Accused of cracking my panoramic sunroof within less than 24 hours of ownership.
I had largely forgiven and ignored Tesla’s less than adequate customer service, because I was keen to get my hands on my new car. My experience today though, cannot be ignored.
I collected my Model 3 AWD Performance on 28/09/19 from Dartford, my scheduled appointment was 15:00, we didn’t end up leaving until just gone 17:00. It was busy, very busy (think cattle market/conveyer belt). We were asked to inspect the car, in less than adequate light with a guy pressuring us to leave. When I noticed the car had less mileage range in it than our anticipated trip home, I was advised to drive to Bluewater and use a super charger there, as they were too busy to charge it again. That was a great first start having just spent 50k on a car.
We arrived home at about 21:00 having taken a slight detour on the way home to grab some food. We live 74 miles from the dealership, we had done just over 100 miles by the time we got home. It was dark.
The next day (29/09/19) around 14:00, we noticed a huge crack in the panoramic sunroof. In a panic, I took multiple photographs, tried calling customer service (no answer) and emailed the only Tesla email that I knew “[email protected]” this then appeared to get forwarded to the Body Shop team. I wasn’t told who to contact in a situation like this and I didn’t know that I was meant to book an appoint on the Tesla app. Anyway, on the 2nd of October the Tesla team automatically booked me an appointment and I received a confirmation email, saying that the repair was booked for 5th November, I was abroad so subsequently changed this to 08:00 on 8th November (a good 6 weeks away).
The crack wasn’t causing any issues, so I thought no more of it, until I turned up at my appointment on the 8th November.
Within a few sentences of the Customer Service Assistant greeting me, she stated that the crack to the panoramic roof was “clearly impact damage”, stated in a very accusatory tone. She then went on to say that she had “no copy of the emails” and was “concerned” that there was a delay to booking the repair appointment (It was a weekend?! I didn’t know you could do it on the app!?) She was accusing me of the damage.
Multiple times she then reiterated that fact that it was “impact damage” and the car had gone through a “multiple stage inspection prior to collection”. Insinuating that I was responsible for the cracked roof. I’d love to know how she thinks I caused that crack within less than 24 hours of owning it- maybe I dropped an anvil on it? Or maybe I got a bit too eager with the claw attachment on my crane, in the dark, at 21:00. I’ve got no idea, but we all know about Tesla’s super quick turnaround and speedy delivery of the vehicles to the dealership on the same day. I was getting in a bit of a fluster at this point, but managed to find the emails to prove my innocence. This seemed to settle her.
Next, I’m told the “glass repair man” can’t get to Dartford until 13:00, as he’s got another job to do in Hastings first. Right……so why didn’t they reschedule my appointment- I arrived at 08:10, I now have a 7-8 hour wait (after the glass is fitted and cured). I didn’t really get a straight answer about why I wasn’t told to come in later.
In the Customer Service Assistance’s defence, she did offer me a hire car (but it would take me two hours each way to go home and come back), she did offer to drive me to Bluewater and she did apologise for the accusation when I saw red and exploded.
From my experience of owning and maintaining BMW/Mercedes, they just don’t have this arrogant attitude with their customers. I spent 50k on a car and get treated like this? This just seriously isn’t going to wash. If this continues, then when BMW releases it 100% electric car, we will all jump ship over to BMW, because we much prefer the way they treat us.
Lesson learnt, don’t let Tesla pressure you into leaving the forecourt with your new vehicle until you are ready to do so. If you do then find a fault, take photos and save all emails- you may be required to use these to prove your innocence.
On the flip side I absolutely adore my AWD Performance and I’m hopeful that after today I won’t have to set foot in another service centre for a few years.
Anyone else had an unenviable experience with the Tesla damage repair??
I had largely forgiven and ignored Tesla’s less than adequate customer service, because I was keen to get my hands on my new car. My experience today though, cannot be ignored.
I collected my Model 3 AWD Performance on 28/09/19 from Dartford, my scheduled appointment was 15:00, we didn’t end up leaving until just gone 17:00. It was busy, very busy (think cattle market/conveyer belt). We were asked to inspect the car, in less than adequate light with a guy pressuring us to leave. When I noticed the car had less mileage range in it than our anticipated trip home, I was advised to drive to Bluewater and use a super charger there, as they were too busy to charge it again. That was a great first start having just spent 50k on a car.
We arrived home at about 21:00 having taken a slight detour on the way home to grab some food. We live 74 miles from the dealership, we had done just over 100 miles by the time we got home. It was dark.
The next day (29/09/19) around 14:00, we noticed a huge crack in the panoramic sunroof. In a panic, I took multiple photographs, tried calling customer service (no answer) and emailed the only Tesla email that I knew “[email protected]” this then appeared to get forwarded to the Body Shop team. I wasn’t told who to contact in a situation like this and I didn’t know that I was meant to book an appoint on the Tesla app. Anyway, on the 2nd of October the Tesla team automatically booked me an appointment and I received a confirmation email, saying that the repair was booked for 5th November, I was abroad so subsequently changed this to 08:00 on 8th November (a good 6 weeks away).
The crack wasn’t causing any issues, so I thought no more of it, until I turned up at my appointment on the 8th November.
Within a few sentences of the Customer Service Assistant greeting me, she stated that the crack to the panoramic roof was “clearly impact damage”, stated in a very accusatory tone. She then went on to say that she had “no copy of the emails” and was “concerned” that there was a delay to booking the repair appointment (It was a weekend?! I didn’t know you could do it on the app!?) She was accusing me of the damage.
Multiple times she then reiterated that fact that it was “impact damage” and the car had gone through a “multiple stage inspection prior to collection”. Insinuating that I was responsible for the cracked roof. I’d love to know how she thinks I caused that crack within less than 24 hours of owning it- maybe I dropped an anvil on it? Or maybe I got a bit too eager with the claw attachment on my crane, in the dark, at 21:00. I’ve got no idea, but we all know about Tesla’s super quick turnaround and speedy delivery of the vehicles to the dealership on the same day. I was getting in a bit of a fluster at this point, but managed to find the emails to prove my innocence. This seemed to settle her.
Next, I’m told the “glass repair man” can’t get to Dartford until 13:00, as he’s got another job to do in Hastings first. Right……so why didn’t they reschedule my appointment- I arrived at 08:10, I now have a 7-8 hour wait (after the glass is fitted and cured). I didn’t really get a straight answer about why I wasn’t told to come in later.
In the Customer Service Assistance’s defence, she did offer me a hire car (but it would take me two hours each way to go home and come back), she did offer to drive me to Bluewater and she did apologise for the accusation when I saw red and exploded.
From my experience of owning and maintaining BMW/Mercedes, they just don’t have this arrogant attitude with their customers. I spent 50k on a car and get treated like this? This just seriously isn’t going to wash. If this continues, then when BMW releases it 100% electric car, we will all jump ship over to BMW, because we much prefer the way they treat us.
Lesson learnt, don’t let Tesla pressure you into leaving the forecourt with your new vehicle until you are ready to do so. If you do then find a fault, take photos and save all emails- you may be required to use these to prove your innocence.
On the flip side I absolutely adore my AWD Performance and I’m hopeful that after today I won’t have to set foot in another service centre for a few years.
Anyone else had an unenviable experience with the Tesla damage repair??
