Dealership Service - Bad and Good

[suzanne]

Hi MBOA

I thought you might like to hear about my recent experiences whilst purchasing a used SLK 230K. It might prove useful should you wish to do business with the dealerships concerned. Sorry this is a rather lengthy thread!

I had to travel 250 miles to find the right car at the right price and had organised 4 viewings at MB main dealers, over a weekend in May. They had been informed before I visited of my intention to look at more than one car before making a decision and that I was travelling to do so.

So the down side :evil:

I arrived at MB Wakefield for my appointment (10.30-11am) to be informed that my salesman was 'in a meeting' and would be until 1.30pm. He appeared briefly but I was left to deal with a new 'new car' salesman who, whilst very competent, was unable to provide me with the necessary figures for part-ex or finance once I'd test-driven the car. I left the dealership to look at my next SLK safe in the knowledge that I had placed a £500 deposit on the car to reserve it, and that the new chap would be phoning me with the figures.

I happened to purchase the second SLK that I saw but was appalled by the salesman's attitude at MB Wakefield when I phoned to say that I'd found a better example than his elsewhere. I found him to be curt and nearly desperate to get off the phone to put the car back on sale. He confirmed that my deposit would be refunded that day (this did not happen - and is another story entirely!).

Whilst we all have off days in terms of customer service the salesman at Wakefield surpassed himself in an appalling show and I would advise others to think carefully before using them for used car sales. In any case I wouldn't bother visiting the dealership before 2pm on a Friday as most personnel are unavailable due to their weekly meeting. Finally, and adding insult to injury, they have even sent me a flyer to visit them at their new premises, I think not!

The UP SIDE!!!!

The dealership I purchased my SLK (98, 230K, Silver) from at MB Harrogate are worlds apart from Wakefield. Efficient, courteous, attentive, available and best of all nothing has been too much trouble. My compliments go to Alex Mountford, Stuart Morgan and their delivery driver who delivered it to my door in Suffolk just over a week ago.

I would thoroughly recommend them to anyone wishing to buy used or new, as as far as Harrogate are concerned as long as you are buying a Mercedes-Benz there is no difference!

I have written to MB Customer Services about both experiences and await their reply but I hope you get more of the latter whoever you may deal with in future.

SH

 

[david b]

Welcome to the world of Mercedes Benz, Great cars but the dealers leave a lot to be desired, best avoided!

 

[SLinKyjoe]

i went to derwent wakefield looking for a new SLK. they had just taken delivery of one in a spec i would be happy with. so i asked for a test drive etc and whether, the one they had in I could have. as it had just arrived that day, i was unable to take that one out, coz they hadnt given it a once over. so they said they would ring me. They also said I could not have it until it had been with them 3 months as a demo? I am still waiting...almost a year later....that said, I had placed an order with a different dealer and that meant a 4month wait...I was lucky...

I have heard of good reports from Harrogate and bad ones from wakefield...this confirms the same view...hopefully we will get more. it is a good idea to tell the dealer that you have seen this. that way they tend to live up to expectations by trying to help. altho maybes if you go into wakefield they may try to live down to expectations...I have been there twice and never had a good time. never bougt a car there as nothing would make me feel happy with them.

Leeds Derwent seems to have good soundings and has just opened the largest MB dealer in the UK. anyone wanna comment?

 

[littlebrooklyn]

We had a pretty unhelpful experience at our local Dealership in Watford. They were having a special offer with 2yrs free servicing on all cars sold over one particular weekend, so we just had a wander down there.

We found a nice C200 Estate, but I wasn?t happy with it being silver or having cloth interior. The salesman said my preference for blue was not a good idea as silver is much better etc and reassured us that fabric interior was often better than leather.

However what really got my back up was the way he did a check on our immaculate 5yr old Peugeot and tore it to pieces, picking up ?faults? so minor it was a joke. He then offered us such a derisory amount in part exchange that we said we would ?go away and think about it?.

We spent the whole evening looking on every Mercedes Dealership website until we found the blue car we were looking for at the Swindon Dealership, with leather interior, a year newer, 15,000 miles less on the clock and only a bit more expensive than the one we had seen at Watford. We also got another £1,000 part exchange for our car than Watford had offered us, a year?s tax and half a tank of petrol.

