Maiia

Hello, the owners of MB ... I am writing concerning the outrageous situation which happened with me at the local MB dealership of Flemington. I have MB E350. When I needed to replace the transmission control unit I asked local MB dealership repeatedly to sell it to me but MB refused me in it reffering to that it is a theft related detail and this unit can be replaced only in MBZ! It means that I can't buy the unit separately from the replacement service. It is one uniform service which includes 1)replacement of the transmission control module;2) replacement of the filter; 3)removing oil pan; 3) 7 literes of oil and so on. All this constituents comprise a one uniform service for transsmision and this service can not be divided! according to invoice the whole service was done, but in fact was found out that the MB staff didn't fill up the transmission with oil! Since the further repair is performed according to the data on the invoice the inconsistency of the data mislead the mechanic and his further actions lead to the car damage! These consequences any mechanic knows ( in situation when you star an engine without the oil in the transmission, the transmission can break down). Since MB workers did not fill up the transmission oil then they did not perform the whole procedure, the whole service. That is why I consider that MB service for transmission wasn't completed! I turned to the SM of this dealership for explanation and request on full compensation by reason of incomplete inadequate service. The SM agreed to compensate me the money only for the transmission oil. In my opinion his position to return money only for the oil is unfair since I paid money for the whole service (not only for the parts but also for performed work), that is why I would like to get the full compensation for the whole service!This is the similar situation if for example they do the work for an engine and forget to fill up the engine with oil or with incorrect amount of oil. In this case the engine breaks down! how does SM of MB do in this case?! Does he also refund money only for oil but not for the whole service?! The MB should pointed out that they didn't fill up the transmission with oil in the invoice in order to the next mechanic has knowledge whether or not the work for the transmission was performed! for now I have inadequate incomplete service, I was billed incorrectly and of course, I am dissatisfied with the decision of the SM of the local MB dealership of Flemington. I turned to MBUSA for assistance! Within 24 hours I got the call from Darrell, who is the assigned Executive Referral Manager. Darrell explained me politely that MBUSA can't investigate my case since the warranty of my car is ended. Therefore, dear owners of MB, after 1year warranty, you can simply throw out the car since after this period Mercedes-Benz does not guaranty any defense of the client's interest. Based on this the following questions: why is the price so high for this car? What was included in the price of the car? Why is not there a high-quality service after the end of the warranty? What happens after the end of the warranty !? Is these cars are no longer Mercedes-Benz, but some kind of Honda or what? Why MBUSA does not care about their clients after warranty? After all we still use the MB cars, turn to their dealerships for service and repair! Why does MBUSA refuse to take responsibility for their local dealerships, investigate the situation? If the MBUSA does not have influence and control over local dealerships, then let them be called ordinary SRTs, so that customers judge them as ordinary SRT, understand and expect the appropriate service as well as the absence of any protection from the MBUSA. The more so that the service of this company is not cheap! If the company can not provide the client with quality repairs, protect the client from the same situations, as in my case, then please warned customers about it beforehand, before sale of the car. So, from above mentioned information I have made a conclusion that neither MBUSA nor local MB dealership doesn't care about their clients. Any help/advice is appreciated, thank you!

ItalianJoe1

Tried to read through the wall of text and poor grammar...

You say they didn't fill the oil, how do you know this? What happened? If you remove the pan to replace the TCM you lose 3-4 quarts of fluid, which has to be put back to drive the car out of the shop. Did this not happen?

You expect warranty service after warranty ends... to what point? The warranty has a finite end point, if we disregard that and assume just because it's "close" MB will keep covering it, at what point does the customer become responsible?

The cars are expensive to own outside of warranty, as with most German vehicles. Sucks, but you can easily find that out through any little bit of research. If maintenance costs are going to be a concern, buy Japanese.

Maiia

First of all, I would like to thank you for having paid attention to my problem in spite of poor grammar. Secondly, I would like to apologize for my "poor grammar" (as you noticed). I am really recently moved to USA (18 months ago) and started to study English accordanly. Nevertheless I suppose that there should not be any discrimination with regard to my issue because of the "poor" grammar.

