[Seaford]

Response from Connected…and yes, I will be escalating as a complaint!!

======================
Thanks for contacting BMW ConnectedDrive.

After having look into this for you If you wish to escalate this further with our complaints team, you can find the information on the BMW escalation process for the complaints procedure on our website by clicking here.

Alternatively please find the contact details for our Customer Service team below:

0370 5050 160 - Lines are open from 9am - 6pm Monday to Friday.

I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused - If there’s anything else I can help you with, please do get back in touch.

Kind regards

[Seaford]

Finally got round to lodging a formal complaint.

I will update in due course…..


………….

Hello,

VIN and other details per attached image.

While I was abroad shortly before Xmas I was notified that the BMW Connected service for my car had expired. This seemed odd as the car was not yet three years old (registered 30 June 2020) but as a matter of expediency I renewed. Having subsequently investigated further I was still at a loss as to why Connected had expired so I contacted the Connected team who advised that Connected was ‘three years and ninety days from manufacture’. This was challenged as the date of manufacture is irrelevant to me as a consumer and your brochures clearly state that Connected is ‘free’ for three years (see attached). As you will see below I was given a link by Connected (albeit an incorrect one) to lodge a complaint.

I can see that the standard ‘three years plus ninety days’ from manufacture probably covers the vast majority of BMWs sold but I do not see why I should be disadvantaged if the delivery/sales process runs past ninety days from the date of manufacture.

As such I would again respectfully request that BMW extend my current subscription to 29 June 2024 I.e. three years from the date of registration plus the one year current subscription.

Thank you in anticipation,

[Seaford]

No response…chaser sent today…..

Sigh….

[srbs73]

Originally Posted by Seaford

No response…chaser sent today…..

Sigh….

I got a quick response a while back when I tagged @BMW_UK on twitter. I got a DM and they were very responsive.

[Seaford]

As I hadn’t heard anything at all I phoned bmw who confirmed they have the complaint - the chap said he would chase for a response which was supposed to go out within two days of receipt….my complaint was sent 18 January…not even an acknowledgement since then

[Seaford]

As suggested above I posted on bmw uk Facebook page and got the following response.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Good morning xxxxxxxx

Thanks for your message about our ConnectedDrive Services.

I've found the email you sent to BMW Customer Services under case reference xxxxxxxxxxx

Our Customer Service Complaints Team are currently experiencing a higher volume of emails and calls, I can only apologise for the delay in receiving a response.

I’m happy to look into this over Social Media, it means you won’t get a response to your email, but it will be looked into quicker.

Please let me know if you would like me to do this.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Xxxxxxxx
The BMW UK Social Media Team

Xxxxxxxxxxx

That just smacks of someone ticking a box saying ‘dealt with, closed’ to make their statistics look good.

Why on earth Wouldn’t I want them to deal with it??

[Beemer5to3]

Seaford I’d give up mate - I got a really wishy washy response as part of my complaint, saying it can only be dealt with once the subscription comes to an end. Because mine is part of a larger complaint, I’m considering raising with the Financial Ombudsman just because BMWFS have pissed me round so much.

[Seaford]

Originally Posted by Beemer5to3

Seaford I’d give up mate - I got a really wishy washy response as part of my complaint, saying it can only be dealt with once the subscription comes to an end. Because mine is part of a larger complaint, I’m considering raising with the Financial Ombudsman just because BMWFS have pissed me round so much.

No way am I leaving it

[Seaford]

It just gets better……

[Seaford]

Success at last!!!

My advice is to push BMW Uk on this, it is in my opinion unfair and just plain wrong. I would guess they don’t want it to become an issue across a wide ownership base….

***********
Thanks for your email. I'm sorry for the delay in response, we've recently been receiving a high volume of emails, so it's taken longer to get back to you.

The ConnectedDrive team was correct in informing you that the complimentary period of the ConnectedDrive services is for 3 years and 90 days, so I can only apologise that you weren't made aware of this at the point of purchase.

In light of your experience with BMW Customer Services, I'm more than happy to extend your ConnectedDrive Booster packager for an extra 12 months as a one off gesture of goodwill. I've contacted our ConnectedDrive team on your behalf to arrange this for you, and this will be added automatically when your subscription ends.

If there's anything else I can do to help in the future, please get back in touch.
***********

[Seaford]

330Stevie you asked to be kept updated…..

[srbs73]

Glad to see your perseverance paid off! Congrats

[330Stevie]

Originally Posted by Seaford

330Stevie you asked to be kept updated…..

