Hi guys,

I have a little problem, and was wondering if any one had exeprienced the same thing or could help me out.

I bought a brand new c class sports coupe almost a year ago here in Gibraltar (southern spain). Everything has been great with this car, i have no complaints what so ever..until now.

I noticed a while ago that there was a little bump on the top side of the rear bumper (please see attached diagram), but did not make much of it..thought it was a fault from factory or something. Problem is, the paint around it is cracking now. So i phoned up my mercedes dealer here in Gibraltar and they told me to take the car in. (this was on monday). they phoned me in the afternoon to tell me that the bumper was obvioulsy defective and that it was covered by the warantee, and they would replace it.

today (wednesday), they phone me and say they wont replace it, because they noticed there is a little sratch on the front side of the bumper which suggests a point of impact which would have caused the bump!. Now, maybe im stupid..but surely an impact on the side, which would cause a bump to appear on the top side (which is now about 3cm high) would have surely left a dent of some kind on the side too...rather than just a little superficial scratch which could have been cause by dirt, gravel, what ever!

What can i do? its their word against mine. Any advice anyone could give me woudl be deeply appreciated.

Thanks in advanced guys.

First, you an start with the manager of the service dept. and explain the situation. If that fails, perhaps your salesman can intercede on your behalf (if he or she remembers you). Otherwise, you'll have to start going up the chain of command. If MB has a headquarters in Spain, try there, otherwise, get in touch with the main HQ in germany.

hi, thanks for the reply.

I need to phone the manager, plan to do so today at some point.

With regards to going further up in the chain, i tried to find the HQ in germany..but found nothing. Found the one in uk though..not sure if that will help.

Im quite dissapointed though, because ive has better after sales service when i had a seat ibiza!!! then i do with mercedes. you expect high quality and good service, but thats not what im getting.

Welcome to BenzForum! The link below will take you to the Mercedes-Benz website in Germany:

http://www.mercedes-benz.com/com/e/

hehe if only i could read german :P

By the way, picked up my car agian today from the dealer, and i asked him to show me this 'scratch' that he recons was the point of impact which has caused the bump.

It took him 5 minutes, and i aint exagerating...5 minutes!!! to find the scratch, which by the way is only about 2mm long by 1mm thick!?!?!? how can that justify the bump?

I have a meeting on monday with the manager..lets see what happens. I have a feeling though they are constantly trying to catch me out, on some lie or something...this definitely is not the kind of after sales service i expected from mercedes :(

I have a similar story to tell you.
Last November I had to change my windshield because it was cracked. There was no obvious visible trace of any kind of impact.

TWO WEEKS later my windshield cracked again :cry:

I went back to the dealer very angry. Fortunately they were friendly so we didn't get into arguing. The service manager was able to point out a very thiny stone impact on the crack. Now 4 months later this impact got larger, the crack is 1 feet length and I can see very well the stone's impact. Fortunately back in November, I negociated that my windshield will be replace at cost.

Moral in the story: Try to figure out if what they say is true. Then you can negociate something. The C230 isn't expensive. MB had to cut somewhere to price the car so cheap. I believe they cut on the quality. It is quite possible that even if the impact is 10-20 inches away the bump is made further.