Fabulous service from my MB main dealer!

[carnut]

Fabulous service from my MB main dealer!

A few weeks ago I had the embarrassment of my roof on my R230 SL jamming halfway through its operation outside my local Homebase. Posey or what? Nothing I did would get it to move so I phone Mobilo and was told that it would take about 90mins to get someone to me ; however a technician talked me through a process over the phone which got the roof to close and said it was a “5 minute fix” at my local MB dealer. I then drove straight there and was told that whatever the Mobilo guy had said it wasn’t going to be that quick. The Dealer (MB of Oxford) put the car onto the Star diagnostics and came up with a faulty microswitch in the header rail.

The Dealer ordered up the part (£231) and booked me in for the work at a later date when the part was delivered. Although the car was out of warranty (Nov2003 registered) I felt that the roof should not have failed and MB Oxford duly persuaded MB to provide a 30% goodwill contribution. This made the quote with labour etc £331 which I accepted. It did occur to me to go to an Indie but I felt that as it was a complicated roof I would be better off sticking to my Main dealer…how right I was!

When the car went in for the work it transpired that a new header rail assembly didn’t fix the problem and the dealer even cannibalised another SL in stock to check this out in case of a faulty component. This clearly took longer than anticipated. A fault in the wiring from the header rail to the control unit was then suspected. Another day and a courtesy car later the fault was apparently fixed.

A week later another roof failure and back to the Dealer who diagnosed...you guessed it..a faulty microswitch in the header rail . Another 2 days courtesy car and MB dealer time and it’s fixed by completely renewing the rail and wiring to the control unit; not a simple job!!

The Dealer has taken 16 hours labour to fix the problem but has stuck by its initial quote and cost!!!!
Often Main Dealer get stick for their costs and Indies can be better value due to lower labour costs for certain work but this is clearly a stunning example of why a Main Dealer can be excellent value and outstanding service.

Well done MB Oxford and thank you...5 star!

 

[Donza]

Wow. I thought i would never say it about a main MB Dealer.

But they came through really good. I like how you mentioned "dealer" and "cannibalised" in the same sentence.

 

[st13phil]

So far I too have had nothing but excellent service from MB Oxford.

 

[recycled]

wow what a great service. that is how to keep the customers coming back

 

[glojo]

Fabulous service from my MB main dealer!

Well done MB Oxford and thank you...5 star!

I think in fairness the service from main dealers is very good and we usually only tend to hear about the bad times

Nice post

Regards
John

 

[mr. shr]

I've had many bad experiences with MB of Oxford. Service desk are cluessless (as are pretty much all Dealer's I've used in the past). And they keep re-charging after each attempted GUESS at repairing our cars.
Between me, my dad and my brother we've four Mercs so you'd think they'd work on keeping us happy.

Glad to hear some have had good experiences there, but me and my family have found them useless of late.

 

[Gucci]

mmmm, encouraging since my Indie experience of late wasn't fantastic..dare I roll into Mercedes Bromley?

 

[C240Sport97]

nice to hear things with a great ending

 

[GeorgeA]

Fabulous service from my MB main dealer!

.......... but this is clearly a stunning example of why a Main Dealer can be excellent value and outstanding service.

Well done MB Oxford and thank you...5 star!

The mobilo technician failed to turn up; you paid £231 for a part you didn't need which failed to fix the problem; £100 labour to fit a microswitch, that probably cost pennies and your car was off the road for 3 or was it 4 days. The dealer was probably embaressed that they failed to fix the problem in this length of time.

The fact that the dealer stuck to the original quote is the fantastic part not the service you recieved.

I do appreciate that modern cars are highly complex and diagnosing problems is difficult, fabulous service is overcoming this at minimal time cost and inconvienience to the customer. And no I don't think an indie would have done it any better or cheaper - but who knows.

 

[carnut]

The mobilo technician failed to turn up; you paid £231 for a part you didn't need which failed to fix the problem; £100 labour to fit a microswitch, that probably cost pennies and your car was off the road for 3 or was it 4 days. The dealer was probably embaressed that they failed to fix the problem in this length of time.

The fact that the dealer stuck to the original quote is the fantastic part not the service you recieved.

I do appreciate that modern cars are highly complex and diagnosing problems is difficult, fabulous service is overcoming this at minimal time cost and inconvienience to the customer. And no I don't think an indie would have done it any better or cheaper - but who knows.

Actually the service I received was very good.I was kept informed, (every 3-4 hrs)even to the point where the technician working on the problem took me into the workshop to show me how it all worked and the possible problems.They even did a work around to get my car on the road with a working roof while they ordered up the parts from MB.The courtesy cars were nice (New E Class and AMG bodied new C class ) and I really coudnt have asked for more
Im the first to object paying over the odds for main dealers but in this case,bearing in mind the age of the car, I think its a case of credit where credit's due.

