I think I'm losing yet another friend and I don't know what to do about it.
When I was a kid, back before my family packed up and moved from Missouri to North Carolina, friendship was so easy. I had a few friends that were my "Best Friends Forever" necklace sharing, sleepover having, awesome friends. Then we moved. Amid all of the usual promises to write every day and always be best friends, we grew apart quickly.
In my new state, my family quickly became involved in a church where I would grow to learn that people move in and out of your life like people do checkout lines at the grocery store. I would have one friend for 6 months, a year maybe, and then something would happen (they'd move away, church disagreements, whatever) and we'd no longer see each other.
Rotating friendships are something I'm accustomed to. I play the same role in most relationships, the supportive, listening, always nodding in agreement friend that makes silly jokes and references that make people shake their head and roll their eyes. Eventually, I can't keep up the "always nodding in agreement" bit and then the problems come. It's not that I didn't agree with my friend up to that point and just bit my tongue. It's really that if you're friends with someone long enough, you will someday find some point of contention.
The last fallout was when I worked at the Credit Union. I quickly became friends with a new coworker, she was high-strung and passionate, and decided that we would be friends. We'll call her "Jenny." After spending a lot of time together, I found out that she was pretty unhappy in her relationship. She was contemplating moving out and was browsing for apartments. I took her out one night to cry into a burger because she didn't feel that her partner found her attractive. Didn't see her for 48 hours and she came back excitedly chatting about browsing engagement rings with her partner.
I should've kept my mouth shut.
Instead, I opened my mouth as wide as I could and put my foot, leg, ass, and everything else in. "Are you okay with this? Just a few days ago you were looking at apartments to move away from him."
An office war immediately broke out between the two of us. I wasn't spoken to by almost anyone for weeks and she quickly found a new bestie. Neither of us acted appropriately and I feel badly for it. I should've just apologized, but I couldn't fathom anyone just living for the "special day." Eventually people in the office started talking to me again and I didn't have to spend every spare moment reading to avoid glaring eyes. But the damage was done.
Fast forward to today, and I've opened my big mouth yet again. A friend, I've miraculously held onto for the last few years, is hardly speaking to me.
I've been nodding my head supportively and listening to "Marcy" struggle with an abusive relationship for nearly 3 years. We were close friends, something I hadn't been able to say since I was a kid. I was the only one to visit her during her miscarriages and more than once, she told me that I was the only one that understood a 1000 other heartbreaks.
But then, her husband hit her. She wasn't just left alongside the road in a pregnant state or kicked out of her house. Her kids weren't told that she didn't love them by someone trying to hurt her and the children she holds dear. All inexcusable things for anyone to put up with, but I didn't say anything all of the other times, because she asked me not to. Everything she has put up with has been wrong and I've tried to give her ideas on how to make herself more safe, how to prepare to get out. It's just not enough though. He hit her.
She finally left him and I was relieved.
But less than a day later, she went back to him and told me that she would kick him out when he was "in a good mood".
She asked if I was mad and I said, "No. I just don't understand." So she rapidly changed the conversation and then didn't speak to me for 10 days. I've texted her and now I get a one or two word response if I'm lucky.
I tried again today and nothing.
I'm tired of losing friends because I want to help.
Jenny and I were only friends for a few months. I thought we were at a point that I could question things, but I wasn't. That was my mistake. But to have someone cut you off after several years of friendship and blunt honesty without a word? Ouch.
I was in an abusive relationship once. It wasn't for long, because I figured it out pretty quickly, but I remember the isolation. It felt like I wasn't allowed to do anything on my own. The guy I was with had somehow gotten phone numbers for most everyone that I spent time with and would constantly text them to find out where I was. He didn't even want me hanging out alone with my brother by the end. The manipulation was intense and constant. I wouldn't have recognized it if it weren't for the fact that I'd take a women's studies class the previous semester and remembered my teacher reading a list of behaviours that aren't always considered abuse, but still are.
I was in shock when I figured it out; I broke it off and I had to deal with the consequences. He faked his suicide, tried to make it seem that it was my fault...I was mortified. Once that whole situation was resolved, I had to deal with the harassing text messages, voicemails, and emails for the next few months. He called me every name in the book while begging me to come back. I would never go back. In fact, I'd really love to run into him now so that I could have a few choice words.
