Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Reviews

Okay this seemed fair and we had taken out independent insurance for such things on the advice of the Mercedes company for such things. Never do that, the paper work and trying to get your money back is complex and difficult. On top of that Mercedes charged us an extra $400 above what the assessor had written for wear and tear. Such a rip-off. We will never buy or lease a Mercedes again. I tried talking to the Mercedes Financial Services over the phone and they showed no interest in looking into my case of overcharging for the wear and tear. One pays so much money for a Mercedes and you would think that they would take better care of their clients. The financial services is just there to get your money. They have no interest in the problems you might have. A warning: Do not lease a car from Mercedes-Benz.

I have called at least 6 other times since then demanding to speak to a supervisor or someone with some kind of authority to do something, but have heard NOTHING. I like my ML 350, but not enough to deal with these idiots and their non-existent customer service. MB should really reconsider letting these clueless reps handle the financial aspect of their operation. From the looks of this thread there are many who feel the same as I do, and who will be taking their business to the competition as a result of their ineptness. I'm going to look at a Cayenne this weekend, and hopefully be done with MBFS forever!

I fast forward to three months before the lease ends and Mercedes Benz sends out an independent inspector to inspect the vehicle for the end of lease turn in. The inspector points out that the tires are 3/32nds and need to be replaced. I believe the car had a little less than 16,000 miles at this time. At this point I reviewed the contract and it stated the tires must be replaced with the exact same tire. I researched and purchased the exact replacement tires for $1300. On the three year anniversary I returned the vehicle to the dealership and explained to the manager that I've leased and owned over 20 vehicles in my lifetime and never once had issues with tires going bad so soon. I even asked the manager to be honest and tell me if any customer has ever had this issue, he remarked no. I uncharacteristically called him a liar and promptly left the dealership.

Now here is the icing on the cake, I received a letter today from Mercedes Benz Financial Services stating I owed them $633.68 for the "Vehicle Turn In Fee". Are you kidding me? I thought and read the contract and sure enough item #3 states "Other Charges Vehicle Turn In Fee $595.00 (if you do not purchase the vehicle)". Prior to leasing this vehicle, I genuinely believed that Mercedes Benz stood for higher standards and quality above all others. When in actual fact they are terrible, horrible and deceptive company.

Never again will I or my family do business with Mercedes Benz. I will also make it my single most purpose to share with as many others this experience with Mercedes Benz, so that no one else makes my mistake. PS. I cannot stress the importance of proofreading a contract prior to signing one. My mistake was I didn't read every fine printed word. This mistake will never happen again and I am referring to dealing with Mercedes Benz.

I let them know that I have an acquisition deal in progress and was relying on a loan to help finance the purchase of this new business - a $500k deal. I asked them to please hurry up and fix this issue and their answer to me was "Unfortunately, the balance has to be paid in full before we take the charge off from the report". WHAT?!? How is this my fault and how is it right to charge off the car if payments are being made. So, now I am stuck without a car and bad credit until they decide to correct the error and hopefully, my credit will jump back up to where it used to be and hopefully I don't lose out on my deal. I will never use or recommend Mercedes Financial for this reason. They should let you know that if someone totals your car your credit will be jacked up. Mercedes Financial = Credit Jacker.

Original Review: March 6, 2018

It was between a Range Rover Velar or Mercedes AMG GLE 43 Coupe. Sadly I chose the GLE Coupe. I say sadly because, once you lease from Mercedes there’s no way out even if it’s their fault. At 7k miles I took the GLE in for a faulty engine light and learned I already needed new tires, which came with a price tag of almost 2k. I was shocked to hear this and began the process of trying to get out of the lease. The possibility of new tires 3 or 4 times per year was not an option. The manager of the dealership even said, “Yeah, you only get about 10k miles on that car because it’s so heavy.” I said, “I’m at 7k miles and why didn’t someone tell me that before leasing”.

The only option at that point was to move into a different vehicle and honestly, there wasn’t another SUV I’d consider buying, but agreed to go into a GLS 450, which I would have NEVER leased. There were other major misrepresentations I won’t go into, but if you’re getting into business with Mercedes, you better love the car. I simply wanted out of the lease. They have me for the next few years but I would NEVER consider Mercedes as an option again.

