Leagl position?

[Griffo]

I deeply regret that, for the time being, I cannot add to this thread as the matter is now 'sub judice'. Very sad.

 

[dibdib]

My turn and I will keep it short

1. I have worked for MB main dealer for 20 years and for myself for the past 4 years.

2. I’ve removed and fitted more CDI fuel injectors than I care to remember and this one has been the most difficult to date.

3. I go out of way to help all of my customers and I am not in the habit of stitching up or ripping off anybody.

4. I don’t take lightly to criticism from people who are not or have never been in the motor trade.

5. This case will not come to any conclusion with your intervention.

6. I will do my best to rectify this job given the chance to do so, but not out of my own pocket, I run a business not a charity.

7. If the job would have been done at the same as the service instead of 2 months ago the story may different.

8. Opinions are like @rsh0les, everybody has one.

 

[*Thumper]

forget the post ... edited

I read 1st page and posted an opinion ............ which now seems ....... er......... out of date

 

[Miffy]

My turn and I will keep it short

1. I have worked for MB main dealer for 20 years and for myself for the past 4 years.

2. I’ve removed and fitted more CDI fuel injectors than I care to remember and this one has been the most difficult to date.

3. I go out of way to help all of my customers and I am not in the habit of stitching up or ripping off anybody.

4. I don’t take lightly to criticism from people who are not or have never been in the motor trade.

5. This case will not come to any conclusion with your intervention.

6. I will do my best to rectify this job given the chance to do so, but not out of my own pocket, I run a business not a charity.

7. If the job would have been done at the same as the service instead of 2 months ago the story may different.

8. Opinions are like @rsh0les, everybody has one.

I am a bit confused, you claim to be a MB trained mechanic, yet you have posted asking where you can get your MB serviced?

 

[dibdib]

Mark please don’t worry your self over this.
I asked that question years ago when I started up by myself trying to find out about a so called MB specialist near me, is that ok.

PS get a dog and go for a walk instead of playing on this site.

 

[Miffy]

Mark please don’t worry your self over this.
I asked that question years ago when I started up by myself trying to find out about a so called MB specialist near me, is that ok.

PS get a dog and go for a walk instead of playing on this site.

you asked it 2 years ago, but have been running your own business for 4 years.

"playing on this site" ?

pray tell what you do for your down time. I could also hazard a guess but that would be unfair of me.

 

[dibdib]

Like I said get a life and go to work

Bye.

 

[Miffy]

Like I said get a life and go to work

Bye.

I have a very nice life thank you for caring though

I have a nice job also, and I sleep very well at night.

 

[omegav6]

O dear this looks like it’s going to take a turn for the worse lets hope not, i go on many forums and buy far this is the best one for help and sound advice, im sure if the bitching stops the garage and customer can meet half way somewhere along the line a lesson learnt for both parties then.
Maybe some sound advice for the garage is needed on how to overcome this type of problem after all we all have to learn sometime
(just my thoughts don’t mean to offend anyone)

 

[robertjrt]

O dear this looks like it’s going to take a turn for the worse lets hope not, i go on many forums and buy far this is the best one for help and sound advice, im sure if the bitching stops the garage and customer can meet half way somewhere along the line a lesson learnt for both parties then.
Maybe some sound advice for the garage is needed on how to overcome this type of problem after all we all have to learn sometime
(just my thoughts don’t mean to offend anyone)

Is this post the reason why the Motor "trade" are setting up an Arbitration system smiler to the Rent Deposit Scheme?

This will enable disputes over relatively small amounts on money to be brought to a conclusion efficiently and fairly without excessive cost to all concerned.

For those of us who either professionally or as a hobby own a tool box know that inanimate object can be a bitch when they want too!

How many of us have removed four bolts/nuts with ease only for the fifth to need the strength of superman to remove it?

There should always be ground for a compromise, but, looks who writing this post Robertjrt V Mercedes-Benz

 

[OlafMaxwell]

This has reminded me of a 6 year old Fiat 131 I had. Head gasket was gone, a normal enough job but always a risk of breaking a stud. That happened and garage welded on a piece. Standard so far. But the engine compartment going on fire was not. Garage rang me to tell me the problem, we need to replace some parts and replace the wiring around the engine. This was Tuesday. We need the car until Friday, if you need a replacement we can drop one out to you. Picked up the car Saturday morning, washed, polished, everything perfect, bill was for a standard head gasket job.

