This review is a long, as it praises both Amazon and Tractive, but reading it all will help you with your Tractive as it has some inside secrets, great information and work-arounds for the Tractive tracker. I hope this review helps you in making your decision about the Tractive Tracker. I couldn’t be happier! Great product. Great web support. Great customer service.
WHY DO I NEED A TRACKER?
We have two small dogs (20 lb) who mean the world to us. After the gate to our fenced back yard was left open twice, and resulted in extended panicked searching, but fortunately a happy outcome, I vowed to never again know that terror. A tag with phone and address are simply not enough! When a dog is lost, you need to find them fast to prevent them getting hit by a car or another horrible outcome. In our case, we saw a car barely miss our lost, frantic dogs.
WHY DID I CHOOSE TRACTIVE?
I do research for a living, so I used those skills and researched and compared every tracking product in the market hoping to find a dependable and affordable solution. After reading EVERY review I could find, as well as how each worked, I decided on the TRACTIVE GPS Tracker 2.0 that was available here at Amazon. Since I was taking one of our dogs to a competition within a week, I wanted to have the assurance and peace of mind of having a way to track her if she got out and lost in a strange place. I ordered it with quick delivery.
AMAZON HAS MY HEART!
As usual, my beloved Amazon was PERFECT! The trackers (2) came through quickly, and Amazon notified me of the package’s progress along the way. I’ve been a Prime member since the first Kindle was introduced, and I love Amazon! I depend on Amazon! If I need ANYTHING, I now search Amazon first because I know I can trust them to deliver on time and back their products! There is NOTHING that compares to Amazon!
BUT… THERE WAS A PROBLEM… AND TIME WAS GETTING SHORT!
My trackers did not have the US adapter plug. No way to plug them in and charge them! Since they had two different European plug adapters, it was clear that the European version of the Tractive (without US adapter plug) had ended up in Amazon's U.S. distribution channel, and I got one... well, two actually for my two dogs.
I contacted Amazon. The lovely customer service lady offered to check for a US version, exchange it, provide a refund...whatever I desired. Since she couldn’t guarantee that another one wouldn’t be missing the US plug as well, and I needed these quickly, I decided to contact Tractive for a possible solution.
THE TRACTIVE TEAM IN AUSTRIA HAS BEEN SUPERB!
Tractive immediately responded (email) and sent the little adapters I needed via FEDEX express. They apologized. They thanked me. They promised to follow up to determine how the EU version ended up at Amazon USA. They also gave me a simple, easy work around I could use until the plug bits arrived. And when I had a couple of additional questions later, and sent them via email. BAM! Amazingly fast response time! You couldn’t ask for more! They are there for you!
WHAT WAS THE WORK AROUND THAT CAN HELP OTHERS?
According to Tractive Customer Support …As an emergency solution, you can charge the Tractive with any adapter (e.g. a phone adapter with a USB port) and you can charge it over your PC too. I was so relieved to learn that, as it isn’t in the manual. Really, you should use the Tractive charger set up, but in a pinch… this works!
BUT "HOW WELL DOES IT WORK?" YOU ASK.
We are still working on reducing the occasional false warnings of the pups leaving the safe zone.... I have it set to be a bit oversensitive... (my choice)... and it works much more precisely outside than inside….but I can tell you this... If my sweet, escape artist, "Houdini Hounds" manage to sneak out of my fenced yard again, or some fool leaves the gate open... I WILL KNOW INSTANTLY! The notifications are quick, clear and perfect. The tracking is GREAT and the maps just beautiful... and kind of fun, too! I live in an area with LOTS of trees... and still get GREAT results! In case you wonder, I have AT&T and mostly have only 2 to 3 bars in my town.
Some users point out the unusual pin connections that connect to the charging system. I’ve got no problem with it because using this option is what allows our Tractives to be waterproof… and we tested that, too… but not by design. Our water-loving dog decided to cool off in the pool… for about 20 minutes! When I realized he had the Tractive on, I thought… “OOPS! That will be the end of the tracker… BUT NOPE! It was perfectly fine! Great product! It does what they say!
And as for actual tracking, we’ve taken both dogs all over town in the car and then checked the route afterwards…. Incredible! It caught every twist and turn so well that I feel totally confident that I could find our dogs easily with their Tractive tracking device.
The charge lasts for a bit more than 2 days, and I usually remove it at night and charge it. If I forget, I do it the next night.
Finally, I can't thank the folks at Tractive enough for creating such a wonderful product to help me protect my "fur kids" AND backing it with such STELLAR Customer Service! They have REALLY given me PEACE OF MIND!
