Stunned by dealer comment

[hawk20]

On the way out I saw who I know to be the MD of this dealership. I approached him and made clear my feelings. His reply ?

"We don't make the cars Mr Jenkins - we only sell them".

Now, maybe I'm seeing too much in this - but this is probably the worst thing a dealership could have said. And to top it all - it was the MD that said it!

Stunned. My colleagues in work were right to go with BMW I think.

I don't see anything wrong with that. He was trying to defuse the situation and maybe you were being heated and giving the impression it was all their fault. We only hear your side of it. And what he said is right. You can criticise his company for what they do and are responsible for but they aren't to blame for any faults in manufacture are they?

Try BMW if you wish but see JD Power and BMW owners give very poor ratings to their dealers while E class owners rate MB dealers highly.

Try a BMW forum if you want to read about faults. One guy has had 14 injector replacements and still counting!

 

[Goldfish11]

Alfa or Alpha

I have a friend who decided to buy an Alfa googled it but spelt if wrong ended up on an Alpha Course, found out the true meaning of life, became a Christian. Did end up buying an Alfa and said it changed his life.

As Rowan Atkins said in "Keeping Mum" - "God works in mysterious ways!"

 

[Mercy1]

On the way out I saw who I know to be the MD of this dealership. I approached him and made clear my feelings. His reply ?
"We don't make the cars Mr Jenkins - we only sell them".

Poor turn of phrase in my opinion. He should have said:

"We don't make the cars Mr Jenkins - we only make a fortune by selling them."

(Dieselman could give him some tips)

 

[C350]

They could just build the cost of the insurance on the car into the service and then you would be none the wiser.

When I get my OH Chevrolet Captiva Serviced at the local Vauxhall garage they dont even clean it which gets my goat but then the service is always very reasonable so maybe they keep costs down this way.

 

[markjay]

I can see that he failed to win you over.

"We don't make them, we just sell them."

is probably the result of years of experience of dealing with Mercedes. I have sympathy for the poor bloke, always stuck between an intransigent manufacturer and a stream of disappointed buyers.

Okay he is well paid for it, but would you swap jobs?

Well, could have been worse... he could have said 'never touch the stuff myself'....

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Originally Posted by andyjenkins
On the way out I saw who I know to be the MD of this dealership. I approached him and made clear my feelings. His reply ?
"We don't make the cars Mr Jenkins - we only sell them".

Where was the dealer?

 

[grober]

Another way of looking at it is that he is a management specialist, most of which get to the top by shooting from the hip and telling people how it is. He employs people that are good at the front of house stuff and pouring oil on troubled water.

Or more the more likely explanation he simply doesn't give a sh*t.

 

[MD5]

I work in corporate land ... these days, its not enough to just provide a service - its all about ownership, relationahip and responsibility as well.

Thing is .. I'm so easily bought .. if they could'nt fix the car today and said "Mr Jenkins - have the SLS we have on display until we've fixed your car next month", I'll be back here singing the praises of the dealership and the MD lol

So you think you know the right buttons to push then?

 

[spinaltap]

It's a bit off-topic, but this thread reminded me about the 'brand-new' Citroen ZX I bought some twenty years ago.

Apart from the constant emergence of snails from all over the bodywork for the six months of ownership (it must have been stored in an open field), I regularly spent my time visiting the local dealer to have faults rectified.

Such was the belief in the Citroen brand, the dealership MD drove a Jaguar (!).

 

[andyjenkins]

So you think you know the right buttons to push then?

I like to think I know what to say, how to say it and when to STFU. Execs and VPs don't phase me .. I have them trying to get involved in situations where they don't understand the details but still try to put their hand in anyway.

Although in this case, either my "tact" was off, or the MD did'nt care. I never heard from him for the rest of the day, the promised "I'll have someone keep you informed of progress" never happened (only a phone call at the end of the day to say the car was ready - which would have happened anyway).

I did get a discount ... £378 in the end .. so I guess I should be happy with that. Just hope the remaining 12 months are troublefree.

Well, could have been worse... he could have said 'never touch the stuff myself'....

