A moan to MB dealerships

[adamb]

I'm going to start a thread on moaning about the Mercedes-Benz dealership experience. Mine is related to the UK. If yours relates to other countries - please post so that nobody feels left out 

I don't normally take my mercs ('77 6.9 & '84 500SEC) to the main dealer but I had an unpleasant experience in an airport car park and finally got the car park to admit liability. In essence the parking attendants snapped the electric seatbelt extender arm and all I needed was a quote for the work to send to their insurers. So I made a booking at MB in London and brought them the car in the morning. Picking it up in the evening I get the requested estimate and a bill for £117 for a full vehicle inspection showing delightful things such as engine oil level a little low and a diff oil leak. Querying the purpose of the inspection I'm told without irony that this is the least MB charge to assess damage and present an estimate. Clearly it's important to check the freshness of my brake fluid in order to tell me that it will cost £320 to replace the electric arm. I would have started a row if it wasn't for the ironic fact that I'm getting an estimate following a lengthy fight for compensation from another party.

I needed a second estimate for this work too. My friendly MB independent garage just gave me an honest quote having understood exactly what is required without needing to look at the car, based simply on his experience working with SECs. He charged me nothing for the estimate.

MB have another thing coming if they think that I'm such a tosser as to use their services any more than is strictly necessary.

Needless to say, in the past my local MB dealer would let me use their ignition diagnosis equipment for free because I was a loyal and regular customer of parts. The f*cking losers running the dealerships today are aiming at a totally different pundit.

Adam

[Big_Richard]

did they explain to you at the beginning that there would be a cost involved for an inspection ?

Its possible that they go over the entire car as people in the past may of whinged about them not seeing other faults when they specifically went there for something totally unrelated. But still, this should of been explained to you at the very start, business's that just slug you a fee without having explained the possibility of this are unethical in my opinion. But no doubt they have some terms and conditions BS to cover them, suggesting you agree to them just by leaving your car there.

[Mcruder]

Several years ago I managed to get myself one of the first C55 AMG to come into the country. Obviously as was required by the warranty/service plan I had to take it to a MB dealer for service. When I went to pick it up it had droplets of white roadpaint all over one side (very obvious on a black car!), and on further inspection one of the rims had a bad nick in the lip. It was quite obvious to me that people used my car for some joyrides. Discussion of the problem with the dealer principal led nowhere, and I had to endure denial, sarcasm, and rude treatment. In the end I had to lodge a formal complaint against the dealership with the MB HQ.  It took 2 months of fighting to get them to have the paintwork restored, and the rim replaced. Suffice to say I have never again used any of that dealership group ever again for any services.

However they are not the only ones. I took a BMW to a dealership to fix a small problem. I handed the car in, and told the service rep I will go back to work, and come back to fetch when they call. Upon walking out I met a friend who also brought his car for a small repair. We ended up drinking coffee in their lounge, deciding to rather wait the hour or 2. While we were sitting having coffee I noticed my car turning into their front parking lot from the street with 3 occupants - a sales person with 2 customers. They allowed a customer to go for a test drive with my car!

Many years ago, I handed a Suzuki motorbike in to a dealer for service. That evening at home, I got a call from the police informing me that my bike was in an accident. Apparently one of the mechanics decide to use my bike to drive home with, and had an accident. The bike was a write-off. At first the dealership maintained that I need to claim the accident on my own insurance! After months of fighting, ending up in a civil court case, the dealership replaced the bike. (At first I did make a criminal case for vehicle theft against the mechanic, and the dealer, but had the case dropped because I felt sorry for the mechanic's children. It came to light that he was a relative new employee and was having some financial/transport difficulties.)

[nathan]

those are both really craphouse stories!
i think most here would be of the opinion that money aside, the current dealer mechanics would be less competent at fixing our old cars as a machine can not be plugged in to tell them whats wrong.

