Secrets of Walmart
by Pirho
Have you ever walked into a store like Caldor or Target and seen one of the employees on the phone? Ever wonder what it would be like to phreak the phone system in one of those stores? Well, wonder no further.
In this article I will attempt to explain to you how the phones at your local Walmart work and hope to answer any questions that you might have.
First off, it's important to know the type of phone that you'll be dealing with. Most Walmart's use a Lucent Technologies or AT&T Model MLX-10D or Model 8102. For those of you who might happen to see a Bell Labs phone, don't panic. Bell Labs is the same as Lucent.
AT&T Model 8102 AT&T Model MLX-10D
Let's start with the AT&T 8102. This is your standard non-display type phone with a series of 10 buttons arranged in pairs. These are your programmable buttons. They usually contain three outside lines, and the rest are usually just different departments, or if you're really lucky one of them is for the paging system. (I'll explain more about that in a minute.) The three lines that are for outside calls on these phones are for incoming only. Most of them have a block on the lines that won't allow you to get an outside dial tone but will allow you to pick up an outside call. But you can dial 911 just by picking up and hitting 9 for a dial tone, then 911.
The next set of buttons you'll see are three in a straight line. These are your Flash, Redial, and Hold. Keep in mind that the Flash button does not give you enough time to truly flash the receiver, so almost always this has to be done manually. After your Hold button row is a normal numeric Touch-Tone pad for you to dial the different extensions on. All the extensions in every Walmart are the same no matter where you go, some of which are as follows:
- 105: Electronics
- 123: Men's
- 129: Fitting Room
- 150: Front Courtesy Desk
- 181: Layaway
- 0: Operator
Which brings me to my next point... The Operator.
She is located in the ladies fitting room; she has the best phone in the whole store, so if you want to phreak the system you have to get through her.
Inter-store communication is possible simply by picking up any house phone and dialing one of the following numbers:
- 9-1-700-701-XXXX
- 9-1-700-707-XXXX
XXXX stands for the store's number that you are calling. This is the number of the store in the order of when it was built, not the phone number. Example: Store 2046 was built before store 2155, so if you wanted to call store 2155 then XXXX would be 2155. (Get it?)
Anyway, the next step will be the store code - you must enter this to complete the call. This is, in most cases, the store number that you are calling from. Example: If you dial 1-700-707-2355, it will ask you to enter your code. If the store you are calling from is store number 0042, then 0042 is the code you would enter to complete the call.
That just about covers the Model 8102. Now on to the good stuff: Model MLX-10D.
MLX-10D has all the same features but it looks totally different. The first noticeable thing you'll see is that it has a display screen. Watch out for this type of phone, it will display whoever is calling and where they are calling from.
Directly under the screen you will see four buttons (black). Directly below each of them are another set of four buttons, Home, Menu, Inspct, and More. Each of these buttons does a different specialized function which is of no relevance to this article. Below them you will see a set of 10 black buttons - this is the good stuff.
There are as follows: (left side) Paging, Privacy, blank, Intercom Voice, and Intercom Ring. The right side has Pick Up - Line 1, Pick Up - Line 2, Pick Up - Line 3, followed by two blank buttons.
Let's start with the Paging button. This button is pre-programmed by the store to dial #96. This is the extension on the phones that is used to notify other employees or customers of what's going on. But please note this is not an extension. Unlike Kmart, whose paging system is simply an extension on the phones like a department, Walmart's is not. It uses the # for a reason, so as not to be confused with any other department that has a "96" in it. This is the only way to page on any of the phones. If the phone you have doesn't have a Paging button, then you must manually dial #96 to activate the PA.
Privacy is used to keep your calls private and not have anyone pick up the line you're using and listen in on your calls. If the Privacy light is not on, you do not have a secure call.
"Blank" - these are the non-programmed buttons. Pressing these will do nothing. However, try your luck anyway. Some of them are programmed with different departments or other stores.
Intercom Voice allows you to speak to a person in another room (they must also have an MLX-10D) using the speakerphone.
Intercom Ring is the same as intercom voice, but used as a prequel to it to see if they are available.
Pick Up - Line 1-3 are pretty much self explanatory. If you are receiving an outside call you must pick up one of the three that the call is on.
Now on some of the MLX-10D's there is no way to get an outside line without putting in a 3-digit code. The code is usually Feature + 8XX, then you must pick up a free line. This is the only way on the "non-essential" phones to get an outside line. But in some cases the only type of line you can get is an inter-store line no matter what.
Some of the phones (if you're lucky enough to get into the back of the store) don't even need a code to get an outside line. Just simply pick up the phone, choose an outside line, and dial away.
O.K., so now that I've covered most of the buttons on this type of phone, we will move on to the final group of buttons. They are: Feature, HFAI, Mute, Speaker, Transfer, Conf, Drop, and Hold.
Let's start with Feature. This, in conjunction with the code 8XX, allows you to pick up an outside line. The XX can be any set of numbers that your heart desires. Each one is supposed to be assigned to a different department head to keep track of who is making what calls and to where.
HFAI - I have no idea what this does and I can't seem to figure out what purpose it serves, so we will disregard it for now.
Mute, Speaker, and Hold are all self-explanatory.
Transfer allows you to obviously transfer calls to other areas of the store, simply by hitting transfer and then dialing the department number.
Conf (Conference) allows you to make conference calls (similar to that of a party line).
Drop hangs up a call once it's placed on hold.
One last thing before I go: 800 numbers. Most of them are O.K. to dial on this type of phone, but some of them won't go through. I can only speculate that the 800 number is one that allows return billing for services (such as some tech supports and phone sex lines). 900 numbers are strictly forbidden and won't work so don't even try.
So wrapping everything up now, we see the ins and outs of the Walmart phone system. So next time you're in a Walmart and a new employee is having trouble with the phones, simply pull out this article and you'll be able to get the job done.
Happy Hacking!