fabmk3

I see What Car mention the Fabia Mirrorlink problem on their news page as of yesterday. http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/skoda-fabia-mirrorlink-problem/1358525 Unfortunately it just states facts and says the phone list is "restrictive" rather than the more accurate "appalingly limitied", Doesn't express an opinion upon how lame it is of Skoda to launch a car advertised as having the latest infortainment technology only for it be effectively obsolete within less than two months of the first cars being delivered to owners in the UK. Nor does it question the lack of detail from Skoda about the solution they are proposing As WhatCar's Car of the Year endorsement of the Fabia at the UK launch was one of the contributing factors to my Fabia purchase and I suspect for other owners, I can only hope they (What Car) feel somewhat embarrased by the situation and many apply some little influence upon Skoda to do right by the inital adopters. I live in hope!

Talking on analogies, this is the one I used on my first call with Kate.. Imagine you'd paid alot of money to have your kitchen refitted complete with integrated appliances. Everything is wonderful except there is a problem with the stove. You'd expect the company to sort out the stove and if they can'r do that to replace the whole cooker. But what they offer you instead is a camping stove. That's how I see the offer of a Garmin satnav sits in relation to the (functional and upgradable) integrated infortainment system that I was lead to believe I was buying by Skoda..

That's what I told Kate a few weeks ago when I spoke to her, but in slightly more diplomatic terms. After offering me the satnav (rejected) and to pay for Syic (rejected) she then asked me what I wanted. I replied a car with the same functionality as a post wk22 car and answers to the following questions: a. why it can't be a software upgrade? b. why it can't be a hardware upgrade / harness update? Kate said she didn't know the answers, but she was having a call with the factory and would ask. I was somewhat surprised that she doesn't know, but gave her the benefit of the doubt. I left my e-mail for her to update me. No e-mail, but she tried to contact me by phone a few days later. Unfortunately this conversation was like the previous one had never happened! I was offered the satnv (rejected again). She then said that they were working on a solution and started talking about a box that had been used in VWs and was now being tested with Skoda. I asked two questions: Will it give me the ability to use Android Auto and Carplay and when would it be available? To which I got a vague answer that was something along the lines "it improves connectivity" and "September". Now I'm pretty sure that she is talking about the Kenwood box and as far as I'm aware it doen't "improve connectivity"....so I can see further difficut conversations on the horizon! I note that Skoda appear to be very keen to do everything over the phone which of course don't leave an audit trail. Does anyone actually receive e-mails from Kate or have an e-mail address? With regards trading standards, does anyone know how they work with a national supplier issue? Does each regional Trading Standards body take up the cases separately or do they pass it to the Trading Standards team for the area in which the company is based i.e. whoever covers Milton Keynes in Skoda's case.

As per others comments I'd not find this acceptable. Strikes me someone at Skoda thought "what's the cheapest way to get these people off out backs" rather than "how do we do right by our early adopters and maintain our excellent customer service reputation" I guess the one small upside is that by offering an alternative (however poor and unreasonable) it shows the Skoda acknowledge that have failed to deliver, have an issue and need to do something about it. Kevrs16 I trust you made it clear to them that offering a Garmin Satnav to was as unreasonable to us as us expecting Skoda to replace our cars with brand new post wk22 models would be to them!

Hi everyone, Been following this thread with interest and somewhat dissapointed at Skoda's poor response and lack of (consistent) communication. How Skoda manage to get such good customer service ratings if this is how they carry on is beyond me! For those of you talking to AutoExpress/Trading Standards and listing the promised functionality of smartphone / infotainment integration as being a major contributor to your decision to buy the Fabia as it was for me, you might like to reference the following web page, http://telematicsnews.info/2014/10/27/car-connectivity-consortium-praises-skodas-mirrorlink-strategy_o5274/ where Skoda's then Head of Electric and electronic development says: “ŠKODA sees MirrorLink as a main factor in the brand’s mass-market appeal.” So Skoda know its a major influencer in peoples car buying decision. As the satnav functionality rates highest as the reason for wanting smartphone / infotainment integration for most owners I thought it worth mentioning that Pioneer are doing a satnav add-on for the Bolero as fitted to the Fabia Mk3. http://www.pioneer.eu/uk/products/25/111/241/CA-NAV-VAG.260/page.html Perhaps Skoda would like to provide and fit this unit at no cost to all early adoptors as some level of compensation if they can't manage to sort out an upgrade using their own products!!! With the availability of this unit we know Skoda can't say that they can't do anything...only that they chose to do nothing.