Are the Genesis Connected Services free?

[kenbefound]

Even if you buy it used, you get the remaining balance. I bought my G80 Sport with 10k miles & they transferred the 2 years & 6 months that remained. I did have to call into support & have the account changed as the vin was still under the previous owner. This required me to send a copy of the bill of sale, my drivers license, & registration. Once that was sent, they changed it in about 15 minutes. I have all 3 connected services at no cost.

Exactly what support did you call? Genesis? XM? Where did you find the number?

 

[kenbefound]

p.s. This is exactly what I just got done doing today. Same car (‘18 G80 Sport) and same process. Got the remaining balance of the service completely free. I spoke with a kind lady named Candice and she basically had me all wrapped up within 30mins or so (emailed copies of paperwork). They are doing a fantastic job taking care of us as new Genesis owners (as new owners, not necessarily new cars).

Just too bad we couldn’t also get the free maintenance too!

So you called Genesis or XM?

 

[Ggace]

So you called Genesis or XM?

I am so sorry! I didn't see notifications for this. I called 844-340-9741. It's on the contact us page (at the bottom) of genesis.com website. It says by phone 844-340-9741 for both Genesis customer care and connected care.

 

[chunk_split]

Yeah, it's 844-340-9741, which is Genesis' dedicated support line, which includes Blue Link services. Coincidentally I happened to talk to them just today.

I've been on a 4 week long saga trying to actually get BlueLink setup (since I last posted), which hasn't worked out so well. I may post later about this but it's been a pretty frustrating process. Right now I'm at the stage where they've escalated it to "national" (I guess their higher level support, or maybe corporate) since at this point they're thinking my car's head-unit is potentially defective

Hopefully you guys have better luck!

 

[Vermillion3]

Just picked up a 2018 G80 Monday and although setting up blue link was seemless, the use of the app for remote functions is damn near worthless. Out of 8 requests 2 have worked (remote start, unlock door). I get one form or another of a message stating that there is a problem with our system please try later. Hell I even got a email stating that my account was deactivated. But after calling I was told this was sent in error.

Rather embarrassing when trying to show friends and family the new ride and it’s features. I hope it’s just a temporary issue as the reps state it is.

Is this just the state of the system or is it indeed suffering technical issues as of late?

 

[Ggace]

Just picked up a 2018 G80 Monday and although setting up blue link was seemless, the use of the app for remote functions is damn near worthless. Out of 8 requests 2 have worked (remote start, unlock door). I get one form or another of a message stating that there is a problem with our system please try later. Hell I even got a email stating that my account was deactivated. But after calling I was told this was sent in error.

Rather embarrassing when trying to show friends and family the new ride and it’s features. I hope it’s just a temporary issue as the reps state it is.

Is this just the state of the system or is it indeed suffering technical issues as of late?

I use mine daily and have had no issues at all. Not o e failed request in maybe 4 or 5 months.

 

[Vermillion3]

That’s concering thanks man. I have yet to have it update status of vehicle without failing. Perhaps I need to contact tech support.

 

[Ggace]

That’s concering thanks man. I have yet to have it update status of vehicle without failing. Perhaps I need to contact tech support.

I would make sure your cars software is updated in my unprofessional opinion. Dealerships should be able to check versions and fix it for ya but I can assure you, constant failure to connect is not normal in my experience. Good luck. Keep us posted!

 

[EdP]

Just picked up a 2018 G80 Monday and although setting up blue link was seemless, the use of the app for remote functions is damn near worthless. Out of 8 requests 2 have worked (remote start, unlock door). I get one form or another of a message stating that there is a problem with our system please try later. Hell I even got a email stating that my account was deactivated. But after calling I was told this was sent in error.

Rather embarrassing when trying to show friends and family the new ride and it’s features. I hope it’s just a temporary issue as the reps state it is.

Is this just the state of the system or is it indeed suffering technical issues as of late?

I've had it on three cars over nearly 7 years. Not perfect, but overall reliable. There have been a couple of days that were not good. Unless you live in a deep valley, you should be OK.

What color did you get?

 

[Vermillion3]

Blk/Blk 5.0 AWD just like my 2010.........except for the 5.0 and the AWD...LOL Thanks for the info; it sounds like I defiantly have some issue going on with the system. I would expect some failures for sure, but not the volume that I’m seeing. I’ll contact them tomorrow and post back the solution.

______________________________

Help support this site so it can continue supporting you!

 

[chunk_split]

Update in my case too (still ongoing): Since I've last posted, it still took about 2-3 weeks national/corporate to finally settle an appointment with a local dealership. Scheduling with them was quick (once the dealership finally reached out to me). I now have an actual appointment to drop off my car on Monday 1/28/2019 (in a few days) with no idea yet on how long it'll take them to debug the issues with my BlueLink system. No clue how long it'll take...

