Has Mercedes Always Been This Bad?

^^^^^^^^^
So as not to be thought totally negative about Mercedes, as a company that has bought well over 1,000 Mercedes in the last 8 years or so, it is the dealerships that let them down. As a company with as many depots and out-based trucks that we have then we have to use the dealerships, and there are problems with almost every one of these dealerships. This poor backup has cost them dearly with us, we have bought only 30 new Mercs in the last 12 months, the replacement fleet purchases a total of about 300 units in that time have been DAF and Scania. Our main depot is forced into keeping the Mercs, none of the depot managers want them, mainly because of the abysmal back-up and after service.

Just as a comparison I had a problem with a 12 months old DAF XF a couple of weeks ago that was very unusual and had never happened before according to DAF. There were circumstances a couple of days before the breakdown that I believe contributed to it, but it was totally outside of our control and which I cannot divulge. Anyway the driver reported a serious safety related fault with it that had suddenly occurred on the Monday evening. DAF AID attended and found the fault, something the experienced DAF mechanic attending said he had never experienced before. For safety reasons the truck was recovered to the nearest DAF dealership some 80 miles from my depot. The part needed for the repair had to be sourced from Eindhoven, even though this DAF model is built at Leyland. They gave an estimated time of completed repair for midday the following day. It was actually ready at 08.00 the following morning and I was kept updated frequently of progress. A level of service and communication far superior to that of Mercedes.