hyperion667

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/video/merc...133625846.html


anyone here this yet? shameful

MBSebas87

"we have a little problem" haha ...Glad they got their car replaced!

pamiboy

Was it an MB dealership or something else? So shameful.

pamiboy

The MB dealers already have our insurance information when giving us the loaners. So what prevents them from claiming insurance on our behalf if our car is damaged. I mean unless they tell us that our insurance is involved, how will we know? Do we have to be proactive and call our insurance beforehand to see if there is a claim???

hyperion667

still makes me mad to hear

babacah

Where does the liability end to pay off a car if you happen to be massively upside down?

They are responsible for replacing the car but if your 10 grand in the hole do they also have to pay off the debt you carried from your previous car?

Bad situation here but if they gave a fair replacement value I think that's where their liability should end. Accidents happen, I doubt they tried to crash the car.

fosterelli

Your insurance agency is not going to process a claim on your policy without speaking to you.

fosterelli

They aren't responsible for paying off anything extra. They are responsible to restore your situation to pre-loss (financially if totaled, vehicle if repairable). So if you're upside down from previous trade-in losses, high risk financing, etc., that should be on the owner of the car.

Fighting them for diminished value (if repairable) or gap amount (difference between amount paid and current value) is up to them, your lawyers, or both.

Someone upside down from extraordinary circumstances should not be compensated for such. But otherwise I think the dealership's insurance should step up and protect their reputation by paying normal values + diminished value or gaps...what is right is right.

Youngd

With the high cost of cars and unfathomable finance terms available, one should seriously consider gap insurance.

El Cid

The bottom line here is just what the "fixer" said to do. Keep working the system until you get to the CEO of the company. If a dealership, contact the manufacturer CEO. It works.

fosterelli

Getting to the CEO of any large company is quite the uphill task. The "Fixer" found an executive at AutoNation to help, but certainly was not the CEO. And direct contact with the CEO of a large auto manufacturer would be as likely as getting a face-to-face with Jesus himself.

Hippocrateez

I too would like some clarification, was this at a Mercedes service center? Or third party.

El Cid

Actually not that hard to do. Google CEO of _________, get the mailing address. Takes a few days longer, but I write a letter and send it via mail addressed to the CEO. While CEO may not actually read it, someone in his office does and they always call.
Remember they would rather handle it inhouse instead of seeing it on some TV network or in Consumer Reports or somewhere else. There is some much stuff on facebook, snapchat, twitter, etc. now that not sure any corporation worries about it.
You could always get the corporate phone number and call that.
I wrote a letter to CEO of Hyundai America a few years ago as to why I did not purchase a Genesis. The CEO called me three days later and we had a very interesting and informative conversation.
I sent the letter because I thought the model had a lot of potential and maybe in a few years, I might want to purchase one.
Ironically next year may be that year.

babacah

Suggesting that Johnny of the street would have the same success as an investigative reporter at resolving an issue is just ridiculous. That make it sound like anyone can do what they did if they just work hard. False.

I see this happen everyday. The potential risk given the reporter involvement was weighed and someone made a phone call and said something to the effect of "I have 20 million in insurance with you (Autonation, maybe a low figure) make this 10k problem go away".

Unless you believe the insurance company was being a total jackass (possible I know but Autonation doesn't have a fly by night carrier) and coming in 10k light on the cars value then the truth is more than likely the owner owed far more than the car was worth and deemed losing the car and having a loan balance as a loss.

Glad it worked out for the car owner but I'm not sure they deserved to get the extra 10k, it was just far cheaper than the damage the negative public perception (read this thread) could have caused.

FWIW I'm often the guy getting the phone call telling me to make the situation go away. Right or wrong rarely plays into it.

El Cid

babacah: if replying to my post, while a reporter will be more successful, on an individual basis, the customer can be just as successful. The CEO or other senior management official would rather handle one complaint than have the customer go to the investigative reporter or other consumer organization and the problem be put out there for the world to see. When that happens, more complaints may come out of the woodwork.
Example (one of several): I had a defect in a new car, dealership say it is normal, contacted manufacturer customer assistance, dealer rules. Wrote the letter, within 3 days an assistant from CEO's office called, gave me his personal extension and said the regional rep would see me within a week. The rep. looked at it for 30 secs. and told the dealership, replace them. Because of my problem I also received free routine maintenance for 12 months.
For less than a dollar in postage, ink, paper, and envelope; I had my problem resolved and received a year's maintenance.
Have done this with other products and it works about 90% of the time.
In CEO's office, bad publicity or possibility of bad publicity is to be avoided at all cost.

babacah

El Cid, I didn't even see your response when I responded, not a reply to you.

Yes, an individual can be successful but not anywhere near the odds of an investigative reporter when submitting a complaint. The squeaky wheel does get the grease. Some policies are meant to be overturned when questioned banking on the fact most people will just accept the first outcome.

Don't kid yourself, I work for a decent size company and the CEO probably has 50 letters directed his way on a daily basis. Yes, all will get some sort of response but very, very few will ever come to his attention. The people that truly get top level attention have the phone number to speak with the CEO already. A car company would have a large staff to field these inquires.


In your case it looks like the did a great job and your complaint had a valid basis. You wouldn't believe what people complain about (like not getting a tire that wore out replaced under factory warranty)

AG6

Wonder which dealer that was

Arrie

In a case like this, how about asking the dealership who caused the loss to pay for the difference? The insurance the dealer has is their way to protect themselves for mishaps like this and it should be just between them and the insurance company how they split the cost. I don't see how the dealership's insurance company can say "take-it-or-leave-it" to the victim as the victim does not have anything to do with them. It is the dealer who is responsible in this case so I would take the dealer to courts for the difference if not resolved like in this case. Every location doers not have the "Fixer" available.