Just received 11 minutes ago:

[BEGIN QUOTE]
Hello,

When a battery-light indicator issue was identified with the Spot-2, notice was sent to all customers who had already activated Spot-2 units, and to all dealers carrying the product. We advised all dealers to return any unsold units to us so that we can address the issue, and replace their stock with new, unaffected units that are ready to activate right away. We expect to have replacement units in stores in early 2010.

To answer your question below, at this time, no retailers should have any Spot-2 units available for sale. If by chance, you should purchase one, when you go online to activate it, you will likely get a message advising of the current exchange program, and a link taking you to a form to submit your information.

Once we have manufactured enough new units to distribute to retailers, you will be able to purchase and activate the Spot-2.

If you have any further questions, please contact Customer Care, Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to midnight, EST.

Best Regards,
Spot Customer Service
North America: 1-866-651-7768
EU Dial: + 353 12 909 505
AU/NZ: 0424 21 7768 / 0800 11 7768
www.findmespot.com
[END QUOTE]

Some really good questions and comments on this thread about www.406Link.com that I think I can help with.

Battery Life is a big question we keep getting asked about our PLBs. ACR PLBs have the capability to do around 420 self tests over the life of the battery before the battery witness seal is broken and this feature is disabled so that you do not start using the required 24 hours of emergency life remaining in the battery. This ensures that in an actual emergency you will still have enough battery life to be rescued. Our new SARLink and AquaLink PLBs can also send GPS coordinates through www.406link.com, these are limited to 12 GPS tests with the basic model and 60 GPS tests with the new View models (that also sport an awesome new digital display). We put a hard count on these GPS tests as they use up more battery than a normal self test.

The other big question I get asked all the time is “Will it work with my PLB or EPIRB?” The service will work with all 406 MHz ACR PLBs and EPIRB and most of our competitors. If you have a PLB that has an external antenna that can be deployed your beacon will work with our system. The only beacons that we know will not work with http://www.406Link.com are PLBs that have a single use antenna that is wrapped inside of the beacon and are only deployed when you activate the beacon (such as the McMurdo FastFind PLBs).

The service is not a bread crumb tracking service, it is an added way to send some peace of mind back home to let your friends and family know you are ok and everything is fine. I have been using it for the past two month and my family is really thankful. On hunting trips I send an I'm ok message when I get to my stand and another at the end of the day so they know everything is fine. If I'm running late and don't want them to worry I send another I'm ok message.

The response time to receive our "I'm Ok" message once you perform a self test is around 30 seconds from the completion of the test. With our new PLBs that can send GPS, this test typically takes less than 2 minutes to download your coordinates and another 30 seconds to reach your cell phone. It really is impressive especially considering the message is traveling 22,000 miles into space and 22,000 miles back to earth.

If you have a PLB and want to give it a try we have a free 2 day trial on our homepage that doesn't require any credit card or payment, it’s absolutely free to test your beacon out.

Hope this helps guys.

The Spot service was really bad when introduced a couple of years ago. I recently, last month in fact. It's better than before and the battery life is much better. But I can see no reason to buy a spot 2. The battery life is cra* .
On my boat I use a ACR PLB and now they are offering a "I'm OK" service I will probably upgrade.
The spot and other PLB's are only really insurance. The tracking is nice, but not really necessary.
Baz

"With our new PLBs that can send GPS, this test typically takes less than 2 minutes to download your coordinates and another 30 seconds to reach your cell phone. It really is impressive especially considering the message is traveling 22,000 miles into space and 22,000 miles back to earth."

No, it isn't that impressive. The up- and down-link transit time is around a quarter of a second. It's the ground links and processing times that add up.
--B.G.--

Hi Barry,

My concern with the ACR 406 link option is the $160 battery swap noted earlier in the thread, if that's indeed what it costs. If I understand the 406 Link literature correctly, subscribers will be making fairly frequent use of the battery replacement service. $160 buys a lot of AAA lithiums.

That said, I have more confidence in the PLB system than I do SPOT's, until such time as SPOT proves otherwise. I finally saw SPOT 2 in the store last weekend and it's really quite small now. (The SPOT that pairs with Delorme GPSs will be even smaller.)

Cheers,

Rick

I've decided to not voluntarily return my SPOT2. I'm not going to pay for a product and then give it back with zero reassurance that I will either receive a new SPOT2 unit or my money back. I purchased my unit from REI and will return it when they have the "new and improved" units on the floor.

The Spot products are not true PLB's they have not beed fully approved and tested as the ACR products are. True the ACR products are much heavier, but how much do you want to pay for piece of mind. See "I shouldn't be Alive" series on TV. There's more than a few people who would wish they had one. The new ACR even has a LCD display. The batteries in my PLB terrafix are good for several years and I am sure I will buy a new model by then.
You can't really do a direct comparison of Spot V Acr. But either are better than nothing don't you think?
Barry
PS I have just signed up for the ACR "I'm Ok" service, but in 24 hrs I have not been able to make it work!

Dear valued SPOT customer,

Great News! SPOT Satellite GPS Messengers are starting to ship. Shipments to customers will begin on Thursday, February 18th, 2010. We expect to have all customer returned product out our doors by the first week of March.

As you know, in December we discovered that the SPOT 2 unit failed to meet battery and messaging operating specifications. At that time we issued a “voluntary” product recall. Okay, in this instance “voluntary” meant that SPOT was choosing to recall the product because we weren’t happy with it. We understand that this may have caused some confusion. Let’s be clear now - we continue to urge you to return your SPOT 2 unit with an ESN number equal to or less than 0-8053925 to be returned for replacement. Please visit www.findmespot.com/exchange for more info.

As we mentioned in our last e-mail communication to you, we put
SPOT 2 under rigorous product testing. We know you have been waiting, and are impatient to use your SPOT. We hear you! We want to assure you though that SPOT LLC has taken the necessary extra steps to ensure this product meets all our rigorous tests. We pulled the product and retested. This meant environmental and user tests. We were thorough – we need to be.

The SPOT product has initiated over 550 rescues worldwide and has sent millions of “peace of mind” messages. There is no way we are going to let you hike into the woods, drive into the mountains, sail off into the ocean, or just enjoy your weekend getaways with a product we are not satisfied with. SPOT is an emergency messaging device. We take that seriously. We take our commitment to our customers seriously. Therefore, we apologize for the wait, but we can now tell you the product is ready for your hands.

Sincerely,

The SPOT Team