Are the spare parts replaced by the 4S shop original? How to verify?
Mr. Wu, a shenzhen resident, said that since his car was replaced and equipped with dozens of spare parts marked as Mercedes-Benz originals at the Zhongshengxinghui Mercedes-Benz 4S store in Longhua District last year, it has failed many times, and even once failed to lose control on the highway. He suspected that the parts were not original and genuine, and at the same time could not find the maintenance records and the number of the original spare parts in the Mercedes-Benz nationally networked after-sales system. In this regard, Longhua Zhongshengxinghui Mercedes-Benz 4S store responded that the vehicles used are original spare parts, and the reason for not being able to display the national system is because Mr. Wu's 110,000 yuan vehicle maintenance payment has not yet been settled, so the maintenance records are still hung in the internal system of the store, which has the original factory code of this batch of spare parts for verification.
Recently, Nandu called the customer service hotline of Mercedes-Benz China and mercedes-benz manufacturers respectively. Customer service said that normally maintenance records can be queried in the Mercedes-Benz national dealer management system; Mercedes-Benz official, the response said that if the unsettled account is not settled, there is indeed a situation that does not show the national network system.
event
After 3 months of maintenance, the car suddenly failed, and many repairs still showed a failure
It is reported that Mr. Wu is driving a Mercedes-Benz E200LI model, which has been 12 years old. On April 2, 2021, Mr. Wu was driving in Bantian, Shenzhen, and the right side of the front of the car was seriously damaged. Afterwards, Mr. Wu drove the car to the Shenzhen Zhongsheng Xinghui Mercedes-Benz 4S store in Longhua District for repairs, and the car needed to replace dozens of parts. Mr. Wu said that when he picked up the car at the end of May, he found that the newly replaced bumper of the vehicle had dents, but he thought that the staff accidentally bumped it when they picked up the car and left the warehouse. The day after the pick-up, according to Mr. Wu's recollection, the vehicle had the problem of switching high beams under the headlights and the color source not synchronizing.
Since the vehicle was repaired in the 4S store authorized by the manufacturer, Wu Lifu did not think much about it. But for the next two months, the vehicle's engine failure lights occasionally lit up during driving. In the screenshot of Wu Lifu's conversation with the after-sales manager, Wu Lifu also complained to the store about the engine fault light, and the after-sales staff reminded him to pull the vehicle back and re-repair it. After many inspections and repairs, the problem of the engine failure light highlighting has not been solved.
On the afternoon of August 29, Mr. Wu almost suffered a traffic accident, which made him once again worry about the quality of spare parts in 4S stores. According to Mr. Wu's recollection, when he was driving on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway to Shenzhen, the vehicle suddenly failed to brake and the steering wheel lost control, and the vehicle dashboard suddenly displayed multiple fault alarms. In an emergency, he can only rely on nearly 20 years of driving experience, relying on the inertia of the vehicle to slowly stop the car to the side of the road, so that the car stops naturally, so that no accidents occur. To this end, he notified the service staff of the 4S shop and also turned to the traffic rescue car to tow the car to the nearest high-speed exit. Since the serious accident, Wu Lifu was dissatisfied with the maintenance quality of the 4S shop and fed the problem back to the Mercedes-Benz manufacturer. In the end, under the coordination of the manufacturer, Wu Lifu agreed to continue to leave the vehicle in the 4S shop for inspection and maintenance.
Mr. Wu reflected the situation that the engine failure lights were on, and many repairs still prompted the failure.
In October, after another overhaul by the 4S shop, the vehicle was delivered to Mr. Wu, but since then the car has again experienced engine failure lights. Many repairs still prompted the failure, and Wu Lifu asked other car professionals for advice. According to Wu Lifu, a number of senior maintenance technicians indicated to him that the "problem parts" used in the car were not originals; including a maintenance technician who had worked in the original Mercedes-Benz after-sales service for many years, and a procurement staff who had worked in the luxury car repair shop for more than ten years. In this regard, Mr. Wu said that he had previously filed a complaint with the headquarters of Beijing Benz, but this time he did not get a reply from the manufacturer.
It is understood that the original spare parts will have an exclusive part number, and correspond to the maintenance vehicle. According to the Mercedes-Benz customer service hotline inquiry, normal maintenance records can be queried in the Mercedes-Benz national dealer management system. In order to verify whether the accessories used in the vehicle have accessory numbers, Mr. Wu inquired in other Mercedes-Benz 4S stores, but found that he could not find the relevant maintenance records of his own vehicles in April and August, and could only query the maintenance records of the store in June. Based on this, Mr. Wu questioned whether the spare parts of the 4S store may have a situation of "stealing the dragon and turning the phoenix".
The national network system can only see the self-funded maintenance project in June, but cannot see the maintenance project in April.
Records of Mr. Wu's maintenance projects in the 4S store.
Both sides say
4S Stores:
Repair payment has not been settled Records have not been uploaded
However, it is displayed in the in-store file record
Why can't you see Mr. Wu's vehicle maintenance details in the national dealer networking system? Nandu reporter made a special trip to longhua Zhongshengxinghui Mercedes-Benz store to understand the situation.
Manager Tang, who is responsible for after-sales service, said that if the customer has an outstanding payment, the maintenance record will show "unfinished" in the store's internal system and will not be uploaded to the network system of dealers nationwide. Mr. Wu's vehicle maintenance payment of 110,000 yuan has not yet been settled. The maintenance details have been cleared by Mr. Wu at his own expense, so they can be found in the network. In the internal maintenance records provided by the 4S store and the manufacturer's purchase statement, the part number corresponding to the frame number is clearly recorded, taking one of the maintenance parts as an example, the number of the part can also correspond to the manufacturer's shipping statement, and in the customer's maintenance details document, Mr. Wu signed and confirmed the words.
