Made me chuckle...

[MDC250]

Car was in for B1 service today at Stealership...

Paranoid but made a point of cleaning car before it went in and filmed it (alloy was damaged last visit), quick clean of engine bay (clips have been damaged on other cars, not this car or dealership) and while I was there brimmed the screen wash...

Under the breakdown of charges £3.97 for screen wash, which to be fair they do test washer jet etc. so some would get used. Remainder of bottle left loose in the boot.

Obviously a thorough test as only 250ml left from 1l and even that should be diluted down at least 2:1! Slightly annoying as have a particular mix of wash to play nicely with windscreen coating, asked them very politely not to wash the car and they obliged as I have various LSPs on the car.

Somebody was getting high on screen wash ;-)

Good points... replaced wheel nuts without question as they had started to rust (2 years old), tried to fault find intermittent noise from folding mirrors (not playing today).

Best bit had £150 towards service as part compensation for damaging alloy last time. Went to pay the invoice and whipped out the discount...queue awkward moment as £465 bill comes down to £315. Hadn't mentioned it prior as suspicious they would move goalposts on the price of service but after new invoice raised all good, just made to feel like a crim for not mentioning before the invoice was raised.

Queried Becker Map Update and told they don't do it up to me to sort at home...is that right?

Still chuckling about screen wash, it's a bug bear!

 

[John]

Best bit had £150 towards service as part compensation for damaging alloy last time. Went to pay the invoice and whipped out the discount...queue awkward moment as £465 bill comes down to £315. Hadn't mentioned it prior as suspicious they would move goalposts on the price of service but after new invoice raised all good, just made to feel like a crim for not mentioning before the invoice was raised.

I would have done the same. Avoids any unnecessary 'inflation' to cover it...

 

[MDC250]

Sad we feel we have to or do have to play games to start with!

New discs and pads needed apparently (shock horror) for front quoted at £395 but was offered them at £310 whilst in with them. Declined as a sub £250 job at an Indy.

Was told if I had mentioned my one off discount they could have done something further with the price.

To me that means the discounted price was not discounted as much as they could or the service was over priced. Either way leaves a sour taste.

 

[Giantvanman]

Queried Becker Map Update and told they don't do it up to me to sort at home...is that right?

Still chuckling about screen wash, it's a bug bear!

Correct about the Becker……….you need to plug it into your PC but I don't think there have been any updates this year.

Glad to see I'm not the only one although I always go one step further and forbid them to top the bottle up and have them record the fact. If they do top it up, I don't pay.

I started doing that years ago when I got fed up with entries like "Sundries £10" on the bill. Various washers etc was the reply……….if you can't itemise the parts or price them individually, then that part of the bill will be unpaid. Never got an argument from any dealer across different manufacturers. Scammers all to various degrees.

 

[MDC250]

Correct about the Becker……….you need to plug it into your PC but I don't think there have been any updates this year.

Haven't done anything with mine since bought the car last year and it's now 2 yrs old, is there likely to be an update? Is it subscription/do you get so many updates included?

 

[paulshep69]

At my last B service at MB in Inverness, they charged me for screen wash, can't remember how much it was(less than £5), I'd made sure it was full before it went in, when I pointed this out at the point of paying the bill, the assistant said it was all part of the service and that if I was passing then they would top up the screen wash free of charge any time. When they bought the car to me there was a full bottle of screen wash on the passenger seat, I'm sure they put it there once I questioned it, knowing it was full prior to the service.

The young kid of a mechanic who carried out my service also said my front discs were badly corroded, the car had been parked for 2 weeks near the sea prior to me taking it for it's service, I explained this but they still wanted £500+ to replace my front discs and pads - I declined as they weren't needing replaced, as confirmed by their head mechanic on a subsequent visit.

You really need to be on the ball when they're telling you what you need and what they suggest you have done at any main dealer.

 

[MDC250]

I run the risk of sounding cheap (I am!) but more than anything I've got decent screen wash by the gallon at home, mix the ratios to what I want and it sits well with the glass coating I have on the windscreen. Can't quite understand where they put 750ml of the stuff when the tank was full when it went in!

Re the brakes...have read that many stories on here I was wise to what was coming so was comfortable to reject their offer and will sort at a later date.

 

[markjay]

....Good points... replaced wheel nuts without question as they had started to rust (2 years old)...

Similarly, the wheel nuts on my 2006 car were replaced under warranty in 2008 when the car was 2 years old. The new ones rusted again two years later.

Queue 2014... Mercedes Benz still did not figure out the rusting nuts issue, and still replace them under warranty in droves.

Looking at cars parked in the street (as one does...), no other manufacturer seems to have this issue.

How very odd.

 

[markjay]

When had my Omega serviced at the Vauxhall dealer, they always pointed out that the £2 charge was for checking the screenwash reservoir which is part of the service, while any top-up required was free. This sort of took away the sting from the 'but it was full when I brought it in' argument....

