RepublicWireless

I've been trying to port my phone number from Republic Wireless for 3 weeks! I've gotten zip code errors every time. Numerous phone calls and still no resolution. This seems like it should be easy to resolve but I get a different excuse every time. The last person I talked to suggested upgrading my plan in order to port my number. Why I should pay extra to leave RW? If I could rate zero, I would.

We loved Republic Wireless until Dish bought it. Most of the time thit events translate to BAD news for the users but GOOD news for the stock holders. Now voicemail it's just $#*!ty and very cumbersome to use. Really hard to believe such a drastic change isn't ON PURPOSE. It looks more like an indirect way of closing down the type of celllphone service Republic used to offer. Like when Microsoft bought Skype and suddenly the communications were horrendous. Corporations use this kind of shenanigans all the time.

How could you shutdown your web site at Christmas. We have 1 cell phone and no land line. Our cell phone is giving us problems. We CAN'T replace it. Find another company.

Agreeing with another commenter, I've never been more motivated to find sites to leave a BAD review. The email in early June said: "We're switching to ATT from Tmobile, effective June 30." In early June we lost service w/o warning. No cell coverage, only wifi. After several service calls they sent new sim cards for the Tmobile to ATT switch. Installed them, no service. Then they said "wait 5 days for Republic activation". Still no wifi, and very spotty cell coverage even in the city. Called again and they said "Haven't you activated(!)?" Went through the activation steps, still no wifi connection (phone shows wifi is connected, but calls route thru cell towers instead). Finally reached a tech who said "your phones are not compatible for wifi use with the new cell provider, you have to upgrade to a new phone." So at least 6 different techs did not know the sim card they sent would not work in our Moto e6 Play's (a very common phone RW has been selling oodles of). So she said "We'll call you back w/in 3 hours with some options." 2 weeks later: still no call back, so I called again to cancel and demand a refund; she hung up on me. BTW, not the first time; that's apparently their solution to customer dissatisfaction: just hang up. BTW, I asked a tech "how much training do you get?" He said "4 hours!" This DISH acquisition deserves to die quickly; get out of Republic as fast as you can.

This used to be a good company, but now they don't care. They accidentally cancelled my service and don't seem interested in fixing it. It's all empty promises. Go to one of the many better options instead.

It's a shame, since I've been a multi-line customer for many years. Not anymore.

Alright, we were loyal Republic customers for 8 years. We were very thankful for the cheap prices and dealt with the inconveniences because of those cheap prices (therefore the 2 stars instead of 1). But, with the merger with Dish things completely went to pot. We had to upgrade to new plans for some of our phones and the new plans had worse coverage not better. My son's and wife's phones would have no data if they didn't have 5G - it would drop completely. We were in WA DC and they had no coverage! In the middle of the capital - ridiculous. Also, with the merger to dish, voice mail stopped working. Also, everytime I texted my wife and my son I had to check to make sure it went through, if they didn't have 5G coverage a "chat" wouldn't go through and I'd have to switch to SMS - manually. Then, my wife's phone stopped getting texts at random. So, we knew it was time to go. We left -and here is the kicker, they WILL NOT delete your credit card information after you leave. I caused the biggest stink with the support department and they simply continued to insist that they "could" not do it and there was no one that I could talk to about deleting it. They kept offering for me to update it with a new card. How ridiculous. Like I'd give them another card. Anyways, buyer beware.

For over 5 years, I was totally happy with Republic Wireless overall. But their cell service suffered greatly for the transition to Dish. They could not resolve my problem nor provide me a prorated refund. I have since left them for superior service with another carrier.

Great concept but in reality you're getting crap phones to use Verizon network (or some other major carrier whose name I forget).

The phones have no sim cards so are locked to Republic and have very low resale value.

The phones are laughably old and outdated. Forget having a smartphone. The cell service is just good enough for casual phone calls. Only use for business if you love losing money and having clients badmouth you.

Support is "crowd-sourced" meaning there is very very very little in way of direct support or even employees to talk to. You'll have to rely on outdated user forums to search fixes to issues.

My phone would stop randomly working and voice mail wouldn't work.

A very obscure carrier with obscure directions.

But, the price is very good if you aren't obsessed with phones.