Things aren't as simple for Marcy as they were for me; kids are involved, legal ties have been formed. I also understand that not every person that is abused sees it that way. It's not always easily recognizable and oftentimes the people that know you don't even see it. Or, maybe it's visible, but the abused person just doesn't understand how bad it really is. Either way, I've been holding out a hand this whole time and I've been waiting to help out. It hurts to have it slapped out of the way without a second thought.
I just want to be a friend. But what does that mean? Do I have to watch my friends’ compromise and pretend that it's okay with me? Even worse, do I have to compromise my own integrity and pretend that I agree with everything? I don't know, but I don't like it. I just hope that I’m not broken. I don’t seem to have the best track record on this whole friend-having business.
*sigh*
//End emo rant//
Monday, July 29, 2013
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
An Open Complaint to the PetSmart Banfield Hospital
If you haven't figured this out yet, my cat is my baby. I really believe that I couldn't love him more if I birthed him myself. Logan is crazy, dopey, angst-y, full of personality and he's all mine.
Just over 7 years ago my mom came home from the vet and said, "There are kittens. Let's go look at them." I told her, no. "If you look at them, you will want to keep 'em." Somehow she got me to the vet.
There were a bunch of orange and white striped kittens, each and every one of them just as adorable as the next. "Look at the kittens! Let's pet them!" Again, I said, "No, mom. If you pet them, you'll start coming up with names for them." She picked one out that as she would say "has character." She picked Logan out and let me tell you something, my mom is never wrong about character. Now, my mom tells me that I said something like, "I've never had a cat before." But I swear! I don't know what happened next or how she did it... I walked out with a kitten.
"Pumpkin" as he was called was crazy from the get go. The tiniest thing would scare him and that orange and white tail would fluff out just like a pipe cleaner. It still happens today and I love it.
No one was more upset than Logan when I moved to Germany for the summer of '08. He moped the whole summer and then punished me for the next several months. And no one is more upset than Logan when I'm gone for a few days or even just come home late from work. I can always rely on him to be sitting on the stairs when I walk in the door with the glare that can only mean, "Where have you been?" We're pretty co-dependent, him and I.
As he gets older, I have to start taking care of more things. A year ago he got a really bad UTI and now has to eat special food to keep those issues from resurfacing. And there's also the issue of dental hygiene. I brushed his teeth as a kitten. He insisted on chewing my hair in my sleep, so I insisted that he keep his teeth clean. Unfortunately, I didn't do it enough to save him from the need for dental cleanings. I wish I had.
He's gotten his teeth cleaned before. It wasn't too much of a big deal. They over-doped him the last time, so he slept for a few days in his "tent" (a big sheet that I hung in my window that was immediately adopted as a cool cat place). But the vet called in to check on him and addressed all my concerns right away. I was really impressed with the PetSmart Banfield hospital in Knightdale. But then I moved! It seemed so simple, Logan would go to a new vet, but still would be part of Banfield. I assumed that the quality of service and care would be comparable.
I was wrong.
I had to drop Logan off to get his teeth cleaned. I let the tech know that my brother needed to pick up my baby and gave him the contact info for both of us. I let my cat go the back with the tech and went to work. I got a call in the afternoon and had to ask about his physical. The vet said that they hadn't done the comprehensive exam yet and kind of stumbled around on it. It was strange; I honestly wasn't convinced that they knew they were supposed to do that...even though I called the day before to confirm everything that they were supposed to do.
My brother picked up my cat at the appropriate time. My brother was never asked for any identification, literally just said that he was there to pick up Logan McNeill and that was that. Well, almost...The kid that brought Logan out asked my brother about his "dog....err....cat?" And the very same tech asked my brother if Logan was a boy or a girl because, "It's impossible to tell, you know?" Conclusion: The kid was high as a kite or extremely incompetent. Or both.
So Logan came home. He was completely alert and even more terrified. He acted like he'd never been put under – an idea terrifies me than anything. He ran out of his carrier and we found that both of his hind legs were bandaged up. Logan got to work on getting rid of them quickly and what was left behind were two very bloody bandages. One of his legs looked bedraggled like a homeless cat. I couldn't believe it.
