Connected Services Issue - Ford came through

[RKinWA]

So I bought my new 22 GTPE on Friday, this is my second Mach-e, and after activating in Fordpass, everything 'seemed' fine, until Saturday when I took a mini road trip. I noticed that while BlueCruise said it was active, hands free mode wasn't working (on the same roads they did on the previous one). I was using Ford nav, and went to choose a charger, and Chargers option was disabled, said "Feature Must Be Activated". So I pulled over to investigate further and it turned out that Connected Built-in Navigation wasn't available in my Connected Services (it wasn't even there at all).

I tried a couple Sync resets, then when I got home I did a couple Master Resets. Nothing worked. At @MachLee suggestion I even disconnected the battery for 10 minutes. Nothing.

So Monday I called Ford, explained the situation, he verified it wasn't there and escalated it, telling me it could take up to 7 days before I hear back.

Just got a call from Ford this morning telling me the situation was resolved on their end and they walked me through resetting Connected Services, and once back up, everything is active and working. She told me I wasn't the only one, there were a lot of people having this issue, so I thought I would share in case someone here is one of them.

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[Deleted member 16048]

To be honest, this seems to be normal as after purchase there are a lot of back end processing that goes on to get warranty and service items activated on the VIN. Had the same issue with my MME when I purchased it, and I just had to wait a week or so for everything to activate through.

Yes, they can escalate it, but remember that just pushes your Vin to the top of the processing list generally.

So I would suggest people to just be patient first before calling and trying to push things along.

 

[c max]

To be honest, this seems to be normal as after purchase there are a lot of back end processing that goes on to get warranty and service items activated on the VIN. Had the same issue with my MME when I purchased it, and I just had to wait a week or so for everything to activate through.

Yes, they can escalate it, but remember that just pushes your Vin to the top of the processing list generally.

So I would suggest people to just be patient first before calling and trying to push things along.

well waiting and being patient is fine if you know it is a big problem...I was in the same position as the OP, just picked up my '23 Premium (traded in my '21 Select) and I thought the problem was unique to me soooo I also called on Mon 7-3-23 and my case was escalated and was also told 7-10....I too got a call today and was assisted in re-connecting the Nav connected services......she said it was a problem Ford was having with many, if not all new cars.......BTW the folks I dealt with could not have been nicer. very informative, concerned.......I called the connected services number and also spoke to Ford Pass and a tech guy......in fact today's call was one of the same ladies I spoke to on Mon......

 

[RKinWA]

To be honest, this seems to be normal as after purchase there are a lot of back end processing that goes on to get warranty and service items activated on the VIN. Had the same issue with my MME when I purchased it, and I just had to wait a week or so for everything to activate through.

Yes, they can escalate it, but remember that just pushes your Vin to the top of the processing list generally.

So I would suggest people to just be patient first before calling and trying to push things along.

This wasn't an activation issue, Connected Built-in Navigation was literally not associated with my vehicle.

 

[thenew3]

I think Ford was having some back end issues this past weekend. I had my son try to create a ford account this weekend so I can share our newly purchased MME PAAK with him, but he was unable to verify his email. It kept getting an error when he clicked on the link in the email Ford sent.
We kept trying all weekend and it fixed it self by Tuesday. He was able to verify and create his account and add the MME to his acct.

 

[RKinWA]

well waiting and being patient is fine if you know it is a big problem...I was in the same position as the OP, just picked up my '23 Premium (traded in my '21 Select) and I thought the problem was unique to me soooo I also called on Mon 7-3-23 and my case was escalated and was also told 7-10....I too got a call today and was assisted in re-connecting the Nav connected services......she said it was a problem Ford was having with many, if not all new cars.......BTW the folks I dealt with could not have been nicer. very informative, concerned.......I called the connected services number and also spoke to Ford Pass and a tech guy......in fact today's call was one of the same ladies I spoke to on Mon......

Good to hear, and I agree, both agents I dealt with where super friendly and helpful. The woman that helped me this morning stayed on and kept refreshing her screen until she was sure everything was working as it should. Great experience.

 

[thenew3]

Also I want to say these back end issues aren't isolated to Ford. Other mfgs have similar issues. My BMW's will sometimes not be able to talk to the back end servers so I can't access them via the app. Many other BMW owners also talk about similar issues on the forums. I've seen similar issue with MB, Audi, Genesis etc. So it's a pretty common industry wide issue.

Working in IT for over 30 years, I think building redundancy and resiliency in back end infrastructure is still pretty unknown for these auto manufacturers.

