Uncooperative Dealership Putting My Car in Unsafe Condition.
 

Gonna make this short and to the point. I'm not naming the dealership until I go to them today and see if they can help me sort out the situation as a final resort.
Have a 2017 C63S with 20k miles give or take. About a year ago I complained that the alcantara steering wheel was worn out and they replaced it via warranty with no problem. A year later I ran into the same problem along with the need for new brake pads. MBUSA approved my request under warranty for the steering wheel, but the dealership isn't letting me go through with it. I left it today for the upper management people to come look at it and my SA told me they denied it. As for the brake pads, I need new rear pads and rotors and I have a protection plan with my lease that covers these things, but they haven't done jack **** to my car because apparently they need to send an inspector to come look at my car to approve it, and that's going to take 2 days. I told him that was bull **** and that there was no way I'd leave my car there for that long, I need it. And I'm not driving some CLA250 loaner with no tints so I said if they wanted to keep my car and inspect it or whatever, they'd have to give me a used E63S on the used lot or a used S class on the lot as a loaner but they won't approve it. In fact I can't even get a loaner because I'm not 25, but I'd gladly put a CC hold/deposit to make sure they feel safe about it. They apparently aren't up to doing that either, at the expense of losing a loyal customer to the brand and the dealership for the past 5 years having bought three cars and planning on buying the new GLE, E63S/GT63S, and AMG GTR. But I guess they would rather tell me to **** off and drive away with under 2mm on my brake pads to go 15 miles away to another dealership that can help me more than them. They would rather refuse to maintain a car that's a lease and that will be returned to THEM to sell. It's ridiculous- it's not like they're giving ME the new steering wheel or the brake pads, they're giving it to MBFS because the car is owned by them. They want to lose a loyal customer that just wants to activate the warranty and protection plan in a timely manner. Not to mention my car is STOCK! Ridiculous. I'll keep everyone updated. Any advice appreciated.

Try a different dealership?

Man, first off.......breathe.......relax........

Go somewhere else where your dollars will speak.

I wouldn't get to hung up on the loaner...... We get C300/E300 typically...... if we want to wait a bit we can get a gle350.... hey at Audi they made me rent a freaking car... when they did warranty work...

I want my 2 minutes back after reading that. Wow.

Based on the way that you wrote and presented your post, I'm not surprised that they told you to fly a kite.

The summary of your post is;
1) You have warranty and other work required under protection plans which will take 2 days to get final approval for such work.
2) You pre-emptively told them that you're not driving one of their loaners unless it was an AMG or S-Class which they don't keep in their loaner fleet.
3) You're angry that they won't violate their company policy for not giving a loaner car to somebody under 25 (All the car rental companies actually charge extra for younger drivers).
4) You're angry that because you were such a piece of work, they told you to take your business elsewhere.
5) You think it's ridiculous that they told you to take your car elsewhere since it's unsafe to drive (think about your responsibility here, you drove it to the point where it is unsafe to drive 15 miles to another dealership).

You want them to bend over backwards to accommodate your demands which are not reasonable. My advice to you (since you asked for it) is to take a step back, breathe, and realize that what you're asking for is not reasonable. They have not denied your claims, they are asking for reasonable understanding in order for them to comply with Company policy (and not get fired/written up).

Then my next piece of advice is to really consider how you're treating people. They told you to go take your business elsewhere ("to another dealership that can help me more than them") because they don't want to deal with you.

e/ also the title should be adjusted to "Dealership refusing my business allowing me to drive away in the unsafe car that I have not maintained properly"

Cut straight to the chase, what you ask is not reasonable.

You're complaining about safety after they offered you a perfectly fine loaner? You sound like a child.

The steering wheel issue is a common one for everyone especially those that use lotions or have oily/sweaty skin . The steering wheel will look like leather if you do not take care of it and even when it looks bad it will come clean with a hours worth of work . When I got my car the steering wheel was brutal but after taking a glass of warm water w/ a small dash of soap and a soft bristle toothbrush and a clean white towel ......it looks like brand new again . You have to clean them ,its simple as that. There are plenty of video's on you tube showing you exactly how to do it and it works . The dealership should know this and I'm surprised they haven't said anything to you and perhaps why Mercedes may be denying any further coverage .

Question: would you drive the CLA 250 loaner if it did have tints?

+1...It seems like the OP is the one being unreasonable...You are no more special than any other customer who they service.

Hahahaha....:rolf:

Well he is 25...;)

He is actually under 25....

Chances of him being a child increases!

Might explain the entitlement issue....

