ComplaintsforSpotOn Fence

• Initial Complaint

  02/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  This spoton collar has a constant issue with technical support for 18 months now. It seems they are selling a dog collar prototype to the public for $1500.00 that they can't keep working properly. I have returned it for an update and now it is worse than before. Tech support just keeps coming up with excuses when I need control of my pet and this high dollar collar still doesn't work after 18 months. They blame the problem on cell towers changing and the app stops working. That shouldn't be their headache passed on to the frustration of the customer.

  Business response

  03/03/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/02/03) */ Thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond to this customer. We have reviewed our customer service records and respond with the following information. This customer first made his purchase of the SpotOn Fence on April 4th 2021, and received his system on April 15th, 2021. There have been several contacts between this customer and the SpotOn Support Team through 2021 and into 2022. This customer was first upset in July 2021 when he was outside the return period for his system and discovered that the optional tracking features relied on technology due to be phased out by the FCC (2G/3G systems). While use of those functions requires a subscription, the full system itself works independently using GPS technology, only the tracking features would be disabled. This customer opted to cancel his monthly subscription for those support features on July 29th, 2021. In November 2021, this customer contacted Customer Support again, indicating he was having trouble with his dog, ****, escaping the virtual fence he had set up. Based on this information, we asked this customer to send us his collar for our technical team to inspect for any damage or issues related to the collar's functionality. Once it arrived, it underwent a rigorous 12-point inspection for any defects or faults, and passed ***** test. Because everything was functioning properly with the collar, it was sent back to the customer on November 29th, 2021. Afterwards, this customer indicated his dog was still not responding to the collar, indicating he would approach the warning area slowly, then bolt through the containment zone that issued the static correction. Based on this described behavior, we recommended to this customer that he revisit the training program, as it appeared his dog had learned behavior to escape the fence, as well as possibly never being fully trained to use the system. In January, 2022, this customer also indicated that when his dog escaped, he would not come back into his house because his house was close to the containment barrier he had set up, and the noise would start and prevent his dog from coming inside. After discussion, we discovered he was using the collar in Forest Mode, a highly-sensitive mode designed for dense tree cover, and we specifically advise customers to take the collar off before entering the home if in Forest Mode for this very reason. In total, prior to this BBB complaint, we have responded to 43 separate inquiries from this customer and his wife. While we acknowledge an early issue with the first collar he received, it was promptly replaced by us in good faith, and we continued to answer his questions throughout this process as best we could. Given the context of what was being communicated, we believed this customer was not using the SpotOn Fence system as intended, including skipping key training steps and mapping boundaries too close to his home, all of which is spelled out in our User Manual. Despite this, we have spent countless hours attempting to assist the customer and his dog, live the best lives they can. We believe the customer is upset because we are about to launch our second-generation SpotOn GPS Fence and is attempting to use the BBB as leverage to get a free unit, despite our offerings to all current SpotOn customers for a steeply discounted upgrade ($500 for the upgrade compared to $1495 for the base system). Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/02/08) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) My response is as follows: SpotOn is correct in the fact regarding multiple communications between us - that is because the collar has not worked correctly since we got it. The replacement collar they sent us was clearly used - it was filthy and full of scratch marks when we received it, but we would have been ok with that if it worked consistently. And yes, I was upset in July because this second collar was also not working as it should. When I contacted SpotOn, the first person I spoke to told me I could return this second collar but then later I was told I could not. So instead, I continued to try to work with the techs to get the issues resolved. First of all, I never cancelled the cell service - it's free for the first year so why would I do that? It was supposed be "cancelled" from the 1st collar that was replaced but transferred and reactivated on the 2nd collar that they sent us. The issues are that the app does not consistently work. When the dog does leave the containment area, we are not able to consistently track his location and now we are not getting notifications that he left the area. When I attempt to recreate the map, I then cannot visualize it in the app; I can't turn the existing map from black to red telling me that the containment area is activated, like I used to be able to. When I contacted the tech service, they told me to activate the map through the collar vs. the