Don't Rely on Approved MB Dealer Fitting All the Parts After a Service

[pmcgsmurf]

My 6 year old W212 has 14k miles on the clock and until now has always been main dealer serviced every year, either John R Weir, Mercedes Grangemouth (Arnold Clark) or Western Mercedes.

Car has done about 1k miles since last service, was quoted £257 and was happy with this for an "A Service", dealer then increased this to £450 each (we have two, one with 25k miles) as contrary to online they need a "B Service".
Couldn't justify this for an Oil/Filter, Pollen Filter and MOT so took the cars into our own workshop to do the service.

A bit miffed to find that during one of the previous services the MB Main Dealer hasn't bothered to refit one of the bolts for a cable cover.
They probably removed this to make it easier to get the filter out but either lost it or couldn't be bother fitting it back.

BEFORE




I didn't have the same head type laying around but did have an M6 the same length so fitted a new one.
This sort of thing really gets on my nerves as it just makes you wonder what they do around the rest of the vehicle.

AFTER

 

[219]

When I still lived in Bo'ness , a friend there had a similar story - charged for parts which were never fitted . On complaint , it turned out mechanic had been drawing parts against workshop jobs , not fitting them and using for 'homers' . Foreman had suspected for a while but lacked proof . Guy was sacked . Won't name the dealer , but it was local .

His folly was my friend was himself a mechanic running a local garage , and only using dealer while his new car was under warranty .

 

[erdnase]

No surprise , just use an Independent garage. I never bother with main dealer after the Warranty has expired. I don't reallly think it made any difference when I came to selling my cars. In fact i sold them for more tha MB offered me

 

[pmcgsmurf]

Probably correct, we only ever use the main dealer because of the warranty but when they quote reasonable outside warranty it seems like a logical choice.

Have to say though I'm less than impressed, I dropped a bolt while fitting a pollen filter Saturday and couldn't find it but I did spend 15 minutes till I got it.

 

[219]

...I dropped a bolt while fitting a pollen filter Saturday and couldn't find it but I did spend 15 minutes till I got it.

Been there , done that .

My main concern with such mishaps is not losing the bolt , which can easily be replaced - but you don't always know it hasn't dropped into somewhere it might do damage .

I remember dropping a machine screw down inside the distributor on my Ponton when changing a set of points - had to take the distributor off and shake it upside down - no way I'd have left that in there !

 

[ian1676]

Main dealers are appalling - very poor service at a very high price. I've posted threads before on this subject - I've had them try to charge for replacing filters they haven't even touched. Sadly a main dealer service entails you being charged a lot of money to have the car washed and returned to you with the service indicator reset.....nothing else. Makes great business sense as washing the car will only cost them a couple of quid so big fat profit there. Things will then start to fail - worse case scenario for the main dealer is a warranty repair at the discounted rates that dealers can charge Mondial Assist (who underwrite the approved used warranty). More likely is the dealer will come up with some kind of crap reason as to why it's not covered by your warranty, even arguing black is white when you refer to the warranty wording, in the hope they can charge you their ridiculous rates until they realise you're not stupid. Get a proper mechanic to look after the car - one who relies on his reputation and repeat custom rather than relying on the manufacturers name to rip off customers!

 

[pmcgsmurf]

My main concern with such mishaps is not losing the bolt , which can easily be replaced - but you don't always know it hasn't dropped into somewhere it might do damage.

Exactly, I had the bore scope out about to go searching but found it lodged in the passenger footwell.

 

[pmcgsmurf]

Main dealers are appalling - very poor service at a very high price. I've posted threads before on this subject - I've had them try to charge for replacing filters they haven't even touched. Sadly a main dealer service entails you being charged a lot of money to have the car washed and returned to you with the service indicator reset.....nothing else.

When we serviced the W212's at the weekend one thing I noticed was the factory clip was still fitted to one of them that holds the pollen filter in.
This is the low mileage one and should have had the pollen filter changed twice at the dealer but I seriously have my doubts.

 

[Wayne.clk]

Never use main stealer bunch of rip off merchants! Always looked after all of my cars and many other people's cars too.
I serviced a friends car that had always been to a main dealer as it was under warranty
But the last time he took it there the car was running like crap so asked me too take a look at it
Upon inspection the air filter looked like it had never been changed as it was black as ur hat and started to fall apart and the oil well it was more like treacle and the plugs were covered in carbon
So needless to say the car never went back to the main stealer.

 

[telu]

Never use main stealer bunch of rip off merchants! Always looked after all of my cars and many other people's cars too.
I serviced a friends car that had always been to a main dealer as it was under warranty
But the last time he took it there the car was running like crap so asked me too take a look at it
Upon inspection the air filter looked like it had never been changed as it was black as ur hat and started to fall apart and the oil well it was more like treacle and the plugs were covered in carbon
So needless to say the car never went back to the main stealer.

That's fair enough for people like you who can service their own cars, but the vast majority of car owners are left at the mercy of the dealers if they want to keep their warranty...