This is the seriously abridged version
Got a stone chip.
Phoned insurance company (NFU) and got automated "Press #1 for windscreen" and then a choice of "Random" or "Specific" affiliated company.
Random took me to National Windscreens. They came out and applied some "glass filler"
later that day the screen cracked ...
Called the NFU phone line again, choose National Windscreens
"3 weeks to get a Tesla windscreen" and "You'll have to bring the car to XXX [somewhat inconvenient for me] location and then take it to Tesla for recalibration"
Thought STFAGOS and called NFU Phone Line again and went through the options and choose Autoglass.
They did the previous two incidences on the previous Tesla and, now I think of it, they didn't go well:
#1 Windscreen replace was OK but got headliner creak after a week. That was early-days of Tesla presence in UK and I took the decision to have Tesla sort it out. Might well have been that Autoglass would have done too.
#2 Rear quarter light stone damage. Replacement was fine, but then got serious wind noise. Senior Autoglass fitter came out and was critical of the original fitter (masses of mastic etc. and fitting was several mm out of alignment which caused the wind noise). He got new parts but had to lever it out to replace, and all the chrome from that side of the car was damaged / replaced in the process ... all a bit of a waste, but not my problem per se).
Anyway, back to the new car's windscreen problem, Car was only a month or so old at the time:
AutoGlass said they could get the windscreen in a few days, their location for fitting was just down the road from the office, and they could do the calibration. What's not to like?
Chap was very helpful. "I'm 99% sure I know the part number Sir, but could you send me details of the windscreen part no?" So I emailed him a photo. "Pity you didn't use us in the first place Sir, if a screen cracks after our repair the replacement is free" Oh well ...
On the appointed day I dropped the car off, and a colleague gave me a lift to work
The moment I arrived at work I got a call "We've got the wrong part number, collect the car when convenient". So got a lift back again ...
Another week or so passed and they got the replacement. Same colleague for the lift, same call when I got to work "We've got the wrong part number, collect the car when convenient". Same lift back again ...
Of course you, me, and everyone else in the world providing Service would have checked the Part No before calling the customer in, but ...
So the next thing that happened was that the car went to Milton Keynes for new-purchase-snagging. I never thought to check it on collection, but the windscreen squirt was misaligned. And there was a creak on the dashboard. Not annoying, per say, but enough to be noticeable. So I took the car in, and they gave me a loaner. By this time the windscreen crack was pretty much top-to-bottom. I told them to ignore it ("Autoglass are on the case ... sort of")
"We've fixed the squirt, and figured out the creak noise, but we need to take the windscreen out to fix it, and we don't figure we can get your bespoke two-part-windscreen Hehehe ... back in again. We've got a windscreen in stock if you'd like us to replace it whilst the car is here Sir"
I phoned Insurance, they weren't interested (neither in Tesla's offer, nor in the dreadful service their Agent was providing, nor in how it reflected badly on NFU).
I phoned AutoGlass : "We can get to Tesla in several days time and take the screen out, then go back a bit later and fit the new one". OK, I have a loaner, sounds OK. But I was aware of the form I had signed with a £100 daily charge for use of the car after Tesla notified me work was complete.
Phoned insurance "Do you want to pay £100 a day?" .... predictably "No".
So, dashboard creak wasn't annoying me, per se, so I went back and picked the car up. With the two-part screen. That was before Christmas ... we went on a long trip over Christmas and I was crossing my fingers the screen survived.
Anyway, before Christmas I had a proper go at Autoglass. They put me through to the Head of Calibration (having, apparently, briefed her). "I understand you want to book your car in for calibration, but Autoglass can't do Tesla Calibration, it has to go back to Tesla for that."
The astute reader will have realised that I don't have a new screen fitted at this point, and that one of my reasons for favouring Autoglass with the work was their ability to do the calibration.
Anyway, long story short "I lost it". Including pointing out that the car had been at Tesla for snagging, and I was also faced with having to take it back again to get that completed.
