Fi - GPS Dog Tracker Reviews

by Redgummybears

I wanted to try this out and compare it to the whistle tracker which we have now. The only thing that has it beat is the battery life. What’s the point of having a long battery life if it 99% (that’s not even an exaggeration) doesn’t notify me at all if my dog is away from a designated safe zone. After I could finally reach their customer support, which is a joke by the way, advised me to move the base around my house because they suspected Bluetooth was being blocked. I moved it all over and still nothing. I tried enabling the lost dog mode when my boyfriend took the collar out to do a test run and it showed my dog was still at home. I am so frustrated with this collar and frustrated with their customer support. It takes them forever to respond. I literally have to hound them on email, Facebook, and Instagram just to get a response 2-3 days later. You would think a starter company that wants to compete with other tracking devices out there would produce a better product but this is useless. Improve your customer service!!! You shouldn’t be ignoring customers! Save your money and time and stick with whistle. They’ve just come out with the whistle go explore! I’m getting notifications like I should and the battery life has improved from the whistle 3! It also has a light function if you’re taking your pet out at night.

by TVisdoG

We have two base stations in our house, but the collars don’t stay connected to them. Even when the dog is standing 5 feet from a base station with clear line of sight, the collar will connect to our phones instead. This wouldn’t be a problem except that Fi causes massive battery drain when a collar is connected to it. We also get constant notifications that our collars have lost connection and cannot be located, even when the collars are within a few feet of both a base station and our phones.

We have contacted support about this issue (so please, don’t respond to this review with your standard “developer response” asking me to email you — help me solve these problems!) but haven’t been able to resolve the problem yet. I will update this review if that changes. In the meantime, these collars are useless as the false alarms are so frequent that we have to ignore them. And on top of that, our phones are constantly in need of charging due to Fi’s battery usage.

This is an expensive but poorly designed and poorly supported product. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a better option on the market right now. So my advice is to save your money, and find another way to manage your dog.

by LL403

I was happy with this GPS collar at first (have one each for both of my dogs) but the company will eventually indirectly force you to buy their new product by rendering the older version “defective”.
The GPS tracking has always lagged a bit (wouldn’t notify dog left the perimeter until we were at least a quarter mile away) sometimes we would be miles away and the GPS would still show the dogs were at home. We live in a well serviced area, so signal was not the issue. Anyway, that’s not great but acceptable so we kept using the collars. Recently their new version came out and coincidentally one of my dogs activity tracking stopped working. I contacted customer support and they requested I reboot the collar, it then started flashing green and the rep just said “it’s defective and the only fix is to buy the new version”. I told him the GPS tracking was working fine before this reboot he had me do, but he said the collar would have eventually stopped working anyway. Only solution offered was to buy the new version. I refused and instead requested both of my collars to be cancelled. They do not retroactively refund your subscription; luckily mine was ending in a month anyway. STAY AWAY from this company.

by Davidaz226

I purchased this collar back on 9/8 and accidentally put in the wrong address due to Apple auto filling my address and moving the week before. Once the email confirmation came through I noticed the address and immediately followed the link to report an incorrect address. Support followed up with me the next day saying the address has been updated. Great! Following day I receive the shipping notification and it says Los Angeles and I moved to Austin. Emailed back support and they said they cannot change the address after it shipped but since I have mail forwarding it “should” be redelivered to my correct address. After it sits in LA for a few weeks I email back support just to cancel my order for any interest I had in the collar is now gone. About a month ago, I receive notice from my local post office here in Austin that I have a package but I owe postage on it. I contacted support on what to do and they advised to file a return to sender request with the post office. I haven’t had any traction on the return or refund. Needless to say, we are coming up on my 2 month anniversary of my initial order and still no collar or refund.

