BREAKING NEWS! Dealership Service Departments Don't Care About You!
11-08-2011, 05:57 PM
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'00 CLK430 & '08 Lexus RX 350
BREAKING NEWS! Dealership Service Departments Don't Care About You!
I have a short story to tell and would love to ask for your opinion once you have suffered through reading it!
Additionally I ask that you please forget we're friends, colleagues and fellow MB lovers...just read the story for the details. Consider that this could easily be your own story. What is your opinion? How would you feel? What if you were the service manager making the decisions in this matter? What say you?
Without further adieu;
My story begins on a normal workday morning as I pull into the parking deck at work. Unbeknownst to me, as I hop out of the car, lock up and head for the office, my headlights were were still shining on the parking deck wall behind me.
I left my headlights on for only a few hours and sure enough, as I approached the lifeless vehicle with visions of a nice lunch hour, I realized my remote would not unlock the doors. She was dead! Really dead and in need of a jump start. I pulled out the phone and dialed up the trusty MB Roadside assistance and asked them to dispatch a tech to my location and deliver me from my dead battery situation.
About 4 hours later, the very polite MB roadside tech arrived, jumped the car, I tipped him, paid for his parking fee in the deck, thanked him and showed him where to exit and be on his way.
Almost immediately after the guy was out of sight and my attention was back on my car, I noticed that neither of my headlamps were working. I called MB roadside back for advice and they suggested I go to the dealer service dept.
To make a long story short(ish), I brought my car to the MB Buckhead service department where they promptly declined responsibility for shorting out two lamp ballasts / igniters and the cost to replace both would be roughly $2600.00.
I feel it is important to mention at this point that both headlights are relatively new. One is a mere 3 months old and the other only 3 years old. The original lights I had in the car lived for over 7 years before I had to replace them due to an accident. Mind you...these things are built to last years if not for the life of the car. Bulbs you replace, but not $1200 headlamp assemblies unless you've had an accident and crush one to bits!
Thankfully, one of the lamps was still under a 12 mo. parts warranty.
Given that they were stonewalling me and my efforts to have the dealership admit liability were going nowhere, I asked them to go ahead and replace the battery and the one headlamp that was under warranty and declined the replacement of the headlamp that was no longer under the parts warranty.
I made this decision for two reasons; 1) I could not afford to replace the $1300 headlamp and 2) because I felt MB Buckhead and their roadside assistance should acknowledge that the jump they provided was the root cause for both lamps to be blown / shorted simultaneously....I just needed a bit more time to convince them.
Boy that was wishful thinking!
In fact the service adviser tells me that he can "hypothesize all day long" but can not tell me what caused such a short on two virtually brand new and completely separate units.
So much for a diagnosis!
Isn't the simple definition of diagnosis the act or process of identifying or determining the nature and cause of a disease or injury through evaluation of history, examination, and review of relevant data? So if you are charging me full price I want a full diagnosis...I want to know what caused this. Of course they were not about to give me the cause because I believe that would leave them liable.
What the service adviser was able to tell me is only that they were both blown (Duh!), that they would warranty one, wouldn't pay for the other and just how much it was gonna cost me!
Soooo. I figure I'll find a way to get the other headlamp working on my own dime and not involve MB Buckhead any further than the new battery and the one lamp replaced under warranty. After 6 (S-I-X) business days, I arrived to pick up the car and planned to pay only for the new battery.....but nooooooo!
How could I be so naive!? There's that obligatory "Diagnosis" fee of course! And as described above, I got a partial diagnosis at best and to boot they determined that one of two lamps was under warranty! So b/c it was a warranty issue I shouldn't have to pay for the diagnosis of that right?
WRONG!
MB Buckhead charged me $150 diagnostic fee for determining that a warranty part was blown. I argued that I should not be charged since the "diagnosis" led to a warrantied item but b/c I declined the one lamp replacement that was not under parts warranty, they saw fit to charge me.
Assuming there was a trace of good customer service practice in their blood, Mercedes Benz of Buckhead saw fit to change how I was billed in order to save me $15 across the board! My service adviser changed the $150 diagnosis fee to a $125 installation/labor fee for the $160 battery I bought while I was there. So nice! (insert sarcasm here) Thank you!
So here I sit, writing to you out of frustration and bewilderment with $300 less than I had this morning for which I have a new battery and I still don't have the 2 working headlights that in my opinion were blown out by the very service department that wants to charged me to replace them!!
