SPOT - Busted..Take note
 

Spot just billed my account on April 4th for a years worth of service. It seems someone at SPOT decided to upgrade my account without my consent and added "Tracking", then billed an extra $50.00 for a total that went from $99.99 to $149.99.

Check your bill carefully for the fraud.

The SPOT lady tried to send me to the billing dept but their lines were tied up so she is doing the credit on my credit card.

MofS

Still pretty cheap for a useful service.

They did refund my $50.00 so all is good. Bummer it needs to be looked at each year.

I agree ... if it actually works!
The info I'd like to hear is whether or not the service consistently works as promised. I've heard a few negatives from users. A couple years old info ... hope it's fixed by now. This was in USA.

Anyone really tested it out in Africa, Asia or Latin America?
I know the tracking bit works but it's the I NEED HELP Panic Button mode I'd be more concerned about. It has that feature, right?

Mollydog, plenty of travellers have used the tracking feature, but there is no coverage in South and Eastern Africa and parts of Asia as it uses the Globalstar network. I have read of a few rescue's in North America, but you can't help wonder how prompt a rescue will be if you are off the beaten track in Timbuktu. The Delorme inReach has global coverage on the Iridium network, is a bit more expensive but has 2 way messaging available.

https://www.findmespot.eu/en/index.php?cid=109

At least the OP got a refund for the overcharging, my buddies do like their SPOT's and its good to get updates on their locations when they are backcountry.

SPOT claims coverage now for all of Africa - they updated their coverage map a year or so back. My practical experience of logging my location once every few days as I travelled up from Cape Town to Cairo on the east side is that worked everyone I tried it.

Fortunately I have never used the panic/SOS button. My expectations for this are limited in places without a complex emergency infrastructure , but the way I looked at it was it would at least immediately alert my friends and they could try and contact my embassy etc. who hopefully could get some sort of search going (most countries do have at least military with reasonable equipment).

FYI I know it works really well in Australia (have seen helicopters arrive when it was used for a crashed biker in the outback )

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Thats good to know, I stand corrected, looks like they put a new satellite up!
I'd have thought spot would have removed the old coverage map from their website as its a bit misleading - I have seen that old map for the last few years. At the end of the day its a big improvement for the end user.


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A couple of years ago a guy used the SOS button on the Road of Bones in Russia, got picked up by a couple of Russian rescue guys.

On the other hand, my SPOT just stopped working on the Road of Bones, and would never turn on again.

I've since moved to a Delorme, which has worked great and has better features.

Being on the receiving end of the SOS, (I work in emergency services) my experience with SPOT is: If I am in a place where my life depends on getting an SOS out, I'm taking a PLB that isn't stymied by cloud cover. An ACR PLB will go with us on our next adventure.

I think the bells and whistles on on the SPOT is pretty cool, though. And to that end, I'm pretty happy with my DeLorme. It has a bit more than the SPOT and worked great for sending the "I'm OK, meet me here..." text message when we were in SE Asia.

It's now 4/5/2017 and my spot plan re-billed yesterday. Yet again SPOT is up to their fraudulent old tricks but this time they went overboard.

Instead of $117.64 for basic service (I do not track) I was going to be billed for $184.64 by the 9th. They said that Tracking is now part of the base service and I was notified 1 month ago. No notification was ever sent.

I called SPOT and spoke to the customer loyalty supervisor and after 23 minutes he agreed to only bill me for $117.64 and the charge was finalized. Today 4/5/2017 I noticed those bottom dwellers added another billing for $65.00 to my account a few minutes after I hung up. So now they got there $184.64 52 total minutes tying up my business phone lines and I still go screwed.

Today they said I would receive a $65.00 refund by Friday. If this does not occure I will contest with the credit card company and DUMP SPOT

A PLB is looking more and more like the correct choice now as SPOT has become another Bottom Dwelling fraudulent recurring billing company.

Thanks MilesofSmiles. To overcharge deliberately 2 yrs in a row, is nothing short of fraud :thumbdown:
If they get away with it for 50% of the customer base, they are indeed making a lot of 'free' cash.
I'm a PLB user for that very reason, no extras to be charged for :thumbup1:

That's downright fraud, you should just stop using Spot. If it were me, I would try to get my money back and stop using their services right away.

First to the "does it work". My older brother has a single seat flying machine, looks like a big kite. First time he took his new spot up in the spring, (was a Christmas gift), the plane stalled out. Thinks it was water in the gas. He was out in the middle of nowhere desert Arizona and he put it down. It was a rough landing and his foot came off and under the machine breaking his ankle. He pushed the buttons and they were there in twenty minutes picking him up. Without the Spot he would have been crawling out for miles. So it does work.
Second I was going to renew my subscription as my next trip will be solo and off the beaten path. But I absolutely hate auto renewals and the fraud crap some outfits try. So I will be doing a little more research before I sign with Spot.

Bob:scooter:

Spot and Delorme have ties with a company that has cheap policies to cover rescue expenses that might get you better service in places without rescue services.

Spot gets pretty ratty in the northern coast of Iceland and also bottom of Patagonia because it relies on geostationary satellites that get harder to line up on the higher the latitude. Delorme uses cloud of low orbit satellites so is more reliable in difficult situations. It also uses the signal received feedback to re-transmit to help improve reliability and also stores locations when there is no signal at all and sends them up later if necessary.

I do have a PLB but would only use it if the delorme failed especially if it wasn't a Mayday situation but more of a Pan,Pan,Pan one. Delorme has two way communication which PLB and Spot do not have and the last thing I would want is a helicopter turning up when all I really needed was a 4WD from the nearest garage to bring out a couple of new tyres.