DocJock

I am posting this on behalf of a mate.
If he makes it public his car has a Tracker, his cover will be voided.
Edit to make clear...we are talking about RAC Trackstar here


When was the last time you checked your tracker is working? How do you know it is working? Do you think the tracker company does periodic system checks?

Read on and you may be surprised by a few things. This is the experience with RAC Trackstar of a friend; name is withheld for security reasons.

I recently travelled to Europe on a Ferry, but forgot to inform the tracking company the car was going on a ferry, so may set off the motion detectors. When I returned home I thought, why wasn’t I informed my car was moving whilst unattended? So I called up RAC Trackstar and asked them why they hadn’t called me. There response was that they don’t always pick up the movement of vehicles on ferries due to the large metal content blocking its signal. OK, that makes sense (pretty poor design though if that is true) but I am not 100% happy with that, so I asked them to run a check on my car.

After being told I would have had to have driven the car within the last 6 hours for it to show up, which I hadn’t. I took the car for a run then called them back. They couldn’t find the car. They then informed me the last communication with the car was February! I asked them why they haven’t informed me that they were not able to communicate with the car. At first I got the response that, because it switched off next to a garage on my local high street, they assumed it was in for repair! I have never used that garage, I just happen to drive past it every day.

The conversation went……

"Hello, we are having a problem connecting to your vehicle"

"Did you have your car at the ******* car centre for repair?" No, never used that place.

"Have you had your car in a garage at all?" Of course, it’s a Subaru.

"Have they moved your radio mast?" Has who moved the radio mast? Anyway they are supposed to be hidden so how would they?

"Ermm, yes, ok. We have it on record that your tracker switched off in February on ******** road, next to the ******** car centre, did you have it in for some work" No, I have never had my car there; I drive down that road every day though.

"I see, well your tracker has been off since Feb and we thought it was in the garage being worked on" Are you telling me my tracker failed whilst I was driving down my local high street and because there happens to be a car showroom there you assume it was because it went in for service? Why didn’t you call me and ask why it’s gone off?

"We don’t do that" Why not? Don’t you check these systems periodically? It’s been off since February!!!!

"No sir, we don’t do that, we rely on you telling us it isn’t working" How am I supposed to know if it’s not working?

"Ermm, would you like us to send an engineer to repair it" What do you think?

So, my car hadn’t had a working tracker since February! I was seriously angry about that, if it was stolen my insurance was invalid against theft. It clearly states on the policy documents "All tracking/immobilisation security devices fitted to the insured vehicle must be fully functional and be activated at the time of any loss or damage caused by theft or attempted theft"

This was Friday afternoon at 4:30pm, my initial call was 2pm but I had to go out and drive it before they could run the test. I was told to expect a call from the person arranging the engineer. Friday at 5:50pm I still hadn’t received a call, so I called them back, they had all gone home as they work normal office hours, 9:00-5:30 mon-fri only, so I couldn’t speak to anyone until Monday. I went outside and made my car immobile now it isn’t insured.

Monday morning. I still hadn’t had a call by 10:30.

So I called them and got the same person I had on Friday, asked her why they haven’t called me back and she said "well I did pass on your info, hang on I will ask my colleague next to me who I asked."

I didn’t get a sensible answer as to why I wasn’t called, but was told I would be called back soon.

She then said "February might not have been the last time it worked, that was the date we last tested it"

So I asked why did they test it in February? "I don’t know"
How often do you run tests? "I don’t know"

So my tracker could have been faulty since February? "Ermmm, I suppose so"

11:30am I get a call from the guy arranging the engineer’s visit.

"We can send someone on Wednesday to look at it" That’s the best you can do? "Yes" OK, so when will he be here? "Don’t know, I’ll ring you back when I have a time" He never did call me back.

Tuesday lunch arrives and I still haven’t been called back with a time for the engineers visit then I get a call from business post. "Can you tell us where you are, I can’t find *****." That’s because its ***** ****. Ah, ok see you in a minute.

I collect the parcel, I wasn’t expecting one?

