Am I stupid

Author
Discussion

Charliesum

Original Poster:

246 posts

142 months

Friday 14th November 2014
quotequote all
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

Palmball

1,267 posts

173 months

Friday 14th November 2014
quotequote all
Wheels in Motion in Chesham are your answer. They seem to know a lot about alignment on MB's and I've had a couple done there, even though I'm 100 miles away. They know what they're doing and tend to have the bolts etc in stock....and they're a lot cheaper than MB.

Charliesum

Original Poster:

246 posts

142 months

Friday 14th November 2014
quotequote all
Thanks mate
I pointed out that Aston were sooooo much cheaper and they just looked at me......

drmark

4,793 posts

185 months

Sunday 16th November 2014
quotequote all
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 wink

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 17th November 2014
quotequote all
Isn't your car under warranty?

richarda0109

313 posts

164 months

Monday 17th November 2014
quotequote all
I'll second Wheels in Motion in Chesham - Just had mine done their - alignment on front wheels and fit 2 new front tyres = £108 inc vat - took about an hour in total. They know a lot about Mercs.

Rgds
Richard

Charliesum

Original Poster:

246 posts

142 months

Monday 17th November 2014
quotequote all
Wheel alignment isn't covered by warranty sir.....
I will give them a call as mercedes want the car for a whole day!!!

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 17th November 2014
quotequote all
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!

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.




windydog

36 posts

120 months

Tuesday 18th November 2014
quotequote all
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 wink
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....

anonymous-user

53 months

Tuesday 18th November 2014
quotequote all
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 wink
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....
You haven't used a lawyer recently, have you........ wink

Ari

19,328 posts

214 months

Wednesday 19th November 2014
quotequote all
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 wink
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.


Ari

19,328 posts

214 months

Wednesday 19th November 2014
quotequote all
windydog said:
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....
You do understand that the garage doesn't take the labour charge from the customer, wander out the back and hand it all to the fitter don't you? biggrin

R6VED

1,364 posts

139 months

Thursday 20th November 2014
quotequote all
I had my CLS 500 aligned for £60 cash (+did need two bolts at £10 each though) I have just had my 1981 SEL 500 aligned for £50 cash and needed no bolts.

Both done at JPS Motorsport in Bletchley nr Milton Keynes. They use a Hunter machine.

windydog

36 posts

120 months

Thursday 20th November 2014
quotequote all
REALIST123 said:
You haven't used a lawyer recently, have you........ wink
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.

Charliesum

Original Poster:

246 posts

142 months

Monday 24th November 2014
quotequote all
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 !!!

Charliesum

Original Poster:

246 posts

142 months

Tuesday 25th November 2014
quotequote all
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!

windydog

36 posts

120 months

Thursday 27th November 2014
quotequote all
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,

Charliesum

Original Poster:

246 posts

142 months

Thursday 27th November 2014
quotequote all
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

Charliesum

Original Poster:

246 posts

142 months

Thursday 27th November 2014
quotequote all
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


Edited by Charliesum on Thursday 27th November 08:03