RoamEO Pet Monitor System

I've been using my Roameo Pet Monitor System for a month now and absolutely love it. Initially the receiver was not connecting with the collar, but this was quickly resolved through a call to Pettronix. Pettronix customer service is above and beyond anything I've ever experienced. When I initially called, I was shocked that I was immediately transferred to `Tom' in Customer Service. He patiently guided me through each step and waited to ensure that I had a GPS lock on the collar before hanging up. After I used the collar a couple of days, I noticed that the pointer on the receiver seemed to be about 45 degrees off. When I could see my Pyrenees about 3,000 ft away, it was not pointing straight ahead, but slightly off. I called customer service again and left a message. Tom returned my call within 5 minutes! He spent a lot of time with me again, trying to troubleshoot the problem by asking if there were any possible interferences in the area, such as high voltage lines, etc. He then said that he would send out another receiver and that once I received it, to just return the other one using the postage paid label. Three days later the new receiver arrived as promised. It was able to recognize the collar immediately and worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, the next morning after a horrible thunderstorm, I no longer had a lock on the collar. My Pyr is terrified of thunderstorms and had disappeared into the woods during the night. Luckily she did return to our alpaca herd the next morning, but the collar was gone! I was very embarrassed to have to call Tom again, now needing to order a new collar. I explained to him that I really didn't know if the clasp could have come apart (which would disconnect the battery) or whether she snagged the collar on something and the battery was just drained. I asked how much a replacement collar would be and he put me on hold for a moment to check. When he came back on the line, he said that a replacement collar was being shipped out. I asked how much it was going to cost and he said nothing! I was totally floored!This company absolutely excels at providing a top quality product and backing it up with the kind of customer service that is almost unheard of today. If you're in the market for a tracking system for your favorite companion, I would highly recommend Pettronix.

I have bad experience with this product from the moment I received and opened the box with RoamEo Pet Monitoring System.Following are the problems I have encountered:1. Battery require different charger (not one that have been sent me). On the charger there are list of batteries that it supports. There is no mentioning of batteries type I have got. When I tried to insert battery into charger there were plastic tabs specially made to prevent battery of this type to be used with this charger.2. When I started operations with ½ charged batteries (the way I have received them) and following the instructions I was waiting for more than half an hour before I got some satellite connection and still there was no detection of the collar location.3. Instructions are written very poorly. For instance, nowhere I can find explanation about what I see on display. Inner part of it (including icon of battery) is it related to the status of the collar battery or receiver battery? What about outer part of the display? Does it show features of the collar or receiver?4. Apparently before sending me the product they didn’t test it. Whatever was received from China was just re-sent to me without inspection of the device.I returned this device and ordered Garmin Tracking GPS.

I give this GPS dog tracker two stars because it does work, though I would not rely on it to find my dog and will return after extensive testing. Upon charging batteries (two batteries and only one single charger does present some logistical difficulties), the tracker was able to establish signal within two minutes. Vendor's web site claims that this would become faster with time but after two weeks it still takes good amount of time to find satellites upon turning on. GPS signal is not very strong - I saw it losing connection couple of times under heavy forest cover. But much bigger problem lies with radio signal that provides location information from collar to the base unit. The vendor claims 1 mile of diameter. This is a fancy marketing talk to say that the signal goes for 1/2 mile. Try walking for 1/2 mile away from your house. You may find that you are not as far away as you would think you would want the signal to carry it's heartbeat. Unfortunately, in 9 tests at 9 different locations that I took, only twice was I able to achieve the claimed 1/2 mile radius of communication. In 7 other cases the radio signal was lost anywhere from 200 feet to 1,000 feet between receiver and collar, in 3 of those cases while I could clearly see the location of the collar or was still in line of sight if not for some trees. Sometimes the signal did come back after a while but in other instances I had to get substantially closer for the communication to be reestablished. This is the most critical function of the device and it failed clearly. If the receiver loses the signal, it's not apparent right away as it would still continue to show distance from the last known good location. I took my receiver on a ride to work with me (40 miles from home), and though it lost communication with collar pretty quickly, it was happy to show me the ever increasing distance between the two. This information is confusing, because you might not notice immediately when connection breaks. Last known location is better then nothing but as soon as you let receiver go to sleep, this information is not retained either. Your dog may be only a shout away and receiver would show no signal and you would have no idea which direction to look. The receiver has a digital compass built in to identify direction (good) but I found in many cases that it was 20-30 degrees wrong. In some cases it got so confused that it showed the dog was behind me when in fact it was straight in front of me all the time. Starting moving would usually clear the confusion but the vendor needs to work out these bugs for a more reliable direction.Hopefully, if there will be another incarnation of the GPS tracker, the vendor would make a stronger radio signal and introduce couple of other features that scream to be put in place for the device to be worth what it costs. Virtual fence would be one such feature, a preset alarm if the dog wanders more then certain distance from the receiver would be another, an integration with smart phones would be very useful too as there is no point in the basic receiver and cost could be substantially reduced to only sell collar and radio antenna to plug in the smart phone (via Bluetooth or micro-USB connection). Imagine seeing your dog's location and his track log on Google maps right on your phone while tracking him. And please make the collar water proof, not just moisture resistant. My dog loves in the summer to take a drink from many water holes around our property. In present design, the collar would be ruined because it does not seal the battery from the water if submerged which is what would happen if my dog wanders neck deep into the water.UPDATE: I have returned the Roameo monitor system and for all I know, the newer editions may have improvements that may negate some of the points I was critical about in my original review. For those who asked for alternative, there are right now two other systems on the market that work very different from Roameo.First one is called Tagg Pet tracker. You can look it up on Amazon. It combines GPS & radio communication as Roameo but also adds cellular data connection between collar and your phone. The cellular in Tagg is powered by Verizon, so it has one of the best coverages and unless you live in the boondocks, you can find your dog, no matter how far away from home he might run away. This system requires a monthly subscription at $7 per month though that can be renewed at any time - no contract involved. Multiple collars may be registered to a home base system. I don't have this system but general reviews are positive to neutral. Customers from outside of US should not apply - system would not work there.Another alternative is only coming to the market and it is called BluTracker. This works similar to Roameo but uses high-power Bluetooth 4.0 signal instead of radio communication (with same claimed 1/2 mile radius of communication). Advantages over Roameo come in very good integration with smartphones that support it (iPhones, starting from 5 and several Android high-end phones). Your smartphone will have an app that not only shows GPS location of the collar on Google map, but will also be able to set up virtual fence and proximity alert. No subscription is required, so as long as you have compatible smartphone, it is a preferable alternative to Roameo and cheaper than Tagg. BluTracker should also work universally around the globe wherever there is GPS signal. The BluTracker should come to the market by holidays or early 2014. For now you can find more information about it if you Google "indiegogo blutracker-long-range-bluetooth-gps-tracker-with-no-monthly-fees".