Possible forged Mercedes Benz service stamp

[gtz102]

Hi,

I own a Mitsubishi car and whilst I am the current owner of this vehicle, we are suspicious about a service stamp in our service book which says its done by Mercedes Benz. Now, at the time fo the purchase the previous owner said he knew nothing about it but because it had full dealer service history except 1, it wasn't much of a problem as the car was fine. Problem now is selling it because when we contacted the Mercedes Benz dealer whose address is showing on the service stamp, they claim they never stamped it nor do they have a record of it.

Heres a picture of it



(click to zoom in)

It clearly shows the offical Merc stamp, date and signature.

We don't have a invocie for this service as it was never given.

What do you guys think?

 

[LeighW]

Why would you take a Mitsubishi for service at an MB dealership and pay more £££ per hour?

I'd say it's either a forged/stolen stamp, or maybe a mechanic who works at an MB dealership did the service as a cash/side job and 'borrowed' the stamp from work. Maybe it was previously owned by an MB mechanic who serviced it himself?

 

[Rose Chap]

If it is a fake stamp its a very good one.

Also, surely if the previous owner was prepared to use a fake stamp he would have used a Mitsubishi one?

I think LeighW is probably right.

 

[fuzzer]

holy crap , need to get turbodiesels serviced every 4.5k :O

 

[BlackC55]

Why would you take a Mitsubishi for service at an MB dealership and pay more £££ per hour?

I'd say it's either a forged/stolen stamp, or maybe a mechanic who works at an MB dealership did the service as a cash/side job and 'borrowed' the stamp from work. Maybe it was previously owned by an MB mechanic who serviced it himself?

I used to stamp my VR6 with the MB stamp when I serviced it.

 

[nick mercedes]

Hi,

I own a Mitsubishi car and whilst I am the current owner of this vehicle, we are suspicious about a service stamp in our service book which says its done by Mercedes Benz. Now, at the time fo the purchase the previous owner said he knew nothing about it but because it had full dealer service history except 1, it wasn't much of a problem as the car was fine. Problem now is selling it because when we contacted the Mercedes Benz dealer whose address is showing on the service stamp, they claim they never stamped it nor do they have a record of it.

Heres a picture of it



(click to zoom in)

It clearly shows the offical Merc stamp, date and signature.

We don't have a invocie for this service as it was never given.

What do you guys think?

Looks like a real one.

Here's an example of a moody one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MERCEDES-serv...ryZ36086QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Is there anything you counterfeit you *cannot* buy off ebay?

 

[BlackC55]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MERCEDES-serv...ryZ36086QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[television]

It is very easy to copy stamps, all you need is something that has been stamped, you photo copy (laser) it sevearal times each time making the copy as dark as possible, you then iron the back onto a peice of plain paper, then iron this onto the service book and you have a perfect stamp

 

[jaymanek]

id agree that i dont think anyone would go to major efforts to forge one stamp... i wouldnt get too worried about it... and bristol is in the area of the other stamps too... like is said above, could just be an employee doing a weekend job.

 

[gtz102]

so when you sell car, how would it be best explained to buyer as many buyers require evidence of it?

 

[Benzowner]

This is the main reason why I will not usually accept ONLY the service book as a full history. I want to see the invoices as well. I always keep my invoices in a folder and when the car is sold the folder goes with the car. The folder usually conatins all the previous MoT's as well and invoices for anything relating to the car including tyres etc. It is what I would expect a full service history to be, so if possible I provide it.

 

[crockers]

This is the main reason why I will not usually accept ONLY the service book as a full history. I want to see the invoices as well. I always keep my invoices in a folder and when the car is sold the folder goes with the car. The folder usually conatins all the previous MoT's as well and invoices for anything relating to the car including tyres etc. It is what I would expect a full service history to be, so if possible I provide it.

I agree.....Also I found when I sold my wife's last Honda that I didnt have all the receipts - so a quick pop into the dealer and they were only too pleased to print them all off for me...

Also for this Merc - it was my company car so when i bought it i went into the dealers and they printed off the service receipts that had gone to the company...

 

[jaymanek]

yes its always great when you get invoices, however 99% of car owners dont bother keeping them all and so the service book is all you go by...

that stamp is useless in this case as it has nothing to back up the fact its been serviced.. the seller of the car would have to be able to explain it if i were to buy the car..
however its not the end of the world as looking at the service book the car has been looked after, if its not gone to a dealer for one of the services, its hardly likely to fall to bits...

 

[gina2201]

My service book has also got a few Mercedes Benz of Bristol Stamps and they don't look like that (not that this means anything!!) They also have a differnt phone number (for the same year, 2003) and a dealer number on the stamp of 075.

But I am no detective and it may mean absolutely nothing!!

But for one service, 4 years ago, would it really matter that much? To prospective buyers I mean, I'm not sure it would put me off, although obviously some are more stringent on these things than others....

 

[glojo]

I admire your honesty\integrity. I would suggest you have diligently got the car serviced as and when required and that one suspect stamp is NOT hiding any defect simply because it is historical. The car has been examined\serviced on numerous occasions since this one query which is not of your making.

Regarding a future sale.
Should you advertise it as having a full service history? I'm sure it is a nice car and do you need to mention its service history? I would advertise it, list all the extras, options etc and show all potential customers all the service literature you have. I personally would not play with words, or try to be clever.

Good luck
John

 

[Rory]

I really don't see what the problem is here - if it was fine when you bought the car then it's fine now. Dear God - it was 5 years ago! In the unlikely event that anyone queries the service history you can only tell them what you were told by the last seller.
It's been a few years since I bought a used car, but I don't think any of them came with service books etc anyway, never mind service invoices.

 

[gtz102]

I agree.....Also I found when I sold my wife's last Honda that I didnt have all the receipts - so a quick pop into the dealer and they were only too pleased to print them all off for me...

Also for this Merc - it was my company car so when i bought it i went into the dealers and they printed off the service receipts that had gone to the company...

Normally dealers would not do this under Data Protection Act.

In your case, because it was your wife maybe it might be different but normally if you request past invoices from dealers that are not in your name, they wont release it to someone else.

 

[gtz102]

I really don't see what the problem is here - if it was fine when you bought the car then it's fine now. Dear God - it was 5 years ago! In the unlikely event that anyone queries the service history you can only tell them what you were told by the last seller.
It's been a few years since I bought a used car, but I don't think any of them came with service books etc anyway, never mind service invoices.

Problem is some buyers think it might be clocked (even though it hasn't to my knowledge) but some think like that.

My car has done 57k and its 7 years old.

 

[Alps]

gina - MB did change there stamps at one point, maybe you have the older stamp, the one in the pic looks like the current twin color stamp.