Forced unbind in the iSMART-app, how long does it take?

[Rambutan]

Long story short, previous owner is dead, car bought from dealer, car had not been unbounded.

Talked to the dealer, dealer contacted MG, didn't hear anything, but tried again today and got an option to unbind the car. Previous owner would be contacted etc. it didn't specify how long it would take before the car was unbounded.

Anyone know?

 

[Susanna]

Another forum member posted that the car would be unbound from the iSMART app in 72 hours, if the previous owner didn’t respond. In your case, it’s a forgone conclusion!

 

[fred12345]

Long story short, previous owner is dead, car bought from dealer, car had not been unbounded.

Talked to the dealer, dealer contacted MG, didn't hear anything, but tried again today and got an option to unbind the car. Previous owner would be contacted etc. it didn't specify how long it would take before the car was unbounded.

Anyone know?

Have you emailed customer services? They will do it for you but want to see registration documents to prove car is registered to you .

There are quite a few post on this, search forum for binding

 

[Rambutan]

Have you emailed customer services? They will do it for you but want to see registration documents to prove car is registered to you .

There are quite a few post on this, search forum for binding

I did read about this on the forum, but I struggled to find means of communication. On the norwegian MG site the contact option I found was to contact a dealer. I just went to my local dealer and they said they would contact MG for me.

Today I saw an email address in the iSMART-app, I missed it before.

 

[fred12345]

I did read about this on the forum, but I struggled to find means of communication. On the norwegian MG site the contact option I found was to contact a dealer. I just went to my local dealer and they said they would contact MG for me.

Today I saw an email address in the iSMART-app, I missed it before.

Email customer services and they will get back to you within a few days, they will ask for registration documents in your name and unbind the car. Then you can bind it to your phone.
Not sure where they are based so best to use English and Norwegian, just in case ...

 

[Rob24]

I did read about this on the forum, but I struggled to find means of communication. On the norwegian MG site the contact option I found was to contact a dealer. I just went to my local dealer and they said they would contact MG for me.

Today I saw an email address in the iSMART-app, I missed it before.

I'm not from Norway.
But I needed to check the status of the car and I contacted MG direct and they responded the same day.
I did need to prove I owned the car, but I live in the UK so it might be different.
Regards
Rob

 

[mrgilbe1]

I'm not sure if it's a new thing, but the iSmart app now has a 'force unbind' option ... that doesn't appear to do anything. I've been trying it for four days now and nothing.
Anyone had a better experience than me? My car is an ex demo, so someone somewhere in its history decided to try out the iSmart app and is now bound to it.
I'm in New Zealand if it's a regional thing.

 

[Rambutan]

The unbind option in the app worked for me, it took a few days, a message suddenly popped up on the screen in the car that it was unbound.

Did you get a message stating that the previous owner would be contacted etc?

I don't know for certain that the dealership didn't do anything.

 

[mrgilbe1]

That's good to know - I'll wait until I see a "this car is unbound" message before I try again.
Yep I got that message saying the previous owner would be texted and emailed.
It's been about 5 days now but other posts suggested that if I try to unbind again it resets the 72h counter!
I've also emailed the dealer and MG customer support, we'll see how I go.

 

[mrgilbe1]

Three weeks later with an ex-Demo MG ZS and I'm having no joy unbinding.
MG Customer support never came back to me.
The dealer I bought it off makes the right noises but hasn't achieved anything at all.

"Force Unbind" every 4 days or so does nothing - does that mean the unknown "previous owner" is actively rejecting my unbinds? Or just that it's an unreliable process? I'm doing it again and again every >72 hours to hopefully annoy the "previous owner" enough that they give up - and it at least makes me feel like I'm achieving something!

Beyond frustrated now... I have an MG ZS EV and I'm in New Zealand. Any ideas where I go from here?

 

[JasonR]

Three weeks later with an ex-Demo MG ZS and I'm having no joy unbinding.
MG Customer support never came back to me.
The dealer I bought it off makes the right noises but hasn't achieved anything at all.

"Force Unbind" every 4 days or so does nothing - does that mean the unknown "previous owner" is actively rejecting my unbinds? Or just that it's an unreliable process? I'm doing it again and again every >72 hours to hopefully annoy the "previous owner" enough that they give up - and it at least makes me feel like I'm achieving something!

Beyond frustrated now... I have an MG ZS EV and I'm in New Zealand. Any ideas where I go from here?

I ended up emailing the email address shown within the app - mg.europe @ ismart-service . com - I appreciate this might not help you in NZ, but it could be worth a go if yours aren't responding.

Forced unbind didn't work for me, despite multiple attempts.

