I dont know if anyone else has had this problem so watch out. If you have had the same thing happen to you please post it.

I went in to Mini of nashville for my appt to install Sirius Sat radio and to fix the 3-2 squeal and wind noise problem if they could(I really was not worried to much about the 3-2 squeal because i knew it would take quite a bit of time to fix). I specifically told them I had to leave by 2:30pm in order to get back to Huntsville AL to open up my business. The SA said they have done the installs before so it should be no problem. So i brought the mini to them at 8:30 that morning and waited for it. Turned out I never got my mini or sat radio.

The service advisor told me that the car was programing and it could take 3 hours to program after the install. The programing never took so they tried it again and again. So finnally they call bmw/mini to find out that there is a bullentin out about cars not being able to be programed and that sometimes it takes 2-3 different sat radios to work. What a joke. This I bet is the real reason that it has taken so long to get out.

I left bmw Nashville after 4pm without my car because they didnt have another radio in stock to try to program. I didnt get back home until 7:30 because of traffic and had to rush to find someone to open up my place for me.

I am also going to contact Mini USA about this problem. I was so pissed

1. Mini USA should never release a product that has a 50% failure rate to accept programming. Dealers should not have to order several units in order have 1 unit to work for the customer.

2. It should not take 3+hours to program something as simple as adding the sat radio. I have added sirius to both my E55 and Nissan Titan and I was in and out in less than 2 hours.

My time was wasted for the whole day and to top it off I get this smelly PT cruiser rental. At this point I feel like telling them to take the sat radio out and give my car back so I can trade it in.

Good luck\\

 

That is unfortunate to hear. It would be wise to contact 866-ask-mini and let them know that you're very frustrated. Follow-up with an e-mail to them. Often times MINI Corporate does not have the details from the dealer and it is good to hear from the end consumer.

I've been looking adding Sirius also, but I may wait based on what you hear back.

Please keep us posted.

For now, pick up an XM unit or Sirius unit and use your aux input - should work just fine. :-)

 

I have sent them a email and will follow up with a call on Monday.

 

I have been trying to contact my dealer and MA for weeks after I was told the sirius equipment was in and I could now get it. I sent 3 and now a 4th email to the dealer to see whats up with sirius and all I get back is the auto response thanking me for my question and we will get back to you shortly. I think I am going down today to get a portable S10/50 one of the hand helds and plug it into the aux. I need another IPOD like device anyway. I agree, how can you sell something thats not tested and delivery it to the market and hope it works. Its not new technology is it?.

 

I used the Sirius plugged into the Aux until I got the dealer-installed version. Worked well. The perk to that system (Starmate, I think) is that you can pause and save sections of what you listen to, which is nice. The dealer kit is listen-only, no frills.

 

Look at this crap I received from Mini.



Hi David,

Thanks for writing MINI. I'm sorry to hear of the problems you experienced having Sirius installed at MINI of Nashville. Please accept my apology for the impression of a lapse of good service and customer focus.

The satisfaction of our customers is a top priority. We strive to be responsive to customer feedback in order to better serve MINI owners. Our MINI dealer network was chosen based upon an excellent customer service history, and I apologize that we fell short of your expectations. Please keep in mind that our MINI dealers are independently owned and operated. They determine the details of their own service transactions, including staffing and stocking policies. Since you have concerns with the service you have received from your dealer and with the quality of the dealer installed Sirius accessory, we recommend you discuss your concerns with the service manager at your MINI dealer. The service manager has access to MINI engineering and regional representatives who are in the best position to review your concerns.

I apologize again for the frustration I know this has caused. If there are further questions I can assist with, please feel free to drop me an e-mail. I will be happy to lend a hand.

LET’S MOTOR.
Meg Brown
MINI Customer Relations and Services
Representative
866.ASK.MINI (275-6464)

 

She dosen't wanna deal with it!!

 

Heh. Meg Brown... she called me last week over the iPod issue. I know this is off topic, but here's what I sent, then she sent, then I sent back:

question/comment:
Dear Mini:

I posted this on NAM (North American Motoring website) and wanted to pass it along to you. Perhaps it's an issue you aren't even aware of...

