Another 300 km day. And my first adventure with the BMW Assistance service.
I take a 90 km trip to the Valais mountains, as I often do. For the climb from Crissier to Vennes I activate the REX (petrol engine Range Extender) and arrive with no difficulty at my destination. I could have easily done without the REX, because I had 23% of battery charge left on arrival.
As usual, on arrival I plug in the car to recharge. As the power supply is not that close to the parking area, I use an extension cord, also as usual. Recharging starts, I check that everything’s okay, and before my eyes the charger suddenly stops working.
Aaaargh! This is of course the day I have to drive from Valais to Geneva that same evening. Electric car stress sets in.
I check the fuses, move the extension cord to a different power outlet in the house, then try unplugging everything and starting the recharge from scratch – all to no effect.
So I jump back into my super connected car and tell it to call for assistance. The car obediently transmits all the necessary info about itself and its driver to BMW Assistance, then phones them and passes the phone to me.
Operator: "Good day, how may I help you?"
Me: "My charging module has broken down, and without it I can’t get to my final destination."
(It’s true that I still have enough charge in the battery to reach the charging station in Aigle, but that station needs a special kind of cable I don’t have, although I have ordered one, but it hasn’t arrived in the post yet. Apart from that, I also have a REX and enough petrol to get to the next fast recharge station, but how am I supposed to get to Geneva and back if I can’t recharge the car once I get there, and how do I recharge the car on Sunday and Monday?)
Op: "What is your chassis number? Your name? Where are you? ..."
Me: "My car sent you all that before it called you."
Op: "But I need to know where the car is."
Me: "I’m sure you do, but the car has already sent everything to you."
Op: " ... "
Me: "Somewhere in your system you should have all the data sent to you. Do you not have it?"
Op: "Oh, yes! Yes, it’s all there ... I’m going to send you a repair guy."
I will spare you my attempts to make him understand that I don’t need a repair guy; I need a new recharging module / cable.
Ten minutes later, the repair guy calls.
RG. "Hello. I believe your car has broken down."
Me: "My charger has broken down."
RG. "No problem. I’ll come in my truck and load you up."
Me: "Your truck is equipped with a 50kw charger?"
RG. ".... er no, I’m going to load your car onto the deck of my truck and take it to the nearest BMW agency."
The agency in question is 12 km down the mountain from where I am, and if necessary I could roll all the way down to it without using either battery or petrol. Having pointed this out, we realize he can’t help me, but I ask him to find another solution.
So then the TCS (BMW partner service) calls me.
TCS: "I can tell you where the nearest recharging station is."
“Thanks, but I already know that. My car’s GPS shows me all of them.” (Or at least it’s supposed to show me all of them ...).
I ask the TCS to bring me a new charging module. That’s all I need.
The final word from the TCS (although it must be said they had made various telephone calls in the meantime, including, apparently, calls to local BMW garages):
"You are not in a state of breakdown yet because your vehicle is still able to go some distance with the remaining charge. Call us back when there’s no charge left in the battery. Goodbye.”
I must say I understand their point of view, but I don’t really think an electric car can be treated like a petrol car in these circumstances. So I was still likely to be immobilized far from home (never mind the appointment in Geneva) for the entire weekend and start of the next week.
But the story doesn’t end there!
I take a 90 km trip to the Valais mountains, as I often do. For the climb from Crissier to Vennes I activate the REX (petrol engine Range Extender) and arrive with no difficulty at my destination. I could have easily done without the REX, because I had 23% of battery charge left on arrival.
As usual, on arrival I plug in the car to recharge. As the power supply is not that close to the parking area, I use an extension cord, also as usual. Recharging starts, I check that everything’s okay, and before my eyes the charger suddenly stops working.
Aaaargh! This is of course the day I have to drive from Valais to Geneva that same evening. Electric car stress sets in.
I check the fuses, move the extension cord to a different power outlet in the house, then try unplugging everything and starting the recharge from scratch – all to no effect.
So I jump back into my super connected car and tell it to call for assistance. The car obediently transmits all the necessary info about itself and its driver to BMW Assistance, then phones them and passes the phone to me.
Operator: "Good day, how may I help you?"
Me: "My charging module has broken down, and without it I can’t get to my final destination."
(It’s true that I still have enough charge in the battery to reach the charging station in Aigle, but that station needs a special kind of cable I don’t have, although I have ordered one, but it hasn’t arrived in the post yet. Apart from that, I also have a REX and enough petrol to get to the next fast recharge station, but how am I supposed to get to Geneva and back if I can’t recharge the car once I get there, and how do I recharge the car on Sunday and Monday?)
Op: "What is your chassis number? Your name? Where are you? ..."
Me: "My car sent you all that before it called you."
Op: "But I need to know where the car is."
Me: "I’m sure you do, but the car has already sent everything to you."
Op: " ... "
Me: "Somewhere in your system you should have all the data sent to you. Do you not have it?"
