Mugged at MB dealer

mb300d

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Most owners of newish MBs don't understand that they are paying £357 for an oil and filter change - they think the car is being "tweaked" or "cleaned" or "adjusted" and it is this that keeps it running sweetly. They have no real idea what is involved in changing the oil and filter nor how much the oil and filter costs.
So to them £357 is the price to keep the £20k - 30k "investment" running reliably and keeps any warranty in place. On that basis it looks like a reasonable deal and the main dealers have few profit opportunities to pay for the expensive showrooms and overheads.
Once in a while a savvy owner comes along and gives them hell but as you observe you are not the first - and they have had years of experience to deal with it - make you feel like you are a cheapskate for even questioning it.
What MB have not worked out is that it also has an impact on owners' decisions to replace their cars. There is no way I will buy another new or newish MB and be forced into the servicing web of the main dealer network.
 

PeterCLK

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My A service at the main dealer on Saturday was booked for 9.00 am.Arrived at 8.55 and car was taken straight into workshop. "will be ready at 11.00 sir" usual coffee/tea, TV and newspapers available. MOT was also prearranged. At 10.55 car ready and bill came to £180.85 including £54.85 MOT, a new wiper rubber and a new number plate (old one was cracked).
Also advised brake pads about half worn and that fine for now - perhaps next service or the one after but we'll let you know next time.

One very happy Toyota customer here.
 

Developer

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Toyota - there's no stopping you now then? :)
 

Thincat

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My A service at the main dealer on Saturday was booked for 9.00 am.Arrived at 8.55 and car was taken straight into workshop. "will be ready at 11.00 sir" usual coffee/tea, TV and newspapers available. MOT was also prearranged. At 10.55 car ready and bill came to £180.85 including £54.85 MOT, a new wiper rubber and a new number plate (old one was cracked).
Also advised brake pads about half worn and that fine for now - perhaps next service or the one after but we'll let you know next time.

One very happy Toyota customer here.

I had an MR2 for 11 years and the Toyota garages aren't bad. The one I usually went to had the waiting area/coffee room overlooking the service bay so you could see your car being worked on - something I don't think MB will be copying. Mind you, being a mechanic in a Toyota garage is pretty simple because the cars don't really go wrong in my experience.
 

Alex M Grieve

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My A service at the main dealer on Saturday was booked for 9.00 am.Arrived at 8.55 and car was taken straight into workshop. "will be ready at 11.00 sir" usual coffee/tea, TV and newspapers available. MOT was also prearranged. At 10.55 car ready and bill came to £180.85 including £54.85 MOT, a new wiper rubber and a new number plate (old one was cracked).
Also advised brake pads about half worn and that fine for now - perhaps next service or the one after but we'll let you know next time.

One very happy Toyota customer here.

Been there and done that Peter, with 2 consecutive Toyotas over 100,000 miles in the 1990s.

As I recall you could set your watch by the servicing schedule as the workshop never seemed to contain any repair work. Perhaps that is still true today?
 

PeterCLK

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Not busy at all Alex.
Come across as trustworthy and the guy on the desk is friendly, helpful and is obviously not angling to get extra work out of you all the time. He's been there years so knows what he's talking about.

Don't get me wrong I think my MB garage has done a good job on the whole but without service plus it would have cost a fair whack.
 

Matt32AMG

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I think the OP got off lightly. If they had done the "advisory" work the cost would have been more than double what he paid. I took my SLK320 into Exeter for an A service and was charged over £700 - most of it advisory work. And as the guy said to me "I don't like to say this but if you don't get the advisory work done we don't stamp your book".

Really??? That is outrageous :shock: It's nothing short of extortion :mad: I'd be definately on the phone to MBUK Customer support for that.
 

admiral

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I think the OP got off lightly. If they had done the "advisory" work the cost would have been more than double what he paid. I took my SLK320 into Exeter for an A service and was charged over £700 - most of it advisory work. And as the guy said to me "I don't like to say this but if you don't get the advisory work done we don't stamp your book".

I had the same done to me by MB Bristol on my CLK - £600 or we wont stamp your book. They failed to inform me of the advisory work when I booked her in even though I asked what the cost would be, or when I dropped it off in the morning.
I know that we have already had a long thread about this but still irks me and I wont service at a main dealer again.
 

Matt32AMG

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I hope your wife paid on her credit card, because I'd be calling the credit card company to dispute the transaction. You were clearly ripped off.

Trouble is you have to go through the courts etc and it can take anything up to 6 weeks to resolve, and you have to provide paperwork is support of your claim, and have contacted Trading standards etc etc all the time mean meanwhile, they still have your car. I had a similar problem when I had, and still have an ongoing dispute with a company Volkswagenspares.com in Kent.

