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Hohath

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Mar 19, 2018
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Your Mercedes
CLS 350 AMG Sport 2014
Hi. I've never joined a forum before but saw your forum when trying to find information on other MB owners who had been ripped off with the Stargard paintv treatment.

I bought a 3 year old CLS 350 AMG Sport in May last year as a semi retirement present to myself. Found a great car with only 8000 miles from new, I'm delighted with it.

I was so impressed with it (my first Merc) I bought my wife a nearly new A Class from a Merc dealer, not sure if I can name the dealer? I was sold, against my better judgement, Stargard paint and interior protection for £425.00. To cut a long story short, my son pulled down the rear arm rest and found broken glass, I questioned the dealer how broken glass could be found in a nearly new car after it had been valeted and an interior treatment applied. The dealer took the car back in to investigate and admitted that the paint and interior Stargard treatment had not actually been applied. This is a Mercedes Main Dealer by the way.

The dealer agreed refund the cost of the Stargard and that they would re-apply the product free of charge. I felt that this was fair enough although I was fuming that they had taken my cash and not applied the product as promised. They blamed their outsourced valet company for this 'oversight'.This was in September last year.

I have recently had a paint treatment applied to my car by a car detailing specialist. I asked him to valet my wife's car while he was doing mine. After washing the car, he told me that the paint work needed decontaminating and clay bar applied before he could polish it. I told him that MB Stargard had been applied. No it hasn't he told me. He said that there was no way that any paint treatment had been applied to the car. He also told me that 3 of the 4 alloys had been refurbished, in his opinion, very poorly. I had no idea. The alloys are black so its difficult to see but he explained that they had been painted rather than powder coated. I took the car to another Mercedes dealer within the original dealers group and asked them to look at my paintwork and alloys. They immediately offered to re-apply the Stargard treatment, as they agreed it had not been applied 'properly' and fully refurbish and powder coat all 4 alloys.

By the way, I sound like a bit of a mug, really I'm not. I just didn't expect a Mercedes Main Dealer to act like a back street used car garage. Not only did they take my money for a product and not apply it, they took my car back and told me that they had re-applied it and they didn't! If a moderator can let me know if I'm allowed to name and shame the dealer please do let me know. I would really like to warn people about them.

I have now had the wheels refurbished and they look like new, I declined the offer of a free Stargard and I've given the business to my paint detailer who applied a far superior product (he tells me) for £120.00 rather than the £425.00 charged by MB.
 

sl500amgsport

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Essex
Your Mercedes
SL500 2014
Hi. I've never joined a forum before but saw your forum when trying to find information on other MB owners who had been ripped off with the Stargard paintv treatment.

I bought a 3 year old CLS 350 AMG Sport in May last year as a semi retirement present to myself. Found a great car with only 8000 miles from new, I'm delighted with it.

I was so impressed with it (my first Merc) I bought my wife a nearly new A Class from a Merc dealer, not sure if I can name the dealer? I was sold, against my better judgement, Stargard paint and interior protection for £425.00. To cut a long story short, my son pulled down the rear arm rest and found broken glass, I questioned the dealer how broken glass could be found in a nearly new car after it had been valeted and an interior treatment applied. The dealer took the car back in to investigate and admitted that the paint and interior Stargard treatment had not actually been applied. This is a Mercedes Main Dealer by the way.

The dealer agreed refund the cost of the Stargard and that they would re-apply the product free of charge. I felt that this was fair enough although I was fuming that they had taken my cash and not applied the product as promised. They blamed their outsourced valet company for this 'oversight'.This was in September last year.

I have recently had a paint treatment applied to my car by a car detailing specialist. I asked him to valet my wife's car while he was doing mine. After washing the car, he told me that the paint work needed decontaminating and clay bar applied before he could polish it. I told him that MB Stargard had been applied. No it hasn't he told me. He said that there was no way that any paint treatment had been applied to the car. He also told me that 3 of the 4 alloys had been refurbished, in his opinion, very poorly. I had no idea. The alloys are black so its difficult to see but he explained that they had been painted rather than powder coated. I took the car to another Mercedes dealer within the original dealers group and asked them to look at my paintwork and alloys. They immediately offered to re-apply the Stargard treatment, as they agreed it had not been applied 'properly' and fully refurbish and powder coat all 4 alloys.

By the way, I sound like a bit of a mug, really I'm not. I just didn't expect a Mercedes Main Dealer to act like a back street used car garage. Not only did they take my money for a product and not apply it, they took my car back and told me that they had re-applied it and they didn't! If a moderator can let me know if I'm allowed to name and shame the dealer please do let me know. I would really like to warn people about them.

I have now had the wheels refurbished and they look like new, I declined the offer of a free Stargard and I've given the business to my paint detailer who applied a far superior product (he tells me) for £120.00 rather than the £425.00 charged by MB.
Welcome, sorry to hear your plight but pleased you are enjoying your CLS .

