Another dealer rant.

[looking97233]

Here's my little story.

Bought car, car got scratched on dealer lot. They fix, do horrible job. Bring back car.:argue: Ask about spot in door, fisheyes also. They fix scratch again, door, blow me off on fisheyes. They have car for 3 weeks. Finally get car back. Door all screwed up, wrong color, sanding scratches. Four months later clear coat peeling off. Go to new dealer, they say " you have to give them a chance to fix it" I say ok, go back to origional dealer, they fix scratch again, blow me off on fixing door. Pick car up, did woorse job this time than before, overspray all over car, masking tape still on it. Go back to new dealer, Monday the NW regional warranty rep is comming to look at car.

MY question: Why would a car dealer that just sold you a $35k car think they can get away with this total lack of quality? I just don't get it.

They origional dealer is Dick Hanna in Vancouver, Washington. Don't ever go there.

The new dealer is Ron Tonkin L&M in Portland, Oregon. Thier sales dept still tries to gang rape me when I stop there, but thier service dept has been very good to me.

[jgc61sr2002]

looking - Thats what happens when a car is in the dealers inventory for long periods of time. I think the most MM's that are 300A's have have been at the dealers , some for almost a year. My 300B was in the dealers lot for 2 days before I took it home. Had a 3/8 inch scratch on door. The dealer said they would paint it and I opted to leave it alone. John

[RF Overlord]

Unless you plan on leaving your car in a hermetically-sealed chamber like the Ferrari in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", it's going to get parking-lot dings, chips from 18-wheelers in front of you, and just general crap from being a daily driver...I'll wash it and wax it and try to keep it nice, but I refuse to have a cow over the paint...mine's already GOT a supermarket ding on the driver's door, a chip on the hood, and a mark on the rear bumper where I dropped something taking it out of the trunk...***** happens...and I don't love my car any less for it! :D

[nomad]

What he said!:D
I'll wash the windows for special occasions.Wax it twice a year.
BUT,I will not clean with a toothbrush,wax every week, or even park in the garage[the bike stays in].
Does that mean I don't care about it?
NO, I love it. But geez, it's got an engine in it.Drive it!
OK, SHOOT ME.:help:

[TAF]

Originally posted by RF Overlord
Unless you plan on leaving your car in a hermetically-sealed chamber like the Ferrari on "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", it's going to get parking-lot dings, chips from 18-wheelers in front of you, and just general crap from being a daily driver...I'll wash it and wax it and try to keep it nice, but I refuse to have a cow over the paint...mine's already GOT a supermarket ding on the driver's door, a chip on the hood, and a mark on the rear bumper where I dropped something taking it out of the trunk...***** happens...and I don't love the car any less for it! :D

Not that you're going over it with a fine tooth comb or anything :lol:

You can ACT like you don't cherish that "Blackbird" ALL you want RF...we know the truth...:D

[FordNut]

I agree. If you drive it, it's gonna get damage along the way, hopefully minor chips and door dings. And if you're not gonna drive it, what's the use in having it?

[WolfeBros]

I am looking for someone to do a good Zaino application on the Marauder this weekend. Any takers ??


Originally posted by RF Overlord
I'll wash it and wax it and try to keep it nice

Good ol RF......whatta guy !!!!!!


:lol: :lol:

[Patrick]

Looking, I am sorry about your crappy dealership. I am glad mine is thier for me. I have not had a prob so far. My reason for replying, If I am spending my hard earned money for whatever, I WANT IT RIGHT!!!!!!!! I expect it to be!!!!!! I have a few nicks and some small stuff. But nothing to alarmed about. Its black and will show more than other colors and is a daily driver, so I expect a few Nicks and stuff. Weather permitting I wash and polish every week!!!!! Wax once a month! Just a perfectionist. But you have every right to raise HELL!!!!! If I spend $50 at a resturant and the food is not what I wanted, Yes I say sumtin!!! I will be civil of course. Its my money and expect to what I want and want it right!!!!

[looking97233]

Well, I am a little disheartened at the responce to this. What I read is, people saying it will get scratched. Yes it will get scratched, dented, and such. However, when I take my car, or anything else for service, I expect to have a professional job, and qualitly work performed. I tell about having the dealer not even mask the car off and having over spray all over, and about having them use the wrong color. And you guys tell me it will get dammaged. The issue I thought I was writing about was the additional dammage the dealer did to the car when they were supposed to be fixing it. Anyway thanks for letting me know that I must expect too much to want it done right.:confused:

[SHAGGY]

Lookin....you are totally right-i have worked for L/M in a dealership for a long time, and there is no excuse for crummy work! My advice would be to show the factory rep, then the dealerships GM, then the dealer principle/owner if you cant get the correct results. There are some things that we can help or avoid, but to leave tape on a car and do that bad of work is not acceptable-make them get it right for you. IT WILL get a ding/scratch/scrape eventually, but its not near as bad when youre involved as it is when youre baby is out of the womb and not under her car cover! Good Luck!

[RCSignals]

Looking, you are absolutely correct. You shouldn't have to accept shoddy work.

Another thing you can do in addition to what Shaggy says, is write to Mercury of your experience with the dealer. They don't like to hear bad news about dealership work.

