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And I bet that everyone in your profession is perfect.
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Gladly my profession does not involve $ at all. At least I do not deal with $ when it comes to my "customers". My "customers" would be extremely happy if they just pay someone (not me) and then I work "for" them as little as possible. Just the opposite of the mechanic-car owner situation. I have direct proof of it. I was sick for two days in the hospital two weeks ago and my "customers" were happy. Happy not because I was sick, happy because I did not work "for" them. You probably can guess which profession I am in now because all of us have had this type of experience. How much I work has no relation whatsoever to my pay. It is purely out of my own integrity and conscience. I have no bonus no flat rate hustle, nothing.

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I would love to see your proof of this assinine allegation.

To Muskie and others; That is how the flat rate, also referred to as commission, system works.
If a tech completes a quoted 2hr job in 1hr he or she gets paid 2 hrs and you are billed for 2 hrs. Customers usually are not informed on how much time it actually took to do the repair for obvious reasons. This system is supposed to give the mechanic incentive to hustle.
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You just provided proof of my "assinine" allegation.

If a DIYer can perform a water pump R&R in 2 hours on a M103 in W201 (after only one previous try), you tell me when a dealer bills 7.3 hours (flat rate) is to give the mechanic incentive to hustle? This is to rip customer off, sir. LOL. Would you go to a surgeon working in a hospital that give surgeons incentive to hustle?

If all dealers do that (they do do that because of flat rate), then is my allegation, assinine or not, true?

I do not know if you work in a dealership or in an independent shop. How long does it take you to do a water pumo R&R in a M103 in W201? How many hours does your dealership or shop or you (if you are the owner) charge?

You probably have heard that a Mercedes is more expensive to maintain and repair. Many of us know that Mercedes parts do not necessary cost more than Honda, Toyota, VW parts, etc. So why cost more to maintain? It is in the labors. Mercedes flat rate is higher than most other cars but the technicians can do the job in the same time just like on other cars.

A variation of this rip off is to give incorrect or wrong diagnosis (either intentionally or incompetently) leading to unnecessary and expensive "repairs". Intentional mis-diagnose is obviously a rip-off. Incompetent mis-diagnose is rip-off as well because incompetent technician should not be asking the $80 - $120 per hour dealer labor rate.

There was just a thread last night by Ricali. His 95 E300D won't start. The Mercedes "experts" wanted to "fix" his ASD, starter, and gauges. He did not let them rip him off by jumping the starter solenoid and driving the car home. He then discovered it was caused by a blown $0.25 fuse.

Examples like this are in every dealerships and occur everyday. The saddest thing of all this is that the customers who were ripped off usually did not know they were ripped off. Here is a typical one:

Customer: "Just fix it."
Dealer: "Sure, we will."

Two hours later.

Customer: "How much was the damage?"
Dealer: "Oh. Let's see. It comes out to $2,350,97."
Customer: "What was wrong?"
Dealer: "There was something wrong with the brake disc and a few other things."
Customer: "Thank you for the fast and excellent service. I feel safe again in my proud Mercedes."
Dealer: "See you in the near future." (I really love to see you again!)

I saw this type of things happening in my 87 300TD by studying the service records. "Poor" lady, not in terms of $, but in terms of rip-off (the previous owner).