inReach account set-up, not for me (continue reading for try #2 success)

[muddydogs]

I've had nothing but problems with mine. It is completely miserable to use, and it's a 50/50 if any of the messages will be delivered or the track you're recording will be in the device when you are trying to find your way back to camp. Yes, mine is current on software updates. The customer support is a joke. I primarily bought this to be in contact with myView attachment 123589View attachment 123589View attachment 123590 wife or other parties in my group while hunting/riding areas without cell service and the gps features was supposed to be the cherry on top. I ride (dirtbike) in a lot of remote regions and can easily get 50- 80 miles from my truck in a few hours . My teenage son rides with me and if one of us were to get injured or have a mechanical problem, I wanted to have something communicate with. Sat phone and Onx looks like the way to go. Here are two screenshots of the same track ridden today at approximately the same amount of zoom. You tell me which one is going give you confidence in backtracking to your original location? Sometimes the Garmin records , sometimes it doesn't. Completely unreliable and the customer support is even worse.

Well no ***t the Garmin is probably set up to send track points every 10 minutes where any other mapping app on your phone sends way more track points. adjust your send interval on the Garmin unit to get a better track or just use your phones GPS with the ONX app. Don't blame the unit when you don't have it set right for motorized travel. When hiking 10 minute send interval lays down a good track. Either way if you had to rely on the track to get you back home even the Garmin track would get you there with a little common sense, just because the line says to go through an area doesn't mean you have to follow it.

 

[elkstabber]

There are two things that I think are funny about this:
1. Garmin failed by sending you a refurbished unit that wasn't ready for your use.
2. Robby just sent back his unit that may not have been deactivated from his account, so when they send his old unit out to the next person the cycle will repeat.

This just goes to show how inept Garmin's customer service people are.

I'm rooting for some competition:
[URL]https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/topics/camping-and-hiking/best-personal-locator-beacon[/URL]

 

[Deplorable77]

Well no ***t the Garmin is probably set up to send track points every 10 minutes where any other mapping app on your phone sends way more track points. adjust your send interval on the Garmin unit to get a better track or just use your phones GPS with the ONX app. Don't blame the unit when you don't have it set right for motorized travel. When hiking 10 minute send interval lays down a good track. Either way if you had to rely on the track to get you back home even the Garmin track would get you there with a little common sense, just because the line says to go through an area doesn't mean you have to follow it.

Unit is set up for 2 minute intervals. (Which is an additional monthly charge) Even if it could do 5 second intervals, that doesn't change the fact that it is a unbelievably slow pos with horrible customer support..Since you seem to be a Garmin fanboy, I'll sell you the unit at a smoking price and then nitpick your personal experience with it.

 

[robby denning]

Well no ***t ....

no need to start with a slam. He shared his experience. Feel free to critique as you have but to slap someone right outta the gate is not helpful

 

[robby denning]

@robby denning, at least it is happening before you left. This year i went to Colorado, I set up camp and sent messages out that camp was setup and everything was good and went to bed. The next morning I went into to town to get things and got a text from my Dad as to why I haven't let them know how things were. I tried some more messages in the Walmart parking lot and nothing was going through.

Tried some things on my own and finally called Garmin. I ended up having to do a soft reset on the unit to get it to work, which required a WiFi or mobile data connection. This took from 9 AM to 3 PM. I used it that night and everything worked. I tried it the next morning, left it on all night, and got no response. After waiting an hour I drove to where I got reception and called my Dad to see if he had received the messages, which he didn't. So I ended up pulling out and coming home because I couldn't depend on it to work. So I drove a total of 4 days (round trip) for a 2 day camping trip.

I called when I got home and they sent me a replacement, refurbished, unit which I got on Wednesday. I tried to activated it today and couldn't. Called Garmin, minimum of an hour wait on hold, I left a call back number and received a call back 45 minutes later. It turns out the Dumb ass that returned this unit never bothered to deactivate it from their account. Garmin is looking into it but won't know until next week as to how to resolve this issue.

