I absolutely love my Tesla. So much so, that I ordered a second Model 3. But there is a concerning amount of incompetence at the service centres. I got my first Model 3 July 2018. Multiple defects: side panel bubbles, horn leather scratched, rear window scratched, Frunk paint defect, cosmetic defect on the chrome dash, and some trim fit issues. Pointed these out to the delivery specialist. Response was basically: reject the delivery and risk not getting a second car in time to take advantage of the Ontario rebate ($14k) or accept and we will fix it all. Ok, I'd read that Teslas are frequently imperfect, but Tesla will make it right. Fair enough. I waited patiently for months to be contacted... nothing. Had frequent LTE connection losses, and that took a month or two of back and forth emails to fix. Other than that, nothing was addressed. Fast forward to February 2019, when I have to call for urgent service because I'm stuck at a supercharger with the plug not releasing. Person on the other end of the line explains the manual release, tells me I should have the charge port replaced with a newer version, and expresses surprise when I mention how long it's been with no word on repair progress of other issues from delivery. Ultimately end up driving 2 hours to Toronto, and passing by the Tesla service centre to speak to someone in person. That gets the ball rolling. A few weeks later, and I've got an appointment to apparently fix everything. They take the car for a week. They add around 200km of driving to drive the car to a body shop and back.
Things fixed: frunk, bubbles on interior door panel, scratched glass, charger port, and supposedly the chrome trim. Except the chrome trim looks the same as it did before. Yet there it is, on the work order: wood dash replaced. Despite the week of service, they tell me that the scratched horn is part of the air bag, and they don't have any in stock. I'll have to come back. About a month passes, and still nothing. I reach out again, and just get reassurances that once something is available I'll be contacted. A few days later, someone calls and says they've got the airbag in stock. Book me in for a Saturday appointment 2 weeks away. 2 days before the appointment, I get another call telling me they don't do this type of work (apparently airbags are complicated) on weekends. I change the appointment to Tuesday. Take the car in on Tuesday, point out that the chrome dash defect is unchanged. They tell me they've got that part in stock, and will change it in addition to the airbag. I wait around for a few hours at the service centre, and am given my car supposedly fully fixed. I need to get back home 2hrs away for evening work. I hop in the car, and the horn/airbag is exactly the same! I point it out to the service people... turns out they replaced the WHEEL, not the airbag. How does that happen?? There was nothing wrong with the steering wheel! Meanwhile, they have also checked and 'switched out' something that needed changing in the charge port as per some internal recall. I get back to town, go to work, plug my car in the next day, only to find I cannot unplug the charger. Whatever they've changed as part of a recall, has broken the latch on the charge port.
I book another service, and request mobile support instead of a 400km round trip. Sure thing. Mobile team reaches out and says it'll be up to 3 weeks until they can send someone my way. So now I have to manually release my charger every morning from the trunk. For 3 weeks. While I wait for them to fix something that wasn't broken to start off with. And still wait for them to fix all the things that were wrong with the car when I got it.
I'm at a loss of what to do. So I ordered a second Model 3... Amazing car, and despite all the issues, I'm ready to be an all-electric all-Tesla household.
Lesson learned: ANY defect is getting an instant rejection. I want a perfect car to start off with, because the service aspect is completely incompetent. AND it's wasting tons of money for the company I imagine. Is there fraud happening? (ie. my dash that was supposedly replaced but wasn't replaced the first time?). How much is it costing the company to replace things unnecessarily? That's to say nothing of the customers they're pissing off.
Things fixed: frunk, bubbles on interior door panel, scratched glass, charger port, and supposedly the chrome trim. Except the chrome trim looks the same as it did before. Yet there it is, on the work order: wood dash replaced. Despite the week of service, they tell me that the scratched horn is part of the air bag, and they don't have any in stock. I'll have to come back. About a month passes, and still nothing. I reach out again, and just get reassurances that once something is available I'll be contacted. A few days later, someone calls and says they've got the airbag in stock. Book me in for a Saturday appointment 2 weeks away. 2 days before the appointment, I get another call telling me they don't do this type of work (apparently airbags are complicated) on weekends. I change the appointment to Tuesday. Take the car in on Tuesday, point out that the chrome dash defect is unchanged. They tell me they've got that part in stock, and will change it in addition to the airbag. I wait around for a few hours at the service centre, and am given my car supposedly fully fixed. I need to get back home 2hrs away for evening work. I hop in the car, and the horn/airbag is exactly the same! I point it out to the service people... turns out they replaced the WHEEL, not the airbag. How does that happen?? There was nothing wrong with the steering wheel! Meanwhile, they have also checked and 'switched out' something that needed changing in the charge port as per some internal recall. I get back to town, go to work, plug my car in the next day, only to find I cannot unplug the charger. Whatever they've changed as part of a recall, has broken the latch on the charge port.
I book another service, and request mobile support instead of a 400km round trip. Sure thing. Mobile team reaches out and says it'll be up to 3 weeks until they can send someone my way. So now I have to manually release my charger every morning from the trunk. For 3 weeks. While I wait for them to fix something that wasn't broken to start off with. And still wait for them to fix all the things that were wrong with the car when I got it.
I'm at a loss of what to do. So I ordered a second Model 3... Amazing car, and despite all the issues, I'm ready to be an all-electric all-Tesla household.
Lesson learned: ANY defect is getting an instant rejection. I want a perfect car to start off with, because the service aspect is completely incompetent. AND it's wasting tons of money for the company I imagine. Is there fraud happening? (ie. my dash that was supposedly replaced but wasn't replaced the first time?). How much is it costing the company to replace things unnecessarily? That's to say nothing of the customers they're pissing off.