So now that you've suffered through this long and largely uninteresting story, I invite you to leave your opinion. Any will do!
Am I just mad that I paid $300 for a new battery and still don't have two working headlights? Did they royally screw me? Got any ideas or possible solutions to my problem? Learn to write in shorthand your story is too damn long? Serves you right for owning a car you can not afford?
Whatever you got....let me have it!
All humor aside, I really value your input and your opinion! I hope I haven't bored you. I hope you can relate to my story and maybe even be a little wiser having read it.
Regards,
Matt Minton
Additionally I ask that you please forget we're friends, colleagues and fellow MB lovers...just read the story for the details. Consider that this could easily be your own story. What is your opinion? How would you feel? What if you were the service manager making the decisions in this matter? What say you?
Without further adieu;
My story begins on a normal workday morning as I pull into the parking deck at work. Unbeknownst to me, as I hop out of the car, lock up and head for the office, my headlights were were still shining on the parking deck wall behind me.
I left my headlights on for only a few hours and sure enough, as I approached the lifeless vehicle with visions of a nice lunch hour, I realized my remote would not unlock the doors. She was dead! Really dead and in need of a jump start. I pulled out the phone and dialed up the trusty MB Roadside assistance and asked them to dispatch a tech to my location and deliver me from my dead battery situation.
About 4 hours later, the very polite MB roadside tech arrived, jumped the car, I tipped him, paid for his parking fee in the deck, thanked him and showed him where to exit and be on his way.
Almost immediately after the guy was out of sight and my attention was back on my car, I noticed that neither of my headlamps were working. I called MB roadside back for advice and they suggested I go to the dealer service dept.
To make a long story short(ish), I brought my car to the MB Buckhead service department where they promptly declined responsibility for shorting out two lamp ballasts / igniters and the cost to replace both would be roughly $2600.00.
I feel it is important to mention at this point that both headlights are relatively new. One is a mere 3 months old and the other only 3 years old. The original lights I had in the car lived for over 7 years before I had to replace them due to an accident. Mind you...these things are built to last years if not for the life of the car. Bulbs you replace, but not $1200 headlamp assemblies unless you've had an accident and crush one to bits!
Thankfully, one of the lamps was still under a 12 mo. parts warranty.
Given that they were stonewalling me and my efforts to have the dealership admit liability were going nowhere, I asked them to go ahead and replace the battery and the one headlamp that was under warranty and declined the replacement of the headlamp that was no longer under the parts warranty.
I made this decision for two reasons; 1) I could not afford to replace the $1300 headlamp and 2) because I felt MB Buckhead and their roadside assistance should acknowledge that the jump they provided was the root cause for both lamps to be blown / shorted simultaneously....I just needed a bit more time to convince them.
Boy that was wishful thinking!
In fact the service adviser tells me that he can "hypothesize all day long" but can not tell me what caused such a short on two virtually brand new and completely separate units.
So much for a diagnosis!
Isn't the simple definition of diagnosis the act or process of identifying or determining the nature and cause of a disease or injury through evaluation of history, examination, and review of relevant data? So if you are charging me full price I want a full diagnosis...I want to know what caused this. Of course they were not about to give me the cause because I believe that would leave them liable.
What the service adviser was able to tell me is only that they were both blown (Duh!), that they would warranty one, wouldn't pay for the other and just how much it was gonna cost me!
Soooo. I figure I'll find a way to get the other headlamp working on my own dime and not involve MB Buckhead any further than the new battery and the one lamp replaced under warranty. After 6 (S-I-X) business days, I arrived to pick up the car and planned to pay only for the new battery.....but nooooooo!
How could I be so naive!? There's that obligatory "Diagnosis" fee of course! And as described above, I got a partial diagnosis at best and to boot they determined that one of two lamps was under warranty! So b/c it was a warranty issue I shouldn't have to pay for the diagnosis of that right?
WRONG!
MB Buckhead charged me $150 diagnostic fee for determining that a warranty part was blown. I argued that I should not be charged since the "diagnosis" led to a warrantied item but b/c I declined the one lamp replacement that was not under parts warranty, they saw fit to charge me.
Assuming there was a trace of good customer service practice in their blood, Mercedes Benz of Buckhead saw fit to change how I was billed in order to save me $15 across the board! My service adviser changed the $150 diagnosis fee to a $125 installation/labor fee for the $160 battery I bought while I was there. So nice! (insert sarcasm here) Thank you!