Please let me know if there are any solutions, or if it is something a future software update might address.

Thanks
Jeff Melrose

iPod playlist issue

I don't know if anyone else is seeing this, but hopefully some outside experiences can help me out.

I have the 160GB ipod classic, and planned to have issues accessing all the artists on it, so I made playlists. I figured if I pick my favorite artists, make "best of" playlists, as well as a bunch of mix playlists, I should be fine. Sure enough, made 'em and had around 90 playlists, none in excess of 255 tracks. I figured I'd connect up and be good to go!

Well, surprise, surprise, only half the playlists showed up. I was getting around 55 instead, and weird thing is that the last playlist would cut off part-way through.

So, last Saturday I spend a lot of time running back and forth between my Mac and my car rearranging the lists and trying to find the rhyme and reason behind what I could access in the interface.

To backtrack, I have the Sat Nav, and just got Sirius installed last week as well. The software is definitely as up-to-date as it can get for now.

Anyway, to make a long process a shorter story: it turned out the playlist list (CD 1) is not solely based on items inside the folder. I don't have the exact number, but the number of playlists is based upon the number of tracks in them, up to around 5000. For example, if I added tracks to a playlist that appeared earlier alphabetically, it would cause the number of songs in that last playlist to decrease by the number of songs I added. If I shorted or removed lists from the top of the order, the number of lists added at the bottom was based not on the number of lists I deleted but the number of tracks in those lists.

Anyway, this wasn't what I expected, and so I give the warning to those with very large libraries that there really is no good way to access all your music without a great deal of advance planning, and even then the best you seem to be able to do is access 5000 of your tracks. Which is actually a ridiculously large amount of music, unless of course you have 11,000 on your iPod and got the interface expecting to be able to access just about everything. However, for most users, it is still a pretty great product.

If anyone finds they have a different experience with their ipod adapter, I'd love to hear about it. I sure hope it's not a situation specific to my car. My Mini has had enough of those in its short life already.

Jmelrose

Posted at: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=115408

REPLY:
"MINI.Assistance@askminiusa.com"
to me
More options Oct 5
Hi Jeff,

Thanks for writing MINI. I'm sorry to hear that you are having trouble accessing all of your playlists.

The MINI iPod Adapter should allow you to create 255 playlists with 255 songs per playlist. This will allow you to access over 65,000 songs, which I believe is more than the 160GB iPod will hold. However, if any of the playlists exceed 255 songs, you will not be able to access them. Please also note that if any of your songs are encrypted to play only on certain devices or with certain software, such as songs you have downloaded from iTunes, you will not be able to access these with your iPod Adapter. Encrypted songs do not recognize the iPod Adapter, so they will not play.

I hope this information helps you out. If there are further questions I can assist with, please feel free to drop me an e-mail. I will be happy to lend a hand.

LET’S MOTOR.
Meg Brown
MINI Customer Relations and Services
Representative
866.ASK.MINI (275-6464)

MY REPLY:
to kate.ani, MINI.Assistance
More options Oct 5
Dear Meg,

Clearly you didn't read my email. In the future, I encourage you to do
so before replying.

First, your comment that iTunes-purchased tracks do not play is, in
fact, inaccurate. They play fine. I have lots. They sounds great.

Second, and this is what makes me angry when I read your response, is
that I am NOT able to create 255 playlists with 255 tracks. I said
that quite clearly in my initial letter. I am not going to re-describe
the issue because I did so once already. In order to deal with this
issue, I would be glad to chat with a technician who can respond in
less of a cut-and-paste manner, but there's little more to be said
beyond my initial email, which you have apparently already given your
best possible response to.

I apologize for the tone of this email, but I have a collection of
emails from MiniUSA customer relations which seem to not pay any mind
to the content of what I have sent them. Instead I get a reply which
doesn't address the issue, and the feeling that I haven't been heard.
After a while, it gets old, and is the reason Mini USA hasn't heard
from me in months and months. I just don't see the point in
writing/calling, as there's little ever done to truly help.

