I realize it's about using "reminders," but sometimes you have to find other ways to accomplish your goals, or spend your time being frustrated with something that doesn't work right. It's pretty clear that at this point in time, "reminders" aren't fully functional.
I have been using Tasker for geofenced notifications for some time and it has worked well, with the exception being it is much more time consuming to set up new locations. So rather thananother workaround, I am looking to share experiences with folks based on the topic at hand.
I set up 2 location based reminders today before going out. This time they were 2 for 2, with me getting the notifications within a couple of minutes of arriving at the set locations. I noticed that the corresponding cards were not displayed at the time of the notifications however, with them showing up a little bit later (after having dismissed the notifications). Decidedly different behavior than time based reminders whose cards are available in Now for a period (within the hour I think) prior to the notifications.
While I was out I also noticed a reminder on my Nexus 4 that I had set on my Nexus 7. This "reminded" me that if you have multiple devices using the same account there might be some interference. Not sure just what Google's algorithms look like for determining which device is the trigger for geofenced events (just the one in motion, in order via syncing, etc.), and whether or not there's any usage history that is kept and learned from. I only know that within the course of 3 days, I have gone from 0% reliability to 100%, albeit with very limited trials.
Like so much of Android, it would be nice if Google would explain how some of this stuff works rather than us having to discover it via the Braille method. In any event, the more I use it, the better it seems to work. But I can't say at this point whether it is the actual usage that's helping, or just Google ramping up on it over time.