Tracker problems

[jonathanw]

I had a Trackstar fitted to my car when bought new about 3 years ago. Have paid the regular subscriptions and in January of this year got a call from them saying that they had not noticed any signals from car - the car is garaged and is used very little through the bleak months of the year. Was told they would phone me back to arrange a test - never heard from them and assumed everything was ok. Got a call from then last Wednesday while driving the car on M25 to say that the had not had a signal for some time. They tested while I was driving and informed me that the unit was not working and they would send an engineer to sort it out. Charge for the visit £100 plus any parts needed. Earliest date for the engineer to attend on 30th May !! No emergency repair facility. To add insult to injury received notification this morning that they have already debited my credit card before work done!!!!.

I spoke to customer service and a rather snotty young lady would only say that the unit was not working from last Wednesday and basically its tough that I am not covered for a service I have been paying constantly and of course if the car is stolen now I probably am not covered. Got by the short and ******s I think.

I am going to write to the firms MD in due course but as a customer I have no way of knowing if the unit is working or not - sounds to me like a bit of a rip off. There should be a self test facility - a bit like personal fire alarms etc etc

This should be a warning to all members who have tracking units fitted. Has anybody had similar problems and has anybody got advice how I can get compensation etc.

 

[Dylan1]

i had no probs when i had the tracke horizon on the 996 and have been very impressed byt the porsche vts system-only ever alerted when it should have -when linda left card at home[]

 

[MarcBC]

I have the VTS system and "ahem" tested it last week (one year since the last "test") and was called within 5 mins of seting off. Very good.

 

[adrian996]

Hi Jonathan. Are these the same people who deal with the Tracker Monitor? If so: I renewed my subscription earlier this year and spoke to one of their reps on the 'phone. He basically spoke to me like a rapper. This isn't meant to be any sort of racist comment, it's just that he terminated every sentence with "Yeah...?", "...you know what I mean, like, Man?" and seemed to be about as switched on and generally knowledgeable about the product as my cat. Bearing in mind that this was following waiting ages to get through to them in the first place, I thought to myself; what would they be like if I actually needed them to be on the case if my car were (God forbid!) to be stolen?
I called them back and spoke to the (female) manager. To cut along story short I ended up getting a choice of two options; either free lifetime cover for as long as I own the car or a free years' membership - plus a nice letter of apology for her. If I'd been buying fruit from a market then I wouldn't have been as concerned as I was about how knowledgeable he was - but to think that my car is probably worth peanuts compared to some of the cars that that company handles. It's just not good enough.
I agree, they do seem to hold all the cards but don't forget - if you've paid your subscription and something happens then they'll be liable if the system fails. Surely that's what we're paying for here?

 

[Black80XSA]

If the failure is due to faulty Tracker parts then i would be claiming some compensation from them, especially if your insurance relies on a tracker being operative. Then again i suppose you could have asked them to test the system on a regular basis

 

[NIL98]

I cant complain. Discovered my car had a hidden history and had been stolen recovered but never subject to a claim and therefore never recorded as such. Tracker came out to my workplace and tested it, discovered unit had been ripped out, and replaced it FOC.

 

[pwebb]

I've had false alerts from my Tracker for the last few months. Finally paid £80 for an engineer call out ten days ago. Fitted new battery and unit (so I'm told) as there was a known problem with the unit fitted. Fine for a week and now repeating the false alerts. Another call tomorrow.

As for the VTS system in the Cayenne - similar story. Changed batteries in the sender unit today but still texting me with false alerts.

So, put me down as less than impressed!
Peter

 

[Mike Cooper 33]

I had the same problem with a tracker fitted to my 993. THe car is not used often and I was told that if the battery runs down through the car not being used much then the tracker will not work. This is irrespective of a trickle charger being used I am told.

Not much good for expensive cars that are not used much then.

 

[fireblade]

Not sure that it is anything to do with the battery!

My car was delivered new in January and is used every working day and most weekends. I have had something like ten false alarms, the latest being this morning when I could still see the car where I had just parked it! On other occasions while driving I had to pull over and stop to answer my mobile! I have been given all the old rubbish by Cobra about changing the transmitter battery and it has made no difference. The cars own battery is fine and never shown any sign of being depleted. I did have two genuine calls when I was on a ferry but I had rung them up the day before and told them to turn it off but they had forgotten. Does show that it works but the false alarms are a bore as I once ran back to my private secure car park having received a call five minutes after leaving the car to find it thankfully still there. Running is not good for me!

