Ants in new Model 3

[Flyboy60]

Picked up a new Model 3 earlyMarch from the Mt Wellington Depot. Had ants in the door sill the next day and they have been coming and going for the last 2 months. Seem to be effected by rain, which there hasn’t been a lot of, hence the drawn out process. Tesla mobile service came 2 weeks ago and took out some panels and the indicators and did some spraying, to no effect when it next rained.
Now Tesla aren’t interested, saying its my fault and up to me to remedy.
How do I get an ant infestation overnight? I parked the car that first night at a mate’s place, he has a Tesla also and no ants.
Where is the customer goodwill?

Feel shafted ……

 

[RobDickinson]

Are they chinese ants?

 

[Flyboy60]

Well they certainly are very industrious. Am sending a sample to Biosecurity, so I guess Ill find out. Interestingly, Biosecurity say this an issue for Tesla and they will be contacting them. Good job !

 

[RobDickinson]

I wonder what the biosecurity processes for importing cars..

 

[montybhai]

Just surprised that orders for cars are coming to NZ, hope you get the matter settled in your favour. I really dislike the Tesla buying experience. It’s like buying from Aliexpress

 

[RobDickinson]

Car was delivered in March along with hundreds of others..

 

[Audietron]

Picked up a new Model 3 earlyMarch from the Mt Wellington Depot. Had ants in the door sill the next day and they have been coming and going for the last 2 months. Seem to be effected by rain, which there hasn’t been a lot of, hence the drawn out process. Tesla mobile service came 2 weeks ago and took out some panels and the indicators and did some spraying, to no effect when it next rained.
Now Tesla aren’t interested, saying its my fault and up to me to remedy.
How do I get an ant infestation overnight? I parked the car that first night at a mate’s place, he has a Tesla also and no ants.
Where is the customer goodwill?

Feel shafted ……

I received mine last year with numerous scratches and wheel arch with ding... luckily it was straight going for detailing and wrapping (due to cheap paint quality) and everything weas corrected.
I find spiders in my car time to time, tiny crawlies... and my car is always parked inside garage or decent parking when out and about... probably something to do with finishing of car allowing insects to get inside.

You could try two tricks...

1. get Ant gel and leave it around the window seal where ants are found, tiny bit of gel and ants will start hating your car.
2. leave car in confined space (like garage) with doors open and release insect bomb... you may need to deodorise the car afterwards.

Option one is odour free and longer lasting... that ant gel is cheap as from Mitre10.

 

[Audietron]

Just surprised that orders for cars are coming to NZ, hope you get the matter settled in your favour. I really dislike the Tesla buying experience. It’s like buying from Aliexpress

I guess at aliexpress you get tracking number and money back in most cases... also a good competitive price... those features itself makes that experience better than buying a Tesla.

 

[Flyboy60]

If only it was that simple! Have tried the ant bait, and now have some new stuff from the Pest Control people that is supposed to be more potent.
What gets me is that they {Tesla} came and tried to correct it a couple of weeks ago, so they have already accepted some responsibility to fix the problem. Now they are washing their hands of it. Not great customer service, still, I dont think they care.

 

[Audietron]

If only it was that simple! Have tried the ant bait, and now have some new stuff from the Pest Control people that is supposed to be more potent.
What gets me is that they {Tesla} came and tried to correct it a couple of weeks ago, so they have already accepted some responsibility to fix the problem. Now they are washing their hands of it. Not great customer service, still, I dont think they care.

They don't...
Maybe just drop the car off to them and ask for a loan car till the time they kill each of the ants individually - or rehouse them.
Consumer guarantee gives you rights for full refund or better response. it's shame that you need to get thru such experience after buying brand new car and waiting for it to simply receive infested car instead of what was promised.

 

[RobDickinson]

We had major ant problems at home this year too, first time in 17 years here.

Still not sure how this is teslas fault or problem

 

[Matt_NZ]

It's unlikely they came from the factory or anything like that. Any vehicle imported into NZ (aka, all of them) goes through a fumigation process at the port that should kill everything inside.

In the past when the car was parked outside in Auckland I found that ants were attracted to the charge cable and there were a few times I'd wake up to find the cable covered in them, along with the charge port. A bit of ant bait around the car outside and they went away.

You'd be better off calling an exterminator than Tesla for this.