speedpeddler

Picked up my car from the dealer yesterday after an alignment and almost made it out of there before I got the very specific instructions from my SA on how to respond to the "survey".

They now have a new catagory of satisfaction, "beyond my wildest expectations", and of course, if they don't get all, "beyond my wildest expectations", rating, they could lose their job.

I am so offended by this begging for ratings that I refuse to participate. Does my SA really think I care if he's employed? Or, that anybody anywhere can be, "satisfied beyond expectations"? Or, that I'm going to conspire with him to inflate his level of service like we're bud's or something?

Seems to me they want a pat on the back for doing what the're supposed to do. You know, doing your job. They did everything I expected them to do, did it on time as promised and returned the car clean and undamaged. As expected. Nothing more.

If there are any SA's reading this, I'd like to hear your side.

Rant over.

JonMBZ

Im no service advisor, but if they did everything they wanted you to do whats the problem? They can lose their job I have seen it at many places. If you don't care if they have a job (which is pretty ****ty) then do what you are doing and don't submit it. They are telling you the truth and they have to beg because they like being employed. I don't see why it is such a big deal to you at all. Unless they really screw up I would never submit a bad survey. MBUSA creates these policies rightfully so, to make sure you get the MB experience that obviously you think is mandatory.

Donovan386

I also just bought a new Toyota Tacoma a few weeks back and they talked to me for several minutes about how there would be this survey and they need my help to bring up their ratings, blah blah blah. Pretty damn annoying to say the least. I think it's they even are allowed to say anything to us about it. They're never going to get the honest truth if they bully their customers into giving them good results. If we're truely satisfied, we'll let the surveyor know. Worse part about the toyota survey- the salesman actually gets back the survey results and knows what each of his customers said about him so he can then call and confront you about it.

JonMBZ

no one is going to confront you, of course they get the results if they didn't how would they be able to fix their mistakes if they didn't ?

Hammer Down

+1 and if you are not friends or good friends with your SA then you should become friends. I've gone out to lunch with my SA and Head Tech and I always stop by just to shoot the *****.

Donovan386

I gave them a great review- I think it's more of the "give me a good review or i'm going to get fired" that puts me off. They are trying to guilt you into giving them a good review, regardless of how the transaction may have gone. If you do your job, you have nothing to worry about.

JonMBZ

If you get anything less than perfect it's not satisfactory to them I do agree that the system is not great and not really fair to you, but it's the only way they think they can make the customer happy. You cant really blame the SA and like hammer says it's always good to be friends with the SA it can end up saving you a lot of money when it comes time to fix/service your vehicle.

AMGfan

I wonder why I never got a survey call after they status 8 my car two years ago? I've gotten a survey call every other time I've gone in for a service.

I personally have never been begged by a SA to opine on their "beyond my wildest expectations" service. I just find it annoying I can't state that the SA was fine but the dealership has a ridiculous pricing structure and the inability to fix something vs replace something when something is out of warranty (which are both out of the SA's control).

AreL11

I am not sure how MB does it, but a bad review (unjustly) can be held over your head. A few years ago I was leaving a service appointment and overheard a guy begging a service manager to "help him out" over a transmission issue. The guy was like 1000 miles over his warranty and the service manager asked him why he gave them a bad survey the year before and hadn't been back since. The guy said, "Because I was mad." The service manager refused to "help him out" because of it. My SA just explained that I would get a survey and anything less that completely satisfied was a fail. No pressure, but he said if I had any issues with the service to let him know immediately so he could take care of it.

AMGfan

That's true but what happens when the SA does all he/she can do but you still aren't satisfied, whether it stemming from upper management or the mechanical side. How are we supposed to answer the survey truthfully but still indicate that the SA was working hard to right by us? In the end, he gets screwed if you are truthful or MB gets their "Superduper Extra Special" service effort gold mark when in truth you were not happy but only protecting your SA from getting a bad mark.

JamE55

I'd be doing the same thing every single day if my SA looked like this...

speedpeddler

For the record, I have never given anyone a bad review. If there's a problem, I'm going to bring it up immediately and not wait until I complete the survey. I just have a problem being put in a position where I'm asked to respond to a survey in a certain way regardless of how I really feel about it. My SA did a good job. Did he exceed my wildest expectations? No, and I don't like the pressure to say otherwise.

