Mercedes Direct Dealer in Balsall Common - LIARS !

[aims10]

People I'll give you the heads up. I have had huge problems with the service centre at Mercedes Direct Balsall Common and am warning fellow owners not to trust anything the service department tells you at this site. Read on....

I posted a thread saying that I was informed by the service manager and his deputy that my CDi220 Avantgarde 2006 model did not have a heated passenger side door mirror. In fact I was told that it was not standard fit and the majority of cars they have dealth with do not have this feature, this was following on from me raising a job saying that my passenger side door mirror did not demyst. They were quite convincing and did not even bother to check and were very convincing.

I then booked the car into another mercedes dealer and YES it was broken an covered under warranty. When I challenged this they played ignorance and said they had hardly ever seen a Merc c Class with heated passenger side door mirrors.

Within a month the same dealer has taken my car for a road test and said the tracking/steering system are fine, yet another mercedes dealer diagnosed a fault. Are you starting to get a picture ?

This is a car that I bought from mercedes direct less than a month ago. I am amazed at the lies and misleading service advice provided by the balsall common site. It has all been documented and can be confirmed if anyone thinks I am making this up!

My advice......do not believe anything when you take your car into the balsall common site. They have been giving this advice to every C Class owner according to the service manager, god only knows how many customers have been misguided ? I am in the process of forwarding my findings to the watchdog program. If anyone has had similar problems then please get in touch so we can avoid being ripped of by this one dealer. This is not the standard expected for customer quality by such a brand company.

 

[Rory]

Is this a wind up?

 

[horgantrevor]

i think not

 

[television]

No wind up the gent posted before

 

[outsmartsmart]

Hmmmmm - I've just bought a 2006 C220CDi Avantgarde estate from.....Balsall Common and am about to ask them about the passenger door mirror that doesn't demist - you didn't reject the car by any chance and I've bought it????

I will hold judgement on their performance related to this but have to say the buying experience was excellent. First visit the salesman didn't seem to care and/or disbelieved I was a cash buyer with up to £20k budget (his loss then....) and I vowed not to buy from there. However wifey wanted to see a Merc' in the flesh and local dealers always best for sitting in and testing the controls IMO so we ended up there. This time excellent service from a helpful, friendly sales guy.

I'm happy with the car and am expecting the same cortesy when I bell them to discuss looking at the mirror (when I take it for reverse sensors to be fitted probably).

Question - if its common for them to not have heated passenger mirror how do you know if its got one or not, i.e. it doesn't have one or it does and its not working though? (or is it total BS when they say that?)

 

[staylorhome]

Outsmartsmart i am getting a feeling of dejvu, Did you speak with comand.co.uk ? re the kmp in the dash
I have just noticed my passenger mirror does not demest !!!
I bought my mb from mb direct Birmingham (Chester road) i have nothing but praise.
I use Lanes of lichfield for my mb servicing (mb ind service centre)

 

[outsmartsmart]

staylorhome - I did speak to the guys but have to admit that £125 to get rid of the kmh speedo is not worth it IMO (OK you get fuel level, and auto-fold mirrors on locking as well but it has a fuel guage already and I can press a button to fold the mirrors if I want to). They discounted this if I had an iPod kit at £300, again v.pricey but little alternative on that one.

I'm guessing maybe it is common to not always get heated LH mirror but that doesn't excuse aims10 problem. I hope Balsall Common will be OK as they are about 4 miles from me and very accessible. Will update as and when I go in but I will be armed to ask the "are you sure...?" question if they give the stock-answer

 

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Surely if the mirror is electrically adjustable it will be heated ?
I thought all German vehicles were renowned for their excellent heaters etc in order to cope with their harsh winters. If some one said that to me I'd think they were taking the p*ss??:-x
TB

 

[aims10]

This is NO wind up. I have put in a complaint, the service manager even suggested that the passenger door mirror in non heated as being a german car the driver perhaps was expected to clean frost off manually whilst the passenger side was heated (this would make it our driver side).

I have lodged a complaint with Direct manchester where i bought the car from and they have been quite helpful and sympathetic. The passenger door mirror was fixed under warranty by Direct in Erdington who were very helpful and suggested I write a formal letter of complaint. The service department at Balsall Common are not to be trusted.

I would imagine that they will be cautious of any calls over heated passenger door mirrors becuase I have kicked up such a fuss and he dare not give the same advice. Suffice to say I have things documented.

I still cannot resolve the other issue about tracking/steering as the balsall common site maintain no fault whereas the erdington dealer says there is something wrong but they do not have geometric equiptment to fix it and refer all steering/tracking problems to balsall common. A bit of a problem!

I've even said that enough is enough and I will invoke the 30 exchange policy becuase of the lies and poor service to get my £15k car put right and fir for use.

 

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Your being treated with derision and contempt; either that or the man is incompetent.
Or is he ill? on medication?
I'd be close to thumping some one who span me a line like that!!!

 

[aims10]

To add, and I know this sounds like a horror story. When I telephoned and challenged the service department over lying to me about the passenger door mirror and maintained his initial stance and then apologised when I accussed of lying.

I then demanded a retest of the tracking system which he refused to do and stated that he would not spend anymore time on the problem as he had taken me for a drive. I asked why two different dealers were not of the same opinion and his response was "Well technicians from birmingham site can some and use my equiptment to test your car but I won't be doing it".

