I am not affiliated with Zoleo and I am not paid to review their products.
I bought a Zoleo gps messenger device last spring when it was just released and I couldn’t find any reviews on it yet. It was a tough choice between the zoleo and the Garmin in-reach but I personally preferred the Zoleo interface to the Garmin.
I used it all summer in the backcountry of Idaho in the Frank Church Wilderness. I was without cellphone service for ~9 weeks working, guiding, and hiking everyday. I used it every day to “text” my husband and came in handy once when we had an injured horse on the trail and I needed to let the ranch know we would be spending an unexpected night out. Texts went though 95% of the time and the few times they didn’t I got an alert, resent the message and it worked. I haven’t used the SOS feature. The weather part of the app was a bit glitchy (it registered I was in a different country for a few days but it fixed itself) but mostly reliable.
I’m headed for a 5 day backpacking trip next week and I got my Zoleo out, resubscribed to a texting plan, and put it on the changer. Nothing happened. After a painless conversation with an actual person who works in Zoleo IT it appears the battery went bad. They had me try one or two things but the device wouldn’t revive. I let them know I was leaving in a week for a backpacking trip and I was hopeful for a quick resolution. There was a little email communication back and forth to get the details but they overnighted me a new device with the promise I will send the old one back when I get back from my trip. They even went ahead and switched my online account and subscription information over to the new device so I won’t need to do anything but turn it on when I get it. I don’t know if I can say Garmin would have been half as helpful in this situation.
Obviously, it’s not ideal that the battery died at all. But, for a new-ish company I was very pleased with how they honored their warranty and how they decided to proceed with a resolution. Picture of how I used the device most of the summer.
Overall, I’m happy so far. Hopefully this helps anyone who has had questions or concerns about the device.
