supercooper188

Attached is a letter I sent to a VP at Mercedes Hqtrs. 19 months ago concerning goodwill on the SBC issue. They did nothing.



Dear Mr. Fischer,

I am not sure I have the right email address, but I am taking a chance at sending you this letter because I was about to write to Gareth Joyce. I just got your name from a warranty extension letter I received on 2 of my other MB cars. You may get this letter and you may not. Hopefully you do.

I am writing you concerning the non-service I received from your Customer Assistance Center. I am the owner of a 2004 Mercedes E500.The car has approximately 126K miles on it, and several months ago I got the red light SBC failure indication.Not knowing that the warranty for this item had been extended I called the assistance center to inquire. I was told that the warranty period had been extended to 10 years. Well that would do me no good as my 10 year time frame expired in July 2014.The lady I spoke with said looking at my loyalty to the brand I may be able to receive some assistance from MBUSA. I have purchased 9 vehicles in the past 26 years.She said she would refer my case to a Case Manager, but I had to bring my car to an authorized dealer to have it diagnosed.

On January 6 I had the car towed to a dealer (Star Motors) and they diagnosed the SBC pump failure.I called back on January 7 and reported the issue to MBUSA. I was told my case would be assigned to a Case Manager. The Regional Case Manager (Joe) called my work and left a message on January 8. I called him back and left numerous messages before finally having him to call me back on January 9.He took my information and promised to get back to me on Monday or Tuesday of the following week.He said the case would be evaluated on car condition, mileage, brand loyalty, etc,. He never called the dealer despite me giving him the Service Advisor’s name (Carlos Gxxx). I never heard back from him so I called numerous other times finally reaching him on January 11. He said he hadn’t completed his review, and that he would call me back. He finally called back on Friday evening, January 16 to inform me that there was nothing he could do since the vehicle was out of warranty. However, he said he could offer me a $1,000 credit on the purchase of a new Mercedes. The SBC repair cost $1973.00, and he offers me a $1000 credit on a new car. Ultimate slap in the face—car had been sitting at the dealer for almost 2 weeks only to be declined. He could have told me he could not do anything when he first day or two of receiving the info. I didn’t call looking for charity or goodwill. It was offered due to my brand loyalty. My car is now at the dealer being repaired and I am paying the full bill. If over 25 years of brand loyalty doesn’t mean anything I guess nothing will.

Thanks

Donnymac

Our cars are basically twins. please drop me a note if you try a tune.
Thanks.
DM

supercooper188

Have only had my S550 for a month now, but so far so good. I enjoy every minute of it. It feels like I have finally arrived. What a joy to drive.

superpop

Your the guy that buys a pair of shoes at Nordstrom, wears them for 5 years and then returns them when the sole wears out because you are a loyal customer. Just guessing here but I assume you purchased all of these cars used, which means MB has not made a dime off of you and owes you little loyalty. And based on your earlier comments, they have made next to nothing on you on parts as well. Good luck with the 550.

supercooper188

All of the cars were not purchased used. When I was young and dumb I bought a new one, but went down that road only once. Most like the S550 were CPO vehicles purchased from their dealers. They mentioned goodwill on the item and said I could probably get it. Didn't even know they offered it on the SBC. The fact that they extended the warranty to 10 years tell you they know the SBC has problems.

As far as parts I have not had a lot of issues with their vehicles over the years. If I was having parts issues and breakdowns I would buy something else cause I can afford whatever the hell I want.

Gramma_Benz

BTW, not sure if you have seen this, 440 AWHP, 530 AWTQ:

alx

You need to be very careful with boosting the s550 close to Amg numbers. The 722.9 in your car is not the Amg unit which has beefier clutches, improved cooling and lubrication.

If you want Amg numbers buy an Amg.

Nuru

+1

Wolfman

Normal goodwill runs out after 7 years if the car is out of warranty. Sounds like there was already a warranty extension on SBC, so anything over 10 years is unlikely unless its a high-end, low mileage car.

A good relationship with a dealer would normally get the parts covered (never labor) but to complain about not getting anything for a ancient, high-mileage car is just unreasonable.

DaveW68

What about boosting an S600 to S65 numbers? Any potential problems there....other than possibly wearing out the coil packs a little quicker?

alx

no problems there. the w221 v12 cars both run the 5g tranny which is very stout. i do believe (i dont remember) that the 5g in the amg has quicker shifts, but clutch/shaft/gears- wise they are identical.

supercooper188

Not complaining about not getting goodwill, but one of the employees mentioned that she could get me goodwill. Complaint I had was it took nearly 2 weeks and numerous calls to them only to tell me no. I did not call MB requesting goodwill. Read the letter.

