CarGuru

Took my W204 into the shop for my wife this week because the stupid lock pin on the rear door had fallen out and became missing in action. I scheduled the repair well in advance so that the car would be safe, and everything would go smooth and the ball wouldn't have an opportunity to drop etc.. Words cannot describe how P.O. I am right now this is a pretty good idea ----> Anyway I pick up my car today, actually get all the way home, open the back door to find I have grease on the edge of my rear seat. I've now got a gouge in the chrome rear door handle about 2" long from probably a screw driver and there is a gouge in the paint in the door jamb!! We have never had anyone in the back seat since the car was purchased new last August, I detail this car at least once a week and the rear cabin area was flawless.

My car was also at the most reputable Mercedes Benz dealer in the area, they have an SLR on the showroom floor and a landscape of $100K + Benz's in sight. But when you bring your $36K Mercedes in they give the car to the monkeys and apes and have them take your interior apart with a Sawz-All. I still can't believe one can drop of a car for an easy 10 minute repair, have it sit for two days so the guy can take his time to do it right then slap it back together and have someone sign off that this is acceptable.

Some of you are going to say "Make them fix it" But I am so P.O. I honestly wouldn't want these clowns touching an '95 Dodge Stratus owned by my worst enemy.

Sorry for the long rant I'm P.O. and want to warn everyone that loves their car to be careful and demand care if you have to take your car back to the dealer for a repair. Every month I kick my self more and more for not buying a Lexus IS I know I would have never had a need to see the dealer ever again with that car.

Ron Jr

I feel your pain brother, that is why I HATE leaving my car at the dealer. No one loves your car as much as you do. If I ever hit the lottery I am going to open a MB repair/mod shop staffed with people that trully love cars.

narky

Sorry to hear your terrible story. I concur--I've had much better service experience at Lexus dealerships. Even a Nissan dealership was much better. But at least the product (the car) is better than those companies' offerings. Or so I hope and console myself.

Again, sorry to hear about this egregious lack of care by the dealership. I feel your pain.

AsianML

That really sucks. It's so unfortunate that the dealer can be the deal breaker for such an otherwise great car. And this applies to many different brands depending on your local dealer.

narky

+1,000,000 on all points.

CarGuru

I kick myself even harder for being so laid back leaving the car with them. I thought and assumed they would give my car the "White Glove" treatment because I'm bringing it in to a "Premium brand dealer". Whats worse is that I treat the Nissan dealer I take my Frontier in to with a "Double standard" making them mark all the scratches & dings, take pictures etc..because I expect my truck to come back with damage but they always hand it back flawless. Mercedes seems to hire or bribe the customers waiting in the lobby to come fix all the C-Class owners cars since the good techs are too busy working on the $70K+ cars. When I bring my car back in for the replacement handle they said they would order should I put a sign next to the door jamb scratch saying..... if this car so much has another mark on it that wasn't here when I brought it in I'm going to personally bust your head in with a brick...... would that be enough to ensure it gets done right and well. I know I sound a little out of line and this is a small incident most people would not lose sleep over but I really feel these techs don't give a damn about our cars when they are in for service. I cringe and hold a grunge for ever over all dealers when I have to leave any car for service because it always comes back worse than when it went in.

narky

100% with you on both points. When I went into my ex-dealership for service, I kept getting the feeling that they couldn't wait to get me the hell out of there. Other times, they made me leave the car for 6 hrs for what should've been a 30 minute job. And still other times, they told me I'll have it back in an hour (only half-day of work missed) and then returned it to me 5 hours past the promised time (a full day of work missed, with me stranded in the middle of nowhere). I was like, "Is a C-class owner's time worthless?" Not one call to tell me that the car would be returned late.

See my avatar on the left? That's how I felt.

Ron Jr

No you deserve to be pissed. Let it out we all feel the same way about our cars, except that guy with the nasty 80's chrome wheels. You are preaching to the choir.

CarGuru

If I knew ahead of time they would have the newbie do the repair I would have demanded they give me the parts so I could screw it up myself, then I wouldn't feel as bad about it.

CarGuru

You know it's a shame, I'm 30 Y/O YTD and 10+ years ago I used to be a lot porter at a Ford dealer then later a BMW while going to college. It's so true that when you bring a $70K+ car in the manager comes out and everyone gets excited & nervous around it. It gets parked way out by itself, the best tech only works on it. Bring in the entry level model car and it gets treated like a 20 year old domestic car sitting on the lot.

AsianML

That most likely isn't the case with higher level models anymore. People just don't have respect for other people's stuff anymore. There was a vid on YouTube of a Lexus dealer's techs/mechs blasting the speakers on at full volume with a customer's new Lexus in the service bay. Then there are the stories of dealer people changing the radio presets, changing memory positions (nope, not just changing the position in case they can't drive it into the service bay, but actually changing the memory settings as well), going out for joyrides.

