The money saving power of keeping track of the trackers

17 July 2016 - 17:13 By Wendy Knowler
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At first the vehicle tracking companies’ call centre agents must have wondered why more customers than usual were asking for their monthly subscriptions to be reduced.

Cars on the road
Cars on the road
Image: iStock Images

Meanwhile, that morning my column was published (July 4), my inbox was filling up with emails from people with longstanding vehicle tracking contracts, delighted to have trimmed their monthly expenses, having not thought to question what they were paying before.

““I read your article ‘Keep track of tracking fees’ and called Netstar,” wrote Jairam Reddy.

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“They immediately agreed to reduce the monthly premium from R159 per month to R100.

“I then asked the customer services official why the premium was not reduced in February, after the expiry of my three-year contract. He said that they would not refund because I had not phoned and requested a reduction in premium…”

“Thank you so much for your article today, I have now had my monthly payment reduced by 50%, thus saving my self R50 a month!” wrote Fiona Bugler.

And this from John Mayor: “I followed your advice and called the Tracker service desk. I was advised that my monthly charge would be reduced from R300 per month to R199 per month as ‘a once-off gesture’.”

Netstar client Anil Makan said the company had agreed to drop his monthly subscription from R105 to R60, but, as in all the other cases, they weren't prepared to entertain a refund of any back-dated “overpayments”.

As the week wore on, the content of those tracking response emails changed; people were reporting that their tracking companies had refused to reduce their subscriptions, despite the fact that their contracts were more than three years old, meaning the hardware - the tracking device itself - was paid off.

I’m guessing they realised what was prompting the enquiries and issued a memo to the call centre staff.

Tracker clients with older contracts who made the “reduce my subscription” request, began getting this emailed response:

“Tracker’s business model does not accommodate a reduction in the monthly subscription at the end of the 36-month contract. The cost of the hardware and installation is recouped over a much longer period in order to provide you with a competitive subscription. The unit and the service are linked, the one being of no or little use without the other and are therefore billed as one.”

In other words, those who’ve continued to pay for their service long after the three-year lock-in period are paying higher subscriptions, despite having older, paid-off tracking devices in their cars, to enable the companies to offer temptingly lower fees to new clients.

Tracker’s customer services co-ordinator went as far as telling Cape Town attorney Matthew Yazbek, in an emailed response to his request for a subscription reduction, that “the media coverage was false information”.

That was news to me, so I queried this with Tracker’s communications manager Nandi Canning.

“It is not Tracker’s view that your article contained false information,” she said.

“The call centre agent in question was unfortunately not authorised to make such comments on behalf of the company and we have addressed this matter directly with him.

“We have conveyed the same message to all call centre managers to cascade to their staff to ensure that they are aware of the same.”

Good to know.

So the advice to those with tracking contracts more than three years old remains the same:

  • Insist on being sent a monthly invoice by your vehicle tracking company, whether your subscription is part of your insurance premium or stand-alone; and
  • Re-negotiate your subscription if you switch vehicle insurance companies and especially when your initial three-year period is up, as your hardware is paid off, and you are no longer locked into a lengthy contract, giving you negotiating power.
  • If your device is paid off and your service provider is not open to lowering your subscription, you could get a quote from a competitor, and if it’s a lot cheaper, give the required one month’s notice to your non-negotiable current service provider, and sign up with their competitor - in doing so, you’ll get to swap your three-year-old tracking device for a brand new one.

Of course, the downside to that is that you will become committed to a new three-year contract, whether you sell the car during that time or not.

Another option is to re-assess whether you want or need the tracking service at all. If your car is older and not on the hijackers’ hit list, your insurer may not require it to have a tracking device anymore.

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