If I Never Deal With A Main Dealer Again, It'll Be Too Soon, The Shysters!

[Pringles]

My Indie never seem to charge me anything much for diagnosis work but I am sure that is because they know that I give them alot of work and have done for nearly a decade now.

 

[Harrythedog]

If you are struggling to follow my thinking here, try this for size - you go to an MB dealership to buy a new car and the salesman there and then charges you an hourly rate for his time as he tries to ascertain which car best suits your needs and wants, calling it 'consultation'. Same again when you visit the BMW showroom. Ditto Audi, etc, etc.

.

This is very true Bellow so how about us consumers putting the shoe on the other foot by charging dealers for our time and equipment use for downloading and reading one of their "special offer" emails or listening to one of their "courtesy calls"!

 

[MB-BTurbo]

I never go into a showroom not knowing exactly what I want. If a salesman talks to me for an hour about what he thinks I should have he wouldnt get a sale.

 

[steve333]

Thanks for the concern Steve, it's an all too common theme with MB dealers I'm afraid.

If you go there regularly for maintanence they probably will be more accommodating with things like this, but their labour charge and parts mark up is that excessive it covers all eventualities I suppose.

Think your spot on Lee,i had a 2 year service plan when i bought the cls but now it's 4 years old & the plan is about to expire i will definately go down the indi route,i was quoted £606 for a pair of front tyres last week by my local mb dealer i when i told them i could get the same tyres fitted by event for £445 they more or less said go there then!

 

[Dryce]

My Indie never seem to charge me anything much for diagnosis work but I am sure that is because they know that I give them alot of work and have done for nearly a decade now.

I suspect that indy's treat this as pre-sales/account management costs.

Speak to the customer and engage with them.

If Indy's don't do that they die.

OTOH the dealers get a decent % of business by default. That means they can charge a premium to hold the customer at arms length. There's an element of rent seeking through the implication that dealer servicing is required for warranty - and through mobilo and goodwill contributions - and through brand strength.

 

[MOCAŠ]

This does not need to end in character assassination, least of all of a known and respected forum member.

Just to be clear, there was no attempt at character assassination on my part. SPX and I get on well enough, but we also enjoy bandying words when our opinions differ, as they tend to from time to time.

I wasn't suggesting that SPX has a persecution complex - that would require a diagnosis (yeah, I know...) that I am not capable of performing. However, the tenor of the post to which I was responding was "they're out to get me", and indeed, this whole thread seems to be predicated on the idea that MB dealers are guilty of sharp practice. This may well be true of some dealerships, but that is not my experience, and I cannot see any evidence of it when viewing objectively the information that SPX has provided.

Thus I have tried to present an alternate view of the situation. That's all...

 

[MOCAŠ]

And that's what the dealer got wrong in my view. They went by the book, not by the heart or the brain.

I fully agree that not every business transaction should or does incur a fee.

When I was sorting out the probate on my parents' London house, I had to obtain three valuations of the property. They didn't need to be anything complicated - just an estate agent's assessment in writing of the market value at the time. Now, I could have led the estate agents to believe that I was putting the house on the market, but I knew that was not the case, so I simply said that I needed a valuation for probate and asked what they would charge to provide one. All of them thanked me for being honest about it. Two of them simply said there would no charge, which was fair enough but left me feeling I was taking advantage of them to some degree.

The third, a very jocular and instantly likelable cove, said that his usual fee for doing probate valuations was "a bottle of plonk - nothing fancy, mind." I felt much more comfortable with this approach, as it seemed far more equitable. It acknowledged that this was a one-off, no-strings transaction, whereas with other two I couldn't help wondering (irrationally, I might add) whether they were secretly hoping they might somehow win some business from me. My only dilemma with Mr Vino was what type of "plonk" to get him. Knowing nothing about wine myself, I put myself in the hands of a local vintner and asked for something interesting but not exclusive. Mr Vino was over the moon that I'd honoured his wishes, especially as he'd not previously sampled the variety with which I presented him.

