spoon2000

This morning's email brought a survey from Audi about Audi Connect. It appeared to specifically target people who hadn't continued with the service on a paid basis after the 6 month free trial period. Based on the questions, I would guess that Audi Connect has done poorly and that Audi is trying to figure out what the problem is. There were questions about likes and dislikes, opinions of T-Mobile (although nothing that specifically addressed the lack of 4G), etc.

At the end of the survey, there were some questions about features that might make the service more appealing with a request to rate each as "Must Have" or "Nice to Have" or "Not Important." Below is the list of potential features they asked about; it sounds to me like they're considering many features similar to OnStar. Let's hope that if they roll-out something new and improved that it's made available to owners of vehicles with the existing Audi Connect set-up.

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RSS Feeds
Access various types of RSS content feeds (e.g. news, blogs, etc.) from the internet inside the vehicle MMI

Car Locator
Ability to access the last known location of the vehicle when engine was last turned off (e.g. in a Parking lot) via a mobile device or website.

Vehicle Status Report
Regular (monthly) report of the status of vehicle systems that also includes basic vehicle service parameters (tire pressure, oil life, mileage, etc.)

Social Media (Facebook / Twitter)
Ability to access and send messages on Social Media sites

Remote Lock/Unlock of doors
Ability to lock or unlock doors through a call center or a mobile device

Text Messages (voice controlled)
Ability to send and receive text messages in the vehicle through voice control only (available while driving)

Online SOS Call
Vehicle automatically connects to call center when an accident with airbag deployment occurs. Customer also has the option to press a button to connect to the call center if they need emergency help in a non-accident situation

Hotel Information
Access to hotels in a desired location (e.g., near a destination) that have room s available to reserve

Curfew / Valet / Speed Alert
Vehicle sends an alert when it detects that it is operated outside of customer defined limits including distance from valet location, hours of the day, and speed limits

Parking Information
Access to real-time data about parking locations, pricing, and availability of parking

Online Dealer Appointment
Vehicle provides an interface through which a dealer appointment can be made. If a service milestone is approaching, the vehicle automatically offers to setup appointment with dealer.

Accident Management
When an accident occurs but there is no airbag deployment, the vehicle automatically asks whether help is required and provides the ability to connect to a service provider or dealer

Flight Information
Access to information about flight schedules and updates through the MMI

Music Stream
Music can be streamed directly from the internet into the vehicle (e.g. internet radio)

Online Update of Navigation Data
Download latest map updates over the air into the vehicle MMI

Stock Exchange Information Access to latest financial data (market indices, stock prices, exchange rates, etc.) in MMI

Cloud Service
Information in the cloud can be accessed in the vehicle (music, audio-books, videos, documents, etc.)

Last Mile Navigation
Navigation transfers from vehicle to mobile device after it is parked around the area of a programmed destination – remaining directions to final destination provided on the mobile device.

Breakdown Call
Ability to contact a call center, roadside provider, or dealer directly from the car when the customer has a breakdown situation or needs a remote diagnosis of the vehicle to determine if the vehicle needs to be repaired.

Route Information
Access to real-time information about planned and available routes (interesting POIs along the way)

Picture Navigation
Ability to select a destination by clicking on a picture of it in the MMI

Geo Fencing
Vehicle sends alerts when it detects that it has gone past a defined geographic boundary

Music Tagging
When listening to music, a song can be tagged for download/purchase

City Events
Access to latest information about events occurring in a city

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s5blitzer

Great news if Audi is able to integrate many of the "Must Have" within the current Audi Connect setup and not for a later MY rollout.

Might make the monthly costs more attractive.

Curious, outside of the initial 30-month deal ($15/month), does T-Mobile offer an annual package that brings down the monthly $30/month cost?

HyperS4

They have a one year plan for $324 or two year plan for $600. However, if you sign up within the first week of ownership, you can get a 36 month plan for $450.

snagitseven

It's actually an extra 30 months deal as you get the 6 months trial for free. Still is a great bargain equal to $15 per month. Not clear why it's only a 7 day from delivery sign up though. If the goal is to hook you in to the service, why not offer it over the 6 month trial? And, as many dealers aren't even aware of it, it doesn't make much sense to offer such a short sign up time frame.
I found out about it online and had to call my dealer to buy it. Finance manager fail.