Can only reflect what others have said - started out awesome company but has just plummeted since partnering with Dish.

REPUBLIC BY DISH IS AWFUL. THEY TURNED OFF MY SERVICE AFTER EIGHT YEARS OF PAYING OR PREPAYING MY BILLS ON TIME. THERE WAS NO WARNING. I WAS ON VACATION AND THEY GAVE ME NO OPTIONS TO EXTEND. NOT EVEN ENOUGH TO GET HOME. THEY THEN LIED ABOUT NOTIFYING ME AND WERE NEVER ABLE TO OFFER ANY PROOF OF NOTIFICATION. STAY AWAY! NO RATE IS CHEAP ENOUGH FOR THIS COMPANY!

I'm done with Republic. Your customer service is so bad that Im actually searching the web for places to leave reviews as it is truly a negative star review. While i have received bad service before I've never taken the time to actually look for places to leave reviews let alone bad ones.

We have been Republic customers for over 10 years & recommended it to anyone we come across. When we received the notice that Republic had been acquired by dish my wife called in to get us on the new plan. She was told that we could combine our separate accounts into one account, so she did this. She also ordered me a new phone as mine is pretty beat up. Once the new phone and new SIM cards arrived we called to get her old phone and my new phone activated. We were able to get her phone activated but was told we needed to wait a few days until it was fully activated before my new phone could be activated. Once we got the email that it was activated we called back. I don't remember the exact reason but it could not be activated. This happened the next 10 or so times that I called. We were always on the phone for 20 to 30 minutes talking to somebody that we could not understand. We would always be mysteriously disconnected or they would end the call they saying it was activated and that by the next day it should work. And of course did not work and I would end up calling back a day or two later. They could not understand that I was attempting to activate the second line on the account and when I told them this they would get confused. One nice customer service representative that I could actually understand spent 30 minutes on the phone with me and said that they would have to contact their it department in order for it to get fixed but it should be fixed in 48 hours or less. But of course that did not happen. We continue to call almost daily until I got fed up with it. We decided to switch carriers and my wife is now active on their account. Turns out I cannot move my phone over to the new carriers because it needs to be out we have called multiple times now to get the unlock key and they tell us that they cannot do it, or it will take a couple days etc etc. We have waited those couple days and it still has not happened. We decided instead that we would like to return the phone and just be done with it and they informed us that it was past the return policy. I would be okay with this, however we have had this phone and been trying to get a connected for the past 45 days minimum, with records in our account to prove it. I'm not sure what's wrong with their system and I don't really care at this point I just want my money back. I never want to talk to a Republic wireless person ever again. However after my wife spent 45 minutes on the phone with them today she was told again that it should be taken care of I decided to call back and talk to a manager to make sure it was taken care of and then spent 20 minutes on the phone trying to convince the customer service representative to get me to a manager. He put me on hold and then after 10 minutes came back and said that sorry no managers were available & he coulnd't send them a message to call me back. Seriously you can't have a manager talk to a customer that's the worst thing I've ever heard of.

We currently have three help tickets out there, one for getting the phone unlocked one for getting reimbursed for all the extra charges that they sent to us and another for the possibility of actually returning the phone. Apparently they're so busy they can't get any of these things done. In the meantime now currently my old phone does not work I cannot receive any calls or texts on my phone so it is basically useless paperweight.

Again the worst customer service I've ever seen. In addition to that I even had to type this post out twice because the first time it mysteriously disappeared. That's how frustrated I am, that I actually typed this post out two times. It's now copied and if it mysteriously disappears I will post it again and again and again. I also plan on calling customer service as often as I can and request that you talk to a manager wasting your agents time until I get answers.

I see a couple responses on here from Republic wireless telling people that I have complaints to message them privately and they will handle it. I will not be messaging you privately you can contact me my name is in this post and you should be able to look up my number and find me you should also be able to review my whole account and my wife's account and be sure you're up to speed on what's going on before you contact me. You should also have an answer to fix my problems as that's the only way I will delete this post or any other postings that I have put up on the internet.