So here I sit, writing to you out of frustration and bewilderment with $300 less than I had this morning for which I have a new battery and I still don't have the 2 working headlights that in my opinion were blown out by the very service department that wants to charged me to replace them!!
So now that you've suffered through this long and largely uninteresting story, I invite you to leave your opinion. Any will do!
Am I just mad that I paid $300 for a new battery and still don't have two working headlights? Did they royally screw me? Got any ideas or possible solutions to my problem? Learn to write in shorthand your story is too damn long? Serves you right for owning a car you can not afford?
Whatever you got....let me have it!
All humor aside, I really value your input and your opinion! I hope I haven't bored you. I hope you can relate to my story and maybe even be a little wiser having read it.
Regards,
Matt Minton
11-08-2011, 06:11 PM
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2003 CL600 2005 745Li
If I scanned thru this right MB Dealer charged you a free to determine that you have a problem cover under warranty ?
I had that happen to me by a BMW Dealer, I complained to the service manager that I should not be anything for a OEM warranty issue, he did not want to wave the fee. I called BMW directly, they called that Dealer and then the Dealer waved the fee. BMW did not like the dealer trying to pull that on me, nor did I.
I had that happen to me by a BMW Dealer, I complained to the service manager that I should not be anything for a OEM warranty issue, he did not want to wave the fee. I called BMW directly, they called that Dealer and then the Dealer waved the fee. BMW did not like the dealer trying to pull that on me, nor did I.
11-08-2011, 07:21 PM
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'96 SL600, '05 S55 AMG, '06 C230
Bad MB dealership reputations are, I think, fairly common; far more common than MB would like or recognize. Back in late 2005 on my SL600, I paid Fletcher Jones of Fremont (CA) well over $3,000 for engine repairs that did not solve the problem their Factory Service Guru (Andre) promised it would solve. After complaining to the Service Manager, I was told, in essence, ‘Go ahead and take us to court. I’ve dealt with this before.’ My jaw dropped. Needless to say, I’ve been turned off by MB dealers ever since and prefer a good indie repair shop.
As for your particular problem – and I am sympathetic – if you knew leaving the headlights on drained the battery, why didn’t you turn them off in the 4 hours awaiting the field guy? That’s probably the logic that MB of Buckhead is using. Although, giving away $130 for the sake of good customer relations would seem a better approach by the Service Manager. Yeah, I’d be miffed too!
Cheers,
Jeff
As for your particular problem – and I am sympathetic – if you knew leaving the headlights on drained the battery, why didn’t you turn them off in the 4 hours awaiting the field guy? That’s probably the logic that MB of Buckhead is using. Although, giving away $130 for the sake of good customer relations would seem a better approach by the Service Manager. Yeah, I’d be miffed too!
Cheers,
Jeff
11-08-2011, 09:10 PM
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Thank you both for your responses. Aside to Jeff, I'm actually not certain that I did leave them on. When my remote didnt allow entry, I tried the blade in the door. Having never been used I wasnt stunned to find the key didnt work well in the lock. It moved in the lock direction but not to the unlock position. Using some spit on the blade and some patience I was able to open the trunk and crawl through in order to unlock the doors and try to crank it up. It obviously didnt turn and it was at that point I realized the lights had been left on. While not 100%, I'm fairly certain I'd have turned off the lights at that point.
At any rate the guy did pup the hood and attached vice grips to the positive terminal under the hood and began to attach the jumper cables there. I stopped him and told him the trunk was open and he could access the battery directly. It all went downhill from there.
Thanks again for your replies.
At any rate the guy did pup the hood and attached vice grips to the positive terminal under the hood and began to attach the jumper cables there. I stopped him and told him the trunk was open and he could access the battery directly. It all went downhill from there.
Thanks again for your replies.
11-08-2011, 11:16 PM
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S500
Agree with MB-Dude i ALWAYS go to an indie shop my MB specialist locally. Not only he is a lot more reasonable in pricing, but he does not attempt to scam you like these BS dealer ships do. All they want is a returning happy satisfied client.
11-09-2011, 01:26 AM
#6
MBWorld Fanatic!
Thank you both for your responses. Aside to Jeff, I'm actually not certain that I did leave them on. When my remote didnt allow entry, I tried the blade in the door. Having never been used I wasnt stunned to find the key didnt work well in the lock. It moved in the lock direction but not to the unlock position. Using some spit on the blade and some patience I was able to open the trunk and crawl through in order to unlock the doors and try to crank it up. It obviously didnt turn and it was at that point I realized the lights had been left on. While not 100%, I'm fairly certain I'd have turned off the lights at that point.