I was sent a bill for 2 tire mismatches and 1 tire with excessive wear. The car was turned in with 16000 miles. When I called Mercedes Benz Financial, I asked for some type of leniency because of the low miles and explained that there has to be a defect in the wheels. The car had been serviced regularly. Mercedes Benz financial refused to give any leniency. Needless to say this is the last time we do business with Mercedes Benz Financial. I'm on a mission to write as many reviews as possible so others don't have the same experience.

Then the next business day I called it. I got no follow up email, call or anything saying that I was decline and I'm asking why what are the reason, oh you have to work 10 business days in the mail. Mind you me and the owner want to get this done asap. Also at this time I don't know the reason, my credit is good and have good standings on all of them. High credit etc everything is good. I wouldnt apply to something I know I'm gonna get deny for. They pulled a hard inquiry first time. Second time let me apply with a co signer. Owners sends over the application online. Guess what the co signer part I can't even press next back to the hard paper. Done with that submit it through customer support email because doesnt work. 48 full business hours to just process the email. Then they said 72 hours to give me back my decision.

Guess what? They took an extra 24 hours and guess what they said. I need to confirm the relationship with the cosigner. Great. Then they call me for an interview like stuff I know about my credit. I been calling every single day to them. Mercedes is lazy, terrible customer service and all. I wanted to talk to higher up but no one. I will never come back ever to Mercedes as a brand.

My wife refused to drive it as my family car with kids and activities due to it was misrepresented as a safe family car. You can not drive a car and have blow outs, flats, bubbled tires and have kids in your car. Once/twice, three times but thirty four times over 36 months, NO WAY. Unfortunately we had to switch our cars and I had to now drive a family car every day to work. I did loose car to dealer for over 2 months in total time and thousands of dollars in actual losses like gas, tolls, mileages, lease payments and biggest of all time.

When I called back and gave my car back without even listing to my side of the story (issues) I had, all MB Financials wanted is to charge me thousands of dollars more upon returning of my leased car. It took me few weeks to finally narrow it down to finally who to send my written complaint and hope they will answer and get back to me. After another few days I spoke with some one in MB Financials, who gave me a runaround and then in the end he told me that I should chase after MBUSA. MBUSA is the one who can make things right and I should follow up with them. I did leave them few messages and no reply yet. I usually do not write reviews but, I wanted to make sure that someone else at least do not go through what I have been through with MB USA and MB Financials.

After that, One payment was still left out (which qualified for the pull ahead) which ended up reporting a single late derogatory mark across my bureau on January 2016 when I was already driving the 2015 ML for a month. I was told from MBFS I need a letter from the dealership explaining the mistake made somewhere along the line and I have faxed it numerous times with no callback. I called customer service and what was said to me was "is not MBFS fault, we can't help you." Why giving me the runaround? It's a shame but I can assure you that if this is not fix, MB and MBFS will have one less client which they might not care but the right things has not been done. I need this inaccurate information to be deleted from my credit report. I was not at fault for any of this. I did everything I had to do and I should not be affected by this.

As every person has unexpected bills, we were a few days late with a payment a couple of times during the 4 years of repayments. We were always in contact with them to inform them of a delayed payment, and we always finalised the arrears in not longer than a few weeks and before the next payment fell due. We were never 2 or 3 payments behind, where I would be saying, "fair enough. If you're three payments behind you can take the car because I don't have the money to keep repaying it." However, this was not the case. We could keep paying it if adequate procedures were taken by Mercedes Benz Financial Services under the legislation and their obligation from a finance company to assist and provide you with any type of hardship assistance or any other option to assist.

On or about July 2016, after 4 years of repayments to the value of $97,058.73 we had some unexpected bills due to a loss of a business contract that delayed our MB repayment for that month. However, I have discussed the issue with MB financial services immediately and notified them that the payment can be made within 3 weeks and before the next one falls due. At that point we have been given an ultimatum; to either pay out the full loan amount or surrender the car immediately because we have been late with payments previously. Since we were not given any other reasonable/fair options to resolve the late payment after already paying over 75% of the loaned amount of $137,591.71, I was under enormous pressure left with just 2 options they put before me. So I requested MB Financial Services to allow me some time and to be given the opportunity to sell the car privately.

