FreeRyde
The Curmudgeon
So let me preface this review by saying that I have been a SPOT customer since 2014.
In 2014 I started doing longer back country riding solo, figured it'd be nice to let my family and loved ones know where I was (alive and moving every day), but more importantly if I crashed out on some forest road I could get help. In theory this is a great idea! So I got one of them little orange things. The one I got was a Gen2, which had horrible battery life, I'm talking 2 days tops. Three (or four) AAA batteries?! I refused to mount it to my bike, because that kinda defeats the purpose if I get ejected and thrown down a cliff. Yearly service fee was $150. Ouch!
Some time later I crashed and broke the Gen2 tracker into little bits. I called up SPOT, they replaced it with a Gen3 for 18 bucks! That tacked onto the new service fee and network maintenance, my bill was a staggering $230+ dollars. Gen3 had better battery life, but still no more than 3-4 days. Again, I am stubborn and would not mount it on my bike (can be run off bike power). I used my SPOT tracker on Mines road when I found a cyclists heat stroking out in the middle of the road. No cell signal, it probably saved his life, CalFire showed up minutes later after I pressed the button.
Here's my issue, the service fee went up $50 over the span of 2 years. Who knows what next years network service fee will be... And the battery life just kills me. I replaced (rechargeable) probably 10-15 sets of batteries over the summer over the course of 2 months.
Today I called to cancel my service, $200+ a year is insane. When I told the nice lady over the phone that I wanted to cancel, she said "Oh, you are available for our promotional reward of next years service for $89.99!!"
:wtf
110% discount for staying as a customer? Uh. No. That means there is roughly a 80-100% markup for the tracking service. :rofl That's one fat margin.
I will be switching over to a ResQLink beacon here soon, it runs about $240, does not have tracking feature, the battery life is 5 years and no yearly subscription fee. If you crash and are about to die, press the little button and wait for the whambulance. That's really all I want anyways... Also, the ResQLink has a much higher output signal, where a SPOT won't work in a canyon on in deep treed areas a ResQLink will work.
Goodbye Spot! :ride
In 2014 I started doing longer back country riding solo, figured it'd be nice to let my family and loved ones know where I was (alive and moving every day), but more importantly if I crashed out on some forest road I could get help. In theory this is a great idea! So I got one of them little orange things. The one I got was a Gen2, which had horrible battery life, I'm talking 2 days tops. Three (or four) AAA batteries?! I refused to mount it to my bike, because that kinda defeats the purpose if I get ejected and thrown down a cliff. Yearly service fee was $150. Ouch!
Some time later I crashed and broke the Gen2 tracker into little bits. I called up SPOT, they replaced it with a Gen3 for 18 bucks! That tacked onto the new service fee and network maintenance, my bill was a staggering $230+ dollars. Gen3 had better battery life, but still no more than 3-4 days. Again, I am stubborn and would not mount it on my bike (can be run off bike power). I used my SPOT tracker on Mines road when I found a cyclists heat stroking out in the middle of the road. No cell signal, it probably saved his life, CalFire showed up minutes later after I pressed the button.
Here's my issue, the service fee went up $50 over the span of 2 years. Who knows what next years network service fee will be... And the battery life just kills me. I replaced (rechargeable) probably 10-15 sets of batteries over the summer over the course of 2 months.
Today I called to cancel my service, $200+ a year is insane. When I told the nice lady over the phone that I wanted to cancel, she said "Oh, you are available for our promotional reward of next years service for $89.99!!"
:wtf
110% discount for staying as a customer? Uh. No. That means there is roughly a 80-100% markup for the tracking service. :rofl That's one fat margin.
I will be switching over to a ResQLink beacon here soon, it runs about $240, does not have tracking feature, the battery life is 5 years and no yearly subscription fee. If you crash and are about to die, press the little button and wait for the whambulance. That's really all I want anyways... Also, the ResQLink has a much higher output signal, where a SPOT won't work in a canyon on in deep treed areas a ResQLink will work.
Goodbye Spot! :ride
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