Karri Reviews 

Nothing received and no communication since ordered in April. I’ll update this when I receive it with a review about the actual product. If it doesn’t come before I go away in a couple of weeks (as they managed to sell on Amazon following my order so obviously have stock) I’ll cancel and be putting a complaint through to TS.

I wonder if not contacting people with any updates has left a lot of money in their pockets from people who forgot they ever ordered….it really makes me question their integrity of the company altogether.

I also wonder how many of these 5* reviews are real, they seem almost too perfect to me, almost AI like…. 🫣 a bit like people have mentioned their ‘perfectly over polite’ emails have been….another review suggesting having to buy a subscription before shipping the product is wild. You buy the product you should not have to pay for a sub to receive it…. For it to work maybe, but that’s like buying a phone handset and being told they won’t ship until you pay for a sim.

Update: the company emailed stating they emailed me in June (they didn’t) regarding my order and setting up a sub so they could send the product I paid for…apparently before I responded to the non-existent email they decided the ones in my chosen colour way were ‘not in good condition’. They would have offered me another colour but didn’t email to offer this as I hadn’t signed up to a subscription (again, not the physical item I ordered which should have been sent regardless). Since then they all ran out…apparently. I wonder how much money they have made so far on UNSENT items, plus interest in accounts from this money that they used to develop a new item with. I’d be interested to know how many people have forgotten about their order and if they remember they’ll get the same rubbish about ‘an email was sent, we withheld the item you paid for as you didn’t sign up for the sub’. Although I’m sure there was an option to sign up for the subscription upon ordering….

I managed to get one of these (I guess by luck) on Amazon UK and missed the long waiting line.
It is is brilliant. My 6 year old picked up how to work it quickly. The GPS is accurate. My son loves sending messages to all of us and I am looking forward to him being able to contact us when he is at play dates with friends. Absolutely ticks all the boxes. I have pre-ordered a gen 2 as that one looks even better but the gen 1 we have is excellent.

Perpetual preorder
Ordered in April 2024. After finally getting my hopes up that my device will finally be shipped out as they keep promising me via email, they now ask me to sign up to a membership subscription before they will dispatch the item. Now that is shady. Just price the device correctly to begin with or be honest.

I haven’t had an experience because money has been taken for something they haven’t delivered. Ordered Dec 24 in a “preorder” due in Feb. June next week and still not delivered.

In the meantime I find out from their Instagram that they have released on “preorder” a better model. So I have waited months for something that is now obsolete. Presumably money from the preorders has been used to fund development of the better model.

Addendum: after leaving this review I was contacted by Karri who provided me with three units (in different colours than those ordered, but I wasn't too worried about that). Their customer service - once I had made a fuss - was excellent. I understand that this is a start up company, but it could still do to focus more on under promise, over deliver.

In terms of using the units, I am finding the app a little tricky and I agree with a previous reviewer that the battery life is not ideal. I got these so that my children could communicate with their father without going through me when he is working away, and I am not sure that they will do the job (because of the battery life). However, they will be great to send my eldest to the shop by himself (there's a very busy road but he could do with some independence) and other times when they might need an ability to get hold of you.

I'm not aware of any similar products (and I've looked) so I'm persevering with them, and am very grateful to Karri for seeking to address my concerns and hope that they can iron out the minor issues with what has the potential to be a fantastic and unique product. .

Karri is an amazing example of a startup business that put huge effort into research and testing, has fantastic attention to detail, does communication so well, really focuses on customer feedback and offers excellent client service. The Karri products are really great and have helped us give our children a sense of independence and autonomy. They’re robust and work really well, while being easy to use. Overall we’ve had an incredibly positive customer experience and would recommend Karri to anyone.

I pre ordered the Karri back in the middle of last year and have now recieved it and here are my thoughts! 

1) Yes, it was a long pre order, but we were kept updated and if I wanted a more specific idea of time I just popped them an email and they responded quickly and were helpful. 

