This device seems to work fine when using Zoombak's web site to do a location search. The device can not be placed somewhere that heavily shields it from the outside, or it will not get a good cellular and/or GPS signal.
br /
br /The zone feature is the area where it's just not delivering as advertised. Once you've set up a zone, it is supposed to alert you when the device enters or exits the zone. Sometimes it doesn't alert you at all. When it does alert you, the alerts are sent 15 to 20 minutes after the device has entered/exited the zone, instead of sending it within a minute or two. If you enter and exit the zone within that 15 to 20 minute window you don't get an alert at all.
br /
br /This is not how it is portrayed on their little advertisement video.
br /
br /Lastly, good luck on reaching a level 1 tech support staffer who speaks understandable English. This part is extremely frustrating. Why companies who provide tech support to English-speaking countries don't make mastery of the English language a requirement is beyond comprehension. I guess political correctness is more important than a satisfactory customer experience.

I originally purchased the Zoombak GPS Locator as a more cost effective alternative to LoJack. My car was stolen about 6 months ago and never recovered. When I purchased my new car I did some research and found the Zoombak. I liked the idea of being able to receive text alerts if my car is moved from an area vs learning hours or days later. After using the Zoombak for about 3 months now and understanding how it works, I think the service is great! I have found myself using the Zoombak for things I had never intended on using it for before purchasing. I like to take long bike rides on the weekends and I take the Zoombak with me so my wife can check on my location. I have also set up some zones so when I arrive at certain destinations, she gets a text message letting her know I arrived safely and where I am located. I read some other comments about the battery life. Overall my experience with the battery life has been good. I find I get about 3-5 days before I need to recharge it depending on how often I use the service, which is a lot better then my cell phone. When I leave the Zoombak in my car, I have it plugged into a 12V charger, so I don't have to worry about recharging frequently. When I first purchased the Zoombak I was disappointed the text message locate feature was not available, so in order to check on the location of my car or bike, we had to use the web site or Customer Care. The feature is now available and works great (just make sure you have a text message plan with your cell phone). I only had to contact customer care once to ask a question and I found the rep very polite and helpful. I am considering purchasing another Zoombak to keep in my wife's car. We both like the Zoombak service, its easy to use, the price is very reasonable and it provides us with a little peace of mind.

It has been a real challenge dealing with Zoombak. I was initially excited when I learned of their product. I am currently using TomTomWork for GPS tracking of our personal vehicles, which runs $500 per tracking unit, plus installation and $50.00 per month tracking fee, per unit, which adds up quickly.
br /
br /Zoombak's "claimed" capabilities along with lower month tracking fee prices ($14.99), seemed to be more cost effective then TomTomWork's program.
br /
br /I attempted to order from Zoombak directly via their website ( $249 per unit). Their web site declined two (2) different credit cards. I called Zoombak directly (Daniel), they weren't able to authorize them either. I called my credit card companies, they never received any authorization request from Zoombak, they said that there should be no problem. I called Zoombak back, Anna the first agent that I spoke to did not speak English very well. I asked to speak to her supervisor, the supervisor's English was worse than Anna's! She basically said the it was my problem not Zoombak's.
br /
br /So being discouraged but still wanting the device as any "early adapter" would, I searched the internet and found it on Amazon for $60.00 cheaper, I bought it, there was no problem with my credit card! It was delivered yesterday.
br /
br /I went to Zoombak's website, created my account, paid the activation fee.
br /
br /I charged up the device for 6 hours and turned it on. Zoombak's system was not able to connect to the device, after about 10 attempts of trying to connect to the device (the unit was placed out in the yard of my metropolitan city). I called Zoombak's tech support, Felipe (limited English) told me that new units are sometimes difficult the 1st time connecting. He suggested that I turn it off and back on and wait 30 minutes for the "Que" to clear out and try it again. If that doesn't work to call back. Well, it didn't work!
br /
br /I called Tech support again, I didn't get the girls name (limited English also). She told me that her supervisor would contact me within 24-48 hours! I tried to ask her some direct questions, she didn't understand me, she was defiantly reading from a script.
br /
br /Pros - nice looking unit, not sure if it works or not.
br /
br /Cons - their customer service leaves a lot to be desired, 5 phone calls, 1 person spoke English. 24 hours later and numerous attempts to connect and the unit still will not connect to their system.
br /
br /Hopefully Zoombak will get their bugs worked out and consider hiring a better talent pool of customer service agents that speak English.

