I am wondering what has been everyone's experience at their local Mercedes-Benz Service center.

I have two MB dealerships in a 10-mile radius and both are terrible. The one closest to my house, MB of North Palm Beach has dropped the ball so many times that I refuse to go there for anything anymore.
Needless to say, I purchased my latest 2 Mercs from another MB dealership.
The one 20 minutes from my home, MB of Palm Beach, looked promising until I went to pick up my car yesterday and was surprised to see the level of carelessness and the lack of quality control.
My car, 2 weeks old, needed the MBUX system updated and when it was brought to the valet area, I was horrified to see that the interior was not protected at all (steering wheel, seat/s, carpet, etc.). As soon as I opened the door, I saw grease marks on the seat, the side console, the door panel, the steering wheel, the kick-plate and worst of all, a huge water stain on the sun-shade.















I immediately summoned my service advisor to express my disappointment and frustration on how on earth would they possibly let this happen, on a car with off-white interior no less!!! She quickly sent it to detail where I prohibited them from washing the outside or touching the car at all. In the meantime I asked for the manager who was not available. I refused to take delivery of the vehicle and recommended they get a local detailer company to address the interior of the car (I lost all trust in their team obviously). I expect a lot from a Mercedes-Benz dealership. These are not cheap cars and the care and attention to detail as well as customer relation has to be top notch.

I would like to read your comments and experiences.

 

I haven't heard of any dealer applying "interior protection".

 

This is unfortunate. And entirely normal. MB dealer experience is worse than at Honda, Ford or VW. But at MB you might get water, coffee or a granola bar if they remembered to stock the snack bar which is usually not the case.

Wait until you ask them to take care of a warranty problem and they lie to you or refuse the work without saying anything. Be sure to catch them in their lie and probably the 19 year old SA will turn green and have a sick-to-his/her-stomach look on his/her face.

 

Interesting... Standard procedure at any reputable tire shop.

 

So when I brought my GLE 350 in for her first service, I brought it to my closest MB dealership (I won't name names, but their sales are garbage but their service is usually good). I did not notice it until a few days after I picked up my car, but there was a dent and some scratches and whatnot on the driver's door frame and the roof rail. it is hard to tell from the photo but I circled them in red (it is a lot more noticeable in person). The one on the bottom right is pretty deep while the others are pretty light, but I wish I noticed it before I took my GLE because I would have had them fix it. Ironically, I see the dent in the bottom right all the time because it is close to eye level and it is pretty deep.

 

Awful. Where in FL?

 

Tampa Bay area. I don't want to name the specific dealership because although their sales department plays games, their service department is usually good and they tend to give some of the best loaner vehicles. When I brought my GLE in for that visit, they gave me a brand new S500 as a loaner.

 

I am also close to Tampa (but not in Tampa), and my local dealer scratched my pristine AMG performance seat bolster at a service:

 

This bothers me. I am not implying that non-luxury brands should offer less or subpar service but any luxury brand needs to go the extra step. Vehicle care while in the possession of the service department has to be a TOP PRIORITY. Accidents happen, yes, and if they do, the right thing to do is report it to the customer, no matter how small and followed by an action plan. It is called ethic. Carelessness on the other hand, is inexcusable.

I am learning now that every time I drop off my vehicle anywhere, I do so recently washed and take pictures everywhere as my own inspection on how the car is being handed over. The video/pictures MB dealerships take are not very detailed.

 

Our dealerships here uses BanaLogic BodyGuard, so they no longer take pictures themselves. I second the suggestion on taking pictures and videos yourself, make sure to have the dealership in the background for videos, pan it a couple of times, as I had also been doing that whenever I take my vehicle to service. Don't forget the interior as well. What prompted me to start was when I got my vehicle back with a dent on driver door, a bulged tire and a bent rim. Unfortunately I was on my own because I can't prove it. It is a shame because you trusted them by handing over the keys and this is what you ended up getting instead. They are unfortunately from my experience worse than valets and even the people in busy parking lots.

 

My dealership takes many hi res pictures when you check in for service. Seems like it reduces the risk of damage and protects both parties. That said, the porters all have belts on with prominent metal buckles - seems like a recipe for scratching cars...

 

That’s sloppy, careless and unacceptable. It says a lot about the overall quality of work. It’s like eating at a restaurant with unbussed, filthy tables, food on the floor and greasy menus. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what’s going on in the kitchen.

 

The dealership I purchased my vehicle from, takes a video of the entire exterior (not sure about interior). I needed a windshield replaced after just four weeks. After returning home with the new windshield, I noticed 3 small "dings" on passenger door. I called dealership and they said the car came in like that. I know it didn't because when parking in a lot, I park far away from the idiots who think nothing of smacking their door into ones car. Anyway, I asked to see the video they took when I dropped it off, and was immediately told that they no longer have it. Never even put me on hold to check.

As a result, I switched dealerships. New one is 1,000% better; however, they are also more expensive. It's a tradeoff I'm willing to deal with, for now.

 

Could not agree with you more.

