Luggage Locator

A frequent traveler who has had pretty good luck with not losing baggage over the years, I bought two of these for a trip with some tight connections on a homeward trip from Easter Island. True to my suspicions, we missed our connection to Miami in Santiago, but apparently our bags made it. When we left the airport that night, LAN told us they thought the bags made the flight, but weren't sure. When we got up the next morning, I activated two traces and learned the bags were in Miami for sure.We flew in 24 hours later, and retrieved the bags, and checked into our next flight to Newark. Later, while on the phone and reading the paper on my iPad in coach, I actually got the Bluetooth signals from both bags (I must have been sitting right above them).This all took place over a 2&1/2 day period and the batteries were still working when we drove home. The units performed as advertised. I found the app a little confusing to use (they need more labels under the buttons and icons to explain what they do) but when I contacted customer service for some clarification, I got fast and very efficient replies.I'm very satisfied with the units and the customer service, and with a busy year of travel planned, will definitely sleep a little easier with these units in my bags.

So, I bought two of these. While activating the first I found out that the GSM locator is wildly inaccurate, nothing like the precision of GPS. You will be able to tell what city your LugLoc is in, but not where in the city it is, at least maybe not within a few miles. (My LugLoc was stationary in a location of good cell phone and cellular data coverage-I have other apps which use GSM location which are much more accurate). The Bluetooth connection is temperamental and only works with the iPhone, but not the iPad. The iPad locator will work on the app if you use your iPad, but not the buzzing Bluetooth proximity locator. The Zendesk Bluetooth instructions will tell you about a "green suitcase" which will never appear-the help desk will tell you that the suitcase symbol is red and they don't seem to know what their own instructions say. Further, I activated the first device thinking I had fifteen days of free traces (the obsolete instructions say five free searches), but the NEXT day I get an email from LugLoc telling me my free traces expire in two days, or what would be three days total. LugLocs are bigger than the palm of your hand and are surprisingly heavy. You need a bright light and a magnifying glass to see the position of the tiny "on-off" switch. Charging takes a long time with a short, proprietary plug and cord. And, if you need any help or if you have questions, LugLock help is Email only-there's no phone. To be fair, when you do email them, you get a prompt response.So, LugLocs are expensive, have poor, conflicting instructions and limited email only support, can only locate your bag within the same county, have inexplicably messed up "free traces," take a long time to charge, work fully only with your phone (not your tablet) and can only be turned on and off with magnifying glasses and bright lights. Poor design, poor support, poor directions, bad GSM location accuracy, expensive and hard to use. I put LugLoc in the "good idea, poorly executed" category. I guess that the LugLoc will in fact faithfully tell you what city your bag is in, so that's good and better than no locator at all, so the product will "work." But, I'm pretty tech savvy and I can make the LugLoc work without help, but all the while I was thinking I should not have bought even one of them-two of them just increased the expense and frustration. I certainly can't recommend LugLocs to anyone.Addendum: I was simply perplexed before, but now I'm furious. When I asked LugLoc about the "fifteen days of free traces" they responded to me like I was a stupid kid-they obviously think that "activation" means "turning the unit on to charge it when it first arrives, even though it's not registered, you have not 'activated' it with LugLoc, have never associated the unit with an account, phone or application and have never tested the unit." I had purposely NOT completed any of LugLoc's instructions for activation on purpose to preserve my fifteen days. I did, however, plug both units in to charge when I first received them, and you have to turn the unit "on" to charge it. Apparently LugLoc thinks this is "activation" and they're pretty snippy and condescending about it. Of course, you can't call them to know any of this, so you only get snide emails. I am tech savvy enough to fly large commmercial aircraft and to design software for complex simulators, but I'm apparently not smart enough to communicate with LugLoc. The worst thing about this is that the instructions in the box were completely obsolete and only referred to a number of free searches-they were mute about what "activation" meant or fifteen days. I had to get that from Amazon. So, I started out being mildly perplexed. Now I'm just hopping mad about being patronized. I started out giving the product two stars and conceding that the thing will probably work, but it could be a lot better. Now I just think that no one should bother with these guys or their product.

Excellent idea, not perfect in execution, needs a stronger signal or transmission mechanism than bluetooth because when your bag is behind that wall, waiting for it to come out, the bluetooth doesn't "see" it until it's practically on top of you. Battery life is good, location tracking is good when using the cellular network. Beware that the device is useless unless you spend another $40 for their "unlimited" plan so you can track your bags in transit more than a few times.

Overall, I'm disappointed with this device. In my experience, the claims regarding it being inaccurate have proven true. Now that I've purchased it, and used it for 2 flights, its' inaccuracy leads me to think that it's unnecessary.Testing it at home upon its' delivery, the device reported that it was located nearly a mile away from it's actual location. If one's luggage is lost in transit, that may provide some comfort, but I found it to be too little for my liking, especially since I was in a city which I had never been to before. (If my luggage had been stolen, I'd have no idea what the surrounding neighborhood was like, and could incur cab fare costs and a considerable amount of wasted time while trying to retrieve it on what might be a wild goose chase).Even the documentation warns that the device works best while it's stationary. Upon thinking about it, once luggage is checked-in and handed-over at check-in, between conveyors, carting to the plane, being loaded on the plane, then being unloaded upon arrival, and on the conveyor again to baggage claim, (where it might be in constant motion for a long time going round and round on the carousal there), how much of that time is it stationary? If the unit provides accuracy only to within a mile or so, how much does that really help in retrieving your luggage? It seems to me, at best, that the device basically tells you that your luggage is "here", i.e. within Bluetooth range of where you are, or it's not, and if it's not, where is one most likely to go? Probably to the lost baggage counter. And with the device in your luggage, what would you be able to tell them that you wouldn't otherwise tell them? That it's not "here, but somewhere else that might be a mile or so away from it's actual location? I don't understand how that might help locate your luggage. Because of its' inaccuracy, it seems to me the device provides a false sense of comfort.I realize the device does not use GPS, but the lack of accuracy inherent there seems to render the device to be of little use. I'll likely continue to use it on future trips (because I've paid for it), but I have little faith that it will provide any real benefit.At this point, based on my experience with it, I can't bring myself to recommend it.