Customer Reviews

Child Locator By Brickhouse Security with Distance Alert (As Featured in the ...

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I bought this for an upcoming trip to Disney. After testing it out at home, my husband and I decided to return it. When purchasing this product the sales agent told me that I could specify the distance (number of feet) that I would want before it would alert me. This is not entirely true, you can only specify Near, Medium and Far. In testing the Near setting, we found that is about a 50 foot distance - which is a lot farther then I would like. Fifty feet would be great if I was in an empty park (like the commerical) but in a crowded place - 50 feet is way too far. Additionally the alarm is not as loud as expected. I was told (again by the sales agent) that the alarm on the tag is VERY loud and that alone would probably cause the kidnapper to back away from the child. This again is not completely true. Maybe in a place where no one else is around or everyone is quiet you would hear the tag, but definitely not in a crowded place. As far as the return policy - the customer service is very slow. You only have 5 days to return the item. I called and was put on hold after telling the agent that I wanted a refund. I had to call back only to be told that I need to submit a request online and she would send me a link. This product is completely overpriced - it should be more like $100 not $189. Would not recommend this to anyone.

What a piece of Junk, Performs so poorly that it's useless.

Watch out for their 5 DAY return policy. !!!! It will easily take you that long to figure out that the unit is junk.

Buy the one made by ION-Kids, works much better.


Here's an excerpt from the letter I sent to my credit card company...

The reason I wanted to return the product in the first place is that it just works very poorly. They claim it works up to 600 feet but I found it be unreliable not even 100 feet away. The unit operates very slowly, a series of beeps that you have to listen to, trying to distinguish a change in tone as you spin around. Well I tried this outside and you have to spin very slowly, and with the tag only 60 feet away, it was hard to discern in which direction was true, even when I KNEW where the tag was. They also market this product in a deceptive manner. The display has three lines radiating out which suggests that they give you some kind of directional information but they don't. There's no need for three lines, they all behave the same, they just grow and shrink according to the signal strength. I also noticed that as I'm spinning around trying to find out which direction to head, when my body is positioned between the tag and the locator, the signal drops off. This is when I know where the tag is, if the child's location is indeed unknown, this loss of signal only adds to the confusion.

The net result is that at no more than 60 feet away, in the clear open, the unit is barely capable of discerning direction. The LCD display is dim and hard to read even on an overcast day, and probably near impossible on a sunny day. These can't be all defects with this particular unit, but more likely just an overall poor design. This is why I wanted to return it. I have since done some research to learn that many people have the same complaint.

I have since then bought a different unit from Ion-Kids, for roughly the same price. The unit does exactly what one would expect a child locator to do; tell you in which direction your child is located. The unit actually shows on the display in a 360 degree display exactly which direction to head in. The tag is also waterproof. Not like the Brickhouse tag where for an extra $10 they sell you this silly little silicone cover which does nothing except maybe protect it from the occasional rain drop

Don't buy this item. The Return policy is terrible. You have to get an RMA within 5 days or you're screwed like I am. The product doesn't work as advertised. It does not clearly tell you which direction to go in to find your child (or other tagged item). Your child will be long gone while you're spinning in circles trying to determine which way to go.

It is obvious that the two reviews that give this 5 stars are written by the company that sells them. I have been looking for info on this product on numerous web sites and have seen the exact same reviews there also. Based on this I cannot recommend this product

I bought the Brickhouse Child Locator to use on my cats. The first time I tried it, I found that it DID NOT track them unless they were already in line of site. When outside, I was in the front yard and my cat was in the back yard, but the Locator could not tell me which direction to go to find him. I then went thru Brickhouse's complicated process to get a Return Authorization Number and returned the unit, but still not within their 5 day window, so I asked for an exchange. There is no place to specify what you want in exchange, so I put a separate note in the box with the original unit. Weeks later, I got another Locator. I called Customer Service and was told I would have to PAY to return the second Locator, then BUY the item I wanted in "exchange," before they would issue me a credit for my original purchase. Instead, I REFUSED the 2nd Locator and sent it back at their expense with another note re the item I wanted. Last week, I received an email saying ANOTHER Locator was being shipped to me. I explained that I wanted the other item in exchange. NOW their Customer Service Manager (Tom Duffy) says that the original Locator I returned had water damage, so they're returning it to me! I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND DOING BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT CUSTOMER SERVICE IS, LET ALONE "GOOD" CUSTOMER SERVICE!

