I originally purchased my SPOT for emergency purposes, since I frequently hunt alone in areas where there is no cell phone coverage.

I found that the tracking feature rarely transmitted accurate data. When I used the "I'm OK" message mode, the transmission was only received approximately 40% of the time.

What good is a device that is supposed be used in a emergency to summon rescue personnel if the signal never gets through?

I followed all of SPOT's advice to the letter. I even went to sport field of my local school, so I was guaranteed a complete and unobstructed view of the sky.
RESULTS: No signal was received.
Yes, I had just installed a new set of batteries.
Yes, I left the unit on for 15 minutes before using it so that it "could acquire it's orientation."
No, I don;t have confidence that it would save my life in an emergency.

I have lost my confidence in this TOY. In a life or death situation, who has 15 minutes to wait while the unit orientates itself?

Coupled with an ANNUAL subscription plan that costs $150-250 PLUS ANOTHER annual $10 "network access fee" and I cannot see the value in these devices or their service.

A PLB does not carry an annual service fee, but the batteries do have to be replaced at the factory every 5 years for $150. But that only works out to $30 a year. And in an emergency it communicates directly with government military grade satellites, not through leased bandwidth on a commercial satellite and a human operator.

If you need a serious device that may need to save your life someday, an unreliable SPOT is not the device for you.

So, I bought this unit with a $95 dollar rebar, and a 50% discount. My total cost was $250 with a year contract. It works well, but, you need to turn the unit on, have it pointing upwards, and wait at least 5 minutes before sending a msg. If you turn it on, and try to send the message before it finds the satellite, it will never send the message. You will have to cancel and resend. When I have this unit in the top of my bag, facing upwards, it works perfectly. If I just chuck it into my pack, then it's hit and miss. More miss actually! The website can be alittle confusing to figure out, but i spent an evening figuring out how it all works, and it's been fine. It has yet to fail me on an actual trip, and tracking every 5 minutes worked great! They do have monthly plans now, and the the website explains how you need to unsubscribe. To me, it sounded like alot of the issues people had with the device and website have been fixed. Company practices? I don't know, the prices all seem to be on the website....

Do not buy this device. The subscription service is designed and organized to exploit users.

You will have to purchase an inflexible 12 month contract for the device that automatically renews each year. You have to call 30 - 45 days prior to your policy renewal date in order to cancel. If you miss the 30 day window you will have to buy out the value of next years contract to cancel your service. Simply put, the subscription service is not designed for recreational users where you may only use the device for a few trips a year, and you will be locked into annual large contracts without the ability to cancel.

I just bought the Garmin InReach with monthly subscriptions, and my experience has been much better.

The Spot Product is probably the best on the market, but the ongoing contract with Spot which must be paid annually is ridiculously EXPENSIVE.... People who use it generally only use it if going on a trip which may involve some risk or is used to keep people at home aware of the trips progress on a map. The annual fee must be paid to operate the device even thou it may be operated only occasionally which comes down to it being very expensive if only needing to use it a few times during the year. I also found the app hard to navigate, especially with the link provided for other people to follow. The link doesnt operate when posted on public forums. It require a password to open the link, so this limits the links use. Why it needs a password I dont understand.