I refuse to deal with people that don’t take my time seriously. Upon arriving to the dealership my service advisor and a small man were standing against my car parked outside. My SA introduced me to the small man- he is the service director. The idiot proceeds to shake my hand and say “hi, and who are you?” In the most condescending way. Buddy you’re laying your ass against my car, who the **** do you think I am? He proceeded to interrupt me every time I spoke and started to ask me if I had tuned the car or taken the car to the track (I’ve done neither). My car sat there for the entire day for no reason. The steering wheel wasn’t resolved and my brake pads weren’t either. I wasn’t going to leave my car there for another two days for no reason. I’m not using my protection plan anymore. I bought the pads and rotors from Brembo and I’m either having the guys at Brabus install it or a competing dealership. I just wanted to have dropped off the car yesterday and at least drive off with new brake pads in the afternoon. Now the GM texted me saying that they’ll know within 4 hours when the inspectors are on the way and that they’ll come get my car from wherever it is. No I can’t do that. My time was already wasted and the fact that they offer these protection packages without time efficiency is ridiculous. You guys can give me all the **** you want for making this thread, but I don’t have time to sit on my ass and do nothing for two days. My time is valuable and I don’t do business with someone that doesn’t recognize that. As for the loaner, another dealership has GLC63 and GLE63 loaners and they didn’t want me to go there, which is why I said give me the E63 or whatever if you want me to leave the car here. I’m not going to inconvenience myself because of their own bureaucracy. I don’t pay $1500 a month for that kind of bureaucracy to shake up my week. Furthermore Tinted windows are a must for me for several personal motives. They never told me to go elsewhere, but my SA and the service director said they can’t stop me from going somewhere else to resolve the steering wheel issue. And no, I maintain my car just fine. I brought it in as soon as the brake pad wear warning came on (the next day- it was 1 am when it came on) and I was told I had under 2mm.

The only admirable thing was that upon reviewing my dash cam footage, everyone in the service dept seemed to know I had a dash cam and they made it obvious:
”hey man give me a ride”
”it has the camera”
”ohhh it got the camera?”
*yells to someone else* “IT GOT A CAMERA”

Why do they care so much I wonder?

:rolf:

This thread just needs to be closed. You’ll learn to be mature eventually. In the meantime, I’d certainly expect more situations like this to come up for you if you continue to think you’re better than everyone else.

Ill share something that that may be a revelation to you. In my experience, the people whose time is truly valuable - objectively - such as high net worth people (millionaires and billionaires) or high level executives are quite a bit more relaxed in these situations. They tend to be nicer people. On the other hand, the guy with a baseline car that thinks he’s more important than he is, will tend to be the person uptight and rude.

Try to be classy. I buy my service guys cookies from time to time. Guess what kind of service I get?

OP: "Hey my car needs about $2500 of new consumable parts, please give it to me for free under warranty."
Dealership: "Sure, let's just inspect it to make sure that new parts are needed. We only need a couple of days and we got a free loaner for you so you won't be without a car."
OP: "WTF NO How dare you waste my time you unprofessional amateurs"

OP is so out of touch that he posted this ridiculous story genuinely believing everyone would side with him.

funny, everyone here thinks I’m this huge ***** but I had a flawless relationship with this dealership for the past five years. I’ve heard bad things about them but I never experienced them myself. The purchasing process of all of our cars always went great and never had issues with service. Once I caught a technician driving my car at over 75 mph after installing new tires and once talking to the service director at the time about my concerns they gave me the service for free. I’ve been invited to events, I went to see the GT63S when the demo car came to the dealership, etc. I always had a great experience with them so I was not only shocked that they were giving me so much trouble for something as simple as switching my brake pads and rotors. I understood the steering wheel but I thought that at least they could get the brake pads and rotors handled in the same day, but they didn’t. They instead thought I should wait even longer for someone to give the green light. At this point I have no problem paying the +/- $1000 repair for the brakes instead of using my protection package (I had brake pads replaced before and didn’t even know I had this until finance manager that knows me well told me to check), but I’m not going to do it there after having reviewed my dashcam footage. If my service advisor tells the porter “don’t say anything, don’t speed, don’t even put it in sport because there’s a camera” what does this say about their practices with our cars while they’re at service? And after someone asks to get a ride in the car. My dash cam was what kept them from doing something stupid with my car, so that just takes away my trust in the service department. They sped in my car before and that was properly handled, or at least I like to think it was. I’m going to take my car elsewhere for the service and I have no incentive to continue this relationship. I know about ten to fifteen employees from the dealership by a first name basis and when I had this problem, everyone knew about it and did what they could. But arriving there I received very bad treatment from the people that didn’t know me and didn’t consider me as a valuable customer despite a loyal relationship to the brand and the store. It’s not about the loaner or that they didn’t give me a new steering wheel, or that I didn’t “get my way” but rather because I left my car there for nothing to be done to it except be driven by porters tempted to give it some gas and they wanted me to keep it there for even longer. Meanwhile one of our other cars needed new pads and it was resolved the same day. It makes no sense as to why this is a different case with my AMG.

If the E63s or S class did NOT have tints, would you take it?

I'd ask for a Maybach with the personal driver, a few b*tches and champagne because why not, the dealer has to change the brakes

You talk a lot about time and money, yet you’re on here posting long, drawn out rants.

Please keep this thread open for entertainment purposes :popcorn:

I know a guy who owns G63, S63 get a E63S as loaner when his car is in service, guess you will just need to have a very good relationship with your dealer, cuz they do have AMG as loaner, only for some "special" customers.

As for the brake pads... I had a situation when my rear brake pads are completely worn off, I brought my car to Mercedes Markham dealership and they refused to change the brake rotors because the brake warning light is not on, I mean its metal on metal already, they think it's not obvious enough for them to change my brake pads and rotors under warranty. Then I had to try another dealership which is Mercedes Thornhill(They are both members of Mercedes Toronto Retail Group) and they put on a brandnew set of pads and rotors without asking a question, they told me usually cars only have one sensor for the front and one sensor for the rear, and I was unlucky that the worn, metal-on-metal brake pad just happen to be the one without a sensor.

My advice is just leave your car to the dealer since they did offer to get your problem solved, unlike one of my dealer that didn't give a ****...