Autoglass came up with a solution : "We will send the AA to collect your car, take it to Tesla, organise with Tesla for the snagging to be done, get it calibrated whilst it is there, and get the AA to bring it back to you"
Hooray! Sounds reasonable ... Autoglass completely over-optimistic of when Tesla was likely to fit the work in, but I was wiser than them / resigned on that point ... North West London Tesla Service had a slot sooner than Milton Keynes, so that was selected. A further couple of weeks delay ...
So on the day AA were scheduled to pick the car up from work between 8AM and 9AM ... they rock up at 11AM ... and ... they got the car to Tesla at 3PM.
Tesla, unhelpfully, said they are not prepared to test drive the car for the dashboard creak until the screen has been repaired, and once that was done the new windscreen needed to cure for X days before they can take it back out again.
My protestations of "Speak to Milton Keynes and hear what they were figuring to do" fell on deaf ears. Oh well, the creak wasn't that bad. Autoglass: "just get the screen fixed and calibrated and bring the car back. This evening not looking likely then?"
Figured out how to get a lift home ... not easy, Work and Home are not near each other ...
Spouse travelling past work the following day, so got a lift to work.
Reassuring noises from Autoglass that car would be back by 5PM but at 3PM got a call from AA saying "Do you actually need the car back today?" <sigh> "Bring it to my home instead please" Managed to cadge a lift back home again ...
Around about 7 PM got a call from Manchetts "I'm on my way to pick you and your car up from Birchanger Services"
Me: Confused!
"Where are you now?" "Southend" ...
Me: More confused!
"I need the car bringing to my home please". "Yes Sir, that will be fine"
He (very helpful) arrived at 11PM. Apparently the AA driver ran out of hours having driven, what?, an hour, into his 2 hour journey to my home. So he parked up at Birchanger and waited patiently for a couple of hours for the guy from Southend to arrive, so he could hand over the keys.
So car was back, screen was fixed, and calibrated. Dashboard still creaking. But liveable-with.
Missed call from Autoglass. I called them back:
"Name please"
"Ah yes, let me put your through to the head of customer support".
He listened through the whole saga retelling. At least he didn't start with apologising ... Iv'e been telling Autoglass people to stop apologising for the last couple of months ...
"We need to compensate you for this" and, in fairness to him, he did seem to be genuine about trying to learn some lessons from it.
"Would you agree that your best recourse would have been for someone to have escalated the opportunity to fix this when the car was at Milton Keynes and that would have been your best loss"
"Yes" ...
They sent through a list of how they calculated the compensation. Its a derisory sum (e.g. slightly above minimum wage for time spent on the phone), and the raw data that it was calculated on was hugely wrong ... either way, compensation wasn't of any significant importance to me, and on balance the fact that they did try to do something was OK.
I accepted their first offer. No money appeared, so I chased it up once and then ignored it.
Then I got a final demand for the Excess ...
I had accumulated quite a few email addresses along the way ... companies have a habit of CC'ing people in their organisation, and my habit is collecting all of them. Found the CEO's email address online too.
Got a call from someone new shortly thereafter. "I am so sorry ..."
"If another person from Autoglass apologises to me again I'm going to murder someone"
"I am so sorry .." ... No, that's a joke, she didn't say that
"I'll make sure you have the compensation in your account today"
"I don't believe you. Several of your people have promised that before"
"I will go through your account and make sure that you are not chased for payment"
"I don't believe you. Several of your people have promised that before"
"Some other point"
"I don't believe you. Several of your people have promised that before"
"Yet another point ..." you get the drift
The compensation did arrive ... and, so far, no further comms. Didn't hear from the CEO though ...
Oh, and around about that point (we are now several weeks since the screen was replaced) I got a text from Tesla telling me that my car was ready for collection following screen calibration ...
I haven't double-checked the dates, but overall it was about 2 months end-to-end.
Autoglass ... .fingers crossed I never need them again (although not sure national Windscreens would be any better)
NFU ... we have had a fair bit of insurance with them over the years, they've lost the whole account.
