My worst customer experience, though, was when I tried to port my wife's old number onto her new phone. After pinging Republic's online help desk, I received an email directing me to an FAQ page, which informed that a quick link should appear on the "My Account" page. It didn't. When I emailed Republic's help desk, I was repeatedly referred back to that same FAQ, which was frustrating. At that point, it would have been nice to talk to a human, but, alas, that's not possible with Republic. Bandwidth runs a lean organization.
"For 90% of issues, it works out pretty well," said company representative Keith Nowak. In my case, it didn't. If I didn't have access to Republic's public-relations team, I'm not sure what I would have done at that point. One fail-safe method is to just mail your phone back, and start over again (Republic offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.)
As it turned out, the issue was my fault. I have two Gmail accounts, and used both to set up two different Republic accounts. I was trying to switch a phone number with one account that wasn't connected. Still, the experience was discouraging and a major drawback.
Automated customer service is the worst part of the Republic Wireless experience, but everything else was great. Once mine and my wife's Moto X phones were up and running, I enjoyed almost exactly the same service I had with AT&T for about $150 a month less.
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Of course, this whole scenario could go belly-up if Republic goes out of business. Bandwidth.com is a private business, and the company hasn't released much financial information about Republic, so it's hard to say how well it's doing. However, if Bandwidth CEO David Morken decides to pull the plug on this venture, then I'm out about $300 and have two useless phones (Republic's Moto X phones are designed to only work on its network.) On the other hand, Republic could also potentially disrupt the wireless industry in a major way, ushering in wider use of VOIP, and dismantling the telecom oligarchy of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.
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