Customer Reviews

PhantomALERT Red Light Camera, Speed Camera and Speed Trap Detector Software for select Garmin, TomTom and Magellan GPS (Lifetime Subscription)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

These guys are good at marketing, but you should take a close look at the content of this POI file on their website before you buy this. They have a map of included locations. Review it carefully for your area. This is user-submitted content, so anything that any user adds get added to the file. The bulk of the contents in my area are speed traps and school zones (along with some incorrect and correct red light cameras). The speed traps are all over the place. The GPS goes off CONSTANTLY with speed traps. It goes off so much that I don't even really "hear it" any more. When the alert is so frequent that it goes off all the time, every time you drive, it defeats the purpose. I've lived here for 15 years and while I have no doubt that at one time a police officer probably sat at all of the so called speed trap locations, the fact that that location is a frequent speed trap location is a joke. What happens is one customer saw a cop there one time and submitted it to the site. Suddenly that becomes a "speed trap?" I don't think so. All I can say is review their website map yourself for your area before you buy and see all the massive, ridiculous quantity of locations in the file. Decide for yourself whether you want to be subjected to all of those alerts all the time.

While I expect this to be a worthwhile product in the long haul, it's pretty annoying in the D.C./northern VA region (and likely elsewhere). Seems that because it is "user supported", if anyone ever even THINKS they saw a speedtrap, it's reflected with an alert, even if the cop was only there once, long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Also, most (all?) redlight cameras have been pulled from VA, but they still pop up as an alert.

After a couple tries at installing this in my 255w i finally got it working. I had to get help from customer service but it ended upthat I just didn't follow the directions all the way to make the alarms when I installed it- drove by a school a few blocks away the first time and nothing then tried it again after they helped me and the alarm goes off with a red bar just in time for back to school reminders. cameras seem to work fine also it goes off all the time but we have lots of cameras and they said I could change the warning distance if i need to. so far worth the ten bucks if it saved me from a ticket will probably upgrade to another plan if it continues to work or the phone version is released

I ordered the 9.99 a one month subscription of the phantom alert speed trap, red light database. I heard about this company a lot on television and that they stated they can help drivers avoid traffic tickets with a GPS. I was a little reluctant but after getting one too many camera tickets I purchased the cheapest $9.99 subscription for my GARMIN 750. I am usually not the type of a person who would come and add comments on products I have purchased but I was amazed on the accuracy of the product and the fact that they actually helped me avoid a ticket. In the one month that I have used it I know it has saved me from several tickets by alerting me to the dozen speed cameras in Maryland alone. I also drove to the beach with my GPS turned on last week and man was it nice to get the alerts for the speed traps. The advanced alert was very useful. On several instanced on route 50 on the way to Ocean city Maryland the alert for speed traps went off and sure enough there they were troopers waiting to nab someone. The alerts give you enough of a heads up to slow down and let someone else get busted. Of course some time the alerts go off and there are no cops. But over all I rather get the false alerts than no alert and get a ticket. My one month subscription is now up and I will definitely get the $99.99 life time. They have earned my business.

By the way, to the people who reported the speed traps on route 50, Thanks for saving me from a ticket or two.

I've only had the PhantomALERT database a few hours, but determined that it has two features:

1. It knows all of the speed camera and light camera locations in my small burg, even though two of them are still in "test/warning" mode.

2. It works in "tracking" mode in addition to "navigation" mode. In other words just turn it on and it will pick up the locations as you come to them even though you don't enter a final destination first.

A problem appears to be that my GPS (Garmin 265W) can't hold data for more than about five states. I haven't investigated this limitation, yet, but I think this may be a generic warning for older GPSs. The only data base I know about with virtually unlimited capacity is designed as a transparent map overlay instead of "proximity points", but doesn't have enough U.S. data to be of interest (pocketgpsworld).

The solution to the above problem, I think, is to buy the $99 lifetime update and simply load different states when you take a trip. They warn that the "unlimited" updates may just be promotional, but you can save data bases of different states on your PC under different names now (I think -- untested by me so far) just in case.

I fully agree with J.Carpenter these guys are good at marketing only. If you really want to purchase this product please do your homework. Go to their website and see how they depend on the customers to inform them of what is out there. I wouldn't suggest this product to my worst enemy. I live in Maryland and I have three school zones in my neighborhood I pass them and no warning comes up. There all speed and red light cameras that I know of one is right down the street from me. The only thing I have heard was speed alert ahead.. . Please that is a no brainer on a lot of interstates and heavy traveled side roads you know might have speed traps, give me a break.. Now I guess I should go to their website and inform them about these zones No way for [...] bucks per person purchasing their product they should do the research themselves. They are the ones that are making the money I say earn it! I will help them out if the product was free. I purchase a lot of products from Amazon and I have only two times written a negative review. This is my second. Read my previous reviews on other things if you want. I am telling you now don't waste your money!

Joanne

I am glad I did not take the subscription for more than one year. I wish I took the one for a month. Sure, it warns of red light cameras and so-called speed traps (where I never actually saw a trap) And if you are stuck in traffic for a while nearing that camera, it will annoyingly repeat the warning as many as twenty times, until you have to shut the GPS off before tossing it put the window. Since I travel a lot for business I us this around the US and Canada. I find it is especially irritating in California on the freeways. If you are on a freeway that runs alongside a railroad track for fifty miles it will tell you to slow down because of an approaching rail crossing at every overpass, underpass or even just a side street that does not cross the freeway. Same issue as you approach school zones and red light cameras that are off, but near the freeway. It does not know to ignore these events because you are on the freeway and do not encounter them. I want to uninstall it but there is no way to contact the manufacturer, that I can find, to get the 'how-to' to do this. So, does it work? Yeah, but not correctly.

09/17/2011: Quite some time after writing the review below, I was contacted by Phantom Alert. They made me an offer to try the product again, and I took them up on the offer. So as of right now, customer service gets 5 stars from me. I'll put Phantom Alert back on my GPS and will post more in a month or two.

Joanne

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WRITTEN AFTER PURCHASE: I had high expectations for this item. It was supposed to alert you to red light cameras, speed traps, school zones, etc.

Unfortunately, I found it to be an absolute waste of time and money. Setting it up took a bit. I live in the city of Chicago, Illinois. There are red light cameras and school zones EVERYWHERE. It was impossible to set the parameters in such a way as to make the software useable. I was very glad I bought a one-month subscription. Even before the month was up, I simply erased it from my Garmin.

Joanne

The installation is a little bit confusing, you have to watch their video for your gps intentively. The product work as they say it is especially on red light camera fixed and school zones , on speed camera mobile and speed trap detector you get a lot of false alarm , overall the product works and will recommend buying it, might save you a citation ticket which probably more expensive that this product.

Living in the Washington, DC area and using back roads for short cuts, I needed a device of this nature since 1. going 30 miles per hour is impossible, and 2. the D.C. area has a speed camera/red light camera at most intersections now. It's an okay overall tool. It does identify speed cameras, some speed traps. The most irritating ones that it responds to are the mobile locations, because those locations beep constantly, and are usually outdated. Also if you are on the Daytona 500 (the beltway), I ignore most of those beeps because they are inaccurate. This device is most effective on back roads, or main roadways; not the highway, beltway.

If you do a direct installation, it is difficult, and customer service is not helpful.

UPDATE: This has saved me lots of money since I drive more often.