My personal experience with Mercedes-Benz Los Angeles has been the most harrowing, humiliating, and dehumanizing customer experience in my life, and sadly I say this without a single exaggeration.
I've honestly never been talked down to and verbally attacked like this and made to feel so helpless, insignificant, threatened, and bullied as a HUMAN BEING, let alone as a paying customer.
It all started when I drove in my car to be inspected for a sporadic starting issue. After viewing the diagnostic report, I decided not to perform the recommended fixes at the dealership. However, when I decided to pick it up, my car was completely dead, which was definitely not the condition in which I brought it. In fact, through their own admission, my car was running with no problems whatsoever until the day before I decided to pick it up.
Naturally, I was displeased. The bare minimum I expected was for me to drive out the very same car I drove in with. I consider that to be a very reasonable expectation for a customer who brought a vehicle in for a mere inspection.
How would you have reacted if you had to tow out a car, at your expense, that you drove in just for a mere inspection?
I consider myself to be a calm and reasonable person, so I first tried relaying my concern to the manager, her name was Veronica Contreras I believe.
Unfortunately she became hostile VERY QUICKLY and used a tone to talk down to me that I've never encountered in my 31 years of life. I do have a meek conciliatory demeanor, and I'm not an intimidating person at all, perhaps it gave her all the confidence and emboldenment she needed to be rude, brash, and belligerent with me.
She barked out a threat, quote-unquote: "YOUR CAR ALREADY HAD A PROBLEM WHEN YOU BROUGHT IT IN. WE WON'T BE RESPONSIBLE FOR IT. YOU'LL HAVE PAY FOR YOUR OWN TOWING, OR IF YOU'RE STILL UNHAPPY WE'LL JUST RESELL YOUR CAR NOW!"
Truthfully I've never been spoken to in such a vehemently contemptuous tone in my life -- not my parent, teacher, or anyone else in my life. It was astonishing that someone of her sheer lack of professionalism and courtesy was allowed to go anywhere near a customer, much less become the "customer relationship manager" of this place.
I depend solely on my car to make a living, plus it was also a gift from a deceased family member, so it obviously had immense economic and sentimental value to me.
Regardless of right or wrong, and regardless of whether there's any negligence on their part that led to additional damage to my car, I think I can safely say that it was not an inappropriate way to communicate with another fellow human being... let alone a paying customer.
I'm not sure if I caught her on a bad day, or if my concern ruined her Saturday, but I was very distraught and traumatized after that experience, and it ruined my entire weekend.
It just wasn't right. You'd think I was a child murderer being excoriated by an angry mob or something, but in reality I merely enquired about the condition of my car and expressed my -- in my opinion -- perfectly-reasonable concerns.
I reached out to the General Manager, Tim Muzyka, and I've yet to hear back from him. Obviously I look forward to this issue being resolved as soon as possible so we can all move on.
I apologize if this has been a downer, but I feel a deep responsibility to make my voice heard and hopefully some customers will be aware of what kind of experience might potentially await them should they choose to take their business to Mercedes-Benz Los Angeles.
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I've honestly never been talked down to and verbally attacked like this and made to feel so helpless, insignificant, threatened, and bullied as a HUMAN BEING, let alone as a paying customer.
It all started when I drove in my car to be inspected for a sporadic starting issue. After viewing the diagnostic report, I decided not to perform the recommended fixes at the dealership. However, when I decided to pick it up, my car was completely dead, which was definitely not the condition in which I brought it. In fact, through their own admission, my car was running with no problems whatsoever until the day before I decided to pick it up.
Naturally, I was displeased. The bare minimum I expected was for me to drive out the very same car I drove in with. I consider that to be a very reasonable expectation for a customer who brought a vehicle in for a mere inspection.
How would you have reacted if you had to tow out a car, at your expense, that you drove in just for a mere inspection?
I consider myself to be a calm and reasonable person, so I first tried relaying my concern to the manager, her name was Veronica Contreras I believe.
Unfortunately she became hostile VERY QUICKLY and used a tone to talk down to me that I've never encountered in my 31 years of life. I do have a meek conciliatory demeanor, and I'm not an intimidating person at all, perhaps it gave her all the confidence and emboldenment she needed to be rude, brash, and belligerent with me.
She barked out a threat, quote-unquote: "YOUR CAR ALREADY HAD A PROBLEM WHEN YOU BROUGHT IT IN. WE WON'T BE RESPONSIBLE FOR IT. YOU'LL HAVE PAY FOR YOUR OWN TOWING, OR IF YOU'RE STILL UNHAPPY WE'LL JUST RESELL YOUR CAR NOW!"
Truthfully I've never been spoken to in such a vehemently contemptuous tone in my life -- not my parent, teacher, or anyone else in my life. It was astonishing that someone of her sheer lack of professionalism and courtesy was allowed to go anywhere near a customer, much less become the "customer relationship manager" of this place.
I depend solely on my car to make a living, plus it was also a gift from a deceased family member, so it obviously had immense economic and sentimental value to me.
Regardless of right or wrong, and regardless of whether there's any negligence on their part that led to additional damage to my car, I think I can safely say that it was not an inappropriate way to communicate with another fellow human being... let alone a paying customer.
I'm not sure if I caught her on a bad day, or if my concern ruined her Saturday, but I was very distraught and traumatized after that experience, and it ruined my entire weekend.
It just wasn't right. You'd think I was a child murderer being excoriated by an angry mob or something, but in reality I merely enquired about the condition of my car and expressed my -- in my opinion -- perfectly-reasonable concerns.
I reached out to the General Manager, Tim Muzyka, and I've yet to hear back from him. Obviously I look forward to this issue being resolved as soon as possible so we can all move on.
I apologize if this has been a downer, but I feel a deep responsibility to make my voice heard and hopefully some customers will be aware of what kind of experience might potentially await them should they choose to take their business to Mercedes-Benz Los Angeles.