Last Wednesday we went to the caravan which was in storage and while there accidentally triggered the alarm and it took at least a minute before we were able to switch it off
We expected a call from Phantom, but it did not come although the caravan is in an excellent reception area.
As I had other things on my mind I forgot about it until Saturday when it dawned on me that Phantom had not contacted me about the alarm being triggered.
I then wrote an email to Phantom querying it and within less than 30 minutes I had a call from Phantom telling me that the alarm had been triggered. I queried when it had happened and the lady admitted that it had happened on the Wednesday. She could not tell me what had gone wrong and suggested I contact the HQ on Monday when they opened.
Less than half an hour after her call, I got someone from Phantom HQ who basically was very upset about my email querying why we had contacted them when the alarm had triggered and had no response?
All sorts of excuses were made by this person. They asked why I had not contacted them when I realised that there had been no contact from them. I reminded him of my email and also the fact that if it had been triggered by someone else,we would not have known about it and the caravan could have been stripped or stolen in the meantime.
I was then assurred that he would send me a text to set up a pin number in case of accidental triggering and also a text with a link to a website where I could monitor the position of the caravan. Needless to say none of these materialised.
At the moment we are not very happy with Phantom and we even had issues renewing with them as they could not be bothered to set up the DD until after the due date!
At least they answered your emails. I always have this problem as our van is stored in an area where there is very poor reception. Having emailed them to complain about this, I never get a reply. Having said that, the control centre always alert me when the unit does make contact, even if it's weeks later.
Problem here is that this sort of service is only as good as those who operate it at the 'sharp end' 24/7. A scernario of poorly paid/motivated staff employed in insufficient numbers would render such a service not fit for purpose.
Personally, we have never had a problem with Phantom, always phone and text within 3-4 minutes, even at 3am
------------- XVI yes?
As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.
Quote: Originally posted by JTQU on 06/11/2013
The OP's experience is very different to ours with Phantom over the years. We are now into our sixth year so I hope things are not slipping.
Are you confident that were stored the mobile signal used by their carrier is as good as you believe?
Dead flat in Malvern and the signal is all the bars even inside the caravan.
Shortly after we purchased our Burstner Argos motor home I decided that having paid a considerable amount it would be advisable to protect it in all possible ways and should we be unfortunate to have it stolen I decided to have a tracker fitted.
Having had my PHANTOM TRACKER fitted I decided to pay for the five year monitoring. As I suspect like many others I have accidentally activated the unit and initially I would receive a phone call informing of such from PHANTOM.
However during latter accidental activations the calls stopped and we would only receive a text message!! At no stage during the five year period have we been asked for the agreed code word to confirm that it was us PHANTOM were actually contacting.
During the last twelve months of our contract I again accidentally activated the tracker on a couple of occasions but received NO RESPONSE whatsoever. I just assumed I was mistaken and perhaps I hadn't activated it after all.
This year (2015) not wanting to go to the expense of having a new tracker fitted by a different company I renewed with Phantom for a further twelve months.
Shortly after renewal I received a text from Phantom to say that they had completed a 'silent' check on my unit and that it was not responding. I contacted their office and asked what to do & I was informed to reset the unit. I asked where it was located & was informed they would speak to the engineer and get back to me.
After a week of no contact I again phoned them when they informed me where to follow find the unit and that if I reset it they would get back in touch to let me know if it was responding. Another week passed but again no contact.
I again phoned the Phantom office and was told to return the unit for examination, this I duly did.
After THREE WEEKS having heard nothing I again phoned Phantom who informed me that they had been too busy to examine my unit but an engineer would look at it that afternoon (coincidence or what!!). I asked how long it would take and was informed "only about half an hour" and they would phone me back that day.
After 5/6 days I received an email stating the unit had been examined and was beyond economical repair. Now I am no expert, in fact totally the opposite but I would have thought that the unit is basically operating on similar way to a mobile phone but with much less man handling and use and very little to go wrong.
My view of Phantom's customer service is as low as it can be and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.
