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  #1  
Old 04-04-2006, 10:35 AM
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Location: hamilton new jersey
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Mercedes Benz of Princeton

This site is always the first place I turn before attemping any new repair on my cars. I take great pride in my '92 300-CE and '95 S-500 Coupe. Jim F. you are the man when it comes to my coupe. That being said I feel I must share an experience I just had and hopefully spare someone on this site the same fate. The sage begins with a hugh pothole in Northern New Jersey. I meet this mother of a pothole with my 500 coupe on a exit ramp. Hit this thing so hard I blew out a couple of dash board lights. I was very surprised my front tire did'nt blow. Even knocked a piece of my grill out. Anyway needless to say the car handled it better then I did. Besides the grill other noted damage was a slight shaking from the frontend and a creeking from the rear. I have read somewhere that the only place to have the frontend aligned properly on this car is at the dealership. So I made a service appointment at Mercedes Benz of Princeton in New Jersey. Told the service writter about the mishap. After the car was in the shop for three days got a call and was told that I had extensive damage to the suspension. Here is the exact wording from the estimate: "rear control arms,Torsion rods,mount,rear shocks,bolt kit,links to start. Both front control arms. Bent rims alignment to start. Cluster panel bulbs. Power steering leak. Possible may need addionals for suspension noises" Total cost $6,630.38 Please keep in mind that I drove this car to the dealership. I was stunned. I called the insurance company and was told I was covered and that an adjuster would be out to assess the damage. After looking over the estimate, I went to see the service manager becouse I did'nt like some of the wording. Keep in mind that I hit the hole on the right side and by claiming damage to both sides I felt the insurance company might say that some of the damage was there before I hit the pothole. The car only has 60,000 miles on the clock. Also the car has level ride suspension in the rear and I thought the chances of both shock blowing out was slim. Nitrogen balls maybe but shocks at $1,000 per side No way. When I pointed this out to the service manager he said "The rear shocks have to be replaced together" I knew this was 100% wrong (thanks to this site). He then made another statement the totally blew me away. He said I would have to pay for the repair in full and then deal with the insurance company myself. I never heard of such a thing and told him so. If I dented a fender I would bring the car to a body shop, the shop would deal with the insurance company and I would have a repaired car returned to me less the deductable. The dealership told me they don't deal with insurance companies PERIOD. I demanded my car back. Total cost for them to look at the car and change my dash lites $254.22 After calling a friend in the auto business he suggested I take the car to a local suspension shop. He had dealt with them and he claimed they are very good with highend autos. I took the car to American Tire & Auto in nearby Hamilton Twp. I showed them the estimate from the dealership (could have been a mistake) Matt from American could'nt belive a car with this much damage was driveable. I left the car with them and got a call the next day. Here is what I was told. When I hit the pothole I bend the inner lip of my front rim. But since the wheel finish was in such nice shape it could be repaired. Blew out a front shock and the fronts needed to be replaced in pairs ( I agree much different from the rears) and I needed a front end alignment. Thats all folks Total cost of repair $669.00. I asked about the rear creeking and was told all he saw was a loose bolt on a tension arm, No charge to tighten. The repairs were made and car drive like it did when new. Only other repair I added was a new steering damper, Looked like it was oozing a little. I asked matt about all the other damage the dealership found and his only answer was that they must have been looking at some other car not this one! Every link, ball joint and bushing was examined. Every thing was within factory specs. And he put that in writting. My Question is how could a Benz dealership be so dishonest. I always though they where a cut about the rest. I could belive this clear cut attempt at a rip out from some local grease monkey but a Mercedes Benz Dealer! I am stunned. I wrote letters complete with etimates and repair bills backing up my claims to the owner of the dealership, Benz of North America, Better Business Bureau and N.J. Attorney General Office. Got no response from Dealership, a fuff letter from some P.R. person from Benz of America and a letter from BBB stating them would requst a reponse from the dealership. Big deal. But yesterday I did receive a letter from The Attorney General's Office stating them are opening a case file and would be in touch so maybe I will get some satisfaction. So Please all my friends on this site beware of Mercedes Benz of Princeton and look out for those car eating pothole in North Jersey. Thanks for letting me vent. Ed Vozza (voz1@aol.com)

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  #2  
Old 04-04-2006, 11:09 AM
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Kudos to you for following up on their unethical practices. Hopefully others will come forward as well and slap those SOBs around a little.
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  #3  
Old 04-04-2006, 11:49 AM
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Talking Rip Off Mechanics

Der Ed: Bravo to you for letting people what happened, can you imagine all the people out there that believe this dealership and just "open their wallets?" I had the same experience yesterday in my search for a reputable mechanic, as a test I left my 1990 Mercedes 420 SEL with a mercedes garage down the street and lo and behold I had close to $4000.00 worth of work that "had to be done" right away, not only that but their shop estimate to go over the car increased 40.00. I got the name of a reputable place from this website yesterday and thats where I will go if I need service. Have a good day- Siduri
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  #4  
Old 04-04-2006, 12:13 PM
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I suggest you contact MBCA too and ask them to forward the info on to our ombudsman at MBUSA.