I really had high hopes of this collar for my golden. Only wish they partnered with a better logistics company. Be extremely careful when ordering!

by Traderjimk

Support staff do respond albeit sometimes late. Would I use the service for another 1 year term....no I don’t believe so. The collar operation is a bit quirky and inaccurate Customer service definitely mediocre. No credit for early termination.
One of my 2 collars has not been accurate in step count and battery has drained faster than the other for over 3 months. After over almost two weeks back and forth with several support people they keep telling me there is nothing wrong with it. I have 2 dogs who are both same age and do everything the other does during the day. One collar registers twice as many steps as the other! Both dogs are 14 lbs just to know. Same exercise routine etc. Support insists collar is working as it should. Negative! I have asked for a replacement tracker but they just keep saying mine is ok. I give up writing them as of today. Wow it could have only been an easy fix to even replace the tracker at a discount but no such offer was made. Poor customer satisfaction for certain.
As I read the many critical reviews posted I now see many other people have posted similar experiences.

by Imnotreallyscott

Tried this. Not worth it yet. Maybe the technology is still in its infancy, I don’t know. When our dog got loose, we discovered the incredibly long 1 minute interval between GPS location pings. So our dog got to travel for an entire minute with us not knowing where he was headed. And that’s after it took 5 mins or so to recognize he wasn’t in the house anymore. I don’t need to know where my dog WAS 45 seconds ago. I need to know where he IS now. Maybe in the future they’ll devise a better solution. This wasn’t it for us. Maybe if your dog runs away and only ever goes to the same spot or sits around for 60 seconds at a time…maybe this is for you.

And the customer service for this app was pretty terrible. A guy named George was rather flippant with me and definitely didn’t represent this company well at all.

We switched to Whistle (actually, per George’s suggestion) and it’s no better. The location is supposed to ping every 15 seconds (which is MUCH better) but we routinely go 5-10 mins with no location update. The Whistle App crashes or tells us it can’t connect to its server. So it’s not the solution either.

by Jesus Loves You Dude

I’ve been using this app Collar for a good couple of months now to leave a review. At first I was excited to use a GPS collar for my dog. The main good thing I’ve seen is that the battery life is phenomenal! However, at least at the moment, the battery is not displayed correctly. I’ve been charging the collar for about 5 hours and it’s been stuck at the percentage of 70%. Sometimes the collar shows that it’s fully charged and once I take it off the base, it’s nowhere near finished.
One thing that had got me frustrated is that sometimes the GPS is not accurate AT ALL. There’s been times where Fi will tell me my dog has escaped. Wrong. My dog is literally with me. Other times when I’m out with my dog with me in the car, it’ll show that my dog is miles away from me at some other part of the map. Weird. It’s takes a long unfortunate time to update where your dog’s location is at. And that’s scary. How am I suppose to find my dog when it takes 20 minutes to show where he’s at? That’s a scary thing for a dog parent. Fi has given me heart attacks because it’ll say that my dog is out, some other part of the map. How is this suppose to give me a peace of mind? It’s let me down a few times but then other times it’ll be accurate… I’ll stay for my year subscription and hopefully things are better and upgraded.

by Mich_h123

I lost my dog and after seeing the full extent of Fi , it needs improvements. I set it to lost dog mode and would get updates on her location but I would have to go back and forth from Fi to gps to put in the location. By the time I did this and drove to her location she had already made a lot of ground and I could not catch up with her. There needs to be navigation within Fi , or at least the ability to copy the address to paste it into google maps. Also, if you look at the website it says updates are much slower if you don’t have Fi constantly open. This is impossible if I have to go in and out of Fi to go to google maps. I spent 2 hours trying to track down my dog and then the collar went offline for 5 hours because it could not get signal. Finally when the signal came back on and my dog had settled somewhere in the middle of the night I was able to drive out and get her. Did it work? Yes. Did it work well? No, I wasted 7 hours, and in that time my dog could have been hit by a car.

