Goodwill Rust Repair - Approved

[Dieselman]

This all sounds like a normal goodwill claim repair for via a Dealer that doesn't have an in house bodyshop.

Statements like the following are misleading as no-one is dealing with Mercedes directly other than the employee directing the Eskulab to Mercedes.

All the people mentioned in the following are Dealer employees and don't work for Mercedes at all.

I would be tempted to get sign-off from the Service manager, who does work for MB!

Somebody (a Mercedes Benz employee) must have been involved at your dealership, and they should be responsible for everything to do with the repair.

In my case I handed it over to a driver that came to collect the car from the bodyshop, but this was not an issue because Mrecedes had previously called me to arrange the booking and also arrange collection of the car....ie I was dealing with a Mercedes employee who handles their bodywork issues.

This sounds about right..your claim will be rejected if the car has been resprayed previously.

The guy told me that he's doing me a favour cos when he put the claim through, he didn't record the paint depth around the car. He showed me that the paint depth all over the car exceeds 120 microns which meant it had been resprayed. He says that if he'd have quoted the paint depth values, the application would have been refused.

 

[mr. shr]

This all sounds like a normal goodwill claim repair for via a Dealer that doesn't have an in house bodyshop.

True, this dealership doesn't have an in house body shop, but shouldn't they at least provide some documentation stating what has been authourised by MK?

 

[Dieselman]

They will have, but it's internal paperwork as their contract and invoicing is to Mercedes, not the customer.

Just ask what is being done and if any rust hasn't been approved.

BTW. It's much cheaper to have additional work performed at the same time than as a stand alone job. You will recieve and invoice and guarentee for that work.

 

[vijilants]

This all sounds like a normal goodwill claim repair for via a Dealer that doesn't have an in house bodyshop.

Statements like the following are misleading as no-one is dealing with Mercedes directly other than the employee directing the Eskulab to Mercedes.

All the people mentioned in the following are Dealer employees and don't work for Mercedes at all.












This sounds about right..your claim will be rejected if the car has been resprayed previously.

Sorry I meant staff working for the dealership and not MB directly.

Most MB dealerships no longer have inhouse body shops.

Ive had two sets of repairs done under so called goodwill through two different London dealers who use their approved bodyshops, and on every occasion my contact has been someone who works in the dealership and not the approved bodyshop. I have always been sent a letter from the dealership to state that the work has been approved.

Your business is with the dealer and not the bodyshop.

Re the cash deal, I was under the impression that the guy wanted to know if you wanted the stonechips repaired. There is nothing wrong in getting the job done for cash if he is offering a good deal and if his workmanship is good.

After all you go through the dealership to get stonechips sorted out which involve a full bonnet respray you will have a very high bill.

Due to the damage done to my car by the bodyshop, they were instructed by MB to give me a quote at cost price for blowing the bonnet to remove a couple of stonechips - they came back with a quote of £600 !!!!!!!!! This was supposed to be cost price !!!!!

 

[mr. shr]

Due to the damage done to my car by the bodyshop, they were instructed by MB to give me a quote at cost price for blowing the bonnet to remove a couple of stonechips - they came back with a quote of £600 !!!!!!!!! This was supposed to be cost price !!!!!

The bodyshop damaged your car?!?!

 

[vijilants]

The bodyshop damaged your car?!?!

Yep....on both occasions the car came back with severely curbed wheels and on one occasion it came back with stone like chips all over the drivers door window.

It wasn't just the damage......the quality of the work was soo poor that the car had to be sent back 3- 4 times due to overspray, poor lacquering, etc.

Apparently this is due to the fact that the rates that are paid to bodyshops for goodwill / warantee are soo poor that some of them work to the money they are paid hence the poor quality of the work.

MB got them to replace the glass and on both occasions the wheels had to be refurbished at their expense.

 

[mr. shr]

Yep....on both occasions the car came back with severely curbed wheels and on one occasion it came back with stone like chips all over the drivers door window.

This is exactly why I don't trust these companies!!

So how did it go down? Did they attempt to hand the car back to you with all this damage?
Did you have to really dig your heels in with them or did they agree to everything with minimal fuss?

 

[vijilants]

This is exactly why I don't trust these companies!!

So how did it go down? Did they attempt to hand the car back to you with all this damage?
Did you have to really dig your heels in with them or did they agree to everything with minimal fuss?

Well, every time the car was returned I took a walk around it, inspected the car and sent it straight back and refused to take the car back. The car was taken back to the bodyshop at the same time and I contacted MB and complained about it at the same time.

Regarding the stone chips on the glass, I didn't notice this until I got into the car.

By this time I was no longer dealing with the dealership, and my point of contact was the UK MB Bodywork Manager who oversees all of these bodyshops.

I wrote in a letter of complaint and they took the car back and replaced the glass.

You really have to go over the car properly once they have done the work for overspray, damage etc.

 

[mr. shr]

Well, every time the car was returned I took a walk around it, inspected the car and sent it straight back and refused to take the car back. The car was taken back to the bodyshop at the same time and I contacted MB and complained about it at the same time.

Regarding the stone chips on the glass, I didn't notice this until I got into the car.

By this time I was no longer dealing with the dealership, and my point of contact was the UK MB Bodywork Manager who oversees all of these bodyshops.

I wrote in a letter of complaint and they took the car back and replaced the glass.

You really have to go over the car properly once they have done the work for overspray, damage etc.

Well glad you got there in the end.
It annoys me that we are put in these situations by companies that just don't care about their customers anymore.

Hopefully I'll have a better experience as confrontation wont do my blood pressure any good.

 

[Flash]

I have had warranty work carried out and each time I went directly to the body shop and did not need to involve the Stealership!

 

[amwebby]

The first time I had warranty work for "body perforation" I went through the dealer. They picked up the areas where previous bodywork had been done with the micrometer but completely missed some areas of rust around the sunroof.

Next time I went to the bodyshop directly, they did a thorough inspection and dealt with MB directly. I got a condition sheet, which I hadn't done with the dealer, and the work was well done. They also arranged a courtesy car via MB.

 

[mr. shr]

It's going in next week.
I'll get a copy of the job card which will detail all the work that is to be done so I'll have that as a reference when they hand the car back to me.