So, dropping my car off Monday will mark exactly 1.8 months since first opening an official case with Genesis (and that's just to get started physically looking at it since it's apparently such a freak/unusual issue, in my case). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Vermillion3]

Ok so after a ton of testing the issue is apparently my garage is a black hole for signals to the Genny, that only intermittently allows communications to reach her. Everywhere else connective services work like a champ.

 

[chunk_split]

I'm curious @Vermillion3: I know you can setup WiFi. Have you set that up in your car as well (to connect to your WiFi)? Based on what was said above, I believe that really only applies to downloading of the Hyundai apps, but I'd still like to see if that actually makes a difference.

I'm pretty sure this may not help, but it'll be useful for me to know your experience when I finally get my Genesis back from the shop and BlueLink is finally setup. The reason why is that, for me, I too live in a spot with very poor cell phone reception but I do have WiFi (with my own custom directional WiFi antenna already pointed toward my carport). I'm hoping I can "boost" my chances of BlueLink connectivity even though I'm in a deadzone by using WiFi instead.

 

[Vermillion3]

I'm curious @Vermillion3: I know you can setup WiFi. Have you set that up in your car as well (to connect to your WiFi)? Based on what was said above, I believe that really only applies to downloading of the Hyundai apps, but I'd still like to see if that actually makes a difference.

I'm pretty sure this may not help, but it'll be useful for me to know your experience when I finally get my Genesis back from the shop and BlueLink is finally setup. The reason why is that, for me, I too live in a spot with very poor cell phone reception but I do have WiFi (with my own custom directional WiFi antenna already pointed toward my carport). I'm hoping I can "boost" my chances of BlueLink connectivity even though I'm in a deadzone by using WiFi instead.

Setting her up on the home WiFi was tested and had zero effect in the success or failure of connective services while in my garage. The simple act of updating the status of the cars systems while in my garage still fails more times than works; WiFi or not. I do not think she powers the WiFi when off, as if she did, this surely would have corrected the issues.

 

[chunk_split]

Dammit. Well, I guess I'll have to devise some kind of project to workaround the issue...

... that said, given I'm already here... Anyone know what service provider Genesis/Hyundai use for their BlueLink 3G/LTE? e.g. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc? I know connectivity will vary depending on which provider you use, so that can help map out the "dead zones" and potentially open up the opportunity for a range extender similar to this one

EDIT: Based on this 2011 link it is (or was) Sprint and based on this 2014 article it could now be Verizon.

 

[EdP]

Speaking of subscription services and cash cows, I can see why car makers are doing it. Money.

USA Today reported this
Users of the myChevrolet, myBuick, myGMC and myCadillac appsused their phones to start and warm up their vehicles more than 1.59 million times on January 30, which is a 70 percent increase from an average day in January, according to GM

A couple of million uses paying a couple of hundred bucks a year is nice.

 

[Mcc]

Dammit. Well, I guess I'll have to devise some kind of project to workaround the issue...

... that said, given I'm already here... Anyone know what service provider Genesis/Hyundai use for their BlueLink 3G/LTE? e.g. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc? I know connectivity will vary depending on which provider you use, so that can help map out the "dead zones" and potentially open up the opportunity for a range extender similar to this one

EDIT: Based on this 2011 link it is (or was) Sprint and based on this 2014 article it could now be Verizon.

Nothing to do with WiFi for sure.
Also it could be digital AM?

 

[chunk_split]

Nothing to do with WiFi for sure.
Also it could be digital AM?

Right. I'm 100% certain their connectivity for Blue Link is cell-based (given they have a modem page with an IMEI and USIM diagnostic info), so that's figured out. Also, initially I was wondering if the system itself alternatively used WiFi to connect to the Hyundai mother ship (since inevitably everything is tunneled across the Internet one way or the other anyway). But since we know @Vermillion3 verified that the internals of Blue Link's "I-Box" (the actual name of the hardware manufactured by some company called LGIT, which I verified by running my loaner's IMEI through imei.info) does not actually leverage the cars WiFi capability, I'm now just wondering which carrier Blue Link uses. Based on their Wikipedia page here, I'm under the impression that it is indeed Verizon, but they (of all the info there) unfortunately don't cite that, so it's hard to verify.

That's useful to know so that then if you're in a cell reception dark zone like I am, you can then purchase the specific provider's range extender (e.g. Verizon's) to fix the reception issue on that "last mile".

Still poking around though... one idea I had was to actually see if I could somehow trick my car into loading the URL of a website that I control so that I could get it's IP to then infer the provider from there, but not sure yet until I get my car back (hopefully today ). Since I have money to burn and like to mess around with my gadgets, I may dump the $50-$150 on a range extender just to try it out so we can answer this interesting question (at least to prove or falsify the assumption that they use Verizon's network).

