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Last December, Ashley Sehatti sold her 2015 Jetta back to a local Volkswagen dealership in California. So when the calendar turned over, she didn't understand why she was still getting sent monthly reports about the car's health. After another one came in April, she finally logged on to VW's online portal for Car-Net, the telematics system that runs in many of the company's modern cars.
To her surprise, Sehatti saw the location of her old Jetta on a map, up-to-date mileage, and the status of the car's locks and lights. It had been resold, and yet she still had access to some of the car's systems. "There was nothing in place to stop me from accessing the full UI," she says over email.
What Sehatti hadn't realized is that Volkswagen puts the burden of disabling access to Car-Net squarely on the customer in its terms of service agreement when they decide to sell or exchange a car — even if the car is going back to a VW dealer.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/4/17303644/volkswagen-car-net-security-location-access
(Score: 3, Insightful) by requerdanos on Monday May 07 2018, @06:32PM
I see the beginnings of something that would help here--The official dealer sending notice to VW that a VW was bought at the dealership level.
And then VW sending notice to Verizon (who operates the online service in question).
And then Verizon does something useful with the information like cancel the account and refund any unused service period.
This would solve the problem neatly.
Of course, that works towards commonsense ends, not financial ones. Financially, I bet the balance sheet would look quite a bit better if they keep quietly, if maliciously, charging the people--forgetters and stalkers alike--who are paying for a service for a car they don't even own. As seems to have been the case here.