BMW assist not very helpful
 

Still trying to get my head straight
While opening the gates to our business i was carjacked
They were waiting for me
I tried to pull the one out of my car but got pushed away & then the driver of the other car a Mercades (also probably stolen) began to push & bump me with his car well that was that i watched my 3 month old baby speeding down the street oh & by the way i leave my wallet on the console (feels uncomfortable) not any more
Now to BMW assist you call the number & get a recording eventually you get a person who then tells you she cannot activate the gps until there is a police report (meanwhile my car is speeding down the road with a full tank os gas)
So then i get a police report number & she puts me on hold to call the police to confirm then gets back on the line & puts me on hold to get permission from her supervisor
Then she informs me that it still cannot be activated until the car is shut off & re-started ????????????
My baby was recovered in less than 2 hours (no thanks to BMW assist) with no damage
Sorry for the long story but everyone should learn from me

Hi TJH-5!

What a horrific event! Luckily you were not injured (and that your car was not damaged)! You never did say what happened to your wallet.

Sorry to say it, but my one and only service call to BMW assist was handled no better - arguably even worse. Much worse. So bad in fact that they sent me $100 to try to make up for their egregious behavior after I accused them of systemic incompetence. That incident was more than a year ago and it looks like they have not improved.

Regards-

While I understand your frustration, I think you have to look at both sides of the story. Do you really want BMW to be able to track and disable your car without going through that process? That opens up a lot of unintended consequences.

Glad you are okay though. That is an experience I hope I never have to go through.

+1

If my car car was hijacked my first call would be the police, not BMW assist.

Good to hear that you are safe.

First of all they cant disable & yes i want them to track it much quicker

It was the police im not stupid

3 month baby...i thought you were talking about your child.

Procedures could easily be implemented that includes the use of an emegency password held on file to be referenced by BMW Assist for such occassions. Verification of ownership/authorization is always a challenge but doable - the banks and credit card companies do it, so why can't BMW Asist.

God no sorry to mis-lead you

I stand by my first statement. I don't want my car tracked because some wacko gets my information and wants to track my car without proper investigation and reporting it to the police first.

I took possession of a new 2013 535i last saturday. During the BMW Assist setup they requested a password for just such an incident (and a separate password for my wife). Sounds like someone at BMW Assist has been listening.
David

I had LoJack fitted when I bought my car. Their theft instructions are similar to BMW Assist in that you always have to report the vehicle theft to the police first. With LoJack if you tell the police the car is fitted with LoJack, they immediately initialize the system, so they say. LoJack also advise you to call them afterwards to report the vehicle stolen. It all sounds similar to BMW assist. The difference is the detection. You might recall a couple of years back some BMW 7 Series loaners, being unloaded at the Detroit Auto Show that went missing! Those boys were a little smarter as they ripped off the roof mounted Shark-Fin GPS antenna so the navigation system could not be used by BMW Assist, whereas the hidden LoJack transponder keeps on chirping. Well at least that's why I sprung for LoJack, although I have had no experince of this and sure don't want any.

You should be happy that you were not hurt man, i got robbed by 2 armed guys a few weeks ago when i was parking my car in the garage after work.
I don't friggin care what happens to anything as long as my family and everyone else is safe and not hurt, they can take whatever the ***k they want . . . money can be earned again but once a life is gone it never comes back. :tsk:

Nope

TJH-5:

I gotta ask: Did the police take your report over the phone or did you have to go to a police station in person?

Thanks,
Bill

BTW as others have mentioned, I'm glad you are all right.

wow, that's nuts.

when i first got my 550, due to heavy tree cover when i activated assist after delivery, it did not connect. i pressed it again and heard nothing for 5 minutes. i pulled it into the garage. a few minutes later 2 local police units showed up at my house. since the call didn't go through, they assumed it was an emergency.

i activated it the next day at my dealer....if the car had a problem, i wanted the dealer to explain.

but, they did respond.

Had to go to police station
But understand the frustrating part they told me the car had to be shut off & restarted before they colub trck it
Well that wasn't going to happen since i had the key fob in my pocket & that means they can drive approx.500 miles with no detection ?????????????

Could you imagine your home/business alarm company telling you you had to have a police file number before they would respond? I know I'm being a bit over the top on this but what happends if you are stranded somewhere (they just stole your transportation) and couldn't get to a police station in a timely manner?

Wow, this really is an "after the fact" service!

The home alarm company does not respond - they call the police. The police prioritize the response depending upon whether or not someone is in imminent danger personally. BTW, is it BMW that says you have to go to the police station, or is that up to the local police (I'm guessing the latter). My guess is that it goes back to what I said above. If the owner or other victims are not in the car and not in imminent danger it gets a different priority.