Love the car, hate the dealerships. To the degree started to think what can I replace my 2018 awesome red wagon with another brand name.
I have two dealerships around me and the service and loaners program just suck. Appointment available in 1 week, loaners (like c300) available in 10 days. Is that a treatment customer deserves after spending 130K on car?
What is your experience?

 

I dropped my wagon off for service at the appointment time. They called later asking if I was going to bring it in. So, great service!

 

Well that's not good. My experience with two dealerships has been fine. In fact, the store I currently use has an express lane for AMG. I usually wait because the maintenance rarely takes more than two hours. Only once did I have to leave it (software update and protective plate for front cooler) and it was ready as promised.

 

Haha! When I took my S in for service they gave me an S in return as a loaner, however, I never had an equal loaner with any other cars. I had better loaners at Porsche with a USED car! I'd take my, then, 997 in for something and leave with a brand new Panny or a brand new 911 for the day Even though the panny is a fat pig it was still nice to get a brand new loaner

 

My dealer is good at changing oil, denying valid warranty repairs, and taking people's money. That's about all. The dealer experience is a big sour note for me, combined with low Mercedes quality.

 

sorry to hear about bad experience some of members have...
my dealer makes it easy to schedule service and I can make choice between the loaner or ride home at the time of drop off....
keep in mind, you can go to Indy shop for regular maintenance work ...

 

ONe of the dealerships I frequent on the gulf coast is very nice to visit.
NO issues so far other then maybe human error but they always fess up and take care of any mistake they made...
Good prices...

Nice when the owner of the dealership owns a boat load of various dealerships for other brands...
And is family run...

QUESTION:
Do yall see high turn over in the service department who interact with us the paying customer?
Be is service advisor, payment clerk r parts counter?

Seems mine as peeps that have been there for 10 years or so.... which is nice...

 

I wonder why they don’t have enough loaner cars available? Maybe their cars break down and need service more than they anticipated.

 

When I choose my car I also choose my dealership. It’s the total package for me. I live in Houston, Texas so I have a few MB choices. I’ve driven further to work with a dealership that I know will treat me right after the sale. If you’re not getting that experience then you have ways of being heard. Start with the service manager then general manager. If nothing happens then keep moving up the chain. The squeaky wheel definitely wins here. So does social media. Put them on blast. They’ll react.

 

The loaner program is just a judgement call on overhead for the service department. If they are getting plenty of business without a fleet of dozens of S65 loaners then they won't be too motivated to add costs.

I had my first dealer service experience last week for my first year A-service. I took it to the closest dealer (Autonation), as the dealer that sold it to me (Independent MB dealer) is across the state. Not a disaster, but definitely lackluster on communication and lazy misinformation. There is another independent MB dealer about 40 minutes away that I will try for the two-year service.

 

I love the service at my dealership (Beverly Hills MB) – honestly consistently the best I have received in 25 years of car ownership. Unfortunately the same can't be said of their sales department, which is an absolute joke. It's good example that a dealership isn't unilaterally good or bad, but rather is a result of the management of its individual departments.

 

@sjb I chuckled when I noticed your signature.

The service department personnel have not changed in the two years I have been using my local dealership. I think they are genuinely decent people. I think their franchise owner and MB corporate are pitiful, when it comes to customer service, support and relationship. The service department manager and service advisor at my local dealership are just toeing the party line.

I think it's also relevant to disclose when posting, whether you are leasing or buying with the intent to own the car as long as economically possible. I am in the latter camp.

Renting, or rather leasing, avoids developing a deeper relationship with the dealer. Getting warranty repairs done and work beyond an oil change requires a less one-sided relationship, from the consumer's side of the coin.

Renting, I mean leasing, a car where you get the oil changed every 10k, grab a cup of coffee and granola bar, hop in the loaner, and come back in 2 hours, then return the car after 2 or 3 years of leasing, leads to a different service department relationship. Compared, for example, with owning a car for up to 10 years and 200k miles, and buying selected parts and service from the dealer, indy shops or online parts sources.

 

one bad experience and one good with the wagon. silver star mercedes is great! sb auto group kinda sucks big time....

 

I’m a new AMG owner and I purchased my car from a Dealership in East Texas but I leave in West Texas. After my drive home after purchasing the car I noticed the driver front wheel had some damage on it. I just couldn’t believe I didn’t notice it when I purchased the car. (Too Excited I Guess!) I thought for sure the dealership wasn’t going to take care of it, as I’ve already purchased the car and drove it across Texas before I noticed the damage. Luckily for me I just so happened to take pics of that exact wheel the night before I bought it and if you zoom in on the pic you can see the damage. I contacted the Dealership in East Texas and told them about the issue and after Weeks and Many Many Many phone calls they finally told me to visit my closest MB Dealership to get it looked at and handled. I thought to myself “Great” I need to go up there anyway to discuss another issue I’m having with the car, (Black Window Trim is Stained) I’ll show them the wheel and explain everything to them while I’m there.
Fast forward to the day I head up there and to my surprise, I discover how Terrible my local Dealership is. Besides them not wanting to take care of the damaged wheel, even though I gave them all the info from the East Texas Dealership to get it processed and handled. They said I have to deal with the dealership I bought the car from. I don’t know if they’re upset I didn’t buy the car from you them or what’s going on with that. But after More phone calls back and forth between both dealerships there’s an agreement to “Repair” the wheel not replace it!! So now I have to drop my car off for a full week and wait for them to get it repaired.
Also I didn’t get any help with the black window trim staining either. The service manager said, “there’s nothing they can or will do about it as it’s a known problem on the MB cars and MB isn’t doing anything about it! Now keep in mind my car has about 700 miles on it at this point and is Brand New.
I demanded to talk to someone else higher up the ladder to try to get some help and to find out I was already speaking to the Main Service Manager. After some complaints the Manager decided it was OK to take my phone number down on a random sticky note and said someone will call me in the next few days to discuss things. Of course that never happened.
In the end I still have a Damaged Wheel and Stained window Trim on a Brand New Car. I Absolutely Love my New Car but I’m having the Worst time getting Service Help!! Not sure what to do at this point. I may Call MB directly and see if that gets me somewhere.

 

Welcome to the forums!

That is truly pretty normal sounding to me. I really DO NOT understand how someone can pretend to take a phone number and never call you back! WHAT kind of man does that? Such a liar and a cheater is a man! It's almost as if you have to assume they're going to try and screw you.......record phone call, video record actual visits........what does it take these days? They are willing to fawk us over we should be willing to do the same to them!!

I'll never forget the time I took my brand new S class in for something and the shop FOREMAN backed it out of the welcome area into a fawking curb!!! THEN one of the other managers told me 'accidents happen". That was in Cary NC......they are true fawkers.