MB Fanatic

Which MB dealer was this? El Dorado Hills or Von Housen?

angeloxnet

sorry to hear what happened, with me my dealer no longer washes my car
as when i went in for service, it came back dirtier then when i brought it

they didnt do a good job with the rims and tons of break dust left
also dirt almost like mud on the back seats, that wasnt there before hand!

so ya when/if i bring it in, i dont let them wash it!

CarGuru

wblynch

Maybe you'll get better care at the "lesser" MBz dealer? Often the biggest is not the best... only the biggest.

When I had my Jaguars the local dealer was a little Jag-only shop and they were perfect. Ford made them merge in with the shiny new Land Rover dealership who had no love for Jags or their drivers. Oh, they had a gorgeous 15 million dollar lobby but they could give a crap about Jags.

I went there for service once, went back for my lease inspection and swore I'd never buy another Jag because of that store.

AkaSigFreak

My lock pin repair led to my ceramic tint being scratched and my headrest having a cut in it. Their answer to the tint- Fix it yourself and we will reimburse you and they had to order a new headrest (been almost a week). I asked the service advisor- Would you tell someone in S class to fix something you guys screwed up? You would have it fixed and apologize endlessly. I had to practically beg to have them fill my tank due to the inconvenience. DEALERSHIPS SUCK

ColoradoDriver

Even if you do not trust them to fix your car, you should email the service manager and include the pictures. Am sure he will want to have a chat will all his techs.

CarGuru

I completely agree with what your saying, but another part of me says even if the manager has a "Pow-Wow" with his crew it's not like they will really care. IMO there is no margin for poor quality, incompetence, damaging a customers car or putting more damage on the car than when it was dropped off when you are supposed to have the "Highest Caliber" of techs and charge $150.00 hr for labor.

-Ryan

CarGuru

My aluminum trim is slightly damaged near the handle, it's hard to see... but does anyone know if that is a replaceable part or is it part of the entire door card? It's bugging me too and I'm debating ordering it myself and putting that in my self as I don't want these guys messing with a difficult task of having to remove this part damaging something else.

Blk04cobra1

Sorry for your misfortunes at the dealership. I can tell you that not all of them are like that, but it seems like there are a few who might take things for granted. Like stated above, I would email the service manager and your service advisor the pictures you took and ask for some kind of amicable resolution. No one knows their car better than the owner and most times the service department will take that in to account. Good luck and I hope there is a happy ending to this story.

Krytech

Sorry to hear what happened at the dealer. There is NO excuse to such things. I hope you take in some pictures and have a sit down with the manager if for no other reason then to make them aware and let him know how truly disappointed you are in the level of care you received at his dealership. You're likely right in thinking that it may not make a difference, but since that is what most people probably think, they may think they are doing a great job since most people don't complain about the 'little' things, which are never little to the owner.

Good luck Ryan!

narky

I'm not trying to start an argument or a fight here... but in my case, I wrote a hand-written letter, and he couldn't deign to even reply to me. I must say, and I'm parroting myself here from what I've said in another thread, that my perception of the MBZ "Silver Star" service has been shattered.

What I should've done, in hindsight, is to go in personally and demand a sitdown with the GM or someone high up, as Krytech suggested. No GM would want an irate customer loudly complaining about service in the showroom with other potential customers milling about. It's too easy to file away and ignore a letter. Especially from lowly cretins like a C-class owner.

CarGuru

I drove the car back to the dealer actually 18 miles at that. Like I mentioned earlier, I've already called, spoken with and have the adviser ordering a new handle. It wasn't till I got home the second time that I kept finding more damage in the same area of the work. There is X1 grease stains, X2 scratched gouges in the door jamb area X2 small pits in the aluminum trim and and 2" gouge/ scratch on the chrome handle. The only thing obvious when I brought it home was the scratch on the door handle. I became boiling hot and got on the phone and started back out of the driveway making a bee line back to the service dept. I got there talked to the adviser, he went and got the tech they both looked at it and said "I guess we need to order a new handle" Thats no problem, but when I got home and after I started to "Cool Off" I went back out to the car and noticed the grease, chips in the aluminum , and gouges in the door jamb. It like the tech had a screw driver in his hand trying to take the door handle off the had the screw driver slip out and fall a couple times on the door jamb. I own a service company and my techs are trained to man up to their mistakes, if they do we eat it and move on. If a customer calls me up after the fact we still eat it but my tech gets chewed and written up and gets balckballed for termination. Simple as that, I wish more managers ran their respective dept this way. I've never had a guy personally slip up in this since. Also regardless if the the adviser says they will fix it how do you think I feel right now having to leave my car in their hands again, I'm a little nervous. I would be most happy if they ordered the parts, shipped them to their competitor and (Paid) their competitor to install the pieces.

wblynch

You need to detach yourself a little and give the place a chance to take care of it. The last thing you need is to give yourself a heart attack over a scratch.

Deep breaths...

who8888

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Hopefully you will get a survey from them asking you about your experience. Give them you piece of mind