No connected services and Ford is clueless on what to do

[PCPilot]

I've had my FE for over 2 weeks now and STILL have absolutely no connected services, such as the FordPass app in the vehicle, vehicle locator, alerts, probably OTA software updates, and unable to enroll in the plug & charge network. Basically anything that involves the vehicle connecting to the outside world. I've literally been on the phone or chat with over a dozen people at Ford, and every one of them are as clueless as the day is long. They all recite from their scripts, ask me a bunch of irrelevant and repetitive questions, and offer no help whatsoever. I've even had to explain to a few of them what the FordPass charging network is. If any new owners run into the same experience, I hate to say it, but you will probably be left to fend for yourselves. Hoping that isn't the case. Is anyone else who's having the same issues gotten some positive results from Ford support and got it resolved? I'm normally a patient guy and I do understand the whole early adopter thing, but jeez!

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[jhalkias]

I've had my FE for over 2 weeks now and STILL have absolutely no connected services, such as the FordPass app in the vehicle, vehicle locator, alerts, probably OTA software updates, and unable to enroll in the plug & charge network. Basically anything that involves the vehicle connecting to the outside world. I've literally been on the phone or chat with over a dozen people at Ford, and every one of them are as clueless as the day is long. They all recite from their scripts, ask me a bunch of irrelevant and repetitive questions, and offer no help whatsoever. I've even had to explain to a few of them what the FordPass charging network is. If any new owners run into the same experience, I hate to say it, but you will probably be left to fend for yourselves. Hoping that isn't the case. Is anyone else who's having the same issues gotten some positive results from Ford support and got it resolved? I'm normally a patient guy and I do understand the whole early adopter thing, but jeez!

No one should have to do this . . . but are you on twitter? If you post your issue and tag Ford, Emma Berg, and Mike Levine it might get you further than those guys on the phone. Darren Palmer is also on Linkdin as another possibility.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

I've had my FE for over 2 weeks now and STILL have absolutely no connected services, such as the FordPass app in the vehicle, vehicle locator, alerts, probably OTA software updates, and unable to enroll in the plug & charge network.

Can you walk us through what you've done so far?

I assume you installed Ford Pass on your phone.

Then you need to add the car to Ford Pass. The easy way to do that is to take a photo of the QR code... there's one in the bottom right corner of the window sticker. There is another on the drivers door (inside ... near the bottom of the door). You can also manually key in the VIN.

Then you need to 'Activate' the vehicle. Have you done that step? There's an issue that stumped me (and probably a few others) where the car never received the activation request.

Ford had me do a master reset (via the Sync menu system in the car). That might not have been necessary. But the other thing they had me do was delete the car from the Ford Pass app, then quit the app and relaunch it. Then re-add the car to Ford Pass (but don't activate yet).

THEN ... make sure the car is outside with a good AT&T data signal. START the car but leave it in Park. Then with car started... "Activate" the car via Ford Pass.

Does that work for you?

That was the part I couldn't get past ... once I got past that (and the steps I just outlined fixed it for me) I was able to pair the car & phone via Bluetooth ... then add the car to my home WiFi network. Then I was able to set up the Connected Services (which is also what set up the Plug & Charge & Electrify America credit).

 

[zhackwyatt]

Seems to me the dealer should be taking this up the Ford engineering side.

 

[jhalkias]

Seems to me the dealer should be taking this up the Ford engineering side.

Teaches me to never assume . . . I assumed that would be the first step - figured they were unhelpful. But it really should be the first step.

 

[PCPilot]

Thanks for the feedback, all. I did begin the troubleshooting with my sales rep at the dealer, and she eventually referred me to Ford direct.

As for the items that Tim mentioned ...

I do have the FordPass app installed and set up as much as possible.
The car was added with the correct VIN. I confirmed it was activated because my wife received and approved the activation request (she had her FordPass items set up at the dealer first, but, incidentally, she also has no connected services on her account either)

I haven’t done a master reset because Ford hasn’t instructed me to do that (or much of anything else). I did however remove the car from the FordPass app and reactivated it. One thing I didn't do was activate it from outside the garage, but I did get the confirmation message that it was activated. I'm not even entirely sure I have AT&T data working in the vehicle. I have a wifi symbol on the top-right of the display, with the letter “i” next to it. It does show I'm able to connect to my home wifi from my garage though.

I think I will try going the Twitter route, per John's advice..

 

[Garbone]

After putting my car in FordPass it took a few days for the Connected Services to get to the point I could activate them via the Ford Website under the car in my account. I did not activate them in FordPass, think you can only do it on Ford.com because of the credit card link.

 

[breeves002]

The first thing you need to do is a master reset. Doing so resets FordPass completely with Fords servers. It does it on Sync 3 as well. It will wipe out any activation data.

I had to do it on mine to get my FordPass app to connect. I'm really surprised they haven't told you to try that.

Once you master reset, restart the car, remove the car from the app, kill and restart the app, then start the process over. Have the car on before hitting activate in the app.

 

[PCPilot]

The first thing you need to do is a master reset. Doing so resets FordPass completely with Fords servers. It does it on Sync 3 as well. It will wipe out any activation data.

I had to do it on mine to get my FordPass app to connect. I'm really surprised they haven't told you to try that.

Once you master reset, restart the car, remove the car from the app, kill and restart the app, then start the process over. Have the car on before hitting activate in the app.

Thanks, Sam. After all I've tried so far, it seems like a master reset would be the logical next step. I'll try that when I get home tonight.