 

[mrgilbe1]

SUCCESS! At last and with a lot of badgering the dealer got my car unbound. No notification on my infotainment unit but suddenly I could bind my phone and all is well.

While I’ve been trying this, I’ve found the following ways to get your car unbound, I thought I should do a summary post.

Previous owner unbind - if buying an MG, insist that the previous owner unbinds from the car via their iSmart app. If buying from an MG dealer, check for binding and insist it’s unbound before you accept it. It will save a lot of grief.

Force Unbind via app - Attempt to bind to the car, and hit 'Force Unbind' when the app tells you that the car is already bound. Click ‘Yes’ to the following message.

The current vehicle has been bound by another MG user. If you confirm that you already have the ownership of the vehicle, Please continue the "Force unbinding" operation.

This operation will notify the prior car owner in the form of SMS, email and app message, and the vehicle status will enter the Unbinding Pending Period. During this period, the prior vehicle owner can actively UNBIND (unbind in advance), or REJECT (terminate the pending period). Please make sure your operations are legitimate.

I tried this repeated times over 3 weeks and it never worked for me.

What is supposed to happen is that after 72 hours (3 days) of no response the car will unbind automatically.

Requesting Force Unbind again may reset the 72 hour timer, so only do this once.
When the car is unbound you are supposed to get an alert message on the infotainment system.

MG Customer support can unbind the car for you but will require proof of ownership. Find the ‘contact us’ email address on the MG App (this is the best bet), or the ‘contact us’ of your local MG website (who never got back to me).

An MG dealer can ask MG Technical Support to unbind the car - this is how I resolved the issue in the end after a lot of pestering. When the car is unbound you are supposed to get an alert message on the infotainment system, but I didn’t - binding just suddenly started working.

 

[Simon Smith]

I am currently having this issue having bought an ex demo MG4 and didn't realise this until later on the day of purchase when I tried to bind the car.

The sales rep I dealt with said he would contact Customer Services and I've done the force unbind thing each day. I guess I will have to wait to see if it does resolve itself.

Will a factory reset unbind the previous user? I assume not as I can't see this has been mentioned before.

Thnaks

Simon

 

[Coulomb]

I've done the force unbind thing each day.

Don't do that! Every time you try to force unbind, the timer resets! Just leave it alone for more than 3 days (72 hours).

 

[mrgilbe1]

Will a factory reset unbind the previous user? I assume not as I can't see this has been mentioned before.

I'd assume not as well. How the whole binding thing behaves, it seems to be cloud based rather than an attribute of the car itself. It also would be insecure if so because anyone with physical access to the car could perform a factory reset and then a bind.

I fruitlessly tried force-unbind every 72 hours and kept pestering the dealer until they unbound the car for me. I seemed to have to really make a nuisance of myself to get it done. You need to get to the EV Tech person in the service department, not the salesperson.

See above for a Brit's experience - they emailed mg.europe @ ismart-service . com to get the car unbound, and they also found 'force unbind' fruitless.

 

[Susanna]

The dealership must certainly be held to account for these issues. When they ‘take on’ a previously owned vehicle, or allow test drives on a demo, they should ensure that the vehicle has been unbound. There’s really no excuse for this to be overlooked. And would-be purchasers should require the sales person to demonstrate that the vehicle is available for binding by a new owner.

Having to wait 72 hours before a forced disconnect happens is essential, in case the vehicle has been stolen - I’m sure that’s perfectly understandable!

 

[mrgilbe1]

The scary thing about a bound vehicle is that there's someone out there who can locate and unlock your car anytime they want. It's definitely something a dealer should take more seriously about sorting out before sale!

 

[maskull]

Similar issue here. Picked a used ZS asked the dealer if the car would be unbound ,to which he said yes.
Picked the car up six days later and I think you can guess the rest

 

[Simon Smith]

I'd assume not as well. How the whole binding thing behaves, it seems to be cloud based rather than an attribute of the car itself. It also would be insecure if so because anyone with physical access to the car could perform a factory reset and then a bind.

I fruitlessly tried force-unbind every 72 hours and kept pestering the dealer until they unbound the car for me. I seemed to have to really make a nuisance of myself to get it done. You need to get to the EV Tech person in the service department, not the salesperson.

See above for a Brit's experience - they emailed mg.europe @ ismart-service . com to get the car unbound, and they also found 'force unbind' fruitless.

Many thanks for your reply. If I don't get any joy I will be on the phone making a nuisance of myself

 

[Simon Smith]

Similar issue here. Picked a used ZS asked the dealer if the car would be unbound ,to which he said yes.
Picked the car up six days later and I think you can guess the rest

Very annoying and something that should have been sorted before purchase.