app because they had no fix for this at this time. I get messages that say his collar is switched off (when it is on) or not connected to the network, but I have the white bars which indicates that it is. We have no issues with our cellular service where we live (which they keep telling us that must be it). On more than 1 occasion, when I have contacted tech services due to a problem, I've been told they have had some errors with their server (one time it was out for a whole weekend). Also, the containment is not close to our house. We live on 2.5 acres of land; the area where the dog escapes and attempts to return is 400+ feet away from the house. We had it on forest mode because that area is dense tree covering and we thought we needed to have that setting on for the GPS to work. However as suggested, we took it off Forest mode, however the collar keeps beeping so the dog won't come home because he thinks he's going to get "zapped" again when he returns back home. The dog was trained and understands what the beeping noise means. Per SpotOn website "Rest assured that if your dog leaves the yard, SpotOn never corrects him for coming home". To be clear, I never asked for a free collar. I just want the product to work for us as well as others that have spent $1500 on a product that SpotOn is still working to correct the flaws on. Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2022/02/17) */ Thank you for the response. As a point of clarification, the customer is correct in the cancellation we mentioned was related to the collar that was replaced by us last year, and the customer has maintained a consistent cell service connection on the active system in question. That was a misunderstanding on our part when we reviewed our files, and we have spent countless hours researching the issues involved to ensure nothing else is overlooked. First, to address the issues with the fences created by the customer and the false correction signals their dog is receiving. When reviewing the fences created by the customer, two significant issues pop up, and they are both related to how the fence generates the alerts. When walking a boundary for the fence, the outermost boundary is the location where the static correction for the fence will begin. However, the noise alerts on the collar will start to trigger when the dog beings to approach within 15 feet of that boundary line, creating a narrower fence than the boundary walked by the customer. This causes two issues with the map the customer currently has activated on their property: 1) Along the eastern boundary line, the fence follows a treeline that is within 10 feet of the main house on the lot. Because of standard GPS drift, we typically advise all fences to have boundaries at least 30 feet from any main home, as we know those alert triggers could drift into the radius where the dog is trying to return home, but otherwise is alerted and trained to avoid it. Moving this eastern boundary further away from the main home will help with their dog experiencing corrections when near and around the main house. 2) Towards the northern portion of the fence is a narrowed patch that flares out on both sides. This appears to be the area the customer speaks of where his dog is experiencing correction when attempting to come back into the area after escaping. What appears to be happening is that, because this narrow area is only 25 feet wide, the dog is experiencing correction from the far side of the fence, as he is approaching the border from the other side at that narrow point. Again, we advise that no point on the fenced-in area is narrower than 80 ft across due to the correction boundaries and GPS drift. We recommend either widening this narrow area or creating the boundary so that the area around the customer's dock is cut off. We have also reviewed the collar's connection and communication history with the cell towers in the area, as well as the messages being sent to the app from the phone. While we know that the 3G towers used for the fence will eventually be phased out, they all appear to be functioning well for your area, and we see only intermittent communication loss between the collar and your local cell towers. We do not believe there is an issue with the cell communication for your collar. That being said, the app does appear to be having some difficulties communicating with the collar. While we can't see where the data packets are being lost, it looks like the collar is sending the fence information to the phone, but the phone is not receiving them. Because of this technical issue and your prior history of issues we've attempted to solve, we would like to offer you the opportunity to upgrade to our second-generation SpotOn GPS Fence at no cost to you. If you accept, your name will be added to our distribution list and you will receive tracking information once the new system has been shipped in 8-10 weeks. Please note, however, that while the new system should correct the issues associated with the errors in communication between the phone app and the collar, the issues originating from the fence itself will not be fixed by the new system. We have outlined our proposed method of correcting your fence based on our review of your property, the current fence that is activated on your collar, and the guidelines written on fence creation. These corrections can be used for the current collar, as well, as the correction for the collar is functioning as intended independent from the app functionality. Consumer Response /* (2000, 11, 2022/02/23) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

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