jim256

I believe the following years are charged per minute's use, no free period.

mwillems

At least here in Canada it is not $240 - it is $240 PLUS the "network access fee" of $50 per year, PLUS $1.35 per minute to talk to them. (All in US prices). And when I actually needed it recently, the service was only able to say "we are not allowed to give advice".

Now don't get me wrong - MB can sell this service for anything they like - $5000 as far as I am concerned: it's a free country. I am glad for some of you this is acceptable - am just saying, for me it isn't.

awiner

Update. This is straight from the Teleaid/MBUSA Telemetric people:

Question: If the customer declines service how do we remove the "1 Malfunction" message from the IP?


Answer: The "1 Malfunction" message will always remain on the IP if the customer declines the service. Legally it must appear as an indication to the customer that the service is not activated. If you scroll down that menu, you can see it says, "Tele Aid Not Activated" if you need to clarify the malfunction message for your customer.

etenn

So to remove the obnoxious "l malfunction" message everytime you turn on the car, you have to pay Teleaid? Hard to believe.

drb

I wonder what 'law' they are referring to?

MBStar

I agree with the criticisms above, and will add that having three 2003 cars,
I have had no end of trouble with Tele-aid distinguishing between them,
e.g. double billing on one of them.
When I sold one of the cars they kept on billing me for six months.
While a refund was eventually posted to my credit card,
the whole thing was a nuisance, so I declined to renew.

jim256

Probably their "lawyers' opinion" since they say "legally it must".

If not then someone sues when he can't reach help because "nobody told me it would not work".

EddieGTP

Its all a matter of confidence. If cancelling tele-aid gives you a sense of FUD (Fear, uncertainty, doubt) then don't.

Geico (NY) does not recognize Tele-Aid car locator as an anti-theft device.

Tele-Aid does offer hotel/restaurant services and other services like that. Does the new DVD command system offer places of interest on the display? If not, and you want to find a restaurant / hotel where you are driving, then calling tele-aid would help.

Also, if you do cancel, do it in writing as the contract says you have to!

rayscar

Yes POI's are on the COMAND II system

alewifebp

Does anybody know that if you do NOT renew your subscription, will it still work in the accident and stolen scenarios? It would seem to me that it should. I can understand charging for the concierge services, but the safety should continue for the life of the car, regardless of subscritpion.

awiner

If you DON't renew, it WON'T work in an accident. The system is totally deactived when you cancel your subscription and Teleaid WILL NOT connect with an analog cell tower.

drpasteur

my house got broken into while i was gone and the thieft took the keys to my '08 C300 4Matic and the car as well.

i called the dealer up and see if anything can be done. the salesman that sold my car told me, "oh there's TELEAID equipped in your car" i'm pretty sure he didn't tell me that! ..therefore we came to the conclusion that Tele Aid was not activated. now would it be possible to activate Tele Aid now that the car is stolen?

Barry45RPM

You could go to the dealer & fill out the application & create a password & they then will fax the form to Tele Aid, Then I guess you could call TeleAid. But why put Teleaid on a car you'll never see again or want ...if they find whats left of it?

On your C Class, isn't Tele Aid an ordered Hardware Option? So It may not even have been ordered factory installed that car... and if it was installed in the car, isn't it free for the 1st year? If so, it should have been activated by filling out the forms at delivery.

BobbyT

Some Tele-Aid functions are like a parachute--it's no fun to lug the thing along, but when you need it, you really need it. My wife got hit from the rear on the freeway in our 2006 E350, when she had to stop for construction, and the Tele-Aid center was online with her before she even had time to pull to the shoulder. Wonderful feature. The charges seem high until you consider the costs of building and maintaining the call center 24/7.

SAguirre

OK, let me add to the confusion here! About 1.5 years ago I upgraded my Tele-Aid from analogue to digital. It was about $1,300.00 after the MBUSA club discount. The only reason I paid that is because now my Tele-Aid is free for as long as I own the car. I have that in writing somewhere. I have never needed it, but I did test the remote door unlock. I figured that was a good thing to have just in case. At the prices that have been listed in earlier posts, I only have to keep the car for 3 more years and I will break even. I have no plans to sell my car, so I think it will pay for itself. I hate having buttons in my car that are not active.

On my SAT radio, I turned my 1-year free (the first year) into a $150.00 credit on the lifetime membership. So it was about $400 for a lifetime Sirius at the time (- the $150), this has already paid for itself. I HATE having monthly fees or yearly fees that appear on credit cards that later expire and you have to call to give them the new number and stuff. Since I keep my cars for long periods of time, I just prefer to pay a lump sum and be done with it.