 

Did you try raising hell with the service manager and general manager? Google reviews do wonders. I not only had the dealership hire an outside company for a full interior detail, but as soon as the review hit on Google, within an hour the general manager, service manager, and service adviser were calling me and texting me to apologize and to give them the opportunity to have my business again. The dealership where I purchased my car, which is 1 hour away and has no affiliation with the one the discrepancy was had at, called me to secure my services with them going forward.

In the end I accepted the apology and of course the offer to detail the interior. I will, however, be taking high res pictures and videos before surrendering my car. I hate that I have to do that at a Mercedes-Benz dealership. Should just be a pleasant exchange from key-out to key-in.

 

I guess we have just been lucky, but in the same area as the OP, we have used the service at MB of Fort Pierce and have not had a single issue. In addition, they bring a loaner to us in Jupiter and pick up our car and deliver it back after the service is done.

The work on the car is always completed correctly and the car is returned in clean with no issues from the service.

I have another one on order from them.

The dealership is better than the two others which are much closer to us and the valet service with a loaner makes it a no brainer.

 

I have nothing but the best to say about the dearlship in FTP. That's where I purchased my last 2 cars. I live in PBG so the 1 hour drive is very inconvenient and the reason I have dealt with the 2 other local ones.
I had no idea they offered valet service so far away. Thank you for mentioning it. I will give this a try next time I need to service.

 

I got mine from a dealer in Devon pa. Service after purchase has been a great experience so far. Warranty work was done automatically. They did preserve the interior prior to service. Car comes back washed and nice.
sorry to hear all of these bad experiences. MB should take heed!

 

Having worked in a luxury/exotic service department when I was a kid, I employ a pretty simple strategy that helps eliminate many of these service department problems:
- Find one good service advisor, and stick with him through your ownership of the car. -
Only deal with one guy, if you already know any of them from previous dealerships or cars, it will make your choice pretty easy. If not, take the time to introduce yourself to the service manager before the first service and tell him you intend to deal with only one advisor, and you want to know who the "best" guy is. Straight up tell him you are a busy person with high expectations and you know that this team can do it, but you want to know who his best deputy would be to make sure you get there together. Go over together, meet the advisor, and let them know that you have high expectations, and are pleased to know you are meeting the guy who can make it happen. For example, my advisor happens to drive a big Mercedes himself (rich wife), so he understands where guys are coming from in terms of expectations.

Now, the manager and the advisor have taken "ownership" of your satisfaction before you even bring the car in. The advantages to you are:

• You hopefully have cards/direct lines to both of them for follow-up. (I have my Mercedes guys home cell phone#)
• If there are repeat visits for issues, you never have to try to explain it over and over, or have techs going off on their own on the wrong thing.
• They should know your car and remember the history so you don't have to always repeat that.
• Knowing you are picky and serious, they can make sure their "best" tech is on certain problems and work with the shop foremen to make sure jobs are done right.
• Hopefully they take pride in making you happy, and don't let people screw up your car.

I won't bring the car in if he's off or on vacation. I won't let my wife drop it off with anyone else, If I have to wait until my guy is free, I do it. It all takes less time than dicking around with a complicated car with possibly incompetent messengers.

In return I do every thing they recommend. If I have some major repairs, go to bat for me on warranty, or give me goodwill, I'll drop of some scotch that Christmas. If they really go to bat for me, I'll drop off a 24 for the boys in the back, too.

I do the same thing at tire shops, landscaping, security company, everywhere. Even if they say "we all work together" or whatever, just ignore them. One customer, one point of contact, that's my rule.

 

Sound advice.

 

I agree that this approach is far better than the confrontational or "I'm entitled" version.

I don't agree with the bribery approach, though. The top techs I know would be offended.

I travel two hours each way, just for the Service Manager and crew. They know that and respect my efforts.

 

Lol. What bribery? I recognize people with $50 gifts who take care of me, my interests and save me time.

I saw a video a few weeks ago of a woman who was comped some drinks by the manager of a restaurant who got offended by the gesture. Must have been the wife of your mechanic or something. Too funny!

 

I don't think you understand the pride that top technicians take in the service they provide.
They have years of training, 20 to $40,000+ in personal tools, and make serious money.

A couple cases of beer might be appropriate for the janitors. Do you offer beer to your dentist?

 

Since I live in Jupiter, Florida, I have dealt with the two dealerships (North Palm Beach and West Palm Beach) for many years. For the last four years or so, our family have leased our MB's from Ft. Pierce Mercedes Benz. I happen to know the General Manager at Ft. Pierce from when I use to work with him in West Palm Beach, Fl. The level of vehicle service at Ft. Pierce is superb. The sales staff is awesome as well. As a matter of fact, a number of the staff members that worked at the West Palm Beach dealership for many years, are now working at Ft. Pierce. I am surprised as well at the level of service at the two local dealerships that you mentioned. I am pretty sure that if you bring your issues to their respective general managers, the results will be satisfactory to you.

 

I agree Fort Pierce is superb. I do know Brian and Russell. Brian who is the General Manager, took it upon himself to call me and give me his personal number when he learned what had happened in WPB and NPB. That says a lot.
To be fair, the GM at NPB called me to reassure me when I had bad experiences there in the past. unfortunately, the service department there never tightened up. You are correct in that many on the management side, sales and service that were not happy with the dealings at the 2 local dealerships, moved to FTP which is quite a distance away.