To cut a very long story short my daughter has a VW Polo who's gearbox was playing up and Volkswagenspares.com supply reconditioned Gearboxes on an exchange basis for £395 +VAT. So here is the scam

The first part is they tell you your gear box you supplied cannot be rebuilt, therefore the £100 surcharge we took in addition to the £395 +VAT we’re keeping.. Next they send down the reconditioned gearbox to the Service station of our choice, it is fitted and the car develops a knock when changing gear within 25 miles of gentle use that gets steadily worse. The garage has the car back and confirms it’s a gearbox problem after checking all the usual things such as Susupension mounts, CV joints, engine mounts etc etc. They have identified the problem being excessive play from the output shaft from the differential, could be the bearing is giving problems, (as one side output shaft has more play in it than the other). Clearly this being the case the gearbox is at issue. This is then reconfirmed by an independent engineer.

Volkswagenspares.com The gearbox suppliers insist that we send the car and gearbox back to them some 110 odd miles away so they can have a look. I say just send a replacement down and pick the other up. They refuse so I have to send the gearbox back. They then carry out a preliminary check and find nothing wrong. They ring me to tell me as such. I say fine, send it back down. No they say, we’re going to fit it to another car to be absolutely sure. I say no you say it's 100% fine then, do no more work on it send it back down. I even send an email stating I confirm that I have rejected their suggestion to fit this box to another vehicle and have asked for it to be returned, in this respect I am expecting delivery to my chosen mechanic on Monday or Tuesday this week. Could you please by return confirm the Gearbox has been dispatched along with the dispatch number and expected delivery day/time. I hear nothing for four days.

I ring on the Thursday to find out where the gear box is only to be told it had been stripped and fitted to another vehicle to be absolutely sure everything is fine. I said this is in direct conflict to what I’d asked to happen. They said well there is nothing wrong with the gearbox and as such that will be another £300 for work I never commissioned. So far this £395 +VAT gear box is stacking up to be £1000 + VAT They then refused to dispatch it back unless I paid the additional charges. Therefore they held my gearbox to ransom.

My thoughts at this time are they rebuilt it because there was a problem, else they would’ve sent it straight back and tried to charge me for wasting their time, this despite there being two independent engineers reports.

In the end they refused to have anything else to do with me and refunded all my costs, they also sent back my old gearbox that they sated “We will not waste further time reassembling it, as another rebuilder will only have to dismantle it again”. This is key, in that we have now got the “none rebuilaible” gearbox rebuilt, however, Volkswagenspares.com, saw fit to not include the original 4th gear or the 5th gear hub assemblies. The fourth gear was out of a gear box that had been previously rebuilt. Interesting, especially as my daughters VW Polo has a full Service history and unsurprisingly a gearbox rebuild doesn’t feature or form any part of that history. Draw your own conclusions from that. :rolleyes: Parts found to be missing are as as follows:
1) 2 Diff thrust washers
2) 5th Gear Hub Assembly (Very difficult to source good second had ones so I’m told)
3) 5th Gear Cover Gasket
4) Case Bolts
5) Cover Bolts
All in all that represents some £250 worth of components that had to be sourced to rebuild the gearbox. (The one that couldn’t be rebuilt you will remember). They just either stripped out what they fancied and just chucked some random bits in a box and sent it back.

Note for all: The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000. You may be unaware of, but in terms of part-exchanged goods that are being returned, the service provider is obliged to return goods ‘in a condition substantially as good as when they were delivered to the supplier’ ;

Clearly in my case, the gearbox was not returned in the same conditioned it was dispatched to them, therefore they are in breach of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000. I am in the process of getting my out of pocket expenses back.

Volkswagenspares.com never again. :mad:
 
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redspecial2000

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I'm going to steer you towards Merparts mate, always used them for all of my Mercs. I stopped using the main dealer when I realised that I have pairs of jeans older than the staff working on my car. And then there was my infamous call from a certain dealer that went along the lines of "we think we've resprayed your car the wrong colour"...

I'm quite picky now about who goes near my car, but the guys at Merparts have been excellent. They've had my R170, R171, and now my W204 all at a fraction of what the dealer was charging me. I've even witnessed the MB dealership subcontract jobs to them when they can't solve them, so that says it all really.If you don't mind the trip to deepest, darkest Port Glasgow, then it's a great garage to use.
 

Royston59

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Go back a few years and a B service was typically £450.

To be honest, OK, the servicing regime is a bit of a complicated mish-mash of time and mileage releated items, but is it any different from, say, Audi & BMW?

I really don't get why people would buy a "prestige" car and not make some enquiries about the servicing regime & costs.

Mercedes runs a monthly payment scheme which, for the E Class, costs £30/mth for 3 services over 3 years. So your £357 is spot on.

