Customer Reviews

Zoombak ZMBK200 Advanced GPS Car and Family Locator

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(47)

 

 

This device seems to work fine when using Zoombak's web site to do a location search. The device can not be placed somewhere that heavily shields it from the outside, or it will not get a good cellular and/or GPS signal.

The zone feature is the area where it's just not delivering as advertised. Once you've set up a zone, it is supposed to alert you when the device enters or exits the zone. Sometimes it doesn't alert you at all. When it does alert you, the alerts are sent 15 to 20 minutes after the device has entered/exited the zone, instead of sending it within a minute or two. If you enter and exit the zone within that 15 to 20 minute window you don't get an alert at all.

This is not how it is portrayed on their little advertisement video.

Lastly, good luck on reaching a level 1 tech support staffer who speaks understandable English. This part is extremely frustrating. Why companies who provide tech support to English-speaking countries don't make mastery of the English language a requirement is beyond comprehension. I guess political correctness is more important than a satisfactory customer experience.

It has been a real challenge dealing with Zoombak. I was initially excited when I learned of their product. I am currently using TomTomWork for GPS tracking of our personal vehicles, which runs $500 per tracking unit, plus installation and $50.00 per month tracking fee, per unit, which adds up quickly.

Zoombak's "claimed" capabilities along with lower month tracking fee prices ($14.99), seemed to be more cost effective then TomTomWork's program.

I attempted to order from Zoombak directly via their website ($249 per unit). Their web site declined two (2) different credit cards. I called Zoombak directly (Daniel), they weren't able to authorize them either. I called my credit card companies, they never received any authorization request from Zoombak, they said that there should be no problem. I called Zoombak back, Anna the first agent that I spoke to did not speak English very well. I asked to speak to her supervisor, the supervisor's English was worse than Anna's! She basically said the it was my problem not Zoombak's.

So being discouraged but still wanting the device as any "early adapter" would, I searched the internet and found it on Amazon for $60.00 cheaper, I bought it, there was no problem with my credit card! It was delivered yesterday.

I went to Zoombak's website, created my account, paid the activation fee.

I charged up the device for 6 hours and turned it on. Zoombak's system was not able to connect to the device, after about 10 attempts of trying to connect to the device (the unit was placed out in the yard of my metropolitan city). I called Zoombak's tech support, Felipe (limited English) told me that new units are sometimes difficult the 1st time connecting. He suggested that I turn it off and back on and wait 30 minutes for the "Que" to clear out and try it again. If that doesn't work to call back. Well, it didn't work!

I called Tech support again, I didn't get the girls name (limited English also). She told me that her supervisor would contact me within 24-48 hours! I tried to ask her some direct questions, she didn't understand me, she was defiantly reading from a script.

Pros - nice looking unit, not sure if it works or not.

Cons - their customer service leaves a lot to be desired, 5 phone calls, 1 person spoke English. 24 hours later and numerous attempts to connect and the unit still will not connect to their system.

Hopefully Zoombak will get their bugs worked out and consider hiring a better talent pool of customer service agents that speak English.





UPDATE 2 1/2 years later.
After bitching in 2008, they sent me a new device which worked fine. My account has shown both devices listed in my account since 2008. The defective device had an X next to it and was listed as not active.

Moving forward, September 29th 2010 - I get an email from Zoombak saying I owe them $75.00. I called them up to find out what this amount was for. They told it $60.00 for the 2nd unit (defective / returned device) and $15.00 for the monthly service. This made NO sense at all, I spent 30 minutes reexplaining the last 2 years events. I asked the rep, if I have been being billed for this 2nd (defective) device for the last 2 years, he told me that he would have to look into it. As for the $75.00, he said that I would have to pay the full amount and they would credit me back the $60.00 within 10 days. I told him that was BS, it's not my fault for their lack of systems and customer service tools. He told me that it would take 2-4 days for my account to be corrected. I told him that I would call back in a few days.

