Advice Needed - Tesla smoked my DVR

[noobey]

Hi guys,
I visited the Tesla store in West Drayton (London, UK) today for a tyre change.
The experience itself was what I've become accustomed to as an owner of a Tesla for the last 6 or so months;

• The quoted 1 hour "while you wait" job took nearly 4 and a half hours
• The quoted price was incorrect and they tried to charge me more, despite putting in writing an agreed price.
• They added parts to the car (new TPMS) without asking me then tried to charge me for it.
• No inspection of the vehicle was done at any point in time. They took my keys, said someone would be over to inspect the vehicle with me before touching the car, but then after 4 and a bit hours of me asking how long it would be, they said the work was complete.
• I booked the job last week around an evening flight I had to catch. I made them aware of the flight time when booking the work and turned up on time. Yep you guessed it....... They handed my keys back shortly before I was due to take off. I missed my non-refundable flight. (No, I'm not asking for any compensation)

All that is what I would call "The Tesla service experience".

I accept that I'm on a downer and the majority of experiences are different, but honestly, since the very first day of buying this thing I've had to take it back to resolve issues and the service has always been a really odd interaction.
Today was no different.

I've just arrived home, and found my blackvue dashcam DVR unplugged at the unit itself, not at the 12v cigarette socket.
As I went to plug it back in, I noticed the SD card was not inserted properly (there's a flap that covers the port that was also left hanging).
I'm not too sure why I checked, but I did..... and yep..... The Tesla engineers completely formatted the 128GB SD card.\

So I thought I'd ask your advice;

1. Is there any legitimate business need for a mechanic to wipe a DVR SD card, let alone disconnect it when changing wheels on a Tesla?
2. What should I do?
3. What would you do?

I just don't to come off as the constant complaining customer here, but I feel kinda betrayed here. (difficult to explain, best word I could think of)
I'm not sure why they did it, and I had to collect my car in the dark from them, so am not sure if they've damaged it yet.

Appreciate any feedback.

Thanks

 

[brianman]

The above all sounds horrible and quite different from any Tesla service experience I've had. Hopefully some other London folks will chime in to offer (a) if this is 'normal' for that location and (b) recommendations of a productive way to follow-up.

 

[bak_phy]

The few other anecdotes from London would seem to indicate that this is experience is pretty normal there.

 

[gearchruncher]

I read all off this trying to figure out how they permanently destroyed your DashCam, to find out the unplugged it and formatted it.

In the USA, DashCams are a legal mixed bag. Giving your car to someone with one running without telling them explicitly is illegal.

 

[noobey]

Thanks for the responses guys.
I can't figure out how to edit my post but I wanted to add that because there was no inspection, I signed no paperwork and gave no explicit permission for any work to be carried out on my car.
I'm actually kind of worried they did something really silly and have covered their tracks.
Either way, I have no faith in Tesla, which is a real shame given how much of a fanboy I am and how much money I've spent with them.

 

[doctorwho]

have you asked them why they reformatted your dashcam?

 

[noobey]

Hi, no not yet.
I only just realised as I got home and they were closing up as I left.

Thought I'd ask on here just in case there's an obvious answer I'm not thinking of.

 

[Max*]

I read all off this trying to figure out how they permanently destroyed your DashCam, to find out the unplugged it and formatted it.

In the USA, DashCams are a legal mixed bag. Giving your car to someone with one running without telling them explicitly is illegal.

Can you backup your statement?

From my knowledge, it varies by state. And the states that do have laws, are for audio only, not video.

 

[Max*]

Hi, no not yet.
I only just realised as I got home and they were closing up as I left.

Thought I'd ask on here just in case there's an obvious answer I'm not thinking of.

Several forum members here have commented that Tesla does disconnect the dashcams as standard operating procedure. I've never heard of them formatting the card.

Though there was someone (today? last week?) that commented that his blackvue was disconnected and there was no record of anyone disconnecting it and he wondered if they just deleted one file or if the camera just didn't record the last frame fast enough before it was disconnected.

 

[noobey]

So Tesla just sent me a survey on the service and I've let them know whats happened.
More annoyingly, my brakes now make a SUPER loud squeaky noise when stopping. its embarrassing.

Will let you know what they come back with.

 

[Zaphod]

I'm not too sure why I checked, but I did..... and yep..... The Tesla engineers completely formatted the 128GB SD card.\

Tesla engineers had nothing to do with your car. It would have been their service technicians.

 

[noobey]

Tesla engineers had nothing to do with your car. It would have been their service technicians.

Thanks for correcting my terminology.
Have yourself a great weekend.

 

[Polyport]

Hi, no not yet.
I only just realised as I got home and they were closing up as I left.

Thought I'd ask on here just in case there's an obvious answer I'm not thinking of.

You can always try and recover whatever was deleted from your card. Here's one article talking about how to do it on a Mac: How to Recover Deleted Photos From Your Memory Card or Smartphone

 

[HebrHmr]

You can always try and recover whatever was deleted from your card. Here's one article talking about how to do it on a Mac: How to Recover Deleted Photos From Your Memory Card or Smartphone

Good call, as long as you didn't reinsert the card and write over anything you can almost certainly recover the data and watch what happened before it was disconnected.

I'd understand disconnecting (with notification) as part of a standard operating procedure but they had no right to format the card as you could have had something important recorded on there prior.

