The Mobile Republic Review

Overall Rating

Seeming "low prices"
Attractive site (Convincing shall we say)

Customer service
Pointless ticket system
Huge Delay in delivery
Broken promises

What can I say about The Mobile Republic except they seem to me to be another unreliable online shop.

My first instance began when I decided to purchase a Nokia contract phone. Initially it looked a good deal, however it took them almost a month to deliver a single phone, on each occasion they tried to shift the blame onto T-Mobile stating they had run out of stock, although the last time I checked, Nokia made 8310's not T-Mobile.

Then not long after, I decided to purchase a battery from The Mobile Republic, its price attracted me as it was one of the cheapest I had found. So, I made the order and expected to wait around three days. Well, I was impressed, they immediately billed my card for the amount of the item, however after a week I still hadn't received from the item.

I would check the site every day to see that the expected date of dispatch was 1 day, and this carried on for almost a month. It kept stating a single day, even though I had been waiting weeks for it to be dispatched.

Eventually I gave up and asked for a refund, which they seemed reluctant to give me, however, I eventually received this after a number of very unhappy emails to their customer support.

The next instance began when I received a call from their overseas call centre. Now I am not racist in any way, but the customer service from their branch in India is a joke. I spoke on the phone for sometime yet we could barely communicate, however, I stayed on to hear of a new deal for existing customers for the Mobile Republic of a sim card with a year contract paid by Mobile Republic.

The offer appealed to me, although I was very dubious about the offer so I spoke to another "senior supervisor" at the branch & she repeated the offer to me, which was I would receive a sim card with the line rental paid each month for a year. After almost 30mins on the phone I stated I would like the contract.

I decided to double check and I contacted the UK Mobile Republic branch via its "so-called" robust ticket system. The first person didn't even know what I was talking about, however, after a number of messages being sent to various people I was told of the offer, albeit not what was previously told.
They now stated that I would receive the contract paid for a year from the fourth month, so I still basically have to pay for the first three months - this is the total opposite that was I stated from their overseas branch.

And, to top it all off, only the other day I checked to see that all of my Open and Closed tickets have been deleted. I contacted them and received the following response from a member of their customer support:
Hi {my name},

We request you to contact our customer service at *********** (Mon - Fri 8AM - 4PM, Sat 10AM - 4PM) regarding your query.


So basically I now have to contact them on the phone? What's the point of the billing system then?
Clearly the huge amount of complaints was clogging up their email server so they did the next best thing, built a ticket system that will stop all those complaints coming through.

If anybody reads this, please, if you have a complaint, go through the official channels to try help kick this company into shape. I am considering making an official complaint to Watchdog due to the national coverage so that these can be shut down for good.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/contact/mobilep hones.shtml)

Members' Comments onplayjam's Review

• drrdf on 24th May 2004

  I have had similar but worse experiences of The Mobile Republic. I would advise anyone to beware of The Mobile Republic. I have had two successive bad experiences with them, which have shown me that you cannot believe the deals they offer you. They do not keep to their offers (particularly when a cashback payment is involved), and can cause you horrendous problems and suffering as result of their devious approach. On both occasions The Mobile Republic have not delivered the deal they offered. I would not do business with them again. I recount the latest and worst experience here.
  
  In January 2004 I received an unsolicited telephone call from The Mobile Republic offering me a T-Mobile SIM card on a tariff of Free Time 750 where, if I agreed not to have the free Nokia 6310i mobile telephone which came with this T-Mobile package, The Mobile Republic would refund to me the full cost of 12 months line rental including itemised billing. I accepted their offer. They subsequently stated the same terms in writing to me.
  
  I received the SIM card on 31st January 2004, but on 01/02/04 I heard that T-Mobile were adding a charge of £1 per month for Itemized Billing. I therefore immediately contacted The Mobile Republic and asked whether they were going to keep to the original terms offered to me. They stated that they were going to. However, on 12th February I received a bill from T-Mobile and they stated that they were introducing the additional monthly charge of £1, which was an increase above the RPI, for Itemized Billing. I immediately contacted The Mobile Republic (as T-Mobiles agent) to determine whether they were going to keep to their original offer of paying the full line rental each month including Itemized Billing for 1 year, otherwise they would not have delivered to me what they had offered, since they had in any case withheld the mobile telephone. They did not reply to my query. I sent them several further similar messages asking the same thing. They did not reply at all. Then on 26th February they sent me a message saying that they were sorry that I had decided to cancel my order and that they would communicate with me again within 24 hrs. They never did, and never replied to any further letters or other communications from me. The SIM card had already been cut-off. I immediately sent the SIM card back to them. I stated that in these circumstances any contract was null and void, since they had not delivered the phone for the package to me nor the net rebate they had offered and as agents of T-Mobile since I had informed them on 2nd February that the planned increase was above the RPI and I thus wished to cancel any contract unless they could keep to their offered terms, I had given due notice under T-Mobile's terms and conditions.
  
  T-Mobile continued to invoice me for full line rental, with the £1 Itemized Billing charge, and also for calls, although the service had been cut-off and the SIM card returned. I noticed that all of the invoices were actually for a different telephone number to the one on the SIM which The Mobile Republic had sent to me and which is clearly stated on their invoice. So they were trying to charge me for someone else's calls. They continued to send invoices each month and threats that if I did not pay for the service which I did not have and calls which I could not make, on a different number, they would put recovery for their invoiced amounts in the hands of Debt Collectors and tarnish my currently perfect credit record. Within a few days of this I received a much more threatening letter from Robinson Way & Company Ltd. ; they made telephone calls to me with harassment, and threats that if I did not pay immediately all sorts of other nasty things would happen, starting with the heavy men (apparently hired from Nicholas Van Hoogstraten) who would be calling at my door. This harassment is continuing, and although I have written several more letters to T-Mobile.
  
  So these are the problems you can get if you buy from The Mobile Republic. It really is not worth the hassle and inconvenience. I would keep well clear of them!

• playjam on 19th Jul 2004

  I know exactly how you feel about the Mobile Republic, I had the same offer that promised a free contract for a year however they have yet to give me any rebates.
  
  Please join me in contacting Watchdog and let them know the exact problems that they have given you.

• drrdf on 20th Jul 2004

  I don't think complaints about the Mobile Republic to any Watchdog will do any good now, since evidently they have become insolvent and are being wound-up. Many customers like you and I have been deceived into these cash-back contracts and lost money. There are many posts on other sites about this. Fortunately, I eventually managed to get T-Mobile off my back by complaining to Ofcom and others. Thankfully, my total loss was therefore only about £30.