2) Unfortunately the device i ordered (the colour) was going to be delayed, so they offered me a different colour or to wait for the original colour, i chose to get a different colour delivered quickly. 

3) Device arrived and looked great, unfortunately it would not connect. However, they were absolutely great. So easy to contact, incredibly helpful, talked me through it and ultimately sent out a new device incredibly quickly. The customer support has been 100%, cannot fault them. 

4) New device arrived, and after a few hiccups getting it started. It is AMAZING! 

It is everything I wanted it to be, it is simple and easy to use. My 7 year old picked it up and immediately started using it. She has two chats set up, me and her Nanna. Her Nanna is on holiday at the moment and she is loving being able to chat with her independently. 

It gives her a bit of reassurance that she can always contact me when shes not with me and she thinks shes really cool and is telling everyone its amazing, she could even be miles away and still chat with mummy! 

Things im looking forward to: having the option of more chats and wifi connection. But apart from that, i think it does what it sets out to do perfectly. It is a safe, screen free way for children to stay in contact. If you start putting too many more functions on it, you start moving into the realms of a phone, which this is not. It would be nice to be a little smaller, however, my petite 7 year old still loves it and put it on a lanyard. 

Overall:

I would 100% recommend but remember, it is a new company, it is a new device. Expect a wait whilst in pre order stage, but also expect good communication and an incredible concept. Despite the few issues I expereinced I would still recommend them without hesitation. 

For those who dont want their child to have a phone yet, but want a screen free, safe, way to be able to keep in contact it is perfect! Oh and it has a GPS locator too! With the development they should only keep getting better!

What a fantastic company and product. To be able to offer our kids freedom without the fear of digital safety is a huge win for us. And the company just keep getting better and yet, constantly taking on board customer feedback to evolve with needs and wants. They have the customer experience journey down to a ‘T’.

We love the KARRI it allows my daughter the freedom without the worry with an actual phone. I love that I can track her and still communicate.

So with all the patience in the world I await my Karri - each day you think is it a scam? No - they are so polite in the emails -I’ve waited longer than Santa at this point. Last reason for delay was an issue with postage out of UK. My kids may well be in secondary school by the time it arrives!
Has anyone in Ireland received one yet? The 5 star reviews are what I would call perfectly staged reviews that this platform is well known for.

We love our Karri device! It gives our 11-year-old the freedom to start going out by himself in our local town without needing a phone. We plan to hold off from a phone for as long as possible, and our Karri is making this more possible. Any and all queries are dealt with so promptly - customer service really at its finest here!

What a great product, with totally unexpected uses! We got one for our 7 year old daughter for her to use for sleepovers or if she needed anything from us after school while her childminder was looking after her (she’s not ready to go out on her own yet, and we live in London so it’ll be a while yet before we try that!).

But it’s actually been most used when her father or I are travelling for work, so she can talk to us any time she feels she needs to without needing to negotiate with the adult in the house about screen time for video calls—and for just quick messages without the obligation of interrupting her play for a whole big catch-up call, or maybe not getting a hold of us if we’re busy.

It’s even useful when we’re working from home, as she can message us to ask if we can tell the childminder if she’s allowed a particular snack, or to play with a limited-access toy. It’s great that we can read the text transcript of her voice message while we’re on a call and choose whether to pause and respond.

Really impressed with the ease of use; even my four year old can send us messages. Also really impressed with how responsive the developers are to user feedback during this testing phase.

Great device for my children so that they don’t need a phone. Feel safer letting them roam our village knowing we can contact them and see their location.
Great communication from the company at all times.

Great company in the start up phase who are working hard to ensure they have the best product. Lucky enough to have been an early purchaser and have seen them grow and develop with the needs of their customers in mind

We love our Karri.

Our son (9) has struggled with separation anxiety and the Karri has given him the confidence to go and try new clubs/ play dates knowing he can message us if he needs us.

