I spent $125,000, sight unseen, on a low mileage SL65 at FJ Mercedes-Benz of Chicago and would never buy a car from them again. In the middle of May I found the car on autotradercom. It looked good black/black all options and a reasonable price so I e-mailed them to see if it was still available. I got a response back that it was from a used car salesman named Ken Montijo. He was incompetant and dishonest. In other words the stereotypical used car salesman. Here are some of the things that occured:

1) He forced me to pay for the car in 2 days. I know, never let them force you into anything, but it was low mileage, all the options, carfax ok, from one of the largest dealers and my brother had a look at it. So in other words I responded quickly to their request.

After they got my money everything slowed down.

2) I asked for a price to change the wood trim to carbon fiber. I requested this from Ken 3 times. Finally he said that he can't get it without a VIN from a car that has it. So I went on autotrader and found 1 and sent him the details. Next day I had a price. Why so many requests? Why couldn't he find a VIN? Incompetent? Lazy?

3) Right from the beginning I was asking for the service history of this vehicle. It took 3 weeks to get it! At first he said it's so new that there is no history. Then he said that he checked and it's private information. Finally I called and spoke to service directly and they faxed it to me in 5 minutes! Incompetent? Dishonest?

4) When I finally received the car it did not have a nav disc. I called Ken and informed him of this. He said he saw it in the car. He's was sure it's in there. It was a #6 cd. I informed him that my car is an 05 and now they have DVD nav disc's. Dishonest? Incompetent?

5) I sent a negative review to MBUSA. The next day Ken called me and wanted to know why I responded that way so I spent 15 min. explaining. He appologized and said he would try to get me a nav disc and would definately get back to me before the end of the day. He didn't call that day, nor on the next. Finally I called him again. Again he appologized and promised a response by the end of the day. Again no response! Dishonest? Lazy?

6) So I finally decide to speak to his manager, G. Storm. I explain what happened and he says "what do you want me to do?" I ask and he pays for a nav disc. Not really interested in fixing a problem or earning some customer loyalty back but getting rid of a disgruntled customer.

These are demonstative of my experience at FJ Chicago. I was never loud or aggresive with them. I thought that dealing with a large, somewhat repected, MB dealer would result in better customer service. I told them that I also wanted an s65 so they should not have thought that they'd never see me again. My brother is a doctor at a nearby hospital so why treat me this way. Do they think he'll ever buy a car from them?

I don't understand why they don't treat their customers well. It seems logical that you treat them well and they'll come back, but you treat em bad and you won't see them again or anyone that listens to your negative experiences.

I'm from Canada and that happens up here too, like that video about the dealer in Vancouver. Is this how MB dealers are? What is this world coming to when you spend $125,000 and are treated like crap.

 

That's the only Merc dealer around me that has yet been molested by my father...

If the dealership treats him well, then they get what they want too. However, if you the dealership is the typical "treat your customer like money bags", then my dad rips them a new one.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. It's ridiculous that a dealer would treat any customer, let along someone buying an SL65 and possibly an S65, that way

 

I, too, had a less-than-desirable experience with the Fletcher Jones Auto Group. Check out my experience with the Service Department of Fletcher Jones (Fremont, CA) in the Mercedes Tech Talk forum under Technical & Vehicle Assistance Forums. The thread name is "Gas" and my post is dated 06-29-2007.

 

Just a quick update. The used manager, Mr. Storm promised to send a check to cover the cost of the missing NAV disc 3 weeks ago!!! Well no check ever came! Don't trust Fletcher Jones Chicago. They're lying, evil SOB's Spread the word and be very careful if you have to deal with them!!

 

I dont care if the guy was buying a Honda Civic. WTF does the amount of the check being written have to do with it?

The place SUCKS. PERIOD.

Again. Spend $15, 000 or $125,000. You buy something from a business, you deserve service Dont get hung up on the fact you spent a pile of $$$.

At what point does a person say, "I spent XXX amount of $$. I expect to get treated like crap?"

 

Ran into a very professional salesman(Barry Schuman) at Mercedes Benz of Chicago. He was very straight forward about what he could and could not do. He had an excellent atitude, and made us feel like we we're very special. We told him this was our first Mercedes, and he really seemed to want to make it special for us. He made it a pleasurable experience, instead of a miserable experience. We have already referred two people who bought cars, and they felt the same way as us. We feel like we have friend in the business. He always seems to be at the dealership everytime we call or come by. Thanks for the great service Barry.

 

I
bought a my last 3 cars from fj chicago mercedes benz and my sales rep was k.montijo each time and as i read your bold statement about this dealership and this salesman i find this hard to believe this can be true. I do feel symphatetic to your story but if i was looking for any type of car i would go to them each time they made me feel comfortable they where straightforward with me and i got a great deal each time in the last year i have bought a S63 for me and a CLS550 for my wife. when you picked up you car why did you not notice the nav disc was missing? when ken personal delivered my car to my office he spent 2 hours going over the car with me making sure i understood each feature and i asked if he could get me a bluetooth adapter he got me one for free i find it hard to belive he would not give you a nav disc let alone not respond to you.when he leaves his cell phone number on hes voice mail i bet if you call him and truly did not get a nav disc ask for one he would get you one there is more to these story than you make it out to seem not to say 125,000 for a sl65 is a steal i can only guess you are a first time buyer to mercedes due to the fact that you claim that they forced you to pay for the carthat makes no sense and if you wanted service records why not ask for it before you took the car. people pay this guy no mind you want a great deal and a great person to deal with go see ken montijo gene storm and the guys at mb chicago where customers come first.

 

rich,

Sorry to hear of your experience, but seriously .. what are you? 18? they 'forced' you to pay for your car. With what? a gun?

If you saw the car, copy down the VIN #, and go to any MB dealer in the U.S., and they can give you the service history of the car.

I don't care if the car is new or used. You get everything you want before you pay for it or sign the paperwork. Sorry, no sympathy from me on this one.


Dealerships aren't called stealerships for no reason.

Regardless, you got a great deal for a SL65 $125k. Not sure how many miles, but thats a great deal.