BEWARE iCarsoft and Diagnostic World’s Support and non existent warranty!

[umblecumbuz]

Why faff about? This situation is open and shut.

There is abundant evidence that Sub has tried to resolve the issue repeatedly and the reseller is stone walling. Further appeals to the seller will not suddenly produce an about face, but a summons with the probability of a CCJ certainly will.

Court action today is quick, decisive and simple, and any monies spent pursuing the claim can be recovered - with interest if desired.

 

[M80]

I'm happy to take in new learnings, and I'm sure there are those better qualified than myself to do that here.

But the CC process, from experience, works 'ok' for the claimaint as most claims can be a form of harrassment toward the defendant, who mostly have little knowledge and then don't defend.
For those who have learnt to work the CC sytem the effort becomes heavy going, the ex's grow. The best a claimant can hope for is the out of pocket costs, at most. The eventual outlay may well make the original purchase cost look minimal.

The time and effort to claim, then to follow up with later witness statements (if needed) can make the whole thing too heavy to get the £100 or so back.
If the decision is made to employ a solicitor, so you don't fall foul of your own lack of knowledge, well don't expect to recover all of those costs.

My cynicism is apparent as I've developed the opinion that the Court Service isn't correctly named, it's a business, and the CC system no longer works as originally intended for the average Joe with a minor grievance.
In many situations though legally it's all we've got.

It's worth a couple of letters, that follow protocol. They can have the desired effect by demonstrating it isn't 'just' someone bleeting "I'll see you in court", or "my solicitors gonna' get you".

 

[Botus]

the w221 S class is an odd weird beard design that used a one of technology in that comand unit.
merc soon gave up with it and its the reason there is no aftermarket compatible toys on this model

you then buy a budget diagnostic scanner that doesn't communicate with said weird beard system, luckily its not a show stopper as you say you can drive the car with it in the repair shop.

the issues with the manufacturer of said budget scanner, is not with their software but it would appear to be with their internal processes and communication to buyers in that
1) they don't even know about weird beard design on that module
2) have thus never developed a way to talk to it
3) need to update literature to say it can't talk to this particular unit as they are never going to bother to support it

 

[Naraic]

Only one page? I'm disappointed.

I bet you're not.

 

[VicTealz444]

Having been trying to resolve this since the 12 February, and what 20 emails too and fro.
Most of those were ridiculous “holding” messgaes ... fobbing off, rather than solving the problem.
Or even trying in an intelligent manner to resolve it.
They have admitted its faulty, but they want “their engineers to look into it” ... but no feedback since the 26th February.

As soon as I said “well as we are not getting any technical feedback, how about replacing it” .... radio silence.
4 emails unanswered ...

So just beware, as soon as you get your new unit.
CHECK IT THOROUGHLY - ALL FEATURES.
IF THERE IS EVEN A SHADOW OF DOUBT, THAT IT MIGHT BE FAULTY ; RETURN IT UNDER THE 14 DAY DISTANCE SELLING REGULATIONS.

Fundamentally there is no warranty .. its non existant.
Yes IMO, it is still the only viable product, for the hobbyist; but realise that it an unsupported product.
If it breaks even in warranty ... just bin it!

Scum companies

Been looking around for a genuine company, for to purchase a diagnostic scan tool, so checked out various sellers and their customer reviews on Trustpilot and Review Centre... Bavarian Dominator at Review Centre...... certainly makes for some interesting reading.

 

[Botus]

first thing is these type of tools don't really help you fix anything !!! they point you at the issue and then you fend for yourself to know how to resolve it

a chap on another forum a week ago posted lots of info about faults on his W221 - not a single fault was a standard merc code
He eventually shared he was using a Launch tool - if those were codes from that, its very disappointing - as you can't validate against others experience / find a clue on the internet. And Launch is supposed to be high end decent kit

a mate decided my 3k snap-on scanner than can communicate with every part of his car and operate, reset and clear high level deliberate main dealer only fixes for his tractor engines emissions, decided it must be junk and so bought some £80 junk of the internet - only supporting basic ODB2 data set and is thus worse than bin material - it gave a fault code that wasn't real and of cousre with ODB2 that only talks to the engine emision contol (clearly badly), didn't see the other 16 including ABS, ESP, Air bag and Canbus faults - it is of no use to anyone

yesterday I had a play with an icarsoft MB2 - its was quite good, but not that intuitive to use...

my autel kit only needs you to select the brand and then say get on with it - only holding back for the crazy which side is the steering wheel confirmation that merc like (which Snap-on also use - but on the Snap-on I have to know the precise manu year where the autel one knows itself)

it is more and more obvious you need to support all the stuff on a car, not just the engine, gearbox and brakes. these days half the issues is another part of the car lying the world is ending and sending confusion around the car. and if thinking about investing "200 quid in a useful toy" its likely you are interested in cars in general - and this is where I get confused why people want a single brand tool ?

