Wanted to share my experiences wih this dealership.

1999 Went to purchase my CLK, I asked "approximately how long is the wait for this car" They told me "A long time." I responded, "Seriously, how long, I am really interested and ready to buy". Salesman responded "A very long time"

2001 My Xenon headlights were out of adjustment. Brought it in. They said there is no way to adjust the Xenon headlights. I said there has to be. I asked to speak to the master mechanic. He said since I put on the HR springs it screwed everything up and there is no way to adjust. I took the car to House of Imports and admited that the lights may be screwed up because i put on these springs. They hooked my ca rp to the computer and used the computer to adjust the headlights. I asked them how much I owed them, they said "Nothing, would you like us to wash your car for you as well?"

2002 Went in for waranty service. I bought my car at House of Imports, but I go to Fletcher Jones because its a lot closer. They give you a rental car usually with service. I usually dont care which kind, even if its not a Mercedes as I am grateful I get any kind of car. I told the service manager, I am in the market for an SUV, is there anyway I could get an ML as a loaner (thre were 2 available) as I want to test ride it as I may get one. I was told no.

2002 My dash cracked and the black background started discoloring along the top in a random pattern across the whole top section in the instrument cluster. They told me that it was my negligence. They said that by me using Vinylex (a Lexol product) that I caused it. They said the discoloration was the "armor-all" (I kept saying its Vinlyx) seeping into the instrument console and thats what caused it. I have 12,000 miles on a 1999 car BTW and its garaged most of the time. I told him no way, do you know how much liquid you would have to pour down the dash to get it to discolor the instrument console?! And there would be streaks of liquid instead of just discoloration across the top inch. Besides I am the only one that cleans my car and I spray into a towel and wipe the towel. I even use a micro fiber cloth to clean the windows so I never spray the windows. And dont you think that the dash should be sealed enough to keep out a nominal amount of liquid. I have had piece of crap cars that I treated like hell and never had liquid seep into the instrument cluster.

He told me the product (vinylex) that he kept referring to as "armor-all" caused all the damage. I called Mercedes and said this is ridiculous and Fletcher Jones said theywould now replace but I would have to pay the labor.

I have to fly to phoenix tonight and ruturn at 12pm tommorow. I asked when my car would be ready. He said he didnt know. I told him it would be easier if I just picked it up after I got off the plane (10 mintutes away) and kept the rental a little longer 2.5 HOURS). He told me I only have the rental until 10AM and after that I would have to pay. I still dont know when my car will be ready as of now (2:46 pm). My flight leaves at 6PM

I know what you are all saying. Why are you such an idiot and keep going back? Its close, and I always want to thinkg their bad customer service is isolated or because of a single bad guy. I won't be going there anymore and I will tell everyone I know not to buy or get their car serviced their.

I also think if you are young and dont dress like you are from Newport (I am 32 and usually wear shorts and a tee shirt when I go in there) they formulate a negative opinion and treat you accordingly. If you are 45, have a fake rack, blonde hair, and have a license plate frame that says "I'd rather be shopping" you probably will do OK there.

 

Do any of you feel that Vinlyex could be damaging to the vinyl and plastic componets of your automobile? Does anyone think it could make parts crack?

 

Sorry to hear about your problems with the:

"World's largest MB... and we can prove it!..." according to an employee from the referenced dealership, who posts/boasts here occasionally.

Reading about how you have "cared for & babied" your car, - including garaging, something does not sound right. Under the warranty, you should be covered.

My MB dealership recommends Lexol products from the get-go.

MBUSA should be kept in the loop re your "treatment" by this MB dealership.

 

I've never used Vinylex. However, I would post the question on the detailing forum. Chances are someone there will know the answer. Sorry to hear about your problems. Hope everything is resolved.

 

im so sorry to hear about your dissappointing service at fletcher jones. i can agree w/ your assessment of their service though. i dont live in o.c. but a few of my friends do and everytime they go there, i have heard the same comments also. the only time i had been there was when i was shopping for my car in dec 98. they were a bunch of @ssholes. i am young and come to think of it, i was wearing warm ups and the sales person was such a pr^ck. too bad for them, cuz i was ready to pay cash money for the car. i think their philosophy is that they sell so many cars that they can get away w/ treating customers like sh^t. even though HOI is farther, i suggest you get familiar with a service manager there and take your car there.


