GPS Watches Still an Utter FAILURE!

By, Steven Lugo   www.Childtrack247.com

While in theory, a GPS watch should be a great solution, a way to house the GPS tracking device and have your child wear it.

One of many problems is size.  Technology still isn't to the point where one can fit a GPS Chip, a Bluetooth component, and a battery inside something as small as even a normal looking watch face.   The GPS chip is actually pretty small, and the bluetooth component (which is needed because the GPS chip lets the device know where its at, but how does the device tell YOU where its at?  it does this via bluetooth, which transmits the devices location (determined by the GPS chip) to your smartphone or Computer) is pretty small as well.   Battery sizes are still bulky.

This is why every GPS watch out there looks like a monstrosity, being overly large and bulging.  The FBI has stated that these these overly large devices, that draw the eye to them first, (alerting potential predators to the device - making them easily removed) give a SERIOUSLY FALSE SENSE OF PROTECTION.  People are lulled into believing that their child is more safe with a GPS watch, when in fact they are no safer at all.  Their sheer size and placement nullify ALL benefit.  The FBI highly recommends a GPS tracker for kids that is concealed in a pocket, backpack, coat lining etc, and is not readily visible for removal by a bad guy.

The other failure of current GPS watches is that they are forced to use a smaller battery in order to make it fit into the already "larger than they'd like" watch.  This means that the watch's battery life only lasts about 8 hrs or so, although they claim it lasts several days.  This threatens your kids safety in more ways than one because constantly operating at a reduced battery life causes the other components not to function properly.  The GPS chip's signal to the satellites is weaker, and the bluetooth signal to your smartphone or computer is weaker, causing SERIOUS tracking issues.  Geo fencing doesnt work properly, so your not alerted when they enter or exit an area, false locates tend to occur, unreliable locations are given, apart from the obvious "A low battery means I have less time to track my child should something occur, before the battery dies".

The newest attempt at a GPS watch has been a complete and utter failure of embarrassing proportions.   The FILIP Watch for kids launched to much hype and fanfare, but the devices anr VERY expensive and simply do not work.   Here are comments lifted DIRECTLY from their facebook page:

Ginger Hites

Today was the very first day our girl wore hers on her "normal" routine. And our Filip went haywire. It went into panic mode everytime she touched the buttons, sending myself and then later my mother in law into a panic. We've called CS, but all they can tell us is to keep it shut off as Panic mode will not turn off. She (and we) are very disappointed so far.
Also, she has some suggestions. 1. a backlight. She can't see the screen when it's dark. And 2. Headphone jack so that everyone around her can't hear her whole conversation. (And it's VERY hard to hear her on my end) we know this is your first go at this but hope as things progress you can improve your product as you go.

Like ·  · 9 hours ago near Crafton, PA

Kimberly Preston

Yea I bet these work great until someone snatches them off your kids arm and still does what they want

Like ·  · 16 hours ago

Madeline Weightman Letchford

The iPhone app does not receive notifications when the phone leaves or enters Safe Zones as promised it would. I have to keep my face buried in the app to check the status. However, it appears to work fine on an Android based phone, with unprompted, regular updates. Will this be fixed ASAP in an app update? That, is after all, the whole point of setting Safe Zones. I called CS, but was told to just manually refresh. Why is this working for the Android platform and not the iPhone platform? Clearly it's an option if it's doable on Android.

Like ·  · 21 hours ago

Robbin Koenig

Has anyone else had issues with the watch charging? We cannot get our son's watch to charge reliably. He's only been able to use it once as a result.

Like ·  · January 1 at 3:01pm via mobile

Lisa Romagnuolo Geller

My experience with Filip was no so great. I bought 2 watches for my 7 and 6 year old. I also bought a blue wristband since I knew my daughter wouldn't be happy with green.

My issues:
A huge problem was that both watches would randomly update their location to a spot about 5 miles from my house - when the watches never moved from the house. Then they would move back into the house. This would happen multiple times during the day with both watches.

My blue wristband never showed up despite multiple calls from Filip customer service that it was on its way and had been shipped overnight (no one was ever able to give me a tracking number so I don't think it was ever shipped). My daughter wouldn't even wear the green one - guess green isn't her color.

I returned both watches and was charged a 35 dollar restocking fee for each watch. I also paid a 36 dollar activation fee for each watch. AT&T would not refund either despite my best attempts. Filip also would not do anything about refunding this money.

In the end - I am out about $150 for the privilege of buying and returning 2 watches that did not work properly. Everyone should be aware of these costs it the watch doesn't work out for you.

Like ·  · January 1 at 2:01pm near Armonk, NY

Lisa Romagnuolo Geller I spent over an hour on the phone with them arguing and they refused to budge. It was so aggravating that I don't feel like I can call them again. I wasted hours trying to get this watch to work unsuccessfully, took over an hour at an AT&T store to return it, then spent an hour on the phone with AT&T arguing about the fees. Time to move on… Lesson learned: not a great idea to buy a product that was just released. Happy you got your money back though.

Like · Reply · 1 · 23 hours ago

Andrew Lin If this is the case, then Safezone is totally useless. If a child left a zone right after the refresh interval, then parents won't know it until 30 minutes later. Safezone should be notifying parents as soon as a child is out of the zone, this is how all other tracking devices were function. Even your own website blog stated this is how it should work, but not in reality. This seems to be a broken function, please fix it rather than a non-sense explanation. Setting it to Turbo Mode is not a solution as it cuts the battery life in half. Plus you'll have to predict when an insistence is going to happen to enable Turbo Mode before hand.

Like · 3 · December 27, 2013 at 7:16pm

Gretchen Thibault I just returned mine to ATT. The location service is lousy. It shows my child being 2 miles from home! I think you missed the boat on your R&D. Why is my iPhone able to show its location within 10 feet every time while this device takes minutes to calibrate the location and is off by miles???? This is no better than the other devices on the market, which also are not very good.

Like · December 27, 2013 at 6:33pm

Micohn Tan Uytingco Hi. So excited to get not 1 but 3 filips phone for my son and two nephews. I had activated all 3 Dec. 26 before my son goes to his other dad for a week.
From the start, we noticed problems right away. It doesn't start up right away and when you push it more than 3 seconds, then it goes to an emergency mode.
He got a text while on day 2 and that was it. His Filip is frozen on Hi.
I finally got the chance to talk to a representative today (Jan. 2) She noted on her email that my son's phone doesn't even start up right away and turning it off is quiet IMPOSSIBLE! Very disappointed with this. I thought getting an expensive watch wouldn't get me a defective one from the get go. Can someone please contact me about this. Message me on my inbox so I can give my cell number.I don't want to return my purchases all together but I also don't want a diffractive watch either.

Stacy Boesen Purcell We bought this for our daughter and after 2 trips to AT&T stores and 2 calls to the Filip support center, we still cannot download the Filip Technologies app to get this thing registered and up and running. It's extremely frustrating...not sure it's worth the price tag.

Like · Reply · January 1 at 11:52am

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