O.T. Dealer Commitment

One year ago I bought my wife her "dream car" - a MB CLK 320 Cab. We have had the car in the dealer shop twice (4 times if you count the multiple trips of the 2nd service) for minor warrant & maintenance work. The car has only 7,500 miles on the clock. Since it is a 35 - 40 minute drive to dealership, one-way, making multiple, unnecessary trips there and back chews up a lot of time. To make a long story short, (I won't go into any of the painful details) they totally screwed up on all visits. I got really pissed off and wrote the service manager a three page letter outlining all the problems and issues we had with the service, or lack thereof, including the fact that the cashier embarrassed my wife in front of other customers. Then I went off on the MB build quality (hey, it's really not bad but, what the hell, I was on a roll). I also sent him a copy of the follow-up Service Survey I had filled out and was sending back to MB hearquarters in NJ. Then I gave them 3 options on how they could rectify the situation. Option 1 - Buy the car back from me at current, full retail price (I knew they wouldn't opt for this one, but it makes the next two options seem much more reasonable). Option 2 - Give me the name of an Authorized MB maintenance/repair shop that is closer to my house or in the town where I work (my office is the opposite direction from the dealership). Option 3 - Any time we need service the dealer sends someone to the house with a courtesy car, picks up the CLK, leaves the courtesy car for my wife, and when the work is completed, they deliver the CLK back to the house and pick up the courtesy car. My wife told me I was crazy and that all of my options were unreasonable. Well, the service manager called my wife on Tuesday and apologized profusely. Then he told her he had assigned her to a different service manager and any time she needed service, they would come and pick up the car, leave her the loaner MB, do the work, and return the car to the house. He entered into the computer system that this level of service was to be given to my wife anytime she called for service. Just goes to show you that if you state your case, give the facts, and tell them how they can remedy the situation, your odds of getting what you really want improve greatly. Now I have one less thing to worry about. I just wanted to share one of the, seemingly, all too rare victories!

Congratulations on a solid and well earned/deserved victory! It shouldn't be this hard. I have heard good things about the service dept. in Asheville (Skyland MB) and I know several people who will drive two hours from Charlotte to Asheville to get service for their MB. This just sounds crazy and impracticle. I'll make a mental note of your victory in case I ever run into a similar situation.

MB is great for service, They pick up my SL-500 and leave me a loaner, I dont think it was too much to ask, it is expected. I would have made them buy the car back...screw them too many good cars out there to settle with something that is too much work..

I think MB has improved its service. Probly bc free maint is over and they really have to earn customer satisfaction now or else owners will take to indept shops instead. I recall service at dealer used to be **** and rude. You wait for service rep for good 10 min and have to look for them. I know MB are quite buggy these days. 2001+ models become error prone starting with COMMAND issues etc. I'm hesitant to advice purchase of another MB as a result of quality. I think Chrysler got a leg up on the merger while MB took a step back. MB should have stayed independent.

Interesting, we were discussing MB in one of my b-school classes yesterday. Per the professor, the real problem at MB started with incentives. They started incenting their CXO level folks on EVA. The right way to treat EVA is to shore up the profits and reduce invested capital smartly and watch the results 2 -3 years hence. What MB mgmt did was try to hit a certain "target" EVA for incentive reasons whereby they reduced absolutely stopped the investment in their cars beyond the minimum while banking on the brand and previous reputation of MB to carry them through. Result? Lower quality cars because mgmt wouldn't fund investment in quality. Customers started noticing the quality (or lack thereof) and balked at paying full sticker for MB which now hurts the profits. So, MB puts an ever tighter squeeze on invested capital, cars start being produced with ever lower standards, and the vicious cycle continues. I think the prof mentioned that this all started around '97 to '98 and continued till couple of years ago. He blamed the whole quality problem on MB on the fact that the management was incented on the number of EVA rather than the concept of EVA. Sorry for the long, boring discussion but it was interesting in the class at least