Poor DAB radio reception

[drover]

Since I am in the Nations Capital you reminded me to see if mine worked, I am glad to say it does ................. must be me as I found no great change from normal FM, suppose I need Doof Doof music..............

[Roger and Belinda]

Can now close-out this episode...

After four attempted warranty repairs by the dealer, each which made negligible to no improvement, was told that the DAB radio was working to spec and while there were minor reception problems (in their opinion) it was a "Jeep thing" and to basically cop it and they would not consider any further work on the DAB radio.

Deciding to escalate my frustration increasingly grew as five emails and phone calls to Stellantis (aka Jeep Aust) went unanswered.

Dissatisfied with this situation I contacted NSW Govt Fair Trading who upon hearing of the situation, recommended we lodge a formal complaint submission.

As this was during the height of COVID there were delays in getting a Fair Trading Investigator to review the case.

Eventually a Fair Trading Investigator took up the case and made contact with both the dealer and Stellantis.

A manager from Stellantis made contact and asked for a video of the issue, so we drove around various places in Sydney videoing the screen showing the erratic reception and also videoing the outsides to show there were no external interferences like bridges and tall buildings. In our enthusiasm made more than 20 vids in both sunny and rainy weather also at day & night. The upshot of this was that there was no consistency or identifiable trigger. This dispelled the inference by the dealer and Stellantis that the reception issues were caused by tunnels, overbridges & other infrastructure and clouds that blocked satellite linkages.

Sent a selection of vids off to both the dealer and Stellantis and also Fair Trading.

Shortly thereafter was contacted to again bring GC-WK2 into the dealer, for which a Stellantis expert technician would also attend.

There was a further two more trips to dealer and was finally told that the Stellantis expert technician would return another day to install a part that I later found out was a OEM Jeep Booster.

Back to the dealer for what I thought would be the final time, but not so as the interstate plane had been seriously delayed.

The appointment was rescheduled, and I returned the GC-WK2 to the dealer for the 8th time for the same problem. The one-day repair turned into a two-day job.

The good news is that its now been a few months and report that the DAB radio now works to reasonable expectations.

[drover]

Wow, you certainly pursued the issue so it was the amp in the end ???? or a dodgy connection ??

Good that you came back to finish the thread off ..........

[OLMATE]

Same thoughts as Drover, in the Jeep and also in the wife's Mitsubishi you can't pick anything different from FM Stereo

[Jeeper6]

...just have a choice of more stations with DAB..the better half's Mazda drops out regularly on DAB...often the Jeep is better in fact...

[Roger and Belinda]

At the end of this I was just pleased to finally get the DAB radio working and the cause of the fault was no longer a priority.

May be old fashioned but believe I should get what I pay for and there was no mention by the salesman that the DAB reception was dodgy. It always raises red flags to me that, when a problem manifests within the first few weeks of ownership, its likely to be the first of many.

Prefer Digitial over FM as digital usually has less adverts, no useless DJ chatter and a wider playlist. Also, the digital stations are more specific to music genre, so you are unlikely to hear ABBA followed by Led Zepplin.

[drover]

Originally Posted by Roger and Belinda

Prefer Digitial over FM as digital usually has less adverts, no useless DJ chatter and a wider playlist. Also, the digital stations are more specific to music genre, so you are unlikely to hear ABBA followed by Led Zepplin.

Thats sounds good then, only have one station here, music not to bad but still has the inane chatter of DJ's but I.m not moving to a city to listen to a radio.