br /I bought the Pet version of the Zoombak about a month ago and I'm sorry to say after a week of testing and multiple consultations with the Zoombak Technical Staff I did not have enough confidence in it to place it on my dog. I returned the unit to Amazon and received prompt credit.I also received an immediate credit from Zoombak for the year service that I had signed up for upon registering my unit because it was within their 30 day risk free period. The Zoombak staff was very courteous, and I'm sure they would be of assistance in locating your dog if you requested, however it wasn't until I asked to speak to a Technical Supervisors did I feel comfortable that someone understood the difficulties I was experiencing with the unit. As most of you probably know the Zoombak uses a combination of a Cellular Phone and GPS service to provide you informationn on your pet. The cellular portion of the system worked fine. I received immediate notifications when I turned the unit off or when the battery was low. Both of these options, which you can select upon setup, use the cellular portion of the unit. Another function that uses the cellular portion in combination with the GPS is the mobile locate function capability. It worked fairly well.
br /
br /Now for the problems I experienced. After repeatedly setting up Safety Zones per the instructions that came with the unit, per the information I found on the Zoombak Website and finally the instructions I received from the Zoombak Technical staff I could not get the GPS side of the unit to recognize that the unit had left the Safety Zones I had established. I tested the unit by placing it on the windshied of my car where I normally place my other GPS units and leaving the established Safety Zone for a minimum of 15 minutes. Most time I stayed out of the Zone for 30 minutes or longer. On 3 occassions I called the Zoombak Technical Support Staff to verify that the unit was operating properly. They assured me that it was. On one occassion they had to re-sync the unit. At their instructions I increased the radius of my safety Zone. The minimum Safety Zone is 110 yds. I increased it 4 times out to a radius of 700 yds. the maximum I would would accept. On all 4 tests at these distances I received no mobile of E-mail alerts that the unit had left the zone.
br /
br /I own 2 Garmin GPS units and both of them work perfectly up to 10 ft of my home so I see no reason why the GPS unit packaged in the Zoombak couldn't lock onto the require 3 GPS satellites and recognize that it had left or re-entered the safety zone. On one occassion I had the unit in an open area 20 miles from my home and received no alerts.
br /
br /Given that Zoombak assured me that my unit was working perfectly I can only assume that they are either using an unreliable GPS Receiver in the unit or that the software program they are using to provide the alerts is not perfected.
br /
br /A couple of other observations. If you watch the Zoombak video or the Martha Stewart Show video clip you might get the impression, as I did, that once your dog leaves your yard or premises you'll get an immediate notification that it has left. This is not the case. Your dog must physically leave your established Safety Zone and stay out of that zone for 15 minutes. If it wanders back in and out of the Safety Zone within the 15 minutes you get no alerts. I was concerned that my dog would be long gone before I knew about it. My other concern was that if someone took my dog and placed it in a car I would not be able to track it.The GPS instruction that accompany the unit clearly state that the Zoombak unit must have a clear line of sight to the GPS satellites in order to track it. This is the case with most GPS units. Unless you can train your dog to sit in the front seat you might have problems.
br /
br /The bottom line folks is that if you love and care as much as we do about our dogs you should be wary of this product at this time. It's a great idea but not one that I want to be a Beta tester for especially with the cost of the unit, monthly service charges and concerns for my dogs. If you purchase it I stongly suggest that you test it extensively within the 30 day risk free period and by all means before you place it on your dog. Good Luck.

