If I Never Deal With A Main Dealer Again, It'll Be Too Soon, The Shysters!
The point that everyone is missing is that they will not even let a car enter into their workshops unless they are getting paid for it. They are a business.
Whether MBUK pays the dealer or whether the customer pays, it makes no difference to them, someone gotta pay.
I am a big customer for MB coventry (parts and occasionally service) and I can assure you they never do anything for free for me and I dont expect them to.
The minimum charge is always an hours labour and im happy to pay that when necessary.
SBC pumps failing arent the dealers fault as a franchisee, they are the manufacturers fault.
The £96 is their one hour Star time including £16 for the queens lunch... They would have used that time to investigate and try to and extend the service life counter on the pump, approx half the time this cannot be done after the pump is tested.
If they relied on customers diagnosis they would be in all sorts of pickles! They have to start fresh. They do the same with me, I give them star print outs when we have SBC issues, they never even look at them and that totally correct as they should always start with a fresh canvas.
Cant see what they have done wrong. Any garage would and should have done the same thing, time is money.
Whether MBUK pays the dealer or whether the customer pays, it makes no difference to them, someone gotta pay.
I am a big customer for MB coventry (parts and occasionally service) and I can assure you they never do anything for free for me and I dont expect them to.
The minimum charge is always an hours labour and im happy to pay that when necessary.
SBC pumps failing arent the dealers fault as a franchisee, they are the manufacturers fault.
The £96 is their one hour Star time including £16 for the queens lunch... They would have used that time to investigate and try to and extend the service life counter on the pump, approx half the time this cannot be done after the pump is tested.
If they relied on customers diagnosis they would be in all sorts of pickles! They have to start fresh. They do the same with me, I give them star print outs when we have SBC issues, they never even look at them and that totally correct as they should always start with a fresh canvas.
Cant see what they have done wrong. Any garage would and should have done the same thing, time is money.
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OP
OP
Deleted member 37751
Guest
I'm not disputing their right to make a living at all, this is not what this thread is about.
There are two issues;
The obvious one with the SBC pump, which is down to Mercedes.
The second is that I was told that at the very worse a £96 update would cure the problem.
Neither happened, yet I'm still left with a bill for £96.
I don't really see what's so hard to understand about this, hence the tailor analogy earlier in the thread.
There are two issues;
The obvious one with the SBC pump, which is down to Mercedes.
The second is that I was told that at the very worse a £96 update would cure the problem.
Neither happened, yet I'm still left with a bill for £96.
I don't really see what's so hard to understand about this, hence the tailor analogy earlier in the thread.
tailors didnt have to start sewing before he could tell you your trousers had a hole in them - its visible.
Mercedes HAVE to spend time to investigate before choosing a course of action,no matter what the customer tells them is the matter.
I also dont understand whats so hard to grasp...
Mercedes HAVE to spend time to investigate before choosing a course of action,no matter what the customer tells them is the matter.
I also dont understand whats so hard to grasp...
OP
OP
Deleted member 37751
Guest
So if they said to you "it'll either get done through goodwill or it'll be a software update" and neither happened, you'd be willing to part with £96 to be in exactly the same position as you started in?
MOCAŠ
MB Enthusiast
Come on, SPX, they didn't say it would get done under goodwill - they said they'd never had a claim refused before. Maybe all those previous claims were for cars with a full dealership service history...
All that's happened is you've left your car in to have some work done, then balked at the cost - not because it's too high (it's half-price, after all - could an indie beat that?) - but because they didn't actaully say that just because they'd never had a goodwill claim refused before, that's not to say it couldn't happen this time. But surely you could have worked that out for yourself.
As for expecting them not to charge for the diagnostic work because you'd already paid someone else to do it, that's just not a realistic expectation.
I still don't see how you've been cheated.
It just wasn't the outcome you were expecting. That's life...
OP
OP
Deleted member 37751
Guest
I still don't see how you've been cheated.
It wasn't the outcome I'd been told to expect, made worse by the fact that there were only two outcomes actually given to me.
It's an old car , stuff wears out.
Its a 30k+ car , no matter how old it gets , the parts cost the same.
