Oxygen

I am furious with Mercedes-Benz and how they handled the situation I am about to outline below.

I had the doors to my car locked, I needed to get something out of the trunk so I opened the trunk with the keyfob, and I left the keys in the trunk and I shut it... since the doors are locked the trunk would not open with the button. Bad. I called Mercedes, they said I need to pay $249/year for Tele-Aid and they would have to fax me an agreement form. I am no where near home or near a fax, next option. Road-Side Assistance comes from the nearest dealer ship... He had no special tools and no "master" key to get into the car... my first shock.

LUCKILY, I had my sunroof tilted up. The Roadside guy had some crude tool that was a metal rod with a piece of electrical tape on the end of it. He reached through the sunroof and tried to press the unlock button on the dash... too bad, the car is too smart for that.

Next he placed a wedge between the driver door and the car and started bending the driver's door out to get some space to get in there... I am standing there in shock at what he is doing to a $90,000 car. With the driver's door bent outward, he tries to pull on the door pin with a plastic rope thing, no luck.

I make the suggestion to him to reach through the sunroof with the metal hook and pull on the driver's door handle as that will bring the doorpin up.

He does that, the door opens, alarm is blaring loud. He rips out the back seat, unscrewes 4 bolts on the metal floor and pulls up a metal panel on the back right side. He yanks out some big red wire and SPARKS go FLYING all over the place. "This is normal" he says to me. I was like uh okay. Tries to open the trunk, no luck. Pulls out the wire again, no sparks this time. Brings a battery jumper with him, plugs it in, no go again. Pulls out the wire, waits and then plugs it in. Trunk opens.

Great... gets the keys, goes to start the car, engine cranks and dies right away. After that, SRS, ESP, PRE-SAFE, BAS warnings come on. The gas gauge does not work, reads NOTHING. Half of the electrical is not working. He tries to crank it a few more times, with the same results. None of the power controls work (Windows, Doors, Sunroof, Seats, Etc...) None of the lighting on the buttons works.

The guys says there is nothing he can do, has to tow the car. I am flipping out.

Mercedes asks me if I want it towed to my home dealership or the dealership that the Roadside guy came from... I said tow it to the dealership where the guy came from because there is going to be a ****-storm tomorrow.

They made me leave the key on the tire and wait for the tow truck... they picked it up.

I was on the phone with MBUSA for about an hour, going from customer relations to the Roadside supervisor who is forwarding all the information to the service manager at the dealership (Huntington Mercedes).

MB Huntington calls this morning to ask me why the car is on the lot, I flipped out, told them to check with the service manager.

Sucks.

newton22

Right when he pulled the red wire and sparks went flying is where I would have stopped him and kicked him in the nuts.

Sucks to hear man. File a complaint.

Lender1

What was done to you is horrible. I can understand why Teleaid would not open the car. You could not give them the password since, I'm assuming you never created one.

In my opinion, what should have happened is when the Roadside Assistance tech came out after he verified you were the owner Teleaid should have opened the car for him. These cars are made not to be broken into. I would have had a livid fit if anyone tried to pry my door frame away from the body.

Lastly, for the record the Teleaid system does work well when it is in place. My wife locked the keys in ours, was twenty-five miles away from my office and called me asking what to do. I told her to call Teleaid remined her of the password and she was in the car in two minutes.

shimo

That sounds like a nightmare, congrats to you for not killing him! What a mess.

At least you can take a little comfort in the knowledge that it's that bloody hard to steal the car...

***Mental note - never lock keys in boot!***

Oxygen

Okay they called me, wanted to charge $379.00 to fix it. $279.00 for parts + labor and $100.00 for the tow.

I told them that I am NOT paying a penny and that I will be down there tomorrow my self to speak to the manager.

They called me 20 minutes later, told me it will all be taken care of for free and I can come pick the car up anytime.

I needed an oil change, so I asked for one of those while they are at it.

