acr SARLink&153; View PLB-350C (2885) (38138)

I want to amend my review. First, I want to upgrade my poor review to a good one. Although it took some doing, after we got their attention they bent over backwards to deal with the problem and fix it. My husband has a new PLB and we both feel more comfortable. With regard to the ability of this unit to save lives, although we have not had to use it in an emergency situation, we both agree the technology and methodology are right to do so and we believe this is the right choice when you don't want to compromise. As far as the new 406Link.com portion of the system goes, it is now working on our unit and will be tested further when my husband travels next to a remote location. Although customer and tech support was unable to narrow down the problem with the first PLB, we now suspect that the problem was user error and not an error with the unit itself.The reason for the 4 star rating instead of a 5 goes back to the original lack of adequate customer and tech support. I suspect it will be better in the future. We all have learned something from this experience.-------------------------------------I bought this for my husband at Christmas. He is a photographer and is often in remote locations alone. I wanted the security that he would have Search and Rescue if needed. I also wanted him to be able to communicate to me his location when he had no other means.ACR advertises an optional service (406Link.com) that said it WOULD and COULD send his location to family and friends. For this subscription service to function, all he had to do was extend the antenna, orient in the right direction and do a Self GPS Test. By registering the names, emails and phone numbers of contacts, these contacts were supposed to receive an email and/or test with the GPS coordinates of his location. Unfortunately all of his contacts do not receive emails. When first contacted about this we were accused of have our email set up incorrectly or that the message was in the spam folder. After more testing, checking spam folders and entering their email address in our contact list they finally discovered that some of their messages were being blocked by email providers. This still has not been fixed.We then, in the interem they said they were working in the blocking issue, we created new email addresses with different providers and tested again. This time no one received a message. We reported this and found out that the GPS Test had failed even though all indications on the unit flashed singling that the test was successful. We contacted ACR again and were asked if we had deployed the antenna - YES, was the signal obstructed (under a tree, etc.). - NO. "Well, sometimes communications to the satellite is corrupted" was the response.We tried to explain that it was important, possibly even life saving, that the system work or minimally notify my husband (the user) that it hadn't worked so another GPS location notification could be sent. "The system Locator Beacon still works... the messaging and GPS position notification is an optional service" was their final response.So, we bought a PLB with a PAID messaging and GPS location service that hasn't worked yet, but we are told to trust that the system will work in an emergency. We are offered no compensation for the service that doesn't work nor are we offered to have our system checked out or replaced.After my husband talked with ACR tech support the last time and saw that he wasn't getting the matter resolved he asked to be transferred to Customer Service. The technician refused to transfer him. My husband then called Customer Service directly but only got voice mail. He summarized the issue and asked for a callback. He has yet to receive back from ACR's Customer Support or anyone from the company.Pay your money and take your chances doesn't seem like a good policy for a company dealing in The Search and Rescue business.

This seems like a solid device and it is very easy to use. I really hope that I never have to use it and try it out, but I feel more comfortable having it. And so does the wife when I head up alone into the mountains.