Tele-Aid: Yay or Nay
 

We have subscribed to Tele-Aid for our '01 E320 4matic (3 years plan) and '02 S500 (per year basis) but not sure if I should subscribe for the '04 E500. It's a good security blanket in case the airbag deploys, need to unlock the doors or vehicle tracking but for all the years we've subscribed on our other 2 cars, we never used the other features. Your thoughts.......

Tele Aid
 

I got a call on Friday that my 05 E320 CDI had come in and was ready to pick up ( Was not suppose to be in till the 11th). Well I went to the dealership sat to go over some questions I had about the call and my salesman said we should enable Tele aid. I had tele aid on my wifes 1st C class and never used it, but we enabled it and to my suprise I had a new digtal tele aid system and there are no longer any airtime charges and for $210 more I got unlimited route assit, calling (confrence call) and about anything else you can think of. Made dinner reservations with it on sat night, kinda cool. It was such a new service my salesman had no idea it even exsited and I called tele aid back to confirm and get a better explination, no airtime chages and unlimted use with my package........

The only real reason that I renewed was the fact that if you get in an accident and the tele-aid system is not active, the car will not automatically call for help. I don't use it all either, but for this one feature, I decided to renew.

Quite frankly, MB should allow for the system to call automatically after an accident during the entire life of the car, whether or not you are subscribed.

I could not agree with you more. There should at least be a cheaper program option that will allow you to unlock your car a few times a year and it should call in case of an accident. That should not be that expensive.

I have used it twice in 3 months, but just for S**ts and giggles.

Steve

I agree..

Yes I do subscribe. I find it a very weak "extra", with not many useable features without paying more for a more for air time, etc. I have it because it doesn't appear to be expensive when you break it down to cost per day for airbag/accident notification.

Directions & all the other deluxe, bells & whistles features should be available at a cost per use price when you are a basic subscriber with airtime included in the requested service.

Hold times are rediculously long. You could lose conciousness waiting for the call to be answered!

I subscribed for one year but then stopped as when I needed it on a trip from Las Vegas to Fort Collins, CO, I couldn't connect with it until I got near Denver. My cell phone has MUCH better coverage. I had the same trouble with On Star in another vehicle and dumped it.

I have resubscribed to Teleaid. I haven't used it, but I've been in a few situations where I've had to deal with freeway closures and have been routed through not great neighborhoods late at night. I felt more comfortable having it there. That played into my thinking when it came time to renew. But I think it's overpriced.

We're debating here to renew or reneg on the Tele-Aid. My cousin works up in Montvale for Mercedes-Benz and tells me that Tele-Aid is only good for those notifications and traffic reports and such features. otherwise, you can use your cell phone and call 18004Mercedes and it'll be the same thing.

It also allows for quicker handling of the call but suppsoe you don't know where you are, you can tell them to GPS you if you have NAVIGATION.

So all in all, I think we'll pass on it...

You do realize that the conference calling is at no additional charge to those with the digital Teleaid systems? Just wanted to clarify.

While I wait for mine to make its way over here, I have been debating about Tele-Aid. I noticed that the Mercedes Owners Online site seems to have a bunch of functionality that is linked to the Tele-Aid system, but you can't look at it without being subscribed.

It appears that you can get on the web and have your car unlocked. I find this a little disconcerting.

The main purpose appears to be web delivery of traffic messages.

My questions:
- Does Tele-Aid still deliver text traffic information to COMAND? Or is it all voice now?

- Can you really unlock your car from the MBUSA web site? (That may be a dealbreaker for me.)

- Does anyone else have privacy concerns about this service? Evidence suggests that ATX (Tele-Aid's operator) is the firm that sued the U.S. government over having to activate a system for surveillance purposes on a customer's car.


Sorry if I sound paranoid, but I worked in information security long enough to see some bad things happen to good people. All while the carriers/ISPs/banks were denying they were even possible.

You do need a password.
Don't worry about intrusions...its only tele aid, not National security!

I didn't like that either. I never lock myself out of anything and am more concerned about having someone steal my car this way. You have to put a password on your original paperwork, and it's like giving a set of keys to anyone that sees that paperwork. I voiced my concern to TeleAid and was able to get them to lock this feature on my account.

I'm glad to hear that. I admit I have a skewed perspective, because I used to break into networks for a living. I've seen enough vulnerability out there to know that all the good intentions in the world don't prevent people from being hacked, ripped off, or having their identities stolen.

I say it's worth it on 170K car - 10 K extra for a G63 without waiting is a no brainer
My RR dealer made me pay 10 grand for running boards (real price was supposed to be 3-4K) when demand was at its peak - said that was deal or nothing aka no deal - and that was a way inferior truck