 

[jonathanw]

The engineer from Trafficmaster attended on Friday and found that the Herbert who fitted the tracker unit originally when new had not soldered the electrical connection properly so that the units backup battery was slowly draining and not being recharged when driving the car. I need to get onto the original supplier but suspect there will be a smoke screen or two.

This leads me again to the question why dont the tracker devices have a customer self check device to avoid this sort of problem. It is not really appropriate to phone up the control centre every few weeks. My car was probably not protected for several months!

 

[fireblade]

Interesting, I originally thought that the tracker which was a non optional extra was factory fitted but on my car it was actually fitted on arrival by the OPC. Not the one I would have chosen as Cobra offer a cheaper version (including fitting) which also allows you to check where the car is by internet unlike the "Porsche factory fit". The annual subscription is also cheaper while still being "Thatcham 5" which my Insurance company insisted on.

Sometimes I think that I am being taken for a ride!

 

[adrian996]

Hi Jonathan. Nice that you've got to the bottom of things - but what a nightmare! I wonder what the outcome would have been if (God forbid) something had happened to your car and the Tracker wasn't working...?

I agree. I think that there should be some sort of self-test system available where we can use either something web-based or the like which can easily be accessed by the customer using access codes, etc. I think that anyone who marketed something with this facility would be on to a winner! (In which case....)

All the best. Adrian.

 

[juliany27]

Why not contact Trackers' MD and ask for a suitable comment on this forum?

IMO, if you paid for a Tracker [or any other car protection] service and, through no fault of yours, it does not work, Tracker are responsible - especially if they are taking money for that service. No point in reading the contract - even a trained lawyer will hardly be able to understand it and the various exemption [get out] clauses. Any Court would look at the whole contract and be very, very sympathetic to a balmeless litigant who pays for a service which is not received.

 

[yan]

ORIGINAL: adrian996

I agree. I think that there should be some sort of self-test system available where we can use either something web-based or the like which can easily be accessed by the customer using access codes, etc. I think that anyone who marketed something with this facility would be on to a winner! (In which case....)

All the best. Adrian.

This would be very helpful - access to the Porsche error/event log would be useful on PCM, for example, and could certianly help minimise time spent at garage in my experience. I'm rather cynical of computer engineering which buries all the technical information, necessitating time spent being bounced around call centres/ visits to garage from whom you might be lucky if you get even a glimpse of insight into the blackbox - assume all customers are idiots feels like the approach.

I've had all sorts of snags with my VTS system - actually behaving correctly in the end responding to a fault dumped out from a sensor module - no way of telling that though as the person receiving calls at 2am. Was furthermore incorrectly advised that I had de-synchronised the system by turning off the keyfob (did this once when away for a little time) - further false alerts later I was advised such desynchronisation was impossible so back to OPC for further analysis (3 visits+).

 

[yan]

ORIGINAL: fireblade

Interesting, I originally thought that the tracker which was a non optional extra was factory fitted but on my car it was actually fitted on arrival by the OPC. Not the one I would have chosen as Cobra offer a cheaper version (including fitting) which also allows you to check where the car is by internet unlike the "Porsche factory fit". The annual subscription is also cheaper while still being "Thatcham 5" which my Insurance company insisted on.

Sometimes I think that I am being taken for a ride!

With VTS it's a 2 part fit - the factory put the additional wiring in and the OPC fit the UK spec. tracker. I don't think there's a wiring only option unfortunately which would provide flexibility on choice of provider/contract.
The subscription price for VTS was increased in '07 to justify the compliance with a redefined CAT5.

 

[Mark Elder]

ORIGINAL: J

This would be very helpful - access to the Porsche error/event log would be useful on PCM, for example, and could certianly help minimise time spent at garage in my experience. I'm rather cynical of computer engineering which buries all the technical information, necessitating time spent being bounced around call centres/ visits to garage from whom you might be lucky if you get even a glimpse of insight into the blackbox - assume all customers are idiots feels like the approach.

A company call "Durametric" in US (durametric.com) sell a cable and software that lets you read out fault codes and a host of other info from the dianostics system (direct to a laptop). Works well on my 993 and web site says it works for 997s.

Like you say, saves loads of time and arguements when you can direct at the facts yourself.

 

[yan]

ORIGINAL: Mark Elder

A company call "Durametric" in US (durametric.com) sell a cable and software that lets you read out fault codes and a host of other info from the dianostics system (direct to a laptop). Works well on my 993 and web site says it works for 997s.

Like you say, saves loads of time and arguements when you can direct at the facts yourself.

Mark - I like the sound of this - I have various electronic issues which have cropped up after resets of modules at OPC: if I can view and even re-configure these myself all the better. I've sent off a query to Durametric and could well be ordering one shortly...