I was in the dog house. Not only did I trick him into going to the vet by feeding his brothers and luring him into my trap, I let someone hurt him. He is only starting to forgive me. I'm apparently safe now, so long as I'm asleep. Poor thing is extra jumpy. He’s a jumpy cat in general, but this is a little ridiculous. I've never seen him in such a state. And every time I feed him and his brothers he goes to hide, certain that I'll trick him again.
It'd been 5 days since he went in and I'd heard nothing from the vet. So I decided to call and instead of getting solid answers about what happened to my pet, I got laughed at. "Oh, you know...it happens!" She tried to play everything off. The blood was from the IV, maybe it didn't take right the first time, lots of blood isn't a big deal, and everything is routine, etc. I wasn't getting anywhere with this person. I started to ask about his comprehensive exam and she replied with, "Why would you want to know about that? He's fine."
Who in their right mind asks why a pet owner or pet parent wants to know about the well-being of their baby? I pressed her further. She said, "Well, what do you want to know?" "Ummmm...how did it go? What are the results of the tests? Should I have any concerns?"
"Well, what kind of concerns would you have? He's fine."
"What was done do to my cat?"
"I wasn't there so I don't know!"
"Ummm...You should have detailed case notes."
This is how the entire conversation went. Ridiculous! She finally agreed to write down my number and have the vet call me back.
I really doubt I'm going to get a call...But I will be calling back until I get some real answers. I've already sent a complaint in to the Brier Creek Banfield and will keep sending complaints. This is my baby. The fact that he's so upset depresses me. The fact that I took him to a place with substandard care makes me even more upset! I expected better from a PetSmart hospital. My cat deserves better than this and I need to know what my pet care providers are doing behind the scenes.
After all, I decided a long time ago that Logan's going to live forever; and having a vet that doesn't give a care makes it hard for my baby to be his immortal, crazy, and fun-loving self.
Just over 7 years ago my mom came home from the vet and said, "There are kittens. Let's go look at them." I told her, no. "If you look at them, you will want to keep 'em." Somehow she got me to the vet.
There were a bunch of orange and white striped kittens, each and every one of them just as adorable as the next. "Look at the kittens! Let's pet them!" Again, I said, "No, mom. If you pet them, you'll start coming up with names for them." She picked one out that as she would say "has character." She picked Logan out and let me tell you something, my mom is never wrong about character. Now, my mom tells me that I said something like, "I've never had a cat before." But I swear! I don't know what happened next or how she did it... I walked out with a kitten.
"Pumpkin" as he was called was crazy from the get go. The tiniest thing would scare him and that orange and white tail would fluff out just like a pipe cleaner. It still happens today and I love it.
No one was more upset than Logan when I moved to Germany for the summer of '08. He moped the whole summer and then punished me for the next several months. And no one is more upset than Logan when I'm gone for a few days or even just come home late from work. I can always rely on him to be sitting on the stairs when I walk in the door with the glare that can only mean, "Where have you been?" We're pretty co-dependent, him and I.
As he gets older, I have to start taking care of more things. A year ago he got a really bad UTI and now has to eat special food to keep those issues from resurfacing. And there's also the issue of dental hygiene. I brushed his teeth as a kitten. He insisted on chewing my hair in my sleep, so I insisted that he keep his teeth clean. Unfortunately, I didn't do it enough to save him from the need for dental cleanings. I wish I had.
He's gotten his teeth cleaned before. It wasn't too much of a big deal. They over-doped him the last time, so he slept for a few days in his "tent" (a big sheet that I hung in my window that was immediately adopted as a cool cat place). But the vet called in to check on him and addressed all my concerns right away. I was really impressed with the PetSmart Banfield hospital in Knightdale. But then I moved! It seemed so simple, Logan would go to a new vet, but still would be part of Banfield. I assumed that the quality of service and care would be comparable.
I was wrong.
I had to drop Logan off to get his teeth cleaned. I let the tech know that my brother needed to pick up my baby and gave him the contact info for both of us. I let my cat go the back with the tech and went to work. I got a call in the afternoon and had to ask about his physical. The vet said that they hadn't done the comprehensive exam yet and kind of stumbled around on it. It was strange; I honestly wasn't convinced that they knew they were supposed to do that...even though I called the day before to confirm everything that they were supposed to do.
