Call Answering

[McjMcM]

Anyone aware of this problem ?

I've had my new SLK for two months now and all is well except one irratating glitch ! I have the integrated telephone option with the phone in the arm rest, which stays there all the time ( I call forward my main mobile number to the car phone ).

When a call comes comes in, its a 50/50 chance that I will be able to pick it up. Despite repeated (and accompanied by bad language) pressing of the answer button on the steering wheel or the OK button on the command set, it refuses to answer.

I have done all the usual steps of taking the phone out, switching it on/off, re-seating it back in its holder a little more firmly and all that basic stuff but it still happening.

What is baffling is there is no common theme to the question of "will it answer or not when I press this button ?" and also it has only just started doing it.

Anyone have any ideas ?

 

[MikeL]

Hi, I had the same thing - same vehicle, with SE K700i, I cured the problem by setting the phone to auto-answer (phone settings). You can still reject a call from the steering wheel controls if you want.

Not necessarily going to cure your particular problem but worth a try.

Mike

 

[McjMcM]

Thanks Mike, I'll try that, mine is also a SE K700i....

Mark

 

[MikeL]

Thanks Mike, I'll try that, mine is also a SE K700i....

Mark

Interesting, wonder if it is a phone issue?

One thing.... I sometimes got the idea that the phone had answered but the display was slow to catch up, so I tried to answer again which put everything out of sync. Or I might be going slowly mad......

You certainly feel daft sat in the garage instructing the other half to try it now!

Mike

 

[hash]

hi i had terriable problems with a k700i in a e211, the dealer swapped modules, cradles, i swapped the phones upgraded the software and it was still hit and miss.

dealer eventually got so hacked off they gave me a nokia 6230 cradle foc and i bought the phone. been as good as gold since

miss the sony though

 

[MikeL]

Phones

Dear Mercedes,

Repeat after me - Bluetooth, Bluetooth, Bluetooth.

I know there can be issues with Bluetooth but the main issue from Merc's point of view is the £130 they get for each cradle they sell as long as their cars don't have it. The main irony of course is that technically the newer vehicles do have bluetooth, just not with any sort of voice capability, in fact I haven't found anything useful to do with it.

My wife's Honda Jazz comes with BT for goodness sake!

And while I'm at it, I don't like that idea of plugging the SIM straight into the vehicle - its swapping the wretched card between phones that causes the hastle in the first place.


Mike

 

[fuzzer]

Dear Mercedes,

Repeat after me - Bluetooth, Bluetooth, Bluetooth.

I know there can be issues with Bluetooth but the main issue from Merc's point of view is the £130 they get for each cradle they sell as long as their cars don't have it. The main irony of course is that technically the newer vehicles do have bluetooth, just not with any sort of voice capability, in fact I haven't found anything useful to do with it.

Bluetooth brings its own problems , personally the cradle system is better in my eyes for reliability compared with my bmw bluetooth system.

on your comment about the bluetooth in the newer models , this is to allow private calls through a bluetooth headset.

 

[MikeL]

Bluetooth brings its own problems , personally the cradle system is better in my eyes for reliability compared with my bmw bluetooth system.

on your comment about the bluetooth in the newer models , this is to allow private calls through a bluetooth headset.

If the Service Providers would allow two SIMs to share the same phone number, end of problem. One phone always in the car, another to carry around.

Mike

 

[fuzzer]

If the Service Providers would allow two SIMs to share the same phone number, end of problem. One phone always in the car, another to carry around.

Mike

Vodafone do , its called mutisim. Checkout the vodafone website.

 

[MikeL]

Vodafone do , its called mutisim. Checkout the vodafone website.

AAAAGGGHHH.

Calmly now. I called into a Vodafone shop - 3-4 weeks ago, they had no idea.

Mike

 

[prprandall51]

Dear Mercedes,

Repeat after me - Bluetooth, Bluetooth, Bluetooth.

Mike

Some car manufacturers have had real problems with Bluetooth. And, of course, when I say car manufacturers, it is actually their chosen technology partners who provide the Telematics kit who have had the problems.

I have been told by somebody in the industry that some major Telematics suppliers have had so many problems with Bluetooth that they have refused to progress with fitting the technology until some of the issues are resolved.

I think one of the problems is that, whilst we all want Bluetooth (me included) if there was a problem in its functionality (see below for an example) we would be the first to go and complain (me included again).

