Why HMG Automotive Stopped Installing CAN-PHANTOM: Our Experience as an Authorised Installer

At HMG Automotive, we regularly review the products we install, the support available to our technicians and, most importantly, whether a product and its supplier allow us to provide the standard of service our customers expect.

Following our recent experience with CAN-PHANTOM, HMG Automotive has made the decision to discontinue offering CAN-PHANTOM immobilisers.

We want to explain why.

Our history with CAN-PHANTOM

This wasn’t a product we had just started using.

We invested approximately £1,235 in training, including additional technician training, purchased units and installed CAN-PHANTOM systems on numerous customer vehicles.

We had previously promoted the product to customers. In earlier conversations with CAN-PHANTOM, we explained that when customers approached us asking about alternative immobiliser products, we would actively discuss and promote CAN-PHANTOM.

So we weren’t approaching this relationship negatively. We had invested money, time and effort into offering the product through HMG Automotive.

The authorisation issue

This is where it’s important to be precise.

I had personally completed the required process and was an authorised CAN-PHANTOM installer.

During the subsequent conversation, CAN-PHANTOM themselves confirmed this, telling me:

“you are the only authorised installer within your company”

They subsequently stated that they had a certificate for me.

The disagreement concerned another technician within HMG Automotive.

He had attended and completed CAN-PHANTOM training, and their own records shown to us listed him as having booked onto the course, bought units and completed training. However, CAN-PHANTOM told us that they did not have his installation assessment recorded as submitted and approved.

Initially, I believed his assessment had already been submitted. When CAN-PHANTOM checked their records and said otherwise, I acknowledged that it was possible it had not actually reached them and immediately tried to resolve the situation.

We searched through previous installation material and supplied photographs and videos of installations when requested.

We have no issue with a manufacturer requiring each individual technician to complete its authorisation process.

Our issue is how the situation was handled.

Our technical access was removed during a customer installation

This is the part that ultimately caused us to lose confidence in the relationship.

My access to the CAN-PHANTOM installer resources and technical Wiki was removed before I was informed that the decision had been made.

I discovered that my access had been removed while we were in the middle of a customer installation and attempting to diagnose the vehicle.

That meant that during a live customer job, we could no longer access the technical information and relevant vehicle/software information we relied upon to work with the product.

Only afterwards were we informed that access had been removed because of the authorisation issue involving our other technician.

To reiterate: I was personally an authorised installer.

CAN-PHANTOM confirmed that themselves during the conversation.

Whatever disagreement existed concerning the second technician’s assessment status, we believe removing an authorised installer’s technical access during a live customer installation, before informing them that the access had been removed, put our business in an unnecessarily difficult position.

We attempted to resolve the issue

Once CAN-PHANTOM explained what they required for the other technician, we cooperated.

We provided his details.

We searched through historic installation records.

We supplied installation photographs.

We supplied videos demonstrating installed systems operating.

When we were told that separate assessment evidence was required, we continued looking for the appropriate material.

We weren’t refusing to follow the process. We were actively trying to resolve the discrepancy.

That’s another reason the decision to remove our existing access in the meantime was particularly disappointing.

Why technical support matters to an installer

An immobiliser isn’t simply a product sitting on a shelf.

It’s integrated into a customer’s vehicle, and installers sometimes need manufacturer-specific technical information while diagnosing or completing an installation.

If access to those resources can disappear during a live job, that creates a problem not just for the installer but potentially for the customer whose vehicle is sitting in the workshop.

For HMG Automotive, reliable technical support and a good working relationship with our suppliers are therefore just as important as the hardware itself.

This isn’t a debate about whether CAN-PHANTOM works

We want to make this distinction clear.

This article isn’t intended to make a blanket claim about the effectiveness of the CAN-PHANTOM immobiliser itself.

Our decision concerns our experience as an installer, particularly technical support, installer access and how the authorisation situation was handled.

Other installers may have completely different experiences.

We’re simply documenting ours and explaining why HMG Automotive has chosen to move in another direction.

HMG Automotive is moving to X2 Spirit by scorpion track

Rather than continuing with a platform where we’ve lost confidence in the installer relationship, HMG Automotive is moving forward with X2 Spirit for this part of our immobiliser offering.

This allows us to focus on providing customers with an immobiliser solution backed by a supplier relationship and technical-support structure that works for the way HMG Automotive operates.

Existing HMG Automotive customers will, of course, continue to receive support from us regarding work we have previously carried out.

Our position going forward

We don’t change suppliers simply because of one difficult conversation.

We had invested money into CAN-PHANTOM, completed training, purchased products, installed numerous systems and actively promoted the brand.

Walking away therefore isn’t particularly convenient for us.

But we’re building HMG Automotive for the long term.

If we’re going to put our name behind a product, we need confidence not only in what we’re installing but also in the infrastructure behind our technicians when something goes wrong.

Based on our experience, we no longer have that confidence with CAN-PHANTOM.

HMG Automotive has therefore discontinued CAN-PHANTOM installations and will be moving forward with X2 Spirit.

Fortunately, when the situation arose, we had another immobiliser platform available and were ultimately able to get the customer’s vehicle sorted.

Sometimes having a Plan B turns out to be quite useful.