Mercedes GLB - Rear seat belts not retracting. Dealer refusing to accept.

marcusjames

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Joined
Aug 11, 2020
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Your Mercedes
GLC 63s
My 2021 GLB's rear seat belts are no longer retracting. Turning around to see my two young children loose in their car seats is somewhat disturbing.

The car was booked in to the local dealer who acknowledged the issue and said a new retractor would be fitted. Today I received a call from them saying they had taken delivery of a brand new GLB and it has the same issue. They now claim it is classed as a manufacturing fault and nothing they can do.

I challenged them on the safety aspect. They confirmed it's unsafe but they're not obliged to fix mine or inform the customer coming in this week to collect their GLB. I am speechless.

Has anyone else experienced this fault?

Thanks
 

Altamar

Senior Member
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Dec 28, 2018
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206
Location
South Wales
Your Mercedes
2015 SL400
Write to the dealer principal and highlight the safety issue. Ask them to reply in writing to say it is nothing to do with them and they can't do anything. That might focus their minds.
 

Timeandleisure

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2020
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Location
London
Your Mercedes
SL500 2003 R230, E400d 4MATIC Coupe 2021
My 2021 GLB's rear seat belts are no longer retracting. Turning around to see my two young children loose in their car seats is somewhat disturbing.

The car was booked in to the local dealer who acknowledged the issue and said a new retractor would be fitted. Today I received a call from them saying they had taken delivery of a brand new GLB and it has the same issue. They now claim it is classed as a manufacturing fault and nothing they can do.

I challenged them on the safety aspect. They confirmed it's unsafe but they're not obliged to fix mine or inform the customer coming in this week to collect their GLB. I am speechless.

Has anyone else experienced this fault?

Thanks
If it’s a safety related fault, which a seatbelt clearly is, then they would have to put in measures to mitigate this in production and also a recall in the field to implement the mitigation.

I would ask that, since you confirm that this is a safety related manufacturing fault, what are they going to do to ensure my vehicle remains safe, in the first instance. You could also state, that it must relate to a recall then and so you want it fixed under that. You will find out soon enough if they are advising you correctly. Also mention that you will be reporting the safety related issue to their regulator (DVSA, in UK)

Curious though, wouldn’t this be covered under warranty?
 
Last edited:

hkali

New Registration
Joined
Nov 9, 2023
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1
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0
Your Mercedes
GLB 2020 220d
My 2021 GLB's rear seat belts are no longer retracting. Turning around to see my two young children loose in their car seats is somewhat disturbing.

The car was booked in to the local dealer who acknowledged the issue and said a new retractor would be fitted. Today I received a call from them saying they had taken delivery of a brand new GLB and it has the same issue. They now claim it is classed as a manufacturing fault and nothing they can do.

I challenged them on the safety aspect. They confirmed it's unsafe but they're not obliged to fix mine or inform the customer coming in this week to collect their GLB. I am speechless.

Has anyone else experienced this fault?

Thanks
I realise quite a few months have passed since you posted, but wondering how you got on with this in the end? I had exactly the same issue from new, the dealership accepted the issue and replaced both seatbelts. They seemed like they were a little better after replacement, but to be honest still not perfect, they would retract but pretty slowly. Since the shop are a bit of a nightmare to deal with I just accepted it, however I've recently noticed that the retraction has degraded significantly again, to the point where it's probably worse than the originals and they regularly don't retract then my passengers slam the door on them... which then causes damage... my warranty is up at the end of this month as well.
 

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