knowing a trick or so Autel allow you to do, and how much info they know and provide on their budget 200 to 800 quid range - I think I'd go with them again - its way more than snap-on high end 5k gear can do

but if literally only on a Merc the £200 icarsoft tool got at more than snap-on's latest 5k scanner can !!!
But the caveat - you can't flash and update anything, you can't even change the basic config on a SAM in tools under £600 and almost as soon as you plug it in - you'll wish you could

What partially lets you get at your Merc is £1000 of illegal hookey fake merc dealer capability - and will likely lead to a 2 year learning curve before you only manage to break something, whilst still wishing you could flash a software update (there is some capability on almost obsolete kit, but getting the right file and setting it up afterwards moved to online paid access in Merc systems in 2012 - and agains if in the know, a PC whizkid who is brave/stupid enough can get around these difficulties, but you may also come unstuck and need to go to a main dealer to get you out of trouble (at goodness knows what cost and timeline) - so the one's that have a tool and a lot of knowledge how to use it still tend not to update anything - and thus nothing really gets fixed - Yet this capability is out there to do on your ford for £100 legitimately and far more easily

I think people ought to start off with this in the first link below then wish they spent £4k and are still held back from flashing the update the car needs !!!
And watch where you buy !!! half comes out the back door of the factory running goodness know what operating systems and with a non updatable set of features the UK support team will not help you with - aka £350 on ebay vs £800 legit - And this one is £500 a year for another year of updates to later cars across 70 brands / and or fixing stuff they got muddled - but everything will work for the capability it had without paying any more - just make sure at 350 days in you apply the latest updates

Autel UK - Vehicle Diagnostics

Autel UK is the official distributor of Autel Vehicle Diagnostic Equipment in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Buy SMART. Always buy from an authorised dealer.

www.autel.uk

this is a later version of what I first bought and its utterly brilliant - but its open ended if they can be bothered to do big garage diagnostic capability on current Merc and BMWs - on mine they deliberately stopped at anything after 2012 and once told me this replacement is the same - but that would make zero sense (so they probably did)

Autel UK - Vehicle Diagnostics

Autel UK is the official distributor of Autel Vehicle Diagnostic Equipment in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Buy SMART. Always buy from an authorised dealer.

www.autel.uk

 

[mioba]

WHS above.

I smirk when people post a load of fault codes and ask what the problem is.

Reading fault codes and interpreting them to identify the fault are worlds apart.

 

[Submariner1]

WHS above.

I smirk when people post a load of fault codes and ask what the problem is.

Reading fault codes and interpreting them to identify the fault are worlds apart.

Totally agree, I thought it was just me.
But yesterday when we found a fault code, you need to go deeper to fix something.
When you can’t, you are totally stuck.
IMO the only benefit is, say you got a fault code on say the Lumbar Support . And then the Main Dealer said it was a bladder leak and you need a new bladder ££££s .
Then at least you know its kinda vaguely likely you really did need that fix!

 

[Jim2]

first thing is these type of tools don't really help you fix anything !!! they point you at the issue and then you fend for yourself to know how to resolve it

a chap on another forum a week ago posted lots of info about faults on his W221 - not a single fault was a standard merc code
He eventually shared he was using a Launch tool - if those were codes from that, its very disappointing - as you can't validate against others experience / find a clue on the internet. And Launch is supposed to be high end decent kit

a mate decided my 3k snap-on scanner than can communicate with every part of his car and operate, reset and clear high level deliberate main dealer only fixes for his tractor engines emissions, decided it must be junk and so bought some £80 junk of the internet - only supporting basic ODB2 data set and is thus worse than bin material - it gave a fault code that wasn't real and of cousre with ODB2 that only talks to the engine emision contol (clearly badly), didn't see the other 16 including ABS, ESP, Air bag and Canbus faults - it is of no use to anyone

yesterday I had a play with an icarsoft MB2 - its was quite good, but not that intuitive to use...

my autel kit only needs you to select the brand and then say get on with it - only holding back for the crazy which side is the steering wheel confirmation that merc like (which Snap-on also use - but on the Snap-on I have to know the precise manu year where the autel one knows itself)

it is more and more obvious you need to support all the stuff on a car, not just the engine, gearbox and brakes. these days half the issues is another part of the car lying the world is ending and sending confusion around the car. and if thinking about investing "200 quid in a useful toy" its likely you are interested in cars in general - and this is where I get confused why people want a single brand tool ?