I bought the Zoombak Car Family locator to keep track of our car when my 17-year old niece comes with my wife and I to our summer home. My sister (the niece's mom) and I both can access the car's whereabouts on an online map whenever we'd like, and we both get text messages on our cell phones when my niece leaves and arrives back at our beach house in the car.
br /
br /It's great, because my sister is no longer reluctant to let my niece come visit without her, and my niece loves this independence, especially in the summer. My sister feels a lot better knowing where her daughter is driving and when she is returning home. One thing: I wish we could see the car's location on a map on my cell phone in addition to the computer - that is the only reason why I am giving Zoombak 4 stars vs. 5 - but I think that might be a limitation of my phone, not the Zoombak. Overall - very cool product.

We purchased our zoombak locator shortly after they became available in the US and were not available for purchase anywhere but through the company directly. We have a rescued puppy mill dog who got spooked one night and ran off in the snow and ice. We had only had him for 2 months and at that point would not approach people, even us. He returned on his own after 2 days, but we did not sleep looking for him. It happened again a week later. Having the zoombak allows us to relax and know that we will be able to find him if it happens again, which we have decided is unlikely as he has bonded with us much more. We purchased the zoombak for the peace of mind we would have instead of worrying whether or not he would run away again, even if we never had to use it. Initially, we had some issues such as receiving text messages for the wrong dog (1x) and messages that he had left the zone when he was in the house (2x). Zoombak made several software updates and has since solved all of these problems. We eventually turned off the text messaging services to conserve battery life and have gone from 2 days per charge to 5 days per charge. We still receive low battery messages and power off messages. We are on a routine where we plug it in at night when we go to bed and put it back on when we get up in the morning. This has made the process much less of a hassle as when we first purchased it. We tested it while walking the neighborhood and it updates his location every 5 minutes, which is not ideal, but certainly meets our needs. The dog initially scratched at the backpack, but after 2-3 days became accustomed to it and it no longer bothers him. It survived a swimming trip in the lake after fireworks caused him to jump in, so the durability seems to be pretty good. It was and I think still is the least expensive option for this purpose and we are very happy with the product.

Installed this product in trunk of car. Installation was painless and only difficulty was finding an "always on" electrical line. Product came with sufficient material and wire length for installation into most locations. Product seemed real inconsistent first 24 hours it was turned on, I was almost to the point of considering returning it when it suddenly seemed to "sync up" and has been rock steady since. Not sure why this is but power cycling it a couple times may have done the trick. Otherwise works exactly as advertised but purchasers should be aware:
br /
br /Notification of entry or exit from a custom zone may be up to 15 minutes delayed, since product only polls location every 15 minutes. When you do get notification it does report location of unit as of that moment.
br /
br /Due to this delay its possible for vehicle to leave and return from a zone in the 15 minute window and not get notified, but the timing would have to be exact for that to happen.
br /
br /Web site is aggravatingly slow (capacity issues?). Much easier/faster and more convenient to do text message request of location.
br /
br /Text message response of location is nearest set of cross streets.
br /
br /Auto battery drain notification is nice, it warned me on one occasion I had not fully plugged in power cord.
br /
br /Continous tracking works nicely but it only updates location every 5 min for up to an hour, you then have to re-request (but apparently you can do this over and over as needed)
br /
br /For "where is the car at this exact moment" requests and slightly delayed notification of zone transitions, works perfectly.
br /
br /

