How do Mercedes-Benz sell any cars?

[edo]

I contacted five Mercedes Dealers in the south east via email AND telephone with a specific requirement, looking at a lease, knowing exactly what I was after (but with flexibility on colour and spec).

Despite chasing each salesman, the best I got was a half arsed finance quote, none could be bothered to find a car to test drive, none bothered to check incoming stock, and none have come back to me after promises to quote and/or provide a car for a test drive.

One dealer in Guildford said the demo was out and would ring when it was in (he didn't of course). I was passing, so popped in, and it was "back". Sitting in the far corner of the car park, blocked in by numerous cars and had clearly been there for days. He said he was too busy to to a test drive that day and would call me to arrange an appointment. He's never called.

This compares to BMW, with whom I had a 24 hour test drive, and a car on my drive in under 10 days from first inquiry.

[Presuming Ed]

Knowing the amount of work that goes into getting a customer through the door in terms of marketing spend they must be pulling their hair out that the guys on the shop floor let customers go so easily.
Is it a retail sale or company car? Most dealers don't like staff dealing with fleet customers as they never get the order. Its a daft way to deal with customers but I think that Franchised dealers betwork is too far established for anything to change.

[edo]

Presuming Ed said:

Knowing the amount of work that goes into getting a customer through the door in terms of marketing spend they must be pulling their hair out that the guys on the shop floor let customers go so easily.
Is it a retail sale or company car? Most dealers don't like staff dealing with fleet customers as they never get the order. Its a daft way to deal with customers but I think that Franchised dealers betwork is too far established for anything to change.

Private retail.

[LordHaveMurci]

I had exactly the opposite service from BMW that you did, I contacted every BMW dealer in the South West, it was a dealer 100mls away that finally found me the car I wanted. My local dealer finally rang back days later & had the cheek to have a go at me for buying elsewhere!
The only good thing about the local BMW dealer was the receptionist sat nice & low always wore a low cut top

[edo]

LordHaveMurci said:

I had exactly the opposite service from BMW that you did, I contacted every BMW dealer in the South West, it was a dealer 100mls away that finally found me the car I wanted. My local dealer finally rang back days later & had the cheek to have a go at me for buying elsewhere!
The only good thing about the local BMW dealer was the receptionist sat nice & low always wore a low cut top

lol.

[edo]

Mercedes UK customer service (seems to be run from the Netherlands).

===============================================================================================

Thank you for contacting the Mercedes-Benz Customer Assistance Center N.V regarding the experiences that you have had at our Official Retailers in the South East area.

We sincerely apologise that the Official Retailers that you contacted have not met with your expectations and in most instances did not respond to your requests.

We greatly appreciate the feedback you have provided us with and we have logged your comments and will certainly take this up internally with the teams involved.

We were sorry to hear that due to this experience you have decided to purchase from another Manufacturer and we hope that in the future, should you decide to try Mercedes-Benz again, we will be able to meet with your expectations.

Should you have any further requirements please do not hesitate to contact us further.


Yours sincerely

Laura Forrest
Customer Service
Mercedes-Benz Customer Assistance Center Maastricht N.V.
Gelissendomein 5
NL-6229 GK Maastricht, the Netherlands

Phone No:
00800 9 777 7777 (international freephone)
0207 660 9993 (charged at national rate)

mailto: [e-mail]

[Codswallop]

Didn't Mercedes get rid of most of their dealers a few years ago and have a big shake up of who could be an official dealer?

Shame that it appears to not have worked as I like Mercedes cars far more then their German friends from Ingolstadt and Munich.

[Danesgate]

edo said:

cac.mercedes-benz

That's about right

[Plotloss]

Have you considered using a leasing company rather than a dealer direct? They'll source the car for you, probably through the same dealers you're querying at similar cost.

Speak to Simon @ www.covase.co.uk he's a good chap.

[BigNige]

A few years back we went into our local Renault dealer for a car for my wife.
We sat at the sales reps desk and he asked if we wanted coffee, yes we said, so he asked my wife to go and fetch it!

We bought a Ford.

[cuprabob]

BigNige said:

A few years back we went into our local Renault dealer for a car for my wife.
We sat at the sales reps desk and he asked if we wanted coffee, yes we said, so he asked my wife to go and fetch it!

We bought a Ford.

