[dla]

You are obviously a test case.... Unless you got a special deal, you CANNOT have a SPOT Gen 3 without tracking. Your basic plan is $149.99 before taxes and it includes basic tracking. Push and hold the TRACK button until the function light blinks green and your tracking is enabled. Have you set up a shared page? Do you know how to log into your account and view your track messages? Do you have SPOT GEN 3? Or do you have SPOT GEN 2? If you don't want to pay for tracking, then you MUST use SPOT GEN 2. By the way, I sent an EMAIL to cancel service and guess what? They cancelled the service and didn't bill me for an extra year or give me any grief. They have a procedure that works if you follow it. I'm not endorsing their approach to renewals, but it isn't any different than the renewals on other services I use.

[ranger rock]

I have a SPOT 3 I don't get tracking or if I do then it must be free. You can't cancel your autorenew or even opt out of autorenew unless you call during a specific time period before you autorenewal. Unless you work for SPOT, I've been a Spot customer far longer than you and have far more exprience with spot than you do. If you call within a set time of your autorenew they will cancel. I have called three times to have it cancelled and they refused everytime. So I have no choice but to put in an expired credit card number. Raising myprice by $50 just because I bought the SPOT 3 is the final straw. I'm so glad that they could not use the credit card. SPOT is crap and it's tracking is worthless. I did have a year of tracking with my SPOT 1. My GPS does a good job of tracking for free. My SPOT is for sale.. perhaps you want to buy it since you think it is so wonderful.. https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8009716 My friend is going to try to cancel too.. let's see if they actually let him do it.

[dla]

Wow! You are incredible. You're the outlier that product designers have to consider - and I feel sorry for them and the poor customer service people who have to deal with you. Yes, please sell your SPOT. No, I don't want yours - you've broken enough of them and I can imagine you've already dropped this one in your outhouse.

[tigermn]

[ranger rock]

[dla]

I just upgraded from Gen 1 to Gen 3 SPOT. Very easy. Since I already had an active account, it was out with the old and in with the new - no charges, fees or hassle. Took about 5 minutes until the new Gen 3 was enabled. Then I did a firmware upgrade, which took another 5 minutes. I got the new Gen 3 with a 100% rebate - part of a grand opening event for Sportsman Warehouse. Had a nice long chat with a SPOT rep while I was there - very straight-forward, no BS, and knowledgeable. I love the button layout and overall mechanical design of the Gen 3. It is able to get a GPS fix from inside my house - impressive.

[boot up]

News release says March 25th the new Delorme InReach plans took affect. The "new" basic Safety plan includes unlimited preset message messaging. And a new price. I received no notice of my plan changing in either features or price. I am trying to figure out if I am granfathered in on price and or features. I thought I would see if anyone has checked this out yet, or I will check with customer service. The new unlimited presets I can send out would really be nice. I am liking my Delorme Inreach more all the time. It is exactly what I need. Sure it would be nice to be able to get free tracking points for the base subscriiption, and have it cook pancakes for me, but I can work with the Safety plan with the update and be happy.

[HitTheTrail]

For me getting unlimited preset messages pretty much takes care of everything I need. I see very little reason to send a freeform message if I can have a ton of presets to choose from. And if I do need to be more specific there are always the 10 messages per month. Since we are going into summer I will probably stick with the safety monthly plan at least until fall and let things shake out a bit before deciding to change plans.

[boot up]

[HitTheTrail]

[HitTheTrail]

Well duh, something just occurred to me. You could have a code arrangement with your spouse. One 'checking in' means just that. Two 'checking in's in quick sequence means I am camping here. Three real quick 'checking in's means I am heading back, etc. The possibilities are unlimited. Did you happen to learn Morse Code in the past?

[boot up]

[DIYSteve]

I signed up for the Freedom Safety Plan. My current presets are (a) at camp, all OK; (b) all OK but running late and might be coming out late; (c) back at car, all OK. I will likely change (c) for some trips. I went with Freedom because I might upgrade to the Recreation Plan a couple months a year.

[ranger rock]

As soon as I get my tax return I'm going to buy the Delorme and go with the yearly plan.. I hike all year so the Freedom plan won't save me any money.

[boot up]

I heard back from Delorme about my continuing Safety plan. Tough decision maybe, I can continue on at the same price and same coverage, or spend an extra $3 or so a month and get the unlimited preset sends. I can't really see not upgrading from the Safety plan to the new Safety plan. They did not tell me if I would be hit with the $25 plan switch fee, which they say only applies to stepping down in plans. Their policies don't really account for changing to the same plan. I will say it is nice of them to give me the option though! Here is (most) of what they replied : "Thank you for contacting DeLorme Customer Care. At this time nothing about your plan will change as you are "grandfathered" in with your ongoing Annual Safety Plan at 9.95 per month, this would also apply to your message count. If you would like to take advantage of the new plans, you are able to make the change to the new plan structure by logging on to your explore.delorme.com site and changing your plan there. Once the change has been made to the new plans you then would have all of the benefits that are included..."