hobbit
Well-Known Member
On a lark I decided to call the Bluelink support line [on the phone, not via the car] to ask
a question. Their autoresponder makes excuses about how the wait time is OVER 30
MINUTES. What can they be so hosed up with, to create conditions like that? Do they
have like 1 person working the phones?
I put the phone down and just let it sit, and finally got someone. She was deliberately
obtuse about my question: what information any car, subscribed or not, is sending
upstream to Bluelink's infrastructure, and what functionality is still present at that
layer [diagnostics, stolen-vehicle intervention, etc]. The non-answer kept being that
without an established customer account, they don't "go looking into" a vehicle. But
along the way it was obvious that given a particular cellular ID [via IMEI, assigned
number, something] they could still see the make/model/VIN and probably a bunch
of other stuff.
They wouldn't actually let me talk to someone supervisory, but the rep put me on hold
for a while and said she'd "asked someone else" about my concerns, reiterating that they
don't collect any info without an active account. But here's the kicker: if you set up an
account and give them the VIN, they can instantly find the car. Meaning that the pipeline
is always in place, and always ready to send enough info that the backend link can be
tied together any time. Customer accounts are generally indexed by a phone number,
so that when someone calls in the account particulars can get auto-populated unless
they're calling from someone else's phone.
I got the distinct impression I was at least partially being lied to about what information
the car is sending upstream by default. Which is why mine, both the "then" and the
"now", simply isn't. Hearing of the app/connectivity problems so many users seem to
have does nothing to instill any reassurance either; it baffles me why anyone would
pay subscription fees for something so flakey. Maybe if they actually cared about such
things and made them work right, their callcenters wouldn't be so slammed.
_H*
a question. Their autoresponder makes excuses about how the wait time is OVER 30
MINUTES. What can they be so hosed up with, to create conditions like that? Do they
have like 1 person working the phones?
I put the phone down and just let it sit, and finally got someone. She was deliberately
obtuse about my question: what information any car, subscribed or not, is sending
upstream to Bluelink's infrastructure, and what functionality is still present at that
layer [diagnostics, stolen-vehicle intervention, etc]. The non-answer kept being that
without an established customer account, they don't "go looking into" a vehicle. But
along the way it was obvious that given a particular cellular ID [via IMEI, assigned
number, something] they could still see the make/model/VIN and probably a bunch
of other stuff.
They wouldn't actually let me talk to someone supervisory, but the rep put me on hold
for a while and said she'd "asked someone else" about my concerns, reiterating that they
don't collect any info without an active account. But here's the kicker: if you set up an
account and give them the VIN, they can instantly find the car. Meaning that the pipeline
is always in place, and always ready to send enough info that the backend link can be
tied together any time. Customer accounts are generally indexed by a phone number,
so that when someone calls in the account particulars can get auto-populated unless
they're calling from someone else's phone.
I got the distinct impression I was at least partially being lied to about what information
the car is sending upstream by default. Which is why mine, both the "then" and the
"now", simply isn't. Hearing of the app/connectivity problems so many users seem to
have does nothing to instill any reassurance either; it baffles me why anyone would
pay subscription fees for something so flakey. Maybe if they actually cared about such
things and made them work right, their callcenters wouldn't be so slammed.
_H*
