I'd like to try again here...

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Without meaning to cause offence to anybody whom I upset with my last introductory thread, I'd like to try again.

Having previously briefly worked at a VW dealership, I'm a Service Advisor at a Franchised Mercedes-Benz dealership. Previous to this, I had no particular affinity for the brand, and had not driven a Merc before.

Even as an employee of the franchise in question, and working 'on behalf of' Mercedes-Benz, I can see faults - including pricing, and including the communication of staff members.

The reason I joined this forum was to talk about Mercs - in particular, their maintenance, as this is what interests me most - and to get the opinions of others. I am interested in the reasons why many people are aggrieved by main dealers in general - mainly because this will help me to become better at my job.

I'm not interested in beating the main dealer drum where it's not welcome, but I will defend certainly my own dealership (only a small one, with just five technicians) and I will defend the dealer network in general where I feel they do a good job, or offer a good product or service.

I'm relatively new to Mercedes-Benz, and although I have heard about the rust issues, I've not got any really knowledge or experience of rust, and so I can't really comment beyond commiserating those who have fallen victim and advising that they fight with MBUK. I have no idea what the outcome here would be.

On the other hand, I have encountered other common problems, like SBC failures, ABC failures, general E-Class failures etc, and I'm not afraid to say that Mercedes-Benz's reputation for reliability has eroded as a result of these, although I do feel there is improvement in immediately recent years.

I'd love to become a fixture here, and be viewed as someone who can be helpful, even if it is helping to advise your independent as to what is due(!) As I have said in other threads, there are bad main dealers and good independents, but the reverse is also true. I do hope that posters give dealers as much of a chance as any other business - they're just as affected by the difficult financial situations, in my experience, and I have seen colleagues made redundant or otherwise lose their jobs in recent times for these reasons.

I'm pleased to see that some are finding my posts helpful, and am grateful to those posters who have defended me. I've had numerous PMs from forum members already and look forward to being able to reply through the site!

But my main purpose on here is to have a chat about the cars about which we are all enthusiastic, and to help more people than I upset.

Even you, Ciaran.
 
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Naraic

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Thanks GD...and welcome.;)
 
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television

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Hello and welcome,,, nice to get another side to it all
 

Cole@MBS

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Glad you have stayed around, didnt see what you did wrong last time, but thats just me.......
 

Gkinghorn

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Welcome.... So long as you don't get biased n your comments ( other than your love of Mercedes as a superior , albeit rusty , vehicle) I am sure you will enjoy your time here...




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television

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Cole and others got a thank you, I did not :(
 

Gkinghorn

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Better now?


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tode

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Welcome, again. ;)

It's always interesting (and often profitable) to hear a different side of the story. Thanks for coming back.
 

Cole@MBS

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You need to change your sig Malc, meets are a plenty now!!!!!
 
OP
G
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I'm thanking everybody religiously now, after my five-minute oversight.
 

television

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I'm thanking everybody religiously now, after my five-minute oversight.

I was not serious but thank you anyway... eventually the thanks button is a handy tool to show who you like and don not like, many use it as the Euro song competition, where the same group always thanks the same member even when they are totally wrong :D:D
 

malcolm E53 AMG

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Welcome GD - I read your earlier thread and some of the response it received with interest.

Being frank, most of us on this forum are enthusiasts running MBs (and other marques) on a budget and probably initially were persuaded to buy the brand due to design, build quality and reliability.

There are as you know issues with cars built between 1995 and 2009 that have proved to be a disappointment for many owners, bought both new and secondhand. The key words here are rust, SBC and Airmatic which have tarnished the brand and led to some bad feeling due to MBUK and the dealer networks mixed response to these issues under the warranty schemes.

Most owners on the forum, including myself, feel that MB have shown little interest in making a service offering that owners of 4+ year old cars can engage with as the servicing costs per hour are so high. To cater for this market MB could have franchised it out or thought up some other means of providing a service but has shown little or no interest. This gap in the market has predominately been filled with ex-MB techies setting up on their own, which in the main part has proved very useful for owners of older cars, as their rates are 50% of the dealers.

I'm sure people on the forum will find it interesting to hear what MB currently have to offer, in terms of service contracts and special offers which may come up, but essentially we are here to support people with reliabilty issues who will not go near a dealer because of the aforementioned points.

I hope you enjoy the forum and learn from it as we all have and hopefully your impressions gained here may go some way to changing the culture of MBUK, if only at your dealership.
 
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Smacsor

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Good to see you back!
 

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