Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 stars18 months of service and 4 trackers later...
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2015
We purchased this September 2013 so by now I feel like I can give a fair and (relatively unbiased review.)
First off, we have never had more than 2-3 days of battery life despite all assurances it should be longer. And yes, it in an excellent location, has good reception and the dog stays in the home zone 80% of the time. As well, it's never exposed to water and we keep it clean and protected.
This was a slightly annoying issue but well worth the fact that it did save our German Shorthair Pointers life after she got scared, ran away, got hit by a car, and kept going several more miles.
Tracking is a 3 minute delay so a speedy dog (like ours) does cover a lot of ground in that time. It wasn't till she stopped from exhaustion that we could actually locate her. But credit does go to Tagg cause we wouldn't have found her without it.
However, there have been several other occasions where she has gone adventuring, and it's never notified us, or notified us 15-20 minutes after her departure.
With such limited battery capability there have also been occasions where with 50-60% charge it dies while trying to track her.
This was the first year, and while these limitations were annoying we were grateful to have some sort of tracking system.
The last 6 months however, have pushed our opinion from 4 stars down to one.
Literally the week the warranty expired our tracker died. One very unhelpful customer representative was like "too bad, your past warranty, you can buy a new one for $99". Thankfully after another try we got an understanding rep and a week or so later a refurbished tracker was sent out.
The new one still only had 2 day battery life, and a month later, that one died. (By death, I'm referring to no alerts, no tracking, no charging, no nothing...)
It took repeated calls and emails to get any customer service. They assure you they will respond within 24-72 hours. And it doesn't happen. However, with patient persistence and repeated troubleshooting, two plus weeks later I received another tracker. (With $13 of shipping)
This tracker lasted a blissful 3 months. And suddenly died. Once again, calling into customer service. The guy was nice and we went through all the troubleshooting (hey, we actually know the routine, I did try and update it before calling in) and said "this will have to be upgraded to our technical team. You will hear back in 24-72 hours."
5 days later...still no reply.
So, the verdict? A decent concept. Terrible customer service.
We paid for a tracker and monthly service. By the nature of this product, customer service should be MUCH more time sensitive! Out of the 18 months we have paid for there's been at least 6-8 weeks our dog has (and currently is) unprotected/untracked due to faulty product and extremely slow company response. Add to that a glitchy product with very limiting parameters. I hate to say, but I would steer clear and look to another product.
Hopefully as this company has been bought by Whistle they will take notes on these issues and adjust accordingly. Otherwise they have lost not only me (as an attempted) loyal customer but my recommendation to others as well.