I am not a moderator but really hope you can name & shame as any dealer acting in this action in my opinion deserves to be outed!

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
 

A.J.

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Norwich. UK
Your Mercedes
UnMerc - 2020 VW Polo 2.0t GTi Plus, DSG. Flash Red, Traditional VW GTi Tartan seat trim.
Hi Hohath, welcome to the forum. That is quite a tale, hope it hasn't dulled your pleasure of MB ownership. Starguard or any of those Main Dealer paint protection systems are a complete rip off, they only pay a few pounds for the kit. Happily you found a detailer who wasn't intent on ripping you off :)
 

John Laidlaw

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Wirral
Your Mercedes
Land Rover Discovery 4
7BEBEB8C-2533-42BB-8A12-B2399929FD6F.jpeg 7BEBEB8C-2533-42BB-8A12-B2399929FD6F.jpeg 7BEBEB8C-2533-42BB-8A12-B2399929FD6F.jpeg Welcome - as above ... you’re not a mug, unfortunately loads of people go for this elusive magical treatment at main dealer level believing it’s super special.
Either it’s not done or not done properly , as your detailer has mentioned if the preparation isn’t done first (iron decontamination/clay bar) they’ve put effectively just a hard wax into a bad surface. Totally pointless and indeed a rip off.
For £120 your detailer will have done the above and I’d guess a basic wax.
With a detailer you’d lay out c£500 to have a decent ceramic coat ( after preparation). If this car is your ‘keeper’ and the paint is good I’d recommend that route.
Just a taster ...
 

John Laidlaw

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Wirral
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Land Rover Discovery 4
Apologies for 3 images, forum was running soooo slow didn’t realise I’d uploaded first time !
 
OP
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Hohath

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Your Mercedes
CLS 350 AMG Sport 2014
  • Thread Starter
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  • #6
View attachment 42139 View attachment 42139 View attachment 42139 Welcome - as above ... you’re not a mug, unfortunately loads of people go for this elusive magical treatment at main dealer level believing it’s super special.
Either it’s not done or not done properly , as your detailer has mentioned if the preparation isn’t done first (iron decontamination/clay bar) they’ve put effectively just a hard wax into a bad surface. Totally pointless and indeed a rip off.
For £120 your detailer will have done the above and I’d guess a basic wax.
With a detailer you’d lay out c£500 to have a decent ceramic coat ( after preparation). If this car is your ‘keeper’ and the paint is good I’d recommend that route.
Just a taster ...
Thanks for your reply. That's a great looking car John. I think my car is a keeper and you're spot on the money, I paid £500 to have a ceramic paint treatment applied.
 
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Hohath

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Your Mercedes
CLS 350 AMG Sport 2014
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Welcome, sorry to hear your plight but pleased you are enjoying your CLS .

I am not a moderator but really hope you can name & shame as any dealer acting in this action in my opinion deserves to be outed!

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I agree and I will happily name them if I am allowed too, as I say, I'm new to forums.
 
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Hohath

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Your Mercedes
CLS 350 AMG Sport 2014
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  • #8
Hi Hohath, welcome to the forum. That is quite a tale, hope it hasn't dulled your pleasure of MB ownership. Starguard or any of those Main Dealer paint protection systems are a complete rip off, they only pay a few pounds for the kit. Happily you found a detailer who wasn't intent on ripping you off :)
Thanks Andy.
 

tc smith

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Nov 6, 2017
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42
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Your Mercedes
slk350 (R171)
Hi and welcome, I made the same mistake with a Golf GTI from a specialist second-hand seller in Lincoln, in hindsight it was a waste of money but they target when to ask you and it's not normally convenient to do hours of research. Lovely car.
 
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Hohath

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Your Mercedes
CLS 350 AMG Sport 2014
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  • Thread starter
  • #10
Hi and welcome, I made the same mistake with a Golf GTI from a specialist second-hand seller in Lincoln, in hindsight it was a waste of money but they target when to ask you and it's not normally convenient to do hours of research. Lovely car.
Hi thanks for your reply. To be honest, I don't feel ripped off about buying it, that was my decision and I could have said no, the product sounded very impressive and it might well be if they actually applied it! To charge £425.00 and admit that the product was not applied is bad enough, to take the car back to rectify the complaint and again not apply it (which this seems to be the case) is frankly outrageous. We live and learn. Maybe I should have asked more questions second time around.
 

LostKiwi

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Location
Midlands / Charente-Maritime
Your Mercedes
'93 500SL-32, '01 W210 Estate E240 (RIP), 02 R230 SL500, 04 Smart Roadster Coupe, 11 R350CDi
Shocking customer service. I can't see any reason for not mentioning who you bought the car from (but I'm not a moderator).
Fundamentally its a simple fact related to your purchase.
 


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