Got a stone chip.
Phoned insurance company (NFU) and got automated "Press #1 for windscreen" and then a choice of "Random" or "Specific" affiliated company.
Random took me to National Windscreens. They came out and applied some "glass filler"
later that day the screen cracked ...
Called the NFU phone line again, choose National Windscreens
"3 weeks to get a Tesla windscreen" and "You'll have to bring the car to XXX [somewhat inconvenient for me] location and then take it to Tesla for recalibration"
Thought STFAGOS and called NFU Phone Line again and went through the options and choose Autoglass.
They did the previous two incidences on the previous Tesla and, now I think of it, they didn't go well:
#1 Windscreen replace was OK but got headliner creak after a week. That was early-days of Tesla presence in UK and I took the decision to have Tesla sort it out. Might well have been that Autoglass would have done too.
#2 Rear quarter light stone damage. Replacement was fine, but then got serious wind noise. Senior Autoglass fitter came out and was critical of the original fitter (masses of mastic etc. and fitting was several mm out of alignment which caused the wind noise). He got new parts but had to lever it out to replace, and all the chrome from that side of the car was damaged / replaced in the process ... all a bit of a waste, but not my problem per se).
Anyway, back to the new car's windscreen problem, Car was only a month or so old at the time:
AutoGlass said they could get the windscreen in a few days, their location for fitting was just down the road from the office, and they could do the calibration. What's not to like?
Chap was very helpful. "I'm 99% sure I know the part number Sir, but could you send me details of the windscreen part no?" So I emailed him a photo. "Pity you didn't use us in the first place Sir, if a screen cracks after our repair the replacement is free" Oh well ...
On the appointed day I dropped the car off, and a colleague gave me a lift to work
The moment I arrived at work I got a call "We've got the wrong part number, collect the car when convenient". So got a lift back again ...
Another week or so passed and they got the replacement. Same colleague for the lift, same call when I got to work "We've got the wrong part number, collect the car when convenient". Same lift back again ...
Of course you, me, and everyone else in the world providing Service would have checked the Part No before calling the customer in, but ...
So the next thing that happened was that the car went to Milton Keynes for new-purchase-snagging. I never thought to check it on collection, but the windscreen squirt was misaligned. And there was a creak on the dashboard. Not annoying, per say, but enough to be noticeable. So I took the car in, and they gave me a loaner. By this time the windscreen crack was pretty much top-to-bottom. I told them to ignore it ("Autoglass are on the case ... sort of")
"We've fixed the squirt, and figured out the creak noise, but we need to take the windscreen out to fix it, and we don't figure we can get your bespoke two-part-windscreen Hehehe ... back in again. We've got a windscreen in stock if you'd like us to replace it whilst the car is here Sir"
I phoned Insurance, they weren't interested (neither in Tesla's offer, nor in the dreadful service their Agent was providing, nor in how it reflected badly on NFU).
I phoned AutoGlass : "We can get to Tesla in several days time and take the screen out, then go back a bit later and fit the new one". OK, I have a loaner, sounds OK. But I was aware of the form I had signed with a £100 daily charge for use of the car after Tesla notified me work was complete.
Phoned insurance "Do you want to pay £100 a day?" .... predictably "No".
So, dashboard creak wasn't annoying me, per se, so I went back and picked the car up. With the two-part screen. That was before Christmas ... we went on a long trip over Christmas and I was crossing my fingers the screen survived.
Anyway, before Christmas I had a proper go at Autoglass. They put me through to the Head of Calibration (having, apparently, briefed her). "I understand you want to book your car in for calibration, but Autoglass can't do Tesla Calibration, it has to go back to Tesla for that."
The astute reader will have realised that I don't have a new screen fitted at this point, and that one of my reasons for favouring Autoglass with the work was their ability to do the calibration.
Anyway, long story short "I lost it". Including pointing out that the car had been at Tesla for snagging, and I was also faced with having to take it back again to get that completed.
