Rip off

[starrr.lwlmxt]

@

Republic sent me a phone with a hanging power button. It didn’t work, couldn’t get wifi, poor connectivity, stuck on mute, etc, etc, etc, then you send me a “new” phone, but when I looked at my accout it was a used phone. Now that Republic is in receipt of it, Republic is telling me it was damaged. HELLO! your claiming water damage among other “damage”. I did not damage the phone with water or anything else. I too noticed a dent on the plastic cover, but forgive me, it’s a phone that’s likely to slip out of anyones hands, therefore it shouldn’t break from a one time drop. Now your trying to charge me for the phone. I should have known not to use you since no one is there to talk to, no service only community. Is that the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard? Are you kidding me?

When I tried to return the “replacement phone” you sent in place of the “new” one I paid for no one from the community or anyplace else within Republic bothered to contact me with information.

RIP OFF! YOU GUYS ARE A RIP OFF!

[c1tobor]

Hi @starrr.lwlmxt

I absolutely understand your frustration in this unfortunate series of events. I can assure you, RW and all of it’s customers and employees alike are very interested in providing the best CS(customer service) possible.

In this fast-paced, technological world, mistakes can happen. I would suggest opening a Help/Support ticket (Republic Help ) and explain your situation. You can also initiate a Live Chat with support from within that portal.

Please understand, that while RW is a relatively small company, this community is well versed in its practice, and fellow members will help you/direct you, in order to achieve the best course of action regarding this problem.

Mistakes happen sometimes, but RW has always treated customers with great respect and will usually go above-and-beyond to ensure a good customer experience.

If you choose to use the online help, please feel free to post the ticket number in this thread, and we will make sure Support is aware of your experience.

(note: We cannot see any personal information contained in the request, but we can use it as a reference to direct support to the issue).

[southpaw]

Hi @starrr.lwlmxt ,

Thank you for opening a ticket. Our help team will launch an appeal on your behalf. I’ve reviewed the triage results and don’t see anything that looks like an obvious error, so the next step will be for us to obtain photos of the returned phone. Some of the involved teams work regular business hours, so this will likely begin tomorrow. Although I understand your concern and frustration, I do hope you’ll be able to be patient with our process.

[homelessonwheels]

Similar problems keep happening - I wonder what the underlying cause is and how Republic plans to prevent it from happening again?

[c1tobor]

Hi @homelessonwheels

While this is only speculation, I would suggest it is because @starrr.lwlmxt is not accustomed to RW and this community, considering Join/Login dates.

People, including me, can get easily frustrated navigating the ‘online support’ concept. I hope they migrate these:

Community Guidelines

Getting Help from Republic

I think the move to Discourse may make RW’s support method much more user friendly.

[drm186]

and that will do nothing about the issue of return phones keep getting flagged as damaged and this is the issue Homeless is referring to

[c1tobor]

Hi @drm186

In a sense, that is true. However, this is bringing attention to this perceived problem . We really don’t know the percentage of of these instances, we only know we see them with more frequency.

The OP failed to identify the manufacturer, btw.

[drm186]

why does the OEM matter it’s Republic inspection team (out sourced) that is flagging the returns as damaged

[bocephous]

@starrr.lwlmxt

These issues with the inspection center can be cured. I am betting the phones are overwhelming to the inspection workers. Nobody knows if it’s a kid or a senior citizen inspecting and mind anywhere in between those age groups. The schooling, training, life issues all factor on the process. Just be glad this isn’t a Note 7 issue.

*** ~~ßocephous™***

[c1tobor]

My first thought was, how can one logically separate the return vs. manufacturer vs. support?.

We are off-topic, It is a good one though.

[southpaw]

Hi @homelessonwheels ,

I believe you are referring to some earlier incidents where we had a processing error resulting in erroneous charges.

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t see evidence in the results for this return of an error. Were it one of those situations, I would have already moved the ticket into billing’s queue and would have communicated to the OP that a refund would be processed as soon as the billing team signed in tomorrow.

As this is not one of those instances, we will conduct an appeal and work toward an equitable resolution.

[louisdi]

There’s a lot of speculation here. Sounds to me like the phone WAS damaged: " I too noticed a dent on the plastic cover, but forgive me, it’s a phone that’s likely to slip out of anyones hands, therefore it shouldn’t break from a one time drop."

Are you all honestly proposing that Republic should accept back damaged product because “it shouldn’t break from a one time drop”?

[southpaw]

Hi @bocephous,

I am betting the phones are overwhelming to the inspection workers.

I’ve not heard of any situation in our returns facility of the staff being overwhelmed. Returns are processing in the expected timeframe.

Nobody knows if it’s a kid or a senior citizen inspecting and mind anywhere in between those age groups.
Ageism aside, yes, we do know the staff.

The schooling, training, life issues all factor on the process
The returns team is trained by us and inspects the returns to our specifications. We try to err on the side of fairness to our members, but must also keep in mind that the next person to own the phone (because those that pass inspection become our b-stock) will want a high-quality device. Evidence of a drop can be a warning sign that the screen has been stressed or the internal components are damaged.

[homelessonwheels]

Am I the only one here that actually read and comprehended the OP’s message? He/she received a DEFECTIVE phone from republic. This was subsequently replaced with an obviously USED phone, that ALREADY had a dent in it. When OP returned the unacceptable replacement phone, it was rejected for not only the dent that it already had when the OP received it, but also for water damage, that was probably also pre-existing.

Sounds to me like some other customer’s return (who was probably also dinged for the cosmetic and water damage) and then pawned off as a replacement for a brand new phone that the customer had paid full price for and was DOA.

If you bought a brand new item that was DOA, and it was replaced by a recycled beater, would you find that acceptable? How about if you tried to return it, and you were penalized for someone else’s pre-existing damage?

Or, to paraphrase @louisdi, Are you all honestly proposing that the customer should shut up and eat the loss because “Republic shouldn’t have to accept damaged goods” (never mind that Republic delivered first defective, then later, damaged goods)?

[louisdi]

@homelessonwheels I don’t read it the way you do… Why would the OP say " forgive me, it’s a phone that’s likely to slip out of anyones hands, therefore it shouldn’t break from a one time drop" if they didn’t drop it? They’re asking forgiveness for someone else’s damage?

As usual, we’ll have to agree to disagree.

[southpaw]

Hi @homelessonwheels,

No. You are not the only one to have read carefully. I did so as well, and I’ve also read the ticket and the return results.

Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to discuss the details that are not presented by the OP, so I can’t publicly explain what’s going on here.

I can only ask that you trust that I’ll be in this ticket and involved in the appeal and will work to make certain the resolution is fair.

[bocephous]

@southpaw@rw

I don’t recall any discussion of knowing the employees personally at inspection centers. Hey if I was wrong I can deal with it & admit my poor jump to early conclusion remarks. I was just surmising how many companies are run with less than star employees but hey more power if they have a hold on quality. Quality companies are far and few these days & have to be held onto so they don’t lose that superior edge.

Note: All phones should have a case! If you’re phoning comando then you’re taking a risk with an expensive electronic device.

*** ~~ßocephous™***