Lets see how the Tele-Aid goes, but I don’t expect to have to pay anymore!

Steve

Polar Bear

Wow - sorry to hear that. It is indeed an option on the W204. If you have the MultiMedia unit you can download maps from the Internet to your navigation device using Tele-Aid. I would think you would have known if the car was equipped with it. The limited experience I have with W204 indicate that there are very few ordered with that option.

Long Islander

We never subscribed to Teleaid from day one, and so far no error messages. Our salesman told us that most of his customers used to get annoyed at being charged the fee when their free subscription expired, so unless we really wanted it, he would not have it activated, so we didn't activate. If you're getting an error message, you should call your dealer's Service Dept. and ask them if that can just be erased. Perhaps mine had such a message and the dealer just erased it before the car was delivered.

philfna

I just enrolled after the E-500 crash storie. I guess I look like it as insurance -- if I get in an accident, and it gets help when I cannot call then its money I can't put a price on. I am hopeful I never need it as I am about never needing insurance, but for 250 a year it was worth it. Also. been a number of break-ins lately...

E2233

There all kind information about Teleaid when a new vehicle is delivered. My 2003 I took the one year and continue the service. I receive visit workshop error from time to time. The dealer could not find any problems. Then the system had to be upgraded to the new digital network about $1,300.00. The visit workshop errors continued four or five times a year.

drpasteur

''

it does have MultiMedia but I wasn't aware that there is TeleAid in the car and the salesman (who sold me the car) didn't tell me either. all he could say now is "oops sorry".

now i have called TeleAid and they said in order to activate the TeleAid, i need to be in the car and press all 3 buttons for it to be activated. they just can't activate through their computer system...

i guess i'm screwed. i'm thinking of suing the dealer for not telling me that TeleAid is installed on my car and failed to activate

vettdvr

I had Teleaid on our E500 and during Katrina was rearended. I tried for 20 minutes to get a response. Nothing. Then finally someone answered and stated we were in Chicago. Amazing didn't know that,, thought I was in Louisiana.? Then they hung up. 10 minutes later (30 minutes after first activating) I did get an answer. I told them we were in an accident and needed assistance. Their response,, We didn't see any airbag deployment? Dah.. rear end collision! I asked why it took so long to answer and they smart mouthed me about never calling.

So ,, you got it,, No Teleaid for me, My cell phone will work better given the response I was paying for with MB. A month after Katrina MB sent a letter stating Katrina victims would get priority answering. Unfortuately our home was destroyed and mail didn't get to our home on a regular basis.

So for those of you that like the service, just keep sending your $$. For me,, Millions for Defense but not $.01 for tribute!

I may or not buy another MB given the reliability issues I have had on the E500. Given the poor telaid, and multiple failures.

MissMyBenz

After one use of the SOS function my wife and I were sold. Posted some time ago, but in short: E350 died in left lane of 4 lane busy offramp. Called SOS and they dispatched local dealer tow service as well as called local police. They stayed on the line with her to make sure she was safe until police arrived to block car from traffic. When tow arrived they safely got her and the car to the dealer. Our service advisor was waiting for her and had paperwork ready and a Mercedes rental (on their dime) ready for her. The whole process was seamless and very, very quick. The plus to my wife in addition to the seamless and efficient service was that she was free to then use her cell phone to call me and her office. As it turns out, the fuel sensor had stuck reading over half tank when in fact it was dry. In complete defense of my wife, she had been my shuttle service having just had foot surgery and was switching back and forth between cars. Funny thing was we both commented that we didn't need gas just the day before. I think of it as a safety net and glad that my wife has it in her car. Mine has the old analog system and we decided not to upgrade it because of the expense and it being my car. Going forward there is no question that we will want this on the next vehicle.

mcleantmw

When I bought my CPO vehicle, it had some remaining months of TeleAid service paid for by the original owner. But when it ran out, I kept getting the FSS Error Message that the TeleAid needed Workshop assistance. It took a couple visits to my MB Dealer for service before they finally were able to figure out how to disable it. My Service Rep at first told me that there was nothing that could be done if I didn't activate the Service.......the error message would keep coming up for ever. But then one of their smarter mechs must have figured it out and the FSS message was eliminated. Just thought I'd share this experience with everyone.

vettdvr

I havent had a error message since 05 when I cnx the teleaid.