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No Car, Day 8
Jul. 12th, 2022 12:41 pmKimberly has made 3 calls to Mercedes-Benz of Honolulu, talked to a receptionist each time and never gotten a call back. After they missed their newest deadline (this time imposed by us) of calling back within a day, I call the main Mercedes Benz USA phone number for dealing with the stop-drive-order they've issued due to the possibility of massive brake failure in a million of their cars.
It rings, I'm put on hold, and then I'm bumped over to a customer support rep within seconds.
I explain that we've now called our local dealership three times over the course of a week, and they haven't even called us back, let alone set a date for inspection/repair. I tell her that we're 10 miles out of town (and don't bother mentioning that I'd die if I tried to bicycle on the highway, as most people wouldn't even consider biking 10 miles into town an option) and that we have no other cars in the household.
REP: Well you can get reimbursed for a car rental under this program. You just present the receipts when they inspect your car, as long as it's less than $80 a day.
ME: Hawaii is a very expensive rental market. Car rentals can easily run $200 a day. (I've since found that the cheapest rentals on Expedia are about $125 a day.)
REP: Oh my gosh!
[No suggestion is made that there's anything they might do about that.]
REP: Let me talk with your local dealer.
REP: I'm calling up Hellabula.
ME: What?
REP: Hellabula.
ME: Oh, Mercedes-Benz of Honolulu. Yeah, that's right.
[I'm put on hold for 5 minutes.]
REP: OK, I've got your local dealership on the line, and they'll take care of you.
[I'm switched over. Rather miraculously, no one "accidentally" hangs up on me this whole process.]
LOCAL ADMIN: OK, let me check your information and that I'll PUSH your ticket through.
[It sounds to me at first like maybe he's suggesting he's giving it extra effort, but I come to realize as he keeps reusing the word that he's just using PUSH as a synonym for send, probably to *suggest* that it might get extra attention.]
[I help him verify my info.]
LOCAL ADMIN: OK, I'm going to PUSH that ticket through now. XXX XXX will call you back.
ME: When will they call me back?
LOCAL ADMIN: I don't know but it'll definitely be XXX XXX. They're your rep.
[They think a moment.]
LOCAL ADMIN: Or it could be someone else. But if so they'll be just as good as XXX XXX.
ME: [not caring who XXX XXX is and not really caring if they're good because they just have to take bags off my brakes and verify there's no corrosion]. OK. We're 10 miles out of town and we have no other car.
LOCAL ADMIN: I will definitely PUSH this through.
[I throw up my hands, because I'm not sure this has done any good, because we've ended up just calling Mercedes Benz of Honolulu a fourth time. But maybe LOCAL ADMIN will PUSH it through because it came from the USA office. I figure it's good enough to wait another couple of days to see.]
ME: OK, thank you very much for your help.
[I could probably get a Turo for $80. And wouldn't that be delightful.]
It rings, I'm put on hold, and then I'm bumped over to a customer support rep within seconds.
I explain that we've now called our local dealership three times over the course of a week, and they haven't even called us back, let alone set a date for inspection/repair. I tell her that we're 10 miles out of town (and don't bother mentioning that I'd die if I tried to bicycle on the highway, as most people wouldn't even consider biking 10 miles into town an option) and that we have no other cars in the household.
REP: Well you can get reimbursed for a car rental under this program. You just present the receipts when they inspect your car, as long as it's less than $80 a day.
ME: Hawaii is a very expensive rental market. Car rentals can easily run $200 a day. (I've since found that the cheapest rentals on Expedia are about $125 a day.)
REP: Oh my gosh!
[No suggestion is made that there's anything they might do about that.]
REP: Let me talk with your local dealer.
REP: I'm calling up Hellabula.
ME: What?
REP: Hellabula.
ME: Oh, Mercedes-Benz of Honolulu. Yeah, that's right.
[I'm put on hold for 5 minutes.]
REP: OK, I've got your local dealership on the line, and they'll take care of you.
[I'm switched over. Rather miraculously, no one "accidentally" hangs up on me this whole process.]
LOCAL ADMIN: OK, let me check your information and that I'll PUSH your ticket through.
[It sounds to me at first like maybe he's suggesting he's giving it extra effort, but I come to realize as he keeps reusing the word that he's just using PUSH as a synonym for send, probably to *suggest* that it might get extra attention.]
[I help him verify my info.]
LOCAL ADMIN: OK, I'm going to PUSH that ticket through now. XXX XXX will call you back.
ME: When will they call me back?
LOCAL ADMIN: I don't know but it'll definitely be XXX XXX. They're your rep.
[They think a moment.]
LOCAL ADMIN: Or it could be someone else. But if so they'll be just as good as XXX XXX.
ME: [not caring who XXX XXX is and not really caring if they're good because they just have to take bags off my brakes and verify there's no corrosion]. OK. We're 10 miles out of town and we have no other car.
LOCAL ADMIN: I will definitely PUSH this through.
[I throw up my hands, because I'm not sure this has done any good, because we've ended up just calling Mercedes Benz of Honolulu a fourth time. But maybe LOCAL ADMIN will PUSH it through because it came from the USA office. I figure it's good enough to wait another couple of days to see.]
ME: OK, thank you very much for your help.
[I could probably get a Turo for $80. And wouldn't that be delightful.]