The location tool is reassuring for us too. The Karri is robust and really simple to use. With a dad who travels for work we’ve found this a great way for them to keep in touch independent of me. They send messages, sometimes loving, sometimes about farts … and it’s really helped them both keep in touch while apart. Much better than FaceTime where my partner is subjected to 200 filters and ignored!

Lucky to get in at the development stage, we’ve seen how hard the team has worked (and is working) to reiterate this product.

It’s a huge win for us and allows us to keep us free of the dreaded smartphones. I would absolutely recommend it to any parent.

We decided to try out Karri for our 5 year old daughter Nella as we spend a large chunk of the Christmas period away from her due to work.
We love it! It means that she can contact us at any time of day or night just to ‘check in’ with us when it’s not appropriate to FaceTime or voice call. It is a safe way of communicating with each other without the interruption of games, and other online video services that so many of these devices all have these days. Myself and Nella highly recommend this product and can’t wait for more updates to come!! Thanks team Karri!

I ordered 2 Karri devices in Jan 2024 as part of the presale. There are monthly updates sent but all they do is say things have been delayed. Its been nearly a year since I paid for the devices and haven’t received confirmation of when they’ll be shipped (it’s an every changing date on the updates) yet they are still taking orders for devices. It feels like a scam now.

I can’t review the product because it hasn’t yet arrived. I purchase one in a pre-sale in early August, with the view that it would be out for dispatch (read comments by Karri many, many times on social media replies) in early to mid October. It’s now November and not a single word on dispatch times.

I’ve been to the website again today to see now the estimate is ‘early 2025’ - what does this mean? January? March? April?! It doesn’t feel legitimate or ethical to be selling something and not keeping customers up to date with when they will actually receive the product. Even if it’s delayed, communication is a key tool in keeping confidence in the company you’ve purchased from.

It’s also frustrating to see ‘updated’ smaller models (costing more) being advertised and put on pre-sale, before the originals are even out. Makes me feel as though I’ve purchased something that wasn’t up to scratch, before I’ve ever had chance to use it.

I really hope it’s not a scam. :-/

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Edit after Karri replied:

No, I haven’t got the newsletter because I opted out of marketing communications. However, notifying me about the order I have already placed and paid for isn’t ‘marketing’. That shouldn’t come under the same bracket as marketing. As I’ve said via email, I don’t have marketing comms or newsletters from any of the other companies I order from, but they still email about orders I’ve paid for because that’s not marketing; that’s just communication about where my orders are and comes as standard.

The smaller products: that was via a social media advert. There were many comments underneath from
people who had ordered and were confused about why the original hadn’t been delivered but other models looked like they were in development. I didn’t screenshot this and can’t find now because it’s an advert, not a post. If I see it, I will forward it to you. Perhaps it was a scam using the Karri name.

Evelina was great via email comms; swift, polite, looked to resolve the issues, so it’s good to see customer service is effective.

I’ve replied to the email Evelina sent, where it says I should receive it by late February/March. I’ll update my review when it does.

Thank you.

Great platform. Everything you want to stay connected to your kids.

Fantastic tool for staying in touch with my kids when I'm away. Super easy to use and great design. Love the fact that you can send voice messages. I would highly recommend it to all parents!!

We were lucky enough to trial this product in its early phase of development! Impressive tech.
What we loved:
- Its like a walkie talkie with unlimited range
- You can send voice messages that either play instantly or later. We used this to send prerecorded messages to our kids reminding them of important things that were happening after school. (telling them in morning only resulted in them forgetting!)
- Its easy to use! Our kids had always struggled with walkie talkies letting the button go mid sentence. With karri they got how to use it instantly.
- The battery is pretty good - we´ve had xplora watches previously but they go empty pretty quickly. (Kids never remember to charge them)
- We like the fact karri has focused on one useful thing - voice messages! The xplora watches and mobiles have things like cameras , games etc - which just distracts kids.
- The sound quality is pretty good and the design is pretty funky.