This scenario is based on an actual experience. Perhaps, it will help someone else in a similar predicament.

Your new C200K is due for delivery within a matter of weeks, when the MB salesman calls to advise that there has been a fundamental mistake with your order, e.g. lesser model, wrong engine or transmission, etc. Moreover, you have just agreed a private sale for your existing car, with the handover date set for the day prior to taking delivery of your new C200.

Upon receiving this news, you are permitted a moment's stunned silence. However, there's not much point in exploding like an airline passenger at the Gate when the plane hasn't arrived, so try these steps.

1. Refuse to take delivery of the car. This might sound fairly obvious, but it is a crucial first step.

2. Demand a free courtesy car from the dealer. They may try to fob you off with a lesser model, in my case an 'A' Class. Do not accept this offer. Use the original purchase agreement to demand an equivalent or better model.

3. Ensure that the period of use for any courtesy car runs from the originally agreed delivery date of the new vehicle until the actual delivery date. This time gap can be quite extensive if you are buying a right-hand drive C-Class, since these are built in South Africa. For example, a car due in early September cannot be replaced by the factory until October/November.

4. Get the dealer to insure any courtesy car for the period of use. Your own insurers may charge for the extra paperwork, particularly if the dealer asks to swap your courtesy car from time to time. I believe that they retain that right. Besides, you might as well benefit from an 'insurance vacation'.

5. Renegotiate the original deal. In my case, I elected to increase the Options package on the car to include Park Distance Control (PDC), worth an additional (List Price) GBP 605.00 (circa USD 1100.00). Others may prefer a straight cash discount. Remember that you are in a very strong position, so do not accept the first offer from the dealer, in my case 50% of the cost of PDC. At the end of the day, the dealer knows that they cannot prevent you from cancelling the whole deal and walking out of the showroom.

6. If financing the purchase has involved, for example, moving funds from high-interest Notice accounts or cashing in shares, make the dealer aware of the financial implications of the delayed delivery.

7. Tell the MB dealer that your partner really wanted a BMW!

Finally, I could have used this forum to mount a very personal and public attack on a Mercedes dealer for something that stemmed from an administration error, but I think that they deserve the anonymity in view of the fact that they made no attempt to disguise their error. Admittedly, in my case, I can envisage some difficulty had the dealer tried to pass off a diesel engine as a petrol unit!

 

Fantastic post sir! I'm sorry that you didn't get the original car however!

Keep us updated on how everything works out!

 

Meh just go to the BMW dealer, over here BMW and MB dealer are next to each other, should be a nice scene for a BMW guys.

 

LOL, terrible post. A step-by-step guide to being an @$$hole, typical of MBWorld.

People make mistakes and any good dealership would try to workout a deal. My car arrived off the boat 2 weeks late due to a delay at the port. Completely out of the dealers control, yet accoridng to this I should be an @$$hole and demand everything. If I was your salesman I'd decide your business isn't woth the hassle, its a C200K, not a SL.

 

And that's how dealer's reputations get ruined. It doesn't matter if the person spent $100k or $30k, a complaint is a complaint. When I read reviews on a dealer, I don't care what people bought, it's how the dealer handled the transaction.

If he payed for a certain car, to be received on a certain day and this doesn't happen, the dealer should compensate for a broken deal. Yes, people mistakes, but mistakes have consequences. This mistake was an MB mistake, not it getting tied up in a port (which would be outside their control).

 

I feel this response is out of line. After 100 years in the business, MB should have a fool-proof system for processing an order to the factory. The fact that these orders OCCASSIONALLY go bad doesn't excuse MB for having a system that is inferior to other brands. echo was simply pointing out (as others have in other threads) tactics that can be used to ensure that your situation is put right.

Further, this comment about relative worth (C200K vs SL) is also snobbish, and equally "typical of MBWorld." When you no longer own your previous car, and its replacement is weeks away through no fault of your own, the value of the new car is inconsequential. The bicycle you may have to ride in the interim could be worth as much as a Bentley Arnage to you in a similar situation.

Really taylor, don't you have any compassion for a fellow member of the British Empire? You've taken countless @$$hole positions yourself in OT threads. Let's lighten up, people.

 

I don't care if he's buying a AMG or a C Class.

 

I would be equally as pissed, and was when my car was 2 weeks late I was pissed, yet there was nothing I could do about it, making a scene wasn't going to make my car show up any faster.

I agree with some of his points, yet many are just overboard, 3 in particular:
1. Demanding free insurance. If his car had shown up then he'd be paying insurance on his car, or on the loaner.
2. Implying financial implications. If his car has shown up and he had to pay for it, then the money would be due now anyways. Cash in your shares, hold onto the cash and make a few extra bucks on it in a high interest savings account.
3. Demanding a free loaner. House sales are about the same, the sale of the first house is made dependent on acuiring the second house. He should've done the same with his car, don't blame the delaer cause he was dumb and sold one car without ensuring his car would be there on time.

