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

[flango]

Lee

I'm sure you know as well as i do that you dont have to take the body off to change the turbo and its usually the actuator that goes not the turbo, cambelt is fiddly but no drama just takes time and patience

I'd rather run a disco 3 than an ML any day far easier proposition to live with, we run 2 x V8 disco 2 and I love them and the 3's we service are even better, great choice mate, happy motoring

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Lee

I'm sure you know as well as i do that you dont have to take the body off to change the turbo and its usually the actuator that goes not the turbo, cambelt is fiddly but no drama just takes time and patience

I'd rather run a disco 3 than an ML any day far easier proposition to live with, we run 2 x V8 disco 2 and I love them and the 3's we service are even better, great choice mate, happy motoring

Cheers Ian, if I worried about turbos blowing and cambelts being awkward, I'd end buying a bicycle.

It's been a week and a half with the Disco and I'm really enjoying it, very smooth and quiet (for a diesel)

 

[steve333]

Cheers Ian, if I worried about turbos blowing and cambelts being awkward, I'd end buying a bicycle.

It's been a week and a half with the Disco and I'm really enjoying it, very smooth and quiet (for a diesel)

Sorry to hear of your bad experiences with an mb main dealer Lee,sadly it's not that uncommon & i've noticed an arrogance about the way in which some of the mb dealerships deal with customer complaints,almost a pay up or shut up attitude.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

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.

 

[MOCAŠ]

SPX, you need to try and see this from the dealership's point of view, instead of just assuming they saw you coming.

What if everyone booked their car in for work to be done, and then withdrew it following diagnonis (which they were duty bound to perform) and expected to pay nothing? Do indies provide free Star diagnosis? In fact, did you have to pay for your original diagnosis of the problem?

I know you're saying you're annoyed that they didn't tell you you'd have to pay for the diagnosis if you didn't go ahead with the work, but I can't help feeling that's because it never occurred to them at the time you booked the car in that someone whose car's brakes needed attention would take it back without that work being done.

When I book my car in, my approach is that if the work needs doing then it gets done (although they'll still call me to check before proceeding with anything that wasn't apparent when booking the car in). I'm sure most MB owners adopt a similar approach to maintaining their cars. They're probably just not used to people that cancel work because they're not happy about the cost (and I'm not implying you can't afford it, just that you're not happy to pay it).

Finally, it's not extortionate for a garage to charge £80 per hour for labour these days. I initially thought that was a half-hourly rate, as £100+ per hour has been the norm in the London area for years now.

Garages have to do something to safeguard against customers trying to pull a fast one on them. Again, not saying that's what you were trying to do, but what if people thought they could use this method to obtain a free Star diagnosis?

 

[wemorgan]

Finally, it's not extortionate for a garage to charge £80 per hour for labour these days. I initially thought that was a half-hourly rate, as £100+ per hour has been the norm in the London area for years now.

I'll take issue with that. Over the years customers have become desensitised to rising main dealer hourly rates.

£80/hr gets a Chartered Engineer, including overheads such as office space, IT support, computer, software (we're not talking MS Office, but expensive specialist engineering software)

If the mechanic's salary is £10-15/hr even with NI, pension etc it's clear to see the overheads are very significant.

/Rant over.....as you were

 

[MOCAŠ]

I'll take issue with that. Over the years customers have become desensitised to rising main dealer hourly rates.

£80/hr gets a Chartered Engineer, including overheads such as office space, IT support, computer, software (we're not talking MS Office, but expensive specialist engineering software)

If the mechanic's salary is £10-15/hr even with NI, pension etc it's clear to see the overheads are very significant.

/Rant over.....as you were

Point taken, but what I meant was that it is not outside the norm of what main dealerships charge for labour (although I know some some offer reduced rates for older cars, which is nice of them). Anyone booking their car in with a main dealer either knows what labour rate to expect, or can ask if they're not sure.

 

[nick mercedes]

I'll take issue with that. Over the years customers have become desensitised to rising main dealer hourly rates.

£80/hr gets a Chartered Engineer, including overheads such as office space, IT support, computer, software (we're not talking MS Office, but expensive specialist engineering software)

If the mechanic's salary is £10-15/hr even with NI, pension etc it's clear to see the overheads are very significant.

/Rant over.....as you were

I've always wondered why garages get away with charging so much, customers are mugs I suppose, commercial vehicle rates tend to be around £20-£30 an hour, bodyshop rates the same, despite needing more costly equipment.

I know of people in Kent who go to France to get their cars serviced/repaired as it's far cheaper...

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Mocas,
I can see it from the dealerships point of view, don't forget I have my own business, so I do appreciate that that part of your argument.

What I do take umbrage with is their attitude toward customers in general, I'll admit that there's obviously been crossed wires and this is what this thread is about I suppose. But don't you think that they could have tried dealing with the matter a little more professionally to diffuse the situation? Instead, they hit the problem ie me, head on.

If you think £96 per hour for a mechanic is a good rate, fair play to you, I find it offensive to the actual wages they actually do get paid out of that. A rough estimate would say that Mercedes financial liability to their employee will be circa £25-30 per hour tops. £50-60 per hour profit isn't a bad little number, so please don't feel sorry for them.

 

[MOCAŠ]

But don't you think that they could have tried dealing with the matter a little more professionally to diffuse the situation? Instead, they hit the problem ie me, head on.

If it had been me in your situation, and I'd taken my car back without proceeding, my first question would have been "Do I owe you anything?" If the answer had been "We'll just charge you for an hour's labour", that would have been fair enough by me.

This is why I'm struggling to understand why you feel hard done by (especially as I realise you have your own business, and probably hate people taking up your time without having any intention of completing a transaction - tyrekickers, I think they're called).

