Are the Tesla Service Centers bad enough to cancel my Model 3 order?

[Tron 3]

On a recent cross country trip, a supercharger happened to be at a service center. I wandered in while charging and just mentioned I was waiting on the dual motor badge. Next thing I know there is a guy with the badge and the placement template wanting to know which car was mine.
While he was applying it I mentioned that the front driver's side fender at the bottom rear of the wheel well was a little loose, he came back with the correct size wrench, peeled back the wheel well liner and tightened a bolt. Minor, but nothing but a positive experience so far.

 

[Dana1]

I ordered a Model 3 about a week ago and it is scheduled to be delivered next Tuesday (5/21/19). I've seen some threads where people are describing the horror of taking their Model 3 into a service center (Mainly for body repairs). On more than one occasion there was someone who was without their car for 6 months+.

After reading so many people telling the same story this got me a little concerned. I am not really willing to be without my car for half of a year while it sits idle at a service center.

So what I am curious about is others experience with this, and mainly with how it went regarding body panels. How did Tesla handle your repairs?

Thank you in advance for your input!

You will always read worse case stories. On any forum, any subject. There are several thousand I love this car posts here too. You’ll have to make up your own mind. Good luck finding any car model that has 100% perfect experiences.

 

[Watts_Up]

Are the Tesla Service Centers bad enough to cancel my Model 3 order?

And order what instead?... may be this:​

Note: There are two schools of thought with Green Cars.

1) Prove to the world that you suffer a slug mobile to save the planet.
It must be ugly with a lot of emblems so folk know you're in pain each mile.

2) Buy a nice looking mainstream car that doesn't look Green, but is.

Prius and Mirai dominate the Type 1. aka Ecomasochistmobile.and IMO, Model 3 dominates the Type 2

 

[GolanB]

To a degree, part of your experience will be the luck-of-the-draw. I've been driving for close to 30 years, and never got into an accident requiring body work until last year when I was hit by a drunk-driver. I've had mostly positive experiences with my vehicles, including Tesla, but my neighbor down the road has had to have his Model X serviced multiple times in the same time-frame, and he also got into a minor AutoPilot related accident. He is still pro-Tesla, but his wife who he originally bought the vehicle for (who experiences vertigo and was hoping to rely on FSD) has become skeptical. For the vast majority of users who never have to see the inside of a body shop, the Tesla experience has been positive.

 

[Evoforce]

typical.
Make a baseless assertion & then tell me to go look it up myself.

FUD.

I just got done getting open heart surgery. How about you take a little bit of your time to educate yourself. I'm the one that needs spoon feeding at the moment.

 

[VT_EE]

I have had only excellent experiences at my local service center. Better in fact than my experiences at traditional dealers.

 

[srredbeard]

My only experience in either my S or 3 was to have the screen replaced in the S due a yellow border. They came to me while I was at work and did the swap without me having to change anything about my schedule. No other manufacture has ever done that.

It seems as though you are trying to make your decision based on the fact that body repairs can take quite awhile. While that is true how many accidents do you plan to get into? Granted it will happen but in which situation would you rather be in: 1) Without your Model 3 for 6 months while it is getting repaired or 2) Have your car back within 2 or 3 weeks and have friends and family send you pictures of it while you recover in hospital?

 

[Dmagyar]

Minor rear end’d accident occurred 2/15/19, took first appointment available for paint/body work which at the time of the accident was 5/13/19 (car was only damaged superficially and fully drivable). Today received repaired car back after basically four full days...
Don’t get hit...

 

[Electroman]

I need to find out where my service center is . Its been only just over a year.

 

[Jedi2155]

I've had positive and negative experiences on my Model 3 repairs. I wouldn't worry about it too much because they'll make an effort to take care of you.

 

[Fernand]

Berkeley! My 'ol stomping ground. When I lived there, the car in season was Volvo. Can you guess what decade that was?

1970s? But the Volvo being a long-lived species, it could have been anytime from the 1960s to the 1990s.

 

[CarlK]

Keep in mind people only share their experience if it's negative online. No one would really talk about it if it works the way it should. The people with problems is in most cases a loud minority. You don't need to cancel your car order for that reason.