If I have a relationship with a SA it's because they're good at their job, not because I scratch his back with undeserved or unearned compliments and praise on a survey. I do think MB for the most part does a good job with service at the dealer I go to. For the prices they charge, they should. But, it's what I expect and nothing out of the ordinary.

I also own a Honda, a BMW and a Nissan. The service experience isn't much different there even though the prices are considerably less.

Hammer Down

KipF

The way the survey is worded, it is difficult to give top ratings in every category. I feel it is unfair to the SA to have this held over his head. Some things on the survey are beyond the control of the SA. I found this out after answering one very honestly, giving my SA top ratings but the dealer itself only above average. Since I now know all of it effects my SA, I give top ratings on everything. My SA always goes way above board to help me out. The least I can do is return the favor. It's not his fault that MBNA sends us a poorly worded survey.

JoelE55

I think this is pretty stupid for SA to beg to save their job. It's heartless for anyone not to be fair..If the SA did the best they can trying to solve the problems of your vehicle and it's only fair that we did our very best to support them in survey, it doesn't hurt anyone but to help them like they are trying to help us. I work in a dealership and I've seen many SA that are out of a job because of this surveys. In this economic it is hard enought to keep or find a job. Have a heart and help a poor guy out!!..Peace,

AreL11

Well I would think if it went to upper management they'd be aware of the issue before the survey hit. I think bringing any issues up immediately would nip a lot of the survey problems in the bud. Hey, if you're ultimately not happy and feel you need to leave them bad marks, that is what it's there for. I would always leave it good as a bargaining chip for the future. "Hey, Mr. SA or MGR. Even though you guys dropped the ball about XYZ in the past, I always took care of you on your surveys. Do the right thing by me this time." You know? Thankfully my SA is a good friend of my Dad, so that helps come service time.

Yacht Master

Any service adviser worth his or her salt would never ask, beg, instruct, request, suggest, coach or in any other way influence your survey feedback. If they try any of the afore mentioned tactics they need to find a new job. A good SA has not a worry in the world.
If you are jacked for good feedback, call MBUSA and report it. The dealerships have to cut their rank & file anyway, somebody's got to go. Do your part to make sure the bad ones hit the streets.

220S

+1 on making your SA your friend. It's like your doctor, ya know. Find a good one and treat them decent and they'll treat you decent back. I think this is the way it works in all fields. SAs can be human, too. My SA (at a different dealer than where I bought the car) is really great and he knows I won't bust his b*lls.

On another note, I had the worst experience I've ever had in my life trying to buy my car from the dealer. They jacked me around and treated me like sh*t.

They were complete a**holes. And after knowingly treating me that way (they kept trying to go back on the price we had agreed to), they begged me to write up a positive survey. And I mean begged. I haven't done one yet from MBUSA and I ignored the one the dealer emailed me.

I really want to write a letter to MBUSA about it. Only problem is my sale guy was super nice. It was sales management (a new crew brought in from Toyota by the corporate parents) that s**ked. Toyota, WTF?

So, I don't want to burn the sales guy (he's been there 11 years before it was sold to a corporate "profit is all that matters" auto group.) Afterwards he told me things have gone downhill and all corporate cares about is moving product.

I bought a new $96K MSRP car and I ended up feeling like I had just shopped at some bargain counterfeit shop on Santee Alley or something. Yeah, I fought for the deal and got it, but after I sealed it, it was like, "take the car and get outta here."

And I'm a nice guy, I was super polite and even tried to joke around with them to make it less painful (they even said that I was) but they were downright b.s. and made it the worst day I've had in a long time.

Sorry for the rant. If you want to know which dealership, pm me.

Wryfox

All I know is whenever they know they did good, i get a survey. When they don't do good or it is delayed, I don't get a survey. It's a game that's manipulated, not a feedback system.

kvmbe55

Wish I got a survey when I paid a grand for a repair I didn't need. Everything else that was broken was working as designed according to my SA.