Chaperone service. notice to phone being located?

K

Katherine .

New member
Im looking for input form someone who actually HAS this service, and has seen it in action.

I signed up for the Chaperone service, as a parent of a 13 year old boy. He has a Chocolate phone, and I have a W385, though will be using strictly the web access to locate him.

I have been on the phone w tech support no less than about 7 hours, spanning a time frame of about 3 weeks.

Ive had his phone get the new software, or "flashed" at the local VZW store. Ive had his phone replaced, to the newest model chocolate. Ive uninstalled and reinstalled the chaperone application on both parent and child phones more tines than I can remember.

the problem Im having is even if I check the appropriate box on the web interface (Always allow), my son still has the option to press "cancel" and prevent me from locating him.

If I set the privacy setting on the web to "always ask", a green screen pops up on his phone and it gives him 3 choices when location is being attempted.
I cant remember the exact 3 choices, but soething to the effect of allow, deny, and cancel. Now, this part makes sense. I have the web set to "aways ask", and thats what it did. Cool!

However, if I set the privacy settings on the web to "always allow", it STILL pops up with a green screen on his phone, with an option to CANCEL. Originally Verizon blew this off as "we are required to let the phone user know when they are being located". Well I would believe this if I wasnt told the cobtrary by other VZW tech reps and VZW employees at local stores. A VZW tech rep that actually spent some tie w me told me that there was a recent FCC ruling that allowed VZW to use the chaperone service, WITHOUT notification to the phone being located. this goes ALONG with what I was told at a local VZW store, who told me he uses the service for his son, and it does NOT notify the sons phone that it is being located. So I have TWO different people from VZW, telling me that it does NOT notify the phone that its being located. Meanwhile I have a phone that is notified EVERY time that its being located, and VZW has pretty much washed their hands of this and told me its normal. Specifically what it does: When privacy settings are set to "always allow", the same green screen will pop up on my sons phone, w a message to the effect of "Chaperone service may take up to 30 seconds, PRESS CANCEL TO END!" So even though it WILL locate him if he DOESN'T press cancel, if he DOES press cancel, it wil stop the process and he WONT be located. To clarify again this is NOT the same (3 choices) that pop up when settings are set to "always ask". Its merely ONE choice, that says "press cancel to end".

So whats the real scoop. Is anyone actually using the Chaperone service with it NOT popping up a notification on the phone being located?

Thanks
 
Which chocolate is it? 8500 or 8550? I'm wondering if there is a difference in the software that would prevent this from working the way you want.

But if you really want to know where your kid is at all times, then tell him to stop pressing 'no'. At the same time, if I were him, I would feel like you don't trust me. :shrug:
 
Its the 8550. This was upgraded from the previous version of the Chocolate, as they told me thats what I needed to fix the problem:(

I was really hoping to avoid the "privacy" debate on this. Didn't think it would be a problem after reading other Chaperone threads more or less telling a kid "deal w it" when he was complaining of invasion if his privacy.

And for the record, I DONT trust him, and with GOOD reason. But thats not the issue here. I just want to know who to believe at Verizon as far as what is "normal".
 
I don't have kids to worry about and neither I have the Chaperone service, but I faced this problem of Always Ask.

I had a Motorola E815. There wasn't an easy solution for that. To enable an application to ALWAYS have access, without prompting, you need to do some changes on the phone. In other words, you need to hack it.

I had some luck on finding hacking tools for my moto phone, but I have no idea on Chocolate phones. Do some good search on bitpim and search for specific changes you have to do on the Chocolate to enable web access by default.

Like I said, at least for my e815, there wasn't an easy solution. Oh yes, and to get access to the phone by using the computer, you need a data cable or check if you could make those changes by bluetooth, where the latter isn't recommended.
 
I know they just made the switch with the fcc to allow this with out notifying the user. It may be possible that Verizon just has to update the Chaperone application that is being downloaded to the phones to prevent the user from being notified. I don't have any experience with that service even though I am an indirect agent for Verizon. However I don't think its an issue with the phone I feel it is the application. I will send an email to my ISAM and see if I can get more info on this for u.

Thanks and good luck
 
I have the same EXACT issue with my 13 year-old daughter's phone. She has the Samsung Juke and it is about 10 months old. I have spent countless hours on the phone with Verizon to fix this. One tech was able to fix it, but did not make notations on my acccount as to what exactly he did. Less than a month after that it started acting up again. The next 3 or so techs I spoke with were at a loss. About 3 days ago I was given a trouble ticket number and told I needed to go to the Verizon store and have the firmware on the phone upgraded. I have not gone as of yet, but I am skeptical as the phone is not that old. My suggestion to you (because it worked for me) is to ask for a credit for all the months the service has been allowing your son to cancel the locate. I was credited the $9.95 for as far back as they could go. (4 months) It's the least they can do since they can't even figure out there own glitches & let us waste time on hold trying to fix it. Why can't they take the info & get back to me if/when it's corrected? Last call was 90 minutes of my life I will NEVER get back!! I plan to visit their store tomorrow 3/21/09 & I will repost or reply if the firmware upgrade solves the problem. Good luck.
 
For whatever it's worth, my 2 cents.
The service appears to work fine and is a worthwhile logical concept although the software defeats the purpose. I haven't been able to find a way to disable the "child's" ability to either cancel the search or disable the subscription or remove the software from the phone. Waiting on feedback from Verizon but almost guess what they'll tell me. My problem is this: Let's say, hypothetically, that the child is abducted, God forbid, and the abductor obviously is aware the child has a phone. There is nothing preventing this person from either turning the phone off, manually cancelling any searches, disabling the software subscription, or removing the software all together. This would be worst case but I know there are folks out there that do have problem children and wish to keep tabs on them. Someone at Verizon needs to correct this problem or risk losing subscribers to their Chaperone service. That is likely my path. Again, it is a fine service but I can't continue to pay 10 bucks a month for a service that I can't configure for MY needs.
If anyone has an answer or a work around I sure would appreciate some input.
Thanks
 
Do you think this app could help locate a lost phone?...how detailed is the Map dispay for location of the child phone?...I never used this app just heard about it, I was just wondering cause incase you could'nt tell I lost my phone but I know it's still alive out there somewhere.
 
Back
Top