GIBI Pet Location GPS Service Unit

We purchased Gibi as part of a contract for adopting a rescue Lab, all were aware our dog was a "runner" as he'd been feral for a year before rescue. He was in the training shelter for 4 months and had been w/ us for a year when he had an opportunity during construction on our home to make a break for it. It took us 7 hrs, 2 dedicated pet trainers working w/ us, their pack of therapy dogs, and a neighborhood of help to reel the Lab in. His feral brain just switched on once he was out of our yard and the closest people could get to him was 20 yards. He covered a 1.5 square mile range about 10 times, using creeks to move, crossing major busy streets here in Charlotte NC, totally avulsed his pads from the heat of asphalt.HOWEVER, he would have been gone for good w/o Gibi. I couldn't figure out how to get the collar to ping more often than every 15 min and was out in the middle of a creek in poison ivy chasing the dog. I called them in desperation for advice. Charlie, one of their support staff, called me back and adjusted the GPS locator to minute intervals (it can go as low as 30 sec or up to much longer if you wish- hourly, daily- easy to set on the pet screen if you are not in a panic w/ a missing dog) Charlie asked if he could stay on the phone w/ me until we secured our Lab. This is truly the most amazing customer assistance I've seen for anything, including healthcare (and I work in healthcare.) We probably spent 2-3 hrs on the phone (drained my mobile completely) w/ multiple calls and re-calls while we tried to catch up w/ our animal ("holy smokes your dog is fast, he can MOVE!")...he would ping the dog, give me a position update, send Google satellite and pedestrian view photos of the areas where the dog was hiding so we could recognize the drives, ditches, businesses, alleys, and creeks to get closer to him. We eventually closed in on him and the therapy pack brought him in safe and sound.Pros1. CUSTOMER SERVICE- absolutely amazing- Charlie needs a bonus- they have the capacity to send you Google Sat and Ped photos to help you locate in a desperate situ- it was needed in our case b/c most system assumes the dog actually WANTS to be found, our's didn't. He told me he had two screens up and running to help coordinate.2. Gibi was accurate to w/in 20 feet in our area which is about as good as civilian GPS get3. Adjustable locator intervals: can ping the dog up to every 30 seconds (battery drains faster) or at 24 hr intervals4. The app is internet based, more of a browser based- and you can ping the dog from your phone5. Cell tower location based upon numerous providers giving a broad location opportunity.6. Price- $99/yr and worth it.7. Rugged, waterproof (Its on a Lab and he's tested it pretty hard), easy to use.8. Solid battery life- down to about 40-45% after 7 hrs on minute interval location.9. Can set up multiple custom safe zones that are quite simple to activate.Opportunities for improvement1. Gibi app can be a little problematic re fast reloading while in pursuit. Charlie was able to compensate for that by helping in real time, emailing and texting photos w/ locator marks to locate the dog.2. Really would benefit from simultaneous integration w/ your cell phone so you see animal and your location simultaneously- that would be SUPER, but I think it would be really hard to engineer and I'm not aware that any competitor has that capability3. False alerts, but this plagues all the locators, I think, as with cell service nothing is dead on. You just have to set your home zone large enough so the wobble in the locator doesn't falsely message the dog as escaped.THANK YOU CHARLIE AND THE GIBI TEAM!Gibi Pet Location GPS Service Unit

If I could cut and paste the entire email thread with the Gibi support, I would (I might in a bit if I get industrious). Summary: Ordered the device (despite the mixed reviews). Spent a half day trying to get the device recognized and to show up on the site. Never happened. Contacted customer service. Friendly and prompt enough. They sent to me a label to send it to them for checking out. Did that. They checked it out and determine that the SIM card (or something like that) was defective. They repaired/replaced it and sent it back to me. Got it. They sent me an email and instructed me to add the device to the account and go through the set up. They indicated that they had already removed the defective device from the account (which I found out had not happened). For my trouble, they also said they'd remove the original service charge ($9.99 subscription price) and provide a free month. I had to delete the prior device from the account (even though they said they had already done this - it was not done), then add the repaired device. Somehow this resulted in a double charge of $9.99. Which I didn't even know happened at first. Long story short, I tried like heck to get the fixed device to work properly. A larger percentage of time when I tried to "find" my pet (which was really the device sitting next to me on a table outdoors as I was trying to test it), it just stopped looking or timed out. When it did locate my pet, half of the time the pet was out of the safe zone, the other half it was in the safe zone. The device had not moved. Decided to return it -- $100 and $9.99 per month is not worth it when the device doesn't work consistently. Amazon is great. Issued the return label right away. Trying to get the $9.99s removed from my credit card -- a whole different story. I was told in writing in emails that all three $9.99s would be credited back. Checked my credit card statement after a few days and only saw two of the $9.99s credited back. Politely requested that the third $9.99 be credited back (as promised), am pretty much getting "nope" and sorry you're returning the device as it "works as designed and expected". Really? Well -- if you want to spend basically $220 per year (device cost and service fee) for a device that is only designed and expected to work about half the time, then go for it. Also, they have lost a potential good customer for life because of the promise to credit $9.99 and then failing to do so and then arguing with me about it. Good customer service initially turned very poor -- over $9.99. What does that tell you about the company???