My brother picked up my cat at the appropriate time. My brother was never asked for any identification, literally just said that he was there to pick up Logan McNeill and that was that. Well, almost...The kid that brought Logan out asked my brother about his "dog....err....cat?" And the very same tech asked my brother if Logan was a boy or a girl because, "It's impossible to tell, you know?" Conclusion: The kid was high as a kite or extremely incompetent. Or both.
So Logan came home. He was completely alert and even more terrified. He acted like he'd never been put under – an idea terrifies me than anything. He ran out of his carrier and we found that both of his hind legs were bandaged up. Logan got to work on getting rid of them quickly and what was left behind were two very bloody bandages. One of his legs looked bedraggled like a homeless cat. I couldn't believe it.
I was in the dog house. Not only did I trick him into going to the vet by feeding his brothers and luring him into my trap, I let someone hurt him. He is only starting to forgive me. I'm apparently safe now, so long as I'm asleep. Poor thing is extra jumpy. He’s a jumpy cat in general, but this is a little ridiculous. I've never seen him in such a state. And every time I feed him and his brothers he goes to hide, certain that I'll trick him again.
It'd been 5 days since he went in and I'd heard nothing from the vet. So I decided to call and instead of getting solid answers about what happened to my pet, I got laughed at. "Oh, you know...it happens!" She tried to play everything off. The blood was from the IV, maybe it didn't take right the first time, lots of blood isn't a big deal, and everything is routine, etc. I wasn't getting anywhere with this person. I started to ask about his comprehensive exam and she replied with, "Why would you want to know about that? He's fine."
Who in their right mind asks why a pet owner or pet parent wants to know about the well-being of their baby? I pressed her further. She said, "Well, what do you want to know?" "Ummmm...how did it go? What are the results of the tests? Should I have any concerns?"
"Well, what kind of concerns would you have? He's fine."
"What was done do to my cat?"
"I wasn't there so I don't know!"
"Ummm...You should have detailed case notes."
This is how the entire conversation went. Ridiculous! She finally agreed to write down my number and have the vet call me back.
I really doubt I'm going to get a call...But I will be calling back until I get some real answers. I've already sent a complaint in to the Brier Creek Banfield and will keep sending complaints. This is my baby. The fact that he's so upset depresses me. The fact that I took him to a place with substandard care makes me even more upset! I expected better from a PetSmart hospital. My cat deserves better than this and I need to know what my pet care providers are doing behind the scenes.
After all, I decided a long time ago that Logan's going to live forever; and having a vet that doesn't give a care makes it hard for my baby to be his immortal, crazy, and fun-loving self.
Monday, July 1, 2013
My Misadventures with Republic Wireless
The lure of a cellphone bill at $19 a month was too much to resist. Republic Wireless and their $19/mo, no contract plan, that runs off of wi-fi (which I'm usually running on anyway)...was a wireless provider that I wanted to marry. I signed up while it was slowly opening up to more people with what it called the "Beta waves" and I was assigned to group O. I had been with Verizon and was paying about $68/mo and I didn't even get data! So when my wave opened up, I plunked down the $298.71 to get started within minutes of getting my invite. With a little hesitation at signing up for such a new provider, I kept my Verizon going just in case I took advantage of their 30 day guarantee.
Let me tell you something, that first 30 days was great! I was able to text in areas of my work building that I'd never been able to before. No more standing by a window! But here's the thing, I hardly made any phone calls. I didn't have the need to! Plus, everything else was working great...except for the fact that I couldn't surf the web away from my home wi-fi or the wi-fi connections that I built up, but whatever. I didn't want to be held hostage by the internet anyway, right?
The 30 days no risk period was getting close to an end and my only other complaints with Republic was that whoever owned my phone number before me was clearly running with the wrong crowd. I kept getting voicemails demanding that "Face" give up the money. Whoever the gentleman was that was leaving me these voicemails threatened to beat Face up several times if he didn't bring the money to specific locations and times—and I’m guessing Face regretted missing those messages. I talked to the angry caller a few times and told him that he had the wrong number. He told me I was wrong and that no, this was the right number.
