Giving Up On Republic Wireless

[onemorebike]

I gave RW about a year and after starting with a Moto X that broke (antennae issue), resorting to a Moto G (a fine phone, but I've found it under powered for my use) and constantly struggling with MMS issues and call quality issues - I'm leaving RW. Embarrassingly, this venture will have put me through three phones (albeit, used phones) in a little over a year - though I'll probably recover much of my Moto G investment when I resell on CL (which is where I buy most of my phones).

Picked up a Nexus 5 last night and expect to be back (paying marginally more) with Platinumtel - I just couldn't justify having that much trouble with a phone/plan that I use for work. /end experiment

-onemorebike

[cheddarpie]

Fwiw, I've had a great experience with Virgin Mobile. I also had a "bad" phone at first, but I realized quickly that there's a reason it cost $50 ... I upgraded to an LG in the $125 range and it's been great. No issues for over a year and everything with VM and service has been smooth sailing.

[ascZend]

Fwiw, I've had a great experience with Virgin Mobile. I also had a "bad" phone at first, but I realized quickly that there's a reason it cost $50 ... I upgraded to an LG in the $125 range and it's been great. No issues for over a year and everything with VM and service has been smooth sailing.

Same here.  I've been using Virgin Mobile for over 3 years now.  My first phone with them was also very cheap and it performed like it.  I upgraded to an LG Volt for about $107 (IIRC) when it was on sale this past December.  Have been very pleased with the phone and the quality of the service, especially for the price.  $35 for unlimited talk, text, and 250 MB of data.

[WorkingToBeFIREd]

I use a "fancypants" Virgin Mobile plan at $50/month with unlimited everything.  I was hoping I could get by with the $35 option, but as I use the phone for my business, I quickly exceeded the limit.  If you can live with the Sprint coverage limitations, it's a good deal and I haven't had any issues service.  I also just got a notice that as a loyal customer (12 months plus), I was upgraded for free to 8GB of high speed data versus the 3 or 4GB I had originally - "unlimited" is only high-speed LTE for the first preset amount, after which it defaults to EDGE/2G speed.  I'm on WiFi quite a bit so really have no idea how much mobile data I was consuming (not sure if I can even find it on my account page), but having more buffer for no additional money was a nice perk!

Never tried Republic - I was going to buy one of their phones and go that route, but was gifted a pre-loved Virgin Mobile iPhone 4S, so all I had to do was sign up for the service.

[BeerBeard]

I ditched them too, there's no point. I could save wifi data automatically on any plan and use a number of other options for wifi calling. I looked at RW because it's automatic, but that's not worth anything if it doesn't work. I would dial someone and it would connect, then it would complete the call some 5-30 minutes later... It's like you but dialed someone when your phones sitting on the kitchen table.

Also, I'm not sure what they're using but I would get calls for a completely different number on my RW phone, lots of collection calls for Lenard. Who the fuck is Lenard. I asked a few of the callers what number they dialed and it was not my own.

I got a galaxy S3 from work and it's about the same as the old Moto X and worlds better than the G, and I'm really only paying $15 a month more on Verizon pre-paid... I'm only call for work and receive $75 every month to help pay for personal cell and internet usage, so I need something reliable, but I still want to save what I can.

[Slam]

Also, I'm not sure what they're using but I would get calls for a completely different number on my RW phone, lots of collection calls for Lenard. Who the fuck is Lenard. I asked a few of the callers what number they dialed and it was not my own.

The number that is assigned to your phone when you get it never goes away.  Even after you change your number, you can still call that other number and get your phone.  I don't understand it either, but I had to sign up both my number and this other number on all the no call lists.

[beege]

My SO has republc and gets random calls. We've talked about getting rid of it but she likes that she can take walks and talk to her mother (they talk alot - like an hour a day or more). We've tried finding another plan with unlimited minutes where you don't have to be on wifi the whole time, but for the ~$12 (after taxes) / month we pay for Republic Wireless it seems worth it.

[purplish]

My SO has been using RW, at first he liked it.  However now the text messaging always crashes and the phone is super slow.  The battery life is awful, it's constantly dying after like 5 hours. 

[onemorebike]

I used to like it too. Compaints:

1) I get random calls.

2) Texting doesn't work worth a crap, the stock messaging app crashes constantly and the other apps don't work well with RW.

3) The service isn't that great, and the calls are spotty at best. I look forward to being able to actually hear what people are saying.

4) My phone just isn't hanging in there the way it should. Burns battery life trying to complete background processes and apps crash left and right. (particularly my gmaps navigation app)

Boo.

[nitsuj1225]

I used to like it too. Compaints:

1) I get random calls.

2) Texting doesn't work worth a crap, the stock messaging app crashes constantly and the other apps don't work well with RW.

3) The service isn't that great, and the calls are spotty at best. I look forward to being able to actually hear what people are saying.

4) My phone just isn't hanging in there the way it should. Burns battery life trying to complete background processes and apps crash left and right. (particularly my gmaps navigation app)

Boo.

I've had Republic for a year now and couldn't be happier (1st gen Moto X).  I'm not understanding some of these complaints mainly because I haven't experienced most of them or found a way around them.  I used to have a 3rd party texting app, which doesn't support MMS on Republic so I couldn't send or receive pictures.  Once I figured that out and switched back to the stock Messenger, I can send and receive MMS messages and haven't had any issues.  I agree though that almost all of the 3rd party texting apps act funny with Republic for some reason...not a big deal using the stock app for me.

I find that calls over Wi-Fi are pretty meh.  Sometimes the volume seems turned down and it's hard to hear.  So when I make a call I just turn my Wi-Fi off and use the cell towers and it's just like my old Verizon line.  I live in a medium-sized city so Sprint cell signal is easy to come by.  I can see where this could be an issue in rural areas (as with many cell phone providers).

I've only received maybe a handful of random calls over the course of a year (all within the first 6 months) and I had about that many with Verizon each year before I switched to Republic.  Could be luck of the draw with whatever number Republic assigns to you.  I still use my original Verizon number though.

Not sure which phone you have but my Moto X is still going like a champ after a year.  Battery life still lasts a good 12 hours with moderate-heavy use which is above average for most smartphones and better than my Moto RAZR I had with Verizon.  I have noticed a couple times over the course of a year where my battery was drained after sitting idle on my desk.  This only occurred when I noticed some apps were still open when I opened the task manager.  So now I just got in the habit of tapping the task manager button and swipe all the open apps closed after I'm done using my phone.  After a while of doing that, I think I identified what app was draining my battery and now I just have to swipe that one closed whenever I use it and it's been fine ever since.  This is an issue with the phone or app itself though and has nothing to do with Republic.  I haven't had any issues with GMaps like you mentioned so not sure what's going on there.  A lot of times a reinstall (or update) of an app will fix most issues. 

Since Republic has the new 2nd Gen models of their phones out now, I imagine some of these quirky things (like texting apps) could be fixed now.  And I assume the newer phones have even better battery life.  I will put up with the occasional force close or the stock messaging app to save $70/month (over Verizon).  FWIW, I have the $10/month unlimited wi-fi plan so I can't comment on using the 3G or 4G data. 

Cost Savings:
$300 for phone and $144 for the plan ($12/month after taxes and fees)  Unlimited talk/text, unlimited over wi-fi
$444 total 1 year cost

Verizon: $100 for Moto RAZR with 2 year contract at $85/month (limited minutes and limited data, unlimited over wi-fi)
$1120 total 1 year cost

I save almost $700/year and the only thing I gave up is data since I'm on wi-fi 90% of the time anyway and haven't missed it at all.  I'm also not locked into a long term contract.