B

 

Exactly how did the H&R spring screwed up the xenon lights adjustment ??

 

That's pretty funny. lol! Actually this is the same kind of treatment i got when i was looking for my car at SouthBay Mercedes Benz. I was just wearing a plain Tommy Hilfiger shirt and a blue pants and when i asked them how long is the wait for the E55 they said "quite sometime" and couldn't give me a straight answer. they also told me that if i were to order it there will be a $10k premium.?? So i just started to walk out!

 

I would recommend MB Laguna, huge new facility and what I considered friendly service, about 10 min from where I live in Irvine and 7-8 miles south of F Jones in Newport, have E320 & ML320 most of the time as loaners when your car is in service.

Last loaner I had was a 01' E320 with only 70 miles on it, even thou the work required on my car was only < 1 hour, by the time I got back in office, about 30 min, got a call from service rep said my car was ready.

 

probably just some dealer scams that trying to get your money.....

 

Too bad to hear about all of the problems with F*&%#R Jones MB. The dealers in Northern Cali are great. I purchased my car at San Francisco MBZ and have only had to take it back to get the CD changer installed. 30 minute job while I sipped on a latte.

 

while on the subject re. F$%^$ Jones MB, check out the link I found below, they want $129,900 for a CLK55 Cab !!!

Who the F**K do they think they are, the economy is so bad most dealers are overstocked with CLK's and they are selling it at 911 TT price level ?? Can't believe they dare to put out ads like this.


From Auto Trader .COM

 

There actually have been 55 Cabs selling for that price due to the high demand for them a few months ago. Also, as was pointed out by RAB, they will stop production on them soon. You also should take account that cars are almost never bought at full sticker. That's why you set the price high. If you were going to sell something that you knew someone would try to knock a few grand off the price, wouldn't you want to start it as high as possible? Don't get me wrong, I would never pay that much for a CLK Cab, especially not when 2 new ones are sitting at Caliber Motors (Anaheim Hills, CA). But the combination of supply being low, and demand being high, you can't blame them for trying; especially in Newport Beach.

Also, those prices are often offered as a service to customers who still own the car, but are willing to sell for a profit.

 

$129,000 !!!!!

I rather spend on

a fully loaded 911 twin turbo

or

1 CLK430 + E430 Sports and with some money left over for mods.


120k + for a CLK55 Cab, they are crazy !!

 

geez...i can buy 2 clk430 with that price.....

 

that's had a good experience with Fletcher's? From the purchase to the occasional service calls, I have been completely satisfied with their service. By the way, I always go there in my pancho, shorts, and flip flops and have always been treated very well.

 

They got to be kidding !!! They think we are STUPID ??

Paying $129,900 to have a CLK55 Cab with open air so u can smell the burning rubber from a 911 TT infront of u who paid the same amount as your CLK ???!!!, I don't think so ......


You can get the CLK55 Cabs from CarsDirect.com at only 1k over MSRP (80,665 base price) and they do have them avai, FJ Newport better be watching this, THIS is REAL customer feedback !!! Look how many CLK sales they have lost on this thread, maybe 10 CLK's means nothing to them but some of us may have E's & S's at home as well, being the world's largest MB deala doesn't mean its ok to have stuck up attitude.



JJ

 

Unreal @ $130,000!

Looks like a plane Jane without the COMMAND option.

 

FJM doesn't care what you guys think, some fat wallet dude will decide it would make a nice gift for his blonde bimbo and will spend cash because it is only .001% of his bank account.


Now if I could only figure out how to be that fat wallet dude.

 

I bought my car from Fletcher Jones and the only thing that their salespeople are good for is disinformation.

Here is my story.

I couldn’t find any silver 320s with charcoal interior and black Birdseye maple with Command in California at the time. I didn’t want to wait to order it. FJMB said that they had the car I wanted sans the Command, but that they could install the Command unit, no problem. They said they could install the Command unit into a CLK even if it came from the factory without it. All of the other Mercedes dealers that I talked to said this was impossible (or close to impossible), but this was Fletcher Jones, the biggest Mercedes dealer in the world, who was I to argue?