These phone arguments got old fast so I decided it was time to take the plunge and port my number over from Verizon. What they don't warn you when you port your number over to Republic is that you could be unable to text for up to 72 hours. I was so confused. It had seemed so easy to port it over, why was nothing working right? I couldn't figure out what was going on at first. I emailed a few people and asked them to text me and send me a confirmation email. Finally, went to the "Community" where you are encouraged to get all your help from.
It’s a cost effective method for Republic to pawn people off on the Community and there's definitely nothing wrong with getting help from other users. I pose questions to Twitter sometimes and see other people doing the same. Other people are a great source of information and will generally be more honest about issues than the company ever would be. Republic's Community is no different. It's a place where I would go to find how people work around Republic because frankly it isn't working right. I loved the screaming rants that people would go on because I knew I wasn't the only one that says Arrested Development style, "I've made a huge mistake." Oh, I tried to make it work. The monthly bill was really nice, but the frustration....
So the community gave me my answer: porting your phone number means that texting is non-existent for a few days, but it cleared up just like they said it would. I figured things should be great from there, but then... I had to move to a new apartment. This meant making phone calls. Lots of them. Lots and lots and lots of phone calls.
It quickly became clear that automated systems could not handle my phone. Hearing "I'm-I'm-I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I'm Sor-ry!" was pretty standard for any call with an automated system. It was really funny the first dozen times. I'd put my phone on speaker for whoever was nearby to get a good laugh too. Not so funny now. And actually talking to real people was just as annoying. The line would cut in and out, which Republic explained away as being the result of going between Wi-Fi and Sprint's network. Unfortunately, that excuse didn't fly with me because I typically made calls from the comfort of my own home...while on my wireless.
Not only that, but the dropped calls were different too. I experienced what I called the "Silent dropped" call. The Silent dropped call results in a drop of all audio, while the seconds are still counting. Sometimes the other person would hang up, the seconds would keep rolling and they'd try to call me back. I wouldn't be able to switch to the other call because the screen would be flashing between off and on--this actually happened again...while I was trying to switch service providers away from Republic. It was good times. Naturally, the problem usually occurred when I was working from home and trying to assist a client. I sent more than one quick email, "I apologize, I seem to be experiencing technical difficulties with my phone. Here's the information you need."
Then the problems started growing like the McDonald's food chain. Republic's logo, the green rainbow shape, is supposed to display on your phone whenever you are connected to the wireless to signal that well... "You're connected!" Unfortunately, it stopped meaning that. Getting access to the internet would become next to impossible while on wi-fi (I spent more time switching to a laptop or my kindle than I'd care to admit). More than once I was in the process of tweeting something along the lines of, "Oh wow, Republic is so great that I can't even access the internet while on the wi-fi!" and twitter would fail to update over and over. Most of my complaint tweets would be sent a day later when I had access again. I couldn't even complain on a timely basis!
The texting issues after I ported my number never seemed to get better. My Fiancé got used to always contacting me via chat or email because texting didn't work 90% of the time. Now, I text a lot; when I was with Verizon my stats typically showed that I was texting roughly 2000 times a month. Take away my ability to text and I'm dead in the water. My main form of communication is gone. It was always devastating to me when my texting capabilities became non-existent. Plus, I rarely got all of the texts that I mixed after texting finally returned. Then there were all the times that my phone would send out my texts over and over. A friend told me that she got 16 copies of the same text before she gave up keeping track. Her phone wouldn't shut up for a long time as the notifications came in. Again, this is funny the first time, but not so much after several occurrences.
So I griped about the issues again on Twitter and Republic finally took notice. They tweeted me and said that they had improved since then. I was curious how they'd improved since the day before and said as much. They proceeded to try to get me to talk to their helpbot (who never once responded to any of my tweets, by the way). Another follower of mine joined in on the conversation and Republic got really snippy and told her that she obviously didn't read their tweet. She let them know that the internet is forever and they backed down, but I still grabbed screen shots of everything. (Click the image below for full view)
Fed up, I tried to go through their help service and proceed to re-open my ticket every time I had the issues that I frequently had to deal with. I ended up with quite a few messages between me and them over the course of a few days. Me: It's broke. Them: Do this. Me: It's fixed! Me again: It's broke again. Them: ...
