MB in telegraph paper

[mioba]

This is interesting http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2006/04/01/mfmerc01.xml&sSheet=/motoring/2006/04/01/ixmot.html, we all know about these problems but it nice when they are publicised.

 

[television]

Thanks Mioba, you are right, have just read the whole thing, from the postings here in the last couple of week has shown that things have not changed and whatever MB is trying to do,just is not getting through to the customer. Will it be another Lancia story in the end. So many once great names in all sectors have gone through arrogance on the part of the manufacture. The biggest failing is still the electrics, why are all of these bits still made in the eastern block, you would think that after being plagued with problems for 16 years or more, someone at MB would have said, lets bring some people in that understand how to make make things that will do the job that they were intended to do. In the PC world I have never heard of a bad connection or dry solder joint, not one !, yet domestic TV's , most coming from the eastern block, just about make it to the end of the guarantee before blowing up through bad connections. OK, TV's are cheap, but MB's are not, As said in the Telegraph article, are people with a 5 year old car happy paying £98 per hour + VAT, only to find when they get the car back its still got the same problems.

Malcolm

 

[Rory]

Very interesting - particularly about the Rapaid Reaction Group and "One dealer is told that he will be paying for the poor diagnosis and extraneous bills his customer has paid, and Cowell is sent to find out why it happened in the first place" - we too often hear about diagnosis by substitution at the customers expense.

 

[fwb44]

Here's the whole sorry story (from The Economist this week): http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6740204&fsrc=nwl
But things might be just about to improve now that the egos have landed and the company are back to concentrating on their core business of making quality motor cars ...

 

[mioba]

Here's the whole sorry story (from The Economist this week): http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6740204&fsrc=nwl
But things might be just about to improve now that the egos have landed and the company are back to concentrating on their core business of making quality motor cars ...

not realy related to customer satisfaction, but an economical review of the merger which is why its in the economist. Still an intersting angle

 

[fwb44]

not realy related to customer satisfaction

Well surely it must be relevant to present and future customer satisfaction to know what moves are planned to restore M-B/DC to reputability? What hope of getting satisfaction from a badly managed marque?

 

[johnmc]

Practical info in the Telegraph article

Hi,
If you read the Telegraph article carefully there was some useful data in it.

They are badly over-stretched, too many models being made and too many new employees to train around the world (most production expansion is outside Germany) and their quality has badly suffered. This rapid reaction team is a sign of desperation, an over-reaction to get quality and service restored. They do admit that their dealer network is in a mess, but fail to realise that they caused it themselves.

A useful point made is that every dealer now has a budget of £300 to spend per customer on goodwill, normally for cars "just out of warranty". They don't need to ask Merc for it, just charge it back to Merc. They can get more by calling Merc with special requests. So there you have it. Buy a car for £40k, and if it's broken after three years your loyalty is worth £300 without an argument. Read that how you like.

At least know we know there's some money out there. For £98/hour I'm expecting Dermot himself to service my car, and kick the factory up the ar*e for every defect he finds.

Bye!
John

 

[davebox]

The unfortunate thing here is that we, the customer are the ones left out in the cold. I visited my dealer on Saturday, as some of you may have read about, and my overall impression is that whilst some of the staff are willing to help others are not. The unfortunate thing about my situation is that I feel let down by my dealer and they cannot see that they are doing anything wrong. How many others will have to go through problems like this? I will now have to go through the hoops to find out legally where I stand before writing to MB direct. Will I buy another? Not unless something improves rapidly.