I was then told by MB Financial Services that they will allow me a few weeks to get it advertised and place it on the market for a private sale. I immediately approached Clayton Bespoke in Double Bay (Sydney) who specialise in prestige care sales and spoke to Alastair ** from Clayton Bespoke. We arranged a Double Bay location for the car to be photographed by the dealer's professional photographer so they can place the images of the car on their website and other sites they use for their sales purposes. And the dealer Clayton Bespoke were confident that we can fetch anywhere between 80K to 90K for the vehicle with its many extra modifications and improvements we have done since we purchased it. By this time we called MB Finance and said that we have the money to pay for the late payment, but they did not accept it and pressed that we continue with the two options given to us.

While we were in the process of consigning the car to Clayton Bespoke for sale, the car was repossessed 2 days later by MB Financial Services from our double gates secure building. MB Financial Services had an agreement with us that we will be given time to sell the car privately, they reneged on this agreement without any notification. They had no court order to do so. They trespasses a property with a double gated security electric gates that can only be accessed by authorised resident in the building, while clear signs are displayed everywhere that any trespassers will be prosecuted.

The building manager at the time asked them to leave and told them that they cannot get in unless they have a court order. However, they hid and waited outside the building until another resident with rights of access to the building drove in and followed that vehicle into the building with their tow vehicle and towed our car away. They did not send us any notice of intention of a repossession of the car, (many of our conversations and agreements were usually resolved on the phone) and if they did send any information, they have most likely sent it to our old PO Box which we use to own. Nevertheless our residential address never changed and was still the same as at the time we purchased the vehicle, so they could have sent a mail or email.

Furthermore our phone numbers have never changed since we purchased the car and we have communicated with them on many occasions previously. So why could they not call or send a letter to the residential address and/or inform us via phone of the intention to repossess the car. Every other time in the past when they needed to get in touch with us they were able to reach us on our phones or our residential mailing address. But this time they didn't, because it was in their best interest to repossess a car that the majority of the loan has already been repaid. And by repossessing the car at this stage will gain a larger profit by selling it and then easily chasing the average middle class person for the shortfall.

We were devastated at the time, and I called up Mercedes Benz Finance to confront them about their immoral repossession and for reneging on the agreement we had to sell the car privately. I had the money to pay the arrears and offered to pay it and the car was still repossessed. This is corporate greed and unethical behaviour which becomes a trend with Mercedes Benz Financial Services. Where they deliberately wait for you to fail towards the end of your lease and then take it off you just because they can. We called them and said that we can pay the arrears to get the car back, but they did not budge from either settling the entire amount outstanding or auctioning the vehicle. Then they auctioned the car for as much as they could get, and normally below market value.

I researched MB Financial Services reputation and found that there are several lawsuits and class actions against them also in the US for similar actions that are taken against MB Financial Services. 18 month after the car was repossessed, we received a statement of claim to appear in court. We then turned for the help of the FOS and they took on our complaint. In their final decision they found several issues where Mercedes Benz Financial Services failed to provide or exercise all their options to allow one to make good on a small default. Furthermore the FOS is not a court, therefore they cannot enforce legal actions as to the legality and unethical repossessions while under an agreement with us and without a court order. They could only investigate and provide the findings of the case which we did not agree with.

The car was literally stolen from us while we were in an arrangement with them. With no court order for repossession, or trespassing into a security gated property without permission, or giving us the options they can and should exercise in these circumstances and while we had the finance to pay the few weeks of areas. We are middle class citizens and work hard for our money. We entered a deal with Mercedes Benz Financial Services in good faith and feel we were conned by corporate greed who can make their own rulings and decisions when it suits them. Since this incident I have become ill and spend several times in hospital due to panic attacks and I was also diagnosed with severe PTSD, severe panic attacks and stress disorder, which I take medication for, for the past couple of years now.

We really wanted the opportunity to have our story aired for the public to know and be aware of, and hoping to maybe get some assistance or advice from a law firm that can help us fight this in court or point us in the right direction with some advice. I have all contract and documents, payment statement/ledgers and all related material to provide for evidence should you require it, I'll be more than happy to forward it all to you.

You will then receive a bill in the mail with any charges for damages/excess wear and tear. The major issue with this process is that the final inspection for the car appears to be several days after it is removed from your possession and it will be handled by other individuals (again, a third party) in the interim. It is a strong suggestion to take plenty of pictures at the time of the preliminary inspection with the sales manager in some the photos as evidence. The final inspection report (performed via the third party) will show photos taken of your vehicle and in my case, the floor mats were missing and the floor boards had scattered debris despite my returning the car with all mats present and floor boards in pristine condition.