Yesterday (10-06-10), I get a another email from ZoomBak saying that I still owe them $75.00 and they are going cancel my service and it would cost me $100 to get it reinstated! I called them back again, same story / same run around. The girl told me, that I only canceled the 2nd device on September 29th 2010, you idiot that is when I called in last week and wasted my time for your mistake 2 1/2 years ago! She asked for a few more days to correct it in the system.

Very frustrating to say the least, I wonder how they have been billing me for a 2nd device and how many other people they have done this too.

As for their service, the web interface search is VERY VERY slow, it takes 4-5 minutes on a high speed connection to locate the device. And that is if it finds it! 7 out of 10 times it doesn't. Their iPhone App is junk, it has NEVER worked (WiFI or 3G) in the 6 months that I have had it.

BEWARE, you have been warned!

I bought the Pet version of the Zoombak about a month ago and I'm sorry to say after a week of testing and multiple consultations with the Zoombak Technical Staff I did not have enough confidence in it to place it on my dog. I returned the unit to Amazon and received prompt credit.I also received an immediate credit from Zoombak for the year service that I had signed up for upon registering my unit because it was within their 30 day risk free period. The Zoombak staff was very courteous, and I'm sure they would be of assistance in locating your dog if you requested, however it wasn't until I asked to speak to a Technical Supervisors did I feel comfortable that someone understood the difficulties I was experiencing with the unit. As most of you probably know the Zoombak uses a combination of a Cellular Phone and GPS service to provide you informationn on your pet. The cellular portion of the system worked fine. I received immediate notifications when I turned the unit off or when the battery was low. Both of these options, which you can select upon setup, use the cellular portion of the unit. Another function that uses the cellular portion in combination with the GPS is the mobile locate function capability. It worked fairly well.

Now for the problems I experienced. After repeatedly setting up Safety Zones per the instructions that came with the unit, per the information I found on the Zoombak Website and finally the instructions I received from the Zoombak Technical staff I could not get the GPS side of the unit to recognize that the unit had left the Safety Zones I had established. I tested the unit by placing it on the windshied of my car where I normally place my other GPS units and leaving the established Safety Zone for a minimum of 15 minutes. Most time I stayed out of the Zone for 30 minutes or longer. On 3 occassions I called the Zoombak Technical Support Staff to verify that the unit was operating properly. They assured me that it was. On one occassion they had to re-sync the unit. At their instructions I increased the radius of my safety Zone. The minimum Safety Zone is 110 yds. I increased it 4 times out to a radius of 700 yds. the maximum I would would accept. On all 4 tests at these distances I received no mobile of E-mail alerts that the unit had left the zone.

I own 2 Garmin GPS units and both of them work perfectly up to 10 ft of my home so I see no reason why the GPS unit packaged in the Zoombak couldn't lock onto the require 3 GPS satellites and recognize that it had left or re-entered the safety zone. On one occassion I had the unit in an open area 20 miles from my home and received no alerts.

Given that Zoombak assured me that my unit was working perfectly I can only assume that they are either using an unreliable GPS Receiver in the unit or that the software program they are using to provide the alerts is not perfected.

A couple of other observations. If you watch the Zoombak video or the Martha Stewart Show video clip you might get the impression, as I did, that once your dog leaves your yard or premises you'll get an immediate notification that it has left. This is not the case. Your dog must physically leave your established Safety Zone and stay out of that zone for 15 minutes. If it wanders back in and out of the Safety Zone within the 15 minutes you get no alerts. I was concerned that my dog would be long gone before I knew about it. My other concern was that if someone took my dog and placed it in a car I would not be able to track it.The GPS instruction that accompany the unit clearly state that the Zoombak unit must have a clear line of sight to the GPS satellites in order to track it. This is the case with most GPS units. Unless you can train your dog to sit in the front seat you might have problems.

The bottom line folks is that if you love and care as much as we do about our dogs you should be wary of this product at this time. It's a great idea but not one that I want to be a Beta tester for especially with the cost of the unit, monthly service charges and concerns for my dogs. If you purchase it I stongly suggest that you test it extensively within the 30 day risk free period and by all means before you place it on your dog. Good Luck.