Wow! You're right, glad it failed me before I left. That just stinks for you. I knew I wasn't imagining this stuff....

Back from the mountain now, so just catching up on this thread. BTW. the SPOT one-way never failed, just would still like to be able to hear from the family when I'm up there. I will revisit the two-way in the future, I'm sure.

Seem like plenty of people on this thread have had less than stellar experiences. I do see just as many have good experiences...

 

[muddydogs]

Unit is set up for 2 minute intervals. (Which is an additional monthly charge) Even if it could do 5 second intervals, that doesn't change the fact that it is a unbelievably slow pos with horrible customer support..Since you seem to be a Garmin fanboy, I'll sell you the unit at a smoking price and then nitpick your personal experience with it.

I guess I am a fan boy since its the best thing going. I don't find it slow at all, in fact I'm monitoring one right now and when the guy told me over the phone that he just sent a preset and less then a minute later it shows up in my email I would say thats fairly good. I've had issues here and there with the Inreach unit but in the end its the best we got right now and it works. Even at 2 minute intervals your still covering a lot of ground with a motorized vehicle so your not going to get some perfect track line. Nitpick all you want but lets be reasonable with our expectations.
Yes sometimes customer service is an issue but then who's isn't? All I want is something fixed right now and I don't want to play push the phone buttons, leave a number for a call back or wait on hold for an hour but guess what there's are every few company's that have right now customer service with a great knowledgeable staff. I can't even think of any customer service I have called in the last year that wasn't a pain to deal with, wait yes I can I called Phelps game calls with a question about there open reed call and Jason Phelps answered the phone himself and helped me out, bet if I tried calling Phelps today I wouldn't get the same quality of help as there probably all out hunting.

 

[hikenhunt]

Wow! You're right, glad it failed me before I left. That just stinks for you. I knew I wasn't imagining this stuff....

Back from the mountain now, so just catching up on this thread. BTW. the SPOT one-way never failed, just would still like to be able to hear from the family when I'm up there. I will revisit the two-way in the future, I'm sure.

Seem like plenty of people on this thread have had less than stellar experiences. I do see just as many have good experiences...

I had my SPOT one-way fail to send messages on several different trips. In fact, one trip it didn't send any at all. I switched to an Inreach mini and haven't had any failed messages.

It seems easy to find unsatisfied users for every product out there, people like to complain. It'd be interesting to do a poll and see how many good vs bad experiences people have had with the SPOT and Inreach products.

 

[WTFJohn]

I'm in the positive experience with multiple inReach devices camp. Over 3 years, I've had both the SE+ and now a mini. I've probably used the mini 90 days already this year, over 20 days in hunting season alone (Aug 15-now), and haven't had any issues. Messages go out in 20-30 seconds, just watch/wait for the sent message chime or for the upload arrow to go away (on device)/loading circle to change to pin icon (on Earthmate app) and you'll know your message went out.

I switched my SE+ off of my account in July or August of this year, took about 15 minutes to get it sorted and a refund for part of my remaining contract. It is unfortunate to hear so many people have had issues with their device or setup, we've got 4 in my family alone and my experiences have led 3 or 4 others to buy one; all have had no issues either.

 

[87TT]

Had mine for three years. 0 issues. Basic plan on all year. Cheap insurance and peace of mind for the wife.

 

[Farmingdale's Finest]

Ive had mine now for 3 years and although setting it up sucks its well worth it to be able to communicate with home. It would sure suck to find out your wife needed you again this year and it wasnt because of your pocketbook you couldnt talk to here it was because you didnt want to take the extra time.
Give it to her before sending it back i bet she would put in the time to get it going. Because she is going to be the one nervous as hell or worried to death somethings wrong.
Sorry i dont have your back on this one put in the time its the least you can due for your wife kids and family.
Suck it up until their is a better alternative. Maybe their site was down trying to make your experience better. It took me 20min. To navigate it the first time but well worth it to my family.

This is my exact feeling. God forbid something happens you will never forgive yourself for not putting up with a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of life! It’s your money but I wouldn’t be sending it back.


