[eskdale]

Being new to BMW I am horrified at the after-sales service. Is this typical BMW or is it unusual?

I have 3 issues which I'm trying to sort out which the sales dept couldn't help with, they spoke to service and service gave them a number for assistance with Connected Drive. Which they passed on to myself. I am very happy to sort the issue out but need to find someone that can help.
BMW Customer services say that they can not help as they don't have access to Technical support this has to go through the dealers service dept.

When I phoned the connected drive help line I found myself talking to the same person at Customer services. Who kindly took it upon himself to contact the dealer to contact me to sort out the issue. However it took 2 more calls to Customer services before the dealer service manager phoned me.

Now from my description of the issues to him over the phone he decided that he needs to get the car into the workshop for 3 days!!! to be on the safe side but the first possible date it the 19th March - A month away.

This in my opinion is totally unacceptable. I have just spent over £50k on a new vehicle which doesn't perform as it should. What it needs first is to find someone to talk to which understands the problem if the Dealer doesn't know then let BMW sort it out. May be its a known issue, may be there is an update for it. I know the car can be driven but that is not what I paid all that money for, I didn't buy just a method of transport. A large portion of the money was for the electronics in the car, and if that does not work then what I bought is not working. If I'd spent that money on a home theatre system you would expect it to work and wouldn't expect to wait another month (total of 6 weeks) before someone would even look at the problem.

Two of the issues are in these threads. Looking at the number of replies to the threads, no one on the forums have any answers either.

Can anyone help with Data via Bluetooth

Delay in Connected Drive operating

I've never had these problems in the past with other car manufacturers. On the few occasions that I've had issues the dealer has either sorted it quickly or immediately contacted the manufacturer. 1 to 2 days at maximum to look at the problem and analyse it would be acceptable. To say we will have a look in a months time is outrageous!!!

Now is this just this dealer or is it's BMW's typical service?

Thoughts anyone

[E90Fleet]

Both those sound like more of a issue with your phone, sim card or mobile operator.

What phones have you used ?

[eskdale]

Hi - Thanks for the reply.

• The connected drive delay issue is certainly nothing to do with my phone as it is using only the Built in Sim and equipment supplied with the car, the service provider is out of my control as it is supplied by BMW, so as far as I'm concerned it is BMW's problem - anyone disagree?
• The Data via Bluetooth could be a phone issue but it is using a Nokia 6700 Classic which is an approved phone on the BMW compatibility list. It wasn't my normal phone or choice of phone that I would use but I'm using that as that is one that BMW recommend. If its a problem with my phone then all I ask is that they demonstrate it working with one of their recommended phones (I've tried 2 different phones which enable the data option). I can't be fairer than that can I. The tick box says use data from bluetooth device but it doesn't.

The fact that the problems exist is one issue but another is that BMW don't want to even think about the problem for another month!!

[E90Fleet]

I understand your frustration.
Usually it does not take so long to get a appointment unless your dealer is very busy or they have to get a specialist out to check the car who is very busy for some unknown reason.

In the mean time lets think of things you can test easily yourself to see if this can be fixed or if you can give more info to the person that will look at the car.


Now just to be clear:
1) When you park in a area with Assist coverage then the Connected drive and traffic features work immediately ?
2) Have you only tested a Nokia 6700 ? ( I know you said 2 phones but were both 6700 ?

3)Have you ever driven the 1 mile or so from your home till you get BMW coverage, shut down the car and restarted to see if you immediately get the functions to work ?

[eskdale]

Originally Posted by E90Fleet

I understand your frustration.
Usually it does not take so long to get a appointment unless your dealer is very busy or they have to get a specialist out to check the car who is very busy for some unknown reason.

In the mean time lets think of things you can test easily yourself to see if this can be fixed or if you can give more info to the person that will look at the car.


Now just to be clear:
1) When you park in a area with Assist coverage then the Connected drive and traffic features work immediately ?
2) Have you only tested a Nokia 6700 ? ( I know you said 2 phones but were both 6700 ?

3)Have you ever driven the 1 mile or so from your home till you get BMW coverage, shut down the car and restarted to see if you immediately get the functions to work ?

1) Yes almost immediately - an acceptable / expected performance

2) I also tested with a Nokia N86 as well - This gives the data via bluetooth option but again the car does not use it. There are not many phones that support it. Really it seems to be Nokia's. I can support Bluetooth Dial up networking with an app on my Samsung Galaxy S2 but the although the car recognises the phone and pairs with it for most functions it does not give the data option. This would be nice but I can't complain as this is not on the Bluetooth compatibility list.

3) yes I've driven from home to the town parked up in the carpark - shut the ignition off waited 30 seconds and restarted it and it still took half an hour / 20 miles before it started working. (All this sales blub that if your in an accident or any info you need just call my info or the real time traffic info - none of it works!!).

