Copied and pasted from Facebook.
Kirk LeDoux
March 5 at 1:27 PM ·
SPOT LLC #spotsaveslives did NOT save my life. It in fact it failed me at the most critical moment. U.S. Navy did however come to the rescue. Here’s a little update to the story that KIRO 7 News ran on my Mt Baker rescue. I had just suffered a horrendous compound fracture of the lower leg way out in the Mt Baker Wilderness. In a location and terrain that necessitated a quick rescue to save my leg and my life. I hit the SOS button on my SPOT. To my horror the button did nothing after repeated attempts. Then even crazier my friends #spotgen3 wouldn’t activate the SOS either. Both units were blinking green, were blinking all the correct lights in the start up self test. I have been running SPOT devices in my #airplane and all my #backcountry, #floatplane, and #snowmobile adventures for at least a decade. I have persuaded many friends to buy the device over the years. This however was the first time I needed it. Part of me is glad it happened. Because during all those preflight and pre-ride discussion where I’ve looked people straight in the eye and said this is your best way to rescue. I’m out of the hospital and well enough now to call SPOT and get their take on it. Tech support had me go through various tests. Then had me test the “help/sos” functions. NOPE. Still doesn’t work. Nothing lights up. Just the blinking green light at the power icon. So they have me try the “ok” button. Yep. Still works normally. Now here’s my biggest concern. How many units are like mine and my friend’s @krispelan ? How many still work in track and ok lulling you into a false sense that the unit will work when you need the SOS or HELP function? Scary to say the least. So if you have one of these devices I suggest you call SPOT LLC and have them test your unit. I requested a credit towards #spotx in lieu of a new #spotgen3 replacement they offered because I don’t trust the hardware. He told me to sell it on ebay*
*. Ok right... I’ve given you my trust and money all these years and I finally need your services. The least you could do is upgrade credit me to a two way comm unit so that I know it’s working. At least I’m told my GEOS rescue insurance should still apply. What would you do?
#KIRO7Seattle story
https://www.kiro7.com/…/nas-whidbey-helicopter-cr…/923142305
Update: Thank you so much for sharing this story. I hope it saves someone’s life. I just received a call from a high manager at SPOT after this went viral. Sad that it took that for someone in the company to think this was serious. We’ll see what they do to make it right and assure us that their products are reliable. I’ll keep you posted
Update #2: SPOT management just called me again(the morning after this went viral) They are very apologetic and sound very sincere in there concern about what happened to us. I think it’s sincere but also a bit of damage control. They tell me that this is a “one off” that this unit worked(or rather didn’t work) in the manor described. They are taking both of our Gen3 SPOT devices to see what happened. In addition they are sending me the new SPOTX that offers texting so that I can verify that it’s indeed working. In addition they are giving me a free one year extension on my plan. They say it’s the least they can do. So for now I will accept the SPOTX and subscription and try it out for the next 17 months. I will however be supplementing it with another device and an Eprib. So long story short I think I got a bad manager the first time I called. He didn’t seem to care about the gravity of the situation. Didn’t even ask for the defective unit to test it. And of course even worse telling me to sell replacement SPOT product on Ebay to buy another SPOT product. He really acted like a blocking agent rather than a problem solver. However now the upper management is trying to make it right and show us how serious they consider these devices to be to us. They tell me they are going to use this as a training tool for their employees. I’m still apprehensive to trusting a gen3 after what happened. If you have one in my opinion I’d get it checked even if it’s still working in the “OK” function it may not be working in the SOS function as mine did. I thought it only fair that SPOT had a voice in this too that’s why I’m giving these updates. They tell me they have over 6000 rescues. My goal is to inform others because of the life saving nature of the device.
Kirk LeDoux
March 5 at 1:27 PM ·
SPOT LLC #spotsaveslives did NOT save my life. It in fact it failed me at the most critical moment. U.S. Navy did however come to the rescue. Here’s a little update to the story that KIRO 7 News ran on my Mt Baker rescue. I had just suffered a horrendous compound fracture of the lower leg way out in the Mt Baker Wilderness. In a location and terrain that necessitated a quick rescue to save my leg and my life. I hit the SOS button on my SPOT. To my horror the button did nothing after repeated attempts. Then even crazier my friends #spotgen3 wouldn’t activate the SOS either. Both units were blinking green, were blinking all the correct lights in the start up self test. I have been running SPOT devices in my #airplane and all my #backcountry, #floatplane, and #snowmobile adventures for at least a decade. I have persuaded many friends to buy the device over the years. This however was the first time I needed it. Part of me is glad it happened. Because during all those preflight and pre-ride discussion where I’ve looked people straight in the eye and said this is your best way to rescue. I’m out of the hospital and well enough now to call SPOT and get their take on it. Tech support had me go through various tests. Then had me test the “help/sos” functions. NOPE. Still doesn’t work. Nothing lights up. Just the blinking green light at the power icon. So they have me try the “ok” button. Yep. Still works normally. Now here’s my biggest concern. How many units are like mine and my friend’s @krispelan ? How many still work in track and ok lulling you into a false sense that the unit will work when you need the SOS or HELP function? Scary to say the least. So if you have one of these devices I suggest you call SPOT LLC and have them test your unit. I requested a credit towards #spotx in lieu of a new #spotgen3 replacement they offered because I don’t trust the hardware. He told me to sell it on ebay*
*. Ok right... I’ve given you my trust and money all these years and I finally need your services. The least you could do is upgrade credit me to a two way comm unit so that I know it’s working. At least I’m told my GEOS rescue insurance should still apply. What would you do?#KIRO7Seattle story
https://www.kiro7.com/…/nas-whidbey-helicopter-cr…/923142305
Update: Thank you so much for sharing this story. I hope it saves someone’s life. I just received a call from a high manager at SPOT after this went viral. Sad that it took that for someone in the company to think this was serious. We’ll see what they do to make it right and assure us that their products are reliable. I’ll keep you posted
Update #2: SPOT management just called me again(the morning after this went viral) They are very apologetic and sound very sincere in there concern about what happened to us. I think it’s sincere but also a bit of damage control. They tell me that this is a “one off” that this unit worked(or rather didn’t work) in the manor described. They are taking both of our Gen3 SPOT devices to see what happened. In addition they are sending me the new SPOTX that offers texting so that I can verify that it’s indeed working. In addition they are giving me a free one year extension on my plan. They say it’s the least they can do. So for now I will accept the SPOTX and subscription and try it out for the next 17 months. I will however be supplementing it with another device and an Eprib. So long story short I think I got a bad manager the first time I called. He didn’t seem to care about the gravity of the situation. Didn’t even ask for the defective unit to test it. And of course even worse telling me to sell replacement SPOT product on Ebay to buy another SPOT product. He really acted like a blocking agent rather than a problem solver. However now the upper management is trying to make it right and show us how serious they consider these devices to be to us. They tell me they are going to use this as a training tool for their employees. I’m still apprehensive to trusting a gen3 after what happened. If you have one in my opinion I’d get it checked even if it’s still working in the “OK” function it may not be working in the SOS function as mine did. I thought it only fair that SPOT had a voice in this too that’s why I’m giving these updates. They tell me they have over 6000 rescues. My goal is to inform others because of the life saving nature of the device.