Let me clarify some facts concerning my situation.

Regarding your questions : "you say they didn't fill the oil, how do you know this? What happened? If you remove the pan to replace the TCM you lose 3-4 quarts of fluid, which has to be put back to drive the car out of the shop. Did this not happen?" - confirmation of my words, that there was not a proper level of oil in the transmission, is a letter from MB. I'll explain everything in order now. When I turned to MB local dealership there were diagnosed the errors in transmission control unit, in the engine control unit as well. According to the policy of MB transmission control unit as well as the whole service related to this unit have to be done only at the MB official dealership. That is why I bought this unit along with the service from the MB dealership. Since there were another errors diagnosed in the car the vehicle was not running and was towed from dealer not running. The further repair was performed based on the invoice gotten from MB. Since the next mechanic was sure that there was the oil in the transmission ( as stated in the invoice) mechanic started to perform the procedure for adjusting the oil level. having heated the transmission to 45 degrees, mechanic unscrewed the drain plug and saw that there was not oil at all. Since the engine was running and transmission worked without oil these actions led to the damage of the transmission. Having this situation I complained to the SA and SM of the dealership. After that I got a letter from them in which was stated that 3 quarts of fluid instead of 7 ( as was stated in the invoice) were filled in the transmission. Thereby the letter once again confirms inconsistency the data of the invoice to the reality. But in fact, there were no oil in the transmission at all.

Regarding your following questions: "You expect warranty service after warranty ends... to what point? The warranty has a finite end point, if we disregard that and assume just because it's "close" MB will keep covering it, at what point does the customer become responsible?" - of course I don't expect the warranty service after warranty ends. that is why I paid for the transmission control unit as well as the whole replacement service along with the unit. Just for avoiding misunderstanding I would like to explain that I expect not warranty service but the qualitative service after the ending of the warranty.

Regarding your remark "The cars are expensive to own outside of warranty, as with most German vehicles. Sucks, but you can easily find that out through any little bit of research. If maintenance costs are going to be a concern, buy Japanese" - I am well aware of the high cost of maintenance! Therefore under such expensive price of the service I expect high qualitative service. In this case the problem isn't the cost but a conformity the price to the quality.

Anyway, any advice is appreciated! Thank you

ItalianJoe1

Ok if the car was towed out and they didn't put enough fluid in the transmission then you have a very legitimate concern. I would go to the General Manager of the dealership with your repair bill from whatever other shop did the work, and ask them to re-imburse you for the expenses incurred from their poor quality workmanship. If the other shop can confirm damaged from lack of fluid after you paid for a TCM replacement, they shouldn't really have much of a way to argue that.

Yes, they will say you should have done all the work with them. Yes, technically you would have to sue them to get them to pay you, but in reality they will often concede and just give you back your money or reimburse for your repairs to avoid all that hassle of legal actions.

Unsure if it's common in your area, but most local news stations here have some sort of Consumer protection segment where they will go to bat for you in a case like this, might be worth placing a call and seeing if they would take your story if the dealer will not stand behind their work.

Maiia

Thank you very much for piece of advice! I will definitely use it! concerning a General manager: according to the words of the Executive Referral Manager of MBUSA there isn't the General manager in MB dealership of Flemington. The SM is in a charge of the dealership! I have already turned to him regarding the issue, but he proposed me the compensation only for oil! I have a lot of correspondence with him as well as with SA. As you know SM refused me in full compensation. With regards of local news stations that have some sort of Consumer protection segment I'll seek for them and definitely give them a call! for now I have already file a complaint to BBB with request that their office intervene on my behalf and help me to obtain refund and also request to open an investigation into car service practice. Also I have already opened a dispute by dint of Credit company( under 170 Section of Fair Credit Billing Act). I look forward to hearing from them. If it doesn't help I will turn to Consumer Protection Office. I believe I have done everything a consumer should do to resolve the situation. Is there is some other step I can take, please let me know.