by Becauseabcd

Example, right now I cannot use Fi because it is stuck on the Go To Settings warning. The current warning is asking me to go to settings and check “Always” under Enable Location Services. Except that I already have enabled and have always had “Always” checked. Who knows how long it will hang there? Possibly until I uninstall and reinstall Fi … which isn’t trivial given all the addresses and base stations syncing required. It also drops data randomly. For example I have all my dogs sleep data for the week of October 11-18 but none of his steps. When swiping through the Daily data setting under Activity, it just skips that week. Good thing I wrote it down 😢

Update: I did not have to go through email support. By powering off the phone, then restarting and rechecking Always Precise Location the this app app was no longer “hung.” The data from Oct 11-18 reappeared three days later. Maybe that was a site-wide bug. Now I have another discrepancy. On Tuesday dog and I took an off leash hike. I got 12,200 steps and he got 19,800 steps which is normal. Thursday we took the same hike and I got 12,400 steps and he got 10,200 steps. No way the dog got fewer steps than me.

by Steve FLL

We were reluctant to buy a collar that touted the features of this app given past experiences with other similar products but we decided to give it a go. Our new Shepherd puppy who is a working dog in training was just too much of an investment to take any chances with him running off. The collar can be set up to let you know anytime he leaves the house and lets you know who he is with. There is a slight delay of around a minute, but we think that’s completely reasonable given you don’t want constant alerts when out in the front yard. We love the activity tracker which helps us make sure he reaches his goal exercise for the day. With daily swims in the ocean and totally worry free functionality in the sand and salt water, we really don’t see a downside to this collar. Even though the collar is strong, we would recommend using a choke chain or training collar for strong pullers and during work. The electronics are housed in a hard plastic cases and it interfaces with the collar through metal clasps. This can result in wear with continued strenuous use.

by EllieZ123

The this app collar takes away so much of the anxiety around leaving my pup behind when I leave for a trip or just for the day to go to work. My dog is free range on 20 acres of wooded land with a river running through it. He’s worn the collar every single day for the past year and it has held up remarkably well. When the collar recently started experiencing battery issues I reached out and as able to get a replacement within the week. this app’s customer service is amazing and a huge perk of having this collar.

I’ve been grateful for the this app collar a hundred times over the past year but nothing compares to last week when my family was evacuated during the wildfires. There wasn’t a moment that I was worried I’d lose track of Roger and have to leave him behind. I’m so grateful for that peace of mind.

I could not recommend this collar more. Great coverage, super useable app, best customer service. For realz, if you’re on the edge just go for it. The money is worth it.

by JennicaRachelle

So I’ve tried a few gps collars. The one I had before this app was LINK AKC. this app’s ability to hold a charge more months alone makes it worth it. Being able to set safe sones on the fly is also really great and helps reduce unwanted alerts. I recently adopted a 2 year old Australian Cattle Dog , and this app has made training to be off leash so much more less worrisome. My 10 year old also likes to walk her on his own, so having the collar helps ease my worries for both my babies. So far our ACD has been doing great, and the light feature works wonderfully when she’s playing off leash at night. I am also impressed with the waterproofing. Libby (our pup), jumped in a creek to catch some fish, and for a brief second I thought “oh no! Her collar!” , and then I remembered that this app is awesome and I didn’t have to worry. The free month of GPS for inviting friends was a nice surprise! so thank you! 🙏 Can’t wait to see what new features and updates come along. If there is a way to set alarms and reminders for when she is due for her walk, that would be great. Or if the this app app can recognize patterns, and create reminders based on past walks/routines, that would be awesome too. 🐾🐾🐾👍🏻🙏 and maybe teaming up with Fi WAG- would be cool too. Like maybe offer a discount on wag walks if they have a this app collar that coordinates etc. That way when a wag walker comes to walk your dog, it recognizes the walk as safe. Just some thoughts!

