“The original parts you took out were tested by another car dealership and found to be fine. What do you make of that?”
“I don’t understand,” said Dyer.
“Seems I didn’t need the original fix that you want me to pay for. How do you know I needed that fix and that it wasn’t a bogus solution?” I said.
“Because my guys told me it needed to be fixed and I believe them.”
“Well, the parts were tested, and found to be fine. So you’re asking me to pay for a repair that didn’t need to happen and that cost me $1000 more than the fix that was necessary, you left me with a car that broke down on a highway the day after you ‘fixed’ it, and now you’re telling me that you won’t discuss it and don’t want me as a customer. And I’m out the money.”

Right. And, full disclosure, there was one small part that needed to be replaced from the original fix, and I wanted to give Mercedes the $83 for the part and 2 hours of labor and I asked them to refund the $476 difference between the original ‘fix’ and the final repair. But they needed to be right.

Don’t buy a Mercedes. There is NO oversight. No customer service. And the Dealership is always right – not the customer. And you’ll get that same message from the folks in Germany AND the Customer Service office in NJ: we don’t mess with the Dealers. They are all their own businesses. Lexus’ and BMW are fine upper end cars. No need to buy a Mercedes. Unless it won’t ever need repairs.

Final Mercedes Tale is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

I picked up the car, and got a list of what they had done, and noticed that the new fix (replaced control unit) had no relation whatsoever to what they had done initially (oil sensor, harness, etc). This particular charge was $2000, a $900 difference between the first fix and the second fix. Where was my money?

Since I have the initial parts, I called Patricia and told her I was bringing the parts in for a review to an independent mechanic to see if they really needed to be fixed (if the second repair fixed the problem, and the first one didn’t, one might suspect that the first problem didn’t need to be fixed, right? And they weren’t even related, according to the nice service team manager Ron). [As of now, the credit card charge for the initial $2990is on  hold, with no payment authorized.] She said it was fine, but that I had to go to a Mercedes dealership or the report wouldn’t be authorized.

I called the dealership that sold me the car in Littleton Colorado and spoke with the service manager Andrew Savoy. I told him I wanted to send them a few parts to check to see if they were still good, as my problem might involve a misdiagnosis. “You brought it to another dealership and you want me to check their work? I don’t want to get involved (did they all take lessons from the same people?)”

Sharon Drew: So, you aren’t standing behind your product? I bought the car from you, there was a problem, and you won’t stand behind your product? Even to check parts?

Andrew Savoy (Service Manager): I know Jim McGuane in Austin. He’s a fair minded guy. If he says there is a problem I trust him.

And there you have it. A loop. They all stick up for each other. The customer has no place if it’s outside the box. And no one wants to stand behind the customer unless there is a huge fuss (and the Daimler people in Germany give the customer the right numbers to call).

There you have it. If you buy a Mercedes, hope that you will have no problems with it. Or don’t take it to the dealership for repair. They do not stand behind their product without a fight. And diagnose and fix the wrong problems. And won’t admit mistakes. And won’t let you speak with customer service managers without calling Germany.

Me? I will never buy a Mercedes ever again.

Continuing Saga of Mercedes Benz is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

I originally attempted to speak with the customer service department at the Mercedes Benz Headquarters in Montvale NJ. All I ended up getting was a company mouth (Mariano) who would only refer back to the dealership and would do nothing on my behalf (his words) because they were an autonomous franchise and didn’t answer to anyone in Headquarters (?!). Not to mention that he refused to hand me over to a supervisor as “Supervisors aren’t allowed to take calls from customers (amazing).”

I then called my dealership and spoke with the owner, Harvey  Dyer, who said nothing while I railed on about my problem. He ended the call by saying “I’ll look into it” and hung up. That was the last time I heard from Harvey. I guess if he hires the sort of people here in Austin that would say/do what is being done, he must have the same outlook: money first, customer last ,and no need to speak with an unhappy customer.

Folks: do NOT buy a car from this dealership.

