I feel it’s very important to share a luxury car buying experience with all of you so that any one of you will not become a victim of Mercedes Benz India.

This complete saga started in April 2015 when I bought our first MERCEDES Luxury SUV for our company. We were very excited and thought it should be the best in the SUVs that justifies paying such a high price point, but what happened from there on is a horror story of suffering.

Our very first purchase was from SILVER ARROWS, a MERCEDES dealer in NOIDA. After 3 months of waiting, they delivered us our GL350 2015 Model. When we reached the showroom to pick the car, we pointed out to the Sales Manager that the car had rub marks, the disc pads were rusty and seats are having dirty patches! Their response was “Oh it happens and in metallic color cars, rub marks are normal.” Surprising to hear this for a 1CR worth car and an attitude of its OK! Alarming.

I raised our concern on the same and we asked them how can a car go through PDI check and have issues like these? They simply acknowledged and said “it is a slip from our side we will correct it.” After all this, we waited for 5 hours and ended up taking the car as is since we had to leave.

The surprises continue, within 3 days, we realized that the air conditioning system was not working properly and the car had PRE-RECORDED MARATHI Songs in its hard-drive. This was shocking. Was I just sold a used car as “brand new”? We then checked the VIN number of the car and found that it was an early 2014 model that was sold to us with an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT SCREEN from MERCEDES SYSTEM that it is a 2015 model. This caused more worry. What else have they not been truthful about? We called upon other MERCEDES dealers in Delhi and found that our model and its features were from 2014 model. It became apparent very soon that we had been sold an inappropriate vehicle. Here is the snapshot which shows multiple issues was in new car:

This is CHEATING by SILVER ARROWS who just wanted to push a vehicle on us. After couple of emails and their examination, their team verbally acknowledged that the vehicle had issues, but they were not ready to replace the vehicle with a 2015 model!! What!?! They were ready to return the COMPLETE MONEY but not ready to give us a NEW CAR of 2015 model. We thought something is fishy and took our money back as it became apparent that Silver Arrows has fraudulent business practices and cannot be trusted. The unbelievable fact is they have still not gotten the car transferred from our name, as it seems they want to sell it to someone as a FIRST HAND AGAIN! Silver Arrows has complete fraudulent practices and they can do anything to push a car sale. BEAWARE of them as they can speak and sell anything incorrectly to make a sale happen. Do your homework and check your car if you have ever done business from them. They are not to be trusted.

NOTE: NO ONE FROM MERCEDES EVER CONTACTED US BACK ON SILVER ARROW SELLING US A FRAUDLENT CAR of 2014 model being sold as 2015 model!

I had sent 15 emails to the CEO, COO and VP of customer service of MERCEDES. Finally when I did get one response, they told me to communicate with the dealer. Hmmm. Mercedes Benz will sell their franchise to anyone and don't seem to care that someone is having bad business practices under their Brand Name.

Now we thought this could be a Dealer issue so went to another dealer of MERCEDES BENZ. This time we decided to purchase a car from T & T Motors Mathura Road Delhi. This dealer is comparatively bigger and more experienced than Silver Arrows. We also told them of the bad experience we had before but believed in the Brand. So, again in the month of August 2015, we purchased a brand new Mercedes Benz GL 350 2015 model from T & T Motors. Unfortunately, the change of dealer didn’t help, because since then we are facing another horrible experience with #MercedesBenzGL350.

We were very happy and excited at first as we had checked to make sure we were getting a 2015 model. Our joy was unfortunately short lived, totally unaware of the fact that we are up for misery experience yet again.

After getting the delivery of #MercedesBenzGL350 on August 10, 2015, we took the first drive to Mathura. On its very first drive to Mathura on Aug 21, 2015, we noticed a constant rattling and crackling noise in all four doors while the car was on, which was very disturbing and painful to bear. Not again. The car did not have any of these problems when we had done the test drive. Who would ever think of having a problem like this in a brand new luxury car that has barely covered 350 kilometers? We immediately complained about this issue to officials of T & T Motors Delhi. We received some fake assurances and late replies as it took 2 weeks for them to respond on our first email (as this time we were smart to document our issues). Nothing worked out in a positive way so far.

After having 24 email communications back and forth in the last 3 months of painful follow-ups and after having my car being examined 3 TIMES by technical experts from Mercedes and T&T Motors, I have got no technical report from a big brand like Mercedes Benz. They simply want the car to be sent to the service center as they WANT TO REPLACE THE COMPLETE RUBBER LINING OF THE DOORS to eliminate the rattling sound. WOW, this is what happens to a BRAND NEW LUXURY CAR from MERCEDES. Did I not just buy a new car? Don’t they do Quality checks on their vehicles?

Customers’ biggest mistake is to trust the BRAND and then the BRAND DICTATES. Till date not even one Representative of MERCEDES has called us even after asking for the same multiple times. The dealer sends us an email every week asking to send the car across for service as they want to get rid of this matter. This is what happens in when you buy a car close to 1 CR worth. You are treated like a dwarf in misery.

If there is any issue with my Vodafone connection or with my Citibank card or with any other service provider, these Brands value you as a customer. Their customer service will follow-up and call you within 24 hours, but not with MERCEDES, my friends. No! They will make you Hog and ASK but will never call you. They spend millions on brand marketing and glitzy launches, but behind the scenes, they seem to want to make a quick buck regardless of any suffering or misery you experience as THEY DON’T CARE. Typical downtrodden arrogant treatment. We simply can’t accept these kinds of issues with our brand new luxury car. Not going to let this happen. We asked them to either refund our whole money or send a new car without any defects which they should have done in the first place. Now, they are saying that they can only repair the new car if we will send it to their workshop but forget about getting a replacement with what should have been provided correctly in the first place and no chance of getting money back. Finally, after multiple rounds of agony and follow-ups for the last 3 months, we have decided to take a stern legal action. We are not going to let them get away with this again. How sad that after spending and paying in full for a luxury car, you have to spend more money in taking the legal route. We have sent across a legal notice and it has been 7 days, did not receive any response!

I would love to share all my emails and how MERCEDES loves to ignore and AVOID customer issues and their arrogance will showcase how MERCEDES as a Brand treats its customers in India. I hope to prevent others from experiencing the problems we have faced. Brands should not take us for granted. We pay top dollar and expect a comfortable and valuable experience.

My Concerns Are:

How Mercedes Benz India can sell a faulty car to Indian customers and get away with it?

How luxury cars are sold without any quality checks by Mercedes Benz India?

Why Mercedes Benz India and Its Dealers both disown customers after the sale?

How a 1 Crore luxury car of Mercedes has many defects at the time of sale?

Why Mercedes Benz builds good cars for others by making Indian customers suffer with defective cars?

There are so many such questions that come to mind after going through this horrifying Mercedes Benz GL 350 car buying experience. Are they taking Indian customers for granted because they can’t do the same in foreign countries? Don't underestimate the power of consumers. Consumer know when they are being duped and when someone is being genuine.

From this social media post I would like to share my pain to spread awareness regarding fraudulent practices adopted by the Mercedes Benz India and their authorized dealers like Silver Arrows and T & T Motors so that people who are thinking to buy a Mercedes Benz in future will not have such horrible experience. Save your self the experience.