Unusual MB Service...an open letter
09-02-2003, 05:40 PM
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ML430 2001
Unusual MB Service...an open letter
Tuesday, September 2, 2003
Leeann Furrow
President
Mercedes-Benz of Knoxville
10131 Parkside Drive
Knoxville, TN 37922-1945
Dear Leeann,
I almost didn’t buy a Mercedes-Benz. I had heard so many horror stories about snooty dealers, bad service, bad attitude, etc. from friends and especially the Mercedes-Benz online forums. I drove a Lexus and a BMW and knew their services were great. But my wife wanted a Benz, she drove one when we met. So last month I went to my local dealer and drove off with an ML430.
Why am I telling you all of this. Well last Saturday, twenty miles north of Knoxville, we (myself, wife & 2 children) had a flat. We were heading home with raw, emotions back from my father’s funeral. Within ten minutes after Tele-Aid I received a call from Jeffrey Sharp to inform us he was on his way. Polite & friendly, he changed our tire and because we were packed to the gills, he hauled the flat tire to a local Pep Boys so we could have the tire patched. I discovered that the flat had damaged the sidewalls and was now unsafe. With another 500 miles to go we knew we would not be able to get home on the spare. It was 5:00PM on a holiday weekend and without a solution we would be stuck until Tuesday morning. Pep Boys did not have the right size, nor could they find one.
I called Jeffery back and told him of my plight. He replied that he did not know if parts stocked the General tires that I had but said he would go back (45 minute drive) to your dealership, and was confident he could at least find a used tire that could get us home. After Pep Boys finally got back on the road, we traveled back south to your dealership (8:00PM on a Saturday!) and was greeted by Rick Soloman who assured us we would be back on the road in no time, and that Jeffery was in the shop waiting for us. Rick drove in to help Jeffrey find the right tire...turns out you did have a new one. Jeffery escorted my family to the waiting room, turned on the TV, offered us beverages and went to work. I went out to the shop after about 30 minutes and was introduced to Pete Keely, a service technician. Jeffrey wanted to make sure he balanced the tire correctly, called Pete and he interrupted his date to help.
I could not believe the selflessness of these men, the generosity of their time and their compassion…not to mention their dedication to MB of Knoxville. I cannot thank them enough nor adequately share what the experience meant, and will always mean, to my family. I hope you have a way to honor them within your organization.
I have posted this letter on every Mercedes-Benz forum I can find.
Forever Grateful,
cc: Bill Pridvy – GM of MB of Knoxville; Paul Halata – President of Mercedes-Benz USA
:) :)
Leeann Furrow
President
Mercedes-Benz of Knoxville
10131 Parkside Drive
Knoxville, TN 37922-1945
Dear Leeann,
I almost didn’t buy a Mercedes-Benz. I had heard so many horror stories about snooty dealers, bad service, bad attitude, etc. from friends and especially the Mercedes-Benz online forums. I drove a Lexus and a BMW and knew their services were great. But my wife wanted a Benz, she drove one when we met. So last month I went to my local dealer and drove off with an ML430.
Why am I telling you all of this. Well last Saturday, twenty miles north of Knoxville, we (myself, wife & 2 children) had a flat. We were heading home with raw, emotions back from my father’s funeral. Within ten minutes after Tele-Aid I received a call from Jeffrey Sharp to inform us he was on his way. Polite & friendly, he changed our tire and because we were packed to the gills, he hauled the flat tire to a local Pep Boys so we could have the tire patched. I discovered that the flat had damaged the sidewalls and was now unsafe. With another 500 miles to go we knew we would not be able to get home on the spare. It was 5:00PM on a holiday weekend and without a solution we would be stuck until Tuesday morning. Pep Boys did not have the right size, nor could they find one.