Having read similar posts on various sites it would appear that I am not the only one to experience this very poor customer service with others going even further and suggesting PHANTOM do not pay their service provider so no signal is sent out from some units!! I cannot and do not support these suggestions but I do know I will not be using Phantom in the future.
A tracker is only of benefit to the insurance co. If motorhome or caravan is stolen then one is unlikely to want it back after thieves have been at at it. If caravan is stolen in the middle of the night & police informed immediately there is no guarantee they will have manpower available for hot pursuit. So unless tracker is required by insurer then not really worth the expense.
Billy, I quite agree. When I contacted my insurance company they informed me as my motor home was now valued at under 50k it was not now a requirement to have a tracker fitted.
This thread reminds me of a letter to the Daily Mail about 10 years ago concerning a man who rang the local Police to say that looking out of his landing window he saw that someone had broken into his shed and was stealing tools.
The Police call taker advised him that no-one was available to attend his location to investigate the call.
The chap rang the Police back 5 minutes later and told the call taker 'You don't need to attend as I've shot the intruder'
A couple of minutes later numerous Police cars pulled up sirens and blue lights on outside his house and a Police sergeant knocked on his front door saying, 'I thought you said you'd shot him' to which he replied 'I thought you said you had no-one available!!'
As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.
Police have to prioritise & the theft of a £50k motorhome or £20k caravan takes no more priority than the the theft of a £100 bike, its all just theft which is prioritised behind crimes against the person.
The fact that the Police prioritise the theft of a motorhome before anything else is neither here nor there. If they are given information that a stolen vehicle is being tracked they will respond. A tracker increases the chances of it being recovered and in our particular case items of sentimental value such as photographs of our granddaughter who died in February aged 2 from meningitis.
I do not want this to turn into a discussion about the pros and cons of the response of the police.
I am purely highlighting the extremely poor service provided by Phantom Trackers for the information of other members.
Quote: Originally posted by Alan + Sally on 01/10/2015
My view of Phantom's customer service is as low as it can be and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.
Having read similar posts on various sites it would appear that I am not the only one to experience this very poor customer service with others going even further and suggesting PHANTOM do not pay their service provider so no signal is sent out from some units!! I cannot and do not support these suggestions but I do know I will not be using Phantom in the future.
The problem is that there is no suitable alternative as the Tracker Retrieve is as much use as a wet paper bag! With the exception of not knowing we need to contact Phantom if we leave the UK so they can switch the unit to roaming, we have had no more issues.
After picking up our 2016 Coachman Laser in July last year we activated the factory fitted Phantom tracker. Along with all the other security devices that we had we thought our caravan was as secure as it possibly could be. WRONG. We received several text messages and a phone call from Phantom at 01.15 telling us that the power was low. As this had happened before and all that was required was the battery charging I decided to do this after work as I work on the site where the caravan was stored and I finish work at 12.00. However I was informed by a workmate at 09.00 that someone had cut through the security fence and some caravans were believed to have gone.On checking I found that ours had gone. I reported it stolen straight away and contacted Phantom who told me that the caravan was moving at 2mph at 02.57 along a B road. At no time did they inform us that the caravan was moving. If they had we could have called the police and the security guards on site and we would still have a caravan. When I questioned Phantom as to why they had not informed us that the caravan was moving they said they would look into it and get back to us. We rang every day for 5 days and each time was told someone would ring back later that day. When they were finally ready to talk to us they couldn't give us a satisfactory answer. Apparently it was all down to satellite drifting. They needed signals from 4 different satellites but had only had a signal from 1.Try telling that to our insurance company. I would advise anyone that has a Phantom tracker to go and check the caravan if they get a power alert as this could mean that someone is trying to disconnect the tracker Don't wait for Phantom to tell you that the caravan is moving because you will be waiting a long time and your caravan will be long gone.We are now in the process of getting another new caravan but will not be using a Phantom tracker. Instead we are looking into others tracking systems that have been recommended to us. Please don't let this happen to you . Happy caravaning.
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Topic: Phantom tracker issue!