My reason for mentioning this is that I noticed some shiny back stuff on the engine cover of the Merc, after reading these posts investigated last weekend. The inevitable, a mass of carbon. Rather than pay a huge sum for someone to spend a few hours scraping and chipping it away I will do it myself. My son has some cleaner which also removes it. By the time it goes to the garage it will be clean.

Its the news about getting the injectors off that worries me. I dont like paying for 6 injectors at £250 a time. The car has 160k on it and runs very nicely. Would I be better off not doing them? Or, should I go the other way bite the bullet and replace the injectors. No plans to get rid of the car, its in too good condition.

 

[OlafMaxwell]

i must also add that we have to quote for work, sometimes you do better than others, its a normal enough commercial risk. At best we qualify a quotation if there are known possible expensive risks. This means then the customer is not paying for something that might happen and then doesnt, but of course he does end up paying if it does go wrong.

A good halfway on a commercial basis is to to set the labour cost but exclude the cost of new injectors, possibly warning that you might need one or two. Of course this does depend on the honesty of the garage, the skill of the man doing the job and a degree of luck.

 

[dibdib]

If you have a carbon build up around your injectors then yes work is required to stop this.
The only thing damaged or need replacement at this time are the copper seals and retaining bolts.
9 times out of 10 the injectors will come out ok.
Injectors at a MB dealer mat cost you £350 + you can get Injector from bosch from £110 - £175 per unit.
Don’t mess about like the ass in complaint get the work done ASAP. Or they my be more expense later.

 

[muller1]

He seems like an immature chancer, Dell Boy

I have had a message left by the garage saying "I'm not going to spend all day writing emails to you" and "I'm not going to do any repairs at a cost to me" and "don't email me, ring me and discuss what we're going to do to fix your car but at no cost to me".

This is my worst fears confirmed. He is treating me as though I'm in the wrong and clearly (from his tone) regards me as a nuisance.

I really had hoped that he might have been a bit more reasonable and accept that he had waded in with a 'sledgehammer', without first seeking a more 'gentle' (dare I say sophisticated) approach.

It would seem that I have no option but to seek legal advice. The one strength of my position (I hope) is that I have the emails and can prove there were no caveats given at all.

Very sad situation and enough to put me off aowing another Merc for life.

Hi there, I am sorry to hear of the problems you are having with this particular "gentleman". When I ran my own engineering company in Aberdeen and employed at a peak of over 40 employees in the marine engineering field we tackled jobs from £70 to over £380,000.
A lot of them were "Quotes" and a some were "Estimates" and the remainder classed as "Timer and Lime"

We had a great bunch of customers and made good money MOST of the time.
A quote was as it says a " Quote" which is a fixed price to undertake the work requested.
An Estimate was as the word implies an estimate, and in real terms means within + or - 10% as a rule of thumb and most courts will also look at it within this light.
A Time and lime job is as the wording states you pay for all the time and all the (lime) material.
If on completiopn of the job which was Time and Lime you, the customer have the right to refute the bill if the end price is just plain crazy and you have the right for a correct break down which the court will also take into account and if the supplier can prove the prices are within commercial limits, YOU LOOSE, and you must pay.
If they find the supplier is ripping you off the prices will be gone over by an appraiser and a fair price given by the court which you must pay and the supplier MUST ACCEPT.
With a quoted job if the quote is correct and the final bill is the same then this should be fine but SOMETIMES there are mitigating circumstances whereby there was something EXTRA done to achieve the end result you all wanted and aggreed on before completion, then any extras will have been discussed and applied, or not as the case may be.

With an Estimate it is taken that the final bill will be within 10% of the estimate and again the court will take this stance.

When I ran my business, and up till I retired the company made money on most jobs, broke even on a few and lost on some.
We made a point of telling the customer the outcome if it was a bad one for us and in most cases the customer could see our point of view as we hid NOTHING, sometimes they would ask where the problems lay and we would come to a compromise, or not, depending on the problem. If we should have forseen it beforehand we should have taken it in to account with the quote as we were supposed to be the "POROFESSIONALS IN THAT FIELD" and that was why they used us.
We did not blame the customer for our shortfalls, we took it on the chin and kept a mental note of the possibility for the future.
It would seem that your repairer wants it all his way, nothing will ever be his fauly only the customer for allowing him to underprice the job in the first place, silly fellow.
This is the best way to build up a good customer base,(I THINK NOT).

