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InReach Service Plan Question

D-LISH-S
7 months ago

Is there a satisfaction guarantee that's applicable to the service plans? Reason I ask is that I'd be interested in the unlimited, annual plan, but I'd like to try the service for a couple days before I make up my mind. My biggest issue is not having a dedicated MDN like Spot & Zoleo have -- I love knowing that anyone that's not tech savvy, doesn't have data access, or is simply disinterested in downloading another app to communicate with me, can just text to my Spot X with no issues. My hope is that Garmin does have a static MDN and just doesn't advertise it!

TIA for any assistance!!

  • 0 7 months ago

    No and No.

    AFAIK, there is no "trial plan". You can try calling customer (not tech) support.

    inReach devices do not have a dedicated address (for example, a dedicated SMS number aka MDN). Nor does the device have a dedicated email address. It DOES have a dedicated "inReach address" (in the form <something>@inreach.garmin.com). This LOOKS like an email address, but it is not. It is only useful inReach to inReach communication.

    The best way to think about "other people contacting my inReach device" is that they can REPLY to a message sent from my iR device. But they cannot initiate the communication. If you send an SMS to someone's phone, they can reply directly from the standard SMS app on the phone. If you send an email to someone, the email will contain a link to a web page from which the user can generate a reply.

    The exception is that a user with access to your MapShare web page can send a message to your device from the MapShare page. You must explicitly permit this. 

    The point of all of this complexity is that you pay for EVERY message to or from your device. So you get control. And it prevents spam to your device.

    Note that the ability to reply to an SMS has a limited lifetime. Most of us "prime the pump" prior to each trip. We send an SMS message to contacts who are likely to want to contact us during the trip.