dfranjko

The dealer I bought mine from, Mercedes-Benz of Bedford, does not know what good customer service means. The dealer repainted the trunk on my car without my permission, refused to replace it after requesting that and I continued having problems with the trunk squeaking badly, coming in contact with the bumper and issues with the paint finish. So after going back to the dealer 3 times, I emailed the executives of the company that owns the dealership, Penske Automotive, and I emailed executives from MB USA. After emailing MB, I immediately heard from them and they were working on this issue immediately. Then, the dealership's General Manager called and said he will buy the car back and give me a full refund.

Here are the email addresses for Mercedes-Benz USA: ernst.lieb@mbusa.com norbert.litzkow@mbusa.com alan.mclaren@mbusa.com michael.slagter@mbusa.com ralph.fisher@mbusa.com william.phillips@mbusa.com tracey.matura@mbusa.com

If you ever have any issues with your dealer and they do not take care of you the right way, I highly recommend sending a message to those individuals and you will get a prompt response and it will show MB and the dealer that you are serious and not willing to compromise.

AZBenz123

Great info. Thanks for posting. Let me guess, your not getting another C300???

Derspeed

Bedford, Ohio? That dealership sucks! Their little salesman lured me there with a lie and wouldn't honor the deal he said he would give when I spoke to him on the phone. They even told me there was car, exactly as I wanted, on their lot. It was not there.

After I bought my car from their direct competitor in Willoughby, they kept leaving me VMM. I finally answered the phone and some manager asked "what can we do to earn your business?" I said, I told you what you could do the day I wasted two hours in your dealership." Then he had the nerve to ask me to complete a survey about my experience there.

To me, that place is as bad as Rick Case. Very shifty.

Sorry for the rant. If you're not talking about Bedford, Ohio, carry on.

dfranjko

I think I might go with the Infiniti G35X, fully loaded and it's cheaper than my C300 since I had the 4matic with P2, ipod, MM and panoramic roof, plus I get the employee purchase pricing on it so basically getting it for invoice and 2.9% financing.

If any of you decide to contact MB, just make sure you did all you could with the dealership and that you can prove it. When I saw what was happening, I decided that I needed an audit trail, so my further complaints were in emails so everything I had to say was documented and I had some of their responses in emails too. I simply stuck to the facts, included those emails and told MB that I wanted a replacement or refund.

Another dealer you want to avoid in OH, which includes Bedford, is Mercedes-Benz of North Olmsted. When shopping for this car, I called to see who had one with everything I wanted and N.O. said they didn't have the car I wanted, that it would have to be custom ordered and would take a few months and there are no discounts for that. I hung up on the salesman!

broke_R

I too was looking at the infiniti g35 and I live in pittsburgh and got a quote from the bedford OH dealership and when I went there they did not have the car they told me they had. That is when I cam across the 300c and decided I liked that and have a benz dealership right by me. I like the g35 for it performance and size but they just seem to common in my area. coming from the volvo s60R with the body kit there was only one other in my area so it is nice having something that no one else has.

melbourne tim

It sounds like MBUSA at least has the right concept of customer service. Despite the problem with your dealer, you can now at least have the confidence that MBUSA did the right thing by you.

Well done for chasing it up and posting this.

KHill

I agree Bedford sucks and so does Ganley in Akron.

It's too bad you had a bad experience at North Olmsted. You should have asked to speak to Bernie, the owner, when the salesman was giving you that line. Their service has been outstanding and Bernie helped me get rid of both of my R classes with trade assist from MBUSA.

If you decide you want another go around, PM me and I will give you my name and tell Bernie that you know me and he will for sure treat you right.

chilledbenz

I ran into a problem once with a past car and called the 1-800 MB number and got instant action as well. It wasn't my dealerships fault though it was the car itself. This is the same for all manufactors though, if you get in touch with the main offices and let them know whats going on, they get things rolling quickly. But your right, it should be close to your last resort, because dealerships usually get ripped a new one when the main office has to call or drop by, and then your dealership isn't too friendly with you after that ha ha. I really enjoy my dealership so I made certain that the main office knew I was calling to complain about the car and not the dealership itself, which got me a visit from a regional rep.

Derspeed

As does every other Ganley dealership. BTW, did you see that stupid "Ganley Man" commercial?

KHill

Yeah I saw that commercial. Absolutely terrible!

dfranjko

Agreed! Their BMW dealer in Cleveland is absolutely horrible too.

Smorris

Oddly, I was just talking to the M-B sales manager at Beford about ten minutes ago. I was on his list to contact for a AMG C63, but decided not to go that direction. After getting all three females and their weekend gear in the car Saturday, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't get by with two of these same sized cars. So I told him he has until September to get me some solid info on a C300/C350 Sport Estate or better yet, and AMG C63 Estate. Otherwise, there will be a A4 Avant or S4 Avant in my driveway when they get here this fall!

I'd love a wagon version of our C300, but M-B is the only major player without a wagon available in this size for the US. The other night I put together a spreadsheet of available wagons, their size, capacity, HP, price, etc. (yea, I'm that ****...) Anything from a $25k 2.0T Passat through the $44k Saab TurboX. But nothing from M-B...

BTW, we got our C300 from M-B North Olmsted, and had nothing but a great experience!

Steve

tanktube67

Good for you, are you going to get another C?

chilledbenz

This has been beaten into the ground here, but I still don't think the Estate will make it to the U.S. with the nearly identical in size GLK coming here. If I were you I'd be getting on a list for the new A4 Avant or S4 Avant so your near the top.

dfranjko

Wound up picking up a brand new Accord EXV6 with Navi sedan. Has everything the C300 had and then some for well over $12k less! I got it for invoice and 2.9% financing... took only 45 minutes to complete everything at the Honda dealership, the best car buying experience I ever had! I might go with another Mercedes-Benz or BMW soon, but this car is perfect for winter times and leaving at the airport while going on business trips.

jrey80

Great job on getting the full refund. They probably didn't want to tick off potential customers, especially since the story would find its way to one of these bulletin boards. More power to internet fora like these!

Ohio law doesn't appear to be on your side: mandatory disclosure is only necessary when repairs were more than 6% MSRP. And the Supreme Court has said that complying with state disclosure laws creates a presumptive safe harbor for the car company. But thankfully, AL, CA, OK, and MN require disclosure if repairs are more than $500. (BMW v. Gore was a famous case where some doctor sued BMW for selling him a repainted car. He got $4,000 to compensate for his loss PLUS $4,000,000 to deter BMW from future concealment, but the Supreme Court found the $4M excessive (duh).)

RLE

<<This has been beaten into the ground here, but I still don't think the Estate will make it to the U.S. with the nearly identical in size GLK coming here. >>

Which is a pity, because the wagon is a very handsome car whereas the GLK is so ugly it makes your eyes water. Then there is also the growing stigma of driving an SUV or similar.

Of course, the W203 wagon was not exactly a hot seller for some reason.

Soon2bMB

i got my car at North Olmsted, had a great experience! Gabe and Nick did an amazing job, I will always buy cars from there.

Taiwanese

I know MB USA is very hard on stuff like this. They don't have problem go to court.

If MB USA is willing to do this for you so quickly, I suspect that dealer is really at fault big time. Which means, if you lawyer up, MB USA will hurt more.