[jrzygrl]

Looking, don't ever accept garbage work, I am taking mine to a new dealership (not the original selling one) because of poor service. The dealership let someone take my car home, removed "dirt" from the hood and left primer spots and gave it back to me bone dry of gas (they had 1/2 a tank)and never called me to let me know it was done or what was wrong. I called them and the "second in command" in the service dept. acted like I was a total b--ch because I complained about the service and had questions about what was done. Needless to say we won't buy another car from them and let the salesman know it.
You are 100% within your rights to be dissatisfied.

[cyclone03]

jrzygrl,
Can you prove they drove your car home?
That should get you a stack of free stuff.

[RCSignals]

Yes there is something odd about them taking your car home and using a half tank of gas. How many miles did they put on it? about 150?
They were paying this Tech overtime to diagnose your car?

[jrzygrl]

Originally posted by cyclone03
jrzygrl,
Can you prove they drove your car home?
That should get you a stack of free stuff. Sorry guys, hiding in the basement for a while dodging storms, blew our dog kennel across the yard... Anyway, they flat out admitted it several times, they needed to try to duplicate what the car did so let one of the service guys take it home..it had about 200 miles on it more when I got it back.

[RCSignals]

That just doesn't seem reasonable. Let alone not refilling the tank

[jrzygrl]

The "second in command guy said they do it all the time. I think it's as load of cr-p. I told the guy I garage keep it etc. and where did it sit all night? He said "You wouldn'yt have had a problem if the Department manager or I took it home would ya?" I said yeah I would, at least call me first.

[RCSignals]

I really think you should write to Mercury about this.
They sound like real arrogant morons

[jrzygrl]

Yes is there a link to them somewhere on here?

[RCSignals]

Probably, but there should also be adresses in your Owners Manual

[jrzygrl]

Yeah, didn't think of that, I'm just tired, long day.......thanks

[chrtra1]

I've driven customers cars home before, but it was only AFTER we got their permission to do so. Sometimes intermittant drivability concerns can be a nightmare to diagnose, and the only way to duplicate the concern is to drive it. I live about 35 miles away from work, so I get nominated to drive them home. I always treat the customers car better than my own, we fill the tank with gas, and more often than not wash the car before returning it.

We NEVER ever take one home without the owners permission first though.

[RCSignals]

see that makes sense chrtra1. None of that seems to have happened for jrzygrl though, and because of it she would seem to have a valid complaint.
I've also heard of diagnostic recorders being attached to the car and the customer told to drive with it for a while.

[chrtra1]

Yeah, we have the vehicle data recorder for the WDS, but it's not a perfect system. You have to set it up for the vehicle your diagnosing. You select the PID values that you want to monitor, and then you depend on the customer to hit a button when the problem occurs again. You don't always get accurate readings from the recording. Customers like to play with the thing, or the button gets pushed accidentally during the course of normall driving. Sometimes you might not have the right PIDS selected to diag the problem. It definately helps when your getting your a$$ kicked, but it's not a perfect system.

It's really a last ditch effort (for us anyways), because we really hate to let the vehicle go without fixing it. Customers are usually much happier if their car is fixed on the first visit, and not have to return a couple of times.

[MAD-3R]

Looking,
Seems this thread was hi-jacked in a small manor. Anyway, you shouldn't accept the crappy work they did on the paint. take it back, and keep taking it back till it is right. If they give you any guff, get stuborn. And make a stink.

As to the others, I think they missed the point. Any dings, chips, or scratches should be your. Not some Lot Monkeys. Those are battle scars.

[looking97233]

Well, to top it off, the other night I went to the grocery store. Parked 100ft. away from any other car. Leave car for about 20 min. Come back, right quarter pannel(the left one is the one the dealer messed up) is totally caved in and has white paint all over it. This morning it goes to the body shop. The left quarter will be completely stripped, the right quarter pulled and painted. The front pass door(dealer screwed this up too) the drivers door, roof and hood get painted from the eggs. Mabye I cxan talk them into just painting the whole thing as by the time they blend in, they just about will be doing it anyway. Seems like it would be easier anf faster for them, and a better end result for me. What a shame, only 8000 mi. on her. Also my State Farm agent looks at me kinda funny now.

[MAD-3R]

Damn... Go for the repaint.

[Paul T. Casey]

Not all dealers are Dorks, or maybe word is getting out about how we feel about most of them. Last evening, returnung to Huntsville, AL from St. Joseph MI, I had to stop at a gas station for the wife to empty her miniscule bladder. Anyway, as I pull in this dude is eyeballing the MM. He finishes his fueling, and drives over to see how I like the MM, service, quality etc. I find out he's the SM up at Madison L-M in TN, just outside of Nashville. Says he checks on all, even helped a guy get warrantee work who had a chip. There's some good ones out there!!

[RF Overlord]

Originally posted by Paul T. Casey
I find out he's the SM up at Madison L-M in TN, just outside of Nashville. Says he checks on all, even helped a guy get warrantee work who had a chip. There's some good ones out there!!

Paul T.:

Are you sure you weren't just having a crack-induced hallucination? :lol:

Warranty work WITH a chip?! ...when pigs fly...

Seriously, it's nice to know there's ONE good dealer out there...hey TAF, that near your new crib?... BONUS!