Just goes to show that it pays to shop around :grin:

 

[shrekky]

I am quite lucky in that i have a MB dealership on my doorstep in Sunderland :-D ..and i must say........what a GREAT dealership from the mechanics,parts dept. to the sales manager,all as helpful as the last,and talk about patience of a saint,must have to put up with me going there every 5 minutes asking silly questions.......:lol:.....always been given great advice,parts are delivered when they say they will be,even get a phone call to say when they have arrived........i know most say they do this but very few actually do,i know all on 1st name terms.put it this way i'm not adverse to finding the cheapest parts elsewhere,especially if the service i get from dealerships is horrid,but because of the service i get i dont mind going there and paying that little extra and getting the original parts:-D..........they didn't even try to convince me to buy a newer mercedes:lol:,in fact got remarks i should never get rid of my 190,even got input from them on things i could do to make her better :-D

 

[MOHDW211]

You know if you had posted earlier i would have warned you about Derwents.

They have dealerships in Bradford, Wakefield, Huddersfield and Leeds. I drive 30 miles past these to go to Harrogate. That just shows how much i dislike their service.They are arrogant, rude and treat you like if they don't really need to treat you with respect. They never return calls and their is nothing called a goodwill customer gesture in their books.

As for Harrogate its all praise. I've used them many times and several chaps on another forum highly rate them. They also have dealerships in the North like York/Scarborough.


The Leeds branch may look posh but its skin deep...they salesman are not worth dealing with.

I have used Mb Swindon to buy my car and they too delivered it FOC to Yorkshire. So thumbs up for Swindon.

If you want good service then Mbz Harrogate is well recommended by many..its word of mouth they have a good reputation. I wouldn't be surprised Mbz uses them as a benchmark for the improvement in service of other Mbz substandard dealerships

 

[mioba]

if you look at my post, have i purchased a dodgy car.
It was MB of Wakefield

 

[jberks]

I did buy my E from Derwent Leeds but that was only because they had the exact car I wanted and not anything to do with their salesmanship or service. I trawled round all the other dealers but no one else had anything to touch it.

I have twice since rowed with their service people who seem incapable of doing anything without cocking it up in some way. They miss items mentioned to them, they don't have the parts they need and ask them to supply a touch up paint you can forget it. Their parts manager promised to order me a part and it never happened. Just got blank looks. The attitude I got from their reception manageress when I asked for a quick word with a mechanic at 5pm one evening, you'd have thought I was begging her for money. There is a chap called John who appears to be the only one left from the old days. He's pretty good (though still forgot my paint!) but I get the impression he's having the good service ethos kicked out of him slowly be the corporate girlies.

I then raised an administrative question with one of the business managers and she was the picture of efficiency. Answered all my questions, backed it up with paperwork and even gave me the touch up stick FOC. Funny though. Even that didn't start well. I walked in, admittedly a bit scruffy (its my day of and I'm not wearing a ****** suit!), and was met after a few mins hanging around eating their sweeties by a disembodied voice. After a few confused secs I found the body on the balcony above. He deemed to come down and was taken aback when I suggested we take a seat (shouldn't he have suggested that?). I got out the paperwork and suddenly (when he saw how much I'd spent presumably) he became far more helpful.

Doncaster brought me a car to see. Spent most of the evening with me (plus 3 hours travelling) and left promising to get back to me with an improved price. Still waiting.

I did visit Harrogate and I agree, they appeared a lot better. With Derwent, despite spending 2 hours with the salesman and test driving 2 different cars, I never got so much as a follow up call. After only a 20 min chat, Harrogate rang me the following week to see if I'd got sorted out and if they could help me with servicing. As I intend to use Merc Care, they probably can't but I may use them if I do need a dealer.

Interestingly, the salesman did know we'd rung round the other dealers. Whether this is the MB system or just Derwent group I don't know.

Contrast all this with this note I had from an associate I was chatting with recently. We got onto cars and discovered we were both Merc owners. Dealers came up and I told him who I used.

On the car front, I took my car to Merc-Care week last Saturday and found the service first class. I ended up paying about the same as I would have done at the main dealer, but that included a new pair of tyres, New front disks and pads, new anti role bar bushes, and had the front wheels re tracked so on the whole I saved my self a packet. I think if I had taken it to a main dealer and had the work done I would have been paying twice the price.

What impressed me was the knowledge of the guy behind the desk. I described a couple of symptoms to him and he new exactly what the problem was, if had had taken it to my local dealership they would have charged me an hours labour for investigative work.

I'd certainly use them again - it was worth the 100 mile round trip.