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[Dustin the wind]

I received my mini last Wednesday, just setup it up today. Very simple and easy instructions, took about 20 min to activate. Paired easily with my phone and Earthmate. Sent a message to my wife and she sent one back, took a few min to send, her message came back very quick. Now to figure out all the tracking and nav features.

 

[robby denning]

I had my SPOT one-way fail to send messages on several different trips. In fact, one trip it didn't send any at all. I switched to an Inreach mini and haven't had any failed messages.

It seems easy to find unsatisfied users for every product out there, people like to complain. It'd be interesting to do a poll and see how many good vs bad experiences people have had with the SPOT and Inreach products.

It would.

In 11 years using Spot, I can only think of just two or three times the wife said she didn’t get my message.

There was a thread on here a couple years ago about a guy‘s wife who was all been out of shape because she wasn’t receiving the messages. Come to find out, he was shutting the Messenger off too soon after hitting the send button. Only one blinking light on on the older models can be on to confirm a sent message. I have to wonder how many of these failed to send messages were because of that.

Thanks for chiming in


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[ljalberta]

That is pretty brutal.

I have one and love it, but it certainly is not without issues. One that happened this year is about 5 of my messages I sent to my wife and my unit confirmed as sending to my wife actually never went to her. Instead, they went to another friend. My unit still has them as part of my wife and I's conversation. Weird.

 

[Call.me.porter]

I think that prior to Garmin buying out DeLorme and continuing the inReach line, the devices and service were much more reliable. Since Garmin has taken over I feel like my device struggles to send messages out from time to time, where before that never happened. With that being said, line of sight is everything with these devices, it isn't a 100% guarantee that they will save your life or even notify anyone that there is an emergency. But it is much better to at least have some sense of security. And I do enjoy being able to let my loved ones know how things are going from time to time, and in the event that I need help with a pack out I know that the cavalry can be at my disposal with a couple punches of the button. I hope that I never have to use it in an emergency situation, but I know that if something goes South I at least stand a chance. I do wish that someone would come out to compete with Garmin to push the service and device quality to better standards, but until then I will take what I can get and I never go on a hunt without it. It's unfortunate that you weren't able to get the device set up and usable, if and when you decide to try it again I think that you will find it worth the hassle.

 

[wind gypsy]

I think that prior to Garmin buying out DeLorme and continuing the inReach line, the devices and service were much more reliable. Since Garmin has taken over I feel like my device struggles to send messages out from time to time, where before that never happened. With that being said, line of sight is everything with these devices, it isn't a 100% guarantee that they will save your life or even notify anyone that there is an emergency. But it is much better to at least have some sense of security. And I do enjoy being able to let my loved ones know how things are going from time to time, and in the event that I need help with a pack out I know that the cavalry can be at my disposal with a couple punches of the button. I hope that I never have to use it in an emergency situation, but I know that if something goes South I at least stand a chance. I do wish that someone would come out to compete with Garmin to push the service and device quality to better standards, but until then I will take what I can get and I never go on a hunt without it. It's unfortunate that you weren't able to get the device set up and usable, if and when you decide to try it again I think that you will find it worth the hassle.

Freakin Garmin, they messed up tritronics dog collars too..

 

[robby denning]

Here we go again boys and girls...

"Dear Robby Denning,

Thank you for your order from S&S Archery! We wanted to let you know that your order (#S10104) was shipped via USPS, USPS First Class Mail on 10/31/2019. You can track your package at any time using the link below. "

I'm home for a few weeks and will give this one more honest shot! It's the mini as that is the one I really want. Wish me luck!

 

[87TT]

 

[robby denning]

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[kboatman107]

Hope it works out for you this time! I’ve had the explorer the last 2 seasons and it worked good. Few issues with how long it takes to send and receive messages but overall works really well. My buddy took the mini this year to elk camp and it seemed like it would send and receive messages quicker than my older model.

 

[brsnow]

I am curious if they improved coverage, never had an issue before but this year my mini was extremely fast and worked great even in a camper.