Given I was not happy with the status quo – no work on my car until I gave them more money to fix the problem that they didn’t fix but said they had fixed but wasn’t fixed (did  you get that?) -  and no one would help me, no one would call me back from my local dealership owner, the dealership Service Manager, or from the US customer service folks, I called the main Daimler offices in Stuttgart Germany to try to get SOMEONE to stand behind the Mercedes brand  and get my car fixed. I had to call three times before I got a responsive person (what is going on with this company??), but finally was given the direct line of Ralph Fisher, the US Director of Customer Service.  (201 476 6210 ). I also had to call there 3 times before someone, other than Mr. Fisher’s assistant, spoke to me to me – and this was at 4:57 on Friday afternoon when I was becoming a pain in the butt and demanding.

Interestingly, someone from Ralph’s office had spoken with my dealership to get the facts (!?!?!?) before they spoke with me (and the ‘facts’ according to who?) and I had to call three times to get someone to speak with me at all, even as an unhappy customer. How interesting that every action this company takes – from my dealership, to the US
National Headquarters for Mercedes, to the Daimler office in Stuttgart – is done to protect themselves and show NO care for the customer! Fascinating… and a good sign that it’s imperative not to purchase a Mercedes because no one stands behind it and there is NO customer advocacy. None.

Eventually I spoke with Louis  Garillo,  who placated me by typing my factual complaints and offering a seemingly rehearsed or scripted apology that had no personal care and was quite formal. I learned that my dealership was indeed going ahead to at least diagnose the car. That’s all I know. That’s all I’ve been told.

It is now a week since the second breakdown of the car. The dealership has it and I still have a loaner. Other than a call from my service team manager (Ron, the one nice guy), no one has called me back. Not the customer service manager Jim McGuane, not the dealership owner, Harvey  Dyer , not the customer service woman in Montvale , Louis Garillo,  or the promised people from Stuttgart. I have no idea what is going on with my car. None. Of course I’ve reported this to the State regulatory commission in Texas, and have put a hold on my $3000 credit card payment , and have a Mercedes expert ready to look at the original parts that were taken out (that might indeed not be broken since that ‘fix’ didn’t fix the problem) . But no one should have to go through this. Not when there are many good cars that come with service.

Stay tuned for the next installment.

Mercedes Benz: Continuing Saga Of Horrid Customer Service And A Broken Car. Installment #2 is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Years ago, I lived on a ranch with no paved roads. An SUV was imperative. Since moving to Austin, I no longer need the car, but it was getting older and had very very low mileage, and I figured it could last for years because it was a Mercedes.

I purchased the SUV (ML320) the year it first came out and the first year Mercedes set up shop in the States. Given the two firsts, it proved to be a bad bad decision: The car turned out to be a lemon.

I’ve owned Mercedes’ before and have a history of them being trouble free, running without incident for well over 150,000 miles. But not this car. And the things wrong with it were all odd. No need for detail here, as I want to get to this current incident.

The problem: My car has been starting perfectly, and then stalling out as soon as the motor engages. It just dies after it starts. But the second time I put the key in to start it, it’s fine. And it doesn’t do it each time I start the car – just sometimes. It was doing that a while, but since it eventually started, I didn’t stop my life long enough to bring the car in – until one day after doing a few errands and started and stopped a few times, the car wouldn’t turn over even after several tries.

I had to call the tow truck; by the time they arrived (and an hour lapse between trying to start it), it kicked in and I could drive it myself. The car went to shop for a week or so.

When they told me that it was going to cost a lot (initial estimate around $5000) I yelled and screamed because this car has cost me so much already (for a Mercedes with 68,000 miles, my bills were mounting).  Finally I ended up paying appx $3000 because they agreed to charge me wholesale prices for the parts. Nice.

They diagnosed, and fixed, an esoteric problem (oil sensor, crank, harness, etc.) that they had seen only rarely,and the head technician worked on it.