There is still a place for good, old-fashioned barter.

 

[Bellow]

I never go into a showroom not knowing exactly what I want. If a salesman talks to me for an hour about what he thinks I should have he wouldnt get a sale.

Why enter a showroom at all? Surely you can buy at a heavily discounted price via the 'net without having to ask anything other than price and delivery questions.

Just to be clear, there was no attempt at character assassination on my part.

Accepted Mocas. I know the guys that get along here even though outsiders may sense more heat than light sometimes. I was possibly a little sensitive on the heat front!

 

[davidjpowell]

I do recall an indie (different one to the earlier mentioned) who charged me £45 for STAR and then another fee for taking the steering wheel off and checking. Did I mind one of the fee's not really?

But the diagnosis came to a good chunk of the bill, higher than I though an indie should charge. I paid, with no argument, but have never been back.

That's when customer service pays off.

I am a self employed chartered surveyor. My rule of thumb is if it's cost me less than an hour, and nothing else of significance i do not charge, and what goes around comes around.

 

[Bellow]

This is very true Bellow so how about us consumers putting the shoe on the other foot by charging dealers for our time and equipment use for downloading and reading one of their "special offer" emails or listening to one of their "courtesy calls"!

You read their e-mails and listen to their calls?!!!!!

I am a self employed chartered surveyor. My rule of thumb is if it's cost me less than an hour, and nothing else of significance i do not charge, and what goes around comes around.

That's an attitude I respect. It doesn't have to be about extracting the vary last pound. And the last part and Mocas's plonk bartering merge at some point in time.
A work colleague has a wonderful expression. ''There isn't a man in Scotland that when he walks into a pub, doesn't know who he is owe a drink and who owes him a drink''.
That's a reasonable description of a reasonable way of conducting more minor transactions I think.

 

[markjay]

Just a reminder that this is not an 'indie vs main dealer' thread.

We all know there's a difference, pros and cons etc.

In the event, SPX had to go to a main dealer because it was a warranty claim.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Just a reminder that this is not an 'indie vs main dealer' thread.

I suppose that's the danger when someone starts a vitriolic thread labelling all main dealers as shysters - the implication is that you can only get a fair deal by going to an indie. Good on you for pointing out that there can be good and bad in both camps.

 

[0ptic]

I haven't read all this thread, but a friend of mine is in the market for a new car and really wants the new E class cab. He had a demonstrator a few weeks back and loved it even though it was, something around 2L. The dealer said he would phone him back as a follow up, he didn't. After driving a few other cars (BMW, Audi etc.) he went back down and told them he really wanted to talk a deal, but he needed to drive a 3L V6 first cuz that's what he wanted from the get go. The sales person said sorry for not getting back to him and would put an entry in his calendar so he didn't forget to call him back. Guess what? Nadda! He still wants, and probably will buy, the 3L cab E. Is this why the dealers don't have to give a ****? If they actually made a token effort customer service they could do even better!!!

Makes me mad!

 

[MOCAŠ]

A few months ago before they closed for refurbishment, I stopped off while passing MB Chelsea as I noticed they had an R172 SLK55 AMG in the showroom - the first I'd seen. While taking a look around it I was approached by a salesman, and ended up discussing purchase options with him - I think I mentioned it on here at the time.

In the course of conversation he asked me a couple of questions clearly aimed at sniffing out whether I was a genuine customer - what was I driving at the moment, and had I bought it from them. Funnily enough, I had in a way, as the now-closed MB Mayfair had been associated with MB Chelsea (Bradshaw & Webb as was), and Mayfair's business transferred to Chelsea when the branch closed. (My business, however, went back to Hughes of Beaconsfield as soon as I'd bought the car.)

