Olya Khaleelee sent a message to Dieter Zetsche that said:
I am writing to you because I am terribly disappointed in the service provided by Mercedes Benz Colindale Edgware Road, London, UK regarding the clunking of the wheels of my car Mercedes C43 AMG Premium Plus registration number HT19 KMJ especially when turning round corners, noisy suspension and hard ride. My experience was as follows:
1. The AMG Head of the Workshop at Colindale Mercedes was helpful and said that they knew about this fault as Mercedes had reported that the fault was in the type of wheel provided and he said he would replace the tyres. Meanwhile when he told me that I consulted my cousin who had recommended Mercedes, who told me that there were many complaints about this fault on the internet, but that it was not a question of just changing the tyres, sometimes the problem was with the steering knuckles.
2. As I was going to be abroad it was agreed that the car would be picked up at my home address and returned again after repair. On the day of pickup, my partner, a businessman, stayed home from work that morning to wait for the pickup between 8 a.m. to 12 noon. When he saw that no-one came he phoned to the office to discover that no-one would come as it had not been arranged. He was angry at having lost working time, he was told the car would be picked up the following day.
3. It was picked up the following day. At 1 p.m. he was phoned and was informed that the repair had been carried out and the car would be washed and returned in 1.5 hours, so he came back home to find out that no-one delivered it until 4 p.m. He phoned back to the office and they told him that normally the car would be returned between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. but no-one had told him about that, it was another misunderstanding at your office. Again, my partner wasted time waiting for delivery. When the car arrived, the driver told him that nothing had been said to him about the timing and it should be checked with the office. It seems that there is a lack of integrated communication between different personnel. Furthermore, when I came to look at it, the car was parked in my drive with the o/s tyre wall touching the brick surround which may have caused further damage.
4. I note that a visual health check was carried out on the car and a note was made that the o/s alloy was buckled. The car which is in perfect condition except for the tyre problem has not been involved in anything that could have buckled the alloy, so the only inference that can be made is that the original tyre, being a bad fit, may have buckled the alloy.
I find it very hard to understand why the alloy was not repaired or replaced, given that the car is under warranty. Why on earth would you care so little for your customer that she would be allowed to drive a car in this condition, with the possibility of a blowout at any time on the road?
I had already taken the car into the Colindale service centre last year because of the hard ride and noisy suspension and they told me that this is a problem all the cars have, it was not treated with any seriousness, that was seen as perfectly OK. So for 10 months I have been driving a car with faulty tyres, with the problem becoming worse and worse. I have never had this problem with any other car in my 50 years of driving, certainly not with any BMW I have driven.
I am really upset at this pathetic level of care. I question the integrity of Mercedes customer care and am now questioning the integrity of the build of the car itself. It looks as though I have through no fault of my own, landed up with a faulty car. I do not feel that you operate responsibly in a way that safeguards your customer, hence my disappointment. It seems that you are only concerned with the profit motive. I am forwarding this email to the German head of Mercedes for his information.
Olya Khaleelee, B.Sc., M.A. CIPD, MLCP.
Corporate Psychologist
