Hi all

My teleaid contract is coming up again for renewal. The full rate is $240 for a yr but I would like to hear what people are actually paying for coverage

Thanks

 

Have you tried shopping Mbrace, heard of some pretty good offers there, don't know if offers are still valid? (i.e. lifetime $299)

 

No I haven't. I haven't looked into this before now.

I have a 2009 with the new comand. I am assuming I can use Mbrace with this...?

 

FWIW I did a little digging and owners seem largely unhappy with the Mbrace service (mostly due to billing and customer call mishaps) while Teleaid customers don't like the autobill feature.

Not sure where I am coming out on this

 

I canceled my tele-aid when they failed to pick up on the one true emergency I had.

 

For some contractual reasons, if you bought a 2009 before a certain date you can't convert to Mbrace until later this year, and it requires a software update to the car. Mbrace can't accept the order from my discussion with them about my 2009 320E.

However, Teleaid knocked off $100 on their annual service when pressed, so I just renewed with them for a year. Hopefully, Mbrace will improve their service by then as most of the comments I have read about them have been negative about some of the features not functioning as advertised.

 

The software update done to the car is simply telling the system to call a different outgoing telephone number (MBrace, rather than TeleAid) and to assign a different cell phone number to your car known only by MBrace.

The reason MBrace can't be used by you yet has to do with contractual obligations to the old TeleAid folks by MBUSA that TeleAid be THE only "Central Monitoring Station" to be pushed by MBUSA thru a certain date.

Basically, TeleAid and MBrace are simply an Alarm Central Monitor Station responding to alarms sent by you or your car.

With regards to "certain features not working"... There was ample confusion between the Copy Writers, MB Engineers, and MBrace people as to what new cool MBrace features could be accessed by MBrace thru the Hardware in the cars of various years and models. Downloadable Map destinations from Google maps direct to my NAV unit was one of thease features. MBrace insisted (from thyeir scripts, and no knowledge of our cars, that is would work... but it can only work with the new generation head units with the NAV processor in the head unit, not the trunk...

All in all, remember that these people are NOT MB owners, but Alarm Response people who know what they do about MB cars from scripts, overview classes, and advertising materials provided by MBUSA to them... They're certainly not "concierges" either... but if the price is right, its probably worth it for the accident notification. I think the car should send a signal to them once a year requesting a call from them to the car just to check in and verify that the system is working.

 

This is correct, the $299 lifetime offer is NOT valid for MB buyers who bought after a certain date in 2009 (I forgot which date exactly) due to "contractual reasons". When pressed, MBrace told me that the $299 was over (only good for a few months around the end of 2009), and that the offer is NOT and will NOT be extended to current new MB buyers as well as those who bought after the certain date in 2009. Those people will have to subscribe to MBrace at the full price of $270/year (or something like that... it was more expensive than the $240/yr teleaid and they weren't even willing to match teleaid's price).



I too got my teleaid subscription renewed at $140/yr, which IMHO is "reasonable".



Very well said. But just to add on, Teleaid is now starting to implement (or has already implemented) some of the "cool" features MBrace is supposedly supposed to come with (like an iPhone app to remote unlock and locate your car).

To some people, getting Teleaid or MBrace is worth it... to others, it's not. (Just like some people prefer subscribing to a security service for their home, and others do not.) That being said, IMHO with time (after MBrace gets its act together and gains more years of experience with providing this type of service), both Teleaid and MBrace will probably be pretty similar with only very minor feature differences between them (since they both seem to be competing on this now)... and of course probably pricing.

Contrary to popular rumors, TELEAID IS NOT "DISCONTINUED" OR BANKRUPT OR GOING ANYWHERE! BOTH MBRACE AND TELEAID WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST AND BE SUPPORTED BY EQUIPPED VEHICLES! TELEAID WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY QUIT WORKING (IN TELEAID-EQUIPPED VEHICLES) UNLESS YOU FAIL TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE SERVICE! As Barry said, these are 3rd-party "alarm" companies, and the only difference is that older MB's came with Teleaid software/hardware installed, and now newer MB's come with MBrace software/hardware installed. YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO SWITCH TO MBRACE TO CONTINUE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION MONITORING SERVICE! For me, I'm still keeping my Teleaid so long as they are cheaper to subscribe to than MBrace ($140/yr after discount vs. $270/yr no discount)... I am one of those customers who aren't "allowed" to subscribe to MBrace's $299 Lifetime subscription.

 

From what I've heard, this Mbrace thing is a pretty big gamble with the MB brand and customer base.

Also I don't like the idea of MB pimping me out to other companies