Roadside assistance warranty

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ELS79

New Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2022
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2
Location
Bristol
Car
A160 2017 reg
Apologies for the long post but I was wondering if anyone had any advice or more knowledge of the Mercedes-Benz Approved Used Warranty and what it covers.

I bought a used A160 in March last year from Sytner (Bristol). It's a 2017 model. It broke down last Sunday, 100+ miles from home, with what turned out to be an auxiliary belt which had snapped. As it was still just under 12 months since we purchased the car, I believed we would be able to take advantage of the roadside assistance offered in our warranty handbook. After hours of going back and forth between Mercedes HQ, Used and Approved, and Sytner Bristol, someone finally accepted that under the 1 year used and approved warranty we were entitled to roadside assistance. After nearly 4 hours (7 hours since I broke down), a mechanic arrived. The car couldn't be fixed at the roadside, so it was towed to the nearest dealership, which was MB-Lookers Wolverhampton. A taxi was arranged and paid for to get myself and my two young sons (9 and 4) to Birmingham New Street so we could catch the last train back to Bristol (which we paid for). The car has now been fixed, the costs of which I know are not covered by the warranty and that's fine, but Mercedes are refusing to deliver the car back to us in Bristol, even though the warranty specifies that they can arrange this when you live more than 30 miles from the dealership where it was fixed.

Throughout the whole process we've been told several times that we are not eligible for roadside assistance as there's no recent service record for the car. The car was serviced in September but we chose to go to our local trusted garage rather than pay the exorbitant price Mercedes were looking to charge us. Nevertheless, the warranty clearly states, that 'If your vehicle has not had it's most recent service completed by an official Mercedes-Benz passenger car retailer, the benefits and terms of conditions detailed in this Mercedes-Benz Roadside Assistance section are applicable.'

I can't understand why they would accept to recover the vehicle under the warranty roadside assistance cover (including sending out an engineer and getting us to the station for our onward journey) but then not honour the vehicle's return. Nor have the agreed to pay the train fare back to Bristol. We raised a complaint on Monday with Mercedes-Benz HQ after getting nowhere with Sytner and someone arranged to look into our case. This seemed to speed up the repair. They've also done our MOT for free, at the same time (it was due this Monday). When we rang complaints again today, we were told that we are not eligible under roadside assistance and that we should consider ourselves 'lucky' to have had the car recovered, repaired and given a complimentary MOT. If we were still dissatisfied they said to take it up with the Motor Ombudsman.

The whole process has been so draining that I feel we may just have to cut our losses, feel pleased with what what we've got, and go and collect the car at our own cost. But have I misunderstood the terms of our warranty? If not, should I be pushing Mercedes to honour the warranty and if so who at Mercedes - Sytner or Mercedes-Benz?

Thanks in advance.
 
It sounds like you are expecting too much - you have a roadside assistance warranty that is conditional on servicing the car at MB - but you decided to save the money on the service cost - so why would you expect to be covered? It would probably have been better to take out your own AA or similar recovery service - you could then have had the car recovered for repair at your local garage and been taken home. The repair cost would have been considerably cheaper as well.
 
It sounds like you are expecting too much - you have a roadside assistance warranty that is conditional on servicing the car at MB -

My understanding is that the AU warranty headlines 12 months roadside assitance.

On that basis the customer isn't expecting too much.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are two traps at work (a) small print that the customer is caught out by (but note the headlining of the 12 months roadside) and (b) confusion by MB between the recovery cover that comes with servicing and the recovery that comes with AU.
 
The exorbitant price at MB does provide a very good level of cover and help if needed. With the money saved on your service, you would have been better off purchasing a recovery package from elsewhere.
I think the UA warranty is just roadside repair and not recovery and return of vehicle to wherever.
 
What Dryce said, possible confusion over the latest service with third party garage and the underlying 12 mths cover for the purchase of an approved used car. Though I'm not sure if the approved used roadside assistance version is the same as the new car, or roadside assistance version when it's renewed for free on MB dealer service. You'd think so.


Approved used benefits:



One year unlimited mileage warranty - Mercedes-Benz has you covered every step of the way
Comprehensive multipoint check - Conducted by Mercedes-Benz certified technicians
Complimentary roadside assistance - 12 months free roadside assistance
 
My understanding is that the AU warranty headlines 12 months roadside assitance.

On that basis the customer isn't expecting too much.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are two traps at work (a) small print that the customer is caught out by (but note the headlining of the 12 months roadside) and (b) confusion by MB between the recovery cover that comes with servicing and the recovery that comes with AU.
Thanks for your reply. There are has been consistent confusion at MB as to whether we're covered and what is covered. The branch that fixed my car said they couldn't understand what had been going on and suggested I pursued it further, which i'm going to try and do.
 
The exorbitant price at MB does provide a very good level of cover and help if needed.

I think this is increasingly doubtful. AIUI the recovery is now just outsourced to the RAC - just like other carmakers do.

So my impresion is that MB are just coverging with what the likes of Ford and Vauxhall have been doing for years.

Likewise the AU warranty has become more detached from MB as a whole and just subcontracted. Again just converging with what other car makers have been doing for years.

I think this is a step backwards. MB are becoming more ordinary in the way they deliver service compared with 10 to 15 years ago.
 

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