sosh

Late yesterday afternoon the alarm on my E350 4M was mistakenly set off by me opening the drivers door from the inside as the window was down and the car locked in my garage. Reset it and didn't give it a second thought. This morning about 12 hours after the incident my cell phone rang and it was a recorded message from MBrace that the alarm had gone off. 12 hours after makes the phone alert worthless, the car, had it been stolen, would have been maybe a thousand miles away or had it been broken into the thieves would have been long gone. Can't understand why they would do this so long after the event?? I have lost a lot of confidence in MBrace for which I pay an exhorbitant fee annually. Anyone else have a similar issue??

ghstudio

I am sure that if you read the fine print, Mbrace has no responsiblity at all to notify you, even if it's due to their negligence. You will also find something that says that Mercedes has no responsibility at all for anything to do with MBRACE. Of course, if there is an emergency and no one responds, you will want to sue someone, but the little print tells you right up front that they can do no wrong legally. Mercedes doesn't highlight this....they would like to to buy MBRACE because it gives you a warm feeling of comfort, even though there really isn't any, as far as I could see. I did not activate Mbrace....

BenzV12

Jeremy Clarkson had a similar glitch when he bought his Ford GT40 ,it was like his car was stolen 10+ times in 45 minutes lol

paulybagadonuts

You would think, being relatively new to MB that Mbrace would be trying a little harder but it seems that they are just as useless as TeleAid was. Unbeleivable what they charge for the service as sosh mentioned. I will probably just drop them after the trial period.

They will probably give me a $50 or $100 reduction when I ask to terminate the service as TeleAid did, but I don't think it's worth it even at a reduced rate. Had it for 6 years with my ML and didn't use it once. Be nice to have that $1500 back.

sosh

I have used some of their other services with no problem as I had with Tele Aid in many nof my prior MBs. My point with this incident was that the telepone alert was useless after such a long period of time. I will continue with MBrace and the one I have left with teleaid as I feel that the emergency response should be better than the alarm alert. My wife and I feel more comfortable having that and hopefully we will never have to use it just like insurance.

listerone

I wonder if this is typical.This is because I did something once with mBrace (I think I requested that the doors be unlocked via my laptop...as an experiment) and within a few minutes I got a call on my cell phone (my designated contact number).

Of course mine is just one experience...as is yours.I signed up for mBrace (3 years) *solely* for the automatic accident notification.I would have signed up if that was its *only* feature.I guarantee that either I,or my hiers,will sue everyone in sight if a serious accident occurs and a timely notification wasn't broadcast because of some flaw in the equipment or anything like that.Of course there may be things that are beyond MB's control...accident occured far from a cell tower,or caused some wire to be severed,etc.

As a matter of fact I'm gonna repeat that experiment right now and see what (if anything) happens.I'll report back for anyone who's interested.

listerone

Hmmmm...successfully unlocked the doors via the mBrace website and still no call.Confirmed that they still have the correct number and that it's listed as "primary contact".

Strange.If I don't get a call soon I'll be on the phone with them tomorrow to get some answers.

ttoE550

I don't know if this test should produce what you are expecting. MBrace might have called the first time because it was, well, the first time. Just to confirm if it was indeed you - the authorized user - who had unlocked your car. Once they knew that you did it, then perhaps no further authorization was necessary. But I do not know for sure.

I do agree the original 12 hour delay was disappointing. Ha! Once my house alarm went off before noon. Squared it with the alarm company and forgot about it. Then I was scared sh*tless at about 5:30 pm by two very large people dressed in black walking through my bushes and looking in my windows. Turns out it was the police "following up" on the alarm almost 6 hours later! Later I got a letter from the police that investigating this false alarm was a freebie and next time I would be charged!

I too subscribe to MBrace for the accident notification alone.

Arrie

I had MBRACE service with my 2011 E350. Signed for it just for the accident notification service. I drive a lot on highways at nights and going off the road in the middle of nowhere in early morning hours could be bad but with accident notification service it provides some hope. For a couple hundres dollars for a year I think it is a low cost "insurance".

Another thing I used with MBRACE was the ability to send navigation address from a computer to my car.

I traded my car in for a 2010 E550. This car came with the Teleaid service and without knowing better I stopped my MBRACE and started with Teleaid. They have the same services but not the email option for navigation, they have better. As I drive I can ask for a business in some area and they will send me the navigation data and it comes quickly. This is included with the lowest cost pachage. And I can hear them much better too.

MarcusBDUB

Noob question: Teleaid is an alternative service to the Mbrace ripoff offered by MB?

MBrace qwould not give me the free trial period unless I signed up for service first ... nice scam.

ImInPA

I had a similar experience, however, mBrace was calling me within seconds of shutting off the alarm. My experience with mBrace has all been positive. Sorry to hear of this. I especially like being able to purchase the concierge service one month at a time. I like this service when I travel to new cities I am not familiar with, but, do not need it most of the time. It is nice to have the option. I use the mBrace send-to-benz functionality quite often.

listerone

My curiosity having been piqued by the OP's experience I just tried an experiment...I called mBrace and was told that alarm notification (telephone,text,etc) occurs when the alarm has been sounding for 30+ seconds.So I intentionally tripped the alarm...windows open,car locked,opened the door from the inside....waited about a minute and,sure enough,within about 10 seconds,mBrace was calling my cell phone telling me that the alarm has been tripped.I then hung on and talked to a rep to tell him that I tripped the alarm intentionally as an experiment.

I was also told by mBrace that notifications are *not* sent out for door locking/unlocking so I clearly was hallucinating about 9 months ago regarding the calls I *thought* I got.