Shafted

[david_e]

Replacement front fog light lense identified at recent service - Mercedes Huddersfield quoted twice, once on the phone, once in the showroom when collecting car from service, £18-20 plus £9 - 10 for the lense.

Go bak this week, have it done, bill presented to me £8.98 for the lense and, wait for it........£51.32 labour. This is the rate that includes 30% discount because I'm special. Must have taken all of 20 minutes. I was in a hurry and despite protestations they were adamant that that was the bill.

I would never have gone near them had they told me this (am qualified aircraft engineer, never had one crash yet) so know what am doing.

Now begins the tedious task of complaining talking to solicitor etc......

Enough to make me think of a BMW

Any thoughts, similar experiences?

 

[benny]

You must be Special... That is a piss take they should be ashamed. Sorry to hear about this.

 

[merc man]

prices

Thats mercedes for you i had a stepper motor fail and was quoted about £100 for the part and the labour to fit was £1300 and it only took me 3 hours to do with a few breaks and alot of fiddling about, not the 2 weeks required by mercedes or a strip down and rebuild. i guess that they only charged you for half an hours labour? they charged my mother £120 odd to fit the mirror glass to her car and the part was only £40ish i complained to the manager and told him i buy and get all my families cars serviced by them and this would make me switch to another brand, i got a full refund. the manger left me with the desk and told them to refund the invoice, the funny part was they even refunded the mirror cost so result for 5mins labour!

 

[BTB 500]

Sometimes foglights are more difficult to work on than you might expect (having to remove from behind etc.). But obviously the original quote should have relected that.

 

[scotth_uk]

I had a foglight lens replaced on my Crossfire by the dealer up near Cambridge. Piece was as expected under a few quid, and the labour was in the hundreds.

When they showed me the amount of work to be done to get to it, I thought I got a bargain!

 

[Rose Chap]

Mercedes Benz dealers are rarely inexpensive, but if they tell you one thing and charge you something else for a fairly straightforward task that's inexcusable.

Not sure its worth getting a solicitor involved over £30 however. A well written letter to the manager of the dealership with perhaps you giving him the opportunity to make amends the next time you get your car serviced will probably end up saving you a lot more than the extra outlay on the foglight.

Hope it all works out positively for you.

 

[Flash]

Beat this then...

Sprinter had steering rack replaced under warranty and upon return the steering column made a knocking/creaking sound every time steering wheel was turned and something was rubbing internally. I take it back on a Saturday morning and they said "no fault found - power steering pump was noisy but we inflated the tyres for you and all is ok...". When I told them that the problem was not with the steering pump and the steering column was making a creaking sound after they worked on it they said “don’t worry it’s nothing major and nothing they can do to fix”... - they then wanted £105 for the labour and would not release the vehilce...

Through my negotiation skills I got the SA to get the amend the labour @ £20 (all in) and then kicked up a "stink" once I got the vehicle back and got refunded the £20 and problem sorted under warranty BUT it was a major battle ALL the way with DC UK who made out me to be a “liar” until a senior Forman from the stealership had a look at the vehicle and found the fault upon my request...!!!

However, neither DC UK Cus Services or Stealer apologised to myself afterwards.

 

[nigel cross]

Actual that wasnt too bad considring. What side was it on? I changed the glass on my nearside, which took about 45mins and you had to be a contorded dwarf with hands the size of action man. The difficulty was you cannot remove the lamp in one piece with the washer bottle in situ, so you have to change the lens with the lamp disconnected but still roughly in place. And the spring clips which retain the lens are quite strong.

 

[Benzowner]

I would agree with Rosechap, after all, a verbal quotation is not worth the paper it is written on and all for £30.00. I know there are principals involved, but principals can often cost a lot of money, think about your course of action carefully

 

[mark.t]

i can see clearly now my moneys gone

 

[hawk20]

Replacement front fog light lense identified at recent service - Mercedes Huddersfield quoted twice, once on the phone, once in the showroom when collecting car from service, £18-20 plus £9 - 10 for the lense.

Go bak this week, have it done, bill presented to me £8.98 for the lense and, wait for it........£51.32 labour. This is the rate that includes 30% discount because I'm special. Must have taken all of 20 minutes. I was in a hurry and despite protestations they were adamant that that was the bill.

I would never have gone near them had they told me this (am qualified aircraft engineer, never had one crash yet) so know what am doing.

Now begins the tedious task of complaining talking to solicitor etc......

Enough to make me think of a BMW

Any thoughts, similar experiences?

Probably not BMW. On one of their websites been endless complaints about dealers charges, problems with the cars etc etc etc to the point where at one point BMW were threatening to try to shut down the forum. Don't forget the 5 series finished way behind the E class and C class in the latest J.D. Power survey.

 

[w124coupe]

Standing back from all these charging issues, the real issue is the business model - inflate service hourly costs to pay for the glass & metal palace that "someone" decides is needed to sell the cars in the first place.

Our local BMW dealer has just moved to a building that looks like it was built by the Brussels EU wasters and presumably they work on the same cost-recovery model as Merc.

Big, big incentive for the dealership to move to the "just on the edge of a shafting" charging model.

So far, if I had accepted the Merc dealer's "advice", I would have paid £128 for an optional whells-off check (at 13k first service) and over £250 for brakes at the second service "while the wheels are off" which happily lasted another 9k miles before the wear light came on (and cost £60 for Merc parts plus an hour of my time - 45 mins next time now I know what I'm doing).

I know Hawk will disagree, but this approach is not for the benefit of the customer.....and I find the need to look for financial man-traps in every interaction with the dealer a total pain - I check my legs for leeches every time I leave the premises.

 

[Flash]

problems with the cars etc etc etc to the point where at one point BMW were threatening to try to shut down the forum. Don't forget the 5 series finished way behind the E class and C class in the latest J.D. Power survey.

Things must REALLY be bad at BMW now for BMW UK to threaten to try and shut down the Forum where owners are posting their "true life" experiences...!

 

[mercedes lover]

I got one fog light lense changed on my last car Peugeot 406 they charged me for the lense and labour £110

 

[glojo]

'Shafted'? I'm not sure you were shafted, a lack of communication perhaps. It could be during your telephone conversations you misheard, or the person you spoke to misunderstood? Reading all the sensible replies it would appear you were charged an appropriate price? It sounds like you have the skills, but are you a contorted dwarf, with the hands the size of action man?

I really look forward to hearing your solicitor's response, and most importantly the fee they charge. Are you now going to sell this car and buy a BMW?

Why not simply write a polite letter, name the two members of staff that gave you the estimates and then enquire why you were given incorrect information?

John

 

[w124coupe]

There you go!

As per glojo - either tell your solicitor to go for discrimination against non-contorted non-dwarfs - or ring the service manager to make him aware and ask pleasantly "how he would feel" if he was quoted one thing and then charged another and discuss how that makes you hesitant about more work being done at his dealership.

Especially if this dealer is part of a group, the policy WILL be to pass all threats onto the group lawyer - end of reasonable compromise!

 

[Flash]

OR IF you want to get your own back then get one of their demo cars from Sales Dept and request a short test drive - on the forecourt wack it into reverse "accidentally" and drive into the show room...!!!

PS. It would be their insurance company folking out the bill and them paying the £750/1000 excess...

 

[david_e]

refund

Wrote to dealer principle who apologised ad refunded the difference back to me - am now happy

 

[sym]

I'm about to have a real row with a West Midlands based dealer following a recent service .... this thread has got me really fired up !!

S.

 

[Chris_J]

Which one would the West Mids dealer be? I'm having major trouble getting the garages to believe there is/are faults with my car.