HyperS4

I dont know about your dealership, but here its not the finance managers responsibility to sign customers up, its the salesperson.

spoon2000

Interestingly, there was a question on the survey that asked about the point at which the decision was made not to sign up for Audi Connect. I think the choices were along the lines of "Never had any intention to sign up" or "In the middle of the 6 month trial" and "After the end of the trial period." There was a follow-up question to the effect of whether there had been an "ah ha" moment that sealed the decision.

On the subject of the 7 day window to buy the service, when someone offers me something and insists that it has to purchased within a short period of time, it's a complete red flag to me, as if whoever is dangling something in front of me is well aware that if I have time to investigate thoroughly and make an informed decision, I'll figure out that it's not something worth buying.

In a way, it's reminiscent of sleazy and tacky car salesman tactics ("My manager will only let me sell you this car for this price TODAY, and if you wait until tomorrow, you'll have to pay more") from which Audi seems to be trying very hard to distance itself.

spoon2000

We got worked over by both the salesperson and the finance person for Cilajet, extended warranty, etc.

I recently took delivery of a vehicle for a business and was amazed at how un-complicated a process buying a car can be once the price negotiation is completed. The salesperson wasn't even there and had left the paperwork for his secretary with sticky flags on it where I needed to sign (3 places). I handed over the check, the secretary made copies of everything, walked me out to the lot where the vehicle was parked, thanked me for the purchase, and she told me to call if I had any questions. I was on the property for less than 10 minutes. The first emotion I had was shock and amazement at how easy the process was, and the second emotion was anger at how much Mickey-Mousing-around had been involved when we'd taken delivery of our Audi a few months prior.

RSP

From: Roger Parsons [mailto:RSParsons@comcast.net]
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 3:46 PM
To: Keogh, Scott (President, Audi of America)
Cc: Donnellan, Peter (Director After Sales, Audi of America); Hollister, Brad (Executive Case Specialist, Audi of America)
Subject: FW: Audi Connect T-Mobile Subscription Renewal

Scott Keogh
President
Audi of America

Dear Scott:

I just finished reading the Audi Magazine/edition103 and your editorial contained within. You concluded with, “As always we love to hear from you, our readers and our customers, so don’t be shy about writing. Tell us what you like and even what you don’t. We are listening.” As the owner of two late model Audis it should be obvious that I am a fan of the brand and many of the things Audi has done to bring it where it is today.

As you will see from the email chronology below, I have taken you up on your invitation and recently informed Audi of my displeasure with Audi not offering the long term Audi Connect subscription extension special with T-Mobile for those of us that were not offered it during our initial purchase of Audi Connect capable vehicles. This program that extended your subscription beyond the six-month complimentary trial subscription to the only provider you have allowed, T-Mobile, for an additional 30 months at a cost of $450 brought the monthly subscription rate down to a more manageable $15/month from the normal $30/month subscription rate. As I previously mentioned in my August 31, 2012 correspondence to Audi of America Director After Sales, Peter Donnellan, “Audi Customers are already paying fees to use the state of the art technology that Audi promotes in their vehicles including Sirius satellite radio fees and additional Sirius fees to add their live traffic enhancement to one’s navigation display. An additional $30/month to use another Audi touted technology feature gets to be a bit much.”

I was quite optimistic that Audi was indeed “listening” when Mr. Donnellan replied to my concerns about Audi Connect and the T-Mobile subscription rates and the restrictiveness of the long term reduced rate subscription extension offer as follows, “Thank you for your note and I will check into this issue immediately. Thanks for giving us the chance to rectify this situation for you.” That was over three months ago and in the interim I have been contacted by Audi of America Executive Case Specialist Brad Hollister assuring me that Audi of America leadership has committed to thoroughly review the current Audi Connect program with T-Mobile with the goal of making it more conducive to Audi customers and that he would be in touch with any changes. As my email will show, I queried Brad on October 22, 2012 as follows, “I’m headed out to my Audi dealer tomorrow and wondered if you have any feedback from the powers to be at Audi of America if they will be making any change to the program to allow those of us with existing Audi Connect/T-Mobile coverage to participate in the long term T-Mobile subscription renewal program?” I have yet to receive a reply.

What prompted my renewed contact with Audi on this subject was this posting on the Audi Forums today:
Survey Audi Connect
________________________________________
This morning's email brought a survey from Audi about Audi Connect. It appeared to specifically target people who hadn't continued with the service on a paid basis after the 6 month free trial period. Based on the questions, I would guess that Audi Connect has done poorly and that Audi is trying to figure out what the problem is. There were questions about likes and dislikes, opinions of T-Mobile (although nothing that specifically addressed the lack of 4G), etc.