I would say the salesman won on that encounter :-)

[tuffer]

I was invited to a "VIP" event at my local BMW dealer last week. Sales guy was new and utterly clueless, cars I was interested in were "not available to look at" despite being "in stock". Wasted journey and despite being a repeat customer I would seriously consider switching to another marque given the recent experience.....but I doubt the others would be any better.

[Vince70]

BigNige said:

A few years back we went into our local Renault dealer for a car for my wife.
We sat at the sales reps desk and he asked if we wanted coffee, yes we said, so he asked my wife to go and fetch it!

We bought a Ford.

Sounds like he did you a big favour

[okie592]

I was thinking this today, went into my local suzuki dealer about a swift sport and the dealer didnt even bother to acknowledge me, why i finally got to speak to him he fobbed me off with no broacher and then plucked a finance quote of his arse. Then fobbed me off with sorry i cant do PCP quotes cause the swift is too new. Too new wtf?

Then in my local ford dealer, had some roid head approach me, he was a total knob but at least he was alright when he atchally managed to quote me for the car, despite most likely making a build date up, 5 months for a fiesta, im not so sure, considering the plant is 100m down the road.

You would think they didnt need to sell cars, must be happy living on a basic wage. il be going somewhere else where at least the dealer can don a fake smile and give me a cup of coffee and some free matts

edited to fix damn autocorrects

Edited by okie592 on Sunday 20th May 19:18

[Zigster]

Mercedes Benz in Brighton weren't great either. No one available to speak us, despite there appearing to be lots of staff milling around doing nothing. Snooty receptionist who seemed shocked that I'd turned up with two kids (er, buying a family car ...) and refused to unlock a showroom car on the grounds it was very expensive (Audi in Poole didn't have a problem with their R8s being unlocked and my kids were on strict instructions to be very careful when looking inside).

Audi and Volvo were so much more welcoming. And that was a large factor in deciding to buy a Volvo. If Mercedes were that bad when I was trying to spend tens of thousands, how bad would they have been with warranties and servicing ...

[750turbo]

Vince70 said:

BigNige said:

A few years back we went into our local Renault dealer for a car for my wife.
We sat at the sales reps desk and he asked if we wanted coffee, yes we said, so he asked my wife to go and fetch it!

We bought a Ford.

Sounds like he did you a big favour

Is that because all French cars are ste?

Apparently

FFS!

[750turbo]

okie592 said:

I was thinking this today, went into my local suzuki dealer about a swift sport and the dealer didnt even bother to acknowledge me, why i finally got to speak to him he fobbed me off with no broacher and then plucked a finance quote of him arse. Then fobbed me off with sorry i cant do PCP quotes cause the swift is too new. Too new wtf?

Then in my local ford dealer, had some roid head approach me, he was a total knob but at least he was alight when he atchally managed to quote me for the car, despite most likely making a build date up, 5 months for a fiesta, im not so sure, considering the plant is 100m down the road.

You would think they didnt need to sell cars, must be happy living on a basic wage. il be going somewhere else where at least the dealer can don a fake smile and give me a cup of coffee and some free matts

Ehhh....Well..Ahhh:

[HeatonNorris]

okie592 said:

Then in my local ford dealer, had some roid head approach me, he was a total knob but at least he was alright when he atchally managed to quote me for the car, despite most likely making a build date up, 5 months for a fiesta, im not so sure, considering the plant is 100m down the road.

So, do you live in Valencia or Cologne?

[Vince70]

750turbo said:

Vince70 said:

BigNige said:

A few years back we went into our local Renault dealer for a car for my wife.
We sat at the sales reps desk and he asked if we wanted coffee, yes we said, so he asked my wife to go and fetch it!

We bought a Ford.

Sounds like he did you a big favour

Is that because all French cars are ste?

Apparently

FFS!

Only French cars built after 2002 or thereabouts lol

[Gizmoish]

HeatonNorris said:

okie592 said:

Then in my local ford dealer, had some roid head approach me, he was a total knob but at least he was alright when he atchally managed to quote me for the car, despite most likely making a build date up, 5 months for a fiesta, im not so sure, considering the plant is 100m down the road.

So, do you live in Valencia or Cologne?

I was wondering why it makes the slightest difference where the plant is.

If there's a waiting list they don't fill the orders according to how long the delivery will take...