BMW Advertising Functionality/Features That Don't Exist/Work

[darkerosxx]

So, my general issue here is that there seems to be a huge disconnect between marketing and engineering (IT engineering, Vehicle Feature Engineering, etc.) at BMW.

Here is what I have experienced in the last month:

Bought my M235i in March:

1.) The BMW Assist sign-up at the dealership was broken (the website), as in it wouldn't complete the application after we put all the information in, it would just fail out. I came back a few days later, still broken. Came back a week later, still broken, so we called their help desk and they said they were having database issues, the application had to be restarted. We did, it worked, or so we thought. I got in the car and the intro with the Assist tech on the line went through fine, but when trying to use the BMW Remote app, we found my account's "secondary account information" was missing my email address, so my e-mail address had to be added. They were going to create a ticket, but it was expected to take two weeks to complete. It takes two weeks to add an e-mail address? Wow. It's now been a month since I bought my car and this is still broken.

2.) The Google Maps "send to car" functionality does not work. I would blame Google for this if I hadn't been seeing BMW commercials advertising specifically this feature as available for their vehicles. See this thread: https://productforums.google.com/d/m...A/J1Y0b3ZIhQ8J

3.) The M235i was sent out with features advertised that do not exist on the vehicle, or do not exist as described. Examples: a.) the harman kardon sound system was advertised as 16 speakers, 600W amp, but is in reality 12 speakers, 360W, and does not have the HK sound processing. b.) the comfort access package was advertised to have the hands-free trunk opening feature, but it does not. (The website was changed immediately after these were reported in the 2-series forums here, so the forums are obviously being read)

I'm not complaining or anything other than sharing this information so that others are aware this is going on and to make sure they're getting what they pay for, because it seems right now the BMW marketing and IT engineering department is getting very lazy.

[flavius]

Originally Posted by darkerosxx

So, my general issue here is that there seems to be a huge disconnect between marketing and engineering (IT engineering, Vehicle Feature Engineering, etc.) at BMW.

Here is what I have experienced in the last month:

Bought my M235i in March:

1.) The BMW Assist sign-up at the dealership was broken (the website), as in it wouldn't complete the application after we put all the information in, it would just fail out. I came back a few days later, still broken. Came back a week later, still broken, so we called their help desk and they said they were having database issues, the application had to be restarted. We did, it worked, or so we thought. I got in the car and the intro with the Assist tech on the line went through fine, but when trying to use the BMW Remote app, we found my account's "secondary account information" was missing my email address, so my e-mail address had to be added. They were going to create a ticket, but it was expected to take two weeks to complete. It takes two weeks to add an e-mail address? Wow. It's now been a month since I bought my car and this is still broken.

Sure, that doesn't look good. But all things considered this is not a biggie.

2.) The Google Maps "send to car" functionality does not work. I would blame Google for this if I hadn't been seeing BMW commercials advertising specifically this feature as available for their vehicles. See this thread: https://productforums.google.com/d/m...A/J1Y0b3ZIhQ8J

That was a Google issue. I have been using this feature with classic version of maps since I got my car which was last November. I just read it's now available in the new maps version but I haven't tested that.

3.) The M235i was sent out with features advertised that do not exist on the vehicle, or do not exist as described. Examples: a.) the harman kardon sound system was advertised as 16 speakers, 600W amp, but is in reality 12 speakers, 360W, and does not have the HK sound processing. b.) the comfort access package was advertised to have the hands-free trunk opening feature, but it does not. (The website was changed immediately after these were reported in the 2-series forums here, so the forums are obviously being read)

That sounds like a serious oversight but errors do happen.

I'm not complaining or anything other than sharing this information so that others are aware this is going on and to make sure they're getting what they pay for, because it seems right now the BMW marketing and IT engineering department is getting very lazy.

That's overstating it. It's more like that you caught them on a bad day.

[darkerosxx]

Yeah, I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, it's just that some of these were so easy to check on that them being such small mistakes actually, for me being a detailed person, makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. No love lost, just a little disappointment.

[JR956678]

Originally Posted by darkerosxx

They were going to create a ticket, but it was expected to take two weeks to complete. It takes two weeks to add an e-mail address? Wow. It's now been a month since I bought my car and this is still broken.

Your experience sounds much like mine. But I ended up calling the BMW Assist line (888-333-6118) on my phone instead of from the car and spoke directly to someone who put my email address in immediately. She advised it could take 2 to 24 hours before the app would work but it actually started working within about 12 hours. In my case I was adding a vehicle to my existing Assist account which is why they couldn't do it when I called from the car - the email address was already in use.

Also for others who may encounter the same issue - the version of Firefox released in late March broke the "Send to Car" function in Firefox - but it does work in Chrome and I've read also in IE. I blamed BMW and then Google for changing something when it was Firefox that made the change that broke the feature.

[darkerosxx]

Official BMW response about comfort access advertising hands-free trunk, but not putting it on the vehicle: there is a disclaimer on the website saying that there may be inconsistencies in what's advertised and what's actually on the vehicle. It's up to the customer to confirm features exist on their vehicle before purchasing.

Sickening. The correct response is "sorry, we messed up, we'll get it right next time by improving our website quality assurance", but they said it was my fault for not checking. They said I should have asked the sales rep, when I said I did and he said it was there but he didn't know how to work it, she said I should have checked further. What? This wasn't a simple fact of not including a package or feature, it was advertised as included in the premium package.

Minus points for BMW brand