What he's asking for is basically a couple months of free car use, discounted PDC, free options, free insurance, ... at this point the salesman has to think if the demands are worth the sale, and if this was my sale, no way.

As for your comment about the difference between a SL and a C, yes to us the consumer, yet to the salesman there is a huge difference. Why waste all the time and energy making this C customer happy when the same could be done for a SL customer where the profit margins are bigger.

The fact he mentions the customer is in a position of power is lunacy. He doesn't have a car, the dealer knows this, and hopefully if he to go down the street to BMW they wouldn't know he's carless and take advantage of him as well. Without a car, shopping last minute, he's at the disadvantage if the salesman knows this.

 

You don't, salesman and sales manager would. Its mentioned almost weekly on here how the sales/service teams at dealerships treat owners of the lesser models. What makes you think a dealer is going to bend over backwards just to sell a C200K?

 

There's more to a sale than profit. While the ultimate goal is obviously turn a profit - a pissed off customer can cost a lot more than losing $1000 off a deal. Repeat business, referrals, etc all lead to more profit down the road.

If the dealer provided his demands, the dealer recognized the fact it WAS worth doing. I would think the salesman/dealer has a better idea on how all this works than you do.

 

get a lawyer

 

I am appalled by this personally insulting reply, especially after I took the time and trouble to put together what I hoped would be reasonable advice for others facing a similar situation. I am just relieved to see that I am not alone in finding your comments equally nauseating.

By the way, you are not in possession of ALL the facts. For the sake of brevity, I left out the part about the initial order confirmation letter I received which referred to the vehicle as a CDI, and the subsequent telephone call I immediately made to the dealer to straighten the matter out. This wasn't just some simple mistake, it was a compounded error left unresolved by the dealer for five months!

You also don’t know that I have been using the same dealer for the past seven years, so customer loyalty comes into the equation, as well as dealer/brand reputation.

Finally, I shall now be lucky if I see the car I have on order for delivery on 1st September before the middle of November.

Presumably, given the same set of circumstances, you would have let the dealer off the hook? Now, that really would be my definition of an @$$hole!

 

This is funny. You can visit most Honda or Toyota dealers and find an equal amount of effort extended to please a customer. Why? Because at dealers building a business, today's entry level Civic buyer is viewed as tomorrow's Pilot LX buyer... or tomorrow's Acura RL buyer.

Based on your posts, I'm concluding that you patronize some lousy MB dealers who are set in their ways.

 

Most definitely, yet read his post.

His post outines a set of demands to make to a dealer. Not every dealer is going to take these demands with the same compassion his dealer did. Especially since in his subsequent post above he mentions the particulars: repeat customer, multiple mistakes, ...

Someone here may take the advice on a single mistake for a new car with no prior relationship with the dealer. The dealer may in turn walk away from the sale leaving the customer SOL.

Then what? My advice is sound at that point cause the customer is then at a disadvantage and created a bad relatinship with the MB dealer.

echo200 can find it as insulting as he wants, if you're going to make demands you better be in a position to make them, or deal with the consequences. Leaving both those facts from his initial advice is actually bad advice and leads to more and more demanding customers and worse deals for the rest of us as the dealership loses money on these people.

Would I have left the dealer off the hook? I did, I waited 2 weeks for my car. I was not entirely happy, yet the dealer made me a small consession when I politely admitted I wasn't happy and all was resolved. I didn't demand a thing, and I think that is ultimately the mistake in the advice given.

Here's my advice concerning his advice:
"If you're going to gamble, you have to be prepared to lose".

 

No, quite the opposite, my dealer is awesome.

I'd conclude there are bad dealers out there and this advice would get you shown the door. Then what? No car, no deal, weaker bargaining position, going to anotyher dealer (or brand if there's not aother MB dealer in town) and taking something you didn't really want, or paying the price of having no car and crawling back into the MB dealership to make the deal.

No pretty pictures, yet realistic ones, especially if you read about many people's dealerships experiences while owning a C-class.

 

Wow, Taylor, you are so far off on this it's not even funny. Don't you find it troubling that NO ONE is agreeing with you?

First, This is a business transaction. If conditions agreed upon are not met, you can and should make demands to make up for them not meeting the original conditions. If no one demanded retribution, then what incentive would dealers have for honoring their commitments with ANY customer?

Second, it doesn't matter if this was a $100k car, or a $10k car. Agreements were made that are expected to be honored. Besides, where do you think dealers make their money from? I bet they sell a lot more C class cars than SLs.