 

[Mcc]

I may dump the $50-$150 on a range extender just to try it out so we can answer this interesting question (at least to prove or falsify the assumption that they use Verizon's network).

I agree, it would be good to nail that down.

 

[chunk_split]

Just an update: Finally have Blue Link working. It took exactly 2 months to get it figured out. Ultimately the issue was that broken "I-Box" unit (which I think is responsible for the actual communications). It's unknown what caused the failure, but could have just been defective.

EDIT: Warning: The following will be a rant loaded with opinion. Also, it contained factually incorrect statements which I've shamefully crossed out and corrected here

All of that said, as a developer, I'm pretty disappointed with their execution (regarding Blue Link). I'm not sure what it's like with the newest 2018/2019 Genesis or Hyundai models, but I can say the '18 Genesis works but it's slow. The app experience is very poor at all levels (iOS and Web) due to a consistently poorly built and extremely slow interface. Aside from the fact that each interface allows remote start, stop, horn honking / headlight flashing and locking/unlocking, that poor interface is actually the only other part that's consistent. The execution on the website side is clunky (I looked at the code and there are misspellings). It seems disjointed, which is consistent with my experience first getting started when I accidentally went to the Hyundai site to register before realizing there was a totally separate Genesis Owner's site now (owners.genesis.com).

The part that really blows me away is their "Genesis Assistant" app (which is the only app you can use on your iPhone to access the ability to leverage remote functionality, as far as I can tell), which is of course really what you're after, especially in the winter/summer months. But no... The entire app it self is centered and focused on being like some kind of crappy Google Assistant wannabe app. When you open it, you are presented front-and center with: a calendar, "points of interest search" app and weather. Seriously. Not only is it overall just a simple Google Maps integration, but the whole point of it is just circuitous and bloated.

That is, for example with PoI they seriously expect you to:

1. Open Genesis App on your phone and wait for it to login (takes 5-10s)
2. Manually type in your specific search (e.g. tacos or an exact place you already know you want to go to)
3. Click an icon to download it to your car (then tap "ok" to close the confirmation dialog that always comes up, if it actually sync'ed or not is another matter)
4. Wait at least 30s to 1min for it to synchronize (assuming it actually works).
5. Go into your car, manually click the "Blue Link" button or go into your maps to then manually hunt down the item you just synchronized to your points of interest list.
6. Use the built in inferior maps/navigation system.

Why would you purposefully go through all those steps from your iPhone when it's obvious that you already have multiple dedicated and far superior apps for not only locating establishments, but also reading reviews, calling and getting directions and etc (Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, et al) directly from your phone and simply plug in and use CarPlay?

How utterly out of touch do you have to be to think this up and waste developer resources to do this?! And even then, fail miserably at the overall execution, because it's not only slow, but over engineered. We developers know all too well (as do most engineers, practically common knowledge) that the more complicated a system is, the more likely it is that some component is going to fail somewhere.

All of that's just the start of it. That's the main screen. Then there are the icons at the bottom: Map, MVR ("Monthly Vehicle Report"), Schedule (i.e. to schedule appointments, since you need a dedicated app to do that all the time) and then finally you get to the "Remote" option: The primary use of this app, in my opinion. Now that we're finally at Remote, they don't even include the other remote capabilities that are available to you now that you have Blue Link actually set up. It's missing:

• Car finder (available on the website, which by the way, that feature is only available when you visit the website on your phone ) Those tears are because it's so insane, I've gone from sobbing into a maniacal fit of laughter.
• Alert capabilities, including:
  • Geo-fence alerts
  • Curfew alerts
  • Speed alters
  • Valet alerts

Thing is: These features are awesome! Why must they bury them either under layers of red tape/bureaucracy or not even surface them at all in a way where I'd be able to use them in real life? i.e. on an app on my phone? If I'm at a ritzy hotel or at a club and valet my car, do you seriously expect me to go to the website and manually type in the password, wait for it to load, go to the hamburger menu, click "connected services", wait for it to load, then scroll down, click "On" and etc.... no. That's stupid.

After you've got it setup... And the alert capabilities require to you install an app in the car itself (inside of the car's touch screen interface). Ok fine, fair enough, let's get this thing on my WiFi. Alright, there's a Download Center. There's literally only one (1) app. The only app available is the Alerts app. It's 750kb in size (less than 1MB) which is very small. I'm downloading this on my 50mbps WiFi (backed by a high speed 100mbps hard-wired internet connection) and it takes about 2-3 minutes to download. This isn't a huge deal, it just shows how hilariously bad this was executed. But normal users, not power users, not tech savvy folks, are expected to jump through these hoops.

Once you install the alerts app, you cannot control it from your phone. You cannot control it from the car. You can only control it through the web interface. And, again, all requests take roughly 30s-1min to run.

Mind = blown. </nerd-rant>