Your move

I have had Republic Wireless for the last 3 1/2 years. True you used to have to buy their phone. That is no longer the case. I would be lying if i said I never had quality issues but that seems to be a thing of the past. If you happen to be somewhere where you can't get coverage usually you can find a place with free WiFi and it will work great. With their Anywhere* app i can also get and give calls and texts from my tablet and laptop if they are connected to WiFi.
* Voice may only be for the bet version of Anywhere.
They are worth looking into.

Wow. I was a happy customer for nearly a decade; then as soon as Dish bought Republic, things started going downhill. I switched carriers in June with two and a half months left on my yearly payment plan. It has been MADNESS to get the $ back from the unused portion. First they told me it would be refunded automatically within 3 business days; then they told me it would take up to 8 weeks; THEN they told me "oh, a customer refund request was never put in" (I'd already had 2 conversations about my refund with Republic? But ok) and just now I checked my credit card and the refund they gave me was a TENTH of the proper amount. 10%! How? Why?

Bail if you are a current customer, and if you aren't a current customer... keep it that way. Absolutely terrible.

Stay as far away from RW as possible. Back in 2014 when I first signed up it was an awesome deal and everything worked great. Slowly, but surely they started to go downhill starting with an upgrade in 2016 when they didn't properly notify customers. My phone crashed and died because I didn't follow the steps to prepare for the update. Why? Oh, their email looked like all the other spam emails they sent then and I didn't open it. I had to buy a new phone because of this "upgrade". They refused to assist because my phone was just out of warranty. Excellent customer service.: rolleyes:

Fast forward to today. I have crappy and unreliable service, get lost using GPS because of lack of WiFi connection, and can't use my phone for cash apps because it's all VoIP. They graciously offered a more expensive plan so I didn't have to suffer any longer. Nah.

Oh and visual voicemail will never work and you'll have to guess when people leave you a voicemail. Or call it frequently. Pointless.

People who leave positive reviews clearly haven't been with RW long or have easy access to free WiFi.

I contacted Republic via "chat" which is essentially email, because it takes approx. 1-24 hours to get a response and wanted a phone they sold but did not want the one color option remaining and also the phones were overpriced compared to the general market, so inquired as to whether or not I could purchase my own phone and sign up anyway. Because of the lag time between questions and answers it was a very slow process to communicate. The rep was very nice but did not explain with specificity what exactly I should be looking for in a phone to make it compatible. Anyway, I ended up down a big rabbit hole with the wrong phone. Another rep in my opinion became very defensive, and although the first rep apologized which I appreciated, the time and effort it took was way too much. When I asked to "speak" to a supervisor, no one contacted me. I would say it's best to stick with companies that have actual phone numbers so you can talk to customer service. I would not recommend this company for that reason and also I don't feel they made good on the mistakes they made with me.

Phone would not work put in for a ticket. Requested a call did not receive it. I try requested to return phone, and followed instructions to factory reset phone. I double checked that personal data off phone, and turned it off and mailed the phone. They claim the phone was locked... You cannot Reset phone with personal lock... must be swipe only as per instructions I followed. I never took off the plastic on the phone... I couldn't use the phone it kept giving me "Sim invalid" notice. They charged me 400.00+ for damages... I could not use the phone it would only pickup WiFi. Was nothing but a paperweight I couldn't use. I DID NOT Damage the phone... I

DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE UNLESS YOU HAVE MONEY TO THROW AWAY. THE PHONE WAS EXPENSIVE AND DID NOT PERFORM AS A PHONE...
NO HUMAN TO TALK TO, AND SHOULD YOU HAVE AN ISSUE SUCH AS SIM INVALID.
THEY DON'T KEEP THEIR WORD... I FOLLOWED THEIR DIRECTIONS, AND KEPT MY WORD AND THEY LIED AND STOLE MONEY.

I have been with them for 2 years now. I got my sons first phone here - he was only 11, but I'm divorced... and wanted an extra mode of contact when he is with dad. Their plans are very reasonable but back then you had a choice of 3 phones. Now they have expanded to include more of the popular style phones and even using your own phone. I really hope that as they grow, they don't go bonkers with their rates like Verizon. I have Verizon for my phone only bc I need it to work at my parents house... where Verizon is the ONLY carrier that works there. Sigh. But I have been absolutely delighted with their customer service, plans and now they have the 'cool' new phones! If I didn't have to have Verizon - I would switch immediately! Check them out!