Who's Calling My Car???

[salvo]

Today I'm driving, listening to the radio....suddenly, radio shuts down and phone begins to ring....I'm looking around confused....then I press the R/T button and some woman says "Hello, Is Mr. Guntham there?"...I said "Ugh, no. Wrong Number." WTF! SHe hung up and I forgot to ask her what the number to my car is!?

Has this ever happened to you???

I know it is Blue Tooth ready, but I can actually call my car?! Nice.
How can I find this number?

 

[Bryan330i]

That is funny

So you don't have it hooked up in your car? It just rang?

I don't know how it works but I would be what the....

 

[suntigen]

this probably has something to do with BMW Assist (if you got the Premium package on your '04 330 you have BMW Assist).

While I'm not 100% famillier (yet) with BMW Assist, most telematics systems use existing cellular networks to transmit/recieve data.

In order for this to work, your car was assigned a phone number when you registered BMW Assist.

With systems like OnStar, you can choose to have "personal calling" enabled allowing you to place and receive phone calls for about $1.00/minute).

I'm surprised your phone rang... I would have imagined that the car's ringer would be disabled unless the call originated from the BMW Assist call-center.

The caller probably doesn't know what number they were calling, however.... wrong number dialers rarely do (otherwise it wouldn't be a wrong number)...

You might call BMW Assist from your car and ask them what your car's number is.

 

[" Cadisco]

BMW ULF Hands Free System

You may be referring to the BMW ULF Hands Free System with Bluetooth. What happens is that when you get in your car, your car "pairs" with your cell phone and enables the following functions:

• Voice controlled calls
• Answer calls from button on steering wheel
• phone audio comes through existing radio
• radio mutes when call comes in and during call

Did you have a Bluetooth enabled phone in your car at the time?

I do find it strange that your car paired with your phone since the pairing configuration does take a few minutes to complete, but it is possible your phone was picked up without configuration.

So I guess the answer to your question is that she called your cell phone, not your BMW.

RB

 

[ThinkingBMW]

Re: BMW ULF Hands Free System

You may be referring to the BMW ULF Hands Free System with Bluetooth. What happens is that when you get in your car, your car "pairs" with your cell phone and enables the following functions:

• Voice controlled calls
• Answer calls from button on steering wheel
• phone audio comes through existing radio
• radio mutes when call comes in and during call

Did you have a Bluetooth enabled phone in your car at the time?

I do find it strange that your car paired with your phone since the pairing configuration does take a few minutes to complete, but it is possible your phone was picked up without configuration.

So I guess the answer to your question is that she called your cell phone, not your BMW.

RB

One way to find out: check the caller ID on your cell phone. However, my understanding is that you can't have Bluetooth and BMW Assist working at the same time. If you have BMW Assist, then probably .. somehow... the caller contacted you through Assist. Which is REALLY weird.

 

[theBMWenthusiast]

if your phone has blue tooth then it should automatically connect to your car...this if your cell phone was on then the person called your cell phone and the car just read the signal

 

[salvo]

EUREKA!!!

I found my phone number! and called my car and spoke to myself!!! My car comes with a laminated card entitled "Bluetooth passkey PK*" On this card it has a sticker at the lower left and an ESN number XX-XXXXXXXX and MIN number XXX-XXX-XXXX. (my phone number!).

With Georgia area code??? 404

 

[Section_8]

Yup, 404 is here in the ATL.. Wonder if your call was just a misdial of a local number here? I'd imagine the bought out the entire prefix (404-XXX) for their cars though, you'd think.

Hope you don't get charged the LD charges!

 

[salvo]

here is the card with my number.
you guys with 2004 equipped cars, you must have the same thing.

think they will charge me?

 

[bimmerbuff]

Cellular devices have to have a phone number, even if they're "data only" (like one of those data-only PC Cards for laptops).

I wonder what would happen if you had BMW Assist as well as the CPT 9000 or Bluetooth kit. Could you call your car using TWO different numbers?

It would be nice if BMW added an equivalent of OnStar's Personal Calling to BMW Assist.

Not sure if you'll get billed for it somehow, salvo, since Assist is flat-rate and free for the first year.

 

[BRC]

Salvo,

Is the MIN # at the very bottom of the sticker? Mine is alpha/numeric???

 

[salvo]

Yeah it is the MIN#...alpha numeric???

Try calling the number, substituting the letter for the correct number on the key pad...you know, abc = 2, def = 3...so on and so forth....

Who can we call to ask about this?

 

[BRC]

Good suggestion. I called it and got a message saying that the # cannot be dialed directly, dial 0, number, calling card# etc.....

That sucks! I will ask my salesman, but I doubt he'll know.

Any more suggestions?

 

[ThinkingBMW]

This might explain what happened:

http://bimmer.roadfly.org/bmw/forums/e46m3/4821919-1.html