They did try everything from making me delete all of my messages to factory resetting my phone, but there's only so much of that you can take. I just stopped letting them know when it broke. It wasn't worth the trouble when the issues would come back in a few hours and I had already decided it was time to go ahead and break up with them. After all, a relationship between a wireless provider and its users is all about usability. I loved the little bill. But the trouble of trying to get it to work consistently wasn't worth the $22 and some change after tax. It was a rip-off. The $19/mo advertised was way too expensive for all the trouble I went through.
I hung in with Republic Wireless for about 6 months, 7 tops. I couldn’t handle it any more. So I switched to Boost. My brother had been using them for a month or so longer than I used Republic and had no issues with them. And I really didn’t feel like jumping into yet another contract like Verizon, so I figured why no go with one that I knew people with firsthand experience could vouch for? I made one little mistake though. I wanted to keep my phone number.
I don’t have a lot of experience with porting phone numbers. I usually just opt for the new one. But I wasn’t keen on repeating the “Face” man incident. The thought of dealing with calls at all hours of the day for what was probably drug money did not appeal to me. There was just one tiny problem with this; Boost was convinced that my phone number was a landline. I had my number originally with Verizon, so I knew that it was definitely not a landline number. I talked to person after person over the course of two days; mainly because my RW phone kept dropping the calls. They kept referring me to the landline department and I kept asking, “How is this a landline? I’m holding a cellphone in my hand. Do you see why this is hard for me to understand?”
Those poor people probably hated me, but I really just wanted to understand.
So after a little digging and once again going to the RW Community, I found that the service is basically a VOIP service and that other carriers do consider it to be a landline service. This was bizarre news to me, but I won’t pretend to have the most technical acumen. After finally getting a hold of the mysterious landline department with Boost and their random hours, I was able to get things sorted. It took just a few minutes with them and I was set. Despite the annoyance, it was still easier than porting to RW! And with that, I was finally free of them! Or so I thought…
After you port your number, you have to cancel with RW and hope that they actually cancel it. There were lots of complaints in the Community that RW continued to charge them and I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t notice the $22 leaving until a bill got declined for the lack of money. But I needed to end things, so I sent the message requesting deactivation and received a letter back asking me to confirm.
The interesting bit about this letter was one sentence, “Please be aware that once we cancel your service the phone will be shut off instantly.” Now I spent a lot of money on that phone and they were telling me that my phone would be shut off instantly? I *own* my silly Motorola Defy XT! How come I’m being denied the use of my phone? Not that it’s worth trying to use beyond my service with them… It’s a horrible phone after all! But the principle of making people pay full price for a phone and then shutting it off when they don’t approve of your service is just wrong**.
But…it’s finally over! I left the Republic 3 months ago and couldn’t be happier. Things aren’t perfect with Boost and honestly, there’s never going to be a perfect provider. But, I at least feel like I’m getting *something* for the money I’m putting into this carrier!
Honestly, Republic has a great idea that just wasn't being done well. The idea of paying for what you get is phenomenal, I just didn't like not getting *anything* for what I was paying. After all, any idea or company that lets you nix the big cell phone companies can't be all bad. But as I've been hearing lately, this service is probably best left to an app rather than a full blown wireless provider. I just don't think Republic will back up and try again. So if it's going to be done on the level that they're going for, Republic needs to make some big changes, provide real customer service, and lasting solutions to problems.
In the end, they said they were sad to see me go. And ironically, I felt they were being truly honest about that. If they weren't sad to see me go, they were a little jealous of me. As I used my RW phone for one last phone call to my new wireless provider...my call dropped. How poetic is that!
**I still have the phone and keep meaning to test it to see if they were really right about the whole, “YOUR PHONE IS DEAD TO US” thing but haven’t done so yet. So there’s still the possibility that they weren’t being honest on that front. I may remember to check one day and make an update, hah!
Let me tell you something, that first 30 days was great! I was able to text in areas of my work building that I'd never been able to before. No more standing by a window! But here's the thing, I hardly made any phone calls. I didn't have the need to! Plus, everything else was working great...except for the fact that I couldn't surf the web away from my home wi-fi or the wi-fi connections that I built up, but whatever. I didn't want to be held hostage by the internet anyway, right?