Considering the car hasnt got a full MB Main dealer service history , I think they are being very fair with the 50% contribution to the cost. They don't have to do anything. It has lasted 10 years or so in your car , so theres obviously nothing wrong with the way it left the factory or for the period that MB provided an unlimited miles warranty. After that its up to the owner to take care of costs either through a 3rd party warranty or whatever.
If the brakes stop working , its worth scrap value. Take the hit and move on.
Its a 30k+ car , no matter how old it gets , the parts cost the same.
Considering the car hasnt got a full MB Main dealer service history , I think they are being very fair with the 50% contribution to the cost. They don't have to do anything. It has lasted 10 years or so in your car , so theres obviously nothing wrong with the way it left the factory or for the period that MB provided an unlimited miles warranty. After that its up to the owner to take care of costs either through a 3rd party warranty or whatever.
If the brakes stop working , its worth scrap value. Take the hit and move on.
basically yes.
As we like analogies,
At the moment my dad is seeing various specialists for health issues that standard doctors cannot get to the bottom of...
90% of them will refer us to someone else after a 30 minute chat... are we any better off? not not usually, do we get billed for their time/tests/cups of coffee? damn right we do and its normally a lot more than £96...
OP
OP
Deleted member 37751
Guest
Nothing like this whatsoever.
It's more like saying your dad walked in to the doctors with his arm chopped off and they said give me £96 so I can tell you that your arms chopped off.
your not getting the point, they cannot act on your diagnosis for many many reasons, main reason being accountability both financial and legal.
And they have to spend time to get to their own diagnosis.
And they have to spend time to get to their own diagnosis.
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It's easy to complain about MB service.
I have always had great service from MB Tonbridge.
So far we have only heard one side of the story ...
OP expects free diagnosis, but did not agree this up front. The basis for this expectation is unclear to me.
On top of that, OP does not have any sort of relationship with the dealer (having not had his car serviced there for some time). If I was the dealer, I wouldn't do the diagnosis for free either. Where's the incentive for the dealer? As said above, dealers need to make money, and not extending their goodwill to someone they don't expect any business from, and from whom they have not had business from for a while is perfectly commercially sensible.
What surprises me is that OP went back to the dealer even though they were so terrible the last time OP was there.
MB needs to remain profitable. If it decides to change its goodwill policy, it's perfectly entitled to do so. Makes good business sense to dole out goodwill according to whether car has been serviced by official dealers -- that's a pretty standard way of rewarding customer loyalty.
Those who go the indi route, and then expect goodwill from MB dealers who have not had their business, are really expecting too much.
I have always had great service from MB Tonbridge.
So far we have only heard one side of the story ...
OP expects free diagnosis, but did not agree this up front. The basis for this expectation is unclear to me.
On top of that, OP does not have any sort of relationship with the dealer (having not had his car serviced there for some time). If I was the dealer, I wouldn't do the diagnosis for free either. Where's the incentive for the dealer? As said above, dealers need to make money, and not extending their goodwill to someone they don't expect any business from, and from whom they have not had business from for a while is perfectly commercially sensible.
What surprises me is that OP went back to the dealer even though they were so terrible the last time OP was there.
MB needs to remain profitable. If it decides to change its goodwill policy, it's perfectly entitled to do so. Makes good business sense to dole out goodwill according to whether car has been serviced by official dealers -- that's a pretty standard way of rewarding customer loyalty.
Those who go the indi route, and then expect goodwill from MB dealers who have not had their business, are really expecting too much.
I agree , my 12 year old 130k mile W202 still goes into the main dealer and they are very fair with me with wee niggles. I don't expect it for nothing , but they do realise the cars worth vs what they charge. Doesnt mean my last B service wasnt £450.
OP
OP
Deleted member 37751
Guest
I know this, I'm not disputing the fact that they've got to charge for diagnosing a fault.
I'm disputing the FACT that there were two outcomes put to me, the worse case for me being a £96 software update.
If they'd have said "we need to plug it into Star to ascertain the fault, there will be a minimum charge of £96 for this" then fair enough, but at no point was this said.
OP
OP
Deleted member 37751
Guest
Impossible, because the car had been been plugged into exactly the same system that the main dealer uses.
