GM calling 2013 Volts in for preemptive ‘customer satisfaction’ program

For those of you who’ve wondered whether General Motors still pays as much attention to GM-Volt.com as it used to, how’s this for an answer: On Saturday afternoon I received an email from the company’s Kevin Kelly, manager, Electric Vehicle and Hybrid Communications, who informed me he’d read a post on the forum, and wanted to make sure owners of 2013 Volts understood a consumer satisfaction program now ongoing.

If owners of 2011s or 2012s say, “Hey, why don’t we get a customer satisfaction program too?” The answer is you don’t need one, as this is GM speak – a polite or euphemistic way of saying 2013s are being called in for a preemptive software update.
 

 

The thread in question began with a post by 1RiverMan1 who said he received a recorded phone message advising him to get his car to the dealer ASAP, and this set off a round of questions and some minor confusion which Kelly wanted me to make clear to you all.

1RiverMan1 wrote on Friday:

I came home to a message from my Volt advisor on the phone indicating that there has been a problem with some of the 2013 Volts mysteriously turning off the electric motor while driving. Apparently the steering and brakes will still work, but you have to safely coast to a stop, turn the car off and then power it up again 2-5 minutes later. She indicated that the solution was a software update and I should take the car in as soon as possible. The update takes about an hour. If you have not had this message yet, check with your dealer.
Observations and concerns by other GM-Volt forum posters following included:

“Why does GM use a voice call to get out this information? A written communication with full details is more appropriate?”

And: “Just wondering if person’s voice sounded like Romney or maybe Ryan?”

And: “You would think we could log onto MyVolt.com and get a list of active service bulletins for our vehicle rather than wondering if we are being scammed by a telemarketer with a list of Volt owners.”
To all these and any other concerns, never fear, GM is not meaning to be tough to deal with, and here’s its official statement from Kelly’s note:

We are notifying 2013 model year Chevy Volt owners about a customer satisfaction issue. We have received a few reports from owners that their electric motor has temporarily stopped working, resulting from a software anomaly when their vehicle is in the delayed time and rate charge mode.

We’re asking owners to bring their vehicles into their local Chevy dealer for a re-flash of the vehicle’s control system, which should take less than an hour. Until then, we’re recommending that customers switch to immediate or delayed time charging to avoid this inconvenience.

But, I asked, what about 2011s or 2012s?

“It is only for 2013 because the data that caused the problem was only in 2013 models,” Kelly said. “We did not have the same issue for 2012 or 2011 models.”

I also asked whether GM is certain this will be a 100-percent cure, and have there been other issues besides?

“We are confident this will fix the issue,” Kelly said. “There have not been other issues that have resulted in requiring 2013 vehicles return to dealers for a software update.”

Source: GM-Volt.com