Author Topic: Warning! Republic wireless roaming is false advertising!  (Read 2610 times)

sbzellison

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Warning! Republic wireless roaming is false advertising!
« on: May 29, 2016, 12:09:24 PM »
Hey Mustachians! I need to share an important data point about what may happen to you if you are on or are thinking about switching to Republic.

First, some description of the issue. My husband and I have had Republic for two and a half years, during which time we lived in Alaska, a covered area according to Republic's website. We had a few minor issues that resolved themselves, but suddenly one day both of our phones stopped sending calls to non-whitelisted numbers. (Whitelisted numbers are numbers you have successfully called before while on cell coverage--quite the catch-22.) Because so many of our calls had previously been placed only over wifi, very few of our frequent contacts were whitelisted. This meant we could basically call each other (sometimes--not reliably), and send texts, but if we needed to call a friend--or a tow truck, or the police--we were out of luck.

After one month of going back and forth with customer support, during which time they repeatedly suggested the same fixes, like factory resets, despite the fixes not having worked in the past, they finally told us the reason our service had been cut: because Alaska is a Sprint roaming area, the roaming agreements changed, leaving us without cell coverage, and there was nothing they could (would?) do about it.

OK, that's fine, sucks for us, but whatever. My problem is that Alaska remains advertised on their website as a covered area, despite the fact that you cannot place cell calls in Alaska. What about all of the other roaming areas advertised on their website--when are these areas going to suddenly switch to unadvertised, uncovered areas? (In case anybody thinks this is a localized issue, within the past month, I have taken the phone to Fairbanks, all up and down the George Parks Highway, to Soldotna, and to Anchorage--basically covering 75% of Alaska's population centers--and I can assure you that nowhere in these areas am I able to place a call on cell. Over the coming two months, I will be visiting Ketchikan, Juneau, and all other towns up and down Southeast Alaska, covering up to 95% of Alaska's population centers, and I will attempt to make cell calls in all of these areas to check and see if the problem is "localized" or not. I'll report back if I get any new info.)

I believe this is an egregious case of bait-and-switch: Republic advertises a service, and then cancels it without warning once the $500 investment in proprietary phones is made and the warranty window has passed. I asked for a refund of our phones, but they refused. I will continue to pursue a refund.

Here is a record of my most recent conversation with Republic for proof: https://imgur.com/7RJW8MF. This is after one month of submitting technical support tickets which just served to spin my wheels.

Bottom line: Despite having convinced several friends to switch to Republic and really enjoying the service up to this point, I can no longer recommend this company due to their unethical advertising and atrocious customer service.  I hope my experience prevents others from making the same mistake!

RocketSurgeon

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Re: Warning! Republic wireless roaming is false advertising!
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2016, 02:50:54 PM »
Thanks for the heads up. Good luck with your refund.

HipGnosis

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Re: Warning! Republic wireless roaming is false advertising!
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2016, 07:48:42 AM »
Please let the better business bureau know this too.

nightzephyr

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Re: Warning! Republic wireless roaming is false advertising!
« Reply #3 on: June 04, 2016, 11:05:18 PM »
Thank you!! I now understand what happened to my phone.  It works fine where I currently live, but one day I traveled back to my hometown and it suddenly turned into a high-tech brick.  (It had worked fine there previously, but I only visit every few months.)  Actually, the same thing happened in a location I used to do some work at that was pretty far out in the boonies.  I'm glad somebody figured out what was going on.  Much appreciated!  Also, have you had any problems calling numbers that are whitelisted?  I had difficulty or total failure calling anyone at all.
Overall, not a deal-breaker for me yet, but may be a serious issue if I move somewhere that's roaming only.