decided to bite the bullet and pay merc for my B service.
Was going to go down to s2smarts but when i add fuel and time onto the price, it becomes uneconomical (300mile round trip taking 5 hours)
my local indie is only about £30 cheaper than merc and although i used to get my fortwo serviced there, for £30 i will keep my full dealer service history
i also opted out of the DIY route just for the service history thing really
anyway - cost @ merc is just over £300 for the B service (ouch). This is the fixed price policy that merc bristol run but about 1/3 of the cost is attributed to the spark plugs on the BRAB
am i a sucker - probably
do i have the money - no
do i care - not really! could be worse :)
i'm gonna have to go some and get through quite a large amount of coke and cake and the valet had better be v nice!!
JJ
free cola and cake... youll be bouncing by the time the bill comes round for your service and wont be looking at the final amount to be payed :P
on the other hand carnt go wrong with free cola and cake! ;D
I had a "free" CLC220CDi when I booked brabby for my B service ... but no cake / cola :'(
they offered me a car but i declined. i'll just sit and wait and watch and eat :P
JJ
I'd want champagne for the cost of the service!
Just had my Brab B service done by the great team at Smart/ Mercedes outfit Matertech Droylsden. A snip at £180 including MOT/ only thing missing was i do my own sparkplugs as i get them off a mate cheap and i run a K+N filter. Book all stamped up and healthy for another year. ;D ;D
Dave
It's the plugs that cost.... There is a link on here to the cheapest I have seen but they are still over £50 for the set of 4.
I also have a powertec induction kit but I will be asking them to put the air filter they would have used in the boot for me :)
What oil do they use at mastertech?
JJ
Andron's is in all next week having the roof and windscreen replaced.
cool - i'll keep an eye out for it ;)
JJ
I took my forfour to a Halfords Autocentre (rebranding on the Nationwide franchise) because the nearest two dealerships are verging on the 2hr (one way) travelling time and if I used forsmart I would need somewhere flat and level so for £165 I plumped Halfords for my A service.
Not a great start.......
Sat in merc waiting area and they are out of cake :(
Seriously though, I mentioned my aftermarket air filter not being needed to be changed and under their fixed price servicing can they just put the filter they would have fitted in the boot as I have paid for it anyway.....
Complete confusion ensued and after talking to the service manager, they stated that they were legally obliged to fit an air filter to stamp the book.......????
Rubbish I told them and had to go show them what I was talking about and that it wasn't possible to replace it.....
.....moment of realisation from 1 of the 2 people staring into my bonnet......
Hopefully they are now knocking the price of the filter off rather than giving it to me!
Very random :)
JJ
And why am I nervous sat here watching.... As they poke and prod and check everything in so much detail......
They must have measured tyre tread about 5 times and paid a lot of interest to my lovely soft alloys and their probable many many mini dents in the rim - bloody roads ;)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/problemchild1976/6537f3f9.jpg)
JJ
Interesting point to note.... They lube all the door mechanisms (inside and outside) plus boot and hinges...
JJ
2 x slow punctures (due to rim flat spot) and those cause a slight wobble on the wheels too.....
stupid BRAB wheels - where is that rubber mallet ;)
Oh - and the rear wiper I fitted last year is "smearing" so £15 to replace - no ta!!
JJ
.....and no replacement of spark plugs due to "not coverig enough miles since last change"!! So when I asked what the £180 between an A and a B service and he said "they check more", I returned with "@ £65 an hour, that's nearly 3hours of extra checking and you have only had the car on the ramps for 2hrs"
Ahem!! I refused to pay which scared him so getting a call back tomorrow for rebooking!!
JJ
Now you know why 'indies' rule....and are preferable....even if they don't do cakes.
Mind you...you and I both know of one who 'caters' for their customers better...it's
just a bit far away from you is the only problem.
well for some reason they knocked off £50 for not replacing the filter so if i get the plugs done tomorrow, it'll be the same Rob quoted me but without the 5hour round trip :(
if i was on my way to my parents in essex, i would use him....
JJ
Well what a palava !! (and I know this is turning into more of a blog buts it's all laughable)
Right..... Guy from merc rang and said they would do the plugs but the original price I was quoted for the service was wrong and should have been £340 and not £303.
As I paid £250 because they had knocked £30 of for plugs and £20 for filter, I would need to pay the plug bit again!
Ok (thinking you are talking a*s because that's not the plug prices) and they booked me in for Friday!
Rang back 5mins later saying plugs were more expensive and would be £90 extra.
