I am a frugal person, and I recently went searching for a new cellphone plan. At only $20 a month, Republic Wireless seemed like a good deal. I want to share my experiences in case anyone is thinking of using them.
Before ordering, I noticed that they advertised a risk-free money-back guarantee and 24/7 live chat support.
After I made an account, and made every choice possible for my order, I was then informed that there was a $15 dollar non-refundable shipping fee. This seemed kind of sketchy, since that is definitely a risk, and I have never in my life seen a phone company that charges you to ship their phone. Why hide this information until the person has already invested their time? I decided to order anyway, since it was pretty late and I'd come this far.
I also got a case, which seemed a bit pricey at 30 dollars, but I figured it was likely a good deal, since it's such a frugal-oriented company. Less than an hour later, I went to Amazon and found I could get the same case for $7 dollars, and the exact phone for the same price, but with free shipping. I decided to cancel my order and get the phone on Amazon, so I went to the 24/7 live chat support. I searched the help site, and found out that they don't offer cancellations, because it's simply impossible to do with how quickly they ship their orders! This seems like something you should probably mention in the order screen to give customers a heads up....
This was at 2 am, and I ordered at 1 am, so I was thinking it probably hadn't gone out yet. I tried to ask about this through the 24/7 live chat. It turns out this service is actually a lie. The chat support is basically a forum, where other customers, not employees, may or may not answer your questions, but have no power to actually do anything. And it wasn't available when I went to use it.
I opened a support ticket asking if they could cancel it. Over a day later, someone contacted me to repeat that the shipping was just too fast to possibly cancel any order. Also, when you submit a ticket, you get an e-mail saying that they have 24/7 support in the sense there is always someone working, but that doesn't mean you'll get help any time soon. Cute.
The order shipped, more than 4 full days after I initially placed it, and 3 full days after I was told the shipping speed made it impossible to cancel by a representative. It arrived several days after that, and I returned the unopened box. The order was originally placed on 2/19 and I just got an e-mail saying they received it today. I'll get a refund for the amount of the phone for $263 and the return process is complete. But they didn't refund or mention the 30 dollar case that was also pending for a refund and was never opened.
When I returned the items, I used the USPS option and was given a tracking number that never worked. It turns out that if you use USPS, they just send it to FedEx, and the tracking number will only work on FedEx. They don't mention that.
TLDR: RW lies to potential customers on their websites. Offers no cancellation option and slow, e-mail only support.
March 10, 2017 at 02:50PM
