Yesterday I took my SLK350 (05) into a main MB dealership for a service. It has had disastrous consequences.
To cut a long story short, the dealership is trying to suggest that somehow, the coil for the drivers front right suspension broke, was disassembled and re-attached without the extra wrap-around part of the coil that fits inside a collar. The broken part of the coil was found in my boot. Now, I cleaned the boot out in the morning before taking it for a service and there was no spring in it then. Further, this is the first service the car has had since I bought it 18 months ago from a different MB main dealer when it had just been serviced.
The only rational conclusion here is that they broke the suspension by either driving the car (unauthorised) or when performing some other part of the service.
To make matters worse, I am being told that the relevant part is not in the UK and it needs to be shipped from Germany which will take 5-10 business days. I leave on a 2000 mile driving holiday in 9 business days.
I would really appreciate any advice anyone has on how I may solve this problem. In particular:
(1) Is anyone aware of any way to expedite the delivery of parts from Germany?
(2) Should I believe that there are no such parts (A1713211004) in the UK? Is there any way I can check?
(3) They are talking about putting the repair through under warranty. Is there any downside to me for this? As long as I don't pay I don't really care, I just really want the car back by the end of next week.
(4) I am being relatively friendly at the moment as, to be frank, they have me by the b.lls because I really need the car in 13 days/9 business days. Is this the best approach to achieve a result or should I complain to the highest power.....!
(5) Any other advice?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
To cut a long story short, the dealership is trying to suggest that somehow, the coil for the drivers front right suspension broke, was disassembled and re-attached without the extra wrap-around part of the coil that fits inside a collar. The broken part of the coil was found in my boot. Now, I cleaned the boot out in the morning before taking it for a service and there was no spring in it then. Further, this is the first service the car has had since I bought it 18 months ago from a different MB main dealer when it had just been serviced.
The only rational conclusion here is that they broke the suspension by either driving the car (unauthorised) or when performing some other part of the service.
To make matters worse, I am being told that the relevant part is not in the UK and it needs to be shipped from Germany which will take 5-10 business days. I leave on a 2000 mile driving holiday in 9 business days.
I would really appreciate any advice anyone has on how I may solve this problem. In particular:
(1) Is anyone aware of any way to expedite the delivery of parts from Germany?
(2) Should I believe that there are no such parts (A1713211004) in the UK? Is there any way I can check?
(3) They are talking about putting the repair through under warranty. Is there any downside to me for this? As long as I don't pay I don't really care, I just really want the car back by the end of next week.
(4) I am being relatively friendly at the moment as, to be frank, they have me by the b.lls because I really need the car in 13 days/9 business days. Is this the best approach to achieve a result or should I complain to the highest power.....!
(5) Any other advice?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
The result of this that employees are reluctant to own up to their mistakes for fear of a reprimand or worse!
The problem with this "kick ass" management is that damage or faults are often concealed and only emerge later. Finding out what really happened is then much more difficult and leads to suspicion all round between workshop, service management and customer.
In this case things seem to conducted correctly and the poster is getting his car repaired under warranty.
Perhaps things could have been improved if the car owner had been re-assured by the service team this was quite a common occurrence, but that would perhaps mean admitting to a known component quality issue--------and that's something else again !