At any rate the guy did pup the hood and attached vice grips to the positive terminal under the hood and began to attach the jumper cables there. I stopped him and told him the trunk was open and he could access the battery directly. It all went downhill from there.
Thanks again for your replies.
At any rate the guy did pup the hood and attached vice grips to the positive terminal under the hood and began to attach the jumper cables there. I stopped him and told him the trunk was open and he could access the battery directly. It all went downhill from there.
Thanks again for your replies.
MB Buckhead has a mixed reputation around Atlanta, they have lost a lot of customers to RBM of Atlanta and indies. So has Mercedes South, they were so bad at one point owners changed, and management was overhauled twice. There are some real horror stories, I can tell you that Mercedes South charged me $250 more for a brake job than other dealers. I raised hell and they changed the price. Buckhead Mercedes tried to charge me $800 to install my iPod kit, RBM installed it for $250. Point is, some of the MB dealers in GA are pretty horrible and at times you work with some jerk-off that makes the experience hell.
Oh..my buddy's recent experience @ Mercedes Classic - They messed up his alignment and he chewed through 2K of tires on his CLS55 which they had to replace. Only Butler Tire got the alignment right. He forgave this, and wanted to get his brakes done. He even bought those jerks gift baskets and his thanks? The dealer wanted $2600, the indie...$500. You know what happened.
I would suggest this...get in touch with MBUSA and the owners of Buckhead Mercedes, the Baranco's. Talk with the SM, another suggestion.
Lately, I have been using indies more and more, better service, prices are about 1/3 to 1/2 of the dealer prices. No rentals or lattes, but the ones I use have wifi and flat screen TV's
. However, when I want to use a dealer, I go to RBM. If they have a service coupon (ONLY IF), I only let Mercedes South do the service A/B.
11-09-2011, 10:41 AM
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Thanks to all for your feedback! BigBen, I agree completely with the indi route. I generally go that route in fact. That is unless there is an issue like this one where MB roadside came from that particular dealer. Appreciate the feedback all the way around.
Thanks again.
Thanks again.
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11-10-2011, 12:14 AM
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Compared to its major competitors, MB customer service experience often leaves a lot to be desired. A lot depends on the person you are dealing with.
I am selling my CL 600 only because I don't want to put up with MB-style customer experience. Sure, I could find an Indy shop and learn all part numbers.
The entire MB "ABC-experience" is one of the things that highlights what is wrong with MB-service. According to the manual, ABC needs no maintenance. In reality, it is exactly the poorly designed ABC that depreciates the cars so rapidly due to exorbitant part / maintenance costs. Note that I am not saying "labor costs".
Similarly, a car like a Benz should have simple filters installed to protect sensitive electronics from being shorted. It should not be possible to cause $2600 worth of damage by "jumping" the car!
I may have been spoiled by flawless Japanese cars and now expect the same fit and finish from Benz. The truth is, even if you spend $200K for a Benz, you will still get flimsy ABC as a part of the package.
Just my two cents.
I am selling my CL 600 only because I don't want to put up with MB-style customer experience. Sure, I could find an Indy shop and learn all part numbers.
The entire MB "ABC-experience" is one of the things that highlights what is wrong with MB-service. According to the manual, ABC needs no maintenance. In reality, it is exactly the poorly designed ABC that depreciates the cars so rapidly due to exorbitant part / maintenance costs. Note that I am not saying "labor costs".
Similarly, a car like a Benz should have simple filters installed to protect sensitive electronics from being shorted. It should not be possible to cause $2600 worth of damage by "jumping" the car!
I may have been spoiled by flawless Japanese cars and now expect the same fit and finish from Benz. The truth is, even if you spend $200K for a Benz, you will still get flimsy ABC as a part of the package.
Just my two cents.
Thanks to all for your feedback! BigBen, I agree completely with the indi route. I generally go that route in fact. That is unless there is an issue like this one where MB roadside came from that particular dealer. Appreciate the feedback all the way around.
Thanks again.
Thanks again.
11-10-2011, 02:31 PM
#10
MMM430, I'm sorry to hear that another MB owner has to experience bad customer service from a MB dealership.
I'm about to give up on the brand myself, although I plan on keeping my current model for some time.
These MB dealerships suck. Same goes with MBUSA.
I'm about to give up on the brand myself, although I plan on keeping my current model for some time.
These MB dealerships suck. Same goes with MBUSA.