 

[RKinWA]

Also I want to say these back end issues aren't isolated to Ford. Other mfgs have similar issues. My BMW's will sometimes not be able to talk to the back end servers so I can't access them via the app. Many other BMW owners also talk about similar issues on the forums. I've seen similar issue with MB, Audi, Genesis etc. So it's a pretty common industry wide issue.

Working in IT for over 30 years, I think building redundancy and resiliency in back end infrastructure is still pretty unknown for these auto manufacturers.

Especially on holiday weekends ?

 

[Deleted member 16048]

This wasn't an activation issue, Connected Built-in Navigation was literally not associated with my vehicle.

That is an activation issue. It's a service that is tied to your VIN. As things process they get sorted out and activated.

The issue is that most people are just impatient and expect everything to be instantly available. Sometimes it takes the dealer time to submit the information to Ford to get things rolling.

 

[dmastro]

That is an activation issue. It's a service that is tied to your VIN. As things process they get sorted out and activated.

The issue is that most people are just impatient and expect everything to be instantly available. Sometimes it takes the dealer time to submit the information to Ford to get things rolling.

I'm not sure this is on the buyer. Not everyone understands IT and provisioning of services. I think the answer is really:

The issue is that most people are just uninformed as to the process and expect everything to be instantly available. Sometimes it takes the dealer time to submit the information to Ford to get things rolling, so the salesperson should inform the buyer in order to to set an appropriate expectation.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Glad they got it sorted out. Those darn servers!

 

[RKinWA]

That is an activation issue. It's a service that is tied to your VIN. As things process they get sorted out and activated.

The issue is that most people are just impatient and expect everything to be instantly available. Sometimes it takes the dealer time to submit the information to Ford to get things rolling.

And sometimes, as the Ford rep said this morning, they are having backend issues and it takes intervention on their part to get it working.

But other than that, yes, sometimes it takes a few days for everything to click in, like my expiration dates, or my software updates, and that's fine. But I don't think it's unreasonable when you pay this kind of money for a vehicle to call and ask about something that isn't working when it should be.

 

[HOLOTYPE]

I'm happy they were able to get your connected services issue sorted out quickly. Mine went unresolved for 6 months with 2 tickets, and ultimately the last update (23-PU0407-BCDC-FX) solved my issue. So for me, I guess being patient 6 months would have solved my connected services issue. Sorry I'm pretty bitter/frustrated at support but what can you do. Just glad to see their support isn't all bad.

 

[Deleted member 16048]

I'm not sure this is on the buyer. Not everyone understands IT and provisioning of services. I think the answer is really:

The issue is that most people are just uninformed as to the process and expect everything to be instantly available. Sometimes it takes the dealer time to submit the information to Ford to get things rolling, so the salesperson should inform the buyer in order to to set an appropriate expectation.

Honestly I think it comes down to the dealer to set expectation correctly and for the support team to do it as well. Most support teams will tell you what you want to hear just to get you off the queue since they know it will just take time to let things settle. I saw this at Apple a lot. Sadly it was because a tech didn't set correct expectations.

Since they called a week later (Which is how long it took my MME to fully activate.) they just waited for everything to process like normal.

In my opinion, since this is common with every car company. (Tesla included since it takes days for the software to update from factory to live production upon delivery.) The dealerships need to be educated about the processes and set expectations. It would decrease support queue volumes and the misconception that it's a "Problem".

 

[RKinWA]

Honestly I think it comes down to the dealer to set expectation correctly and for the support team to do it as well. Most support teams will tell you what you want to hear just to get you off the queue since they know it will just take time to let things settle. I saw this at Apple a lot. Sadly it was because a tech didn't set correct expectations.

Since they called a week later (Which is how long it took my MME to fully activate.) they just waited for everything to process like normal.

In my opinion, since this is common with every car company. (Tesla included since it takes days for the software to update from factory to live production upon delivery.) The dealerships need to be educated about the processes and set expectations. It would decrease support queue volumes and the misconception that it's a "Problem".

I definitely agree with you that the dealers are a big part of the problem. I know a lot about the features of the Mach-e from owning one for 4 months, and when I went to buy this new one, I spent most of my time educating the salesman on how EVs and specifically the Mach-e work as he didn't have a clue, he had never even ridden in one. And finance will tell you anything to get you to sign. The first thing I said when I bought was "I want the software updates done today", they said "Oh absolutely, sign here" then after it was done it was "Well we need to coordinate with service to see when they can do it" which turned into "The earliest appointment is 3 weeks from now." They could have told me that from the start (I expected it anyway as it seems like they only have 2 service people working anyway ?)

To back to your point, they dealer should definitely get their act together when it comes to selling EVs

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