Comments on: Review Of Zoombak Finds Performance Less Than Average

By: irishmum

irishmum — Sun, 22 May 2011 02:52:28 +0000

I have had a nightmare trying to get Zoombak to correct their billing error. After paying for a yearly service, they started billing me monthly, in addition to the annual fee. I would never purchase ANYTHING Zoombak. Double billing is illegal and they refuse to correct the situation. Buyer BEWARE. This is a Crocked company. NEVER give them ANY Account numbers to your charge cards they use them freely without your consent in an illegal manner. You will never see your money again… they promise but Never follow through with correcting the problem. Also we had it installed but it never worked properly. Had to return two defective units all the time paying double. Their tracking system was POOR.They owe me $74.95 in double charges. promises promises, promises.. NEVER credited my acct. POOR customer service

By: Diane Takesh

Diane Takesh — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:11:15 +0000

I too purchased this piece of junk! This is my second device and now this one is not working and I only have it about 3 weeks! Now they tell me to do a power check on it and if it doesn’t work they will replace it. I have to send it back and they will send me another pronto she told me. What a croc of …… I would not recommend this unit to anyone. Don’t waste you money, find another. I wish i read this before I bought this crappy unit.

By: Teresa

Teresa — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 01:37:22 +0000

Nice Toy Only

I bought this in order to feel safer. I go to people’s homes by myself all day long. I had hoped that the zoombak would assist my husband to be able to locate me at any given time. However, after spending 3 hours dealing with customer service, I am now told that in order for them to locate it and update it I need to leave it outside for 24-48 hours in clear view of the sky. When I informed them that it might rain, or how can the battery last that long, she told me to plug it in. Stay away from this company. Great idea, but they just can’t seem to deliver. Now if you are buying it for fun, as a game, then maybe.

By: John

John — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:19:03 +0000

Please remember to read the customer agreement before canceling the service.
I have used the device to track my kid all of last year and it did work like I expected it to. But now he is 18 and I don’t need it anymore. So i called to cancel the service. Didn’t think about any early termination fees until after I hung up the phone. That is when I read the agreement. The customer service lady on the phone never said anything about the $100 fee. So I called back and they are being so kind to waive the early termination fee and the one year service fee to reactive the account, but they are charging me a $14.95 fee to turn the service back on again. I have to call back next month to end the service, not cancel it since it was in May 2009 that the service was turned on……. I asked the customer service guy on the phone why the other person didn’t say anything about the early termination fee, and he said that it is not their responsiblity to tell the customer about it since it is listed in the Customer Agreement. But if a customer ask if there is a fee to cancel the service they have to say yes…. Now to me that is kind of BS….Didn’t the cell phone companies get into trouble for the same exact thing a few years ago…. So…Service work great…Just make sure you call one month in advance of when the contract is to renew to end the service, not cancel it or you will be hit with a $100 early termination fee.

By: Peter Fosurnier

Peter Fosurnier — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:46:30 +0000

I had my Zoombak installed in my wife’s car (she never seems to have her cell phone with her, and sometimes I need to know where she is so I can contact her). I had it installed under the dashtop, hardwired in. I worked perfectly for a few months, but then I noticed that whenever the car was parked, it would not give its location. I tested this by taking the car out myself with my laptop running on my Sprint wireless internet connection. It showed the location fine. But when I parked, the unit turned off. Apparently the battery has gone bad. I noticed that Zoombak now sells external batteries, no doubt because they know about this problem. They told me to plug the unit in with the external car adapter or AC wall unit. What is the point of that? The people in tech support are clearly working from scripts, and can’t understand that I have already determined the problem. I would not buy from this company again. It is a waste of money.