Thanks Seaford!

A great result in the end. Such a shame it comes to this. Good customer service goes such a long way for brand loyalty however is rarely seen without a fight in the current climate.

I did recently get a proactive goodwill gesture unprompted by by dealer a couple of weeks ago! They waived the charge of my brake fluid change whilst it was in for a faulty head unit that had previously been failed to be fixed….

Originally Posted by Seaford

It just gets better……

BMW Customer service are a complete waste of space... I tried following there "official" complaints procedure.. Just got told nothing they could do its down to the dealers..

No idea why they are being paid!

[srbs73]

Yeah, I couldn't be bothered to take a recent issue forward.

I had my brake fluid change come up last week so booked online for 22nd March. 2 days later got a call saying the online system isn't integrating with the actual booking system and nothing until 6th April. Bit crap but wasn't too bothered.

Then this week, I started getting a warning in the main screen that there was a sensor fault - essentially ACC, parking sensors etc all throwing an error. I had the 11/2022.60 software upgrade pending so thought I'd try that first along with overnight battery charge (as car hadn't been used much and this fixed electrical gremlins a while back). I thought for half a day it had fixed it, but then today it came back.

It's really annoying as it chimes and throws the error every 30 or so seconds. Only way to shut it up is to hold down the button on the dash that turns all sensors off.

Phoned up dealer to see if I could get an earlier appointment and was told the only way to do it, was to phone the recovery line and get the car towed and then apply for a hire car! I said that's complete overkill and happy to be flexible and take a slot at short notice etc, but just wanted a slot earlier than 4 weeks away. Spoke to manager and he just said only option was via recovery.

Seems BMW now are so process driven, there's zero customer service or common sense. I'm almost certain it won't be fixed first time when it does go in, as the first thing they'll do is upgrade to 03/2023 and hand it back!

[Seaford]

Having received a completely nonsense email from Connected ‘attaching an invoice for your Connected subscription’ (which it didn’t I checked my subscription this morning and was shocked to see that it has been extended to December 2024/as they said they would!!

Cynical old me had marked the calendar to chase them in June as I fully expected that they wouldn’t do what they said they would.

[bmnut]

I think the key word here is 'perseverance'!
All credit due to you for achieving that result, sometimes 'wars of attrition' against big companies does pay off!

[RichardM]

I just had the notification mine expires on 26th April. The car isn't 3 years old until 1st June but was stuck in the port through Covid lockdown. Going to the website link in the email is just an endless loop between logging in and selecting country, I can't get past that.

Who did you contact Seaford to get a resolution in the end?

[Seaford]

Originally Posted by RichardM

I just had the notification mine expires on 26th April. The car isn't 3 years old until 1st June but was stuck in the port through Covid lockdown. Going to the website link in the email is just an endless loop between logging in and selecting country, I can't get past that.

Who did you contact Seaford to get a resolution in the end?

I lodged a formal complaint using their complaints process.

which produced absolutely nothing for about three months - not even an acknowledgement - then out of the blue I got the response I wanted.

[Beemer5to3]

Seaford their complaints process is laughable isn’t it - you know the issues I had with the damaged windscreen, which was resolved back in Jan, but I got an email this week from BMW UK asking for more information. I simply replied saying - read your emails. I can’t even be arsed to pursue the connected drive thing any more - just going to enjoy the car and suck it up. 3 months of relentless pushing to get the screen replaced on a near £60k car was quite enough for me!

[Seaford]

Originally Posted by Beemer5to3

Seaford their complaints process is laughable isn’t it - you know the issues I had with the damaged windscreen, which was resolved back in Jan, but I got an email this week from BMW UK asking for more information. I simply replied saying - read your emails. I can’t even be arsed to pursue the connected drive thing any more - just going to enjoy the car and suck it up. 3 months of relentless pushing to get the screen replaced on a near £60k car was quite enough for me!

Yes it is laughable. Someone on here suggested I complain on the bmwuk Facebook page which I did…and I immediately got a response asking for more information. Happy days I thought…and their response was to contact the Connected team. Couldn’t make it up. Annoyingly the person that did this will have marked the case ‘successfully completed’ and it will make their stats look good.

[330Stevie]

So mine runs out in 13 days (connected drive) for some reason in the renewals part of the app it shows the expiry yet won’t let me renew it. In fact it says it’s not renewable? Anyone had similar?