Sfguy

I am experiencing several problems with the Mbrace iPhone app and service. I am wondering if anyone had similar problems and if they were able to resolve them.
1) My car was parked in a parking lot with a clear view of the sky and no obstructions to the satellite signal. I was in the same parking lot a short distance away from the car. I tried to locate the car using the iPhone app. It could not locate the car.
2) I tried to unlock the car using the iPhone app. It did not work.
3) I called Mbrace to have them send the unlock signal. I followed all the instructions of the Mbrace representative but they could not unlock the car.
4) The Mbrace app periodically locks me out even when I enter the correct password. It locks me out after my first attempt to log in even though it is only supposed to lock you out after 5 incorrect login attempts.

madelko

It's been a nightmare (Mbrace) for me too. I had to have the car re-programed as when the Dealer called them, it said my 2009 Diesel was a 2011 model they only sold in Europe. When I attempted to use the 'i' button to call in, it said "your Verizon phone is not working", but then it said to dial # then four digits and guess who answered - Tel-Aid.

I went high-up as I could reach in the food chain at Mbrace and got results, but I am skeptical of their reliability until proven different.

VERY poor Customer Service in my opinion!

It seems that when you call in (and they keep records) if your a person they don't want to talk to, they just hang up - This is NOt acceptable!

MiamiAMG

Luckily, i haven't had any bad issues with MBrace. Quite the opposite. Sorry to hear about all these problems, hope you guys get it taken care of.

Sgooter

I suspect many owners converted from TeleAid to mbrace when it was first offered for the lifetime $299 price. Now that mbrace has all the money they're ever going to get from those "first adopters," I wonder if their accounts are flagged differently in the mbrace call center database?
Too cynical of me?

nhs1

I have not had any major problems. I have had great customer service.
To locate the car via GPS, I usually have to enable the Iphone’s GPS first then enable MBrace and the car will lock right on. For what it is worth, I had to do the same for my Blackberry.

dfcd

On a third try Mbrace finally located my ML350.

The iphone app says it sends the unlock signal but
I have not been able to unlock yet,
I have tried 5 or 6 times so far.

I hope I never really need this service. I think I wasted my money getting this service.

madelko

A follow-up to my rant last month - After the MB dealer re-programed the Mbrace connection, everything has worked fine for the past month. I check the connection on a regular basis and although the Mbrace system is not yet compatible with an Android phone, they say they are working on that solution. I hope they get the bugs worked out before offering that to us Droid users!

Bottom line, Mbrace has connected each time lately. And yes, I try often.

220S

fwiw, I decided to stay with TeleAid, They also offered me a decent discount to renew. Their new iPhone app works great.

btw, last week I was out in the boonies and needed to find a gas station. There were no POIs listed on the nav, so I called TeleAid and they answered immediately and quickly directed me to a station while following my car and making sure I got there.

TeleAid has been around for a long time and also services BMW's telematics options. No compelling reason to go to MBrace, imho.