Then I went to pick the car up. As I  started it, it did the EXACT same thing it did before I brought it in. The exact same thing.

Given it was Memorial Day weekend, I figured I’d bring the car back after the weekend, and assumed that the ‘fix’ they did would have ‘fixed’ SOMETHING. Once I got home from the Mercedes dealership, I called my service team leader Ron (nice guy) and told him the car was doing the absolute exact same thing. “Get it back in”… Ok. after the weekend.

But the car did the dead thing again later that weekend. I tried about 40 times to start it, waiting between each round of 5 tries. I was there for a couple of hours trying to start the car. I eventually got a ride home from a kind couple in the parking lot, and left the keys with the Chinese owner of a laundromat. Once the car got back to the dealership (it started up the next day, as it did after waiting the hour last time), they looked at it and told me the car had a DIFFERENT PROBLEM. “Not Related” to the original problem, the service manager said in an email (he never picked up the phone to speak with me ever again. Ever again.), and that “since your car is old (10 years old with 68,000 miles),  you should be replacing it. We found someone who will offer you $5500 to buy your car!” ….

The service team leader (who was professional enough to actually call me) said they’d have to get it diagnosed again for the NEW PROBLEM, etc. and they’d have to charge me!!

Now: a Mercedes as a brand should be a good, long life car. At 68,000 miles, the car is just being broken in. But, OK. I’ll even ‘buy’ that it’s ‘old’. But to tell me that with the car doing the same thing when I picked it up that I brought it in for had a DIFFERENT PROBLEM and that I have to pay more when the $3000 I’d just paid did NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM, is crazy-making and illogical. Ron did tell me that they said ‘We fixed the problem we found’. I believe that. But they didn’t fix the car. For all I know, the problem they found could have waited a year to be fixed. But I didn’t bring the car in for the fix that didn’t fix my car!

I contacted the main Mercedes Benz Headquarters in Montvale NJ. Eventually got to speak with Mariano on the Escalation team (after speaking with a very gentle Surik who said he’d ‘be there for me’ and never returned a call after that). Mariano told me that each Mercedes dealership was a franchise, they operated on their own, and – with a deprecating attitude -  there was NOTHING THEY COULD/WOULD DO FROM HEADQUARTERS and I had to take it up with the Dealership (and this is the escalation person??). “Do you know what a brand is” I asked…”What do you mean?” he said. Precisely.

So, with no help from the main US Mercedes folks, I called Daimler in Germany. I’m still waiting to hear from them. And I’m waiting to hear from the Dealership owner here in town whom I finally called. And I’ve contacted Master Card to start the process of not paying the $3000, and I’ve found another Mercedes person to write a note for me saying the Dealer was wrong, take the car to the new guy and get it fixed and stop the payment of the $3000 to the dealer. I’ve also put in a complaint at the Texas Dept. of Motor Vehicle Regulation group.

All is up in the air. Possibly I’ll be able to write another note with good news.

But at this point, the dealership has my car and is doing nothing with it because I won’t give them more money. Not one from there is speaking with me. They will not acknowledge that they didn’t fix my car (“We fixed the problem we found” is not the same as fixing my car.) and they want me to pay more money when the money I paid didn’t do squat. And, best I can tell, there is no brand management, no one, no one, in America that is caring about a customer, willing to help, or making sure that Mercedes stands behind their product. And it’s not even the particular problem I’m having with: it’s the way they are treating me, speaking to me (or not, as the case may be), ignoring me, not attempting to find a solution, etc. No customer should be treated disrespectfully, or as if they are an idiot. The Service folks at my dealership should have just said, “Oops! Sorry. Give us a few days to have another look and get back to you.”

It’s a sad day when I can say, hand on heart, that I will never, ever, purchase a Mercedes again. I do not trust them. They sullied their brand. In this day and age, when there are many cars to choose from, I can do better. And it’s sad for them they have lost a life-long loyal customer.

Mercedes Benz Is Not A Brand is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com