There were no charges applied for these items but the feeling that one is completely at the mercy of the process is beyond disturbing. Another VERY important item to note, many other auto financing companies will waive the disposition fee (a sizeable $595 in the case of MB) or will even issue a refund if the car should be returned with equity (being worth more than your remaining balance). Mercedes-Benz Financial WILL NOT do this.

It is of no benefit to you even if the car was unused and garage kept throughout the entirety of the lease and returned with zero miles used. They will not refund a penny of your equity and in some cases this amounts to thousands of dollars. They also do not send any documentation representing the finality and satisfaction of your account. It is simply open ended and if all is well, you will hear nothing more from them. This is not at all reassuring. Fortunately, I did not have any issues arise over the course of my lease so I cannot report on the general customer service but I have made it a point to educate any friends/family that may have been considering a lease with this company on the very sketchy end of lease protocol.

I did not receive a phone call, or an email, or a letter. Not only that, when I called the dealership to make my vehicle return appointment (3 WEEKS in advance) - nobody told me about this major change in the process either! So imagine my surprise when I arrived at my dealership, only to be met with a shrug and a statement that - "sure, we'll take the car but we take zero responsibility for anything and you may get charges in the mail after the inspection at the centralized location does happen." Of course, after hearing that I called Mercedes-Benz Financial, where the representatives were completely unapologetic and acted as if I was somehow supposed to have known about this big change on my own, and initially told me that I missed my inspection "deadline" because I needed to set it up 10 days in advance of the lease-return.

Only after I mentioned that I will be happy to have my lawyer take care of this did the representative tone it down a notch and start working with me on solutions rather than berating me. THEY TOTALLY DROPPED THE BALL and not one single person even apologized to me. Clearly I will not be leasing with Mercedes again. And stay tuned for how my inspection goes!

Eventually they sent me the title, but it didn't end here. They sent it to a wrong address, what an epitome of stupidity. I was about to buy another Merc for my wife with but this experience I just dropped the idea and bought her a BMW yesterday. These idiots do not deserve my business. I need my title urgently as I have to register in the new state where they need the title to register my car. My previous registration is ending tomorrow. I hope I get the title by tomorrow otherwise I won't be able to drive my car for work. But why would these idiots care they just want to be as lousy as possible and because of which they'll lose more and more business. A very unhappy and annoyed customer of MBFS.

So I go in and have the E350 appraised and then get the cost of the new Porsche Macan and then proceed to call Mercedes Financial Department for the "trade in payoff amount" for the E350 so that I can trade in the E350 for the Macan. Obviously the car depreciated in value, as expected, so I had to put down $7500. When I spoke with ** on the phone, my sales person from Porsche was in the room listening as well; I asked her exactly what my sales person told me to ask which was, "What is the payoff amount for the E350 so that I can trade it in for a new Porsche Macan?" Simple and straight forward enough, so I thought!!!

She proceeded to tell me $52k and some change 2 times and then I repeated it back to her and she confirmed the amount. I thanked her, had her tell me her name, and confirmed the amount and date before we hung up from the call. This is where it gets interesting!!! I received a call from Porsche finance 28 days later with news that Mercedes Benz misquoted the payoff by $18,717. When the finance person called Mercedes to figure out the issue they told her that they could not discuss the issue because she was not the account holder...

Understandable & appreciated, but when I called in to discuss the situation I ran into this... 1st a robot puppet that wouldn't answer any of my questions named ** preceded to read a "transcript of the call" which was not transcribed correctly, then she transfers me to a seemingly competent Customer Service Manager named ** after telling me repeatedly that she couldn't help me. He was seemingly helpful the first day that we spoke. He was going to get to the bottom of this for me & appreciated my business, etc! When I asked to hear the recorded conversation he said that "Mercedes did not have the capability to listen to it” and that his colleague, also a Customer Service Manager listened to the conversation and then transcribed it but he was unavailable to speak.