I called Jeffery back and told him of my plight. He replied that he did not know if parts stocked the General tires that I had but said he would go back (45 minute drive) to your dealership, and was confident he could at least find a used tire that could get us home. After Pep Boys finally got back on the road, we traveled back south to your dealership (8:00PM on a Saturday!) and was greeted by Rick Soloman who assured us we would be back on the road in no time, and that Jeffery was in the shop waiting for us. Rick drove in to help Jeffrey find the right tire...turns out you did have a new one. Jeffery escorted my family to the waiting room, turned on the TV, offered us beverages and went to work. I went out to the shop after about 30 minutes and was introduced to Pete Keely, a service technician. Jeffrey wanted to make sure he balanced the tire correctly, called Pete and he interrupted his date to help.
I could not believe the selflessness of these men, the generosity of their time and their compassion…not to mention their dedication to MB of Knoxville. I cannot thank them enough nor adequately share what the experience meant, and will always mean, to my family. I hope you have a way to honor them within your organization.
I have posted this letter on every Mercedes-Benz forum I can find.
Forever Grateful,
cc: Bill Pridvy – GM of MB of Knoxville; Paul Halata – President of Mercedes-Benz USA
:) :)
09-02-2003, 06:23 PM
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08 E320 Bluetec
That's a neat story. I like my dealership in Phoniex, although I live in Tucson. The dealership in Tucson is notorius for bad service, bad deals, etc. Once the sales manager threw the set of keys for the car I was trying to trade in. At me, Hard. When we couldn't come to a deal.
The point is why can't Mercedes Benz ride herd on all there dealerships and hold them to some kind of standred?
The point is why can't Mercedes Benz ride herd on all there dealerships and hold them to some kind of standred?
09-02-2003, 07:14 PM
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2002 ML320
Yeah I wish we had MB dealers like that here in NY. Discounts are unheard of at some of the larger stealerships here, plus the service is very bad. At least at the dealers in LI that I've been to.
Lexus dealers (again, here in NY - don't know about other places) are supposed to be infinitely better in that regard - they have a very good reputation for bending over backwards for their customers, while MB is now gaining notoriety here for poor service and now unfortunately for unreliability and lack of a smooth and enjoyable experience.
Lexus holds dealers to standard - MB should definitely as well, as MB's market share will be reduced drastically at some point in the future when the 'honor' of the three-pointed star ceases to exist - IMO that's what's going to happen if something drastic isn't done at MB. It's hard to imagine how much the quality on Mercedes models has dropped in the last 10 years - there's simply no comparison between, for example, a W124 300E and a modern E320. The old model is much much more solid - as they used to term it - 'bank vault solidity.'
So let's hope MB does some homework and gets itself back on track - how can a company like Saturn get better owner satisfaction ratings than MB?
Yes, I know a lot of the rankings are not fair, etc., but just touching and looking at a modern MB will tell you "they don't make 'em like they used to" 
Lexus dealers (again, here in NY - don't know about other places) are supposed to be infinitely better in that regard - they have a very good reputation for bending over backwards for their customers, while MB is now gaining notoriety here for poor service and now unfortunately for unreliability and lack of a smooth and enjoyable experience.
Lexus holds dealers to standard - MB should definitely as well, as MB's market share will be reduced drastically at some point in the future when the 'honor' of the three-pointed star ceases to exist - IMO that's what's going to happen if something drastic isn't done at MB. It's hard to imagine how much the quality on Mercedes models has dropped in the last 10 years - there's simply no comparison between, for example, a W124 300E and a modern E320. The old model is much much more solid - as they used to term it - 'bank vault solidity.'
So let's hope MB does some homework and gets itself back on track - how can a company like Saturn get better owner satisfaction ratings than MB?
Yes, I know a lot of the rankings are not fair, etc., but just touching and looking at a modern MB will tell you "they don't make 'em like they used to"
09-03-2003, 11:45 PM
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2008 BMW 335xi Coupe
Originally posted by mbakshi
Yeah I wish we had MB dealers like that here in NY. Discounts are unheard of at some of the larger stealerships here, plus the service is very bad. At least at the dealers in LI that I've been to.
Lexus dealers (again, here in NY - don't know about other places) are supposed to be infinitely better in that regard - they have a very good reputation for bending over backwards for their customers, while MB is now gaining notoriety here for poor service and now unfortunately for unreliability and lack of a smooth and enjoyable experience.