Hi
I wondered if the monthly service plan included the "advisory's" that are likely to arise in the period or is this sum simply for the A and B's anticipated?
Cheers
 

Rory

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Hi
I wondered if the monthly service plan included the "advisory's" that are likely to arise in the period or is this sum simply for the A and B's anticipated?
Cheers

Don't understand "advisory's". It includes "additional" service items that are time/distance related, such as fuel and air filter.
 

Mounis

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Healthy profit is ok...Right?

What I just don't understand is why these people don't want to make money out of us long term? They want to cut our throats, there and then and make a quick buck... BUT in my opinion if they were:

1) Transparent about costs
2) Had a fixed priced menu for basic servicing costs (a proper fixed price)
3) Ran you through additional work that actually needed doing - and left old parts in your boot for viewing

I would ALWAYS go back to have work done. We have approx 40 Mercs on they company fleet and yet we never go to the main dealer for anything except for parts. Were they more reasonable just say on a basic service they would be looking at a lot more business.....

I guess there must be many numptys/loaded/unwitting customers out there who will willingly part with their money and not realise the real cost of the work they are having done...
 

Monique

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You never get mugged at a MB dealer. However you get fuqued in the a**se... without even a token kiss.

Have no fear though, Porsche does the same ... this is why I became a Pcar DIY'er when I owned mine :D

Used cars without a warranty are like that.. don't complain, get involved and return the pleasure to them by walking away.:lol::lol:
 

Alex M Grieve

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Don't understand "advisories". It includes "additional" service items that are time/distance related, such as fuel and air filter.

However, as some advisories are directly related to time (change brake fluid 2 yearly) that can very easily be added to the normal service costs for a car on a 2 yearly servicing schedule (up until 2006).

More to the point, if the service record is electronic, it would not take a genius programmer long to create a system which will give a bespoke listing of the correct ingredients for the next service - which could also be e-mailed to the customer with a quotation of cost. Currently each quotation seems to require someone to start afresh with paper and pencil - and that often results in an incomplete calculation and acrimony, even when the dealership is the only provider ever to have touched the car of a loyal customer.

We have all the tools, but continue to operate in the era of the oily rag.
 

Rory

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However, as some advisories are directly related to time (change brake fluid 2 yearly) that can very easily be added to the normal service costs for a car on a 2 yearly servicing schedule (up until 2006).

Brake fluid change isn't an advisory, it's a mandatory additional service item. Mandatory in the sense that many dealers won't stamp the service book if it isn't done. An advisory is something like "you could do with your brake pads changing".

More to the point, if the service record is electronic, it would not take a genius programmer long to create a system which will give a bespoke listing of the correct ingredients for the next service - which could also be e-mailed to the customer with a quotation of cost.

That can be got from the ESS - there's even an online version that anyone can use: http://lite.servicemercedes.co.uk/

Currently each quotation seems to require someone to start afresh with paper and pencil - and that often results in an incomplete calculation and acrimony, even when the dealership is the only provider ever to have touched the car of a loyal customer.

It is a bit complicated to figure out but not massively so. There's only brake fluid, ATF (which is a one off) spark plugs on petrol cars, air and fuel filter to put into the mix. The alternative is to do all items every 2 years on a B service, which is what happens (bar the ATF) on my daughter's Mitsubishi Colt, but it doesn't half make the service expensive, and MB reckon these items will last 4 years (apart from brake fluid).
 

television

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Brake fluid change isn't an advisory, it's a mandatory additional service item. Mandatory in the sense that many dealers won't stamp the service book if it isn't done. An advisory is something like "you could do with your brake pads changing".
It is a bit complicated to figure out but not massively so. There's only brake fluid, ATF (which is a one off) spark plugs on petrol cars, air and fuel filter to put into the mix. The alternative is to do all items every 2 years on a B service, which is what happens (bar the ATF) on my daughter's Mitsubishi Colt, but it doesn't half make the service expensive, and MB reckon these items will last 4 years (apart from brake fluid).

The ATF is not changed by MB unless the 722.9 box requires this, I have not looked.

The unfair thing is when MB can tell the customer that the car needs brake pads and disc when theý are only 1/3rd worn, this they say is to save the customer from having to bring the car in between services.
OK lets work out the logic in this. The average motorist gets through 2 to 3 sets of pads to 1 disc change, and pads last say up to 20k miles or more and the disc 30k to 50k, at MBs reckoning the average motorist would be having all of these things replaced 3 times more than they need with the average service interval of 12k miles.

It just is not honest.
 

Cleggmeister

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To the OP, TJ ONeill in Carntyne is your man. Serviced my AMG for years and will be servicing my new W211 when I get it.
 

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