Are Service Appointments Not Handled Same Day?

[devianxxx]

Fairly new Tesla owner, who has a service appointment for some cosmetic issues and the commonly reported "park assist unavailable glitch" that I noticed during my initial 100 miles.

I've waited about 2.5 months for this appointment, which kept getting delayed. Given that, and given that the repairs seem fairly minor, I was highly under the impression that this would all be resolved in a few hours on the day of my appointment. I figured that's why it takes so long to get an appointment - because they do all the reasonable repairs while you're there and can only see 5-10 people per day.

However, I just got an alert making it very much seem like I'm just dropping the car off ... and then getting rideshare credits during the duration of the repair.

Should I be worried that this is not a same-day situation? This is not a good week for me to not have a car, even if they paid for every single Uber I could want to take.

 

[UncertainTimes]

Depends. What are these cosmetic issues. Service centers are not body shops and will not do any paint related repairs. Best to just ask them.

 

[XPsionic]

Every time I've had to go to the service center, appointments were weeks out, and then none of the repairs are performed on the same day. That's my experience so far in LA at least.

 

[devianxxx]

Depends. What are these cosmetic issues. Service centers are not body shops and will not do any paint related repairs. Best to just ask them.

Frunk slightly out of alignment, one door not totally flush, insulation strips are uneven/messy looking.

 

[karkrazy]

Frunk slightly out of alignment, one door not totally flush, insulation strips are uneven/messy looking.

Depends on how large the SC is and their workload. Your work sounds like maybe 2-3 days to turn around. What was the estimate they gave you?

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Appointments at my service center (Agoura) usually only take 2-3 weeks to schedule, but once they have the car it sits in the dirt lot queue for at least a week before they look at it.

 

[EVRider-FL]

The service center will tell you when to expect the car. No one here knows.

For anything minor, my service center in West Palm Beach FL typically returns the car the same day.

 

[Soul Surfer]

Is it a Toronto "thing"? We seem to have our appointments fairly quick, often at <1 week or faster. But then again, while we may have way more geography than the USA, we are 1/10th the number of people, so go figure, right?

 

[devianxxx]

Depends on how large the SC is and their workload. Your work sounds like maybe 2-3 days to turn around. What was the estimate they gave you?

Not seeing an estimate yet, just panicked based on them describing a process that made it sound like I drop off the car instead of walk through the issues with them. And then the mention of the Uber Credits.

I followed up and they confirmed it would probably take more than a day but still haven't seen any specific time estimate.

The service center will tell you when to expect the car. No one here knows.

For anything minor, my service center in West Palm Beach FL typically returns the car the same day.

Wasn't looking for a specific answer but was looking for guidance on how these appointments work. Since I had to schedule months in advance and only saw early AM appointments available, I assumed that the premise was that it's like going in for a dental procedure where you spend a few hours with them as they hear your concerns, drive around with you where necessary, and then fix what they can on the spot. Mathematically, it just doesn't make sense that they'd be accepting cars to just sit there ... and still be so backlogged. Unless there's like one person working there.

 

[oreobbq]

Not seeing an estimate yet, just panicked based on them describing a process that made it sound like I drop off the car instead of walk through the issues with them. And then the mention of the Uber Credits.

I followed up and they confirmed it would probably take more than a day but still haven't seen any specific time estimate.

Wasn't looking for a specific answer but was looking for guidance on how these appointments work. Since I had to schedule months in advance and only saw early AM appointments available, I assumed that the premise was that it's like going in for a dental procedure where you spend a few hours with them as they hear your concerns, drive around with you where necessary, and then fix what they can on the spot. Mathematically, it just doesn't make sense that they'd be accepting cars to just sit there ... and still be so backlogged. Unless there's like one person working there.

My dentist never gives me rides. Unless it's a mobile service appt, there's no telling how long it'll take them. You can ask if they have a loaner vehicle available when you drop off your car.

 

[jjrandorin]

Not seeing an estimate yet, just panicked based on them describing a process that made it sound like I drop off the car instead of walk through the issues with them. And then the mention of the Uber Credits.

I followed up and they confirmed it would probably take more than a day but still haven't seen any specific time estimate.

Wasn't looking for a specific answer but was looking for guidance on how these appointments work. Since I had to schedule months in advance and only saw early AM appointments available, I assumed that the premise was that it's like going in for a dental procedure where you spend a few hours with them as they hear your concerns, drive around with you where necessary, and then fix what they can on the spot. Mathematically, it just doesn't make sense that they'd be accepting cars to just sit there ... and still be so backlogged. Unless there's like one person working there.

I do not have any inside information on this process whatsoever, just the same anecdotal experiences others have. What I have experienced is, for "regularly scheduled appointments" if its something extremely simple, they "might" do it the same day but that was not the norm.

