How long for a spare key?

[bionoc]

I bought a used E500 coupe from a main dealer in England. The car only had one key and the spare was to follow later.
107 days later I had a spare that worked. It was a technical issue.
BP sorted out their technical issue in 103 days. The Chilean miners had their technical issue sorted in 69 days.

What was the issue? The key tracks in the EIS had all been disabled, except for two. The one I was using and presumably the track for the missing key. I received my first spare after 6 weeks waiting. That didn't work. The second key arrived a week later. That didn't work either. Then the dealers and the technical folk started to have a bit of trouble deciding what to do next.
Finally, they got a coding key from Mercedes, enabled the spare tracks in the EIS and now I have 3 keys that work.
The two dealers that I used were convinced that the new keys should work straight out of the box. They didn't.
I hope this info may be of use to anyone struggling to get a new key.

 

[Shude]

I ordered a new (current type) key back in 2003, it arrived the next day although I had to wait 7 days for the blade insert. Worked immediately.

 

[grober]

Keys and security system faults are always going to pose potential delays since there are going to be restrictions on the free exchange of information about them [ even within MB itself I would guess??] for security reasons. The only comfort I can offer is that your car is probably safer from theft because of this.