It does however raise the question in my mind how MB work over "goodwill" support. Is there some formula whereby they go 50% in the 4th year,30% in the 5th etc? The dealer told me that goodwill claims are automated in some way with a computer and then they have recourse to a "human" element if the intial response isnt satisfactory. Is there something to be learnt here on how "goodwill" is handled?

 

[BTB 500]

£231 for a microswitch is mind-boggling. You could perhaps understand a hefty labour charge to fit (if it was in a fiddly location), but surely not that price for the part.

 

[Rory]

The mobilo technician failed to turn up; you paid £231 for a part you didn't need which failed to fix the problem; £100 labour to fit a microswitch, that probably cost pennies and your car was off the road for 3 or was it 4 days. The dealer was probably embaressed that they failed to fix the problem in this length of time.

The fact that the dealer stuck to the original quote is the fantastic part not the service you recieved.

I do appreciate that modern cars are highly complex and diagnosing problems is difficult, fabulous service is overcoming this at minimal time cost and inconvienience to the customer. And no I don't think an indie would have done it any better or cheaper - but who knows.

I must admit that I read the original story in that vein too. It sounds like a catalogue of errors (and of course it shouldn't have broken in the first place). I guessed that carnut was just mighty relieved not to have got have been hit with the 16hrs labour charge - almost anything the dealer did would seem good with that potential bill on your mind.

 

[mr. shr]

I must admit that I read the original story in that vein too. It sounds like a catalogue of errors (and of course it shouldn't have broken in the first place). I guessed that carnut was just mighty relieved not to have got have been hit with the 16hrs labour charge - almost anything the dealer did would seem good with that potential bill on your mind.

Yep, I agree.
I don't really think the OP has experienced a great level of service at all (my opinion).
They're still guessing on how to resolve issues. Whilst I appreciate these cars are complicated machines, surely the whole point of £100/hr is cos you're paying for their experties in diagnosing?!? (Just me maybe, but then I am fussy )

 

[carnut]

£231 for a microswitch is mind-boggling. You could perhaps understand a hefty labour charge to fit (if it was in a fiddly location), but surely not that price for the part.

It was the complete header rail part that included both microswitches and the wiring harness to the control unit. I agree that a microswitch alone should be cheaper but they seemed to think it couldnt be ordered as a seperate part and given the labour involved to get it wrong the whole part was thought to be best option...at least for MB I suppose.

And yes, I was mighty relieved not to get a bill for 16 hrs!:bannana:

 

[nickwilcock]

Well, I took my SLK32 AMG to MB Oxford last Saturday for a routine MoT and A service.....

At 2 days' notice.

I arrived at 0900 and everything would have been ready by 1130, except that they also gave it a a thorough clean both inside and out whilst I pottered around the showroom.

Total invoice was less than they'd quoted over the phone; everyone was very polite and friendly and the service was excellent.

Compare that to another M-B dealer a few miles away along the A418 to whom I took my SLK320 for a service when it was less than 12 months old. Nothing was ready when I went to collect it and the car was delivered in a very dirty state, with greasy marks on the steering wheel. No attempt at valeting and I wasn't even offered a coffee. I never used them again - their wretched dealership didn't even have a proper car park.... I used to get better service from the local Honda dealer.

 

[glojo]

Total invoice was less than they'd quoted over the phone; everyone was very polite and friendly and the service was excellent.

What's the betting that someone will be long in a minute criticising the dealer for getting the estimate wrong?

Regards
John

 

[Rory]

What's the betting that someone will be long in a minute criticising the dealer for getting the estimate wrong?

Regards
John

Actually that *is* a pet hate of mine.

You're left wondering if they've missed something out. We have 4 cars in our family fleet and many dealers have "menu" servicing prices, yet the invoice price is never ever exactly the same as they quote.

Star prize the other way around though goes to the lovely (or so I thought) little Mitsubishi dealer who twice (2 different people) quoted £125 (+VAT - quoting "plus VAT" should be made illegal) for the Colt service and then cheerfully presented a bill for £199 and neither person who quoted me apparently had any idea where £125 could possibly have come from.

It took 30 mins of bashing away at the computer to get the bill under £150.

 

[glojo]

Actually that *is* a pet hate of mine.

I wonder who I was thinking of when I submitted that post?

John

 

[crockers]

I email my dealer asking for a quote for works.... then get an email back with quote....

Then email a few other dealers and if they are lower tell my dealer who will match them (usually gives a % discount and it is better)

Turn up - have work done - they have email in front of them and invoice is identical to quote....

 

[nickwilcock]

It was around £20 less than their estimate....total price was £374.91.

Oil £111.92, filter £11.30, sump washer £0.90, 2-year brake fluid refill £7.15, screenwash £2.82. MoT £53.10, visual health check and valeting foc.

The rest was labour (£192.89) and VAT (£47.93).

Not bad at all. But I'll be buying another 12 months extended warranty next month and will probably need 2 new rear tyres in 4-5000 miles.....

Not to mention the Greed Tax of NuLabor's Brown and Darling......