[E90Fleet]

Originally Posted by eskdale

1) Yes almost immediately - an acceptable / expected performance


3) yes I've driven from home to the town parked up in the carpark - shut the ignition off waited 30 seconds and restarted it and it still took half an hour / 20 miles before it started working. (All this sales blub that if your in an accident or any info you need just call my info or the real time traffic info - none of it works!!).

Ok, so within a number of miles around your house it either doesnt work or takes long to connect.

But in another area far away, such as by your work it works pretty quickly.



I am trying to get as much info as I can for the datalinks.
Lets continue to be patient and try and work this out

[eskdale]

Originally Posted by E90Fleet

Ok, so within a number of miles around your house it either doesnt work or takes long to connect.

But in another area far away, such as by your work it works pretty quickly.



I am trying to get as much info as I can for the datalinks.
Lets continue to be patient and try and work this out

Thanks for your help on this - appreciated.

As far as I can tell the problem seems to occur when the car has been out of coverage for some significant time. Once its been out of coverage for a long time say overnight, it doesn't work for some half an hour even when it is brought back into coverage. Parked outside the office its in coverage so the problem doesn't occur. I would expect people that park in an underground garage or similar where there is no coverage to see something similar if this is a design issue. Anyone?

UPDATE:
Dealer did phone me back just now- Hopefully he got the message how unhappy I was with their service.

For the Data via bluetooth he said he had made some enquires and the car will only use the data via bluetooth for the Mobile service menu (where you can make a call to transmit your data to BMW of the car status) This seems rather stupid to me (anyone know if this is really the case?) so I went out to the car to try it and no matter how I tried I couldn't get the data via bluetooth option to appear on the idrive (just as it was before I updated the software) Will try again at home to see if it will there.
As for the connected drive delay. He wasn't at all hopeful with that, as all he said he could do is connect it to the computer and see if there were any faults logged and he could try it at the workshop. And we all know its going to work at the workshop. looks like it might be a battle of this.

[E90Fleet]

Current theories

A) Its a BMW Assist problem

If this is true then as you have said others with Assist should see the same thing when parking in a area without signal

One way to test this is if you could get another car with Assist to your house and let both cars sit in the no-coverage area for the same time then see if both dont have coverage and if so how long each takes to get coverage when moved to a known good area.

Multiple forums to mention though that in the UK Orange does give Assist coverage in some areas, so why not yours ?

B) Problem with your backup GSM antenna

It seems Assist uses the "backup" GSM antenna usually located near the one rear wheel well and not the normal phone antenna.

Maybe your antenna is faulty or has a loose connection, making reception difficult unless its in a strong signal area.
This may be why you dont get coverage at your house

Also Assists uses EDGE and not 3g, which may have a lot of problems with a faulty antenna

The 2nd car test would show this


C) The telephone unit as a whole is defective



__________________________________________


It really seems the by far the quickest and easiest test is to get a 2nd car with Assist.
This would quickly narrow it down to a BMW problem or a problem with your car

[eskdale]

Thanks again:-

A) Its a BMW Assist problem

It would be very helpful to know if others are seeing this problem in any way
Anyone?

As for trying another vehicle with Assist - agree that would be a good and simple test. Did suggest it to the dealer but he wasn't keen.

Your comment of UK orange giving Assist coverage is very interesting. I did a quick google but couldn't find anything. As I understand, but most of this is unconfirmed so if anyone can fill in the gaps it would be appreciated.
The car mobile module is a GSM900 only and doesn't support GSM1800 or any 3G or 4G signals.
Running only on GSM900 it supports only GPRS or EDGE data. Now if this is true it can't use either Orange or T-Mobile in the UK as these use GSM1800. Customer services tell me that they don't know what it uses but they did say it has a T-Mobile SIM card.
T-Mobile was a German company so this makes some sense. In Germany T-Mobile operate on GSM900 but in the UK T-Mobile operate on GSM1800. So if the above is true they must have a roaming agreement with Vodafone and or O2 as these are the only providers using GSM900 in the UK. Coverage in practise looks to be similar to Vodafone as my TomTom live which I know uses TomTom has no coverage at home but unlike the BMW it starts to work as soon as you are 1 mile from home.

What would be wonderful would be to replace the phone module with one that supports both GSM900 and GSM1800 or even better 3G as well

B) Problem with your backup GSM antenna

Interesting I didn't realise it wasn't using a roof antenna

C) The telephone unit as a whole is defective

In a way I wish it was, as at least it would be an easy fix but I can't see how I'm going to convince the dealer of this as he is going to say it works fine in his workshop.

I would love to hear if any other users see the problem or could confirm that they don't see the problem.

Thanks

[eskdale]

The Dealer asked me to try the Teleservices as per this page

Manual BMW Teleservices call

but my car doesn't have this menu I have



and when I select this I get




I also have this



But that doesn't work either