My husband bought one of these in town for $100 but I made him return it and found it for $39 w/free shipping online. Boy, am I glad I did! We put this little piece of junk in the back window of my son's car, (within full view of the sky, as the instructions will tell you) and it hardly works. The site is very slow to show you the location of the device, has a hard time finding it at all, can't track in real time, is extremely slow sending email alerts. By the time I get an alert, my son has long since arrived at his destination and I've spent way too long wondering where he is. It's even supposed to tell you how fast the device is moving, (say, in a car), but if it displays this information, it's too old to do anything about and it really only gives you a snapshot of what's going on, not ongoing information. Don't be thinking you'll be able to find a lost dog with it. You might eventually be shown a general location but by then the dog would have moved on. And all this wondrous information can be had for a monthly subscription fee! Yay! Oh, and by the way, I live in Columbus, Ohio, not the middle of nowhere.

Oh, and don't suppose you're going to buy one to give it a try, then sell to some other poor, unsuspecting sap. The only way to transfer it is to "authorize" someone to be a user on the account. THEY can then change the password and redirect the billing. But wait! What if they don't redirect it? Then you'll still get the bills AND be locked out of the account! Woo hoo! It had better be someone you really trust! So I guess this will go in the trash and be a $40 lesson.

What a great idea this seemed at the outset. Too bad the execution is so poor at this point. A more expensive device is probably the best idea. I'm sure the technology COULD be had cheaply, but will not be for a while. The companies stand to make too much money right now. I'm completely and utterly disappointed. Give this one a pass.

I tried to activate this device multiple times without any luck in the area I live.
I purchased the 3 month initial service discount from zoombak.
I was busy, and figured I would discontinue the service when I had more time, since the device doesn't work for me. Shame on me.

Fair warning:
You have a 30 day trial with zoombak.
If it doesn't work the way you want it to, you need to discontinue your service by phone and return the device within 30 days.

Be prepared the Zoombak rep will try again and again to talk you out of discontinuing your service. (They told me service in my area is good...haha)

In section 9.3 of the consumer agreement, there is a statement buried amongst the 21 other major headings that they will charge you $100 if you terminate after the initial 30 days within 1 year.

I mentioned to the rep that the website should be more clear about an early termination fee when signing up, but she mentioned that Zoombak doesn't want you to see the early termination fee when you activate.

REUPDATE 06/04/2010:

Cancelled today. I had to provide no less than 5 verification items and customer account representative still seemed unsure I was account holder... and this was even before they knew I was cancelling. I think they really want to stop the "black market" on their units. No fee since I have had it well over 12 months. New things I have learned since original review:

Unit is fairly heat sensitive and will stop working if in direct sunlight.

The unit just couldn't be updated during one of their infamous update cycles. They did exchange for a new one at no cost.

I have downgraded review to a 3... I got my use out of it, "But", reliability was a continued problem... frequent outages and/or missed notifications during zone transitions. YMMV.

Cancelled account units are declared worthless and technically cannot be reused by others.

Last but not least they are very aggressive on customer retention, I intend to watch closely and make sure account really does cancel.

UPDATE 05/12/2009:

Since two weeks ago, this device has suddenly started to barely work (three locates in 10+ days, when it should have had 40+ due to zone transits). Nothing has changed in it's environment. Call to support did give a 1 month credit (thanks) and an indication they were in the midst of a system upgrade that was to complete this last weekend. Unfortunately, no change. Will be calling again.
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Installed this product in trunk of car. Installation was painless and only difficulty was finding an "always on" electrical line. Product came with sufficient material and wire length for installation into most locations. Product seemed real inconsistent first 24 hours it was turned on, I was almost to the point of considering returning it when it suddenly seemed to "sync up" and has been rock steady since. Not sure why this is but power cycling it a couple times may have done the trick. Otherwise works exactly as advertised but purchasers should be aware:

Notification of entry or exit from a custom zone may be up to 15 minutes delayed, since product only polls location every 15 minutes. When you do get notification it does report location of unit as of that moment.

Due to this delay its possible for vehicle to leave and return from a zone in the 15 minute window and not get notified, but the timing would have to be exact for that to happen.