I open it up to discover a smashed to pieces GPS transmitter control box. So I call them up and ask why no one has called me with a time. "errrm, don’t know, I’ll go see what is logged" "apointment is for the morning sir". What time? "errm, it could be anytime after 9am”

So I ask, did you send me a parcel? "yes sir, some spare parts" OK, well you better send me another because the one you sent yesterday is smashed to pieces. "Oh, OK" And make sure it’s sent to arrive before 9am! "ah, yes, good idea"

I forgot to mention the address was wrong so I called them back. I got the woman from day1. Explained they are sending me another parcel but the address is wrong. "oh, ok sir we will rectify that, I was just given your details to send the parcel out" You are sending it for 9am delivery aren’t you? "ermmm, just one second whilst I talk to a colleague" "yes, it will be sent for 9am delivery, ian is nodding at me" sigh…..

Wednesday, new box arrived at 8:45 and it’s not smashed to pieces. At last a result that is positive. The engineer didn’t arrive until 12:00 and this is what he found.

The GPS aerial module was dangling down behind the dash pointing sideways, rather than flat and pointing up out the window, it hadn’t been securely mounted. There aren’t many satellites at ground level so that’s not going to work! So he stuck that in the right place with some sticky tape and did a test. The tracker still didn’t work.

He then replaced the main box with a new one. Nope, didn’t work.

So he put the old box back and connected a new GPS aerial. Nope, didn’t work.

Finally he put the new box and new GPS aerial together. Yep, that works.

So he had to install a new main control module and a new GPS aerial. He couldn’t give me any answers as to if or when they run tests on this, he was just a subcontractor.

So in summary, don’t assume your Tracker is working, because they don’t run tests to check and rely on you to tell them when it is faulty! The only way you can do this, is by asking them to run a check. They seem completely oblivious to the fact that without a working tracker your car is technically uninsured against theft, they showed no desire to provide a professional and speedy turnaround and they have no desire to look into their systems and put in place a self test routine. I will be taking this further as
I have been paying for a service that hasn’t been provided and has left my car uninsured as a result for over 7 months! How many other cars with trackers are in this situation? More than mine I would suggest.

One very pissed off RAC Trackstar customer.


[Edited by DocJock - 9/26/2003 12:07:03 AM]

SiDHEaD

Mine's pro-active (NavTrak) so i can test it quite easily. They usually call me within 2mins of it moving/starting without my card being present.

Andy

Gav

i had the same thing with tracker. my maff sensor diedso they picked my car up on a recovery wagon, the car moved 10 miles and i didn't recieve a call. so i rang and they said it wasn't working so they sent an engineer out to fix it.

though they were very efficient and swift sorting it out...


gav..

Pro Boy

dont you have to pay an annual service fee so they ensure the unit is working

i8gtmf

i would be wanting some sort of refund for the monitoring of the vehicle from feb untill it was fixed.

Melina

In order to improve things. You should send this to the press relations department of RAC (the division that deals with it). Let them know that you want to highlight this to the press but want to ask their advice first. Make sure it goes Cc to comms director. Then if you don't get a good response, you should alert the press. British press is always interested if consumers are ripped off. This is a very good story. If I was a journalist I would write about this.

Yours PR Guru

Melina

k9any

apparently you have to pay if u want them to check your tracker is working!!!!

pugoetru

i would want more than a refund a system that works would be a good start though

dhorwich

Im sure you would have a decent legal case if your car was stolen and the tracker was not working.. I mean it should have a warranty by the fitter e.t.c

What the hell do we pay our subscription for... They should ring you if they find a problem just to cover themself.

Dan

Blue_Boy

This really is diabolical. I've had problems with RAC before now and I'm also very curious as to why they've not said a thing to me about the old unit which I paid a full year for & the car got smacked by a thoughtful women half way through the year - writing it off.

I completely forgot to phone them and let them know - but they didn't say anything about it being towed away that night, or even 6 months later & renewal time!

How do they do business - is it possible to go with someone else with the same tracker unit (as I'm just about to get one with the new car as standard, so it's all fitted and paid for)???

johnfelstead

I dont think you could use another service with the hardware supplied by RAC trackstar as it will be custom programmed with telephone numbers and satelite details.

I just checked their website for info, but that is down http://www.ractrackstar.com "Sorry, this site is currently down for maintenance, please check back soon." How ironic.

