Phantom tracker - personal dislike

Mike Whitfield
Mike Whitfield Forum Participant Posts: 5
edited July 2013 in Parts & Accessories #1

I have a Phantom Tracker fitted to my new Lunar Clubman. It was only when I picked up my new caravan I realised that the tracker came free with the caravan. The way in which Phantom then make their money is to encourage you to take out a full five year subscription at a rate discounted on the normal second year and subsequent years. I did this and paid £260. You only have a limited amount of time to take advantage of this offer. Not only does Phantom track the caravan but they also tell you when your caravan battery is 'powering down'. Good stuff you might think and so did I until I got a call at 1.37am on a Saturday morning to tell me that my caravan battery was 'powering down'.  This merely meant that the battery had lost some of its charge. I checked and it still could be moved on the motor mover. I subsequently asked Phantom what they expected me to do about it at 1.37am with the caravan in secure storage away from my home and they offered to remove me from this particular part of the alert process which is all well and good until I found that this would invalidate my Caravan Club Insurance as I had a discount for a tracker being fitted. Phantom would not acknowledge any problems and they are certainly within the terms of the contract that I rather stupidly entered into without reading in depth. Nevertheless they did say that they are considering only sending a text message when caravan batteries are powering down. This in my mind is some acknowledgement of the problem. How can you possible know when the tracker will detect a power down? The only solution would be change your battery daily or use a solar panel although every time you do change the battery the tracker activates and Phantom ring you to tell you of an activation. This product is not convenient for me and I have spoken to other Lunar owners who have similar thoughts. I have subsequently altered my Caravan Club Insurance to state that I do not have a tracker fitted and the cost between the payment to Phantom and the slight increase in insurance premium is marginal.