I stated that I could hear a quiet 'hissing' noise when the steering turns, could this be causing tracking problems ? Shocked at the response "This could be a noise from power steering".

Now pardon my language "This is a ******* Mercedes Benz under two years old", I dont expect it to drag so badly to the left and power steering to make noises, does he think I am a complete idiot, knowing that I have caught him lying to me ???????

I have taken the time to post on here becuase I don't want anyone else fobbed off by this dealer. It is not sour grapes becuase Direct in Manchester have said they will sort it once they speak with their dealer principal on Saturday and tell him/her of my experience

 

[aims10]

It was not only the service manager it was his deputy as well. I asked the damn question about 4 times in two visits. They did not even check against the VRM/Chasis number, just a standard response "Passenger door mirrors are not heated".

As said with the fuss I have made I doubt very much they will say it again. I can even offer personal details or vehicle details if they ever dispute faults with anyone, feel free to use my experience as a reference point.

Why do we spend so much money to maintain service records if thats what they are worth ?

 

[Kompressor]

Thanks for the heads up. I am in Bromley so not sure that particular service centre/dealer is in my patch. However, I suspect the particular dealer you mentioned is not the only merc dealer out their pulling the wool over customers eyes.

This brings me to the warranty I have on my merc. A few things need fixing mostly electrical and my warranty does cover electrical and mechanical faults/breakdown but to pin the warranty people as to what constitute a electrical or mechanical fault requires a science degree in both area lol.

You really have to fight hard for these ....... to uphold their contracted obligations. Words to get these guys to sit up and take you seriously is to mention reporting them to the Financial Regulator, Consumer Credit Act and Financial Ombudsman for not honoring their contract in terms of what the warranty covers and them honoring it.

 

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Sounds as if the front end/suspension/stearing etc has had work done to it.
Noisey power stearing suggets that there's air in it. Turning the stearing slowly from full lock to full lock should cure that i.e bleed the ram. That wont fix the stearing pull though. Why did you buy with all these faults?

 

[Rory]

I'm confused about why you so determined to keep saying that they LIED to you?

The car is under MB warranty - they get paid for any work they do, so a fault that needs work is income for them.

They could be mistaken, or just plain stupid. But if someone came to my premises and starting calling me or my staff liars then they'd be escorted off the premises.

 

[aims10]

I called them said the lied becuase : Knowing that the mirrors are heated or could be they instead decided to say they were not and did not want to check their systems to confirm. His words were that many customers call whenever their is bade weather and he advises them like he did to me. How many have hade the same story, call it 'misguided' or lies, experts should not assume should they ?

In terms of escorting me off the premises, I was never rude, in simple I wanted a service I have paid for. All I seem to be getting is excuse after excuse and excuses that a child perhaps would find hard to believe. By all means they could refuse to deal if I was abrupt and I have not been, not forgetting we pay top money to buy from dealers for peace of mind, dont we?

The 'hissing' noise was put down to 'standard' noise made by power steering. Now how much more nonsense is one expected to take before finally saying enough is enough.


This is the fifth Merc in the family we have bought from Merc Direct, though never from Balsall Common. I paid a £500 deposit and rest when I got the car, stupid enough I did not test drive it as all previous experiences with delaershad been good. The mirror issue only came to my attention about two weeks ago when we had frosty weather.

I have given praise to where it is due. I have no idea and cannot understand why they would not be willing to fix problems under warranty, it costs them nothing.

 

[JonA4]

Aims10, what year and model is your MB? Ops, sorry it's on your post. Why don't other owners check their heated mirrors and give you feedback? This would give an indication if they are BOTH heated? I've just bought a 2005 C200k and I'm sure they are both heated.

 

[aims10]

It was confirmed that both mirrors are heated, when I booked it in yesterday with another Merc dealer - they found a fault and replaced the module in the side mirror under warranty. My thread is about informing others on how easily you can be fobbed by a particular dealer, he has apparently been telling every customer what he told me "they are not heated". Read some of the things he has said to me for reasons why they are not heated.

 

[mattsurf]

I still cannot resolve the other issue about tracking/steering as the balsall common site maintain no fault whereas the erdington dealer says there is something wrong but they do not have geometric equiptment to fix it and refer all steering/tracking problems to balsall common. A bit of a problem!

I've even said that enough is enough and I will invoke the 30 exchange policy becuase of the lies and poor service to get my £15k car put right and fir for use.[/QUOTE]

Speak to WDM in Perry Barr (Independent Merc Specialist) - They can recommend an excellent garage to set the tracking

 

[jubhi]

Why don't you guys try Mercedes Benz Birmingham Central or Mercedes Benz Solihull as they are main dealers as appose to MB Direct dealerships. I have found MB Direct servicing garages do not have the full equipment to do everything whereas the main dealers do. MB Direct garages can just do basic servicing and would probably refer you to a main dealer for any major work.

MB Birmingham Central and Solihull do have the special tracking and 4 wheel alignment service and they charge over £100 per hour to do it. If you go to BMTR in Perry Barr, an independant Tyre and Alloy wheel specialist, they have the same machine and charge £89 for the service. They are highly recommended for Mercs and Porsches.

Check out www.bmtr.co.uk

Hope this helps.