by Flynn_Chi

I got this collar primarily as an activity tracker for my medical alert and mobility assistance service dog, Maui. I’m beyond impressed by its capabilities in this department! I was surprised at just how much I love the GPS functions as well. As a university student, the GPS is phenomenal for whenever we go on hikes (the campus is quite expansive with various terrain and water nearby) as a safety measure and for my peace of mind when a trusted friend is exercising Maui for me when I can’t. Fi is incredibly easy to use, the base station easy to bring with me if I’m off campus for multiple days (the collar’s battery lasts longer when there is a local base station rather than relying on GPS 24/7), the collar is waterproof for all intents and purposes, it charges quickly, the fitness metrics are easy to understand and the reassurance of knowing where he is if something were to go horribly wrong is so beyond worth it to me. The ONLY downside to this product after ~6months of use in my eyes is that the metal (plastic that looks like metal I think) GPS transmitter on the collar is being dinged up by Maui’s metal ID and rabies vaccination tags. It’s just a very minor aesthetic thing that you can’t see unless you’re basically holding it but I wish it were replaceable if need be (it might be... I don’t know). I will definitely continue using this collar and the GPS service through this app for years to come!

by JaredKen

We’ve had to label one of our dogs an “escape hazard” since she ran away so much. She’d wiggle her way through cracks in the fence and just speed off. Oh, we think she’s faster than Usain Bolt. One evening after waking up from a nap, she was no where to be found. I looked and looked and looked and quickly realized one of my worst fears came to life: I have a lost dog. Thank God we eventually found her the same night!! We knew we had to do something about this. We scoured the web and evaluated maybe 5-7 comparable devices. We decided on this app and are so glad we did! She’s run away a few more times but the GPS tracker helped big time.

Concerns for the developers:
-I wonder if this may just be a limitation of satellite GPS, but the collar’s location seems to jump from my house to the neighbors in a split second.
-Would it be possible to draw the safe zone to actually conform to my home rather than just using an expanding circle zone? I believe Zillow uses this drawing on map technology for home searches.

by EnterHere

I am so thankful for this product! My two very smart but very independent Tibetan Mastiffs girls love to check on the neighborhood from time to time. No fence will stop them, but now I know when and where they are going.
Knowing how long is our daily walks are helpful as well, and it encourages us not to skip one! I love the community and the ability to share pics and follow other puppies! One thing that bugs me (just a little) is that the “share product gift box” is the most significant thing on the screen! I know that is marketing and sale, but as a day-to-day user, I could use this space for a more functional feature!
Another struggle I personally have is that I can’t activate Fi running in the background for some reason; there is no option in my app settings or in general settings on my iPhone where the background apps to choose to run or not; I am not sure how to fix that🤨
But regardless of my hiccups, I want to thank you for the product; I recommend it to all puppies owners for peace of mind!

by LLGolden219

All I can say is that it works amazingly well for me! Perhaps we are lucky with the decent WiFi and Bluetooth but it did exactly what I needed it to do this morning. We have a temporary fence until we can install a new one and my golden has figured out how to jump over it if he is motivated enough. This morning I left for work early, my husband left after and my parents were watching him. It’s 4 degrees outside so no one is outside checking on him. When my husband left, he jumped the fence to “follow” him and 20 miles away, I got a buzz on my Apple Watch that he left home. Called my mom and the gates were closed so she assumed that he was somewhere in the yard but low and behold, when she started calling him he came running up the driveway. If we didn’t have this app, he could have been gone for an hour before anyone noticed (this dog is a polar bear and loves sitting out in the snow and cold). Instead we figured it out within minutes and I wasn’t worried because I was able to see him on the map. I am also able to check on him throughout the day for peace of mind. 100% worth it.

by Tdk#1fan

I have two this app Collars, one for my Alaskan Husky who is not only a Houdini but is as fast as the wind, and one for my German Shepherd. To start off, my Husky has gotten out 5 times since getting the collar...4 of those times 3-6 miles away, nowhere near our small neighborhood. It could have been a very bad ending each time but this app let me know she got out and when I put on the lost dog mode feature it gave me minute by minute updates of her exact address. LIFEsaver. Literally. Since she finds a way to get out so frequently the long lasting battery is a MUST. I charge the collars maybe once every 2 weeks if that and other than that I never take them off. The battery has only gone below 30% twice, and we were in an area with spotty cell service.

