C220CDi Service B

[robert.saunders]

Thanks for your comments and points re: the problems encountered. I will follow them up with the relevant people etc.

 

[robert.saunders]

Latest (final!) update re: the saga.

Went back to dealers today to have the offending trim completely replaced. This was promised to me 6 weeks ago by the dealer, who said I would receive a call from them within 2 weeks with the new trim ordered and ready for installation. Apparently, it would come from Germany.

Anyway, the weeks went by, heard nothing, and out of the blue MB customer service rang me to enquire about my last visit to Robinsons and to see if everything was ok. This a courtesy call it seems. Obviously, I told everything to the chap who rang, and the problems I had encountered, especially with regard to the damage caused by the dealer. Miraculously, the dealer called next day and updated me with the progress of the trim delivery, and said it would be with them in a few days. It was.

Today, car went in and it was fitted. Had a brand new A170 Elegance as a courtesy car, which I was pleased with as I had wanted a drive in the new A-class. Very nice car, impressed with it, and a vast improvement over the old model. May even consider a nice Avantgarde A200CDi as replacement for my current model!

Anyway, all seems ok now, I am satisfied to the point of past caring. It is certainly the last visit I will ever pay Robinsons dealerships (they have a few around East Anglia) and has dented my image of MB. Have been looking at Audi and BMW, so we shall see, but as I say the new A-class did impress me.

Such a shame ‘cos I really like my C220; as a car it is currently fine, it’s just the usual chestnut with the dealer problems. MB obviously aware of customer issues generally, hence the courtesy call, which on its own is an impressive thing, but does kind of smack of their own distrust perhaps with their own dealers.

Hopefully, that’s the end of it!

 

[fuzzer]

Latest (final!) update re: the saga.

Went back to dealers today to have the offending trim completely replaced. This was promised to me 6 weeks ago by the dealer, who said I would receive a call from them within 2 weeks with the new trim ordered and ready for installation. Apparently, it would come from Germany.

Anyway, the weeks went by, heard nothing, and out of the blue MB customer service rang me to enquire about my last visit to Robinsons and to see if everything was ok. This a courtesy call it seems. Obviously, I told everything to the chap who rang, and the problems I had encountered, especially with regard to the damage caused by the dealer. Miraculously, the dealer called next day and updated me with the progress of the trim delivery, and said it would be with them in a few days. It was.

Today, car went in and it was fitted. Had a brand new A170 Elegance as a courtesy car, which I was pleased with as I had wanted a drive in the new A-class. Very nice car, impressed with it, and a vast improvement over the old model. May even consider a nice Avantgarde A200CDi as replacement for my current model!

Anyway, all seems ok now, I am satisfied to the point of past caring. It is certainly the last visit I will ever pay Robinsons dealerships (they have a few around East Anglia) and has dented my image of MB. Have been looking at Audi and BMW, so we shall see, but as I say the new A-class did impress me.

Such a shame ‘cos I really like my C220; as a car it is currently fine, it’s just the usual chestnut with the dealer problems. MB obviously aware of customer issues generally, hence the courtesy call, which on its own is an impressive thing, but does kind of smack of their own distrust perhaps with their own dealers.

Hopefully, that’s the end of it!

our w211 E220 CDI estate disappears on saturday for a new 530d because of the moronic and overpriced dealers ...

 

[IanA2]

Oh blimey don't get me started on the courtesy car. I appreciate on the service & warranty work to get what I am given. However, I was generally given an A-Class but I did have a C-Class when the service work was done. I booked a C-Class each time afterwards but always got an A-Class! How cheap of them, considering it was consistently going back to fix THEIR own faults!!

However, today again I had an A-Class (despite booking a C-Class) but got very annoyed with them and by a miracle a C-Class 230K Avantgarde appeared, which I have to say I was impressed with... (the car, not the fact I got it!)

