SPOT Current User Promo?

[Schattenjager]

You know how urban legends go - I heard from a few fellows today that SPOT was offering to upgrade current users for little money.

Any truth to that? The website is suspiciously quite...
:snorkel:

 

[adventureduo]

That would be cool if it's true. Hopefully it won't turn out like the mega long drawn out rebates they did a while back.

 

[Lost Canadian]

SPOT,...hmm yeah, not too thrilled with them anymore. It's a neat little tracking device, but it's weak, certainly no real PLB, and their payment policies are a little sneeky IMO. Just watch your credit card for those costly automatic renewals for which they give you zero notice if you do upgrade.

 

[adventureduo]

Yep, they renewed my plan this year and i had no money at the time. That wasn't cool at all and i don't remember reading it in the fine print when we bought our SPOT early on. But i needed to have it working for as much as we go out. Still, i hate sneaky stuff like that too.

 

[xpdishn]

I received an e-mail promo from them about a month ago with the big announcement of an upgrade. The ad had a picture which showed a few more buttons. There was no info and it was the "coming in a couple of months" thing.

BTW, if think SPOT is great for what it is suppose to do.

 

[bj70_guy]

Quite a bit of info on the upcoming Spot "2" here:

http://www.equipped.org/blog/?p=113

I'm waiting on the new model before taking the plunge.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

SPOT,...hmm yeah, not too thrilled with them anymore. It's a neat little tracking device, but it's weak, certainly no real PLB, and their payment policies are a little sneeky IMO. Just watch your credit card for those costly automatic renewals for which they give you zero notice if you do upgrade.

Thats why after over a year of ownership I have not seen a renewal notice of any kind and I still have service. dUH! :Wow1:

 

[dzzz]

I emailed and they said the spot II was only sold at REI and bestbuy. It is available.

 

[bj70_guy]

I emailed and they said the spot II was only sold at REI and bestbuy. It is available.

Bestbuy's website says "coming soon", REI's says both colours "out of stock but can be backordered"...

fwiw, gpscity.ca here in canada is accepting pre-orders, they're estimated to be in stock by Oct 31st.

 

[6Pins]

SPOT,...hmm yeah, not too thrilled with them anymore. It's a neat little tracking device, but it's weak, certainly no real PLB, and their payment policies are a little sneeky IMO. Just watch your credit card for those costly automatic renewals for which they give you zero notice if you do upgrade.

I'm sure the Ts & Cs you agreed to allow them to automatically renew your service. Nothing sneaky about that.

 

[F5driver]

My Spot was 20 miles off last week in the Flagstaff area. It's been very accurate except for this last trip. All of my locations sent were AFU'ed. Monday I'll give them a call to figure it out.

 

[Lost Canadian]

I'm sure the Ts & Cs you agreed to allow them to automatically renew your service. Nothing sneaky about that.

If it's not sneeky it's certainly not up front customer service. A buried in fine print, costly, like a hundred and seventy some odd dollars costly, automatic renewal clause, without even so much as a courtesy email before they take my money, qualifies as sneeky in my books. Is it legit? Sure it is, but I still say sneeky.

As for how well it works, as a tracking device it's a cool little unit and it works pretty good in this regard, but as an emergency locator, a 406MHz PLB it is not. The SPOT works great with a clear unobstructed view of the sky, but get into some trees and you can pretty much forget about it.

 

[cruisertoy]

I agree with trevor and others here. I'll be checking my renewal later this year. I carry a PLB as well as the spot. The spot is mainly used for the tracking mode so my family and friends know where I am. It has been worth the price of admission just for my wife to see I'm still alive.

 

[dzzz]

here's a recent spot story:
http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/2009-10-blog.html#_20091016SPOT
I think the story illustrates that a real eprib is desirable. He is lucky that the right part of the sky was exposed.

Without automatic renewal most people would wait for their next trip to renew. Some people would only need to pay for three times over a four year period - bad for spot.
The upside of auto renewal, for the user, is obviously no gap in coverage.

 

[dzzz]

Bestbuy's website says "coming soon", REI's says both colours "out of stock but can be backordered"...

fwiw, gpscity.ca here in canada is accepting pre-orders, they're estimated to be in stock by Oct 31st.

Ordered spot II from bestbuy online yesterday.

Here's a thread about the incident posted above. Both the victim and the EMT are members of Nature Photographers Network. He had no chance without spot or a epirb. Broken pelvis, partially in water, hidden, and no one saw him fall.

http://www.naturephotographers.net/...ESSID=7f51d957459a2ecc04a95857fed34e7d&u=3251