Karen Wootten sent a message to Akio Toyoda President and CEO, Toyota Motor Corporation email address that said:
Correction: The date Dec 3 was incorrect, it was a typographic error, the date was Dec. 13
Original email: My husband and I purchased a new Camry XLE a few weeks ago from Bill Penny Toyota in Huntsville, AL. From the day we drove it off the lot the Entune/Scout system did not work properly.
My husband took it back to the dealer and the service department re-downloaded the software and said the problem was most likely with my husbands phone or Verizon. I can assure you there is no problem with my husbands i-phone 6 AND since we live in the same area as NASA RD who demands the area have excellent service, there is no problem with the wireless service in Huntsville/Madison, AL.
The technician did say to my husband that there was a known problem with the software and Toyota was aware of it.
Since the technician at the dealer blamed his phone on the repair sheet, we deleted the software for Entune/Scout from his phone and re-downloaded the most recent version. The GPS still did not work except very intermittently.
I phoned the Toyota support hotline where the tech said the problem has been known for several weeks. Several weeks? That means we were sold a car with known problems in the software system.
We purposely purchased a vehicle with a 10 inch screen because my husband relies on GPS for his work. He is a pastor at a mega church in the area and does a lot of visiting around town. He has had to put his old Garmin in the brand new car because he was sold a car with a GPS that it appears, was known by Toyota not to work.
I phoned the Toyota customer support. The phone technician was nice and told me to turn off my husbands phone and restart it. So I had my husband delete Entune/Scout, turn off his phone. The reinstall Entune/Scout, today 12/13/17, and then turn off his phone again after the reinstall. Then turn on his phone and try again. The GPS still works very sporadically.
Having a new car with an installed GPS was extremely important to us and I feel that Toyota knowingly sold us a vehicle where it was known that the GPS might not work.
I asked the phone technician to connect me to his supervisor. He too reiterated that the problem has been known for several weeks. Before the time when we purchased the car. I asked why Toyota has not installed a reliable working GPS in the car and I got a very nice placating response. I do not want to be placated, I want a working GPS system. I do not like or want the Entune suite, we dont care about Pandora etc., I want a working GPS.
My husband would like to exchange the car for one with a working GPS system that Toyota knows works and has not had problems with, or have a working and reliable GPS system installed in his new car at no additional cost to us. The "supervisor" said that to get a car with a proven, reliable GPS system we would have to upgrade and talk to the dealer about upgrading the system. REALLY? Upgrade to get something that was supposed to work the day we bought it?
I asked both the customer service person on the phone and the supervisor if they had read the reviews of Entune/Scout and both said it is Toyota policy to ignore the reviews in the app store. I highly suggest you read the reviews. It appears the problem is pervasive, even in the Lexus. Both apps have a one star review rating out of 5, only because no one could give zero stars. I suggest that Toyota revise its policy and take a look at the reviews.
I feel horrid because I was the one who convinced my husband to buy a Toyota Camry because of the reputation for reliability. My mother has one and my son-in-law had one for many years. There is nothing that aggravates my husband more than car problems. When we turned in his 11 year old Audi it was in pristine condition because he can not abide any little thing to be wrong with his car. What happened when we drove his Camry off the lot? It was defective from day one, and worse yet Toyota knew it from what I can ascertain.
I reported the problem to Consumer Reports and suggested they read the reviews on the app stores for Entune/Scout.
I do not blame our local dealership, nor the online phone rep, nor his supervisor. I put the blame squarely on Toyota as a whole for knowingly allowing dealerships to sell a defective product, with the promise of fixing it "later" and, what appears to me, to be a policy of blaming the customers phone or provider for the problem when they know that is not the problem.