Anyway, he said he was expecting the AMG-specific brochures in later that week, so I left him my address and phone number and asked him to send me one when they came in. Several months later I've heard nothing, not a squeak, and I don't expect to.

Poor customer service? Well, it's not good, is it? But if I do decide to buy a new SLK, I wouldn't allow the fact that he hadn't contacted me to sideline MB Chelsea. Being hopelessly absent-minded myself, I tend to be quite forgiving of minor transgressions such as this in others. Some people, however, seem to be a lot more hardline about it. Horses for courses, I suppose.

 

[nick mercedes]

Poor customer service? Well, it's not good, is it? But if I do decide to buy a new SLK, I wouldn't allow the fact that he hadn't contacted me to sideline MB Chelsea. Being hopelessly absent-minded myself, I tend to be quite forgiving of minor transgressions such as this in others. Some people, however, seem to be a lot more hardline about it. Horses for courses, I suppose.

The aloof and snooty attitude helps build the fantasy among customers that Mercedes, despite being build and sold like Vauxhalls, are some how worth more than double.

 

[MOCAŠ]

The aloof and snooty attitude helps build the fantasy among customers that Mercedes, despite being build and sold like Vauxhalls, are some how worth more than double.

I wouldn't say he was aloof and snooty at all. Very personable, in fact. It's just that he didn't follow up as promised. And if Vauxhall built a car like the SLK, I might just be interested...

 

[nick mercedes]

I wouldn't say he was aloof and snooty at all. Very personable, in fact. It's just that he didn't follow up as promised. And if Vauxhall built a car like the SLK, I might just be interested...

Why would Vauxhall want to build rusty and unreliable cars?

No follow up, was he bovvered? No. See "Aloof".

 

[MOCAŠ]

Why would Vauxhall want to build rusty and unreliable cars?

You haven't been paying attention, have you nick mercedes? My SLK is rust-free save for the wheel bolts, and outside of normal servicing the only thing that's failed in the seven years I've had it is the battery a few weeks ago, which was replaced the same day by Mobilo.

EDIT: Just remembered there was also a broken front spring that needed to be replaced.

No follow up, was he bovvered? No. See "Aloof".

Or forgetful, or ill, or dead. Any number of possible explanations.

 

[Dryce]

Or forgetful, or ill, or dead. Any number of possible explanations.

When SWMBO changed cars 12 months ago there was a massive difference in the way that MB Edinburgh and Glasgow behaved.

Edinburgh picked up on the fact that she had made an enquiry 6 years before, kept in touch by email and phone, and offered to bring a car to the house for her to test drive, when we made an appointment to see a car at another of their branches the salesman was expecting us when we arrived and there was no problem getting the car valued.

MB Glasgow? Don't get me started again. It was an ugly experience that ended up with SWMBO visiting BMW round the corner and discovering the Z4. They lost MB a guaranteed customer for a R171.

Difference?

I suspect at the core it's because MB Edinburgh is still a family firm.

 

[markjay]

I owned two Vauxhall Omegas made by Adam Opel AG at their Rüsselsheim factory in Germany. I ran the cars over a period of 10 years during which they covered 100,000 miles combined.

Built quality and design were OK, but nowhere near my South Africa East London built W203.

The Omegas had a few issues that were sorted under warranty, and some I had to pay for. In comparison, my 2006 only ever needed a new Front Passenger Seat Occupancy Sensor.

The latest one - a 2001 Omega 2.6 CDX - had a 4-gear auto box, no ESP, and no curtain airbag (non of these were available, not even as an option). You can see why they were legging behind the 5-series, E-Class, and A6 of the era.

Said that they were roomy, comfortable, and great motorway cruisers, costing half their prestige-marque siblings. Had they still been made, I would have probably bought another one.

So I would say that in my experience the price ratio is about right.

However the Vauxhall dealers were actually reasonably good.

Incidentally, Olly is the first indie I went to in 20 years. Up to 2010, all my cars were main dealer only, at any age.