approved warranty issues

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eagles21

New Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
14
Location
Orpington, Kent
Car
ml 350
Does anybody on here have any experience with MB Approved warranty?
I recently (just over 4 weeks ago) took delivery of an ML350 from mercedes Lincoln (they delivered it to me in kent) and at the weekend while driving it i had two error messages plus the orange triangle appear on the dash saying that the ABS and ESP had malfunctioned and to visit the workshop. By monday this week the lights and messages had dissapeared but because my wife drives this car with our 3 small children in the back i thought it should be investigated (especially as these are main safety items on the vehicle and i want to know if they are working or not!).

I phoned my local MB service centre (orpington) and i think i spoke to a main call centre who asked me what the issue was. i explained what had happened and that after 2 days the lights had extinguished and i had only had the car for 4 weeks but wanted to bring it in under warranty to see if there is / was a fault.
The guy on the other end of the phone asked me how i knew it was a warranty issue? i answered that as its an approved used car with intermittent warning lights appearing i should think it was!
He told me that if i booked it in it would take 1 hours labour to investigate the ABS system and another hour to investigate the ESP system (at £135 per hour!) and if no fault came up they would charge me for the labour!!!:mad:
How can this be? if the car is under warranty then surely all investigative work on faults should be included too!
After a rant on the phone he said 'as a good will guesture'! they will give my car a free electrical test to see if anything comes up.
Is this normal practice with MB or am i being too picky?
Your comments will be appreciated.
 
Find another Mercedes dealer, they sound like tossers.

Is it a tier 1 warranty that you have?
 
Welcome to the forum.

Mercedes-Benz of Orpington are part of Mercedes-Benz London, who in turn are wholly owned by Mercedes-Benz Retail Ltd (the UK importer of Mercedes in the UK).

Mercedes-Benz of Birmingham and Mercedes-Benz of Manchester also operate in the same way, and they share a call centre operation, which sadly means you speak to people who know little, and have little incentive to deliver good service.

You're well within your rights, and you have two options:

1. Try again but when you call the dealership ask to speak to the Service Manager specifically, so you don't get routed to the call centre.

2. Try another local dealer which is not owned by Mercedes-Benz Retail Ltd (like Lincoln) and you'll speak to someone who wants to help. A list can be found below:
Mercedes-Benz London

I'm not anti-MBRetail nor am I anti-CallCentre - I've just experienced the same level of service when dealing with MB Birmingham in the past, and so I now choose to use a franchised dealer.

Finally don't let this put you off - the Approved Used Warranty is very good - it's pretty much equivalent to the new car warranty with MOT failure cover thrown in.

I hope this helps.
 
De ja vu. I had the same issue when I bought my approved used w202 years ago. Dealer would say they will charge me to investigate any issues before making a warranty claim. It was cheaper to go to a good independent and get any problems fixed then pay for an hour or so labour at a dealer!
 
Actually, I believe the information you were given to be the Tier 1 warranty policy. I was told exactly the same by MB Swindon who are part of the Sytner group when I had a concern with my car. They told me after investigating a concern with my car and not finding anything wrong that they should have charged me for the labour. For my future information they said official MB Tier 1 policy is they will investigate and if they find a fault then the labour for the investigation and the repair is all covered under the warranty but if they don't find a fault then you have to pay for the investigation. I wonder if it was a recent change in the policy - although my experience was 2 months or so back.
 
I had no charge for mine last week under tier 1 when in for investigation at least 2 hours and no problem found
 
If the light has come and gone I probably wouldnt worry. If there was an issue it would keep coming back.
 
I know it sounds daft but how do I tell which tier warranty I have? Isn't the approved used warranty the same for all vehicles for 12 months?
 
An update re the Approved warranty woes.
I took my car down to MB Orpington for the 'good will guesture' inspection.
The warning lights remained off but surprise surprise they found (upon plugging it in to whatever they plug it into) that there are 2 possibly 3 faulty ABS sensors.
The service manager (Jon) was very helpful and told me to ring him direct in future instead of the call centre.
That's what I thought merc should be like:)
 
An update re the Approved warranty woes.
I took my car down to MB Orpington for the 'good will guesture' inspection.
The warning lights remained off but surprise surprise they found (upon plugging it in to whatever they plug it into) that there are 2 possibly 3 faulty ABS sensors.
The service manager (Jon) was very helpful and told me to ring him direct in future instead of the call centre.
That's what I thought merc should be like:)

I use orpington a lot they are very good there.
 
He told me that if i booked it in it would take 1 hours labour to investigate the ABS system and another hour to investigate the ESP system (at £135 per hour!) and if no fault came up they would charge me for the labour!!!:mad:

How can this be? if the car is under warranty then surely all investigative work on faults should be included too!

The car will store the faults so there shouldn't be an issue with them not showing. However, we've seen StarDiagnosis reports on here that some cars have absolutely loads of stored faults, so I'm not sure how helpful that is.

This does highlight a dilema for the dealers - if they spend time on the car and don't find anything they can submit as a warranty claim, then they don't get paid. This applies whether it's new MB warranty, approved used, or 3rd party. They have to decide whether to charge the customer or just suck it up - for an MB dealer, that could be quite a lot of billable time that he's throwing away. More and more dealers (of all makes) seem to be choosing to charge the customer.
 
I would say it depends who you get dealt with imho.

It is always about people, I do agree with you. It is also about how the place is managed and the team. I don't think I had an issue about who I dealt with, but the number of people, mishandling of the situation, and to top it off outright false information. Nearly ended in court, but they settled and admitted fault. Last year they again misled me when trying to buy a C63, so my comment is based on two experiences. Had many experiences with parts and nothing but praise for them, credit where it is due.

Also, I'm glad your experience is a good one, maybe things have changed!
 
An update re the Approved warranty woes.
I took my car down to MB Orpington for the 'good will guesture' inspection.
The warning lights remained off but surprise surprise they found (upon plugging it in to whatever they plug it into) that there are 2 possibly 3 faulty ABS sensors.
The service manager (Jon) was very helpful and told me to ring him direct in future instead of the call centre.
That's what I thought merc should be like:)

Glad you got a result. You should have a warranty book for used cars, which will very clearly tell if it is Tier 1 or 2, this is usally determined by age and mileage of the car. If you dont have this ask the MB dealer who sold it to you for it.
 
Great news, most things are covered so just make a list of problems and let the dealer deal with them!
 

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