StephenK

You should just pay the annual subscription for teleaid, I locked my keys in the trunk once, called them, supplied my password, held the trunk button in for a few seconds and shortly thereafter the doors unlocked. System worked as pitched.

kenstudios

Oh men, sorry to hear about your misharp. When sparks went flying he shorted the rear SAM which explains why you got those errors and no gauges working. All that is controlled from the rear SAM which is under the back seat. MBs are not easy to break into.

Non related - I was out and about and stopped at my local Infinity dealer to check out the all new M45. That car is loaded for less than 60K including rear wheel drive and 340 HP. I was tempted but ....................................

newton22

New cars will only get better. I wouldn't be surprised if a Toyota Camry in two years had all the luxuries and features an older W220 has.

But she will always stay a classic.

BBH

Lender1 has the right idea. I'm surprized the dealership "rescue" guy didn't have a better relationship with teleaid. If the dealership is "on scene" and apparently satisfied that the car is not stolen, I'm surprized and not a little disappointed that teleaid wouldn't simply open the trunk for the dealer's man.

treiberg

Is the teleaid available on a 2000 S500? How much does it cost for a subscription?

jameskk

moral of this story.... get Teleaid! I just signed up today for $240.

Allzwell

I can't imagine that a dealers tech would perform such a back asward stunt.

At least the dealer is not charging you, but what about the bent door frame and other damages done??

kenstudios

That really suprised me. They took all the options and made them really good. The A/c seats were really cold, the nav is like 9 inches, keyless go, and better still was the engine. All this for less than $60K sticker price.

justbecause

but Ken if we all bought a Japanese cars we would have nothing to talk about,oh apart from Newton, that boy loves to talk.

sprink49

I have to confess that we have tried to lock our "keyless go" key in our trunk...I don't think it can be done. The time it happened, my wife left her key in the trunk after loading some packages and the lid would not shut. The car was locked. She called me and told me what was happening. I asked if she had her key in her purse...she said yes...the purse was in the trunk!!! She removed her purse...and the trunk closed.

I guess the keyless go system has an overide that saves "me" from screwing up.

Get Teleaid...it is a great feature. We use it all the time for finding good places to eat, making reservations, etc.

ArMaNi S500

I left work in a town where you probably wouldn't let your children run around freely, especially at night. I go into my trunk leaving my keys behind not realizing I didn't first unlock the car. Needless to say I wanted to leave ASAP. I assumed Mercedes had the ability to unlock my vehicle from their system but they claimed that technology isn't available on the W220 until the '01 edition. Roadside assistance came by after about half an hour, I believe from Rallye and the guy started by using a slim jim in the doors and the sunroof until he finally unlocked the vehicle. He reached into the back right seat where the fuse box is located and removed the fuse for the alarm. From there I simply unlocked the car and retrieved my keys and drove home. Total cost was about $100 or slightly more? I was pretty satisfied with their service which is why I couldn't believe what had happened to your S. Wasn't there any damage done to the door/sunroof?

shanta

IT CAN BE DONE!!!

I have a 02 CL500 and I have successfully locked my keylessgo key in the trunk. Luckily had had my regular key on me. I took my car to the dealer, and they said "oh that is impossible", so I demonstrated to them several times that I can be done. Strange thing is that I could not lock it in the car cabin, but i could lock it in the trunk....lol...

GDawgC220

I've seen wedges placed between the B pillar and the door itself. The wedges are plastic/rubber and they use them to create a small opening so that they can stick whatever tools they have to try and unlock the car. The guy (hopefully didn't) shouldn't pull on the door itself after the wedges were in place.

But good thing that the dealer is covering the repair charges I'd inspect if the door had any damage, chances are probably not as the doors are pretty solid but who knows.

1phd1jd

I have the 2004 S600 and you can not lock the keys in the car. Keyless Go system will not allow the keys to be locked in the car. Save the trouble of having to employ people to assist when the keys are held hostage.