There isnt any "drive around with you" or anything like that unless your issue is something you have to replicate to show it to them / prove it to them. They really want you to drop the car off without talking to anyone, but that isnt "required", you can go in and talk to a service advisor like you can at a traditional dealership. They just sort of discourage that.

They also can squeeze in "emergencies" that are not previously scheduled, for things like "my charge port isnt working and I cant charge my car at all" or something like that, and squeezing those things in probably pushes other things down / to the next day.

TL ; DR = dont expect the appointment to be same day. Could happen, but unless your issue is extremely simple, unlikely.

 

[tm1v2]

Not seeing an estimate yet, just panicked based on them describing a process that made it sound like I drop off the car instead of walk through the issues with them. And then the mention of the Uber Credits.

I followed up and they confirmed it would probably take more than a day but still haven't seen any specific time estimate.

Wasn't looking for a specific answer but was looking for guidance on how these appointments work. Since I had to schedule months in advance and only saw early AM appointments available, I assumed that the premise was that it's like going in for a dental procedure where you spend a few hours with them as they hear your concerns, drive around with you where necessary, and then fix what they can on the spot. Mathematically, it just doesn't make sense that they'd be accepting cars to just sit there ... and still be so backlogged. Unless there's like one person working there.

@devianxxx At my closest service center, and I think all the ones in my area now, they do drop-offs only, followed by pickups only (not exactly on AM/PM boundary) because that keeps the flow of cars mostly one-way at a time, which is more efficient than having mixed traffic flow with limited space for it.

They are also strict about appointment times because they can only take in a certain rate of drop-offs. If too many cars show up at once they'll get backed up into the street or lot, blocking traffic flows of neighboring businesses and of the service center itself. Plus those who showed up at their proper appointment time will get delayed by others trying to jump the queue.

As for same day repairs, in my experience they often - but not always! - do for jobs that can be done in a day. Other times no, even if the job can be done in a day, they don't get to it time. Ask your SA what to expect. Car storage at the location I go to lately is limited. They do NOT like taking in cars before they can actually work on them, so usually they start the same day, but sometimes they don't get to it until the next day.

Also if they need to diagnose and then order parts, they will absolutely ask/make me take the car back while waiting for the parts, if it's still driveable. They just don't have the storage space to hold onto extra cars that could be driven home.

Don't expect any exact time estimate beyond things like "by end of day." They are focused on throughput. Attempting to precisely schedule the volume of repairs they do would be very inefficient for their overall throughput, I think.



Edit: The Tesla service experience has evolved greatly over the years, and I'm sure it will continue changing.

 

[devianxxx]

As an update, right before I checked in this morning, they posted an ETC of Monday in my app. When I arrived and told them that wasn't workable given that I literally will be away starting this weekend, they agreed to let me walk through the issues and see if anything could be prioritized for a quick fix.

The good: The technician was very reasonable. He didn't try to gaslight me or argue that certain visual defects were "within spec." In fact, he actually noted that one of the issues I flagged as "minor" was more serious than I thought.

The better: He said that these were mostly easy fixes (ironically except for the frunk alignment issue, which I would have guessed was the easiest repair since I've seen DIY videos about this type of thing) and that he couldn't see needing more than a day to get through all of them. Friday night at the latest.

The worse: Barring some surprise alert from them today or tomorrow, it seems like this generally worked out for me. So I don't want to totally look this gift horse in the mouth.

However, I still don't love the process - why set the target at 5 days before even inspecting the car to see the extent of the repairs and whether they could be banged out right away? To me, it sends the message that Tesla doesn't think 5 days is unreasonable, even after months of waiting for the appointment. They do give the Uber credits, but I see those more as an emergency thing. It's not really convenient or even practical to use an Uber for every aspect of my daily routine (work, dry cleaning, grocery store, gym, other errands, etc).

 

[tm1v2]

I completely agree that Uber can be impractical. Tesla hasn't kept up their loaner availability with demand at all, they do have loaners but they will definitely push you towards Uber credits usually. For a while when they ran out of Tesla loaners they'd put you in an Enterprise ICE rental, and reimburse for gas, but they stopped that years ago. (I think that was when they switched to having Enterprise manage their loaner fleet, i.e. even your Tesla loaner would actually be from Enterprise for a while. Originally / before that the loaners were handled in house, and nowadays they're handled in house again.)

Basically the local service center staff are usually trying their best with limited resources given to them. They'd happily put everyone in a loaner if they had enough. If you'll really need a loaner car, especially for an extended service visit, let them know and ask nicely but with some reasonable firmness that you really need a loaner, and why. They'll be juggling loaner availability and priority with everyone's needs. Sometimes they might not have one for you immediately but will say to come back the next day after some more get turned in and they'll give you one then. And they'll give you Uber credits in the meantime.

I also wouldn't be surprised if they prioritize S+X for loaners, but even then you won't automatically get a loaner just because you have an S or X these days.