So I continued negotiations with them and worked out the details of flying down there to pick up the car. They told me that they had several aftermarket navigation units that are far more sophisticated than the command unit, so I listened. They described the Pioneer AVIC-9DVD navigation unit that was fantastic. They told me that the unit was designed by Pioneer for Mercedes. They said that the unit fully integrated with the car. They told me that the screen would be a fold out screen, which I didn’t really like, but they said that the unit overall was a much better system than the command unit. I was hesitant. The deal was sealed when they told me that the Mercedes factory command unit was CD based and that I couldn’t listen to CDs while I had the navigation turned on! They said it was a major design flaw in the Mercedes command unit, and that I was better off with the Pioneer. Not knowing better, I flew down to Newport Beach, and got the car.

On the way back up the bay area, the screen on my Pioneer navigation started to fade in/out and went dead. After getting home, I went to a party and my screen started working again.

At the party, I met a guy who had a CLK and I asked him about his navigation. He told me he had the Command. I asked how he put up with the hassle of swapping the navigation disk in and out each time he wanted to listen to CD music. He asked me what the f@!%&k I was talking about. I told him what FJMB had told me and him and I promptly went to his car. Voila! he had music and navigation at the same time. Fletcher Jones didn’t tell me that if I got the 6CD changer that I could have both music and navigation running on the command.

As I got to know my car better, I realize that the pioneer wasn’t integrated with the car at all. Don’t get me wrong the Pioneer is far sophisticated than the command unit, but it isn’t integrated with the heads up display, the steering wheel, the radio, etc. These are features that I appreciate more than being able to use 1 DVD for the whole country (I never leave California in my car). I like integration. I like the convenience features that come with the factory command.

So I called up Fletcher Jones and chewed them out. I called everyone, all the way up to their general manager and told them that I was mislead and that I wanted the command unit installed in my car and the Pioneer taken out.

Flectcher Jones said that they could do it, but it would cost $8,000 to install the command. They said that they’ve never done it before, but they could do it if I wanted to. $8000!!! They originally told me that they could install the navigation, no problem for the same price as if it had come with the car.

I told them that I wanted them to unwind me from the car and refund me for the whole deal. I was pissed. They refused.

I told them about the screen on my Pioneer navigation. I told them that it goes out after I use it for more than an hour. They asked me to bring it down to New Port Beach so that they could check it out. “What the f#@%k!!!”, I said. “I live in the bay area, there is no way I’m coming down to New Port Beach so that you can fix a navigation unit that I never really wanted and that you mislead me to buy so that you could sell me a car and make more margin on the aftermarket navigation.”

The sales person was very quite. Then he said, “How about I fly my guy up to the bay area and fix your navigation.” For the first time, I felt like FJMB was actually treating me like I should be treated.

I told them that I needed to be compensated for all of the disinformation that I received and for my unpleasant experience, thus far.

I negotiated a free K2 upgrade for the integrated phone. However, since they don’t have the new V.60 phone for SprintPCS, I’m going to wait before I cash in on that.

In summary, don’t believe anything the FJMB folks tell you. I wish I had found this forum before I bought the car, I would have saved myself a lot of headache.

 

[Some] car dealers make [some]lawyers look like saints!

Originally installed, MB command is only a $2,220.- option with 10 CDs which cover all of the USA & Canada. That MB option is the best bargain!

Even with an $8,000.- retrofit MB system, you are going to run into future problems.

Sorry about your dilemma.

 

Someone should pass all of this feedback to Fletcher Jones and to Mercedes or tell them where this thread is so they can read it themselves. The most serious of Mercedes enthusiasts read this forum and they have all jumped in and given their opinion. Everyone's opinion seems generally the same.

I have to believe that they are unaware that people feel this way.

 

Fredrick, you are right. I heard so many good things about the dealership before my experience that I can't believe they have always treated their customers this way. Maybe when Fletcher Jones Sr. was running the show things were different??

One non-consequential piece of disinformation that the sales person told me was when I asked about the size of the gas tank. He said that the CLK had a 19 gallon tank with a 3 gallon reserve for a total of 22 gallons!

Do you think these guys even bother to read the brochures on the cars that they are selling?

 

Shah wrote:This sales person should be promoted to CINNABON sales , because he would be good at the inflated BAKER's DOZEN. :o

 

Sorry to hear of your misfortunes.

At least you guys have alternatives to get service. In Puerto Rico,

a small Caribbean island surrounded by vast oceans, we are

stuck with only one authorized MB dealer: Garage Isla Verde in

San Juan. These people have the worst service department in all

of the USA!

 

Is that because they are the largest in the PR?