So you actually got a courtesy car from these fine people....wow! My SLK320 had a Instrument Cluster failure. They replaced it under warranty. Guess what? When it came back it had a new problem. The alarm started going off intermitantly. Never had that prob before. When I phoned them they said they wanted the car for a few days. I said fine but I needed a replacment car, oh well that will take some time, we don't have that many cars available. No problem says I just let me drop the car round when you have one and you can take mine. Oh no say they, you have to come to us, and by the way we need your driving licence and other such documents and it will cost you (I think it was something like £25 per day) I was so impressed with this lack of customer focus that I took it up with HQ. Suddenly a car might be available sooner. Still I have to drive to them and pay.....to cut a long story short, there were several other customer service "beauts" and I decided to get it fixed elsewhere and sell the SLK. I really do not want to deal with these sort of people. Got myself a very nice 92 500SL which is looked after by TWG in Longthorpe.

 

[silverarrow]

ummm might keep my w202 why buy expensive mbz rubbish
when will mbz get the build quality ok
a friend in the trade told me mbz uk have loads of cars they have bought back from customers going to closed auctions and we all know that the dealers will be trying to sell them at a high price
lexus lexus see jd power and warranty direct

 

[garystu1965]

Got the car in summer 2004, all was well. A nice 2002 model Elegance SE in pleasant Travertine with nice electric memory leather seats.

B service today. My first service for this car.

Robinsons of Peterborough - pretty pleasant bunch, local to me (I purchased the car from Mercedes of Brighton).

Total including new discs and pads all round a nice £4 short of the magic £1000 .

£1000 service on a one year old car ? Are they having a laugh ?

A new set of disks ????

You should have told them where to get off.

Trading standards is where I would have gone I tell you.

 

[robert.saunders]

How many miles should a set of discs last? And the car is not 1 year old!

 

[IanA2]

Service Costs

I don't want to rub salt in, but I've just had my '92 500SL MOT'd (passed with no advisorys) serviced (96,000 miles) and the bill, with a new number plate (prefix + 500SSL) came to about £350.00. TWG Longthorpe again!

Also I've been up to that dreaded stealership three times in the last ten days to ask for:

a) a used list
and
b) to see the sales manager

They were unable to provide me with a list "sorry not printed & we don't have access to the computor" twice, and "oh, we'll print one off" on the third occaision, but after 20mins I gave up and asked them to post it.

Surprise! They haven't.

On the third occaision of the sales manager being unavaiable (he is apparantly the only person who can value a car!) they said he would ring me.

Surprise! He hasn't.

You see why I want to avoid these people.......

 

[ddentrec]

Interesting thread.

My 2003 C180K rattled from new: rooflining/B-pillar was the worst. Still does it after 4 visits to the stealer.

As for Robinsons M-B stealership: keep away from the Cambridge branch. They even charge you £10.50 + VAT per day for a courtesy car even if it is in for a warranty repair!! What tight £$%^&!!!!!

In my view go the the Sytner Group M-B stealers: the only M-B dealer that *really* try to help. Free courtesy cars too!

Note that you can get your M-B serviced/repaired at a non-franchised garage whilst keeping the warranty intact, as long as they use genuine parts and follow the recommended service procedures.

 

[IanA2]

Peterborough charge more

Interesting thread.

My 2003 C180K rattled from new: rooflining/B-pillar was the worst. Still does it after 4 visits to the stealer.

As for Robinsons M-B stealership: keep away from the Cambridge branch. They even charge you £10.50 + VAT per day for a courtesy car even if it is in for a warranty repair!! What tight £$%^&!!!!!

In my view go the the Sytner Group M-B stealers: the only M-B dealer that *really* try to help. Free courtesy cars too!

Note that you can get your M-B serviced/repaired at a non-franchised garage whilst keeping the warranty intact, as long as they use genuine parts and follow the recommended service procedures.

ANd for faults THEY have created!!

 

[IanA2]

Seems quite early

How many miles should a set of discs last? And the car is not 1 year old!

Depends how you drive but it does seem a bit soon. Have you thought of getting an Independant to do your warranty repairs. You can do it with the new law.