I hope you get a resolution but keep all your correspondence and if I were you I would write to him and request that he put your vehicle back as it was before he laid his mitts on it and AT HIS COST.

I would be reasonable and give him 14 days to do this otherwisw steps will be taken to put this in the hands of a solicitor or mediator such as the trading standards, the AA, or RAC. If not you should advise him you will have the job done elsewhere if he is incapapable of doing this and you would will sue him for the remedy.

The time for talking is over, finished , ended ,termine.
Stand up for your rights, as it seems he is trying to say there is only one way and that it HIS, HE IS 100% WRONG.

Hope you get this sorted out soon, as I am sure this sort of treatment gives a lot of good garages a bad name.

ps How about trying WatchDog see what they say.
or perhaps a piece in the paper as I am sure that two can both play the same game, if you get my drift ,as if other people out there get to know who they are dealing with they MAY have second thoughts and go elsewhere.
As long as tou tell the WHOLE TRUTH you have NOTHING to fear
or lose, and as my Gran used to "say there is more than 1 way to skin a cat"

Stand up for your legal right as there are laws to protect the
purchaser, YOU.

Regards

Mike

 

[muller1]

My turn and I will keep it short



4. I don’t take lightly to criticism from people who are not or have never been in the motor trade.


6. I will do my best to rectify this job given the chance to do so, but not out of my own pocket, I run a business not a charity.

7. If the job would have been done at the same as the service instead of 2 months ago the story may different.

8. Opinions are like @rsh0les, everybody has one.

Relpy to the above


Reply to No. 4, I think you should be honest and say you do not like criticism full stop.
I cannot see what being in the motor trade has to do with having an opinion but it seems by your slant on things if it is not YOUR opinioi then it will not count.

Reply to No. 6 , This is arragant as you are saying even if it is your fault you are not responsible and will not pay.
If you were a reputable company you would have Liability insurance for such events where a genuine mistake has been made.
I had when I was in business, and I had 1 claim in over 42 years of trading.

Reply To No. 7.
There is only a need to repair what is broken or not weorking cvorrectly, it is not normal to put in hand work not required,
If it is not broken then a "repair" cannot be made to something that is nor damaged it them becomes a swap over and nor a repair.
If you could not price it correctly when you did how come you could have priced it correctly beforehand Seems funny to me..

Reply to No 8 I wondered when your true colours would show, and now they are flying at the tallest yard arm.
You are right but some have more than one and some have larger ones than others seems like you have more than your fair share
When will you grow up and realise there are other people in the world, is seems 20 years of working with MB and then on your own seems to have taught you ZERO perhaps it is time to take a fresh look at your life and perhaps think of a career change.

I await your next reply with baited breath.

 

[muller1]

Injectors

.

My reason for mentioning this is that I noticed some shiny back stuff on the engine cover of the Merc, after reading these posts investigated last weekend. The inevitable, a mass of carbon. Rather than pay a huge sum for someone to spend a few hours scraping and chipping it away I will do it myself. My son has some cleaner which also removes it. By the time it goes to the garage it will be clean.

Its the news about getting the injectors off that worries me. I dont like paying for 6 injectors at £250 a time. The car has 160k on it and runs very nicely. Would I be better off not doing them? Or, should I go the other way bite the bullet and replace the injectors. No plans to get rid of the car, its in too good condition.

I have an ML 270 and at about 80,000 I had the injectors pulled serviced with new nozzles etc, replaced, run and set on the computer in I day.
The total cost was just over £700 and that was for 5 of them.
You only renew the whole injector at an MB garage as they do not have a fuel injection derpartment which would allow them th swap the nozzle etc and set it up.
The injector pressures used is a CDI engine are above 30,000 psi and the machine to set and test them is over £100,000 and all it does is common rail types.
If you want to know where I used send me an e-mail at

muller1@mysurf.org

I will let you have all the info as I have used this company for over 35 yeqrs and they are 100% in my book.

Regards.

mike

 

[gre1591]

Sadly it is best not to get into legal disputes sometimes even if in principle you are right and they are wrong .If the dispute escalates into using solicitors etc it really starts to get expensive and you are often better off just paying to have it sorted out .Less stress and hassle and no legal bills and time wasted arguing it out.