I believe you.

 

I knew before I made this post that I would get grief. But I also knew that it would be best to let others know. Thank you. I appreciate that.

 

 

Why not send just the hard drive (SSD) back? That is how the software is delivered and with clear instructions not to install anything else as it might interfere with the StartKey or other settings necessary for the software to work correctly. I’m sure if you asked him to clarify, the SSD would have been fine for the refund.

Whenever I run into problems with BenzNinja installations, which is rare, he has been more than quick to fix things. I recently installed his tune on my C350 and I had a weak trickle charger on the battery. The voltage dropped too low and the flash failed. (Not his fault.) The car would hardly run. He did say I needed a battery CHARGER that was rated 20A or more, OR I could hook up a jumper cable from another car while doing the flash. I got a 20A charger (though the car only drew 9A) and restarted the flash and it completed without any further problems. The car runs perfectly.

My point is that things don’t always run perfectly the first time, but I was never left stranded as a result. BenzNinja was committed to ensuring things were fixed, ran well, and that I was completely satisfied. The OP’s experience seems to be atypical, as described.

 

Hooking up two batteries in parallel is a bad idea because it can lead to voltage instability. You need a regulated power supply (not a charger). Otherwise, you are risking not only failing the flash but also bricking your module.
He is a software expert. But he needs to do better on the hardware side.

 

There are plenty of disgruntled "members". The problem for us is that - if we speak up - we lose access to whatever benefit we thought we were buying when we started down the road with Peter. I hope some potential future "member" reads this and reconsiders. I'm at a point where I would never trust him with remote access to my system so I have nothing left to lose by being brutally honest. Other current customers may still hope to recoup some of their substantial spend with Peter and therefore remain silent.

There is no club. Its a commercial transaction - nothing more. All the innuendo about interaction with other club members is a flat out lie. Nothing like that happens. Peter is likely a more than competent coder but he's no mechanic. If you want help turning on some Euro-feature not available in North America or vice versa then he may be your guy. If you have a legitimate mechanical fault that involves hardware and software he can be a sounding board if he wants to but Grok, Chat, Gemini or Claude are equally useful and for the most part free.

Your purchase will give you a crippled version of Xentry because Peter doesn't enable all the functions of a legitimate version. For the most part that's OK but its not what he tells you up front. Going forward I have hardware that I know works. If/when I encounter a situation where my crippled Xentry is inadequate for the task I'll have to decide whether I buy some other tool or use AI to install a fully functional clone version of Xentry.

I expect now I'll get hit by the self congratulatory Peterbots. He has more than one account here and its actually pretty easy to identify the posters that are just backslappers.

 

NOT surprised at all. That's so sad.

Why not keep it SIMPLE and SAFE 100% by just following two simple safe rules:
1. Never ever work with any user or sponsor who has been banned and removed from the forum (there is always a crazy strong reason before forums do that).
2. Just work with existing and current verified forum sponsors.

We have one here now (I guess others too), a forum sponsor, who not only has never been banned or blocked, but also offer exclusive coding that nobody else can offer for newer cars. Get with Max from @EleBest . His reputation is positive everywhere, and he is a forum sponsor too with a verified badge indicating that.

 

But you have to bring new clients and to praise the supreme leader constantly

 

Just because it does not fit your narrative does not make it BS. It is true. I know because it backs up what I said, which is the truth, including, threats of cutting off service, “complain again and I’ll send you to the dealer”. You know what is BS? Advertising lifetime free repairs then shaming and gaslighting you for payment by saying, "No one works for free". Also, his claiming to have 100% customer satisfaction (there is no such thing) while proceeding to leave my car in worse condition that he found it.

But you go ahead and wag your tail like a good boy.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

― George Orwell, 1984

 

You’re still going? Look, we all have access to the full WhatsApp transcript from the first message to the last. Nowhere in there does it say anything like “complain again and I’ll send you to the dealer.”

What is in there, though, are multiple threats coming from you. He tells you “engine on or 40A,” and you reply with “power supply is on 20A.” Then you just disappear in the middle of the job because you went to sleep.

I’ll stop there before this thread turns into TikTok.

 

 

I call BS.

It most certainly does. I have been truthful and I have nothing to hide. I wish I could post the entire exchange but it's agasint the forum rules.

I call BS. I am told that BenzNinja has been banned from this forum so he comes here under a different name or pays people to post for him. This is the only scenario where such a reply makes any sense.Hence, I am speaking to you BenzNinja when I say the following: You are NOT the vicitm. Stop it. You are pathetic.Defend yourself under your own name if you can. Or is it true that you have been banned?

 

Looks like dementia to me… 😬

 

LOL. You're a troll.

Again, I am speaking to you BenzNinja, post under your own name.

 

Can’t dive into conspiracy stuff right now, I’m glued to the Super Bowl!

 

You have been the absolute biggest troll through your entire time on this forum. When you joined you went out of your way to send me, a complete stranger, a negative comment about Peter. And it wasn’t as if you were answering in the forum, you private message me. And if you remember, I responded by telling you what a red flag that is. What that meant to me is that you are a completely unstable person willing to go to unknown lengths to damage a persons reputation. I would never ever deal with you and I would never recommend that any person I’ve ever known or met or come across would deal with you..