 

[zhackwyatt]

Teaches me to never assume . . . I assumed that would be the first step - figured they were unhelpful. But it really should be the first step.

It wasn't clear if the OP even contacted the service department. If they were even aware of it. That's all I was suggesting.

 

[0CO2]

I've had similar issues - and these have been elevated by Ford to a higher level of tech support. I've been trying to get registered for the FordPass Charging Network. When I'm on Ford.com logged in to my account and with my vehicle cockpit open, and I hit "connected services" it always responds "There are no connected services at this time, check back later". I've used ford.com/connectedservices sountless times to try to register, but no luck. So today was a length Ford chat and then phone session to try to resolve this. It didn't help that the customer support on chat gave me an invalid phone number for FordPass Charging Network support, but we got the right person in the end.

As background, I had no problem activating the modem, I use other connected services already - I've driven a few hundred miles in my MME FE, have done so without a key fob using my phone as a key, Apple Car Play works fine, I can do remote start, lock/unlock, windows up/down, etc etc, just can't register with the FordPass Charging Network. At the moment they have no explanation.

Also when I set up remote configuration before the car was delivered, I was unable to complete the "Send to Car" function - I clicked this on the website, was then instructed to use FordPass app when the car was delivered, and then on the car's power up I'd get a welcome message showing my profile had been added. Whenever I check the Ford.com website for my remote configuraiton, it says it is only 75% completed and that I need to use the FordPass app to "Send to Vehicle". There is no "Sedt to Vehicle" on the app. Kind of an infinite loop going nowhere. Perhaps this failure to complete remote configuraiton is somehow blocking registration with the charging network.

I know my registration with FordPass was completed successfully, since I've received the 22,000 FordPass points that come with the purchase of the Mach-e. So the other part of that deal, the credits for the FordPass Charging Network should have registered, but they didn't. So waiting to hear back from Ford on all of this. No one at Ford mentioned doing a master reset. Perhaps that's next but I'll hold off doing anything more until I hear back from Ford - the ball's in their court and I don't want to muddy the water until then.

Now I could tell you a story about how the dealer failed to credit me for the $1000 deposit all Mach-e buyers had to place when the order went in. So my current project is to get a check for a $1000 refund from the dealer, but that has to wait for the salesman who technically sold me the car to get back from his day off today. Then there's my attempt to use my 22,000 FordPass points as partial payment for the Mach-e rubber floormats I ordered and then just came in. The dealer's parts department has no idea how this works and also has to wait for the salesman to get back in tomorrow. And so it goes. Seriously - the parts dept. doesn't know how their loyalty program works?

I kind of feel like I've been transported about 25 years back in time dealing with Ford compared to all previous car purchases, much less an EV purchase. Ford does not yet know how to shoehorn in a modern EV purchase into their antiquated dealer network. I'm an ageing Boomer - so I should have at least a vestigial memory of how old school car purchases work (but the memory is fading fast). I can't imagine a Millenial being comfortable with this approach at all!

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Thanks for the feedback, all. I did begin the troubleshooting with my sales rep at the dealer, and she eventually referred me to Ford direct.

As for the items that Tim mentioned ...

I do have the FordPass app installed and set up as much as possible.
The car was added with the correct VIN. I confirmed it was activated because my wife received and approved the activation request (she had her FordPass items set up at the dealer first, but, incidentally, she also has no connected services on her account either)

I haven’t done a master reset because Ford hasn’t instructed me to do that (or much of anything else). I did however remove the car from the FordPass app and reactivated it. One thing I didn't do was activate it from outside the garage, but I did get the confirmation message that it was activated. I'm not even entirely sure I have AT&T data working in the vehicle. I have a wifi symbol on the top-right of the display, with the letter “i” next to it. It does show I'm able to connect to my home wifi from my garage though.

I think I will try going the Twitter route, per John's advice..

You said your wife received and approved the activation request. That means her Ford login is the "master" account.

If she is the original person who activated the car, then only her account can be used to activate Connected Services.

She needs to go to https://owner.ford.com then sign-in and pick the Mach-E (if you own more than one Ford then the Mach-E might not be the first car to come up). Another way in is to go to: https://www.ford.com/owners/vehicle-dashboard

From there, she can click "Connected Service".

She'll need to set up a credit card (so it can bill for any charging beyond the complimentary amount).

I noticed when noodling through the Ford APIs that when I check the accounts for any Ford Pass app user that is NOT the person who set up the account, I get info that shows that the account isn't authorized to make changes. Only one account can do that.

 

[breeves002]

If she is the original person who activated the car, then only her account can be used to activate Connected Services.

This is true, but if he does a master reset it will reset the main account and then the first one to connect will be come the "main" account. So hopefully a master reset solves his issues.

 

[PCPilot]

I actually did log into ford.com/connectedservices previously with both my FordPass account and my wife's account, and both accounts display “No Connected Services are Available” Current CC information is in the wallet section, so that shouldn’t be a thing. An interesting side note is my Mustang GT, which I also have on my account, shows no connected services available as well.

Also, I did the master reset, re-added the car to the app and set PAAK back up, and it didn't resolve the “No Connected Services“ issue. It did however remove my SiriusXM trial and now just prompts me to subscribe. And also I can no longer connect the vehicle to my home wifi, even though it sees the network with good signal strength. It just immediately goes to “Unable to connect” as if it doesn't even make an attempt. Seems like I'm falling further down the rabbit hole here.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

This whole saga is rather unacceptable. Ford lurkers, are you listening?

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