Do I let them get away with it? Should I make a complaint?

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FIA99

New Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2019
Messages
11
Location
Wigan
Car
Mercedes SLC AMG43
Hi everyone, I have a bit of a dilemma re a recent incident at my local Mercedes Garage.
I have a 2 year old SLC AMG43 with 12,500 on clock. Car goes like a dream but I had a few issues I wanted to check. The drivers seatbelt kept jamming, the windows open warning kept showing up on my phone & car wouldn’t start if I hadn’t driven for several days. So off it went to get checked out whilst still under warranty .. after a full day I got the call to collect my car they stated everything was fine but they couldn’t find anything wrong, I begged to differ & they stated that they would have to keep the car to do further investigations. I later got a call asking for permission for the car to be test driven in the dark as they have technicians on 24hr duty. I thought it was a strange request, but agreed if it got the problem sorted.
Being curious I checked m the Mercedes me app which allows me to find my vehicles location at any time.
So at 22.25 I checked & discovered it was parked outside a private address not at the garage where I expected, at 05.30 car still at same location, 07.30 the car was back at the garage. My conclusion someone had taken my car home. Later that day I was told to collect my car as they couldn’t find any faults.
Once home I thought I’d check the recording on the front facing camera which records as soon as the ignition is switched on. I discovered the camera was disconnected at 16.44 the day I’d left it & reconnected the following day at 15.33 just before I collected it.
If everything was all above board WHY was the camera disconnected, it has made me very suspicious & I won’t be going back.. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble but is this normal practice to take a customers car home..????????? Should I do or say anything or just leave it?
 
Technicians do sometimes take cars home as they test drive it on their journey especially if they are trying to replicate a fault that is intermittent. There was another long thread on dash cams being disconnected whilst it's with the garage, not to hide anything as such but for privacy reasons.
 
You would have been more upset had it been stolen from its overnight parking as I assume it was not locked in a garage!
 
What would the insurance status of your vehicle be during the period of it being parked at a location that wasn’t a part of the business that you handed your car to ?
 
Technicians do sometimes take cars home as they test drive it on their journey especially if they are trying to replicate a fault that is intermittent. There was another long thread on dash cams being disconnected whilst it's with the garage, not to hide anything as such but for privacy reasons.
^ This.

If you didn't have Mercedes Me on the car or a dash-cam, none of this would bother you.

My honest view is that for every genuinely "dodgy" incident that gets recorded by a dash-cam when a car is in the possession of a garage, there are 1,000 totally innocent events that someone, somewhere, is suspicious about.
 
What would the insurance status of your vehicle be during the period of it being parked at a location that wasn’t a part of the business that you handed your car to ?
It is in the care of the garage from the time you leave it with them until you pick it up from them. It's their responsibility, without question.
 
Some years ago my new Vauxhall suffered from intermittent starting issues. The dealer suggested I should leave the car with them for a week so that one of their techs can drive it home and back every day. I agreed, and indeed they nanaged to find and rectify the fault (it was a faulty inhibitor switch that prevents the car from being started when not in P). So I suppose it's not uncommon, though your dealer could have made it clearer.

With regards dashcam... my understanding is that the garage staff disconnect it due to privacy issues. But, again, perhaps this should have been explained as well.
 
It is in the care of the garage from the time you leave it with them until you pick it up from them. It's their responsibility, without question.
On the rare occasion that I was given a courtesy car by a body shop, they asked that I transfer the insurance cover from my car to the loan car, since my car was covered under their own garage policy while in their car. Presumably the OP's car was driven on dealer plates.
 
With regards to your camera being disconnected they have every right to do so whilst it in on their private property. The reason behind this is to protect the privacy of staff, My MB Dealer actually asks if you have a dashcam installed and make you aware that it will be disconnected during the servicing, you agree to this by signing on the dotted line to the terms when dropping the car off. I've mentioned this in a similar post but in my line of work (IT Systems Engineer) my entire server sessions are recorded when working on Customer's systems. This is written into my terms of employment, I doubt Mercedes Dealers have something similar in place hence the reason the cameras are disconnected.
 
You would have been more upset had it been stolen from its overnight parking as I assume it was not locked in a garage!

Quite - I wonder how the insurance covers this situation?
 
You would have been more upset had it been stolen from its overnight parking as I assume it was not locked in a garage!
That was the thing that bothered me the most actually, I’ve had the car for 10 months & it’s never been parked anywhere other than in my garage overnight
 
It is in the care of the garage from the time you leave it with them until you pick it up from them. It's their responsibility, without question.

Thanks Phil, I accept that if anything happened to my car the onus is on them, I hadn’t really thought about the privacy issue but accept it,.. if only they had been upfront I probably would have agreed to everything..
 
No doubt the dealer could have communicated better with the OP.
 
Just be aware that the Mercedes Me app has indicated an open window on my slc a couple of times when they were all definitely shut.
Hasn’t happened for a while though, and I am guessing it may be an issue with the app/software rather than the car.
Regarding the other issues - no problem with disconnecting the dashcam, but I would expect to be asked in advance if the car was to be parked overnight away from their secure (and presumably monitored) premises.
 
Just be aware that the Mercedes Me app has indicated an open window on my slc a couple of times when they were all definitely shut.
Hasn’t happened for a while though, and I am guessing it may be an issue with the app/software rather than the car.
Regarding the other issues - no problem with disconnecting the dashcam, but I would expect to be asked in advance if the car was to be parked overnight away from their secure (and presumably monitored) premises.
Yeah I spoke to a guy having the same windows open isssue & he suggested a double lock(pressing key close button twice or touching door handle twice) since I’ve done this I’ve not had a repeat. MB also said more likely to be app.. I’m happy with the camera privacy issue but I would like them to ask first, to me it’s my insurance Incase of an accident etc so I always have it connected
 
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My windows have shown as open these last couple of days, ever since I started using the panoramic roof again. I just did long press of the lock button (which would auto shut windows if they were open) and it cleared. On the technician driving home bit; it gets a proper test then, in real conditions, and they’re responsible for any loss or damage whilst they have your car (wherever it may be). Same goes for when you get tyres done by a dealer. They don’t do tyres on site but drive your car round to the tyre place and back.
 
A Mercedes technician has taken my car home overnight. I asked whether it would be safe and insured, and I was told it would be, so I was happy enough. It sounds like in the case of the OP, the dealer was telling truth, but failed to mention a key piece of information which could have avoided the issue now.

With regards to the dashcam, what would be most courteous, the dealship notifying the OP that they would disconnect the dashcam, or the OP notifying the dealership that s/he would be recording them? I personally believe that the onus should rest with the party intending to record.
 
Reason your camera was disconnected is that its illegal to record on private property, i/we all at work have been instructed to disconnect all recording devices before a car is moved at the dealership, do you mind that new data protection law that came out last year, well thats in in effect
 

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