Almost more than the collar itself, I love the company. I’ve had various questions and small issues, once my dog even broke her collar somehow, and they sent a replacement that day! They are always able to answer questions and are friendly and very good at troubleshooting and also making me aware of features I didn’t know about. Love the company, love the collar! Great job this app!!

by Fruitcakes22

We rescued a Jack Russell/Beagle mix who loves to run and we have 9 acres. I researched a few collars before purchasing this one. We have had him in the collar for about seven months now (1st edition) and it eased my anxiety and saved his life. About a month ago Sam saw a deer and took off after it. He didn’t respond to the e-Collar he wears and before I knew it he was gone. I opened up Fi and saw he was about a mile away. He kept getting further away but it was when he started going toward a busy county road I really started to get concerned. I jumped in my car and headed towards the signal. Sure enough, there he was, trotting along the shoulder of the road towards home. Saved me a ton of anxiety and probably his life. The collar is well made and comfortable for him. I do not use a leash to connect to it, I use a harness instead. The light isn’t very bright on it so we have a separate light up collar. This collar is wonderful for a quick spot check and when away from the home. Also great for making sure Sam gets the exercise he needs. The social part of it is pretty neat too. I love seeing other people’s pets are where they are from. I highly suggest this collar.

by Kfkio

My boyfriend and I adopted a sweet 2.5 year old husky. She is the most kind and gentle dog, but she is a runner. I bought this collar long before we actually had her, just to be ready when we did have her. In the first 3 days that she was with us, she got out twice. With the help of this INCREDIBLE collar, we found her both times within the half hour. The GPS updating every minute makes finding our fast dog so much easier. Just that would have been enough for me. However in addition to that, I'm able to set dog walkers, so that when somebody is watching her they have access to Fi . I'm able to see that she is with them and where they are. If she gets lost while someone is watching her, they're able to use the lost dog feature as well. It provides so much peace of mind. But I'm not done. In addition to the peace of mind and incredible battery life, it has a light that flashes at night so when you're walking late at night you can see where she is. All of this is controlled by a well thought out app, that tracks your dogs steps, ranks you with other dogs in your breed category, and allows you to post and view pictures of your and other dogs! I have told every dog owner I know about this. I'm in love with this collar.

by NashTred

Every time my dog is in the car the device reports the drive as a walk. I even take the collar off in case my dog is moving around as it says in their support materials. Still the same. This is so unacceptable! I emailed customer service who tried to tell me this was normal. NORMAL! The device is logging miles and miles of activity describing it as a walk when I’m driving down the road. Their customer service says it’s the algorithm that figures all of this out. Really? This algorithm can’t see that my dog would be incapable of walking 60mph? And this is deemed normal? Imagine if my Apple Watch were to log exercise minutes every time I was driving in the car? This is NOT normal. On top of everything else, this device is advertised as an activity tracker! It’s not living up to the marketing this company advertises. It would seem like an easy fix to allow me to reclassify the activity, or even more simple, to just delete the activity. This is unacceptable. It should not be considered normal. Because of this glitch the data across the whole platform is suspect. They’ve had several years to fix this but haven’t done so. WHY?

REVISED: THE COMPANY HAS ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM AND I 100% RECOMMEND THIS COLLAR NOW. I LOVE IT! I’M IMPRESSED THE COMPANY REALIZED THIS WAS AN ISSUE FOR MANY AND FIXED IT. THIS DEVICE IS NOW AWESOME AND IF YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT PURCHASING IT YOU SHOULD TOTALLY DO IT.