2009 August, 19th

Mihaela Lica

While Mercedes-Benz is involved in an ardent PR campaign to promote the Estate variant of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, the German dealer Mercedes-Benz Hess has to deal with some other issues. The company’s after sales customer support is – to put it kindly – flawed. If you are not familiar with the saga, let me make a short summary for you.

Prelude – The Story of a Sick A190 Puppy

Last year, in November, we bought a used Mercedes A-Class vehicle from Mercedes-Benz Hess Trier-Euren. One month later both front tires went flat, with no apparent reason (other than they were already used to the limit by the previous owners). From the first day we got the vehicle it displayed the famous “F” on the dashboard, that suggests that the gearbox and/or the gearbox ECU need replacing. We didn’t know this back then, and when we asked the seller he said that is just a superficial computer error that will go away. Naivety is our sin, add to this trust in a world-class brand and you can easily imagine what followed. The car started to display the “F” more than randomly – after a few months it became impossible to drive. We headed to Mercedes-Benz Hess Trier to find a solution for our problem and we were treated with the most bizarre lack of courtesy you can ever imagine. As we found later from other people who had problems with Mercedes-Benz Hess, we are not a singular case (more stories, from other Hess customers, to follow).

The Second Mercedes-Benz Hess “Stunning” Resolution: the “Trade”

After two-three weeks of back-and-forth Mercedes-Benz Hess finally agreed to trade our Mercedes A-Class for a vehicle of similar value they had in the lot. The “trade” took place last Thursday, August the 13th. Do I need to tell you that the “trade” was in their interest? We changed a car valued at € 8500 initially for a VW Golf valued at € 7500 in the lot, but only € 6700 on paper. Why we agreed? Because we hoped that this car would work; because we wanted and believed that this will be the end of our Hess problems. But the experience we had led us to the conclusion that Mercedes-Benz Hess cannot possibly have any used cars that will run – at least not very long.

Tom Holst, the Only Apparent Light in the Hess Dark Pit

It was Tom Holst who actually convinced us that Mercedes-Benz Hess deserved a second chance. I actually planned to write an in-depth article that could probably teach other car-sellers how to deal with such situations, and more importantly how to deal with customers who experience problems with their vehicles. Mr. Holst is the opposite of all the Hess employees we met so far: courteous, polite, professional. With more employees like him, Mercedes-Benz Hess could probably be regarded as a good company.

Tom Holst, Mercedes Benz Hess' most professional seller.

Customers will always have car problems – the secret to good business and to good branding is not to poor salt into the wound. This is true for any type of business. You don’t make an injured party hurt even more – you alleviate pain. If you fail to protect your customers, the effects can be devastating for your brand. Offend your customers repeatedly and you fail all PR tests in the book. Mr. Holst knows the rules and he practices his profession with utmost respect for both customers and the brand he represents.

If the VW were a good car, instead of this article today you’d have read a positive review of the resolution (you will still read an article about Mr. Holst soon).

VW Engine Locks-down After 380 km of Driving – Car Ends Up on the Emergency Lane on the Highway

Mercedes-Benz Hess endangered our lives, by trading us a car with a flawed engine, that broke in the middle of the highway, at 130 km/h speed… Now you know why the title insinuates that the failed customer support strategy at Mercedes-Benz Hess has extreme resolutions. It’s pointless to describe how I felt when the engine stopped in the middle of the highway – we are both alive and I constantly thank God that we did not have our children with us in this trip. Now let me tell you the rest of the story…

We left our residence in Schweich on Sunday, heading to a business meeting in Copenhagen. There are 918 km between the two points so we decided to drive with the VW Golf which is bigger and more comfortable than our second car, the Ford Ka. After the first 380 km, somewhere near Bielefeld, the oil lamp lit red and immediately the engine locked down. We were driving in the fast lane of a three-lane highway. Luckily Phil is a very experienced driver and he managed to use the car’s inertia to take us on to the emergency lane, and somehow keep us from being run over. In the rear mirror I could see how the vehicles behind us avoided the part that fell out from under our VW’s engine, while we were crawling along the slow lane. Smoke came out from underneath our car. Phil was apparently calm, I was frozen with fear and disbelief. It’s hard to describe the feeling – I just know that God protected us and the drivers behind us… Aside the smoke, and the lost engine part, the only immediate visible proof of the problem was the oil stain under the car, that got bigger and bigger by the minute.

