Mercedes-Benz of Tucson - Service Center

Most frustrating customer service. Oh man. Where to Most frustrating customer service. Oh man. Where to begin? We travel/live in our Sprinter campervan during the winter. Finding a mechanic who Most frustrating customer service. Oh man. Where to begin? We travel/live in our Sprinter campervan during the winter. Finding a mechanic who has the skill and shop space to work on our '05 diesel has been difficult. Our glow plug issue has stumped multiple shops over the last year. We knew we needed to find a proper Mercedes mechanic. 11/22: There was an air leak somewhere in the respiratory system, so we had no turbo! We found the nearest MB dealership, pumped they had a appointment the next day! 11/23: We limped 30 min across the city to the dealership. We knew we were out of place in our homemade RV with scratches and dents on all sides and a padlock on the back door! 🤣. Come to find out, we very much were in the wrong place when the lady at the desk said, "Oooh, this always happens. The sprinter vans actually get fixed at a different location." I assumed it was my fault and was embarrassed. We limped back through the whole city another 25 minutes to the place where they are actually serviced. We were greeted by Jeff, our service advisor. He was very friendly and assured us we were in good hands. Gave us his "personal cell phone #"! We were told it was just a clamp that needed to be tightened on the hose. He would waive the $175 diagnostic fee (because it was so quick to find and he wanted to "help us out".) They also discovered a small coolant leak and diagnosed our glow plug issue. We paid $200 and our van wasn't limping anymore. We were happy. We left there thinking that we had finally found a solid shop that could handle our business. We asked Jeff if there was a better time for us to get in there to fix our other issues. He talked over us "its only a days work, come by whenever, we will take care of you! ". So we headed back out to our BLM spot for the weekend and booked an appointment for Tuesday AM. We secured lodging for three nights just to be safe (we are traveling with our cat). 12/1: Dropped off our van. Jeff reassured us it was a one day job and said to my boyfriend, "I've got your back, brotha!" Because of the customer service we had, we believed him when he said he would call us back later with an update. He did not. 12/2: No update. So glad we booked that extra night of lodging! 12/3: No update. We called, he answered. Said he had to check to make sure they had the parts and that he would call right back. He did not. We were supposed to checkout of our lodging the next morning so we had to book another night. That evening we received an official quote. He told us it would cost $860 for a new water pump and $2200 for the glow plug harness. All labor was included and he "gave us wholesale/Amazon prices" cause..."had our backs". 12/4: We called the shop first thing Friday am because we hadn't heard from him. Anthony answered the phone and told us Jeff was in a meeting and he'd call us back. We still didn't know if they even had the parts. Again, we were due to checkout the next morning so we had to book another night. Not only did we not have our vehicle, we didn't have our home. We were quite upset at this time, but understand because of the times, parts and good help can be hard to get. This is when we made the decision to go get our van and try again the next week. We had to book five nights of lodging and zero work had been done. We asked Anthony to make sure our van was on the ground because we were coming to get it. We told him not to bother having Jeff call us back because we knew he wouldn't! We walked to the shop. Jeff was all smiles saying, "oh I understand, buddy!" Please understand, we were not upset that the van wasn't fixed. We were upset that he dodged our phone calls and the overall lack of transparency. I had to ask him to put his mask on and asked for our keys. We asked him (again) if there was better day next week for us to make an appointment. We got the same answer, "nah brotha, it's just a days work. You can wait here with your cat!" We went back to our BLM site and booked again for Tuesday AM. Again we booked lodging for two nights because we didn't trust that it could be done in a day. We didn't want to get stuck in the same position as last time! We tried to save money by booking a cheap motel this time. 12/7: We brought our van back Monday afternoon so they could have it to start first thing Tuesday AM. Jeff once again reassured us that it was a one day job and that he "had our backs". He confirmed again that he had all the parts. 12/8: We called at noon for an update. Jeff said the water pump was almost done and they were going to be working on the glow plug harness soon. We asked him to call at the end of the day with an update. "Of coourse I'll call you." (At this point we knew better. 🙄) 12/9: Check-out was at 11 AM. We were not comfortable booking another night (for fear of our lives at this place!) We walked to the shop at 9 AM. "Hey Jeff, what's the update? You never called... again!" This is when he tried to throw Anthony under the bus and blamed him, saying he was in a meeting at the end of the day This is when Jeff finally tells us that the diagnosis had completely changed and we needed a new motor, the water pump still wasn't done, and the spare key he was supposed to get for us was going to be there in an hour. We wouldn't be able to get our rig back until 12 or 1 PM. We were forced to accept a ride from them in a two door pickup truck to go to the motel and check out. We needed our cat carrier, which was in the van. My boyfriend, previously referred to as "brotha", was led into the shop to find our rig on the ground, not being worked on, by three maskless mechanics. We crammed all of our stuff from the motel into the truck, crated our cat, and went back to the shop. We were extremely discouraged but kept our cool. Multiple people were coming in and calling with issues. These customers concerns were the same as ours. They lived in their van and didn't want to be homeless. I had to bite my tongue. Jeff's rhetoric was repeated over and over to multiple people. "Bring it right over, we will take care of you!" It was sickening to us because we knew the truth. We were forced to listen to him schmooze other customers offering discounted prices/labor, giving out his personal cell phone (that we had to listen to ring all day, loudly, and unanswered). Finally, at 1PM, we got our rig back. My boyfriend started loading all of our belongings and cat back into our broken house. It was finally time to go and Jeff said, "sorry, because of covid, the key is not here. It will be in tomorrow. You can come back and we will give it to you for free because of the delay of it's arrival." He also told us that he would reduce the labor rates greatly. Then he said, "ok that will be $1200something dollars" (he quoted it at $860, with discounts and labor, just the other day). NOPE! When I called him on this, he used a condescending tone, and told me the quote was just for the part itself. NOPE! He scurried around and discovered the "problem in the computer ". He came back to the desk as my boyfriend was coming back in and tried to yet again, play the hero. He said I was right (with no apology) and said that HE wanted to make sure that we were not over paying. Summary: the shop is beautiful. It's a nice clean space that should be able to handle the business that comes through the door. The mechanics all seem highly qualified. Anthony, at the desk, was AMAZING! But, their dodgy schmooze of a supervisor put more into wanting to be liked and everyone's "pal" to allow the shop run efficiently. His communication skills are deplorable and cost us 7 unnecessary nights on lodging for a "4 hour job" that we wouldn't even have had done if we knew our engine was shot. Hey Mercedes, let us know when Jeff's day off is and we'll be back for that free key! More