At the end of the survey, there were some questions about features that might make the service more appealing with a request to rate each as "Must Have" or "Nice to Have" or "Not Important." Below is the list of potential features they asked about; it sounds to me like they're considering many features similar to OnStar. Let's hope that if they roll-out something new and improved that it's made available to owners of vehicles with the existing Audi Connect set-up.

I’m hopeful that this Audi Connect Survey is a precursor to Audi making significant changes and improvement to the Audi Connect program, a cornerstone to the technological innovations Audi is promoting throughout the entire product line. Whomever has responsibility for this project may want to continue to view the customer responses provided via the following Audi Forums link:https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2838235.

Thank You for Listening,

Roger Parsons

s5blitzer

Great email! Thanks Roger!!!

spoon2000

Further random musings on the subject of Audi Connect and the survey...

One part of the survey seemed to be testing the extent to which people were not impressed with Audi Connect because of excessive overlap with features on their smartphone (which one presumes most owners of $60,000 automobiles already have in their pocket). Yes, obviously, it makes sense to have a GPS feature built into in the car. But using the car as a hotspot? I can't imagine why somebody would want that capability, especially when their smartphone already can do it (on, ahem, a 4G network), and especially when the REAL trick would be to give the car the ability to piggy-back on a driver's smartphone as the link to external data such as Google Earthview (which is, in and of itself, a tool of marginal utility, on par with the disc changer in the glove box -- are people still buying and listening to CDs in Germany?).

My observation was that MMI gas price info was either incorrect or dated or both; I already know where the cheap gas stations are in my home driving area, and when I'm out on the Interstate, all I want is to fill the tank and get back on the highway again. News I can get from the radio or my smartphone or tablet, although weather via the MMI interface is potentially of some use.

And then there's the whole issue of things Audi Connect CAN'T do such as remote unlock, remote start (not directly Audi Connect types of features, but seriously, everybody else's new cars have them these days, including vehicles such as the econo-bucket Chevy Aveo), etc.

I remember our family's 1985 and/or 1987 Audi vehicles came with air conditioning systems sourced from General Motors. I recall reading an article in Car and Driver where some Audi bigwig in Germany was interviewed about the choice, and he responded that Audi had judged GM to make the world's best automotive air conditioning (translation: GM's fat and lazy American customers demanded instant 72 degree comfort at all times) and that for Audi that was the end of the story in terms of where they'd get their HVAC equipment. I bring that up in the context of Audi Connect because it seems that there are other great examples of cutting-edge vehicular communications systems out there but that Audi has instead chosen to go off into the weeds, tried to reinvent the wheel, and laid an egg in the process. Put differently, Audi Connect is at the opposite end of the "wow factor" spectrum from other Audi innovations such as Quattro all-wheel drive or the A6's LED headlamps. Audi Connect in its current incarnation is something I'd expect to see in a Hyundai Genesis or some similar wanna-be luxury car where the designers, engineers, and marketing people took a "throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks" approach and hoped nobody called them out on it.

As for T-Mobile, I commented on the survey that in my view, T-Mobile (like Sprint) is a struggling fringe player in the cellular communications market, and that Audi's brand was dis-enhanced by their affiliation with them (kind of like if Audi put some no-name Chinese or Korean tires on their nice supercharged cars and then told owners not to worry because the tires were just as good as what Goodyear offered, etc.).

Moreover, being forced to use T-Mobile for data service (when I already get wireless and landline bills from Verizon at home and at work) is just one added complication I'd rather not deal with. Another part of the irritation along those lines is that I can add a line to my existing Verizon Wireless family plan for $9.99 per month, but to bring my A6 into the mix, I have to not only open a new account with a new vendor, but also pay through the nose for it.

One thing the survey might have asked but didn't: "What would you consider to be a reasonable cost for Audi Connect based on its utility to you in its current form?" My answer would have been: "About $5 per month."

Lest someone get the wrong impression about all of this, our 2012 A6 is a fantastic car. It's among the top 4 or 5 best looking cars on the road and turns heads everywhere, it drives like a dream, it's safe, and on and on. As implied earlier, it's precisely because the car is so good in so many other ways and offers so much bang for the buck that Audi connect stands out for some of its dim-bulb shortcomings.