Goodwill a lot or time depends on the Case Manager you are dealing with. I dealt with an ahole named Joe ( had dealt with him previously on a CPO 09 CLS that had been wrecked with over $23k damaged but was sold by dealer as CPO--again they did nothing). Wreck didn't show up on carfax, but State Farm called me and told me when I went to get car insured that the Lexus/Nexus database showed an insurance payout. Don't think he is with them any longer since they moved their offices down south.

Word to the wise is be careful because they allow wrecked cars to be sold as CPO.

Nuru

Huh? They who? A salvaged car sold as CPO, in what state is that legal?
As that would be fraud bigtime, if it was proved to be intentional. No car Manufacturer would want to take that risk. I believe that it has been done and tried to be done, by shady dealers, but the authorirites, once they are made aware, would be lighting a fire under someone for doing that.

sloanbj

Dealers or manufacturers can make their own CPO rules. If they knew the title was salvage and didn't disclose it, that is another matter.

alx

Oh, there are plenty cpo cars hat have bad history.

supercooper188

I did not say they allow salvage cars to be sold as CPO. I said wrecked cars. Car had over $23k of damage, but does not show up on Carfax. Had about 7k miles. Mercedes said as long as vehicle was fixed and passed certification it was ok to be sold as CPO. Below is a copy and paste from Carfax.

06/12/2012


Mercedes-Benz Certified Pre-Owned Dealer
Hollywood, FL Offered for sale as a Mercedes-Benz Certified Pre-Owned Vehicle

Mike5215

The dealer just has to get the car past MB corporate, who issues the certification. If nothing shows up on CarFax or the insurance database at the time of submission there'd be no reason to refuse to certify. Some repaired non structural damage is permitted under CPO guidelines. A big hit, if they knew about it, should have disqualified it but as ALX pointed out some slip through.

supercooper188

The damage was noted in the insurance database and that is how I found out about it after I had purchased it. They either didn't search or didn't care. They should always search the insurance database. I wouldn't have purchased the vehicle if I had known it had over $20k of front end damage. However, it was not noted on Carfax. Damage came from owner running into wall in parking garage.

sloanbj

Did you try getting your own insurer to check the database before you purchased the car? Be careful also because accidents in CLUE can find their way over to Carfax way after the accident.

Nuru

Oh sorry, I was reading more inot the overall discussion than you were meaning.

Nuru

Are you able to get an accurate report of what was damaged and replaced? $20k of damage on an S-class, is no where near the amount of damage that would cause that on say a Jeep or a mazda. If the air bags went off, just the replacement of the bumper, fender work and replacement of the steering column, passive restraint sensors, the air bags and a few other componments could cost that much easily. It may not even have been a huge collission at all.

For example, on a 2012 - 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee, if both of the front air bags deploy on the car from even a lower speed collion, it will cost almost $14k just to replace the steering column, sensors, airbags, dashbaord padding, steering wheel, as even though the sterring column may not be damaged, Chrysler demands that the it be replaced with all of the sensors along with the air bags, and the front windshield will have to be replaced as the passenger air bag sometimes cracks the windshield. The steering column is a $9k item to replace alone. So there is $14k without even repairing the damage to the external portions of the car in a front end collission.

The paint job that might have went into the repair would also be quite expensive, especially if it was done by a mercedes certified repair facility.

DaveW68

They could have saved a lot of money on the repair costs if they sent it over to BenzS55 to do the work. They might have even been able to get a fridge out of the deal. A mallet, MAACO, and PDR can work wonders on a used Benz.

supercooper188

Did not know such a database existed until after car was purchased and I added it to my insurance. State Farm agent called me and asked to see the car to make sure it was repaired. Had to drive it to agent for them to take pictures. Would not have purchased vehicle if I had known $26k of damage had been done to car. Not into buying wrecked cars. Did not know that wrecked cars would qualify for CPO. Salesman always giving you bs about benefits/ advantage of buying CPO. Expensive learning experience

supercooper188

It was a CLS550. Bottom line is I would not have purchased the car if I had known about the wreck before hand. Exact payout was around $26k. I still have the paperwork from Lexus/Nexus because I was thinking about taking legal action against the South Florida dealer. The car was still in warranty and I went to MB trying to get them to add a year to the original warranty but they wouldn't. They just said the dealer did nothing wrong and that CPO cars are not guaranteed that they have not been wrecked.

fbracer

Doesn't Carfax have a warranty?