balthus

The turnover of SA's at the MB dealership I use for service has been like a revolving door the past few years.

For years, there was a great and knowledgeable group of advisors but now a lot of new advisors with little MB experience and/or the mode of operation has changed.

I dropped my car off Friday morning at 8AM to see if my vehicle was affected by a service recall I was notified about and to try to get my Command software updated as I have had ongoing issues since I got this 17 wagon 3+ months ago.

Late Friday afternoon, I emailed the SA to ask status & was told: we are getting the car looked over and running tests. I won’t have any answers for you until sometime Monday. I will reach out to you then, enjoy your weekend. So they did nothing on Friday?

Didn't hear from him yesterday (Monday) so I emailed him again late afternoon and this was his reply: They are still currently working on the vehicle it will not be ready today. Car has been there all day Friday-Saturday-and now most fo Monday?

Heading into day 4 and I have not been told 1) if my car was affected by the recall or 2) what they are "working" on or 3) did they find some other problem?

I am used to an SA contacting me as soon as they know what the issue is or isn't and letting me know what's needed and ETA on how how long it will take.

Am I spoiled?

Do I contact the Service Manager today to get some clarity of what could possibly be going on with the car that was just purchased late June CPO that I was not having any major issues with?

Am I being unreasonable?

Thanks.

chassis

Have you called the SA on the phone? I get better results/service this way. Email and text or app messaging are less effective in my experience.

balthus

I initially called on Friday afternoon, got VM, left a message, no return call hence the first email. I do prefer email to 1) have a paper trail to go back to (has helped me in past when I have had to look for something) and to avoid rounds of phone tag. The SA;s seem to be hard to reach by phone. Thanks.

ygmn

CALL if he does not answer and yo uget VM

Ask for Service Manager and ask what is going on..

Ask why has service declined since they hired new SA?

If no results call for General Manager...

In mean time find next closest dealership and hope they are better.

2012 merc amg

Yep, I'd get the Service Manager involved at this point. These days customer service has gone out the window.

balthus

I just emailed him. It is so frustrating. And yes customer service has deteriorated radically. Thanks.

JTK44

Just my $.02:

I service my 2019 E450 at my local dealer. I bought it from another dealer.

My SA has been wonderful and I am not easy to please: he texts me with updates.

Last Monday evening, I heard a large clang from the front end. My passengers heard it as well. I emailed my SA at 10:30 PM, explained my problem and could I bring it in the next morning and could I have a loaner? Now remember I bought the car at a different dealership.

The next morning at 7:02 AM, received an email that said bring in the car you have a loaner!

Brought the car in and at 3:30 PM received text that car was put on the lift, and nothing was found out of order and I could pick up my car. Picked up the car and it is fine. Of course no charge, my car is under warranty.

It is a shame that sales is not as good as service! Although I wanted to get my car at this dealership because of the way service treats me, their price on a new car was not competitive.

My recommendation is to go to another dealer. Your service should be as I described above.

balthus

Yes you are right. That’s great service. I have been going to same dealership for 25 years and all was great until past 5 years or so. I had bought all my cars there until this one as wagons are hard to find where I live. I bought the wagon at the other nearby dealership and that was the worst sales experience I have had in all my years of car buying. The other MB dealerships are quite some distance away. I have had quite a few friends switch to BMW or Audi locally because of MB service issues. I love MB cars but I already have buyers remorse about this car because of the terrible sales experience that I am possibly going to contemplate same unless I can find a better SA at this dealership. Thanks.

CaptainE

balthus, did you at least get a loaner?

Cao Black

I've had good luck emailing, or even better texting.

balthus

Today's update.

Yes I did get a loaner. The dealership is pretty good about this although you used to be able to book that online but they recently changed their platform so if you need a loaner you have to call to make a service a appointment.

I did hear back from the Service Manager after I emailed him and he said the SA would be contacting me shortly.

I heard from the SA early afternoon who told me my car did need the recall service - 19V676.
Daimler AG (DAG), the manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, has determined that on certain Model Year (MY) 2017-2019 E-Class station wagon vehicles (S213 platform), the spoiler on the tailgate might not have been mounted according to current production specification. At higher speeds, the spoiler could detach from the vehicle completely, increasing the risk of a crash or injury toother road users. An authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer will check the mounting of the rear spoiler on the affected vehicles and rework it, if necessary.


He also told me that were not able to recreate the Command/NAV issues or find any stored data in the device memory but that there was a software update made available to us from Mercedes Benz that we were able to apply to system and mentioned that the system I have in the car does have a longer initial startup time than the system in previous models due to the complexity and sophistication of the program itself.


Anyway I will be picking the car up on my way to work tomorrow.



I have got to find a better/more communicative SA at the dealership.



Thanks all.

madtrader

I have a level of patience that drives my wife crazy. I would not remotely put up with what you experienced, even with a loaner. I’ve dealt with 4 different MB service departments over the years (moved states), and all have been far more communicative and helpful than what you described. I do hear you on the rotating SA door, though. I used to always get one SA for all my vehicles and then slowly I’ve been shuffled enough to feel like it’s luck of the draw at appointment time and new faces each time I’m in.

balthus

Lol patience eis not my my middle name but in the overall scheme of things I cannot let this get to me too badly. I emailed the SM to thank him for his help and he emailed me back that he'd make sure the car was waiting for me this morning so I didn't have to wait. Luckily I have known I'm for years and he has stayed there so whenever I do have to go up the chain I can. I just wish I didn't.