This all started when I bought a slightly used 2004 C240 Wagon for my wife in a private-party sale. When I got it home I noticed the passenger window would not stay closed, if you used the "auto up" feature it would go all the way up and then back down a couple of inches like it was detecting an obstacle. I tried to resync the window using the method in the manual but it did not work and continued to back down when it hit the stop. The only way you could get it to stay all the way up was to hold your finger on the up button for a few seconds and then it would stay.

So when the car went in for its first service earlier this year I mentioned it to the service advisor. They kept the car overnight while they ordered a new regulator for it. When the tech opened the door panel he saw it had some broken glass from what I can only deduce was a break-in and he also noticed the window was not MB branded but regular Pilkington without the "star". The SA called me and stated that the problem with the window was not caused by the regulator but by the glass being "aftermarket" and the "wrong part" and said this is not a warranty repair but quoted $300 to make it right by replacing the window with a "star" part. I declined and decided to live with it.

Tonight I decided to try an experiment. I lowered that window and disconnected the negative battery cable. Then, after a minute or two I reconnected the cable and resync'd the window and - what do you know...it works perfectly now! All it needed was to have the stop point reset by wiping out the "memory" and then it could be set to the correct stop point by the resync method shown in the manual. Of course I had to resync the other three windows and reset the clock, but all in all a 5 minute job saved me $300.

Now I will ask you - do you think the dealership knew how to do this and just wanted to stick it to me or are they really such boobs that they didn't even know how their own window systems work???

Maybe both

To top it all off they still charged MBUSA to replace the regulator and 3.1 hours of labor under the warranty, even though this did not fix it!

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

Corruption at it's worst...

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2006 BMW M5 "Heidi" @ 109,000 miles
2005 MBZ C55 AMG "Lorelai" @ 165,000 miles
1991 MBZ 300E "Benzachino II" @ 165,000 miles
1990 MBZ 500SL "Shoshanna" @ 118,000 miles

(On the hunt for a good used M103 engine as of 6/10/23, PM me if you have one to sell!)

Imagine the outright fraud that occurs in these dealerships.

As a business student working on a thesis paper I worked at a toyota dealership (in the early nineties) for a few weeks.

What they pulled on young African American women was astounding.

I to this day cannot walk into a toyota dealership to buy a car.

Even though dealerships are an independent businesses, it troubles me to see this happening at a Mercedes shop. I hope you take the time to write a letter to the regional or head office.

nhdoc, I'd attribute it to a case of Dumb and Dumber. Being a professional tech doesn't mean that you're good at what you do, just that you get paid for it. Many techs have poor/no diagnostic ability. All they do is replace parts. The Service Department charged MBUSA for the work they did on your car even though it didn't fix the problem. Why the Service Advisor would think that the aftermarket glass was causing the problem is a good question. As far as MBUSA knows the regulator needed replacing and you're a satisfied customer. In fact, the Service Department did unnecessary work that was backcharged to MBUSA. Perhaps your dealer's Service Department is slow and makes money doing phantom work. The Service Advisor at our local dealer informed me months ago that their service business was very slow, and that most of their work was warranty-related. Things have picked up since then.

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Fred Hoelzle

I just feel sorry for people who rely on dealerships for their paid service. I only use them for warranty work and on the past few new cars I have bought they have done the maintenance because it was under the paid program MB offered for the first 4 years/50K miles. For my older cars I usually do the work myself or have a good indy or two I know help out. The dealer has good people in the parts department but the service department sucks, pure and simple. I won't name them but they are the only MB dealers in NH and own both dealerships in the state

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

The possibility that they are inept and corrupt should not be ruled out.

A buddy of mine owns a 600 S Class. He has bought cars from the same dealership for quite a long time. His A/C went out so he went by to have them take a quick look. They said it would cost $3500.00 to fix it. He took off with plans on bringing it in the next week. He told someone at work about it, they went down and changed a blown fuse and it worked fine. This gentleman then went to the service manager to tell him what had happened and asked what in fact would have taken place at the dealership. Being honest he said we would have changed all the parts that would have been in the $3500 estimate, found that didn't solve the problem and then find the problem with the fuse. He then asked and what would you charge me for all this being that the parts didn't need to be changed...the service manager said, $3500 plus the time spent to find the fuse problem and the cost of the fuse.

Scary world out there.

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1980 300TD-T (82 Turbo and Trans) 159,000 Miles "Jackie-O"
1983 300SD 272,000 Miles "Aristotle"
1987 Jeep Wagoneer Limited - keeps the MB's off the ice and out of the snow
1994 BMW 530it

i worked in a dealership service department also, and agree that many (not all) techs have poor diagnostic skills. I have seen someone disassemble the frt grille area of a vehicle to find out why the headlamps weren't working. i asked if they had checked the fuses. they said yes, the headlight fuse was good. i then asked if the checked ALL the fuses, they said no, just the headlamp fuse. i then took a multimeter and tested all the fuses. turns out another one was blown, can't remember what it was labeled as, but wasn't labeled lights. replaced fuse, headlamps worked. sometimes fuses impact circuits even though they aren't labeled as such. (ex--some MB cruise cont won't work if there is a brake light out).

now i'm in the body repair side of it and see the same thing, why wouldn't you check all the bulbs in a tail light assembly before you bolt it back in and put all the trim back on? why would you disassemble the door before you checked all the fuses? i try and teach all my techs, "The simplest answer is usually the correct answer". Always start with the smallest things first.

in your situation, maybe the service advisor didn't know his regulator from a relay and was just repeating what the tech told him. most advisors are hired for their sales ability and people skills rather than technical vehicle knowledge. i know dealerships are expensive, and there are some bad ones out there. there are some good ones too. and some very good techs also. but, dealerships are expensive because good techs are expensive and take years of experience and training to make. unfortunately, there aren't enough good techs to go around and most dealerships have a couple of really good techs and several parts changers. if a parts changer gets a hold of a complicated problem, this can lead to situations you describe.

i always ask questions, i would ask why the glass brand would make a difference. would the regulator know if it was raising a piece of plywood if it was the correct dimensions? if they couldn't give me a satisfactory answer, i would ask them to look at the problem a little further, or ask for the service manager. unfortunately, situations like yours are what make people distrustful of dealerships.

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"the simplest answer is usually the correct answer"

1991 190e, 2.6 (helga)
91,000 mi