vitaman

"My best experience is with Porsche. Service rep greets you as you pull in. Listens to your problem without interuption. Arranges rental car free or offers shuttle as you are almost done with the service rep. Your rental/shuttle waits for you as you bid farewell to service rep. This is SERVICE!!"

I have received better and more efficient service from my MB Dealer than from a local Porsche Dealer.
Guess it goes to show that individual business practices mean more than the marque itself.

steph280

I've had some **** poor service as well as good service from different SA at different dealers before. But this must have topped them all. It is obvious the SA is having a bad day or trying to get back for talking to his manager. I would complain until they admit wrong and apologize.

The Toyota dealer where we service our baby hauler has a Starbucks and Subway Sandwich onsite. Plus they will pay for you to go to movies if the wait is longer than 2 hours. Although the SA can still be assh*le sometime, at least the dealer is trying to make their customer comfortable. with MB getting bad reps on built quality, I can't believe they're also letting service quality slipping behind companies like Toyota.

krispykrme

My toyota dealership blows in comparison.

Just lousy cup of coffee. Then again my mercedes dealer isn't that much better either. Service department does not open on weekends (you read it correctly, they do not open on weekend), no food of any kind just bottle water.

Although i do get free hand car wash anytime i wanted to.

Best service is by far the lexus dealers. Free internet access, food, softdrinks. In addition, it opens 24 hours a day except on new year eve and x-mas eve. They will come to pick up your car at your home or for simple oil change they can do it in your drive way. Nothing beats that.

steph280

Looks like you'd also be visiting BMW dealers once you have your M5. If you think MB service is bad, wait until you try BMW.

There are 3 BMW dealers within 15 minutes from where I live, one of them being the #1 volume seller in US. With all these competition yet they still can't realize the common business sense: 和氣生財. Eventhough our old Bimmer had been totally trouble free, I'm glad we sold it since I wouldn't have to deal with those dealers anymore.

Gunther

My MB dealer here in Atlanta also provides movie tickets if you're waiting.

DWP

The car is my wife's daily ride and she has always taken it in for service at M-B of Sacramento (Howe Avenue). There is only one other full M-B dealership in the Sacramento area, the Von Housen store in EDH, but I recall reading about a Von Housen M-B service-only facility in Rocklin or some place like that. We bought our car at M-B of EDH but we always take it to M-B on Howe Avenue because it's fairly close to my wife's work and we live near downtown; the EDH facility is just too far on traffic-clogged Hwy 50. "Service where you buy" has never been an issue; at the time we bought, Von Housen still owned the Howe Avenue store anyway. She has no complaints about the service on Howe Avenue, in terms of getting in or out, on-time completion or getting a decent loaner. They also wash and vacuum the car every time they do anything, but that's probably fairly standard.

krispykrme

Actually my BMW dealer are quite good, because I have inside connection.

Nothing beats having your friend that is a master tech at BMW dealer. Not to mention i actually have two in n.cal. Several in LA/San Diego area.

Connection baby. got to have connections.

SAguirre

Seeing this post and then your screen name, I would jump to the conclusion that maybe you are making these connections by keeping everyone well stocked with Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? How many dozen of the glazed does it take to get service?

I just had to say this, sorry

Steve

krispykrme

hehe.

actually i have nothing to do with krispykreme the company, i just love their donuts although I have given up donuts for last 7 month of so due to health issues.

Connections were made through a bunch of BMW owners here locally in bay area and in southern cal.

I got my ECU reprogrammed for free after my car was supercharged. I have gotten away with a lot of work that is not really related to warranty. through friend, a lot of my mods were being treated as invisible.

firstkill

i dont like the Sacramento dealer... but the problem is there is no choice.
Rocklin is sort of far just for service if you live near the sacramento dealer.

Walnut creek had an okay dealer from my previous experiences...

but for the orginal post, its always good to tip your SA or even a tech that u trust on site. Send all your work to the same guy and they will help u out a lot.

SA will and can always find u a loaner.. and the tech will do "warrenty" work even if things are not stock.

~fk

GoodBoy

Hey, thanks for all the replies. I am glad I was not inappropirately upset over nothing.

Glojo,
As bad as it sounds, our roads are not made for pedestrian. A guy was ran over a couple of weeks ago trying to cross one of the freeway here. So, the walk was out of the question.

If the service guy had told me that he could not get me a ride for 45 minutes, I would have called one of my nurse from the office to come pick me up. But three times he told me my ride will be right here without actually picking up the phone to check. It was not that long of a wait if I did not have appointments waiting. But that was a minor mistake which I can overlook.

On the other hand, the power trip about keeping my car for a couple of days without my prior authorization was plain bad customer service. And the insult of implying that I was inferior because I did not own more cars than drivers in my household was upsetting. Trying to distance himself from the quality of the company he represents does not help matters.

I did finally get that ride back to the office. And, I did get my car put back together to take home albeit un-fixed. All that was hurt was my ego and a few late appointments. So, I had originally decided just to let the matter drop.

At the end of the day, he did apologize and had stated that he will come to my office to pick up my car two days later (today) for the repair. I have no intention of punishing the guy, because to do so would mean that my ego is bigger than his. I would not like to frequent a place where people resent me because I am a big complainer. It is not my job to teach MB employee the basics of customer service. I had hoped that our final discussion had made it clear that I will not tolerate that kind of disrespect from him.

But, today have come and gone, and he never came by. He didn't even bother to call. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and wait till tomorrow. But, I think I will be replying to konigstiger's email and contact MBUSA operations manager after all.

I still love this car. I love everything about it, except for the minor electronic glitch. I had hoped that MB would do a better job with their customer service. I had promised myself that I would not buy an American car again because of my bad experiences with their build quality. And, I will not buy another Acura because of the repeatedly poor service of their local dealer. My previous experiences with Mecedes had been very positive. I just hope that Diamler-Chrysler is not becoming more like Chrysler than vice versa.

GGM

I have owned Chryslers all of my life. My father worked for Chrysler his whole life. Once Chrysler and Mercedes merged I looked foward to finally being able to own a Mercedes. Alas, my experience owning a Mercedes has been disappointing. I will be returning to Chryslers as soon as I can.

GGM

glojo

Buying any car is all about freedom of choice and hopefully your next Chrysler will give you many hours of satisfaction.

How popular is Chrysler outside of the United States?

Mercedes-Benz has an excellent World-wide reputation that has taken many years to acheive, but standards have indeed fallen and hopefully this situation will be recitified.

Ferrari, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi Jaguar etc have reputations that have had highs and lows, but unfortunately US vehicles do not appear to have a similar pedigree?

The Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Mustang are names we are familar with, but the vehicles are usually only seen on either the cinema screen or tv?

Good luck with your new car,
John

Gunther

Hey GoodBoy....

Just wondering but did you take your car to Greenway? My sister lives in Houston and we have several friends out there that have MB's. Have heard NOTHING but horrror stories about Greenway and it's attitude - from sales to service.

DWP

Prepare to see more Cadillacs on offer in the UK, if not on the road. So great is the love of General Motors for Old Europe that they have set up a "Cadillac Europe" operation, separate from their Opel and Vauxhall endeavours.

http://www.cadillaceurope.com/index....ChapterID=1076

In fact, it's been announced that GM will introduce a new smaller-than-the-CTS Cadillac for the European market, the BLS - it won't be available in North America. Enjoy, you lucky duckies.

Wintermute

There have been many nightmarish reports about the AutoNation-owned Mercedes dealerships in Houston, including Greenway. I'm also curious regarding the dealership that he is using.