I bought this product with much anticipation for our repeated camping trips. I found the hand held unit to be poorly made and more like a fake fisher-price cell phone than a child locator. I will continue to use it but certainly was not worth the $200 I paid for it. Now that I own it, I feel its worth around $50. I waited too long to return it too.

We bought this for our daughter who loves to play outside. My husband bought it before I had a chance to read the reviews on Amazon. I started to get worried when I read the reviews! When we got it I had trouble putting the battery compartment cover back on. It was so cheap I thought it was going to break. The bottom of the unit even started to detach from itself. Once I got the unit assembled with batteries, I went outside and put the locator in the armband (also a big waste of money). I went out to the street and it couldn't locate the tag which was only 50 feet away. I am returning this today. Also on the website, they MODERATE the comments so that's why all you see is positives.

Very unhappy!!!
I went to Disney World for vacation with the family, I tried to use it as a test very lousy results. Do not waste your money.

Three years ago I purchased this device from UK-based Loc8tor, which is the company that makes the Brickhouse Child Locator. As an early adopter who works on the investment side of the wireless industry, I was eager to use the tags on my key ring and items that might be targets for theft. In general, I have been happy with its performance. It is not without flaws, however. Moreover, it doesn't seem ideal for locating children.

My initial reason for purchasing the Loc8tor for location of lost keys and, potentially, for tracking belongings that may get stolen. For the latter application, I also thought this could be used to augment GPS tracking of stolen items for where room-level position accuracy might be valuable and GPS satellite reception is not possible. While it has worked reasonably well as a key finder, I have not yet attached the tags to other high-left-risk items. My one concern on that front is the audible beeps of the tags when activated. This feature has value in its intended function but may alert thieves. Additionally, the tags beep on occasion even with fully charged batteries. I have been unable to determine why this occurs.

My job requires that I often frantically work from home in the morning and then race off to work so I was particularly interested in having a means of quickly finding my keys in the event they were misplaced in my apartment. The two or three times that I needed to use the Loc8tor, it has worked rather well for this purpose. The direction finder, which uses both audible beeps on the Loc8tor itself, and visual cues such as bar that increases in size when getting closer to the tag in question, is very user friendly. It would be nice to have a true directional locator in the form of a compass-like readout, but presumably this would have a required a more expensive location sensor.

There are a couple of issues with this device that, in my opinion, are understandable given its price and the size of the tags. First, the tags are not sufficiently loud so that an elderly person could hear them on separate floor. If you need that level of audible signature, you might want to try the Brookstone Key Finder, which has much larger and louder tags but no direction indicator and no signal strength meter. Rather, the Brookstone device is merely designed to initiate the audible pings when necessary.

Another annoyance, which should be addressable by Loc8tor engineers, is the occasional erratic beeping of the tags even with new batteries. It appears that the tags are incorrectly sensing that the batteries are getting low. Incidentally, the tags require two batteries that cost approximately five to six dollars each. If you use or test the tags regularly, they batteries will last less than a year. On the other hand, I have used tags infrequently where the batteries have last 1.5+ years.

The range of the device is adequate, but I doubt it would be strong enough for a locating someone or something several hundred feet away. In fact, the signal is quite week when placing a tag in a drawer two rooms away. It would seem unlikely that you could locate a child at Disneyland a few thousand feet away, or in a shopping mall where the tag is in another store or on another floor.

In summary, this is solid tracking device given the price. Yet, it ideally suited for finding keys, not children.

Pros
Small tags
Reasonable price
Locating device has signal strength indicator
Reasonable life of batteries (1+ years) depending on usage

Cons
Tags not thin enough for a wallet
Tags seem to beep for no reason sometimes, even with fresh batteries
Batteries can get expensive
No true direction finder/needle
Tag beeps could be louder
Could always use greater range

This product works in an open room or field if there is a clear line of sight to the subject! Other then that it is an absolute bust. We were given this as a gift to use with our son and when we went to try and return it to Brickhouse, since it did not work as advertised, we were told that there was only a 5 day window to test the product once the original shipment was received by the purchaser and after that we could only get a credit. It is the only product that I have ever used that gives only a 5 day test window (makes it difficult to give as a gift). This tells me that they know that the product does not work and does not meet the needs and requirements of their customers. In summary we are extremely disappointed with the product as well as the manufactures support/service and do not recommend it.