The 30 days no risk period was getting close to an end and my only other complaints with Republic was that whoever owned my phone number before me was clearly running with the wrong crowd. I kept getting voicemails demanding that "Face" give up the money. Whoever the gentleman was that was leaving me these voicemails threatened to beat Face up several times if he didn't bring the money to specific locations and times—and I’m guessing Face regretted missing those messages. I talked to the angry caller a few times and told him that he had the wrong number. He told me I was wrong and that no, this was the right number.
These phone arguments got old fast so I decided it was time to take the plunge and port my number over from Verizon. What they don't warn you when you port your number over to Republic is that you could be unable to text for up to 72 hours. I was so confused. It had seemed so easy to port it over, why was nothing working right? I couldn't figure out what was going on at first. I emailed a few people and asked them to text me and send me a confirmation email. Finally, went to the "Community" where you are encouraged to get all your help from.
It’s a cost effective method for Republic to pawn people off on the Community and there's definitely nothing wrong with getting help from other users. I pose questions to Twitter sometimes and see other people doing the same. Other people are a great source of information and will generally be more honest about issues than the company ever would be. Republic's Community is no different. It's a place where I would go to find how people work around Republic because frankly it isn't working right. I loved the screaming rants that people would go on because I knew I wasn't the only one that says Arrested Development style, "I've made a huge mistake." Oh, I tried to make it work. The monthly bill was really nice, but the frustration....
So the community gave me my answer: porting your phone number means that texting is non-existent for a few days, but it cleared up just like they said it would. I figured things should be great from there, but then... I had to move to a new apartment. This meant making phone calls. Lots of them. Lots and lots and lots of phone calls.
It quickly became clear that automated systems could not handle my phone. Hearing "I'm-I'm-I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I'm Sor-ry!" was pretty standard for any call with an automated system. It was really funny the first dozen times. I'd put my phone on speaker for whoever was nearby to get a good laugh too. Not so funny now. And actually talking to real people was just as annoying. The line would cut in and out, which Republic explained away as being the result of going between Wi-Fi and Sprint's network. Unfortunately, that excuse didn't fly with me because I typically made calls from the comfort of my own home...while on my wireless.
Not only that, but the dropped calls were different too. I experienced what I called the "Silent dropped" call. The Silent dropped call results in a drop of all audio, while the seconds are still counting. Sometimes the other person would hang up, the seconds would keep rolling and they'd try to call me back. I wouldn't be able to switch to the other call because the screen would be flashing between off and on--this actually happened again...while I was trying to switch service providers away from Republic. It was good times. Naturally, the problem usually occurred when I was working from home and trying to assist a client. I sent more than one quick email, "I apologize, I seem to be experiencing technical difficulties with my phone. Here's the information you need."
Then the problems started growing like the McDonald's food chain. Republic's logo, the green rainbow shape, is supposed to display on your phone whenever you are connected to the wireless to signal that well... "You're connected!" Unfortunately, it stopped meaning that. Getting access to the internet would become next to impossible while on wi-fi (I spent more time switching to a laptop or my kindle than I'd care to admit). More than once I was in the process of tweeting something along the lines of, "Oh wow, Republic is so great that I can't even access the internet while on the wi-fi!" and twitter would fail to update over and over. Most of my complaint tweets would be sent a day later when I had access again. I couldn't even complain on a timely basis!
The texting issues after I ported my number never seemed to get better. My Fiancé got used to always contacting me via chat or email because texting didn't work 90% of the time. Now, I text a lot; when I was with Verizon my stats typically showed that I was texting roughly 2000 times a month. Take away my ability to text and I'm dead in the water. My main form of communication is gone. It was always devastating to me when my texting capabilities became non-existent. Plus, I rarely got all of the texts that I mixed after texting finally returned. Then there were all the times that my phone would send out my texts over and over. A friend told me that she got 16 copies of the same text before she gave up keeping track. Her phone wouldn't shut up for a long time as the notifications came in. Again, this is funny the first time, but not so much after several occurrences.
