- These days, $80 doesn't get you very far.
But if you have aging parents,
it could get you a GetSafe Medical Alert System
to help them in an emergency.
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GetSafe is the most affordable in-home medical alert system
we've come across for anyone.
It has one of the fastest response times we've ever seen
in systems that we've tested
and its flat monthly rate is super affordable
for in-home care,
and it doesn't budge
after you add on equipment like wall buttons,
plus there's no need to wear anything 24/7,
but according to our medical alert expert, Cathy Habas,
GetSafe wasn't without its share of issues.
- Well, I accidentally called the monitoring center
when I was pairing the buttons.
- She also noted how difficult it was to understand
the monitoring pro through the base station.
- [Operator] You have a GetSafe emergency, do you need help?
- And the voice-enabled wall button
- [Operator] It's been a pleasure speaking with you today.
- And while it's only 24.99 per month for in-home systems,
GetSafe doesn't hold that value
if you opt for the mobile GPS unit.
That device alone will set you back $80
plus another 20 a month.
So how do we know all of this?
We tested a GetSafe system.
- My name is Cathy Habas
and I'm a staff writer for safewise.com.
- Cathy has been testing and writing
about medical alert systems for over a year.
So she's pretty familiar with the process.
You can read Cathy's full GetSafe review on safewise.com,
but let's hear how it went straight from the source.
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GetSafe boasts a plug-and-play kind of setup,
and while it only took a few minutes
for Cathy to set the system up,
she ran into a few minor roadblocks.
- It's pretty much plug and play.
You just plug in the base unit
and there's a little switch on the back
and you turn it on and then it takes it from there.
It connects itself to your, the local cellular network,
and there's really nothing else that you have to do.
It kind of flashes some lights,
makes a few beeps and then it'll tell you that it's online.
You also have to pair any accessories that you get with it.
Sometimes they come pre-paired.
So you might just wanna chat with GetSafe before you buy,
but the pairing process was a little tricky for me
because I accidentally set off a call
to the monitoring center when I thought
that I was actually just pairing my buttons.
- Was it easy to cancel that call
when you accidentally set it off?
- Yes, so they're very used to people
setting off alarms intentionally to test the equipment.
So all you have to do is say, "No, I don't need help.
I was just testing it,"
or you can say, "You know what?
I thought I was canceling that call, what happened?"
I just kinda was like, "Oh, I don't need help,"
'cause I was surprised,
but then they just kinda confirm,
"Okay, you don't need help.
I'm gonna hang up now."
So there's a pairing button on the side of the unit
that you press for five seconds
and then it goes into like pairing mode,
and then you press the buttons to pair it to the machine.
So that's where it all went awry.
I guess it wasn't actually in pairing mode
and I pressed some buttons.
- So pro tip, make sure it's in pairing mode
if you have to pair them.
So if you opt for GetSafe
and your buttons aren't working right out of the box,
set the base station to pairing mode on the side,
then follow the instructions in the quick start guide.
Most medical alert systems
encourage users to test their systems at least once a month.
This means pressing wall buttons, the base station,
and pendants to make sure that they're responsive.
So Cathy did just that and found out that GetSafe
has some of the fastest response times in the biz.
- Yeah, they took less than 30 seconds,
pretty much every time I placed a test call.
That is about as rapid as you can get
at least in my experience
- The most notable lesson from her testing
was that you should always check the address
on your account.
- So in my latest round of medical alert testing,
I was testing GetSafe and I placed a call
and I was waiting to hear the voice
on the other end say, "Hi, it's GetSafe,"
and nothing happened.
So the machine started to make some noise,
like everything was going well,
and then it just kinda went silent.
And I had no indication that anything
was happening, that anyone could hear me,
that my call even went through.
I think maybe there was still a light
on the base unit that was kinda like orange,
and that was the only thing that was telling me
that like a call was trying to go through.
So I did hit end up hitting the cancel or the reset button
because I waited a whole two minutes,
I thought I'll give him a, you know,
I'll give him a chance to answer.
So I was like, oh, this is exactly why
you have to test your medical alert system,
because if it's not gonna work,
you wanna know before there's an emergency,
right? - Right.
- So I was like, "Well, I'll try it one more time
because technology is just kind of goofy sometimes."
So I tried it again, same thing.
It kinda was like, "Oh yeah, we're gonna make the call,"
and then it went silent.
I just thought I'm gonna have to get on there
with customer service and get a new unit, whatever,
and then our marketing manager,
like 10 minutes later was messaging me,
and she was like,
"Did you test any medical alert systems today?"
And I'm like, "Oh, yeah, I did,"
thinking, you know, I'm on the ball.
I'm getting stuff done, that's right,
and I'm like, "Uh, why?
And she sends me this clip
from her Ring camera of all these paramedics
showing up at her house
because the unit was still in her name,
and I guess those calls went through
and they thought there was an emergency
and they sent people over.
So it was a little embarrassing
from a product-testing standpoint
'cause you hate to create a ruckus, but yeah,
so we kinda accidentally got to test
the full response time of GetSafe.
From my time stamps
and her timestamps was about 15 minutes
and I have to say,
and that's 15 minutes from me pressing that button for help,
and then paramedics like rolling out of their ambulance
onto her front lawn, right,
and I'm not sure how I feel
about that response time to be honest.
15 minutes is kind of, feels like an eternity
if you're, you know, in an emergency.
- Honestly, that story applies more to medical alert systems
in general than to GetSafe specifically.
If you move, be sure to change the address
on these devices, too,
because otherwise, you might send help to the wrong home.
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So who is GetSafe best for?
I'll let Cathy take this one
- GetSafe is marketed toward people
who don't wanna wear a button.
So they don't wanna wear that pendant
or the pretty clinical-looking
wristwatch button, but they still spend a lotta time alone
and they're at risk of falling
or having a medical issue and needing help.
So it's great for anybody who wants an in-home system,
but it's especially great,
if say you are buying for an older parent and you know
that they're probably gonna be a little bit resistant.
You can at least have all the equipment set up in the house
and say, "Okay, you don't have to wear anything,"
but, you know, if worse comes to worse and they need help,
they'll have a button available.
It's also one of the most affordable systems
as long as you stick with the in-home equipment.
So I did the math on getting the GPS system
and adding fall detection to that,
and that is not affordable.
If you are wanting GPS,
a mobile GPS unit, you might wanna look at other companies,
but if you want an in-home system
with voice activation or just a lot of buttons
and you don't wanna spend like three bucks per month
for every single button, which is how a lot of the companies
have their pricing structure,
then GetSafe is very affordable.
- We've dropped a link to Cathy's full review
on GetSafe in the description below.
There, you can learn more about GetSafe's equipment, prices,
and learn more about our testing processes,
and like and subscribe to learn more
about medical alert systems like GetSafe
on our YouTube channel.
Thanks for watching, and if you want more safety,
head over to safewise.com and you can find reviews
and our lineups of best home security systems,
best wireless cameras and more, stay safe.
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