Mercedes Bryanston - Poor Service

Taking a Mercedes Benz for a simple Service B set me back almost R22,000.00 The service alone is almost R13,000.00. My battery (according to them) needed to be replaced as it was faulty (no trouble starting the vehicle) which cost another R9,000.00 to replace plus labour! where do these people buy their batteries? It has a Merc sticker on it and at the very least a 50% plus mark-up. The Service Assistant, told me when I enquired about the cost of the battery that labour to install it was based on their standard rate of R1,800.00 per hour. Now, you don't need a nuclear scientist to replace a car battery, and it takes perhaps 15 to 20 minutes to do. I was, however, quoted R1,800.00 to do this job.

What an absolute RIP-OFF these guys are. A standard hourly rate of R1,800.00 (I am sure they only pay the technician a couple of hundred rand per hour, if that) means that each technician is charged at R14,400.00 per day (based on an 8 hour day, but they have a lunch and tea which you need to pay for), translates into R288,000.00 per technician per month (these guys must earn big salaries)! The Mercedes Bryanston dealership has at least 10 (plus) technicians on the tam so no less than R3,456,000.00 per month from servicing vehicles. Most services are done automatically via a diagnostic application to advise if there is anything major wrong, other than that a few new air filters, oil changes and brake fluid are replaced.

Say away from these guys, they are a RIP-OFF and their pricing is insanely high! When you challenge the Service Advisor the response is "I can ask the Service Manager for a discount to be app****". ***!!

They want you vehicle there at 07:00 and you can fetch it between 16:00 and 17:00. The entire service probably takes no longer than 3 hours at best!

RIP-OFF's!! Stay away