Len
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  #5  
Old 04-04-2006, 12:37 PM
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I think that before you select one of these cars, you identify a good shop first! And take care of them - let them make a few bucks on EASY stuff once in a while. Appearances and equipment are deceiving - I have my tires done at a place that looks like a dump with a bunch of mechanics that look like ex-cons. I know that they are good and careful from experience and from word-of-mouth around here. I trusted them with my rechromed rims, and I got them balanced and removed/mounted for $13 each, with a new valve stem. Not a mark on them, and they used adhesive/inside weights. The balance is perfect. Their tires are a little higher than some but you gotta make some money somehow. OTOH, a chain nearby did my wife's tire (the "dumpy" place didnt stock them and we really needed the car), and they have a super-duper balancer. They didn't put a cap on the valve stem, and I had to take the tire back for rebalancing (having a fancy computerized balancer doesn't do any good if you don't know how to use it, or just simply don't use it).
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  #6  
Old 04-04-2006, 12:40 PM
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Good for you!!!

I'd be demanding a refund from MB of Princeton. Even if I didn't need the money, I'd do it on general principle!
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  #7  
Old 04-04-2006, 12:46 PM
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When they're all doing it, where do you go then?
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  #8  
Old 04-04-2006, 12:52 PM
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Location: hamilton new jersey
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Len thanks for your input. You sound like you work for a dealership. Who exactly is MBCA and how would I go about contacting them. I'm still very upset about this whole mess. By the way I did spring for lunch for the entire crew at American Tire as well as a nice letter for there pride wall. Looks can be deceiving and an honest man, be it auto repair or any other business is worth there weight in gold.
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  #9  
Old 04-07-2006, 09:25 AM
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MBCA is the Mercedes-Benz Club of America. MBCA and MBUSA have set up one person at MBUSA for MBCA club members to contact directly via the club's national office after contacts with the dealership and/or the zone rep have gotten him/her nowhere.

Feel free to contact me at len@sokoloff.com if need be.

Len
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  #10  
Old 04-07-2006, 10:13 AM
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Dealers make more money off the service department than they do off of selling cars. They have to pay for that nice showroom + a healthy profit margin somehow.
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  #11  
Old 04-07-2006, 02:53 PM
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Will be interesting

It will be interesting to see what the Attorney General does. I remember when I lived in NJ back in the mid 80s they ran a sting operation on the local garages in and around Somerville, New Brunswick etc where they took a vehicle in with a complaint of front end noise. In reality there was nothing wrong but nailed a lot of them for trying to replace ball joint, shocks, struts and on and on.
I'm sure you will hear from them.
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  #12  
Old 04-07-2006, 05:11 PM
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My experience with MB of Princeton

I purchased a car from Mercedes Benz of Princeton and although I have had some good experience with them, the bad overshadows the good. My visits to this dealer were during the warranty period. Here is just a sample:

When taking delivery of my car I noticed a deep scratch in the door sill trim. The service manager was standing by and I requested it be replaced. He agreed without hesitation and walked away. A few minutes later my salesman approaches me very upset exclaiming “Just want to let you know this is coming out of my pocket!”

I witnessed a mechanic damage the rear fender of a customer car while backing it out of a service bay. A service writer proudly stated “We know a good body shop that can fix it fast, the customer will never know!”

While sitting alone in the waiting room I overheard the service manager refer to a customer as a “jerk”.

A defective radio was replaced in my car, when I picked up the car I noticed a scratch in the console. The service manager admitted the scratch was their fault but refused to do anything about it stating “Its not that bad, nobody will ever notice it”. That ended my relationship with them.

Thank God there are some excellent indies in this area.

Last edited by 865sp300e; 04-07-2006 at 05:17 PM.
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  #13  
Old 04-07-2006, 05:50 PM
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Unfortunately this sort of thing has become the rule vs. the exception in many cases and not just with MB.

I became a DIYER many years ago because of this.

It's not limited to dealerships. There are just as many bad independent operations.

A 30 yr. tech vet(dealer tech and indy shop owner) by the name of Stu Ritter of the now defunct Ritter-Easley list discussed the reasons for all of this one night on that list. I couldn't agree more with what he said. I won't go into it again in this thread because it been discussed here before. Too many short-sighted types failed to see the simple logic in what had he had to say.

It' s only going to get worse as time goes on.
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  #14  
Old 04-07-2006, 06:44 PM
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As products acquire more and more of a disposable nature, we will see this attitude prevail. A little scratch? What does it matter if you're just gonna buy a new one pretty soon anyway? BUT, if you really want to hang on to this old one, man its gonna cost you a bundle!

Anyway they sound like an arrogant bunch.

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