The last gasp of a desperate salesperson stood with his product stripped bare with all the ugly bits exposed is to use the "there are big changes on the way" tactic - something a lot of Autologic users know only too well. I'm not interested in what may or may not be on the way, (these all new and amazing modifications often leave me underwhelmed when they're released). I have to make a decision on what its like when I use it currently & currently it wastes more time than it saves. Bad, out of date, incomplete or just plain missing technical data wastes time & leads you up the garden path - life's too short. I hope you're keeping well
I think initially there's a point to be made about the Tiguan EGR fault.
How am I to know that there is a bulletin available relating to a P0403 problem to request it? In order to request info I need to know about it. Surely the point of Alldata is to have all the bulletins on the relevant manufacturers technical information page for that model?
If I didn't have my own information source that I know & trust (erWin) I wouldn't have known about the Tiguan EGR valve.
There be a huge hole here in the way Alldata works, if it is your only information source, you're flying blind.
If I need info on Air Con Capacities & Tyre Pressures and they aren't there I can put a request in to the technical information request team as I know they should be there - but bulletins are different, you NEED them to be there or how would you know what to request?
Being a little bit anal, when I was first gifted Alldata by Autologic I put it through its paces & concluded it was utter shit, having had a look at it recently it now appears it is elevated to being 'just shit'.
I found current flow diagrams with no current track numbers on the bottom & consequently unnavigable. I requested Technical Bulletins I new existed in English to be sent in English & they sent them to me in German. I had Software bulletins sent to me with half the software tables missing or incomplete (the whole section of the table with the new software versions was missing). Each time they sent me incomplete, inaccurate & incorrect language documents I asked for them to be sent again but this time complete or in a language I know & understand.
Alldatas response went along the lines of (wait for it) Skoda only issue bulletins in German - that was an entertaining claim. I emailed them back & asked if all UK Skoda dealers spend all day on Google Translating technical documents? They were adamant & a bit snotty with their reply that German is the only language in which Skoda bulletins are released onto erWin?
Thats wrong by the way, I use erWin regularly & they are available in English.
The incomplete current flow diagrams I have displayed at a meeting we were both at when AL first gifted Alldata to us, I proved there that the diagram was available in a complete form, but Alldata stated it wasn't.
The missing software tables - Alldata told me that is how they're displayed on erWin, again I had the documents to hand in a complete form - they need a better pdf printer....
The biggest thing with Alldata that grates is the conversations I have had with (Make Me) Abid at Alldata, where he pretends to listen to the issues and at the end of the conversation tries to flog me the complete package??
There is also their marketing campaign of 'complete unedited manufacturers information'
Far from complete unfortunately - granted its getting better 6 months ago there were huge holes in the model lists for VAG, now they are listed but with huge holes in the data available.
Give it a couple of years and it may be worth it, but for me to spend all day looking for something in a product that advertises itself as complete isn't worth the effort - pay the fiver & look it up on erWin, it's there, it's up to date, it's accurate & it's useable.
Jon.
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