What makes car owners even more helpless is that Mercedes-Benz and its dealer Polytech Group are now "playing ball". Mercedes-Benz's official customer service told Sina Technology that the authorization with the other party has been cancelled, and maintenance and other issues should be negotiated and handled by the other party; while the official hotline of Polyde and the Polyde-Benz Shanghai store phone number are unanswered.
Who should protect the rights and interests of car owners who are in trouble?
Stores in many places closed suddenly and services were "invalid"
Recently, many Mercedes-Benz car owners reported to Sina Technology that the Mercedes-Benz Shanghai Songjiang store suddenly closed down, resulting in the extended warranty, maintenance and other services purchased by the car owners being unavailable.
Mr. Tang said that he purchased a Mercedes-Benz GLC260L at the Shanghai Songjiang store in May 2024, and also bundled the extended warranty, 5-year warranty and 3A3B maintenance package (A guarantee is minor maintenance, B guarantee is major maintenance). A total of 12,888 yuan was paid for these services. But recently, he found that the store was suddenly empty and could no longer provide services. At this time, he still had the remaining 2A3B maintenance and 2-year extended warranty services unused.
He also received a text message from Mercedes-Benz. The text message showed that due to business adjustments, Shanghai Baolid Automobile Co., Ltd.’s Mercedes-Benz authorization will be terminated on March 24, 2025. Regarding the follow-up after-sales service of the vehicle, you can learn about other authorized store information through the Mercedes-Benz official website. Many benefits that have not yet been used or redeemed can be continued through any authorized Mercedes-Benz store. If you purchase after-sales products in Shanghai Polyide that are limited to redemption and use by Polyide Group, and there is no consumption part, you can contact Polyide Group for follow-up negotiations.
After making inquiries, he learned that the maintenance package he purchased was for Polytech Group's in-store service, not the original Mercedes-Benz maintenance package, and could not be used in other authorized stores. But looking through the previous car purchase contract, it clearly stated "manufacturer" maintenance, and he thought he had been deceived.
In addition, some car owners have purchased services such as air conditioning filter replacement, spark plug replacement, and single-sided painting. Some accounts still have a maintenance fund of 5,000 yuan, which can no longer be used.
A Shanghai car owner told Sina Technology that the sudden closure of the Shanghai Songjiang store affected many car owners. Currently, their Shanghai Songjiang store owner group has reached nearly 400 people. All of them have affected subsequent vehicle services due to the store closure.
Sina Technology found that not only Shanghai, but also Mercedes-Benz owners in many places reported that local stores were suddenly closed. For example, many car owners of Hangzhou Xingbaoxing and Changxing Star have received text messages from Mercedes-Benz stating that local store authorization will terminate on March 24, 2025.
In other words, the store closure incident affected far more than 400 car owners.
Mercedes-Benz and dealers blame each other, leaving users with no way to protect their rights
Sina Technology noticed that the closures of Benz stores in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Changxing are all owned by the Polytech Group.
According to the official website of Polytech Group, Polytech was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Hangzhou. It focuses on luxury car brand service operations. It owns nearly 40 international luxury car brand experience centers such as Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land Rover, Porsche, Lincoln, FAW-Volkswagen Audi, etc. It claims to be among the top 20 auto retail groups in China, with more than 600,000 luxury car users and households.
However, such a powerful luxury car dealer group is not responsible for the legitimate rights and interests of users.
A Mercedes-Benz owner told Sina Technology that in September 2024, there were rumors in the Mercedes-Benz circle that the capital chain of Polyide Group was broken. After his car insurance expired in October, Polyide's employee in charge of car insurance contacted him to quote the car insurance. When he asked if there was a risk of thunderstorms, the employee denied it, "I didn't expect to be cheated!" Now, because the store is closed, many of the free services he received for car insurance cannot be honored.
What these car owners cannot accept is that Mercedes-Benz and Polytech are "playing ball". For many matters, Mercedes-Benz's official customer service reply is to negotiate with Polytech themselves, but Polytech's official customer service phone has been unable to be connected.
In order to verify this statement, Sina Technology called the Polyde Benz Shanghai store many times, but no one answered the phone. Mercedes-Benz's official customer service told Sina Technology that Polyide Group has made internal business adjustments. The three stores of Shanghai Polyide, Hangzhou Xingbaoxing and Changxing Star have canceled their authorization on March 24 and are now closed. As for the user's vehicle service, the vehicle is jointly guaranteed nationwide and can be repaired at any dealer during the warranty period; as for the user's maintenance package, one is official from Mercedes-Benz and can be used at any store, and the other is from Polyde Group, which can only be used at Polyde Group stores, or you can consult the Polyde Group hotline for assistance.
Why can't Mercedes-Benz officials help solve the problem? The customer service said, "If the user purchases a maintenance package from the Polytech Group, according to the anti-monopoly law, the manufacturer cannot have any involvement in the dealer's product sales and management."
Performance drops, global layoffs!
In fact, behind the chaos in Mercedes-Benz store management is its decline in the global and Chinese markets in recent years.
According to Mercedes-Benz's previously released 2024 financial report, both its revenue and profits declined. In 2024, Mercedes-Benz's total revenue will be 145.59 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of 4.5%; net profit will be 10.4 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of 28.4%.
In terms of sales, Mercedes-Benz will sell a total of 1.9834 million cars globally in 2024, a year-on-year decrease of 3%. Among them, the decline in the Chinese market was even worse. Mercedes-Benz China sales were 683,600 units, a year-on-year decrease of 7.3%.
Behind the decline in performance of Mercedes-Benz in the Chinese market are factors such as the ineffective transformation of new energy sources and the impact of the strong rise of Chinese car companies. Taking electric vehicles as an example, data shows that Mercedes-Benz's global pure electric vehicle sales in 2024 will be only 185,100 units, a year-on-year drop of 23.1%; and many Chinese car companies are relying on new energy vehicles to overtake and enter the luxury market. The three major BBA luxury brands, including Mercedes-Benz, have all been affected.
Recently, Mercedes-Benz has been deeply involved in large-scale layoffs. In February this year, Mercedes-Benz China ushered in rumors of major layoffs. It is reported that Mercedes-Benz China will lay off about 15% of its employees, and laid-off employees will receive N+9 compensation, which mainly involves sales and auto finance systems. Mercedes-Benz China also acknowledged the layoffs in a subsequent statement, saying that business integration or reduction will inevitably involve the work arrangements of some employees. "We will also adjust job settings and work with employees to learn new skills based on business needs, and consolidate or eliminate redundant and repetitive positions."
Recently, foreign media revealed that Mercedes-Benz plans to lay off 30,000 people worldwide. According to reports, Mercedes-Benz management plans to send a letter to all employees in April to provide generous severance compensation packages to employees who are about to leave. Mercedes-Benz CEO Karenius said that by providing generous severance packages, he hopes to encourage about 30,000 employees to voluntarily leave.
There is no doubt that Mercedes-Benz is currently experiencing an unprecedented crisis globally and in China. But the embarrassing thing is that Mercedes-Benz employees can get generous compensation, and what should the Mercedes-Benz owners who have no one to take responsibility do?