Perhaps I'm one of the mugs that nickmercedes is referring to, but when people do work for me, I expect to pay them the going rate, whether or not they've told me upfront that I'll need to. In other words, I expect there to be a charge, but if they choose to waive it then I'd take that as a bonus.

I get the impression you take the converse view - if they don't mention a charge, you expect the job to be free?

 

[MB-BTurbo]

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.

They have utterly peed me off. I got out my list of failures when they quoted me for the last thing to go wrong. The list totalled £2000 in parts alone over the last 6 months. The reply was "well it is a Mercedes". Unbeliebeble, they even acknowledge how rubbish they are.

The part in question is a shock absorber. They want £143 for a Bilstein B4. Everywhere else charges between £50 and £60! The only problem is that they are so rubbish that everyone except Mercedes have run out until October

 

[Deleted member 37751]

I get the impression you take the converse view - if they don't mention a charge, you expect the job to be free?

If they don't tell you a price, how do you know that want paying?

If I phoned a decorator to come out and price a job up, do you think he'd charge me an hours rate to tell me what needs doing and how much the job will cost? Fair enough in the smoke, but not anywhere else.

 

[markjay]

Sorry, but the hourly rate a business charges its customers, and the hourly rate it pays its staff, have nought to do with each other.

The two terms do sound somewhat similar, hence why it's an easy mistake to make.

But anyone who runs a business will already know this very well.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Sorry, but the hourly rate a business charges its customers, and the hourly rate it pays its staff, have nought to do with each other.

The two terms do sound somewhat similar, hence why it's an easy mistake to make.

But anyone who runs a business will already know this very well.

I felt as though Mocas was asking me to feel sympathy towards a main dealers hourly rate, when the they are doing very well out of their labour charge.

 

[jaymanek]

I sometimes wonder the exact opposite.

At £80 I wonder how the heck they cover the overheads... they have to be charging a lot of £80's at a time to be able to cover the cost of the lease, franchise cost, equipment, staffing, general admin etc etc.

 

[flango]

SPX, you need to try and see this from the dealership's point of view, instead of just assuming they saw you coming.

What if everyone booked their car in for work to be done, and then withdrew it following diagnonis (which they were duty bound to perform) and expected to pay nothing? Do indies provide free Star diagnosis? In fact, did you have to pay for your original diagnosis of the problem?

I know you're saying you're annoyed that they didn't tell you you'd have to pay for the diagnosis if you didn't go ahead with the work, but I can't help feeling that's because it never occurred to them at the time you booked the car in that someone whose car's brakes needed attention would take it back without that work being done.

When I book my car in, my approach is that if the work needs doing then it gets done (although they'll still call me to check before proceeding with anything that wasn't apparent when booking the car in). I'm sure most MB owners adopt a similar approach to maintaining their cars. They're probably just not used to people that cancel work because they're not happy about the cost (and I'm not implying you can't afford it, just that you're not happy to pay it).

Finally, it's not extortionate for a garage to charge £80 per hour for labour these days. I initially thought that was a half-hourly rate, as £100+ per hour has been the norm in the London area for years now.

Garages have to do something to safeguard against customers trying to pull a fast one on them. Again, not saying that's what you were trying to do, but what if people thought they could use this method to obtain a free Star diagnosis?

I'll give the Indie view on this on this, yes they do provide free diagnostics or at least we do. If someone brought a car to us they had previously diagnosed an issue with we would take them at their word. Of course we would check for ourselves on our diagnostics that was the case and there were no underlying issues but we would not charge the customer for running the diagnostics.

This is just another example of main dealer rip off syndrome, If Lee's car has been where I think it has then this doesn't surprise me and we spend a fortune with them just typical MB UK dealers absolutely sh*te.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Thinking about it now, I'll have to see if they have actually charged for an hours labour or just the £96 for the diagnosis.

 

[MOCAŠ]

If they don't tell you a price, how do you know that want paying?

Ok, we'll have to agree to differ on that one.

If I phoned a decorator to come out and price a job up, do you think he'd charge me an hours rate to tell me what needs doing and how much the job will cost? Fair enough in the smoke, but not anywhere else.

Back to life, back to analogy...

If you took your car in to the dealership and asked for a quote for some repairs, they probably wouldn't have charged you for that. Similarly, I've never been asked to pay for a part-exchange valuation - these things are done in the hope that they will win your business. Same goes for the decorator's quote.

But you booked your car in to have work done, and then - dare I say - broke your contract with them by changing your mind, after they'd already started to do that work.

So, let's say your decorator had been engaged to repaint your hallway. He'd come in and started work, but having spent time stripping the walls, he found that the plaster was in poor condition and would need to be rectified before he could complete his work. He tells you this, and you decide to call a halt to the work. Do you owe him anything for time he spent stripping your hall? He wouldn't have given you a specific quote for that, as it would have been part of the overall job. And unfortunately, your hall now looks a lot worse than it did when he started. But you've told him you don't want to pay to have it replastered, so what can he do? Should he be out of pocket for the half-day he spent on the job?

 

[MOCAŠ]

Thinking about it now, I'll have to see if they have actually charged for an hours labour or just the £96 for the diagnosis.

Surely it amounts to the same thing? They're not charging you for the equipment or parts, but for the time it takes for a mechanic to perform the diagnosis.

 

[wemorgan]

At £80 I wonder how the heck they cover the overheads... they have to be charging a lot of £80's at a time to be able to cover the cost of the lease, franchise cost, equipment, staffing, general admin etc etc.

You're right Jay. But they make a rod for their own back. How many of those overheads are essential to provide servicing and maintenance for customer cars. Many independents provide near similar service for 1/2 the price for this very reason.