I have been testing the Zoombak in a car for three days and it works well within the limits of T-Mobile's coverage, which is something you have to understand. They probably should have chosen ATT as a GSM partner although T-Mobile performed pretty comparably in my test.
br /The Web site is slow and needs work. It was down at least once for some period of time (tech support reported that they had an outage). If you were in a panic to find your teen driver, I imagine this could be incredibly annoying. The Web session times out after some period of time without warning you. Once you've signed in as a user, the site should never take you back to the general commercial web site, it should just say your session has expired and please log back in. Why they need to expire the session that quickly is beyond me.
br /The most annoying choice they've made is the two step SMS process. You have to text "find" to 96225 from a registered cell phone, wait for the system to respond, and then text your pin number and device name to get a location. Why would you need to do that? Since your phone number is registered, you should just be able to text the device name from a registered phone and get back the location. Dumb.
br /Tracking is also poorly thought out. It's clearly set up just for the pet product, not cars, since it only allows you to set a border that's a half mile from a particular address. That's not useful in warning you when your driver goes more than, say, 5 miles away which is more realistic.

Cissy is our English Cocker female, 16 months old.
br /While her territorial range is only about 1/4 mile, we have been challenged with her tendency to scamper away to explore known fields and areas around our Dallas home.
br /The trouble is, when it's dark, or we don't see her leave, we have no idea which way to go to track her down.
br /The Zoombak has been successful in pinpointing and quickly finding her on several occasions while she's been "growing up."
br /I had one problem with the lithium ion batter's life. The specs said five days average. The unit I received was struggling to hold a charge for even two days. Upon notification, Zoombak promptly and cheerfully replaced my unit and even paid the return shipping. The new one now averages 4-6 days per charge.
br /Pros: competitive cost of both unit and monthly service. Design and electronics - reliable and sturdy. Combo of GPS and Cellular gives superior coverage. Strong features and accurate pinpointing of pet's location.
br /Cons: Needs to be waterproof for sporting breeds. Would buy a more compact unit if offered, since Cissy only weighs 20 lbs. Wish the tracking software and mapping worked with Blackberry, specifically Google Maps.
br /

I really like the Zoombak product. I used it during a recent trip to Gettysburg. My grandfather is 87 years old. I put a Zoombak in his camper so I would know when he left home and when he arrived at the campsite. Zoombak is great - it gives you an email alert, or, if you are away from your computer, you get a text message to your cell phone. Zoombak really gives me the extra peace of mind for my grandfather. He now puts his Zoombak in his car. When he is going out I feel safe knowing where he is and that I can find him if he needs me.

The Zoombak locator allowed me great peace of mind when I was at work. I could check on my dog, who'd recently taken to escaping from the house and yard, at any time. When he was inside, I could relax; when he wasn't, at least I knew and could call a friend to get him back. I'd recommend this product to anyone with a wandering dog. Occasionally, I'd get frustrated--sometimes the website said the locator couldn't be found, and the representatives at the 800 number were not easy to communicate with--but overall, I very much enjoyed this device.

The zone alerts just do not work at all and are difficult to setup. Zone alerts are an area that you specify and everytime the Zoombak enters or leaves the area, depending on the setup, the Zoombak device is suppose to alert you via email or a text message.
br /
br /In order to setup the zone alerts, you need an address. This may be fine for some applications, but if you are at the beach or at the park which do not have addresses, then it is very difficult to setup a zone alert. And if the location is outside a city, it is almost impossible to setup a zone alert.
br /
br /Once you setup the zone alerts, the Zoombak does not always send the alert. On the one day I tried it, it only sent 5 out 15 alerts. At a few locations, it did not even send any out.
br /
br /Zoombak has a 30 day risk free guarantee, but will only honor it if you purchase the device directly from Zoombak itself.

