Discussion
In thinking mercedes treat us as cash cows.......
My cls bi turbo has had a problem with front camber, had it booked in for hunter wheel alignment at harwoods Aston in chichester as my friend is aston sales manager.
We have identified the problem sir but will not charge you the full 2 hours as we couldn't fix it so will only charge you £80 for our 2 hrs work, but we recommend you go to mercedes as your camber is out a lot and we don't have the mercedes tool to adjust it.
I drove straight to portsmouth mercedes(purchased dealer from new) who quoted me up to £300 for same job plus any bolts needed????
Poor show imo
My cls bi turbo has had a problem with front camber, had it booked in for hunter wheel alignment at harwoods Aston in chichester as my friend is aston sales manager.
We have identified the problem sir but will not charge you the full 2 hours as we couldn't fix it so will only charge you £80 for our 2 hrs work, but we recommend you go to mercedes as your camber is out a lot and we don't have the mercedes tool to adjust it.
I drove straight to portsmouth mercedes(purchased dealer from new) who quoted me up to £300 for same job plus any bolts needed????
Poor show imo
Charliesum said:
Wheel alignment isn't covered by warranty sir.....
I will give them a call as mercedes want the car for a whole day!!!
Might have guessed!I will give them a call as mercedes want the car for a whole day!!!
Amazing really, the camber shouldn't go amiss in normal use. Reminds me of a C2.6 I owned in the early '90s. Amongst its many issues was a persistent pull to the left, which was corrected by adjusting the camber and caster but kept returning.
To be fair MB never charged for setting it up but I well remember when they told me that if I had lived in the US or Germany it wouldn't be a problem, it was the UK roads.
Sold that car in '96 and never bought another Merc until a couple of months ago. I often thought about it but my experience in the '90s always made me wary. So far my SLK seems OK but it's early days.
drmark said:
Well if Aston spent 2 hours NOT fixing it, then it would only seem fair that Merc can charge 3 hours to fix it - and bill you their full labour rate because they can finish the job
Ha ha, very true. However these labour rates do seem to be on a par with a Lawyer these days. Not bad for a fitter....windydog said:
drmark said:
Well if Aston spent 2 hours NOT fixing it, then it would only seem fair that Merc can charge 3 hours to fix it - and bill you their full labour rate because they can finish the job
Ha ha, very true. However these labour rates do seem to be on a par with a Lawyer these days. Not bad for a fitter....drmark said:
Well if Aston spent 2 hours NOT fixing it, then it would only seem fair that Merc can charge 3 hours to fix it - and bill you their full labour rate because they can finish the job
Exactly this! You're complaining that Aston only charged £80, yet they told you they weren't charging the full rate for their 2 hours because they couldn't finish the job, and they presumably took less time for the same reason. Had they been able to actually do the work you'd have been charged more per hour for more hours, so quite possibly would have ended up at the same figure.
REALIST123 said:
You haven't used a lawyer recently, have you........
Not yet thankfully, so I live in blissful ignorance on this. And 80 UKP for 2 hours diagnosis is indeed pretty damn good. Certainly no dramas with a proper mechanic, they just seem to be rarer and rarer these days. Update.
I took the car in last week to the supplying dealer
but they said it had to be in for a few recalls under warranty(never notified me.)
I couldn't leave it so they arranged to collect today between 8-11.
They turned up at 1145 and sent me a nice video at 1500 hrs to tell me it had passed the visual inspection.
They called at 1700 to say it wasn't finished as their machine broke and the machine in chichester dealership had broken too!
So they are keeping the car to sort it........
If they only started on the car at 1400 ish and it needed 4-5 hrs ecu updates how did they expect to finish it by 1700 and have it back on my drive 1.5hrs away(15 miles away but bad tea time traffic)
Not the best service....
Can't wait to see the itemised bill !!!
I took the car in last week to the supplying dealer
but they said it had to be in for a few recalls under warranty(never notified me.)
I couldn't leave it so they arranged to collect today between 8-11.
They turned up at 1145 and sent me a nice video at 1500 hrs to tell me it had passed the visual inspection.
They called at 1700 to say it wasn't finished as their machine broke and the machine in chichester dealership had broken too!
