shortbear

A friend of mine told me that if you cancel teleaid, you still get 30 minutes of service for free each year. Does anyone know if this is true or not?

Will we still get calls when our alarm goes off or be able to get directory info if we get loss?

Buellwinkle

Just use your cell phone, many of them are starting to come out with GPS locators so if you get into an accident and call 911 they'll be able to locate you within 50' and even the ones without GPS can be triagulated off cell sites within 100'.

vadim

you can use a cell phone that's not activated - they all are set to handle 911 calls. So if you keep your old disconnected phone in the glove box, you should be able to do that just as easily as with Teleaid.

Buellwinkle

That's an old wifes tale. What your disconnected cell phone will let you call is 611 for customer service. They then can transfer you to 911. Now I don't know how quickly your customer service answers or how many menus you have to go through before a live person answers but it's not a risk I willing to take for myself or my family.

vadim

Nope, not a tale - my Sprint PCS phone that has been inactive for over a year lets me call 911, so does my GSM Ericsson T28W without a SIM card - a GSM equivalent of "disconnected".

Accord

Even though I do not use Tele-Aid much, it is just nice to have for peace of mind. I am pretty sure you do get emergency service with Tele-Aid even if you do cancel it. I do not beleive this includes your alarm going off... only if airbags deploy, etc.

Needing to get directions is not an emergency situation, therefore if you cancel Tele-Aid, you will no longer have that service.

awiner

If you cancel Teli-Aid, nothing will work that was associated with it anymore. You can roll you car over a cliff, have the air bags go off, etc.. Nothing will happen.

cityscape

Mercedes and the other car vendors need to rethink how they sell these telematic services. I really object to paying another annual fee - i pay one to the phone company, to ATT Wireless, to AOL, To direct TV, to Palm for their Palm Wireless Service - plus insurance, bills, etc. thats enough! I'm not here to be an annuity stream for them so they can pick my pocket yearly versus all at once. If i were to get in an accident and not receive aid with the car capable of providing it and to a large extent i paid for already i would be extremely p*ssed off and come back and haunt Mercedes.

benzomonterey

My company just donated 20 cell phones to battered womens shelters. They will still reach 911 without going through customer service.

Even the new nextel radio's we have at work still call 911 and the phone service isn't even connected just the two way.

MB-BOB

911 is for emergencies, like car accidents. All other events should not be dialed 911. Some municipalities are now citing callers for misusing 911.

You can use your Cell phone to call the MB-USA hotline 1-800-FOR-MERC (1-800-387-0100 in Canada) to reach roadside assistance.

young

this 911 cell phone thing is new to me... i'm going to see if someone has one that is disconnected as i don't have tele-aid nor a cell phone.

yeah, that's right! i like to live dangerously

vadim

Young, don't tell us you burn kerosine to light and heat your home and use a diesel generator to get on the internet

young

argh, i'm no luddite. just haven't found the right phone yet. the new motorola v70 gsm comes close (but it isn't available in my area )

Buellwinkle

I've tried it once and 911 did not work but I can call *611 for customer service. This was years ago and haven't tried it since.
Has anyone here tried it and on what cell company (Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, Voice Stream, Cingular, Nextel)?

02Impressor

Roadside Assistance is 100% free, correct? So if an accident were to occur I call them ....? No Charge?

vadim

No worries - I hear Earth is next on AT&T's plans