Op: "Oh, yes! Yes, it’s all there ... I’m going to send you a repair guy."
I will spare you my attempts to make him understand that I don’t need a repair guy; I need a new recharging module / cable.
Ten minutes later, the repair guy calls.
RG. "Hello. I believe your car has broken down."
Me: "My charger has broken down."
RG. "No problem. I’ll come in my truck and load you up."
Me: "Your truck is equipped with a 50kw charger?"
RG. ".... er no, I’m going to load your car onto the deck of my truck and take it to the nearest BMW agency."
The agency in question is 12 km down the mountain from where I am, and if necessary I could roll all the way down to it without using either battery or petrol. Having pointed this out, we realize he can’t help me, but I ask him to find another solution.
So then the TCS (BMW partner service) calls me.
TCS: "I can tell you where the nearest recharging station is."
“Thanks, but I already know that. My car’s GPS shows me all of them.” (Or at least it’s supposed to show me all of them ...).
I ask the TCS to bring me a new charging module. That’s all I need.
The final word from the TCS (although it must be said they had made various telephone calls in the meantime, including, apparently, calls to local BMW garages):
"You are not in a state of breakdown yet because your vehicle is still able to go some distance with the remaining charge. Call us back when there’s no charge left in the battery. Goodbye.”
I must say I understand their point of view, but I don’t really think an electric car can be treated like a petrol car in these circumstances. So I was still likely to be immobilized far from home (never mind the appointment in Geneva) for the entire weekend and start of the next week.
But the story doesn’t end there!
Solution and service
In desperation, I call the dealership where I bought the car. Jan-Autos in St-Légier is open on Saturdays until 13h. It’s now 11h30, so I call.
To start with, the person who takes the call tells me that only the stockroom guy has the key for the place where they keep spare parts, and he isn’t there, so they can’t help me.
I ask this person (who is not the dealer who sold me the car) to leave an i3 charger outside the garage for me, to which he agrees. I will leave the defective one there in its place, because it’s under guarantee anyway.
Kudos to Jan-Autos for their open-mindedness and for agreeing to this arrangement. This has consistently been my experience with this garage, so I am happy to name them and congratulate them publicly for their customer-centred culture.
To start with, the person who takes the call tells me that only the stockroom guy has the key for the place where they keep spare parts, and he isn’t there, so they can’t help me.
I ask this person (who is not the dealer who sold me the car) to leave an i3 charger outside the garage for me, to which he agrees. I will leave the defective one there in its place, because it’s under guarantee anyway.
Kudos to Jan-Autos for their open-mindedness and for agreeing to this arrangement. This has consistently been my experience with this garage, so I am happy to name them and congratulate them publicly for their customer-centred culture.
SOLUTION (Part 2), and some embarRassment
Great. While eating lunch and discussing the situation with my father, I realize that there is one more thing we haven’t yet tried.
While looking for the cause of the problem, I had already tried a different power outlet, but hadn’t questioned the health of the extension cord I need at this house because of the distance between power supply and parking area.
So after lunch, I test. I plug my charging module directly into a power outlet in the house ... and IT WORKS!
Mixed feelings follow.
I was obviously too hasty, too happy to test the car’s call-for-assistance feature. All I had to do now was contact the garage and apologize profusely.
Curious, I opened up the plug of the extension cord. The interior had melted. The cable wires are very thin – not all all intended for the way I had been using it.
I try again with a different extension cord. This one starts overheating immediately, so I unplug it.
So I move the car to where I can plug it in without using an extension. (Editor comment: using someone else’s parking place – but she wasn’t home.)
Surprise! (Well, not really.) Not only does the charging module not overheat, but charging is much faster.
To top it all, my charging module comes with a system that enables you to roll the cable around the adapter for storage. This has never been easy to do because of a huge label stuck on it. Yesterday I read the warning on the label.
(The warning reads: If power socket is unknown, have installation checked by an electrician. Set charging current to “low”.)
While looking for the cause of the problem, I had already tried a different power outlet, but hadn’t questioned the health of the extension cord I need at this house because of the distance between power supply and parking area.
So after lunch, I test. I plug my charging module directly into a power outlet in the house ... and IT WORKS!
Mixed feelings follow.
I was obviously too hasty, too happy to test the car’s call-for-assistance feature. All I had to do now was contact the garage and apologize profusely.
Curious, I opened up the plug of the extension cord. The interior had melted. The cable wires are very thin – not all all intended for the way I had been using it.
I try again with a different extension cord. This one starts overheating immediately, so I unplug it.
So I move the car to where I can plug it in without using an extension. (Editor comment: using someone else’s parking place – but she wasn’t home.)
Surprise! (Well, not really.) Not only does the charging module not overheat, but charging is much faster.
To top it all, my charging module comes with a system that enables you to roll the cable around the adapter for storage. This has never been easy to do because of a huge label stuck on it. Yesterday I read the warning on the label.
(The warning reads: If power socket is unknown, have installation checked by an electrician. Set charging current to “low”.)
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