1997 E200 Elegance transmission concern

[bzy]

I have a 1997 E200 elegance that's done about 150 000 kms. I recently had it serviced including the transmission fluids changed etc. I mentioned to the workshop that the gear changes where a little rough and it was sticking in second at times but they assured me the transmission was fine.

Since then the situation has got worse. The gear changes haven gotten rough to a point where it's dumping it into gears and causing an intense jolt. It's almost as if it's sticking when trying to change gears. This is most noticeable when changing from first to second but the rough change is present in all gears. There is also two other things it is doing that has me concerned. Ocassionaly it will get stuck in first gear. The only way to rectify this is to stop the car and shift it into park. Upon doing this the gear changes return to normal (well as normal as they can get). The second thing is at times it won't shift down into first when the car is stopped, almost as if it were in winter mode (which it isn't). This means that when accelerating from a stop the car is sluggish. To fix this you have to stop the car and shift into park. Often after doing this the problem of it getting stuck in first gear occurs and the only way to fix this is to physically switch the car off.

Any help would be much appreciated.