 

[K-MTG]

Don't mess with it, recover the files. I am sure someone with recovery experience would help you through the process on the forum.

 

[Jeff65]

I recently had the 2nd "annual service" in NJ and had a similar experience. It took 6+ hours to:

1) "update the software" : it was already at the latest version when I got there.
2) Adjust the alignment : I saw the alignment report from the computer and no adjustments were required.
3) Recharge the Air-conditioning : not needed as it was friggin cold enough.

I unplugged my dashcam before leaving the car since I know they will muck with it.

I never bring the car to Tesla for tire (or tyre) related issues. Any local tire shop can do that in 1/10th the time.

I am concerned that Tesla service centers will be a bigger nightmare once the hundreds of thousands of Model 3s are delivered.

Jeff

 

[ev-now]

I read all off this trying to figure out how they permanently destroyed your DashCam, to find out the unplugged it and formatted it.

In the USA, DashCams are a legal mixed bag. Giving your car to someone with one running without telling them explicitly is illegal.

Also interested in your source for this. CO is a one-party state for audio or video - your state may differ.

 

[Canuck]

I read all off this trying to figure out how they permanently destroyed your DashCam, to find out the unplugged it and formatted it.

Me too.

In the USA, DashCams are a legal mixed bag. Giving your car to someone with one running without telling them explicitly is illegal.

Also interested in your source for this. CO is a one-party state for audio or video - your state may differ.

The one or two party consent rule is not relevant. You are leaving the vehicle with them so there's not even one party to the communication to consent. There's only one party (the mechanic) and he doesn't know he's being taped so how can he consent? I guess if you could watch him through cell/wifi, or later on the SD card, you could say there are two parties, but then you are not communicating. You are conducting surveillance. So we need to know the test for surveillance.

That test is called the "reasonable expectation of privacy". When someone takes a vehicle in for service, arguably there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. Investigators, journalists, etc. often send in vehicles with hidden cameras to see if mechanics are being truthful. There is usually nothing illegal about that because no mechanic expects privacy when working on a vehicle. Going to the bathroom, or being in his shop doing paperwork, of course.

Tesla always unplugs my dashcam when it goes in for service. In fact, before they drive off the lot (my car is picked up and dropped off from my office for service) they disable connectivity with the app, and unplug the dashcam. I'm certain there's a directive from corporate to do that since that only makes sense to limit potential liability.

 

[Akikiki]

Hi guys,
I visited the Tesla store in West Drayton (London, UK) today for a tyre change.
The experience itself was what I've become accustomed to as an owner of a Tesla for the last 6 or so months;

• The quoted 1 hour "while you wait" job took nearly 4 and a half hours
• The quoted price was incorrect and they tried to charge me more, despite putting in writing an agreed price.
• They added parts to the car (new TPMS) without asking me then tried to charge me for it.
• No inspection of the vehicle was done at any point in time. They took my keys, said someone would be over to inspect the vehicle with me before touching the car, but then after 4 and a bit hours of me asking how long it would be, they said the work was complete.
• I booked the job last week around an evening flight I had to catch. I made them aware of the flight time when booking the work and turned up on time. Yep you guessed it....... They handed my keys back shortly before I was due to take off. I missed my non-refundable flight. (No, I'm not asking for any compensation)

All that is what I would call "The Tesla service experience".

I accept that I'm on a downer and the majority of experiences are different, but honestly, since the very first day of buying this thing I've had to take it back to resolve issues and the service has always been a really odd interaction.
Today was no different.

I've just arrived home, and found my blackvue dashcam DVR unplugged at the unit itself, not at the 12v cigarette socket.
As I went to plug it back in, I noticed the SD card was not inserted properly (there's a flap that covers the port that was also left hanging).
I'm not too sure why I checked, but I did..... and yep..... The Tesla engineers completely formatted the 128GB SD card.\

So I thought I'd ask your advice;

1. Is there any legitimate business need for a mechanic to wipe a DVR SD card, let alone disconnect it when changing wheels on a Tesla?
2. What should I do?
3. What would you do?

I just don't to come off as the constant complaining customer here, but I feel kinda betrayed here. (difficult to explain, best word I could think of)
I'm not sure why they did it, and I had to collect my car in the dark from them, so am not sure if they've damaged it yet.

Appreciate any feedback.

Thanks

Here's my two cents. I have a Blackvue too. And when mine comes out from the service center, its unplugged at the camera. I suspect they know that's the certain way of insuring its not powered on. And once or twice, the flap over the SD card has been loose. I suspect (but I am not really concerned) that when they pulled the power plug and the plug to the rear camera it hung on the flap and the flap pulled loose too. And IF my SD card was formatted I would assume that the techs at start did not notice the dashcam was there when they first pulled the car inside the service center but must have noticed it after it had sit inside several hours. So with several hours of recorded - no telling what that is none of my business recorded on the SD card, they thought it best to erase the files by formatting the card. No big deal, I didn't need anything on the card - such as a recent accident or I would have already swapped SD Cards and put a freshly formatted one in there. I know for me, Its not a big deal and no reason to make a big deal out of it.
I think of this situation as sort of my responsibility to have warned them, or unplugged it myself before I turned it over to them.
What ever the reason, no harm done.

 

[K-MTG]

But why should they be concerned and disconnect the camera? My Acura dealer doesn't mind them and my local SC didn't even care and I didn't even bother checking the footage