knowing a trick or so Autel allow you to do, and how much info they know and provide on their budget 200 to 800 quid range - I think I'd go with them again - its way more than snap-on high end 5k gear can do

but if literally only on a Merc the £200 icarsoft tool got at more than snap-on's latest 5k scanner can !!!
But the caveat - you can't flash and update anything, you can't even change the basic config on a SAM in tools under £600 and almost as soon as you plug it in - you'll wish you could

What partially lets you get at your Merc is £1000 of illegal hookey fake merc dealer capability - and will likely lead to a 2 year learning curve before you only manage to break something, whilst still wishing you could flash a software update (there is some capability on almost obsolete kit, but getting the right file and setting it up afterwards moved to online paid access in Merc systems in 2012 - and agains if in the know, a PC whizkid who is brave/stupid enough can get around these difficulties, but you may also come unstuck and need to go to a main dealer to get you out of trouble (at goodness knows what cost and timeline) - so the one's that have a tool and a lot of knowledge how to use it still tend not to update anything - and thus nothing really gets fixed - Yet this capability is out there to do on your ford for £100 legitimately and far more easily

I think people ought to start off with this in the first link below then wish they spent £4k and are still held back from flashing the update the car needs !!!
And watch where you buy !!! half comes out the back door of the factory running goodness know what operating systems and with a non updatable set of features the UK support team will not help you with - aka £350 on ebay vs £800 legit - And this one is £500 a year for another year of updates to later cars across 70 brands / and or fixing stuff they got muddled - but everything will work for the capability it had without paying any more - just make sure at 350 days in you apply the latest updates

Autel UK - Vehicle Diagnostics

Autel UK is the official distributor of Autel Vehicle Diagnostic Equipment in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Buy SMART. Always buy from an authorised dealer.

www.autel.uk

this is a later version of what I first bought and its utterly brilliant - but its open ended if they can be bothered to do big garage diagnostic capability on current Merc and BMWs - on mine they deliberately stopped at anything after 2012 and once told me this replacement is the same - but that would make zero sense (so they probably did)

Autel UK - Vehicle Diagnostics

Autel UK is the official distributor of Autel Vehicle Diagnostic Equipment in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Buy SMART. Always buy from an authorised dealer.

www.autel.uk

I had the iCarsoft 11, and found it an Ok piece of kit,,,,it did all that I wanted it to do, without letting me deep enough to do damage. Then earlier this year, I upgrade to the iCarsoft CR PRO, which has a lot more capabilities, ( bigger range of vehicles, many more functions) And so far so good. But very little to go on regarding instructions on "How Two", its basically a learn as you go type thing. Would be a very usefull thread on the forum if members posted their own "How To" experience's with not only iCarsoft but other OBD readers too.

 

[Jim2]

Totally agree, I thought it was just me.
But yesterday when we found a fault code, you need to go deeper to fix something.
When you can’t, you are totally stuck.
IMO the only benefit is, say you got a fault code on say the Lumbar Support . And then the Main Dealer said it was a bladder leak and you need a new bladder ££££s .
Then at least you know its kinda vaguely likely you really did need that fix!

Yes, thats true, But its still a very improvement on " Oh, it might be this, or it might be that....fella down the pub was telling me he had the very same problem. with his car, identical in fact !!." And so it goes. Scan it, note the fault codes, google them, and at the very least they will point you in the right direction. The days of pulling off plug leads off to check a mis-firing engine are gone....unfortunately.

 

[AnthonyUK]

I had the iCarsoft 11, and found it an Ok piece of kit,,,,it did all that I wanted it to do, without letting me deep enough to do damage. Then earlier this year, I upgrade to the iCarsoft CR PRO, which has a lot more capabilities, ( bigger range of vehicles, many more functions) And so far so good. But very little to go on regarding instructions on "How Two", its basically a learn as you go type thing. Would be a very usefull thread on the forum if members posted their own "How To" experience's with not only iCarsoft but other OBD readers too.

I can recommend Diagnose Dan on Youtube as a good introduction.

 

[s5tuart]

I can recommend Diagnose Dan on Youtube as a good introduction.

He's very good but too much arm waving for me!

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Just been in touch with UK Parts Direct and both my cars are compatible with the Icarsoft Pro, including registering the battery to the BMS system on the BMW so looks like this is the scanner for me. I must say I was amazed at the response and helpful advice from Parts Direct. If you’re not sure on comparability contact them as I did - great service (this was through EBay)

 

[Jim2]

Just been in touch with UK Parts Direct and both my cars are compatible with the Icarsoft Pro, including registering the battery to the BMS system on the BMW so looks like this is the scanner for me. I must say I was amazed at the response and helpful advice from Parts Direct. If you’re not sure on comparability contact them as I did - great service (this was through EBay)

My experience of the CR Pro has been the same..Family fleet consists of a mix of vehs....Skoda, Peugeot, Audi, VW etc. Handles them all, no problem