Web site is aggravatingly slow (capacity issues?). Much easier/faster and more convenient to do text message request of location.

Text message response of location is nearest set of cross streets.

Auto battery drain notification is nice, it warned me on one occasion I had not fully plugged in power cord.

Continous tracking works nicely but it only updates location every 5 min for up to an hour, you then have to re-request (but apparently you can do this over and over as needed)

For "where is the car at this exact moment" requests and slightly delayed notification of zone transitions, works perfectly.

I don't understand how this device has 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon.

First of all, don't even think you can just throw this in the trunk and it will work. It will never be located. The closer you can get it to an open view of the sky the better.

The odd thing is that for the first couple of days the device seemed to be working decently well. At this price point I didn't expect it to work every single time I hit the "locate" button but performance got worse and worse to the point that on the third day I set it on top of my car in front of my house and logged-on and it could not be located! The "zone" feature is completely worthless but I knew that going in after reading reviews on this website.

The "locate" and "continuous tracking" features worked for the first few days but now my device is unable to be located sitting out in plain view in my front yard. I live in the 12th largest city in the US, cellular service is not an issue.

Right now I am trying to upgrade the software on the device so that it can give speed readings. It is suppose to take up to 20 mins and it has been about an hour now.

I foresee returning the device under the 30-day guarantee. I do NOT recommend this device. It is not consistent. I will update this review if I return it and advise how that process goes.

----UPDATE 1----

I had to call Support because my Zoombak device would not upgrade to the newest software and I could not use it because it constantly says that it is upgrading. They stated this is a known issue and they are working to resolve it in 24-48 hours. Will give update in 48 hours. If it is not fixed and working reliably I have decided I will send it back.

I have been testing the Zoombak in a car for three days and it works well within the limits of T-Mobile's coverage, which is something you have to understand. They probably should have chosen AT&T as a GSM partner although T-Mobile performed pretty comparably in my test.
The Web site is slow and needs work. It was down at least once for some period of time (tech support reported that they had an outage). If you were in a panic to find your teen driver, I imagine this could be incredibly annoying. The Web session times out after some period of time without warning you. Once you've signed in as a user, the site should never take you back to the general commercial web site, it should just say your session has expired and please log back in. Why they need to expire the session that quickly is beyond me.
The most annoying choice they've made is the two step SMS process. You have to text "find" to 96225 from a registered cell phone, wait for the system to respond, and then text your pin number and device name to get a location. Why would you need to do that? Since your phone number is registered, you should just be able to text the device name from a registered phone and get back the location. Dumb.
Tracking is also poorly thought out. It's clearly set up just for the pet product, not cars, since it only allows you to set a border that's a half mile from a particular address. That's not useful in warning you when your driver goes more than, say, 5 miles away which is more realistic.

I have had a great experience with Zoombak. I have a special needs son that has started school, and wanted a way to keep track of where he is especially since he rides the bus. His school is about 15 miles away and during that time, if for whatever reason we would need to find him I wanted to be able to track him. He is non-verbal and non-ambulatory so in his wheelchair, if there ever were an issue he would not be able to call for help or walk anywhere.

I contacted Zoombak and exchanged emails with their director of customer service who assured me that given our circumstance they would work with us regarding their trial period and our satisfaction. So far I have been using it for over a month and I am extremely pleased. My credit card was accepted immediately online and I received my unit 2 days after purchase. When activated my unit connected immediately, and after setting up my zones and parameters, I get text messages when I am in class or working in the hospital that my son has "arrived at school" or "left home", along with the time and cross streets.

I understand that everyone has different experiences but given this is a startup company I felt compelled to share my very positive one.

Joe

I really like the Zoombak product. I used it during a recent trip to Gettysburg. My grandfather is 87 years old. I put a Zoombak in his camper so I would know when he left home and when he arrived at the campsite. Zoombak is great - it gives you an email alert, or, if you are away from your computer, you get a text message to your cell phone. Zoombak really gives me the extra peace of mind for my grandfather. He now puts his Zoombak in his car. When he is going out I feel safe knowing where he is and that I can find him if he needs me.