Bodywork warranty

[JonnyP2468]

Hi,

Right, I got a new c class. On arrival, it had a stone chip as transport damage. They acknowledged this and said ‘we will put this on our chips away account’. So, I got the work done but a few hours later, with the stone chip gone, I noticed that about half a foot away was thick, orange peeled paint.
I thought that this was too far away from the chip repair area. So because of this, I called up Mercedes Exeter (where my car was from, 200 miles away) complaining that this must be factory defect or that somewhere along the way there is been a smart repair.
In order to inspect and repair this, it has to go back to Exeter (from Manchester) in order to investigate because it is part of the Exeter fleet of cars.
However, now that my car is to go all the way to Exeter, I actually think that it’s overspray from the chips away repair.... Do I tell Mercedes and request that chips away pay for a repair at Mercedes body shop? Or will Mercedes say ‘it’s chips always fault and their problem’? Even though the repair was on their account and advisement....? My problem is that I don’t want 400 miles to be put on my vehicle....but I don’t want chips away to carry out another repair themselves due to their quality of work.

Sorry for the long thread but would really appreciate opinions.

Thanks!

 

[DoberMan]

You've already posted a thread on this.

 

[markjay]

I would have thought that you should be able to get this issue dealt with at a local Mercedes-Benz dealer in or near Manchester.

I understand your thinking that the Chips Away respray is an internal matter for the supplying dealer, and therefore won't be dealt with by another dealer, but I thing this is wrong.

Definitely a factory paint defect can be examined and corrected by any Mercedes-Benz dealer.

As for the Chips Away repair... if the paint defect is indeed an issue with the Chips Away repair, and the Mercedes-Benz dealer in Manchester claims that only Exeter can deal with this, then I would raise this urgently with Mercedes-Benz Exeter as an unsatisfactory repair because it in fact invalidated your car's paint warranty (in the affected area).

If this does turn-out to be the case, then the only acceptable solution would be to have the affected body panel stripped completely and resprayed at a Mercedes-Benz approved body shop, to ensure that both the Mercedes-Benz new car paint warranty and anti-rust warranty are preserved.

I do hope that matters won't escalate that far over a stone chip... and definitely a stone chip which has been repaired is not a valid reason in itself for rejecting a new car. BUT a new car supplied without paint warranty and without anti-rust warranty (even if only for one body panel), is a good reason for insisting that the dealer puts your car back in position where the original MB warranties do apply, and apply to the entire car - or in a worse-case scenario - reject that car.

In short... my thinking is that the local dealer should be able to get it sorted for you under warranty, and if they do not - then you may potentially have a much bigger issue to raise with Exeter over where you stand with regards to the the MB new car paint warranty and the MB anti-rust warranty.

Hope you get this sorted.