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After having a guard's location questioned this summer, I decided that we needed to have some sort of tracking program to ensure the job we are hired for is getting done properly and to the customer's expectation.

Long story short, we are to do three patrols of the site on each shift. The site is 2.5 kilometres long and maybe half a kilometre wide at the widest point. Because of the rough terrain, it can take over 45 minutes to do a patrol and our shifts are twelve hours per night. I would generally do a patrol when I get to site and finish getting briefed by the leadhand on any changes to the layout or plan. I would then do another patrol between 9 PM and 1 AM, and a final one at around 5 AM before opening the gates for the employees to start coming in around 6.

With me, I know when I am doing something and where I am at any given time because I keep track in my notebook.

The problem is that I also have employees and while I trust them to do their job, I was questioned by a pedestrian who mentioned they had tresspassed a bunch of times and didn't know there was security.

This got me thinking about what would happen if someone got hurt on site and said that there was no guard there to help them. I halfway looked into it and found out that my company could be responsible for damages. That was when I decided I needed to look into some sort of tracking program. Just to cover my bases.

I checked out TrackTik because they are the absolute best when it comes to security tracking software but they are way out of my price range. You need to take a minimum of five subscriptions and I believe each one is $60 per month. This is really worth it if you need five subs but as we really only need one right now, it would cost $300 per month to monitor the one job we have. Plus you need a phone for the app to run on which would be another $50 per month.

I then saw a company called HubStaff that had something similar for $10 per month per employee. It is a sort of production software that I tried but just isn't what I needed. It was a constant battle to get it working every night and to stay working. I ended up not being able to use it and wasted $500 on that.

Then @alexpmorris told me about LinxUp, which is a company that specializes in tracking vehicles for fleets but that had recently developed a unit that could be kept in your pocket. So I called and arranged to speak with a salesperson. He showed me everything the system was capable of and I was sold. I ordered five units and a couple weatherproof, magnetic cases for securing to a vehicle and was told I would have my order in three to five business days. I explained to him that it was highly unlikely, seeing as he was in the US and I was in northern Canada but he said that it would be here. Within an hour I had a tracking number and in two days it was across the border and after giving UPS clearance as my customs agent it was cleared and on its way. By the next day it was around nine hours from where I live.

WOW!

I guess I might have to eat my words about how I lived so far away and in another country.

After the weekend I checked the tracking and saw that it had been rerouted and was now back near the border by Vancouver.

Uh oh.

I checked and saw that there were customs fees that were due and paid them online, thinking maybe that was what was wrong.

It wasn't. It has now been about five weeks since I ordered them and they were shipped. Nobody has any clue where they are and the salesman who sold them to me has basically ignored me since the sale was made. I emailed several times to inquire about him looking into it and received absolutely no help except for telling me to get a hold of support and they would get the system running for me. I explained several times that I don't even have the product yet but it fell on deaf ears.

Support tried to help me but got nowhere and then put me through to solutions as I was now asking for a full refund and then they tried to get to the bottom of it. That was on Monday and it's now coming into Friday with no movement at all.

The irony isn't lost on me

I asked the guy if the units were shipped with a charge and he said they were. I asked why they couldn't just track the tracking units through their tracking system and he said that the numbers were on the units and weren't supposed to be activated until it reached me. ???

Yeah, so I give up. I have spent over $600 to buy, ship and activate these units, plus pay the UPS customs fees, and have now just been charged for my second month of subscriptions but I haven't even received anything. That's crazy, right? I have spent at least ten hours trying to find out where these things are and all I was offered for compensation was two free months of the subscription. Seeing as I am already into my second month it seems kind of like a slap in the face.

I am going to set an alarm for tomorrow and call him back. By now I have given up on the company, even though support and solutions went above and beyond to try and figure this out, there is just nothing else to do. I needed these things working around a month ago and now the work site is changing and they probably won't be needed until maybe next spring when the snow melt lets us get back down the hills.

What would you do?

What do you think is fair here? Am I wrong to think I should just have my money refunded and look for another option?