Smart22186
New member
So, in late August, after what felt like an eternity of searching, I finally bagged the F-Type of my dreams, ticking all the boxes—spec, color, model, and most importantly, within budget (barely!). Feeling pretty chuffed, I thought I’d take it up a notch and connect the car to the Jaguar InControl app—because who doesn’t want to remotely start their car and feel like they’re in a Bond movie, right?
Having previously owned a Jaguar XE, I was familiar with the app's many perks. So, naturally, I attempted to register my new F-Type… only to be greeted by a message informing me that the previous owner still had the car locked into their account. Annoying, but fine—I’ll just get it sorted, I thought. Famous last words.
I popped down to my local Jaguar dealership in Peterborough (Marshalls, for those wondering) on September 14th, armed with all the proof of ownership needed to reclaim my own car from this app-based purgatory. The receptionist kindly assured me it would take 2-3 days to clear. Easy peasy, right? Oh, how naive I was.
Fast forward a week, and guess what? Still not sorted. I rang them up, whereupon they insisted they’d get it done “as a matter of urgency” (cue laughter). Days passed, and the app was still convinced I was driving someone else’s car.
I called again and spoke to a very apologetic sales rep who expressed genuine confusion about why this wasn’t sorted yet. This time, she promised to do it with me while we were on the phone. “Finally!” I thought, some hope. She assured me everything was processed and I’d be able to add the car within 48 hours. Well, you guessed it—72 hours later, still nada.
By now, my frustration had reached new heights. I wasn’t just calling for convenience anymore—I was calling because the previous owner still had access to my vehicle! That means they could track its location, unlock it, and even start it! (So much for a "secure" luxury car experience, right?) Given the recent, shall we say, reputation JLR vehicles have with certain ‘interested parties,’ you'd think someone at Jaguar would be taking this a bit more seriously.
I hit them with my most serious, threatening tone over the phone (or at least, as threatening as you can sound while talking to someone from customer service). But alas, the problem still wasn’t fixed.
So, after going through the dealership rigmarole once more, I decided to escalate things and called Jaguar InControl’s head office directly. I explained the situation, and they requested my driving license and V5C form. Fair enough, I thought, another hoop to jump through. Unfortunately, I wasn’t home at the time, so it took another day to gather everything.
On October 9th, I submitted everything through their chat system. The agent was very understanding (bless them) but then delivered the kicker: there’s apparently a technical malfunction with my VIN, and they couldn’t deactivate the previous owner. Naturally, they promised to escalate the issue and resolve it within—you guessed it—48 hours.
Today is October 12th, and here I am, writing this post, still very much in the same position. No updates, no solutions, and my F-Type still technically belongs to someone in Glasgow.
At this point, I’m running out of options, patience, and probably hair. If I were to strictly adhere to my insurance’s small print, this whole situation would be no different from leaving my car keys on the street with my name and address attached. The only (tiny) silver lining is that the previous owner probably doesn’t have grand ambitions of driving 300+ miles to unlock their former car just to sit in it. But hey, you never know, right?
So, here I am, turning to the wise and wonderful Jaguar forum community. Has anyone else been through this mess, or does anyone have any brilliant ideas on how I can get my car back from this app limbo? Because right now, it feels like I'm stuck in an episode of Black Mirror, with my F-Type held hostage by an invisible tech glitch.
Any advice or thoughts are much appreciated—if nothing else, at least it might help me preserve what little sanity I have left!
Having previously owned a Jaguar XE, I was familiar with the app's many perks. So, naturally, I attempted to register my new F-Type… only to be greeted by a message informing me that the previous owner still had the car locked into their account. Annoying, but fine—I’ll just get it sorted, I thought. Famous last words.
I popped down to my local Jaguar dealership in Peterborough (Marshalls, for those wondering) on September 14th, armed with all the proof of ownership needed to reclaim my own car from this app-based purgatory. The receptionist kindly assured me it would take 2-3 days to clear. Easy peasy, right? Oh, how naive I was.
Fast forward a week, and guess what? Still not sorted. I rang them up, whereupon they insisted they’d get it done “as a matter of urgency” (cue laughter). Days passed, and the app was still convinced I was driving someone else’s car.
I called again and spoke to a very apologetic sales rep who expressed genuine confusion about why this wasn’t sorted yet. This time, she promised to do it with me while we were on the phone. “Finally!” I thought, some hope. She assured me everything was processed and I’d be able to add the car within 48 hours. Well, you guessed it—72 hours later, still nada.
By now, my frustration had reached new heights. I wasn’t just calling for convenience anymore—I was calling because the previous owner still had access to my vehicle! That means they could track its location, unlock it, and even start it! (So much for a "secure" luxury car experience, right?) Given the recent, shall we say, reputation JLR vehicles have with certain ‘interested parties,’ you'd think someone at Jaguar would be taking this a bit more seriously.
I hit them with my most serious, threatening tone over the phone (or at least, as threatening as you can sound while talking to someone from customer service). But alas, the problem still wasn’t fixed.
So, after going through the dealership rigmarole once more, I decided to escalate things and called Jaguar InControl’s head office directly. I explained the situation, and they requested my driving license and V5C form. Fair enough, I thought, another hoop to jump through. Unfortunately, I wasn’t home at the time, so it took another day to gather everything.
On October 9th, I submitted everything through their chat system. The agent was very understanding (bless them) but then delivered the kicker: there’s apparently a technical malfunction with my VIN, and they couldn’t deactivate the previous owner. Naturally, they promised to escalate the issue and resolve it within—you guessed it—48 hours.
Today is October 12th, and here I am, writing this post, still very much in the same position. No updates, no solutions, and my F-Type still technically belongs to someone in Glasgow.
At this point, I’m running out of options, patience, and probably hair. If I were to strictly adhere to my insurance’s small print, this whole situation would be no different from leaving my car keys on the street with my name and address attached. The only (tiny) silver lining is that the previous owner probably doesn’t have grand ambitions of driving 300+ miles to unlock their former car just to sit in it. But hey, you never know, right?
So, here I am, turning to the wise and wonderful Jaguar forum community. Has anyone else been through this mess, or does anyone have any brilliant ideas on how I can get my car back from this app limbo? Because right now, it feels like I'm stuck in an episode of Black Mirror, with my F-Type held hostage by an invisible tech glitch.
Any advice or thoughts are much appreciated—if nothing else, at least it might help me preserve what little sanity I have left!
