patrick

From time to time I read stories about cars not being correctly repaired, service advisors telling strange stories or not knowing anything about it and so on...
But, some things I just do not understand!
If there is a strange problem with a car, who listens to you, who writes the story down so the mechanic can do his job well? Who tells the mechanic what to do? What to look for?...
Who answers technical questions? Who explains difficult repairs or troubleshooting to the customers? And so on...

What I am trying to say is:
For me a "Service Advisor" is someone who works at the reception (if this is the proper word in English). He receives the customers, takes telephone calls, makes the planning, makes the invoices and so on...

But who knows most about technical matters? Certainly not a Service Advisor? I should think a good mechanic or the workshop foreman or workshop supervisor or whatever you call it in the USA. They are the people that study the vehicle systems in depth. Service advisors only know superficial. For me, if there are really problems with a car the Service Advisor should call the Workshop Supervisor/skilled mechanic/... Same for really technical questions: why ask the Service Advisor if you really want THE answer?

Please explain me how this works in the USA?

mleskovar

Your explanation of Service Adivsors in the USA seems accurate. At least at the dealer I go to. If it's a common, easy, or recuring problem they know how to write it up. The more information you give them the better it goes...usually, unless lack of replacement parts gets in the way. If it is an intermittent or hard to define problem the SA tries to narrow the symptoms to a specific area but will seek technical help if unsure or if the customer requests/demands. I hope you get an answer from an MB person to either verify or refute my assessment.

patrick

The reason why I posted this is that when reading about people having technical problems and/or complaints about their dealer, I only read "the SA said this...", "the SA said that..." and so on, but I never read about people getting in contact with really technically skilled people.

If I test drive must be made (e.g. a certain noise,...), who does it? The SA?

I think, from what I read on this forum, that many SA's just want to do things beyond their skills and that does not help anyone.

RED-CLK

That's why I go to an independent M-B repair facility. You get to talk with the owner and the mechanic who will ultimately work on the car. My local dealership here in Scottsdale Az. goes to great lengths to isolate the customer (me) from the mechanic via the service advisor. The car just disappears, I don't like that type of system. The BMW dealership is the same way.

patrick

...that is what I want to say!

Are it SA's who do those repairs???? I guess not, so why should they know????