I deal with many GPS products daily as a part of my business. This one is POOR at best. The online map is tiny and you can't resize it so you better be familiar with the area the GPS unit is located. You can't resize the map or make it larger which doesn't make any sense.
br /
br /If you call support you will get people who understand VERY little English. They might speak a bit of it but heck I can probably sign a song in a foreign language without knowing what it means myself. Their support group can't even understand why you are calling. I honestly thought I had the wrong number the English was so poor. I am not sure it would be much worse if you dialed the wrong number as they would be just as confused only the English would be much better so at least you can communicate.
br /
br /Currently my unit which is under warranty has a loose connection in the mini USB port. I have yet to reach anyone at support that understands what I am talking about or understands English.
br /
br /Don't buy this product unless you need limited and undependable GPS tracking that's slow and full of bugs to work out. Wait for a competitor product with a company with U.S. based support
br /
br /

I purchased the Zoombak to allow people to track me when I'm out riding on my own. I found that the coverage was spotty at best. I was comparing it some software on a cheap boost mobile phone with free tracking software, and the tracking ability of the boost phone was significantly better than the more expensive Zoombak device. The techincal support department was less than knowledgeable of how the devices actually worked, so were ineffective at finding a resolution. I was told I would get a refund on the service. (I guess that I should check and make sure that happened.) I would not recommend this device.

I bought this to able to track my son, whom is a new driver. I was/am so satisfied with the product that I have told friends that whom themselves have since bought one. I would recommend a zoombak to anyone that wants to keep an eye on their new teen driver. It is awesome and reliable. Thanks to Zoombak!

Pros: Small, inexpensive compared to competition
br /Cons: Short battery life, poor software and customer service.
br /
br /"They claim 'up to 5 days battery life.' Expect 2 days at best. I have charged it through 4 cycles already. It is a pain to take it off the dog every 2 days to charge. The good news is that it will page your cell phone telling you when to do it.
br /The T-mobile network it uses does not have great coverage, but it might work where you are.
br /I have spoke to five of their CS people, and none could speak good enough English to communicate easily. My first unit was DOA and they did send another.
br /Their tracking only seems to update about every 30 minutes. It would be nice if it at least stored up samples every 5 minutes and then burst them through the network once per 30 minutes. Also they should send the speed and heading along with the location. There is a 'realtime mode' where it will update about once a minute or faster. Still, it should burst through intermediate positions, speed, and heading.
br /Their service is NOT $10 as they claim. It is only that for the first few months. Expect at least $12.50 per month for service.
br /Still, there are limited competitive options so you might want to get it. I am keeping mine."

I have been using my Zoombak for about 3 months now. At first, there were a few minor quirks with the online tracking but downtime was only for a few minutes. You can get instant online status of the auto. I especially like the feature to set up zones for tracking. When the car enters or leaves one of these zones, I get an email update. Great product. Now that the daughter is going to college, it will be a wonderful sense of security for us.

I purchased the Zoombak vehicle tracker and it does not work. When I attempted to charge the battery.... nothing. I called Zoombak customer service (very polite, but not very helpful person in India) and was promised a replacement unit.
br /
br /When the replacement unit didn't arrive, I called again and spoke to another very polite man in India. This time they actually sent a replacement unit, but it too doesn't work (the light turned on for a couple minutes while charging, then the light went off and the unit won't power on). The unit was extremely hot after about 2 minutes of charging, then 100% dead.
br /
br /1 star is too generous. This is really zero stars. It does absolute nothing.

I have had a great experience with Zoombak. I have a special needs son that has started school, and wanted a way to keep track of where he is especially since he rides the bus. His school is about 15 miles away and during that time, if for whatever reason we would need to find him I wanted to be able to track him. He is non-verbal and non-ambulatory so in his wheelchair, if there ever were an issue he would not be able to call for help or walk anywhere.
br /
br /I contacted Zoombak and exchanged emails with their director of customer service who assured me that given our circumstance they would work with us regarding their trial period and our satisfaction. So far I have been using it for over a month and I am extremely pleased. My credit card was accepted immediately online and I received my unit 2 days after purchase. When activated my unit connected immediately, and after setting up my zones and parameters, I get text messages when I am in class or working in the hospital that my son has "arrived at school" or "left home", along with the time and cross streets.
br /
br /I understand that everyone has different experiences but given this is a startup company I felt compelled to share my very positive one.
br /
br /Joe