Argued again that they though plugs were not part of the B service but an additional cost and as I didn't do 25k miles since last B in 2008 (plugs changed then)
I asked them to see what I paid in 2008 - £220 but now in 2011 the service with plugs should be the £340 + £90 for plugs!!
Argued the difference between £160 A service and (now) £430 for a B and again said "more checks"
Told them I wanted to speak to service manager and got a call back saying that the plugs would be included (but at the original price of £340) by stated that it was as a favour and not because they were supposed to be changed :(
Rob will be my service guy from now on......
JJ
Sorry to hear it went this way :-X
Oh dear >:(
Didn't see your BRAB there..... Must have been the one with the tarpaulin on out in the rain ;) kidding!
The service guy was just useless - he kept calling me with updates, even though I told him I was sat in the waiting area!! Muppet
JJ
Our forfour is still there, they're waiting for the bonding to cure before reassembling. Of course we didn't get a call to say it wasn't going to be ready, despite telling them we needed it on Thursday afternoon.
I just find them very disappointing.
I find the work good but the few people they have as service managers seem to be very poor at the moment!!
Never had issues before but the 2 guys I spoke to on Tuesday were completely off the ball :(
See how it goes today...
JJ
At 9am Andron rang and asked them if they could deliver the car once it's fixed, as we're off to Castle Combe in a bit to help the guys set up, and (despite us being less than 10mins away) they've got to check with the drivers, not sure, schedule might be too busy etc.
they've had a change of plan, and are delivering in the next couple of hours.
Wowsers. Don't go back. Ever. Ever. Don't ever go back to MB. They're really just bending you over the table and playing you around for more money wherever they can. Might as well let them pad you up and down and shake you upside down for loose change.
Surely legally the price they quote originally is the price you pay? They can't quote you for something then phone up popping extra money on. If they tell you a price, wrong or not, they should honour it. Their error is their error alone - you don't have to pay for that.
I don't like going to MB, there's always a bundle of trouble... The horror stories just keep getting more and more frequent!
We took SmartieB in for a MOT and checkup, took him home and when we went out next, the car made some horrific noises - a constant thumping and grating from the rear (as if someone had mounted a sub under the boot floor) Instantly turned it round, phoned them up and booked in again for them to look at it. Took it in and they wanted to charge us again for a checkup! Had a heated discussion with the manager who did everything he could to trick us around the bushes before we actually got out of him that we weren't paying for the check, we shouldn't have been told that we were. Why? because in the checkup we had with our MOT, they had written down in the diagnosis about the noise but hadn't told us or given us the checkup paperwork! So after all the bull, pissing us around and making us out to be annoying and stupid about why there was this thumping noise, it came down to them not telling us in the first place they had already diagnosed the problem but not done anything about it! He was even more annoyed when we told him to 'run off and enjoy his own company' when he tried to present us with a quotation on fixing the problem that they had previously diagnosed but not told us about.
Seemed a bit backwards - not telling you about something they can charge you a bleeding fortune to fix! Missed opportunity there Mr MB.
Usually, as with me in the past, they like to quote you for a full set of tyres, full set of brake discs and pads, full set of wipers, half a set of bulbs, new everything and then refuse to give you your keys back as 'the car isn't safe for the road'... Didn't even want me to check - which I did, and found they were lying. The bill they presented me with was insane! I only went in for a full valet (after winter deal) and they didn't even do that after keeping me for over 3 hours!
Still, going to go to them for a MOT if they still do them for £27... but I'm going to book it in very early and take it to another garage to get the bits fixed.
I absolutely hate MB for their service.
When I was in last, some guy went in for a door dent and ended up with a whole new side of panels and a new roof!
(He was a posh snobbish ass though so...)
I just hate their service... I really do.
Quote from: Problemchild on July 19, 2011, 02:55:53 PM
And why am I nervous sat here watching.... As they poke and prod and check everything in so much detail......
They must have measured tyre tread about 5 times and paid a lot of interest to my lovely soft alloys and their probable many many mini dents in the rim - bloody roads ;)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/problemchild1976/6537f3f9.jpg)
JJ
did you ever find out why all the techicians were around your car?
they were just really interested in it ;D
JJ
it could be the 'big brake' conversion you have done and the fact that you have rear wheels on the front
Our MOTs are booked in at Mercedes and Smart of Stevenage- will let you all know how we get on
...and all the carbon (look) parts, the white nose, the tints, strut braces etc etc etc ;)
just wait till i get an orange roof and black lights!!
JJ
What with all those odds n ends fitted and all colours they'll think it's an 'Ibitza' not a Brabus ! LOL...