** then proceeded to "paraphrase" and said that ** told me that the payoff was $52K, 2 times, but that she also told me that the original purchase price was $71K. When I asked her again for the exact payoff to trade the E350 for the Macan, she then repeated the $52k quote yet again for clarification. So again I specifically asked her for the payoff to trade it in for a new Porsche Macan and she quoted me $52k and ** said that he read the transcript, but never heard the recording. Until today! Apparently there is a way to playback the recording, but get this. He said that it is "Their proprietary software" and that they don't have to give it to me. I then said that all I wanted was to hear it, which he refused again and said that legal will be in contact with me. SERIOUSLY?!

At what point does it cross the line to actually be this incompetent, just plain ignorant with excuses and still be a Customer Service Manager for a finance department at a multi-million dollar car dealership? I would expect this at a lesser brand, but NOT Mercedes Benz! Luckily I can afford to pay the difference, but seriously my attorney friends are going to have a field day with this joke of situation and at the end of the day I hope that Mercedes Benz actually learns what the true meaning of Customer Service represents! Especially at a "High End" dealership on a Management level! WHAT A JOKE!

So 80 miles and 2 hours of my time later, the new document was verified as sent (I have communication result report provided by the MB staffer at the location). 10 days later, I initiate a call and find nothing has happened except my payment has been processed 2 weeks earlier and all is still stalled. Redo everything 80 + miles + hours of effort later (I have been reminded to go to your closest dealer and have them do the form and the faxing from there... No apology - no common sense). About a 995 mile, 3-month car being purchased. Again the office member at the dealership was pleasant and professional.

Then today, December 7th - over 3 weeks from the payoff being received, I received a bill for the monthly lease amount. I initiated a call and spoke to 2 individuals and explained the situation. No common sense or people skills were given from the MBF staff - Some facts about, "The computer did it " and that type of answer. I asked both people for a simple apology for this error (and I do believe billing on 12/2 on an account with a zero balance for the previous 18 days is worthy of an apology - I got - the computer did it). I asked a second time and expressed my displeasure at their lack of compassion for what was obviously a long drawn out stupid time-consuming issue. I got nothing except a payoff that has now been stalled for almost a month except for the deposit to their account. They accomplished that in 2 days I have given days and miles to their incompetence and their fraud of billing me after they had a full payoff and recorded it - or should I say "the computer did it"? I have names dates and receipt for everything.

However, the sales manager does not seem to care and he even did raise his head from his desk. I asked to talk to the owner and I was told by the sales manager that the owner was in Florida on vacation and he would not answer my phone. Right before the accident on 05/31/2010, the ESP, ABS, steering angle sensor and the right rear speed sensor were malfunctioning. The car was out of control skewing to the left side through the traffic light and resulted in a serious accident unfortunately. My passage side was hit by the other car. Both cars are a total loss and I was issued a ticket by the police office for disregarding the traffic light and I was blamed for the accident. That is similar to Toyota recall that the cars are out of speed and the brake is out of control.

The engineer from Mercedes-Benz customer service and the insurance company are conducting the investigation for the accident. I told the America Service Center, Mercedes Benz dealer that when the engineer from Mercedes Benz customer service showed up, I have to be present before he enters my car. However, the engineer ignored my authorization. The engineer told me that there was nothing wrong with the car. You cannot get any information from me. I will write the report to the customer service and they will contact you then he hung up the phone. It is hard for me to believe what the engineer said and I asked the mechanics and service manager in America Service Center, Mercedes Benz dealer to print out the computer records before the accident.

Surprisingly, the ABS malfunction signal was not in the record. I have 2 pages computer records for both mechanical and electrical faults. There are many faults from the computer records including steering angle sensor, right rear speed sensor, cruise control, ESP and etc. I discussed those with the service manager Allen **, who was in charge of my car service since I bought the car. He agreed that all the faults, at least the mechanical faults, were responsible for the accident besides the ESP fault. I believe the engineer from Mercedes Benz customer service deleted the ABS fault and modified the ESP fault because I took the pictures for the ESP and ABS malfunctioning error in my phone that can prove it. I can provide all the supporting documents. The Mercedes Benz customer service denies all the facts that the defected car caused the accident. I wonder whether or not someone can help me on this serious issue besides I, myself, had a concussion from the accident.

MBF would only give me a lease payoff with the sales tax included. My buyer would not agree to the higher price. It seems as though Mercedes Benz are forcing their customers to only sell their cars through the MB dealerships. The irony is that I sold 2 leased Honda Civics the month before. Both were done without sales tax. And even though I pointed this out to MBF, they said it was a different set of circumstances.