But if that was the case, hypothetically speaking, I'd have paid for the pump at 100% of the cost out of my own pocket, because I like to put my money where my mouth is.
OP
OP
Deleted member 37751
Guest
Wrong, try reading the thread properly.
They told me two outcomes, if they'd have said that it's going to be £96 to work out the fault and then go from there, fair enough.
OP
OP
Deleted member 37751
Guest
The irony in all this is that their parts department is excellent, the polar opposite of the experiences I've had with the service department.
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I don't think anyone doubts that the dealer needs to be paid for diagnostic work carried out on customers' cars.
Nor do I doubt that they had to do this using their own STAR rather than relying on the customer's verbal report, before approaching MB.
The issue here is that they did not explain the situation correctly to SPX over the phone and when he brought the car in.
Now, whether they should have known what the score is and were negligent in not finding-out where things currently stand with SBC replacements, or they are bona-fida victims of MB UK's lack of proper communication to their own dealer network, we do not know.
What I find infuriating is the dealer's total denial of ownership of the problem that they created.
The argument that they can't be left out of pocket cuts both ways - had SPX been told the full facts in advance he would not have wasted half a day of his time and the cost of petrol, so he is out of pocket too.
I run a business, and I would never dream of running it like that. If there's the slightest possibility that we made an error, we will consider it unprofessional to go back to the client and ask them to pay more than agreed. In fact very recently I had to deal with a situation where a client was not informed about a certain cost element in a deal, and that was after their board had already approved it. I immediately contacted them, apologised profoundly for not informing them in advance, explained that the work and parts were needed, and offered to waive our labour charges for that particular work as well as a substantial discount off the cost of the the parts, which they accepted.
Any organisation that is lucky enough to find itself in a position where their mistakes are paid-for by someone else, will never have the motivation to improve. Why bother? If the dealer loses money because they misinform customers, you can be sure they will look very carefully at what they did wrong. I know I learnt my lesson and explained it to our staff, so hopefully it won't happen again.
For the bean counters at the dealer, it is now a simple case is 'one STAR diagnostic, half hour labour, £80+VAT, job done'. But if it was 'half hour labour, £0 income' then eye brows would have been raised, questions asked, and hopefully also lessons learnt.
Nor do I doubt that they had to do this using their own STAR rather than relying on the customer's verbal report, before approaching MB.
The issue here is that they did not explain the situation correctly to SPX over the phone and when he brought the car in.
Now, whether they should have known what the score is and were negligent in not finding-out where things currently stand with SBC replacements, or they are bona-fida victims of MB UK's lack of proper communication to their own dealer network, we do not know.
What I find infuriating is the dealer's total denial of ownership of the problem that they created.
The argument that they can't be left out of pocket cuts both ways - had SPX been told the full facts in advance he would not have wasted half a day of his time and the cost of petrol, so he is out of pocket too.
I run a business, and I would never dream of running it like that. If there's the slightest possibility that we made an error, we will consider it unprofessional to go back to the client and ask them to pay more than agreed. In fact very recently I had to deal with a situation where a client was not informed about a certain cost element in a deal, and that was after their board had already approved it. I immediately contacted them, apologised profoundly for not informing them in advance, explained that the work and parts were needed, and offered to waive our labour charges for that particular work as well as a substantial discount off the cost of the the parts, which they accepted.
Any organisation that is lucky enough to find itself in a position where their mistakes are paid-for by someone else, will never have the motivation to improve. Why bother? If the dealer loses money because they misinform customers, you can be sure they will look very carefully at what they did wrong. I know I learnt my lesson and explained it to our staff, so hopefully it won't happen again.
For the bean counters at the dealer, it is now a simple case is 'one STAR diagnostic, half hour labour, £80+VAT, job done'. But if it was 'half hour labour, £0 income' then eye brows would have been raised, questions asked, and hopefully also lessons learnt.
MOCAŠ
MB Enthusiast
Did you tell them in advance that if the MB wouldn't cover the full cost, you'd just take the car back? I suspect, as I've said previously, that they'd have been prepared to swallow the diagnostic fee as part of the overall cost of the job, but by taking your car back you left them no option but to charge.
Perhaps there was fault on both sides here.
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