I would like to request that my issue be reported to someone involved
with technical support, and I also a response sent to me from them
letting me know that either a: this is the correct behavoir of the
adapter or b: this is incorrect and I either need a software change or
a hardware change. I do have the current software, according to my
dlealership as of this past Monday.

In addition I am passing this email along to Kate Alini of Mini USA
Customer Experience so she is aware of the kind of frustration I get
regularly when I contact Mini USA with questions or about issues. I
don't expect her to deal with the iPod issue... that is why I am
contacting you. I just want her to hear what I'm hearing. I'll also
contact her with whatever replies I get on this matter so she knows
what the customer experience is like firsthand. She has been very
helpful in the past and I am grateful she has offered to help me with
any issues I have involving my Mini.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,
Jeff Melrose

cc: Kate Ani

FIVE Days Later, no reply, sent this:
Jeff Melrose
to MINI.Assistance, kate.ani
More options Oct 10 (5 days ago)
Dear MiniUSA

I am still waiting a reply or awknowledgement of the issues I wrote in
about initially.

Additionally, the fact that this iPod interface causes the iPod to
remain powered on and the screen illuminated (as in, the backlight it
constantly ON) is a problem as it causes the screen to run down very
rapidly AND it could, in theory, run down the Mini's battery as well
since it is constantly powering the iPod. There should have been a
standby mode where the iPod powers down completely when not in use,
and the screen should only stay on at all times when video is being
watched. The ipod screen being lit up constantly does not occur when
the iPod is plugged into any other accessory.

In short, Mini owners will not be happy to find that their car has
degraded the iPod's screen due to it constantly being lit regardless
of whether or not the iPod is being used or if the car is running.
This is not expected behavior for an iPod accessory. I would hope it
can be addressed and improved up. Please let me know what plans there
are to correct this issue. The forums at www.northamericanmotoring.com
are not happy to find this expensive piece of hardware has such clear
flaws and limitations.

I look forward to a reply promptly. Have a great day.

Thank you,
Jeff M

Since then, it has been brought to my attention that the screen is lit when the car is active, so the screen activates once the door opens, and stays lit for several minutes after the car is left alone. I tested it by leaving the storage box open so I could see in from outside. BUT, the screen does stay lit while the car is running, which for a person doing a fair amount of driving, can run down that ipod screen quite quickly. I don't think the iPod even needs to be in-use, just connected, and it will stay lit.

Got a call on Friday afternoon. Was told the playlist issue was because the iPod was a new one, and not supported. I told her I had the same problem with my old 80GB (I went back and tested it just to be sure). She said to contact my dealership. I did, that afternoon. Still haven't heard from them either. Hmm...

Anyway, sad times for Mini owners with ICE issues I guess.

 

Dont get it right the first time, just continue doing it wrong!

 

What was the eventual outcome of your situation? I took mine in on Thursday to have them install the Sirius unit and the Ipod adaptor. The pre-installation download went fine but not so for the post-work one. They also reported that the voice control system was also messed up as a result of the general car download.

They're working on it.

They sent me home with a new cabrio, so although it means another three-hour trip to Portland to pick up my car once they figure everything out, I don't mind it too much. I don't care if it is getting colder, I'm driving with the top down, darn it.

 

Update: I drove up to Portland yesterday to pick up my car. They were able to synch everything up on Monday, but I couldn't spare the three-hour drive up there until yesterday.

Both the Ipod system and the Sirius radio work fine. They were also able to correct the problems with the voice-activated system that sprung up when they did the software update. I'm very pleased.

 

Sweet! I'm glad to hear that you got it fixed.

 

I am, too. I knew there had been some problems reported with software updates but was hopeful that the national Mini tech staff had dealt with enough of them to walk the dealer folks through the process to correct the problem.

The funny thing is that when I drove up last week, it still listed 16,000 miles to go before an oil change was needed. Yesterday, it said I was down to 8,000 miles. That 200-mile trip to Portland must have been hard on the system, or that's part of the software update process.