Autoglass came up with a solution : "We will send the AA to collect your car, take it to Tesla, organise with Tesla for the snagging to be done, get it calibrated whilst it is there, and get the AA to bring it back to you"
Hooray! Sounds reasonable ... Autoglass completely over-optimistic of when Tesla was likely to fit the work in, but I was wiser than them / resigned on that point ... North West London Tesla Service had a slot sooner than Milton Keynes, so that was selected. A further couple of weeks delay ...
So on the day AA were scheduled to pick the car up from work between 8AM and 9AM ... they rock up at 11AM ... and ... they got the car to Tesla at 3PM.
Tesla, unhelpfully, said they are not prepared to test drive the car for the dashboard creak until the screen has been repaired, and once that was done the new windscreen needed to cure for X days before they can take it back out again.
My protestations of "Speak to Milton Keynes and hear what they were figuring to do" fell on deaf ears. Oh well, the creak wasn't that bad. Autoglass: "just get the screen fixed and calibrated and bring the car back. This evening not looking likely then?"
Figured out how to get a lift home ... not easy, Work and Home are not near each other ...
Spouse travelling past work the following day, so got a lift to work.
Reassuring noises from Autoglass that car would be back by 5PM but at 3PM got a call from AA saying "Do you actually need the car back today?" <sigh> "Bring it to my home instead please" Managed to cadge a lift back home again ...
Around about 7 PM got a call from Manchetts "I'm on my way to pick you and your car up from Birchanger Services"
Me: Confused!
"Where are you now?" "Southend" ...
Me: More confused!
"I need the car bringing to my home please". "Yes Sir, that will be fine"
He (very helpful) arrived at 11PM. Apparently the AA driver ran out of hours having driven, what?, an hour, into his 2 hour journey to my home. So he parked up at Birchanger and waited patiently for a couple of hours for the guy from Southend to arrive, so he could hand over the keys.
So car was back, screen was fixed, and calibrated. Dashboard still creaking. But liveable-with.
Missed call from Autoglass. I called them back:
"Name please"
"Ah yes, let me put your through to the head of customer support".
He listened through the whole saga retelling. At least he didn't start with apologising ... Iv'e been telling Autoglass people to stop apologising for the last couple of months ...
"We need to compensate you for this" and, in fairness to him, he did seem to be genuine about trying to learn some lessons from it.
"Would you agree that your best recourse would have been for someone to have escalated the opportunity to fix this when the car was at Milton Keynes and that would have been your best loss"
"Yes" ...
They sent through a list of how they calculated the compensation. Its a derisory sum (e.g. slightly above minimum wage for time spent on the phone), and the raw data that it was calculated on was hugely wrong ... either way, compensation wasn't of any significant importance to me, and on balance the fact that they did try to do something was OK.
I accepted their first offer. No money appeared, so I chased it up once and then ignored it.
Then I got a final demand for the Excess ...
I had accumulated quite a few email addresses along the way ... companies have a habit of CC'ing people in their organisation, and my habit is collecting all of them. Found the CEO's email address online too.
Got a call from someone new shortly thereafter. "I am so sorry ..."
"If another person from Autoglass apologises to me again I'm going to murder someone"
"I am so sorry .." ... No, that's a joke, she didn't say that
"I'll make sure you have the compensation in your account today"
"I don't believe you. Several of your people have promised that before"
"I will go through your account and make sure that you are not chased for payment"
"I don't believe you. Several of your people have promised that before"
"Some other point"
"I don't believe you. Several of your people have promised that before"
"Yet another point ..." you get the drift
The compensation did arrive ... and, so far, no further comms. Didn't hear from the CEO though ...
Oh, and around about that point (we are now several weeks since the screen was replaced) I got a text from Tesla telling me that my car was ready for collection following screen calibration ...
I haven't double-checked the dates, but overall it was about 2 months end-to-end.
Autoglass ... .fingers crossed I never need them again (although not sure national Windscreens would be any better)
NFU ... we have had a fair bit of insurance with them over the years, they've lost the whole account.
