I took my '84 Mercedes 300SD to Tony Sardo yesterday to have the 2 front seats in the vehicle rebuilt so they would support the weight of someone sitting on them properly, as they had collapsed down over time.
I left the car with Tony in the morning, then received a call from him that afternoon telling me that the driver's electric backrest adjuster had failed. The backrest would now only move in the reclining direction, but no longer move in the sitting upright direction. He told me that he had his Mercedes friend over from next door to look at the issue and that the guy ""told Tony"" that the ""brain"" directly under the driver's seat may have failed, or that the electric seat switch in the driver's door had failed.
I asked Tony what about the possibility of a broken wire in the wiring harness to the driver's seat, or the connector that plugs into the underside of the seat having a wire possibly detach from the connector, which could have happened by rough handling of the driver's seat when Tony removed it?
Tony INSISTED that the wiring harness was fine, and that his Mercedes guy next door had used a 12v battery to test the seat functions, and that the seat operated without issue, so, according to Tony, it must be the ""brain"" underneath the seat, or the seat switching in the driver's door. (I informed Tony that a new seat control switch housing is expensive, costing around $200 - $250, by the way.)
Tony suggested I leave the car in his shop overnight, and he would look for the ""problem"". I refused and got my car out, paying Tony the $350 in cash for the rebuilding job he did on the 2 front seats. I drove the car home with my backrest stuck all the way back in an almost fully reclined position.
Upon returning home, I removed the driver's seat myself, and dismantled the driver's door's electric seat housing to inspect that also. There was nothing wrong with the driver's door seat connectors or the switch housing. I then looked under the driver's seat once I had it out of the car. Naturally, there is NO BRAIN in the seat, just a series of motors and connectors.
I inspected the wiring harness to the seat and took a close look at the multipin connector on the end of the harness. Sure enough, as I had suggested to Tony (and had already asked him ""could it be the harness under the seat?"" to which he outright denied) I found one of the wires had separated from it's solder point, a gray wire, which feeds power to the backrest motor, moving the backrest into the upright position.
I soldered the wire back in place to the pin in the connector and called Tony again, asking him if he was absolutely certain that the fault didn't lie with the wiring harness. He again went on about the fictional ""brain"" under the seat probably being the problem, or the seat switch housing, the former being an item that doesn't actually exist on my car, and the latter being an expensive item to replace.
So to summarize, I was lied to (possibly in order to screw me out of money for items on my car that either A) don't exist or B) cost a lot to replace, but in reality - all Tony would have had to actually do is exactly what I did, re-solder the gray wire to it's pin on the connector that plugs into the driver's seat.
And I'm absolutely convinced, that if I had left him with my car to do that, he would have ""had his Mercedes guy next door"" work on my car and extracted money from me for items on my car that don't exist or items (such as the Mercedes driver's seat switch and housing) that would have been left untouched, but that I would have been billed for.
That's right Tony, blame your shady activity (at least with me, an honest first time - and last time customer with you) - on the age old alibi that old cars are temperamental.
Then put that Mercedes owning customer's money in your back pocket and tell them you had your Mercedes guy next door look at it, and fix it.
Don't use this guy, ESPECIALLY if you own a Mercedes. He's as dodgy as they come!!
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