[450SE_melbourne]

In 2007, I put my 2004 E-Class sedan in for a warranty repair on the Panoramic Roof. One side had jammed up, while the other side remained locked down. Given that the car only had four months until the warranty expired & the CLS was on order, I had a terrible gut feeling that Mercedes would try to repair it on the cheap.
Two weeks after handing the keys over, the car was still sitting in the same forlorn corner of the workshop, roof lining collapsed, guts stripped out of it. Two weeks later, nothing had changed.
With the CLS somewhere on the water & due to arrive in port anytime soon, I wanted the E-Class back so that I could sell it privately as the dealership had lowballed me on the trade in value & tried to stick the knife in even more as 'it was having major mechanical repairs carried out'. 
Parts were being brought in from Germany as Mercedes Benz Australia are too stupid to realise a known fault & keep parts in a bank ready for the next few vehicles.
All the while, I was taking phone calls from prospective purchasers wanting to look at it. 
Another two weeks later (6 in total now), the car was "repaired". When I went to colect the car, the service advisor demonstrated how well the roof now worked. When he pressed to button to open the roof, the bloody thing jammed again. 

After persistantly annoying the advisor, he admitted that he'd been under pressure to repair on the cheap & that the repair obviously hadn't worked. A month later, after more parts were flown in from Germany, I could collect my E-Class.
By this time, the CLS had arrived - but I refused to colect it until the repair on the E was successfully completed.
Throughout the entire ten week warranty repair, no loan vehicle was offered - even though this was my third $100k+ Benz from that dealership in five years.

[oscar]

Oh man, we've had better service than that from our local Ford dealer workshop even though we bought our Terri from a different dealer.  And as for warranty, it ran out last year but some issues that have been with the car for a while were still being charged back to Ford.  We've still got ABS issues and it too will be covered.  We haven't had to fight them at all.

I can't understand then why a prestige dealer especially would try and cut corners or do patch jobs for warranty work.  Surely this would get charged back to MB otherwise why would any dealer accept any warranty work.  The fact you're a loyal customer just adds insult to the experience but even if it was your one and only purchase from them, it shouldn't matter. 

So what was the issue?  Do you know why other atempts to fix it failed and what eventually worked?  It seems to me that through your persistance and subsequent repair attempts, it probably cost MB or the dealer or both, more than it would've done if it was done right the first time.

[450SE_melbourne]

I can't understand then why a prestige dealer especially would try and cut corners or do patch jobs for warranty work.  Surely this would get charged back to MB otherwise why would any dealer accept any warranty work.  The fact you're a loyal customer just adds insult to the experience but even if it was your one and only purchase from them, it shouldn't matter. 

So what was the issue?  Do you know why other attempts to fix it failed and what eventually worked?  It seems to me that through your persistence and subsequent repair attempts, it probably cost MB or the dealer or both, more than it would've done if it was done right the first time.

I couldn't agree more. Regardless of if the car is a Suzuki, smart or my 20th S-Class or AMG - warranty is warranty.

I also forgot to mention that although the car was nearing three years old, it had only done 17,000km (10,500mi).
The fact that it was a known fault in the cars with the Panoramic Roof option should firstly send alarms bells of in the head of the person in charge of the parts bank to make sure there are parts in stock in Australia at all times.
Secondly, dealerships who charge the service prices that they demand should ensure that for every apprentice technician working on a vehicle, a fully qualified mechanic should be also - to offer guidance & offer advice.

The Service Adviser & Service Manager both admitted under duress that they were under pressure from MBAuP to keep the warranty repair figures to a minimum. They also admitted that they'd attempted to do a 'patch up' job as the car was *almost out of warranty, and *about to be sold, either privately or through trade in. I found their level of honesty at this point rather refreshing...

The CLS is due for changeover soon & I've been invited to the new E-Class launch next Friday night...
I haven't heard of faults with the Panoramic Roof on the W204 C-Class or the W221 S-Class, so maybe it will be safe to get it in the W212 E-Class... fingers crossed...

Stepping down off soap box now.