 

[Giantvanman]

Haven't done anything with mine since bought the car last year and it's now 2 yrs old, is there likely to be an update? Is it subscription/do you get so many updates included?

With a new one, you get one free update to be used in (I think) 45 days. After that, it is a subscription. But, having read through several forums, there hasn't been any map updates since 2012 so the consensus seems to be that one is due this year………………..Becker themselves refuse to comment on the frequency (or lack of) updates.

The PC setup is very easy (we did it with a W7 PC) and it's actually not bad. You get the option to purchase packs (speed cameras, points of interest etc) and the option to move maps from the device and store on the PC to free up storage.

 

[Giantvanman]

The young kid of a mechanic who carried out my service also said my front discs were badly corroded, the car had been parked for 2 weeks near the sea prior to me taking it for it's service, I explained this but they still wanted £500+ to replace my front discs and pads - I declined as they weren't needing replaced, as confirmed by their head mechanic on a subsequent visit.

You really need to be on the ball when they're telling you what you need and what they suggest you have done at any main dealer.

"Sir. Your brake pads and discs are worn"
"Good," say I.
"Why is that, sir?"
"Shows they are working properly."
There followed an uninformed diatribe regarding worn discs and pads, safety, blah blah.

"What are the manufacturer's recommended minimum thickness of brake discs and pads?" Well, I may as well have been speaking Swahili by the look on his face which changed rapidly when I told him to invite the manager to join the conversation.
Needless to say, I was a very long way from needing either discs or pads and a training need was identified.

You'd have thought they would have learned their lesson when they replaced windscreen wipers without my permission but some people are not quick learners I suppose.

 

[markjay]

When the car was 3 years old and had 30k miles under its belly, the pad thickess warning light came on.

I took it to the MB dealer who later called to say the front discs were just 1 mm from the minimum thickness and recommended changing them as well.

Even assuming he was telling the truth (I did not go over there armed with a micrometer...), 1 mm in brake disc life is quite a lot.

However... I decided to go ahead with this, thinking that at 30k miles, new discs will do the car no harm.

5 years and 20k miles later, the MB discs and pads fitted by the MB dealer are still going strong. But I guess I will never know if the discs actually needed replacing at the time.

 

[OldShep56]

Believe me, it's not only MB that try to scam. I took my wife's Freelander in for a full service to LR. This was at her insistence despite usually using an independent. I told her it would cost upwards of £600 but she was positive. They collected and delivered the car back and luckily, just for once, I was home early on a Friday and there when the dealer called for payment etc. After fleecing us of £590, he then told me it needed another £2500 spent on it!!! Now there are idiots in this world that will tell the dealer to go ahead and do the work but I'm not one of them! I asked for a breakdown and was gobsmacked to be quoted £33 for two new wipers. I asked for an explanation as I had changed the wipers just two weeks previously! And the answer was, and I kid you not, "Ah, but they're not Land Rover supplied wipers, Sir". I burst out laughing. I told him he was not to do anymore work on it. I then rang my independent and Saturday morning took the car to him. Told him to check all the 'faults' and do what needed doing giving him the sheet from the dealer. He rang me 90 minutes later saying the car was ready. He told me he had gone through the dealers list and couldn't find one of the faults the dealer had listed and even failed to understand one. He charged me an hours labour (£20). Much better than £2500

 

[geraldrobins]

I always get an 'apparent' cost for screen wash but its immaterial as the total is always within what I have been quoted for the service. I still have a little screenwash left from August when my car was serviced.

 

[John]

Believe me, it's not only MB that try to scam. I took my wife's Freelander in for a full service to LR. This was at her insistence despite usually using an independent. I told her it would cost upwards of £600 but she was positive. They collected and delivered the car back and luckily, just for once, I was home early on a Friday and there when the dealer called for payment etc. After fleecing us of £590, he then told me it needed another £2500 spent on it!!! Now there are idiots in this world that will tell the dealer to go ahead and do the work but I'm not one of them! I asked for a breakdown and was gobsmacked to be quoted £33 for two new wipers. I asked for an explanation as I had changed the wipers just two weeks previously! And the answer was, and I kid you not, "Ah, but they're not Land Rover supplied wipers, Sir". I burst out laughing. I told him he was not to do anymore work on it. I then rang my independent and Saturday morning took the car to him. Told him to check all the 'faults' and do what needed doing giving him the sheet from the dealer. He rang me 90 minutes later saying the car was ready. He told me he had gone through the dealers list and couldn't find one of the faults the dealer had listed and even failed to understand one. He charged me an hours labour (£20). Much better than £2500

What did your wife say about that result?

 

[OldShep56]

What did your wife say about that result?

It has never been back to LR at Portsmouth and she was just glad I was home LOLOL. I told the dealer that even if I won the lottery, he wouldn't be seeing any of my money

 

[Spin_bowler]

I always get an 'apparent' cost for screen wash but its immaterial as the total is always within what I have been quoted for the service. I still have a little screenwash left from August when my car was serviced.

11 months, the washers are broken, right? I get through a reservoir a week in the winter months.