I am guessing that, because there are some issues which are difficult to overcome, Mercedes would rather not offer it than offer it and then have to deal with the fall out of a less-than-perfect solution. And, yes, I know that some manufacturers have implemented it successfully.

This is an example problem told to me by a car manufacturer: If you are on a Bluetooth-enabled phone with Bluetooth switched on and approach your car and unlock it and turn on the ignition whilst the call is still in progress, the Bluetooth system in the car can / will cause the call to be dropped as it "grabs" the phone connection. This would be very frustrating for the vehicle user.

Looking at the bizarre half-hearted Bluetooth implementation in my S211 (the same as on all the current-generation Comand systems, I believe), it seems to me as if they built in all of the Bluetooth hardware (tramsmittter and receiver, chipsets or whatever) in anticipation of offering full Bluetooth and then had to "pull" Bluetooth from the sytem by deleting functionality from the operating system, leaving only a skeleton implementation that works the permanently-fitted handset.

I live in hope of a software upgrade that brings full Bluetooth functionality to the car. But I'm not holding my breath.

Philip

 

[fuzzer]

AAAAGGGHHH.

Calmly now. I called into a Vodafone shop - 3-4 weeks ago, they had no idea.

Mike

dial 191 and go through to the people who deal with data and blackberry etc. means you won't end up talking to a temp there for the summer uni student.

 

[MikeL]

dial 191 and go through to the people who deal with data and blackberry etc. means you won't end up talking to a temp there for the summer uni student.

Ta - will give it a whirl.

Mike

 

[McjMcM]

Well I've tried Mike's suggestion and it makes no difference. I have found that I now know when the phone will allow me to answer as I will here the ring tone through the speakers, when the phone refuses to answer all it does is mute the music and hear a clicking sound...very bizarre.

From the posts I think it maybe something to do with the K700i I'll do some digging around to see if there is a firmware update but this was a new phone so I doubt it would be out of date.

The irony is I could have chosen any phone, its just that my main phone is a SE P910 which they don't have a cradle for :-( and I thought it would be best to stick with SE for sync'ing between phones....

Oh well, onwards and upwards

 

[MikeL]

Well I've tried Mike's suggestion and it makes no difference. I have found that I now know when the phone will allow me to answer as I will here the ring tone through the speakers, when the phone refuses to answer all it does is mute the music and hear a clicking sound...very bizarre.

From the posts I think it maybe something to do with the K700i I'll do some digging around to see if there is a firmware update but this was a new phone so I doubt it would be out of date.

The irony is I could have chosen any phone, its just that my main phone is a SE P910 which they don't have a cradle for :-( and I thought it would be best to stick with SE for sync'ing between phones....

Oh well, onwards and upwards

It was worth a try - my firmware is R2AN001 (don't ask if new, old, good or bad) might be worth trying another K700i in the car kit if you can get hold of one.


Mike

 

[SEM]

I asked Vodaphone with mine they wanted me to sign a new tarriff and another £25 per month after finding the RIGHT person to talk to.. so now i'm looking to clone it instead... just remember to turn off one phone. It's a pain having to keep swapping the sim chip. A lot of the Store plebs have not a clue.. Newbury head office are clueless also

 

[MikeL]

I asked Vodaphone with mine they wanted me to sign a new tarriff and another £25 per month after finding the RIGHT person to talk to.. so now i'm looking to clone it instead... just remember to turn off one phone. It's a pain having to keep swapping the sim chip. A lot of the Store plebs have not a clue.. Newbury head office are clueless also

Yeah, the Vodafone deal £7.00 per month just for an extra sim nice profit if you can get it!


Mike

 

[SEM]

It's price has come down then.. obviously not selling

 

[Rory]

My wife's Honda Jazz comes with BT for goodness sake!

Did this come as standard? We have a 2 yr old Jazz which I'm thinking of changing into a new one, but I don't see any reference to BT on Honda website - is it something that's hidden , for some reason?

 

[MikeL]

Did this come as standard? We have a 2 yr old Jazz which I'm thinking of changing into a new one, but I don't see any reference to BT on Honda website - is it something that's hidden , for some reason?

I should have said it is an option, not standard (at least for the jazz) - currently available on the:

FR-V, Jazz, CR-V, Accord. (I believe latest models only)

This link should provide more info:

http://www.honda-access.com/uk/en/news/Bluetooth.jsp

Mike