Third, I think it's quite clear from the original post that the writer did not cause a scene but rather politely negotiated a deal.

And finally, I think it's common sense that if you make threats, you need to be prepared to back them up, or negotiate out of them. Faulting the writer for not stating such a basic negotiating tactic is stupid.

 

I assume you must be an MB salesperson or work for MB based on your opinions. Any right-minded person would seek compensation for any breach of contract. Also, any MB dealer who cares about customer satisfaction and their reputation would do just about anything to accomodate the situation...even going to extreme length if necessary. Buying a C-class compared to an SL-class has nothing to do with dealer accomodations. An MB is an MB regardless of its class. Based on your opinions, I aslo assume you must have a ton of money and time is of no importance. Letting a dealer off the hook only means one thing: Client= I'm too rich and too good to be wasting my time arguing for such things; MB dealer = if I get off the hook this time, I'll do it other times.

Back to the original poster, I think those ideas are great to know. They all may not be used, but it's good to know what we have at our disposal if such incidence do occur.

 

thanks for the post echo200. Good way to handle an annoying situation, without making a stink.

 

Lets be realistic here, some of his advice is good, some of it bad.

He got lucky, most dealerships wouldn't make that many sacrifices to make the sale. Writing as sch is as misleading as Buells 'cookies and washes' comments that many of us are surprised our dealers don't offer. The only reason for the MB dealership to go that far out of the way is the Customer Satifaction Survey, and if anyone is interested in just how important it is, there's a great section on another MB forum outlining the inside workings of MB and its dealership and service networks.

I'm only surprised he didn't ask for free gas for the loaner car as well!

 

I was curious as to why someone would adopt such a lenient attitude towards MB dealers, so I noted the origin of my leading critic and pulled the starting price for a C230K from the web site of an Ottawa dealership. The starting price quoted was CAD 37,950.00.

The equivalent C230K (Classic trim) U.K. List Price is as follows;

Basic Price (excl 17.5% tax and Road Fund Licence): GBP 21,123.40
List Price (inc. tax and Road Fund Licence): GBP 25,590.00.

I am probably wrong to perform the calculation in this manner, but I am going to be generous and assume that that the Canadian price quoted by the Ottawa dealership does not include any taxes, etc..

So, if I take the equivalent (Basic Price) figure for the U.K. of GBP 21,123.40, convert it at a rate of CAD 2.12728, I arrive at CAD 44,935.39. Thus, without allowing for a possible right/left-hand drive cost difference, to buy the same car in the U.K. will cost an extra CAD 6,985.39 or 18.4%.

Leaving aside the C230 price comparison, which I have no doubt 'someone' will point out as totally incorrect, the total discount I negotiated against the U.K. List Price, on my new C200K is only worth 8.3% (a U.K. independent told me that up to 14% can currently be obtained against an S-Class). Therefore, I must assume that you can buy virtually any Mercedes-Benz in Canada and, presumably, the U.S.A., pay the List Price, and still come out way ahead of the price paid for the equivalent car in the U.K..

As one contributor suggested, I can confirm that the deal I struck was negotiated quietly, i.e. without any tantrums, swearing or threats.

Also, if you read my original post carefully, you will note that, at no point do I claim that my methods are a universal panacea and will work with every dealer. I stated “……. try these steps.” I also used the expression “in a similar predicament”. The clear implication is that you have to balance my suggestions with your own personal circumstances.

Do I feel sorry for screwing the dealer when I had the chance? I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

As for the suggestion about free gas for the loaner car, I knew that I’d missed something!

 

@ Taylor192

You are really amazing with your attitude. Everything was plainly layed out in a responsible matter following the rules outlined in posts above, except for yours of course. And then you chime in about 2 weeks equaling months by implication using your liberal outlook. Then you additionally presume to know how to deal with this situation based, once again, on your experience. I guess you believe that what is good for you in your country has to apply in other countries as well. Well, that right there should be an eye opener for you about how short sighted you really are being that presumptious once again. Didn't you get your *** kicked enough in OT? Do you now have to grace this forum with your humble wisdom as well?

 

and AMDEUTSCH...
that was directed at who ??? lost me !

but i'm slow like that...
specially with all the beer spillage.

 

got it....

thanks for the clarification.... i can now go on in my happy post reading for the day

 

Customer satisfaction is important no matter what you are selling and as a seller you will make every step possible to keep them happy, even if you just give a custumer a pen.When a seller makes a mistake on a contract deal customer has upperhand no matter what.If they didnt make any concessions next step would be a phone call from a lawyer and now the costs are climbing fast -bad business.

 

hey taylor, Gregs210 says 'bye'