Mercedes Climate Control Knob?

So, 2002 C240 we detailed and my guys accidentally vacuumed up one of those round climate control knob.

Luckily we found it after couple of days searching in our vacuum bin.

Our lube tech tried to put it back on but kept falling off.

It looks like there is some sort of "teeth" that got broke.

I don't know why, but I told customer that we'll get new knob.

Turns out you can't just buy knob. You have to buy the whole assembly.

Even junkyards will only sell the whole assembly.

It's frustrating, because now that I think about it, knobs just don't get sucked in by vacuum. But, it's too late now as I have already admitted guilt.

Anyways, I'm trying to see if there is a cheaper solution to this then buying whole assembly.

Any ideas or suggestions?

-tom

1. Glue it on

Tell the owner that Mercedes no longer sells just a knob, and you were able to reuse the old one (everything is factual, and the car is just as it was when you received it)

2. A different knob that fits. this will take time to find a knob on line that will fit a metric stem. It would not be as pretty as #1.

man, remind me never to take my car to your wash. It seems like something bad is always going on there.

I would start reeducating your employees. You seem to be having a lot of unnecessary damage claims.

We have the same issue with a 2002 CLK. I would gladly buy the whole assembly from a junkyard, but unfortunately we can't find one. We'd also glue the dang button on if we could find it, but it's missing.

I know, right? It seems like whenever we have claims, they all flood in.

Sometimes, we go monthes without a single claim. Then for some odd reason, when we get claim, they seem to come in bundles.

Before I bought this place, the previous owner had about average $500/month on claims. What do you think? That about right for a busy full service with service shop?

I don't know about educating. We have frequent meetings but most my guys have been with me over year and everyone has at least minimum 3 year car wash/detail experience. One thing I learned quick was to never hire just warm body. If I can help, I would go as long as I can to find right people. So, in that department, I'm pretty content.

But no matter, I think you will always have claims come up. Maybe people spread the words that you are "soft"? I have paid for more claims that I know that I could have denied, but I pay anyway to save the biz. Like this button thing. I don't think vacuuming can suck out a button that is properly in there. Even so, we did find the button but the teethes on both the button and on the assembly is broke. I seriously doubt that vacuuming can break it.

Looks like "glue" might be the best solution. Now, let me see if the customer will swallow that. Something tells me that she may not like that idea very much.

And by the way, I ended up paying for the wheel cover damage too($336). Why? I looked at the customer's history and she been coming for past 5 years regularly and the past two times, she had purhcased detail. Someone made a comment that I shouldn't depend on past biz when considering claims. But, I think I get "soft" when dealing with "regular" customers. It's lot easier to deny claims when they are first timers. Is that bad?

-tom

I never updated our story, but after asking the customer to come back and let us search a little better, we found the dang thing. It snapped right back into place and all was good again.

Sometimes you dodge the bullet.

the knob was probably already broken to start with

So, we got a used climate control assembly and finally got the issue taken care. We had to get the whole assembly, because nobody sells just the knob and even if we had just the knob, the teeth that holds it was broken so it wouldn't work. Total cost $200+. She also asked for free wash.

Now, going back, I agree with "starwash", it was most likely already broke to begin with. But it was one of those things that I did to save face. She did get $129 detail when this happend so I'm not too badly damaged, hopefully. And she'll come back, so we should be okay in a long run.

But with all this happening, I wonder if she really did NOT know that it was broke before or she seized the opportunity to get a quick fix out of us. I really hope it's not the latter, but I would never know. I love this car wash biz, but only thing I really do NOT like so much is this "damage" handlings. I guess the less stressful way to think of it is that it's just the cost of doing business and you'll always have some damages and don't get personal about it. Well that is the lesson that I have learned so far. But I'm not sure if that is the best solution. It is the best one I have gotten so far. I'm all ears to anyone who may have better solution or attitude about all this.

Luckily, we've been having some great weather streaks and I now do have some cash to pay for the damages. Yay!

-tom