T5NYW

iTrader: (4)

12 scoobs coming back over on a Ferry from France 7 were on top open deck but only one(which was below deck) got a Phone call on his mobile for RAC

Dissapionting realy especially as £120 for Subscription. lots of Insurances don't Trackers compulsory on Scoobs any more perhaps they know, what we are finding out now their true Value

Tony

ps If i had a Tracking device don't think I'd renew my Subs

KaraK

this is very worrying... I have an RAC trackstar device and yes it is a requirement of my insurance. Think I might give them a call...

Chrisgr31

I have a Tracker Tracker on my car, and I have often wondered why when the car is on a ferry they don't phone me. I assummed iit was either because of the ship being a metal box so no sigmnals emerge, or they know where the ferries are and also know the car was driven there.

SiDHEaD

Probably work out that your car doesn't drive itself over water, and that its on a ferry. Bit worrying if it had been nicked at the docks though

Andy

mutant_matt

[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Pieman

So does this mean that if the vehicle hasn't moved for more than 6 hours (for example if it's been nicked, then parked up somewhere) they can't locate it?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I think for tracker (as in "tracker") they say in the small print the unit needs to be checked every number of years - AT YOUR OWN COST!!

Still so far the service has been 90% We have 5 vehicles with them fitted.

One car had a problem with the battery going flat if left for more than 2 days. After disconecting every fuse on the car...it still did it, the fault was traced to the tracker. The unit was found (after some guesswork) and disconnected.

We then phoned tracker, who denied it could be the tracker, we said it was as we had a ammeter on it pulling a continual 5 amps! And they said it was hidden, and should'nt be able to be found, the response was - there aren't that many hiding places on a car, after fitting car alarms for 5 years and using a bit of common sense you can find it easily. So they said the will send out an engineer. He turned up on time, looked at it said, yep it's knackered (charging circuit for the auxilary battery). Replaced the whole lot anyway just in case.

And no problems since....but how do you know eh?

I think they charged £50, but the unit had been on for about 3years and out of 5 vehicles it's pretty acceptable.

One thing worth knowing is that "Tracker's" tracker use back-up batteries. Some use sealed lead acid types (house alarm batteries). Now these have a life-span of roughly 5 years, but it's always advised they should be replaced before then.

So it's worth having the tracker checked if you've had it on your car for over 3 years.

[Edited by ALi-B - 9/26/2003 11:41:32 AM]

sooby

ALi-B

I think the Tracker literature says the battery should be replaced every 3 years.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Probably right there...been ages since I checked

I was just thinking 5 seems a bit long

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

John

Satellite info is FOC - just needs a receiver, no config - it just arrives

The telephone stuff you can re-program very simply.

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Do you think it wise discussing things like this on a public BBS?

P20SPD

iTrader: (1)

Well having an RAC Trackstar on mine and reading this on 22b earlier this morning i rang up to test, which i have previously done every 2 months, except for the last 6 months.

They did ask me when was it last moved, i said yesterday evening.

They rang me back 50 minutes later to say that the locataion of the car was where it should be, and was lasted moved at 20:51 last night.

That is needless to say, spot on!

The only reason i check occasionaly is due to having one in my previous car, and when i wrote it off, it was on the recovery truck and i did not get a call. I asked why, an they guessed it was because it had been damaged.

To change the unit to my new car, cost £50 to recover it, but upon inspection the violence of the impact had smashed the hidden aerials and the gps unit!, so i had to get a new one.

Steven

cossie@ste

I can highly recommend the clifford sat 24/7 tracking system!

pugoetru

is this the same tracker that is advertised as being sooooo good at retrieving cars?

uksti

Just called them to test and they found it - still worth considering each time I renew the subscription.

Now to feed the Rottweiller....

speedking

I phoned RAC and they ran a check FOC. Would only phone back the next day and say where car was for security reasons. Correctly identified location as middle of nowhere I intend to do this every 6 months or so for peace of mind.

EVOVI

I called RAC trackstar,they took my details and called me back within an hour.Asked if the battery had been disconnect recently as the unit had lost it`s memory.They managed to get it back online and told me exactly where the car was.The only worry is that I changed the battery months ago so if the car was stolen I would have been buggered.They did advise letting them know each time the battery is disconnected just so they can check all is well.

Gatso Busters

Christ am very worried now...... I need to make sure mine is working....

Thanks for the advice..

Cheers

Robert

KaraK

I'm really worried now as I changed my scoob's battery lately as it died and I had to buy a new one. My Trackstar is supposed to have a battery back-up, should I trust to that?