I was worried things were headed down this road. Sadly, I'm here.

Brought my car in to the dealer yesterday morning at around 9am (Don Beyer Volvo in Falls Church, VA). I told them I wanted the software update to allow USB based map database updates. Seemed pretty straightforward enough. I knew going in that they were over charging me ($185) but I figured that's the price of doing business in Northern VA.

Well, I didn't hear back from them on the issue all day (8hrs). So at 5pm I gave them a call. They told me the software wasn't loading (stopping at around 65%) and that they were waiting for Volvo to get back to them. This raised some yellow flags with me. So I asked very directly, "Did the update brick the car? Because I'd like to come get it tomorrow if you're not able to do this." I was told that the update DID NOT damage the car's systems in any way and that it was as if nothing had happened.

This afternoon, I received a call from them telling me the car had in fact been bricked yesterday and that now they needed to order an entire new module which may not be in until Monday.

Apparently they at least have been in touch with Volvo, just at a very slow rate. Based on what the Volvo rep told me earlier today, their first contact with Volvo was at 1:30pm on Thurs. They received a reply by 1:45pm. Their next contact with Volvo was at 5:45pm on Thursday. So they burned the entire morning doing nothing, then another four hours in the afternoon. Today it seems as though there have been many back and forth discussions between Volvo and the shop.

I feel this entire situation could have been avoided if the shop had gotten on the ball Thursday morning. They would likely have the part now and I'd have my car back.

This is beyond frustrating. I called Volvo at the number listed here:

Volvo Car USA Support | Contact us | Help

They don't seem to be of much help, simply re-stating that the dealership must be working on the problem.

Is this normal? It sounds all very fishy and odd to me. I feel like the shop must be over-booking appointments, is short staffed, or simply does not have techs that know what they are doing. They've had plenty of time to sort this out imho.

Also, there is very little accountability or concern. The shop says "We're waiting for Volvo." and Volvo says, "The shop must be working on it." In the meantime, my car's Sensus system has been nuked and I have to just sit around and twiddle my thumbs until somebody figures out how to fix it.

Truth be told, I loved the car for the few days I've been able to drive it. But I'm starting to question my purchase of a Volvo. The dealership and corporate support seem to be severely lacking.

 

A lot of assumptions being made there. It has nothing to do with a tech not knowing what they are doing. The job is simple. Plug the car in, download software and then update the maps. We don't have a crystal ball that tells us a module is going to crash.

If a module crashes, there are a couple things we can try to bring them back up. If those don't work, we have no choice but to contact the tech help desk. They can take a bit of time to hear back, as they get cases from all over. While waiting for a reply, there isn't anything else we can do. Even then, the reply might just be one or two things to check and report back. You can see how this can take a while. Sorry, thats just how it is.

As for the actual problem, I haven't seen one like that. But I think I've only done two or three of those.

 

Thanks for a view from the other side. But the failure to call me after having the car for eight hours and knowing there was a serious problem for at least three or four of those eight, speaks to a certain lack of professionalism that likely permeates several strata of this particular dealership. Their Yelp reviews are terrible. I could kick myself for not checking them first. I simply went to the nearest dealer.

 

Yeah, well that's an issue with them. But also, they might have been trying not to alarm you. Really can't say, but if I had a download crash in the morning and I opened a case, my service writer might not call the customer right away since there is a chance the case gets resolved by mid-afternoon and then you never know anything went wrong. But again, I don't know the particulars of this specific situation.

Did they at least offer you a loaner car in the meantime?

 

I scheduled the appointment a week prior specifically so that I'd have a loaner as I needed a car to drive the day I brought it in.

I get what you're saying. But generally speaking, 5pm is the hard cutoff for letting customers know the status of their cars. They missed that cutoff.

Do you know what the module is they need to replace? After some more digging I think the screen and the Sensus module are actually separate. But the Sensus module lives behind the screen, inside the dash?

I'm concerned now that they have to remove parts of the central console to replace the module. I have a very nice Kuda phone mount installed. I feel they're not careful, the mount and/or bits o the console could be damaged and/or seriously scuffed up by this process.

It's a bad feeling leaving your car with a shop you've lost faith in.

 

The module is called the IAM. Its the CD player and yes, its basically behind the screen.

You mentioned the download failed at 85%. Is there a chance this was the maps uploading to the car? If that's the case, that could just be a bad USB stick and not an IAM problem.

 

No, it failed for them (the techs) when updating the Sensus software that allowed USB updates to the maps afterwards.

 

Got it. That's gotta be the IAM.

 

Shouldn't that be a part a dealership has on hand?

 

No, not necessarily. Every dealership is different. They stock what sells. We don't see a lot of IAM problems so I doubt a lot of dealers stock them.

 

Ok, I can see that. But shouldn't they be able to get one within 24hrs? I mean we live in an age where you can order almost anything (eg., Amazon) and have it at your door the next day, including Sat/Sun.

They've had my car since Thursday morning.

 

Yes. There is a cutoff time for overnight orders but if they missed the cutoff Thursday and ordered it Friday it should be there today. It does cost more and if they are eating the cost of the module they might have put it on the regular order.

 

They told me on Friday that the part might come Friday or else maybe Sat. or Mon. Also, Volvo is apparently covering the cost of the IAM.

I have this hunch that some of the IAMs that came with MY11 and maybe MY12 had problems down the road when trying to install this update.

 

Well, it's almost 3pm here on East Coast. Not a peep from the shop. No email. No phone call. Nothing. They've had the car since Thursday 9am. WTF.

 

Maybe call them? The part may not have arrived until today in the afternoon. So depending on workload, it may not get installed immediately. They certainly have communication issues.

 

Eventually I did call them. I had no choice as it's doubtful they would have called me.

I wasn't able to get any info from the tech so I contacted the service manager. She told me that the part had arrived but they hadn't installed it yet. They hope to have it installed by mid-afternoon tomorrow. Let's see what happens.

Five days to do a software update seems like a long time to me. The part should have arrived on Saturday imho.

 

Not all overnight parts can be delivered Saturday. The dealer I work at has a very limited Saturday delivery. If I overnight a part on Friday it is expected Monday.

 

That might be true and make sense for normal day-to-day business. But when you brick a customer's car by trying to do a software update, you should really make an effort to get the new part ASAP.

Otherwise, you are practicing poor customer service. Period. Plain and simple.

 

There might not have been anything they could have done. We don't get a Saturday critical delivery. I don't know why, I don't know how that end works entirely.

A piece of hardware unexpectedly failed, they are fixing it for free and providing a loaner. Aside from some communication issues, I really don't see what the poor customer service is.

 

I don't think they are fixing anything for free. They just aren't charging me for the fried IAM unit. In fact, they are charging me $185 for the software update which is about double the going rate I've seen.

That, plus the lack of communication and in my opinion the incredibly slow pace adds up to very poor customer service.