 

[mike_avfc]

In my view go the the Sytner Group M-B stealers: the only M-B dealer that *really* try to help. Free courtesy cars too!

i got my c220 from Sytner in Swindon and they said they charge £25 per day for "courtesy cars", due to the insurance. albeit they do provide a good lounge with wireless internet and the like so it pays to work rom there for the day.

sorry - i can't get the quotes right

 

[robert.saunders]

Well, perhaps one of the good things about this dealership is the 'free' courtesy car, although their own insurance is a £1000 excess

As for the discs etc, I got the car in summer 2004, with over 60k miles on the clock; I've put another 10k on since I've owned it. Mileage I'm not bothered about, especially on a diesel, but if these are the original brake components then maybe it's not so bad?! Makes me wonder though that perhaps the brakes were not in too good a state when I purchased the car from Brighton Mercedes?!?!

 

[IanA2]

Well, perhaps one of the good things about this dealership is the 'free' courtesy car, although their own insurance is a £1000 excess

They tried that on me.......no way Jose......so you park the car in the Supermarket car park........you know the rest, including the enormous bill! Like I said I told them where to go........

 

[mike_avfc]

Well, perhaps one of the good things about this dealership is the 'free' courtesy car, although their own insurance is a £1000 excess

They tried that on me.......no way Jose......so you park the car in the Supermarket car park........you know the rest, including the enormous bill! Like I said I told them where to go........

thats got to be why sytner charge £25 - insurance excess is only about £100 after that

 

[robert.saunders]

Well, I've now written my letter of complaint to the dealer, also to the managing director of the dealer group (Robinsons). I have sent the letter to the MB customer service email address as highlighted above and copied in my local trading standards as a result of my latest visit (see thread - my complaint reference trading standards relates to the oil seals on the rear diff): Link.

We shall see what comes of this! Thanks to everyone for their concern and comments. It's such a damn shame it comes to this, it's so regretful.

 

[robert.saunders]

Things seem to be sorted.

Dealer rang today, we discussed the problems and after having paid £200 for the work to the rear springs, and having had the oil seals repaired free of charge, we arrived at a settlement over the complaint.

Amazing what intervention has achieved, as I have now received £200 off my next service with the dealer. I have accepted this, as I intend to keep the car for at least 12 months yet, and I'm due an A Service in about 7k.

Result?? I guess so. I can't be bothered with it all anymore to be honest!!

 

[bigtruth]

our w211 E220 CDI estate disappears on saturday for a new 530d because of the moronic and overpriced dealers ...

Same here, after 15 years of mercedes benz ownership, I sold my W211 E240 for a Cayenne, well my wife still got her 2004 C180, If they continue there bad ways, I will change hers as well.
Premium cars deserves premium service.

 

[IanA2]

Things seem to be sorted.

Dealer rang today, we discussed the problems and after having paid £200 for the work to the rear springs, and having had the oil seals repaired free of charge, we arrived at a settlement over the complaint.

Amazing what intervention has achieved, as I have now received £200 off my next service with the dealer. I have accepted this, as I intend to keep the car for at least 12 months yet, and I'm due an A Service in about 7k.

Result?? I guess so. I can't be bothered with it all anymore to be honest!!

My they are generous! They will discount you two billing hours after all the aggravation they have caused you. How many hours of your time have they wasted? That is where I would start the calculation. Frankly I think John Lewis provide better service and resolution on the rare occaision things do go wrong.

 

[jeremytaylor]

Oh dear Robin, sorry to hear your problems. I would seriously find another dealer. My first B service was £600-ish from memory, and that prompted me to find a cheaper MB dealer.

For what it's worth my late 2002 C270 has had the suspension bushes replaced under warranty together with a new Command head unit and alarm siren, but that's all.

I get the tracking laser aligned every so often (£24 at Micheldever Tyres - bargain!) because all the traffic harming bumps seem to knock it out which would lead to uneven tyre wear if not sorted.