Lexus holds dealers to standard - MB should definitely as well, as MB's market share will be reduced drastically at some point in the future when the 'honor' of the three-pointed star ceases to exist - IMO that's what's going to happen if something drastic isn't done at MB. It's hard to imagine how much the quality on Mercedes models has dropped in the last 10 years - there's simply no comparison between, for example, a W124 300E and a modern E320. The old model is much much more solid - as they used to term it - 'bank vault solidity.'
So let's hope MB does some homework and gets itself back on track - how can a company like Saturn get better owner satisfaction ratings than MB? Yes, I know a lot of the rankings are not fair, etc., but just touching and looking at a modern MB will tell you "they don't make 'em like they used to"
Yeah I wish we had MB dealers like that here in NY. Discounts are unheard of at some of the larger stealerships here, plus the service is very bad. At least at the dealers in LI that I've been to.
Lexus dealers (again, here in NY - don't know about other places) are supposed to be infinitely better in that regard - they have a very good reputation for bending over backwards for their customers, while MB is now gaining notoriety here for poor service and now unfortunately for unreliability and lack of a smooth and enjoyable experience.
Lexus holds dealers to standard - MB should definitely as well, as MB's market share will be reduced drastically at some point in the future when the 'honor' of the three-pointed star ceases to exist - IMO that's what's going to happen if something drastic isn't done at MB. It's hard to imagine how much the quality on Mercedes models has dropped in the last 10 years - there's simply no comparison between, for example, a W124 300E and a modern E320. The old model is much much more solid - as they used to term it - 'bank vault solidity.'
So let's hope MB does some homework and gets itself back on track - how can a company like Saturn get better owner satisfaction ratings than MB?
Yes, I know a lot of the rankings are not fair, etc., but just touching and looking at a modern MB will tell you "they don't make 'em like they used to"
09-04-2003, 10:20 PM
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2002 ML320
Originally posted by kostas
which dealerships on LI u go to? i live on LI also.. and the best one i would think is Rallye Roslyn.. my fanily has been very very happy there.. always getting everything fixed on time.. and always giving us good deals.. great service..
which dealerships on LI u go to? i live on LI also.. and the best one i would think is Rallye Roslyn.. my fanily has been very very happy there.. always getting everything fixed on time.. and always giving us good deals.. great service..
From our experiences with Rallye, they've been very snobbish, useless, and expensive.
And we have a number of family friends who said they will never buy an MB again after their experience at Rallye MB with E's and ML's. These people then went over to Lexus and say they are very happy with them...
Rallye is a very big dealer (they're soon also going to be selling Maybachs), but we haven't had a very good experience with them at all. Whenever something is necessary, usually it's a lot smoother to go to an MB dealer like Helms Bros. or some others, although they still are not even close to the quality of service that MB dealers in other states give from what I've seen.
I've heard some other people say they've had a good experience at Rallye - there's nothing really that I can think of except maybe some kind of race-related thing.
It's just that walking into there, it seems, atleast IMO, that you're some kind of second-class citizen or something. Even Penn Toyota has given better service with our Previas than Rallye has. Maybe others have had a different experience though 
09-09-2003, 11:56 PM
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1999 ML 430
Originally posted by Chip
That's a neat story. I like my dealership in Phoniex, although I live in Tucson. The dealership in Tucson is notorius for bad service, bad deals, etc. Once the sales manager threw the set of keys for the car I was trying to trade in. At me, Hard. When we couldn't come to a deal.
The point is why can't Mercedes Benz ride herd on all there dealerships and hold them to some kind of standred?
That's a neat story. I like my dealership in Phoniex, although I live in Tucson. The dealership in Tucson is notorius for bad service, bad deals, etc. Once the sales manager threw the set of keys for the car I was trying to trade in. At me, Hard. When we couldn't come to a deal.
The point is why can't Mercedes Benz ride herd on all there dealerships and hold them to some kind of standred?
