AND you have limited providers to choose from, THEN try Wal*Mart Connect. Otherwise don’t stop here - shop around.
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This has all been apart of CaptainD's Challenge Yourself W/O This is my first and probably only review I will ever write on an ISP. I will have you know I felt very uncomfortable and somewhat nauseated while writing this. Then again Dave just has that affect on people. ;)
Also I'd like to thank Joubert for adding this service to the Epinions database. I do not know enough about you to insult you. Maybe next time.
©2004 SD
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Member: Shelly Donathan
Location: Texas
Reviews written: 85
Trusted by: 24 members
About Me: Hello!
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