So they are keeping the car to sort it........
If they only started on the car at 1400 ish and it needed 4-5 hrs ecu updates how did they expect to finish it by 1700 and have it back on my drive 1.5hrs away(15 miles away but bad tea time traffic)
Not the best service....
Can't wait to see the itemised bill !!!
After not hearing anything all day I emailed the service dept
I think they're working on it now sir..
2 hrs later
It's returned from our chichester dealers fixed, but we are not happy with the results !!!!!
So we are again looking at it with 2 technicians now who are struggling to get within the range.......
Oh and we still need to do the updates
We also want it out of the workshop, as the service managers car (250cdi estate) is parked outside your house sir and he wants it back!
At least I'm only being charged the 2 hrs!
I think they're working on it now sir..
2 hrs later
It's returned from our chichester dealers fixed, but we are not happy with the results !!!!!
So we are again looking at it with 2 technicians now who are struggling to get within the range.......
Oh and we still need to do the updates
We also want it out of the workshop, as the service managers car (250cdi estate) is parked outside your house sir and he wants it back!
At least I'm only being charged the 2 hrs!
Thanks for the update, well i'm sure the "Service" Manager is well aware that he will be out of a car until you get a reasonable conclusion.
All in all, this sounds rank amateurish with excuses on excuses piling up. Not what one would reasonably expect from MB. Having said that and being ruthlessly pragmatic, there is always the case of a rogue car, and how they deal with getting it back to you in a fit for purpose state will define this story.
Hope you get your car back soon, and if it were me, I would not be handing the keys back to the 250 CDi until you at least have something else on your drive, or ideally, your own car back in a fit state.
Best of luck,
All in all, this sounds rank amateurish with excuses on excuses piling up. Not what one would reasonably expect from MB. Having said that and being ruthlessly pragmatic, there is always the case of a rogue car, and how they deal with getting it back to you in a fit for purpose state will define this story.
Hope you get your car back soon, and if it were me, I would not be handing the keys back to the 250 CDi until you at least have something else on your drive, or ideally, your own car back in a fit state.
Best of luck,
Unfortunately I didn't have the keys for the service managers car!!!
It just sat outside my house for 3 days as they didn't give me a loan car.
The car was returned last night but still in need of work doing on the supposed recall as they didn't have the parts (even though it was booked in 7days previously!!!)
I'm giving the car a run today to see how it performs but it seems most of the delays were parts not in for the recalls that they hadn't told me about, and it still needs rebooking for further remedial work.
Now I may expect that from Alfa dealers but not AMG
Oh and I did have a bill of ONLY £288 for the privilege
It just sat outside my house for 3 days as they didn't give me a loan car.
The car was returned last night but still in need of work doing on the supposed recall as they didn't have the parts (even though it was booked in 7days previously!!!)
I'm giving the car a run today to see how it performs but it seems most of the delays were parts not in for the recalls that they hadn't told me about, and it still needs rebooking for further remedial work.
Now I may expect that from Alfa dealers but not AMG
Oh and I did have a bill of ONLY £288 for the privilege
Unfortunately I didn't have the keys for the service managers car!!!
It just sat outside my house for 3 days as they didn't give me a loan car.
The car was returned last night but still in need of work doing on the supposed recall as they didn't have the parts (even though it was booked in 7days previously!!!)
I'm giving the car a run today to see how it performs but it seems most of the delays were parts not in for the recalls that they hadn't told me about, and it still needs rebooking for further remedial work.
Now I may expect that from Alfa dealers but not AMG
Oh and I did have a bill of ONLY £288 for the privilege
It just sat outside my house for 3 days as they didn't give me a loan car.
The car was returned last night but still in need of work doing on the supposed recall as they didn't have the parts (even though it was booked in 7days previously!!!)
I'm giving the car a run today to see how it performs but it seems most of the delays were parts not in for the recalls that they hadn't told me about, and it still needs rebooking for further remedial work.
Now I may expect that from Alfa dealers but not AMG
Oh and I did have a bill of ONLY £288 for the privilege
Edited by Charliesum on Thursday 27th November 08:03
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