Complaint Review: Mercedes Benz Of Daytona & Service Advisor Mike Iafonte - Daytona Beach Florida

Just wanted to share my story and vent here...I don't think I've been treated this poorly in ages...

First let me say that I have personally done business with them forever, and in fact I bought my very first car from them when I was 16...a brand-spanking new 1998 C230 in black/tan. I loved that car. Anyway, I have continued to do business with them ever since, as has my father, but I personally don't plan on going back after this.

So I dropped my car off to have the spark plugs changed, and to have the two headlight lenses swapped out (one was cloudy, and the other one was broken by a rock from a truck). Simple stuff, right? Think again...

The service advisor was Mike Iafonte, who has been friends with my dad for years, but as for myself I won't be giving him any more business in the future, and wouldn't recommend him to anyone else either. He was a complete d**k to me.

About 2 hours after I dropped the car off, I get a call back from him, telling me that one of the Xenon headlight assemblies has a tab cracked off of it, so the lens will no longer secure to it. He quotes me a price of $2,100 for a replacement (when the EPC shows list price is only $1700...so he's doing me a big 'favor' there, huh?), and asked what I wanted to do about it.

First, I asked how it got broken. He replied that, oh due to age, these things just randomly break. I called BS on that, and told him I thought his tech broke it when he was removing the assembly to replace the lens. He replied that their techs are just excellent and never break things.

I then told him that, quite the reverse, they have broken something on every one of our cars virtually every time we have taken one in to them. He asked for some examples, so I pointed out that while changing out the convertible-top latch cylinders in my dad's car, they managed to break:

-One sunvisor mounting arm

-Both visor mounting bracket trim pieces

-The map/reading light housing

-The rearview mirror

-Both visor mirror doors

-And (don't even ask me how they managed this one) the little plastic handle that is in the front interior of the soft-top.

And all of that was just in ONE visit!!!

So then he tries to call BS on me, and I told him "hey, Dad's at the office, why don't give him a ring and ask him?". So he says, "ya I'll DO that" with attitude just dripping off his voice. So he did, and my dad told him that ya, the techs have been breaking stuff on his car constantly, but he's just never bothered to complain about it. I guess I am less patient than my father, or more anal about my cars. Either way, this stuff shouldn't be happening.

So, after that, he calls back with this solution: They have jerry-rigged some bracket that one of their techs made from spare parts, to hold the lens on. He acted on the phone like I am supposed to be happy with this arrangement. I told him I wanted to see the jerry-rigged bracket and he told me I can't, because it was already installed back into the car. He then proceeded to start yet another argument with me over that his tech didn't break it, and I said "Look, the car has 25k miles on it, it has always been stored in a climate-controlled garage, and there is no front-end damage that would have caused anything like this...so what do you think is more likely? That it just randomly self-destructed, or that your tech broke it when he was removing the assembly?"

To that, he replied: "Well, it's fixed now, and if you have any problems with the bracket we put on, you can bring it back (Like I'd want to come back to them!) and I have to go now...your car will be ready around 4".

So I get my dad to run me out there to pick it up (oh ya...another gripe...no loaner), and he still won't admit his tech caused it...keeps trying to say how good they are. So I pointed to my dad's car, and said "Well, what about all of the stuff you broke on that one, then?" to which he replied "That's between me and your father, I'm not guna discuss that with you", when my father is standing 10ft away. Even my dad, normally critical of me (you know, typical parent thing), rolled his eyes at that comment.

Ugh. What an attitude.

So at this point I am furious. They broke my headlight, jerry-rigged it up and expect me to be happy with it, and then charged full price for the privilege of having them break my car! The bill was over $800 just for these minor items, and at NO point did they offer to comp a portion of it, or to replace the assembly that it's 99% likely that they broke. And the guy's attitude just plain sucks on top of it.

I am furious, and am debating what to do about it, and any input would be appreciated!

Chris

Daytona Beach, Florida

U.S.A.

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