You’d think that with all of their recent quality problems and precipitious drop in the uber-critical JD Power rankings, Mercedes-benz would be hyper-sensitive to perceived quality, service and reputation blemishes.

Which is what makes the plight of Andre Haynes all the more inexplicable. You see, Haynes recently had his Mercedes CL-500 stolen from the Mercedes Silver Star Motor Dealership in Long Island City where he’d brought it in for routine servicing.

As bad as that experience must have been for Mr. Haynes, published reports say dealership employees were not only unapologetic and unhelpful, they even refused to provide him with a loaner car. But, here’s where the image and reputation "speed bump" get really bad. When alerted to the news story, several local media tried contacting the corporate communications folks at Mercedes for an explanation. All they got in response was a "no comment."

Mercedes’ reaction and response to this customer service "breakdown" is a textbook example of what not to do. Especially when the company is trying to re-build its once legendary image.

In summing up, I can only agree with poor Mr. Haynes who described the car company’s customer service as "appalling" and said, "Someone should be accountable. Mercedes-Benz should be accountable." Whoever is responsible for driving Mercedes-Benz’s communications should be pulled over by the image police for having been asleep at the wheel.

Hat tip to Deb Brown for this idea.