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Reviews with images
Not Impressed
First three days live tracking did not work at all! Not using the computer or the phone. Thus the history I got for those days shows a bunch of straight lines rather than actual paths. Plenty of lines crossing my house like he flies right over. No good to use his last position to locate him once it is 5 minutes old as when he is on the prowl he can move an amazing distance in a short time.Not sure why it started working after three days. Not sure it is trustworthy but giving it more trial.Battery does not hold up well. My cat roams maybe 3 hours max in the morning and then stays in the house sleeping until I get home from work. Battery is on the low side 12 hours after getting pulled off the charger. I know it may drain quicker with live tracking but since that hasn't worked yet I would expect better battery life. Poor battery life may be impacting the live tracking although I had not gotten any low battery notices from the device.I mainly got this for live tracking when he won't come back in at night. If I can't put it on him in the morning when I leave for work and still be able to live track him in the evening then this is worthless to me and I will be returning.gPaws which gives me better tracking history (but no live updates) than this unit with no working live updates and irregular history paths. And I'll stick with Loc8tor to try and bring him in at night. About all this does for me is let me know that maybe he got back in the house when there are no position updates for 3 hours or more but I have cameras in the house the let me know that.I also agree with other reviewers that help within the app and online is lacking. Buttons don't show if a feature is turned on or off. And I had to hunt to find that if live tracking is working it should change color (but then again if it had worked I might have figured that out myself).I'm glad this does work for some people. Perhaps cell signal is just weak enough in my area. I had hopes for this but it isn't working out for me. Seems like it would be a good product where signal strength is strong enough but you can't judge that before purchase.On a final note I did use it on a 12 pound cat. He is already used to gadgets on his collar although this was bigger and heavier than most I've tried in the past. He did OK with it but because of the weight it did always hang under his neck. Attaching a photo with it on him.Follow Up in April 2016: Did not return the unit since I would have been out the money spent on the monthly tracking fee. Started only putting it on him for the evening to get him in at night. Still less than perfect since again the location seems delayed by a few minutes and he moves pretty steady when he is on the prowl. Gets me in his vicinity and I still fall back on the Loc8tor for final locating.And now the unit will no longer charge or operate. Less than a year old and not even hardly used in the winter months. Contacting Tractive to see if the internal battery can be replaced. I'm glad the price has come down - at least on Amazon because if the thing wont even last a year its a pretty price to pay for somewhat inconsistent peace of mind. Update- Tractive was very responsive to my email on this and asked me to send the unit back since it is less than a year old. However to ship back to Austria is not cheap if you want speed or tracking. Minimum cost to ship was $13 for 1-2 week delivery with no tracking. Tractive promises to let me know when they receive it. I will continue to update status of the repair/exchange. Customer service response was speedy and polite.
Top reviews from other countries
Will The Cat
Producto ideal para la seguridad de tu perro y tu tranquilidad
Reviewed in Spain on February 28, 2023
Mona Michetschläger
Ein Muss für jeden Tierbesitzer
Reviewed in Germany on May 28, 2019
Mona Michetschläger
Reviewed in Germany on May 28, 2019
Ich bestellte mir mein erstes Gerät, damals noch eine kleinere Version, da sie mir mit ihrer Größe einfach zu winzig vorkam für die XL Version. Meine Entscheidung änderte ich nach etwas mehr als einem Jahr. Ich wechselte auf das XL Model aus folgenden Gründen:
Tractive GPS
Akku: 2 Wochen
Halt: Das Gerät wird am Halsband befestigt und sitzt gut. Zumindest solange bis das Plastik bricht – es brach bei mir 3 Mal in einem Jahr(das Material wirkte auf mich einfach zu dünn)
Tractive GPS XL
Akku: 6 Wochen
Halt: perfekter Halt ohne zu verrutschen. Bei dem XL Modell wirkt das Material deutlich stabiler (nur für große Hunde geeignet)
Jeder Tierbesitzer hat durch das GPS Gerät die Möglichkeit, mit einem Smartphone, sich eine App aufs Handy zu laden, wo er ganz genau sehen kann, welchen Weg sein Tier gerade nimmt. Die App ist übersichtlich aufgebaut, bietet persönliche Einstellungsmöglichkeiten und nach meinem Empfinden ist das wichtigste daran die Option LIVE. Live = direkte Verfolgung wo sich ihr Tier in diesem Moment aufhält.
Seit Tractive GPS Tracker in meinem Leben ist, schlafe ich definitiv besser und mache mir weniger Sorgen, wenn ich einen ganzen Tag nicht bei meinem Vierbeiner sein kann.
Fazit nach 2 Jahren Nutzung – Tractive GPS Tracker
+ den Hund stört das Gerät am Halsband nicht
+ zuverlässige Auskunft über den Aufenthalt des Tieres egal zu welcher Tages und Nachtzeit
+ GPS-Live Tracking mit direkter Verfolgung
+ das Gerät ist stabil, wasserdicht und widerstandsfähig in jeder Situation
+ es ist leicht zu bedienen (nicht viel technisches Know-how notwendig)
- Abo kosten (sehr gering)
- ungenaues Signal (Störungen können durch vielerlei Ursachen auftreten, Wetter, Gebäude usw)
- nicht bruchfeste Klammern (das GPS kann verloren gehen, wenn man nicht kreativ ist und das Gerät noch zusätzlich befestigt)
Tractive GPS Tracker Kundenservice
+ der Kundenservice antwortet schnell und geht detailliert auf deine Fragen ein. Hier gibt es kein 0815 Formular, wo der Kunde sich nicht verstanden fühlt.
+ schnelle Rückmeldung bei Problemen
Man bekommt hier etwas für sein Geld daher finde ich die anfallenden Abo kosten gerechtfertigt und kann den Tractive GPS Tracker nur weiterempfehlen
Images in this review
