GusGusZ

I googled it and didnt see much but im sure if you go to the service counter at you MB dealer and they should have all the info but i beleive its a promo there doing for a short time

Mavrogenis

I received a price quote of $1800 for the Tele Aid upgrade and it included a lifetime subscription, no annual fees. However, since I think this is a rip off, I didn't inquire further to determine what "lifetime" means. Also since I'm a long time member of the Mercedes Club of America my dealer offers a 15% discount on parts. But, they would not offer any discount on the upgrade claiming that there is very little profit in the upgrade, mostly labor. Bull!
Point I'm making, is the price is negotiable but I think our best bet is to go after them in a lawsuit.
Contact the lawyer at
jfeinberg@bnfcounsel.com

Barry45RPM

Truth be told, its not MBs fault. The FCC, not MB, have discontinued the availability of the frequency the cell phone uses inside the car's Tele Aid Box.

Many years ago there used to be a channel 1 on all TVs, The FCC discontinued that frequency, and the station had to move to another channel, or go off the air. You couldnt blame the the TV manufacturer for the loss of the channel.

Tele-Aid used Analog cell back then because the whole country had analog service, many communities lagged behind in getting digital service by years. Now that the whole country has digital service the FCC is killing the licenses for the old Analog Frequencies.

Look at it this way... most people will never have used Tele-Aid after the "get acquainted call" at delivery. Given the big annual debate as to whether to renew every year, try to see it from the other side. Yeah, you'll be missing something, but what will you really lose? A false sense of security? Unless you live in the weeds, if your airbags deploy, there will be plenty of people who will report it.

Maybe after the service is terminated, MB will see that they have lost enough renewal revenue to lower the cost of the "conversion".

In my wife's OnStar equipped car, I'm just going to have the stereo shop put in bluetooth on her dash so she can pair her phone in her purse to it.

i12flytoday

I disagree with you Barry... I will agree that it's not ALL MB's fault, but they knew, just like the rest of the world, that they would be unable to provide service to this system on the specified date. Selling something that is already obsolete, in a car in the class of a MB, is downright close to unethical behavior. In the case of my '04, they had two years to come up with a system that would work. Surely R&D on this item took all of what?, 15 min? 15 days? Even if it was 15 mos, still plenty of time.

Personally, I don't use the system at all. If it was $240 for lifetime service and that included airtime, I might be interested, but come on, MB charges $54 for a license plate frame. I do agree however that in the case of those of us who's warranty will expire AFTER the change, I feel that it should be a warranty item. MB states that they won't cover ANY of the charges , because the system works fine, it's the service that is unavailable. I would bet that if you get enough people together for a class action cause, an attorney would be very interested.

But, as I said, I don't use the system, so I'm not going to bother with the upgrade.

Scambo

The system isn't just for concierge service and ordering flowers (which agreed, I also used limited times), its also in case you are t-boned in an accident and disabled and cant reach your cell phone because you are hanging upside down from your seatbelt in a wet corn field in Iowa. The Airbag deployment team notifications, GPS theft location, etc. are also part of this system, and I cant believe Mercedes isn't covering the upgrade for us since it was a feature I purchased new with my new 04 vehicle. The safety feature is very important to me and I'm disappointed that we are being asked to pay for the upgrade. The safety is critical to my confidence in the vehicle.

jmorgis

i also got my letter from MBUSA yesterday, they are terminating my Teleaid next week (10/13).

I do not plan to renew, the cost is way out of line.

My question, will I get messages on my MFD saying teleaid renewal, or service messages saying teleaid has not been renewed?

Is there anything that my service dept. needs to do to turn it off?

JM

Mavrogenis

I agree with i12flytoday. MB knew when they sold the MY2004 E Class that the Tele Aid system would become non functional within the warranty period yet that information was not provided to the buyer. I don't think this is any different than the snafu over Navigation for the 2003 E Class. Remember, MB had to buy back 2003 cars (buyers received a new 04 E Class at no cost) because they sold the 03 stating that they would install Navigation, or was it the COMAND system, when it was available. Then, it turns out that when the system was finished it could not be retrofitted into the 03s. Isn't this the same thing in principle?
I'm willing to pay $240 a year for the security of knowing that in a serious accident help will be automatically notified. There have been several newspaper articles recently about cars going off the road that were not discovered for days even when people were looking for the car. Also if I have a medical emergency pushing the SOS button may be all I can do.
The goodwill MB would gain by stepping up & fixing this problem at no cost to us is unmeasurable. It looks like they lost so much $ with the Chrysler merger that the accountants have taken over control of MB. That's what I think destroyed GM. That and the marketing department.
Remember the Edsel? Brought to you by the brains in Ford's marketing department. I hope MB isn't starting to use GM's et al. failed playbook

konigstiger

I disagree https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w211/211977-teleaid-analog-vs-digital-q.html