By: laurie

laurie — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:57:24 +0000

http://www.zoombak.com
is the most reasonable available ..I purchased this product at radioshack then you pay $10/month for the service
Pros and Cons:
Pros: better than most things available cost/product wise
Cons: I had to figure out how to get it into a waterproof case ..and then had to use a harness to keep the waterproof case on …bit of a pain but feasible ..can give you product names for these since did research to find smallest and most reasonable things …but the product only works if on the back of their neck/back ..not front of the collar ..and it likes to “slide down” ..so it needs to be fixated to the back some how ..other problem is ..does not work as well amongst trees …but not too bad (I’m surrounded by tons of huge ones …sometimes I have to try to click locate online 5 or more times until it finds it when in trees) ….also, it only lasts a few days before it needs to be repowered again ..and the more trees around ..the more quickly it runs out of power due to working harder …so …it’s not perfect ..but is good for when you go away and want to keep track of them ….for an everyday thing ..not perfect ..but not too bad. We don’t even bother with it now though because rarely gets a signal (figured due to trees but maybe broken as others have said of their’s) ..too much work to stay on his back ..and have to recharge constantly ..so we just don’t bother with it now.

By: Windy Welch

Windy Welch — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:49:41 +0000

BEWARE: Zoombak is run by nothing but selfish, insensitive, thieves. I have been waiting since AUGUST 09 for a refund on charges that they ILLEGALLY removed from my account AFTER I had closed my zoombak account. They have been promising me a refund since AUGUST, still have no refund, and on top of that they continued to charge me monthly, overdrawing my back account, to the sum of $763.97 in over draft charges, and bank fees. I have given them ALL the information and spoken to their manager, Darren Carson, over 20 times, and still they do not care. I am a mother of 3 kids, who because of this, did not get a christmas, I am disabled and make enough money to pay my rent, and still, they have not helped fix THEIR mistake. I have contacted the BBB and am in the process of filing a lawsuit for unauthorized charges and fraud against my account. This company should be ashamed of the way they have treated me, and my kids. If there is anyone higher than Mr. Darren Carson, i highly recommend you reassess your companys morals and check out the information I have sent to him over the past 6 months…Hey darren, still waiting on the “refund” you promised me back in august, september, october, november, december and january! Hows that coming along?

By: Paul Franks

Paul Franks — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:20:19 +0000

Just a note:

According to Zoombak, once activated account must be active and billed for one year, regardless of plan chossen.

I just closed my account, and now I am informed that it can never be re-activiated. That does not make much sense, they stated it was a “SIM” issue, but I would think that like a cell phone, that transponder could be tied to a provider in the future. You would think it would be like setting a “New Account”.

Basically this policy makes Zoombak a “one time use” product

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:59:38 +0000

I too used this piece of junk for a month before I sent it back for a return. What I hate most about it, other than the update interval of 5 minutes!, was the service agreement. Most people only need to use a GPS tracking system for a few months not 2 years zoombak. I found a great system that does real-time updates every 10 seconds and has no contracts at tracking system direct ..its a little more expensive but you get what you pay for

By: Webnician

Webnician — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:29:26 +0000

ZoomBak has an amazing device and service, but their marketing is over-blown and capitalizes on the public’s appetite for science fiction.

I don’t understand how a company could promote a “GPS tracking device” intended to be enclosed or hidden nor do I understand how the average person could believe it. To date, every GPS on the market either requires a line-of-sight to the satellites or an outside antenna with the same. Yes, cell-tower triangulation can be used to estimate location, but only within 1/4 mile or so.

Why doesn’t the company promote the actual capabilities of their service? ZoomBak, the service, WILL help find your kid or possessions, but with certain limitations. With typical cellular coverage, it can report at any time where it last got a GPS fix, which might be just outside of a building. If the device is in a car trunk, however, it would be unlikely that it would EVER get a GPS fix, so it could only use cellular triangulation.

Simply put, you WILL NOT use the GPS features to combat vehicle theft unless you take some rather difficult measures to mount it. No thief will be so stupid as to not notice the device on the dash or an antenna on the roof. Kidnappers might not notice the device hidden in a bag, so GPS might help in that case. For fleet vehicles, there’s no reason it couldn’t be mounted for excellent GPS tracking.