Tracker hard selling techniques
I think I may have just been had by the people at Tracker.
I bought a new motorhome last year that included a Tracker and a year's subscription. The other day I got an email saying I could renew for 1 year for £60 or four years for £199.
When I phoned up this morning the sales lady asked if I wanted a year or 4 year subscription. When i said a year she took a sharp intake of breath and told me it'll be really expensive in the long term as next year I won't have the discounted multi-year
option and the yearly subscription will be £90 to renew so I should really buy the four year option now. She was so brazen. I took her advice but only because my insurance insists on a Tracker device and I have no guarantes of what these charlatan's will try
next!
If you have to deal with these people buyer beware.
Comments
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I would look into different insurance, they probably have a kickback from Tracker.
Never understood the tracker system. If my outfit is taken by some toe rag I dont want it back - ever. Just give me the money and I will buy another untainted one. I never have anything that I could not replace inside, so no heirlooms etc.
Just an opinion.
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I am not sure the poor lady at Tracker is to blame. Clearly there is a discount for first renewal either for a single year or multi year. Had she not mentioned the standard price and you went back next year and found a 50% increase you might not have been
pleased and she, no doubt, would have had her ear bent!!! At least she was spelling out the options, its for you to make the decision.David
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In my opinion prevention is better than cure. Trackers are a waste of time and any competent tea leaf could find and disable one in minutes. Very few police vehicles have the necessary equipment to track them, and even if they
are located, recovery will be a very low priority for the police. I agree with Fysh, find an insurance company that does not insist on one. The discount for having a tracker when we last had a cvan insured with CC was far less than the tracker premium. I,
too, wouldn't want the van back if it was stolen.A good visible deterrent such as a steering wheel lock of gear lever lock (in the case if a MH) is in my view far more effective. Alarms will normally be ignored or cursed.
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We use a steering wheel lock on our MH. It's ancient and something we bought for a car back in the dark ages. I'm honestly not sure how thief resistant it would prove to be these days but it's highly visible.
The tracker on our last cvan was easily found and disabled and likewise the retro fit one (by the previous owner) on our MH was disabled. All that faffing around with phone top ups and alerts each time the van moved - can't be doing with it.
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I think the best thing is 'visible deterrents' the clutch claw, steering wheel lock will deter, add to that an immobiliser/alarm then you'll put off most ne'er-do-wells I'd have thought. If you have a £50k+ vehicle then I reckon the pro's may be interested,
at that level they'll get it if they want it.0 -
Trackers do work and the advantage is that if they do you should get the motorhome back before the thief has done anything with it. Unless the thief knows it is there he will not be able to disable it and the evidence seems to be that most do not bother
anyway.The proof was in the theft of four caravans from Preston Caravans fitted with them. The Trackers operated and the carvans were recovered undamaged before the thieves even got them out of the city. They do not always work but in the main they do and this
is why you get an insurance discount. The insurers are not fools and do not give discounts for things that do not work and they certainly do not get a kickback from Tracker.1 -
I'm still undecided if a Tracker is good or bad, hopefully I'll never need to decide. My original post was regarding their hard sell techniques based on fear of the unknown.....the unknown being their price rises in the future!!
I feel the same about the habitation service. You buy a brand new van and then need to spend £225 plus a year having it checked out to see if it's still working and not damp. I can understand the gas & safety element of this but the damp checks should be
offered free as part of the original purchase. After all, the only reason the manufacturers want it checked annually is so that if there is damp there's a good chance they'll catch it in the early stages thus costing them less to repair. If they made a decent
product in the first place we wouldn't have to worry. I don't have an annual damp test done on my car.As camping has got more popular i think these companies are taking advantage and not using economies of scale to reduce prices.
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Would you want it back after a scumbag has defiled it?
Appreciate we are all different but if they get past my security measures then I never want to see itagain and I will buy another from the insurance .
I think you may be missing the point. The Tracker will normally get it back before as you put it some scumbag has defiled it. If you do not have the tracker the danger from your point of view will be that it is recovered later when damage has been done.
If the Tracker does not get it back within 24 hours then it has probably failed and you are unlikely to see it again.0