Im no member of any club and have had my own star and xentry systems for a decade.

Peter can be interpreted as being abrasive because English is not his first language. What’s your excuse? And btw, I’ve read your poor me story about YOU not protecting what you consider ip….thats a YOU problem and YOU can fix that with a proper education in protecting your IP BEFORE you start a business. It’s a free market, nobody to blame but yourself.

 

I understand that Peter is Dutch.

 

I thought the French always run from fights.....🤣🤣🤣

 

I feel the same way about BenzNinja. I would have recommended BenzNinja until now despite his harassment. But he crossed the line once too often when he threatened to terminate services for complaining. Being Dutch or French or whatever is no excuse and you know it.

An intelligent person knows the difference between a language barrier and a threat. When BenzNinja said, "Complain again, and I will send you to the dealer", that is not a language barrier, but rather a threat that seems to me to be nothing more than bad faith. What you are doing amounts to cognitive dissonance.
I intended to tone down my original post from concluding intent to expressing an opinion. But the more I read you deflect the indefensible, the more I will push back. Keep it up. Because every time you do, it brings this post to the top of the "new post" list for all to read.

 

 

Indeed, they flee from Nigeria

 

I don’t understand the fear of allowing BenzNinja to remote in to your DEDICATED laptop. My understanding and experience is that you are supposed to have a dedicated laptop for use only with BenzNinja services and supplied software. If you aren’t doing that, then you are wrong.

WRT the software provided, yes, it only runs in the off-line mode when doing my own diagnostics. Whenever Peter has needed to fix a problem or make a change on my car, he uses a different login that grants online access to Mercedes systems. I don’t believe there is any promise to provide unlimited online access for personal use.

There are a lot of questionable complaints being made.

I’ve used BenzNinja several times for diagnostic services, as well as, configuration changes, and have always been very satisfied. When things don’t work right, as sometimes they don’t, he’s been helpful, patient, and quick to fix any problems. The complaints and accusations here just seem exaggerated.

 

A senior member wrote for posterity about this scammer:
" grants online access to Mercedes systems",

Under any legal system that's aggravated offense.

Never ever and forever from Earth and beyond any club member was logged to Mercedes.


Any logging on Mercedes systems leave a trace with all data included and is available for any dealer or any Independent Service providers. So my statement can be easily verified by you or anyone else.


If you keep this completely non-sense I can help you understand how things works,

 

Based on my knowledge, I agree with the statement above and the assessment is accurate. The claim of “hey, I can log into Mercedes systems” is either ignorance or marketing fluff in most but not all cases. Mercedes back-end activity is auditable. If someone is actually touching official systems, there’s a trail and that can be verified. Only registered businesses like dealers with an official real license, which means an official registered business somewhere, can do that.

Here’s the part people keep missing: for most older cars, you don’t need any online/official server access to code features or flip variant values. That work is typically done offline with common tooling…. and yes, a lot of the budget coder equipment as u all can tell is built around cloned chinese hardware/software you all are getting from ebay. Does that automatically make every coder evil? No. Does it make the “server access” brag even more suspicious? Absolutely for older cars but not newer cars

The real separator is newer platforms (W223, newer E-class, etc.). Some functions require legitimate online authorization/workflows through licensed channels. If a “coder” can’t offer that and can’t explain it clearly, then they don’t have access.. PERIOD, and they definitely shouldn’t be implying that they do.

Also: never, ever give a random person remote access to your personal laptop. That’s not “coding,” that’s you handing a stranger the keys to your data, accounts, and network. Only give access to a personal laptop with a legitimate, registered, business that u can verify with physical location or at least a person that you can see, meet and know who he is and where is his “shop” if it even exists, but not a person or a website.

Lastly, the OP’s experience is unfortunate for sure., but it should also be a predictable outcome whenever anyone deals with any unaccountable, non-official operation hiding behind a screen: no physical shop, no registered business that u can personally look up in any country, no verifiable address, no recourse that is official. If you want real customer care and zero intimidation games, use legitimate, registered providers with a physical presence and a reputation to protect.
RJ Automoative for example has a physical location and an official location in UK that you can look up or even go to in person. The CEO and owner is someone you can also find and meet.
Same for Elebest, he has a registered company records that u can look up, and a physical real shop that u can go to in person if you wish. You can even see the guy himself in many popular YouTube videos.
Trigal also I know you have offered help to many users and we need more people sharing knowledge like this.

Also, in my view, official forum vendors are a safer baseline at least because the forum people has vetted them. People can choose whatever they want, but they should choose with eyes open and expectations much meet the reality of who are dealing with. It’s awesome that we all can make choices in the end.

 

The risk is not in the access to the laptop. The risk is in access to your network.

Indeed that is how it seems. It is one of those things that are fine until they change on a dime. For example, he is providing services as promised until you complain. Then, he tells you to stop complaining or else he will terminate services. You probably did not see that coming, did you?