Flawless Insurance Service – Car-Garantie GmbH

The VW has a one-year Hess warranty, and any malfunction that occurs in the first six months is guaranteed to be covered by the company at full cost. After the first six months, the owner will pay half of the price of the parts – but the details of the warranty are irrelevant now. The insurer Hess is working with for this warranty is a company called Car-Garantie GmbH. I do not remember the name of the gentleman I was talking to – because of the shock I simply forgot it and later I forgot to ask – but he was obviously very skilled in his job. He was kind, patient, and responsive, although he could not find our insurance in his database (we got the car on Thursday, August the 13th, and the incident I am relating happened Sunday the 16th). I had an insurance number at hand, which sufficed. Car-Garantie found us a wrecker who arrived at our location in 45 minutes – a record time considering the weekend and the holiday season.

Partner Assistance’s Sasha Wagner – Friendly, Professional, Fast…

If you’re ever broken down on a German highway, you’d better hope that this young man comes to pick you up. There are not many people left who actually care about doing their jobs right – especially not on a Sunday. He had our car put up on the toe truck in less than five minutes and delivered us and the car to the closest VW dealership in no time. He called the insurance company for us, to explain the situation and help us get a rental car. He also revealed that the VW had been towed before, judging from the marks on the tow-hook.

Europcar – a Company You Can Rely On

Again, the problem of the weekend and the holiday season – but the people from Europcar Bielefeld responded promptly to the request made by Car-Garantie and found us a replacement vehicle in less than an hour. We were happy to continue our trip even in a VW Polo that is obviously smaller and less comfortable than a Golf. The staff was friendly and professional too – Europcar does know how to select its employees – they are the best emissaries of the brand.

Friendly and courteous, the Europcar employees are the best emissaries of the brand.

An Open-ended Story

The story is not over yet. We left the keys to out vehicle back in Bielefeld, in the hands of a very professional and, I have to say it again, courteous customer support manager. Mr. Volker Röscher represents Autohaus Berning KG and after dealing with him and all the others mentioned above, I couldn’t help but wonder: where are the actors of this story trained? Mercedes-Benz Hess Trier could send its employees to the same school – with some proper customer support training, and the right attitude, there would be no negative reviews from the customers.

Volker Röscher - simply flawless!

Consider this: we are not Autohaus Berning KG customers, but their customer support man shows up with a smile and a warm handshake. He listens patiently to our story – and patience is important since my spoken German is far from being perfect – he asks questions. He examines the car throughly, and he calls Mr. Holst, at our request, to explain the situation. After this experience I can only tell you one thing: although hundreds of miles away, Autohaus Berning might be exactly the partner we were looking for. If we decide to buy a new car, they are atop of our list. As far as Mercedes-Benz Hess is concerned, we hope to have the ending to this story by the end of the week.

• 2009/10/02 -- Mercedes Benz Sales Still Plummeting, And It’s No Wonder
• 2009/08/27 -- Customer Consciousness – Toyota Recalling Over 95,700 Vehicles Sold in US
• 2009/07/15 -- Mercedes-Benz Hess GmbH Fails Part One of the Customer Support Test

About the Author

Mihaela Lica is senior partner at Pamil Visions PR and editor at Everything PR. She is a widely cited authority on search engine optimization and public relations issues (BBC News, Force for Good, Reuters and others), with an experience of over 7 years in online PR and SEO. Mihaela writes for SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, and other online publications. She also maintains a personal blog called eWritings. Follow Mig on Twitter or send her an email at mig [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.

See All Posts by This Author