chicagofan00

When I purchased my car I really thought this would be a long term car for me so I purchased the pre-paid maintenance program (4yrs/40k miles). Well due to the various issues with the car I ended up taking the hit on it and traded it after just 6 months of ownership. I e-mailed the dealership to ask how I can go about being refunded for the pre-paid maintenance and was told it was a non-refundable product so I then called MBUSA and was told the exact same thing. Is it just me or does anyone else find it unethical to refund a consumer's money for services that were and never will be rendered?

ManiacGT

I pay for this monthly in the UK. Though it is a predefined period of 3 years and it will be interesting to see how cancellation works should I need it.

chicagofan00

How do you pay for it monthly? Just a charge to the credit card each month? If so, just cancel the card and it's an easy cancellation for you!

ManiacGT

By direct payment / direct debit from my bank. I can cancel this, but that may not excuse me from the contract. Not that its an issue right now because I'm not planning on cancelling it (provided they can sort out the niggles on my car).

Quadcammer

Did you read the purchase agreement on this? Was it not disclosed?

MASSC450

Did you end up trading in your MB for another MB...and MB wouldn't even let you transfer the Pre-paid Maintenance to the newer MB?

If this is the case, I will wait to buy my 2 yr pre-paid maintenance since you are allowed up until the first "A" service...just in case I end up having issues with my pending 2015 C300.

S18LOK

I got this as well and i'm in UK. I pay £30 a month over 3 years and i can cancel it anytime and get all the money i payed back with UK MB. I also did this with my previous car Audi A5 as i didn't use it i got all my money back - a £15 admin fee.

chicagofan00

At the time of financing the only portion that was presented to me was the first page showing the coverage and cost. Now looking back at the rest of the paperwork for it, there is as section covering the full details of the coverage and that is is non-refundable, however there is an initial section on item of the coverage and I never initialed any of those items as they were never presented to me during the process. I suppose my fault as had I been told or seen that it was non-refundable I would not have purchased it.

No, I did not get another MB and after this experience and my experience with my C400 I most likely won't purchase another one anytime soon if ever.

pappilo

I dont know how civil claims work in the US but you'd stand a very good chance of getting all your money back in court if this happened in the UK.

Just because something is in an agreement doesnt mean it is fair.

Quadcammer

It sure doesn't, but you also don't need to agree to it. No one forced you to sign it.

m3n00b

I got a refund on mine after 1 month.

chicagofan00

Sounds like your dealership is better than the one I bought my car from...

chicagofan00

Agreed, lesson learned for sure. However, I still find it a very shady practice to not offer a refund (pro-rated or not) for services that were and never will be rendered.

Lego

Isn't it cheaper for prepaid? If so, I don't think it's shady practice to not offer a refund. That's like expecting to return your lease early without taking a hit.

chicagofan00

Cheaper or not, how is it fair to keep money for services that will never be used or rendered by the individual who paid for it? I don't own the car anymore nor was the maintenance transferred over to the new owner.

I don't see how it can be compared to returning a lease early and taking a hit when I would have obviously used the vehicle during a lease...

m3n00b

Agreed. They should refund you entirely or pro rata

PaulE550

chicagofan00,

When I purchased my car, I point blank asked the finance guy if this pre-paid maintenance was refundable. He said no. The rest of the sales pitch for pre-paid maintenance didn't sound compelling enough, so I passed on it.

chicagofan00

I get it, it's non-refundable (although it can be if they so choose) and I've moved on with the fact that I will not get my $1,275 back. It still irks me though that they have a policy in place to have this as non-refundable if services were never rendered. I would completely understand had I gone through Service A already or hell it was 1 full year since purchase but it was just under six months ago. Where did that money disappear to? Cleary it's not being used to pay for the services so in the end it goes entirely into their bottom line, good on them I suppose!

If they were truly a consumer friendly dealership/company they'd make good and refund my money on it as it's something I'll never have the chance to use even if it was stated on non-refundable...as I already stated, lesson learned and it will be the last time I ever agree to something like this no matter the manufacturer.

laz81

I am 95% sure the pre paid maintenance gets transferred over to the new owner. At least that what i've seen here in Canada. Its registered to the car. Sucks that you can't get your money back.. but it should have gotten you a little more resale value.

My dealer told me i have one year to decided if i want it or not. This being my first Mercedes i am not sure of service costs so i'll look into it in about 9 months and see if its worth it for me... some tell me you save like 50% on your services..

chicagofan00

If it truly sticks to the car/VIN and is transferred over to the new owner with no paper work necessary to transfer the ownership then fine I can understand that even more. However, from the programs like that this that I've been offered in the past the ownership need to actually be transferred from one owner to another and paperwork needed to be submitted for such. The dealership I traded the car into did not care nor want to look into the transfer process.

Perhaps whoever buys the car will get a nice surprise now.

With regards to the savings of the pre-paid maintenance, I can't recall the exact number that I was told but I did recall it being a decent enough savings that I thought worthwhile to pay for it.

RTX

I have a full/concierge service package (white glove) that covers everything (insurance, fuel card, courtesy/replacement car, emergency and periodic maintenance).
I receive one monthly invoice (automatically processed by the bank).
It's a very nice all-round package, expensive, and I would have appreciate it more if those unexpected/minor issues have not come up that early (read my threads if interested), I'm willing to pay more as I'm really busy during office hours (not a spoiled brat, honestly), swapping keys at your workplace is neat.

Cost wise, in my experience, prepaid for x years or pay-as-you-go is more or less the same, it's an awful lot of money given the quality of service (i'm not really impressed overall).

PaulE550

I agree with you that from a customer service / consumer friendly perspective, they should have offered you at least a pro-rated return of part of the money. Given the short amount of time you owned the vehicle, they could have done a 75 percent refund. After all, unless you flat out told them that there was no way you would ever consider another MB purchase, how are they going to know that they wouldn't be dealing with you as a returning customer in the near future?

By the way, you have to wonder about the value of a number of these items that they spring on you at the last minute as you're picking up the vehicle. If they're such a good deal, why don't they bring them up long before the final paperwork signing? Unfortunately, the lesson is to question everything and then still not thrust what they say until you read the actual paperwork. That applies to everything in business, not just buying cars. Hope your next vehicle works out better for you.

chicagofan00

I have since told them that I will no longer be customer of theirs...but before their original flat out refusal and lack of desire to be customer friendly, I hadn't.

Erez Jontef

Hi-
The same exact thing occurred to me with deceptive business practices.

what happened at the end?

CJG

I'm curious what people paid for the pre-paid maintenance. At the time of sale (Feb. 2019) on my 2016 they quoted me $1,995. Subsequently, in this group, I saw people had paid $1,300. Anyone care to share what they paid? I have about a month before my next service, so I need to decide whether to do it or not.