That and fake stories from FUDsters. The common tactic is when they see one has a problem they will recreate the same problem on the social media gazillion times.

This is what Cody Willard who's a fund manager and actually a long time Tesla bear said recently.
***One of the more remarkable things I discovered in my Tesla homework is how much time, money, energy and hatred is aimed at trying to make this company fail. For example, I realized quickly after a Tesla short linked to the Tesla Reviews at consumeraffairs.com that many of the comments on the board are fake reviews by people who are short Tesla. ***
Read this, you’ll buy TSLA and a Tesla

 

[GolanB]

1970s? But the Volvo being a long-lived species, it could have been anytime from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Yep! You nailed it; I left in the mid 90’s. Have a feeling the life of the Tesla may be equally long, let’s see how it turns out. I’ve known multiple families who kept their Volvo’s on the road for over 30 years.

 

[cwerdna]

And he doesn't own a Tesla. Just hangs out here posting negative stuff about them.

Correct on the first. Nay on the latter.

 

[Stanwood Steve]

My experience with the Service Center in Bellevue, WA has been great. I finally had a couple of minor issues addressed that were identified at delivery in August of 2018 (small panel gap issue in the rear of car and a small chip in the paint under the driver's side mirror), and the staff members were great. I had access to a Model X loaner car which was fun to spend time with, and the quality of the repairs were outstanding. Honestly, it was like the issues were never there.

Nothing else has gone wrong with the car and it now has 17,500 miles on it. I love it and have no regrets in buying it. Something to keep in mind - be pleasant to the team at the Service Center and they'll most likely reciprocate. After reading some of the comments on these forums, it's clear that some people are just hard to please. That's not to say that there aren't some real issues out there, but a little respect and understanding go a long way.

 

[Sandollars]

Berkeley! My 'ol stomping ground. When I lived there, the car in season was Volvo. Can you guess what decade that was?

Being a Stanford Man, why yes, I can. It was the nineties.

What did I win?

 

[cwerdna]

Another guy at my work got into an (apparently serious) accident. He doesn't want to go into details other than it was his fault and it needed to be flat bedded (I'm not going to press him either). Anyway, he's been w/o his car for 2 months, as it was waiting for parts. I believe when I talked to him earlier this week that finally all parts have arrived. Memory foggy.

I spoke to him on Friday. All the parts have arrived and work has begun. He confirmed over 2 months at the body shop and told me "coming up on 3 months".

Another guy in my group was w/o his 3 for over a week to replace a faulty backup camera. Mobile service came out to do the job but it was still a problem so he had to take it to his local SC. Sorry, I can't accurately convey the details as to why it took so long unless I've posted about it elsewhere or check with him.

I did post about him at Official Tesla Model 3 thread - Page 278 - My Nissan Leaf Forum. His SC ended up opening a ticket w/engineering which is part of what took so long.

Just hangs out here posting negative stuff about them.

For anyone who doubts my disagree on this, feel free to look over my last 100 posts or so.

Read Consumer Reports and customer satisfaction survey...

typical.
Make a baseless assertion & then tell me to go look it up myself.

FUD.

VQTRVA: Not really.

Tesla's Model 3 ranked 'most satisfying' car, more than Porsche or Corvette

 

[Stirfelt]

Keep in mind people only share their experience if it's negative online. No one would really talk about it if it works the way it should. The people with problems is in most cases a loud minority.

I read that over and over. I'm not sure it is true.r experience.

I agree that few initiate a discussion with positive comments,
but look at this thread .... many have posted positive remarks when asked.

Regarding the basic question .... after reading many, many post .... I think it all depends on the SC. So many complain about the SC and others praise theirs.

Best of luck with you

 

[YusufT]

I read that over and over. I'm not sure it is true.r experience.

I agree that few initiate a discussion with positive comments,
but look at this thread .... many have posted positive remarks when asked.

Regarding the basic question .... after reading many, many post .... I think it all depends on the SC. So many complain about the SC and others praise theirs.

Best of luck with you

This just further proves my point.. a lot of people had good experience but never shared them because it worked the way it’s supposed to. But once a question like this arises people would share their good experiences.

 

[qdeathstar]

I haven’t had the opportunity to use the telsa service centers but this is the best car i have owned, Buy it