Ahh, but he does .. he's got a Calcite E350 (Coupe I think) - lovely car.

Where was the dealer?

Milton Keynes

What else besides a B service are you getting for that price? Brake fluid change? Filters ?

if not you are paying way over the odds...

Yeah, B + filters and break fluid changes. It worked out a little cheaper in the end (see above). But they did'nt replace my windscreenwipers though which I had hoped they would have

 

[Mercy1]

Ahh, but he does .. he's got a Calcite E350 (Coupe I think) - lovely car.

a) it won't belong to him

b) he'll only be driving it for six months max

c) if its a load of sh**t, he won't be short of replacements

d) if he's not satisfied, he has ready access to the boss (assuming he's not averse to talking to himself!)

 

[Alps]

ahh, good old MK hey, salesmen dont give a cr*p abt the customers or service, just their targets, their idea of a valet on an approved used car is a joke.

The only helpfull person i found was the guy who done the financing, and that was to help sort out issues with my car as the salesman had gone off on leave after selling me the car.

If it wasnt for the actual car i bought off them from the moment i stepped into the dealership i would have left and not gone back again.

MD`s attitude seems about right, sums up the attitude of the whole dealership.

 

[bpsorrel]

Agreed. Only decent employee I've ever encountered at MK was one of the parts guys, (sadly whose name I can't recall) who really seemed to care. Everyone else have been total a***holes.

 

[st13phil]

One thing that this thread has illustrated is that even amongst people who know that Mercedes-Benz (i.e. Daimler-Benz) and the UK dealers are different entities, the actions of the dealer greatly influences the customer's perception of the product.

Judging by some of the posts I must have been very lucky in that the two dealerships I have bought from (both cars and service) have both been exceedingly good. One matches my "style" of doing business marginally better than the other, but neither have given me any reason to complain, and both have deserved praise and recognition. I did once make a sales enquiry by telephone of another dealer some distance away and, frankly, the condescending attitude of the sales drone has guaranteed that I will never buy from them ever, even if they were the only MB dealer left in the country.

I don't expect to be feted every time I choose to have contact with a car dealership but I do expect to be treated as a customer and not just a walking wallet. Two out of the three MB dealerships I've dealt with have managed that with aplomb; unfortunately the third failed dismally. I wonder what my opinion of Mercedes-Benz would have been had they been the first contact I'd had with the brand?

 

[davidjpowell]

One thing that this thread has illustrated is that even amongst people who know that Mercedes-Benz (i.e. Daimler-Benz) and the UK dealers are different entities, the actions of the dealer greatly influences the customer's perception of the product.

Judging by some of the posts I must have been very lucky in that the two dealerships I have bought from (both cars and service) have both been exceedingly good. One matches my "style" of doing business marginally better than the other, but neither have given me any reason to complain, and both have deserved praise and recognition. I did once make a sales enquiry by telephone of another dealer some distance away and, frankly, the condescending attitude of the sales drone has guaranteed that I will never buy from them ever, even if they were the only MB dealer left in the country.

I don't expect to be feted every time I choose to have contact with a car dealership but I do expect to be treated as a customer and not just a walking wallet. Two out of the three MB dealerships I've dealt with have managed that with aplomb; unfortunately the third failed dismally. I wonder what my opinion of Mercedes-Benz would have been had they been the first contact I'd had with the brand?

This is true. The first car that I bought from a MB dealer was a C320 - bought from Harrogate. Quite a posh dealership (well it would have been if they had not been rebuilding it and decamped sales staff to portacabins!), I called in on spec, and nothing was too much bother including digging the car out from a hemmed in pitch, when we had not discussed much at all. It worked, and I bought the car.

Sadly after sales were marred slightly, - the car was showing an error and the sales chap asked me to drop by when passing. Workshop told me they were far too busy. About the only time I have ever retorted "so am I!" They decided it was nothing, but were wrong.

MB Doncaster I have no affection for at all. They do what they are supposed to do and charge handsomely for it. No real 'interest' in the cars or the customer, just a money making exercise.

I prefer to run my own business differently, even so far as I believe in doing a little bit of something that costs me time only for nothing. The rewards come back ten fold.