So I griped about the issues again on Twitter and Republic finally took notice. They tweeted me and said that they had improved since then. I was curious how they'd improved since the day before and said as much. They proceeded to try to get me to talk to their helpbot (who never once responded to any of my tweets, by the way). Another follower of mine joined in on the conversation and Republic got really snippy and told her that she obviously didn't read their tweet. She let them know that the internet is forever and they backed down, but I still grabbed screen shots of everything. (Click the image below for full view)
They did try everything from making me delete all of my messages to factory resetting my phone, but there's only so much of that you can take. I just stopped letting them know when it broke. It wasn't worth the trouble when the issues would come back in a few hours and I had already decided it was time to go ahead and break up with them. After all, a relationship between a wireless provider and its users is all about usability. I loved the little bill. But the trouble of trying to get it to work consistently wasn't worth the $22 and some change after tax. It was a rip-off. The $19/mo advertised was way too expensive for all the trouble I went through.
I hung in with Republic Wireless for about 6 months, 7 tops. I couldn’t handle it any more. So I switched to Boost. My brother had been using them for a month or so longer than I used Republic and had no issues with them. And I really didn’t feel like jumping into yet another contract like Verizon, so I figured why no go with one that I knew people with firsthand experience could vouch for? I made one little mistake though. I wanted to keep my phone number.
I don’t have a lot of experience with porting phone numbers. I usually just opt for the new one. But I wasn’t keen on repeating the “Face” man incident. The thought of dealing with calls at all hours of the day for what was probably drug money did not appeal to me. There was just one tiny problem with this; Boost was convinced that my phone number was a landline. I had my number originally with Verizon, so I knew that it was definitely not a landline number. I talked to person after person over the course of two days; mainly because my RW phone kept dropping the calls. They kept referring me to the landline department and I kept asking, “How is this a landline? I’m holding a cellphone in my hand. Do you see why this is hard for me to understand?”
Those poor people probably hated me, but I really just wanted to understand.
So after a little digging and once again going to the RW Community, I found that the service is basically a VOIP service and that other carriers do consider it to be a landline service. This was bizarre news to me, but I won’t pretend to have the most technical acumen. After finally getting a hold of the mysterious landline department with Boost and their random hours, I was able to get things sorted. It took just a few minutes with them and I was set. Despite the annoyance, it was still easier than porting to RW! And with that, I was finally free of them! Or so I thought…
After you port your number, you have to cancel with RW and hope that they actually cancel it. There were lots of complaints in the Community that RW continued to charge them and I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t notice the $22 leaving until a bill got declined for the lack of money. But I needed to end things, so I sent the message requesting deactivation and received a letter back asking me to confirm.
The interesting bit about this letter was one sentence, “Please be aware that once we cancel your service the phone will be shut off instantly.” Now I spent a lot of money on that phone and they were telling me that my phone would be shut off instantly? I *own* my silly Motorola Defy XT! How come I’m being denied the use of my phone? Not that it’s worth trying to use beyond my service with them… It’s a horrible phone after all! But the principle of making people pay full price for a phone and then shutting it off when they don’t approve of your service is just wrong**.
But…it’s finally over! I left the Republic 3 months ago and couldn’t be happier. Things aren’t perfect with Boost and honestly, there’s never going to be a perfect provider. But, I at least feel like I’m getting *something* for the money I’m putting into this carrier!
Honestly, Republic has a great idea that just wasn't being done well. The idea of paying for what you get is phenomenal, I just didn't like not getting *anything* for what I was paying. After all, any idea or company that lets you nix the big cell phone companies can't be all bad. But as I've been hearing lately, this service is probably best left to an app rather than a full blown wireless provider. I just don't think Republic will back up and try again. So if it's going to be done on the level that they're going for, Republic needs to make some big changes, provide real customer service, and lasting solutions to problems.
In the end, they said they were sad to see me go. And ironically, I felt they were being truly honest about that. If they weren't sad to see me go, they were a little jealous of me. As I used my RW phone for one last phone call to my new wireless provider...my call dropped. How poetic is that!
**I still have the phone and keep meaning to test it to see if they were really right about the whole, “YOUR PHONE IS DEAD TO US” thing but haven’t done so yet. So there’s still the possibility that they weren’t being honest on that front. I may remember to check one day and make an update, hah!
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