Mercedes UK ‘Sanitise’ charge
Discussion
My experience from dealers is they like to do as much as possible without actually doing anything car related. My local dealer are total thugs, sit there listening to them explaining the breakdown of work to an old lady, horrific
Sadly I guess their overheads are high and they need to make as much as they can, I’d ask to have it taken for the bill
Sadly I guess their overheads are high and they need to make as much as they can, I’d ask to have it taken for the bill
Car dealers will always find a way to charge you extra whenever they can, they assume that most cars are owned by companies and the driver will not care.
I have no qualms when they screw up in telling them to sort it out.
Mrs Summers works for an engineering company who make the ventilators for the NHS, she has key worker status. The manager at Huddersfield VW, now Vertu, told her when she took her car in for a service that her work wasn't important enough for them to service the car during lockdown. They had a stand up argument in the middle of the showroom.
I have no qualms when they screw up in telling them to sort it out.
Mrs Summers works for an engineering company who make the ventilators for the NHS, she has key worker status. The manager at Huddersfield VW, now Vertu, told her when she took her car in for a service that her work wasn't important enough for them to service the car during lockdown. They had a stand up argument in the middle of the showroom.
vikingaero said:
Much like some dentists charge £30+ on top for PPE - that's per appointment.
Damn, I guess I was lucky when I was charged only £7 then! Still, £7 on top of the £100 fee for the 10 minutes the dentist spent confirming I needed £700 of work (plus another £7 of course), that struck me as a little petty!Alex@POD said:
Damn, I guess I was lucky when I was charged only £7 then! Still, £7 on top of the £100 fee for the 10 minutes the dentist spent confirming I needed £700 of work (plus another £7 of course), that struck me as a little petty!
Last time I was in the dentists it was precisely 3 minutes from the waiting room to paying the bill. Did nothing more than look around and said see you in six months.
Spare tyre said:
My experience from dealers is they like to do as much as possible without actually doing anything car related. My local dealer are total thugs, sit there listening to them explaining the breakdown of work to an old lady, horrific
Sadly I guess their overheads are high and they need to make as much as they can, I’d ask to have it taken for the bill
Thugs you say. Sadly I guess their overheads are high and they need to make as much as they can, I’d ask to have it taken for the bill
We took in a Renault 9 (yes 9!) as a trade in on an auto Fiesta for an elderly lady around 18 months ago.
She always had it serviced at the main Renault dealer in Norwich and 2 months before the mot had a full service done on it Inc two new tyres plus a wheel bearing and charged circa £450. Along comes the mot and they fail it on welding and quote £700!
We sold it on to a local guy who wanted to restore it at what it was traded in at..
I guess they have to make hay while the sun shines, as it's hard to imagine many of these dealer service departments surviving more than a couple of years beyond the EV switch in 2030. No more fleecing people £300 for an oil change, or £1,000 for a set of pads and discs. Once the last few new IC cars have gone through their warranty or PCP periods, this easy money will dry up.
£7 probably amounts to about 3 minutes worth of labour or less at dealer rates.
It's a real cost, they will be taking more time to do a service than they used to, they could absorb it or pass it on to the customer.
It does seem a bit weird to itemise it though, probably takes more than that amount of time to get a vehicle up onto a ramp for a service, but that is never itemised. On the plus side it does give the impression that post pandemic they will stop charging the £7, but i suspect in reality it will coincide with a well above inflation increase, and everyone will keep paying.
It's a real cost, they will be taking more time to do a service than they used to, they could absorb it or pass it on to the customer.
It does seem a bit weird to itemise it though, probably takes more than that amount of time to get a vehicle up onto a ramp for a service, but that is never itemised. On the plus side it does give the impression that post pandemic they will stop charging the £7, but i suspect in reality it will coincide with a well above inflation increase, and everyone will keep paying.
BMW tried to charge me £25 for this sanitising charge - for after they had completed the work. This was seemingly a charge to clean the car to protect me, the customer.
The car was in the garage to repair damage that they had caused during a previous service and to sort an ongoing warranty issue. Needles to say I refused to pay it!
The car was in the garage to repair damage that they had caused during a previous service and to sort an ongoing warranty issue. Needles to say I refused to pay it!
Cogito Ergo Sum said:
Sheepshanks said:
Most company cars are leased and no way will leasing companies be paying such charges.
Amazingly, they actually are - a few will sporadically question a sanitisation charge but many accept it for the tangible cost it is and will pay up.Cogito Ergo Sum said:
No - certainly not. We are upfront about the additional costs involved and most are very understanding. Our costs have skyrocketed with additional PPE, sanitiser and the air con bombs we use in every car, and most appreciate the small additional cost to keep the customer safe.
Far more don't care and either;Would rather you not bother.
Or
Fail to see how 2 wet wipes and 30 seconds of wiping the touch points comes to £7.
BT Summers said:
Car dealers will always find a way to charge you extra whenever they can, they assume that most cars are owned by companies and the driver will not care.
Thing is though this is mercedes. You should expect something like this to be abosrbed in part of their cost. Its something that you wouldn't expect to be mentioned on a premium car... imagine if something like this was mentioned 20-30years ago? ridiculous. then again, mercedes (along with many others) have lost their prestige to try and sell as many units/leases as possible.
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