Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeus
My dealings with MB dealerships have been limited, but by far my most upfront memory or experience is one of the dealerships' seemingly omnipresent 'aloof' attitude.
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My experience has been very similar, for the most part. There was one time, however, that stand out in my mind as an example of both good and bad customer service. I had my oil changed at an MB Express. I don't know if you have the same concept in the US, but it is an MB service facility dedicated to services that can be performed in a maximum of two hours. You can actually drive up without an appointment if you want to take your chances. Anyways, after the oil change I drove home and noticed that the idle was pulsing quite strongly. I called the dealer and spoke to my service advisor, who is ordinarily very service-oriented. He told me that I could bring the car back to be looked at, but he was certain that nothing involved in an oil change could cause the idle problem. He made me feel a little stupid for even suggesting it. This was the bad part of the experience.
I brought the car back, the technician looked at it and saw the vaccum line he knocked loose when removing the oil filter (on the M104), reconnected it, and voila, problem solved. Of course, I was a little testy with the service advisor because of the attitude he had taken with me. Here comes the good part: to his credit, not only did he apologize for how he handled the situation, but he also had his manager call me afterwards because he felt that I left the facility dissatisfied with the service I received. I didn't ask to speak to the manager, he did this on his own initiative. I definitely gave him points for proactively bringing his manager's attention to what happened, as well as for being professional enough to apologize for his mistake.
So the lesson I hope he learned from that was to not pre-judge a situation and to err on the side of caution when dealing with a customer. I don't get service any more at a dealer, I found a trusted indy MB specialist who I rely on now. I never wanted the dealer to kiss my ass or fawn over me. I just wanted to be treated with a degree of respect as a customer who was spending a great deal of money in the establishment.