Bad Service

[tobro]

Just collected my 05 E class estate from the main dealers (John R Weir Perth) following a respray on a rusty tailgaite. I had been warned by a friend and ex employee of the dealership to check the car thoroughly as he advised quality control had been an issue here in the past.
On first seeing the car ,it took me roughly 30 seconds to notice a total of 5 problems. .. overspray to both rear wings, a large scratch to the rear light lense and dirty internal trim......But the 'Pièce de Résistance' (and even I was looking for the camera as I thought it must be a wind up) - when I dropped the car off it was an E320; when I got it back it was an E230 DERRR!!!!!

Only had the car for one year and i've already had it with main dealers. This isnt the first problem i've had so Independent it is for me next time....

 

[Captain Flack]

Look at the positive side. Lower MPG and cheaper insurance.

It's awful that a dealer can fail on basic quality standards. Make sure thay do it properly next time or take it elsewhere and send them the bill.

 

[Parrot of Doom]

Probably not a good idea to name and shame on this forum......perhaps edit your post to mention just the region?

 

[tobro]

Probably not a good idea to name and shame on this forum......perhaps edit your post to mention just the region?

Fair point and in the cold light of day probably sensible.....only I dont seem to have an edit option on this thread :-?

 

[padtwo]

Unbelieveable mate. ONe of the things that draws me to these cars is the quality of the finish! Is there anyway of preventing the dreaded rusting tailgate. I'm now on my third estate and all of them have suffered the same.

 

[tobro]

Unbelieveable mate. ONe of the things that draws me to these cars is the quality of the finish! Is there anyway of preventing the dreaded rusting tailgate. I'm now on my third estate and all of them have suffered the same.

Rust was not excessive (couple of 4mm bubbles one of which had just perforated)...yeah I know bad enough for a two year old car.... so I had it assessed whilst in for a service and warranty work was agreed. The bodyshop said they had seen one or two W211's so far with similar problems on the tailgate but not elswhere on the car.

 

[RGubbioli]

Probably not a good idea to name and shame on this forum......perhaps edit your post to mention just the region?

Can you explain your logic for saying this? Reason I ask is that I totally disagree with it.

I strongly believe that if a dealer is so poor that they ruin a 40/50k car by overspraying etc everyone should be made aware of it, shame that only a small part of the Mercedes owning population reads these forums. By naming and shaming other people don't risk going there, and hopefully this will either make them improve their service or make them go out of business (which is what they deserve).

This is the power of the internet and part if the point of these forums, people can be made aware of cowboys out there. I really don't see why we should be all so demure about naming bad companies. I know its not in the British tradition to complain, but there is a limit to how much bad service one can accept.

 

[jibcl500]

I agree with Ricco, we used to name the Porsche dealers and indies if the service was crap why not MB, so what if they get wind of it,

Heres one to start with

MB Leicester (Tossers)


jib

 

[television]

Its perfectly OK to say who did the bad job, whilst it could be seen as continuous to have a section for those dealers you can post, and say it here.

 

[RGubbioli]

Its perfectly OK to say who did the bad job, whilst it could be seen as continuous to have a section for those dealers you can post, and say it here.

Yep, I also noticed so many recent threads are 'can you recommend an indie...'.

Maybe we could have a section dedicated to garages / independents specifically for this? (this question to the moderators, if they're reading) Would make sense to have a record of this kinsd of information. I know it should be searched for, but people often don't bother and sometimes you may miss stuff because of misspellings or searches for different terms (independent vs specialist, for instance).

 

[Blobcat]

Yep, I also noticed so many recent threads are 'can you recommend an indie...'.

Maybe we could have a section dedicated to garages / independents specifically for this? (this question to the moderators, if they're reading) Would make sense to have a record of this kinsd of information. I know it should be searched for, but people often don't bother and sometimes you may miss stuff because of misspellings or searches for different terms (independent vs specialist, for instance).

This comes up occasionally and there are quite a few threads on the subject recommending (or not) independants and dealers.
The issues I see with recommendations is that it is only members opinions, I have seen recommendations for garages and also 'never use them' for the same garage :-?. As this is a free forum there is nothing stopping garages registering and saying that they have had excellent service at their own garage and also rubbishing the competition :evil:.
I also doubt that if there was a section with recommendations in that new members would not still be asking for advice .
However if someone wishes to search through the forum and pull all the recommendations and condemnations together then it could be made a sticky.

 

[RGubbioli]

Blocat, On second thoughts, I agree with you. Having a new section may not stop people asking for advice, plus I reckon there would be less people browsing there anyways (for example, I only look at this section or the spares for sale one, but never been on the others), so all in all a sticky is the best solution. Having said that, unfortunately I don't have the time to trawl through all the posts to consolidate into one massive thread, so I guess its not happening, at least for now...

Regarding the issue of garages registering, that too is a potential problem, although not so large. If someone signs up and all, or most, of their posts are only of praise for a particular garage, this can be seen by doing a 'find all posts by XXXX' search. Similarly, if a garage is on here and is actually contribuiting beyond building their own hype, then its a good sign as they are passionate enough about Mercs to spend their time helping members with their problems. Having said this, this will always remain an issue to a certain extent.

The above reminds me of another forum, related to scooters, I used to read. It was setup by the owner of a well known scooter dealer who was clearly an enthusiast but not without some bias. Any post of a technical nature would inevitably have him responding (almost instantly as he was always online) with 'you can either f**** it up by doing it yourself, or take it to a garage that knows what their doing'. And this was referring to mopeds, not exactly highly complicated vehicles! Obviously I stopped going there after a while...

 

[television]

Purely on the grounds that no one is perfect, and after 55 years of being self employed, you cant please all of the people all of the time, no matter how hard you try.the words good or bad cant be said

I think that a list of independents would be first class.

If we could have this section sticky, I am happy top round some up to kick off with, we have many here now,Black,Griffiths,MBS,124, Fate and many more

I think it should be a condition that once posted and stuck, the original should be deleted to keep it clean and simple.

I am happy to copy any post over to WORD, and edit to the same format listing all details and specialties offered, then repost If Blobcat can then sticky the list,my list can then be deleted.

Open to thoughts on this

 

[Jensen]

RUST!!!!!!!!!! On a W211, I was led to believe these were all galvernised post 03/04. I was saving my hard earnt for one, but this has knocked me.
Hawk and others??

 

[jberks]

I have to say I'm surprised. I was a bit stunned whn my Dads 03 had to go in for a few traces on the inner edges of the rear wheelarches.
On the poor service. A lot of the dealers actaully use external contract body shops and I wonder whether this is the case here.
When I had my 210 patched up (annually) whoever the dealer used was first class. I was always impressed. This time (my dad) - we were apalled. They'd basically blown a bit of paint over the top. There was still big clumps of mud under the metalwork!
He took it back and they then ignored it for 2 weeks.

 

[tobro]

On the poor service. A lot of the dealers actaully use external contract body shops and I wonder whether this is the case here
.

This wasnt the case here I'm afraid to say. The work was done in the main dealer's bodyshop.