Why can't the vehicle be repaired many times and the problem cannot be solved? In this regard, the relevant person in charge of the maintenance department of Zhongsheng Xinghui explained that the reasons for the owner Mr. Wu to replace the belt twice are not the same, because the customer has replaced the generator belt for free because of the higher age of the customer's car, and in August, when the trailer came to the store for maintenance, it was detected by the maintenance master that the generator failure did not rotate, resulting in the belt breaking. It is understood that Mr. Wu is driving a Mercedes-Benz 2010 E200LI model, and the mileage into the factory is about 140,000 kilometers.
Maintenance records of Mr. Wu's vehicles.
Zhongsheng Xinghui provides internal maintenance records with manufacturer shipping statements. Among them, the paper maintenance details show the frame and original part numbers, signed by the customer.
Owners:
Other 4S stores are all uploaded
Mr. Wu did not agree with Zhongsheng Xinghui's statement. He stressed that in the past, the car was in good condition, and there was never a problem of the engine failure light suddenly lighting up; in addition, he proposed that the dealer management system was a national network, which contained spare parts information and the flow of staff purchase and sale, and even if there was no maintenance details, there should be a procurement record. In the call video of consulting other Mercedes-Benz 4S stores, the relevant after-sales service has clearly stated that there is no case of unsettled non-upload to the national networking system.
However, the reporter's search found that in January last year, Zhongsheng Xinghui was also complained by consumers about "demolishing the east wall to make up for the west wall", that is, using car dismantling accessories for vehicle maintenance.
Latest developments
Traffic Enforcement:
Ask Mercedes-Benz headquarters to show official records
At present, Mr. Wu has reported to the Shenzhen Mayor's complaint hotline that the relevant cases have been handled by the Longhua Transportation Law Enforcement Brigade. Recently, the Longhua Transportation Enforcement Brigade has sent a letter to the headquarters of Benz in Beijing, requesting an official record of all the replaced parts of Mr. Wu's vehicle from the 4S store to assist in the investigation. Recently, Mr. Ng again sought joint enforcement from the Shenzhen Mayor's Hotline to the Market Supervision Bureau.
Law enforcement authorities requested a letter of official record assistance in the investigation.
Mercedes-Benz manufacturers:
Open items are not displayed in the national system
In this case, Nandu also asked mercedes-benz manufacturers to verify whether the outstanding projects would not appear in the national networking system. Mercedes-Benz manufacturers told Nandu that if the payment is not settled, it will not be entered into the national network system. At the same time, Mercedes-Benz manufacturers once again stressed to Nandu that the currently launched "service convention" resolutely resists the phenomenon of dealers "shoddy" and has a long-term regulatory mechanism; if the store violates, it will face serious punitive measures.
Industry discussion
The identification of original spare parts is difficult
Supervision from ordering to installation is of concern
Maintenance and repair, spare parts are easy to encounter "bag drop"? Where can consumers verify the original original and protect their rights and interests? In addition to this consumption case, this is also a problem that the car owner group is quite concerned about.
In the course of the interview, the reporter learned that there is a certain degree of blankness in the identification of the original spare parts. It is reported that at present, almost no third-party appraisal agency can issue an authoritative certificate to identify whether the spare parts come from a certain brand original factory. The common method is to query the exclusive code of the spare parts through the brand system, because each spare part ordered from the original factory needs to be ordered with the vehicle frame number or license plate number; checking the accessory code has become one of the methods to know whether the original parts are available. According to the relevant 4S stores, the manufacturer's original parts will only be open to authorized dealers for ordering and distribution.
In fact, consumers' worries about whether spare parts are missing or not have always been there. Previously, Nandu had received relevant revelations, and Ms. Liu, a shenzhen resident, had also suspected that the headlights were not original parts. Previously, due to a traffic accident, Ms. Liu went to a BMW 4S store in Bao'an for vehicle maintenance, replaced the headlights, front bumpers and other accessories, and found that the right headlight was foggy for about half a year, and at this time, the store was asked to provide a maintenance list but found that the other party was reluctant.
In the actual case, from the original ordered by the original factory to the installation of the car, how to supervise is also a concern of the owner. In a similar case in Hunan, Mr. Xie said that a 4S store needed to replace 6 original parts for maintenance, but after the manufacturer sent the accessories over, the merchant only replaced two original parts for him, and the remaining 4 accessories were replaced with old parts removed from other cars. In the end, the 4S store was sentenced to one false penalty and three fines by the regulatory authorities for suspected fraud.
From order to piece to final installation, how is the intermediate process regulated? On this issue, Nandu also interviewed relevant car dealership industry insiders. It is understood that at present, from the order to the installation process, different brands and car stores will have their own supervision processes and regulations. Among them, the loss determination and re-investigation of the car insurance company will also be a part of the supervision, "the car insurance claims adjuster will determine the loss together with the 4S store according to the car damage, and when the car is repaired, the owner picks up the car, the relevant colleagues of the insurance company will go to the re-survey of the vehicle again and take away the old parts." However, there is also a small damage to the car, and the re-investigation link may not be present at the scene. ”
The person reminded that if you are really not at ease, you can ask to determine the loss with the claims adjuster, the vehicle must be disassembled and repaired after the owner's consent, and in the middle of the maintenance process, you can also ask for photos, provide new and old comparison charts, and so on.
Written by: Nandu reporter Chen Yingshan (photo provided by the interviewee)