Car needing repairs before collection? (Cancelled on Teslas' side) [resolved-resolved]

[OneTinyFish]

Hello all,

Tesla called me ten minutes ago to cancel my collection appointment tomorrow, saying the (new M3LR) car has a non-functioning charge port. They said repairs won't be in the next few days and are looking at moving my order to an alternative inventory vehicle.

Does anyone know how long or what's involved with a charge port repair at a service centre?

I'm asking you all for your collective advice because I live on an island with no Tesla presence and have to use a third party vehicle courier to transport the car to the ferry and have three other companies in the chain to manage delivery to me. So it's quite inconvenient finding out the car isn't ready less than 24 hours before collection and messes others about even more than me.

Tesla doesn't seem to know what to do now (although cynically, they have been paid!).

Any ideas?

 

[Js1977]

Maybe call them up and tell them what could be the problem Not charging! **FIXED**

 

[Adopado]

Appears to be a rare example of the SC staff proactively pulling a vehicle that has a serious fault (usually it falls to the customer). Maybe they even realised that using their usual approach just wasn't going to cut it if the vehicle was going to have to be repeatedly ferried back and forth across the Irish Sea! I would try to take the positive approach and balance your disappointment with the benefit of not having to deal with the inevitable hassle. Fingers crossed they can match you with an inventory car pretty quickly.

 

[OneTinyFish]

Js1977 - Next time we speak, I'll mention your fix suggestion to them. It might just work?

Adopado - You could be right. I did email them this morning to request a 60%+ charge before collection as the car will take several days to arrive (it has to sit in a car park for 24-48 hours as a COVID-19 risk management protocol). They could have noticed at this point.

 

[OneTinyFish]

For future forum searchers; my car has been unassigned, the VIN isn't showing in the account source.

 

[Js1977]

Well. my question alway was (in my case) why is it giving me these messages after a reset, whilst driving and not trying to charge (one of the messages said "disconnect and retry"? . At one point I though my brand new charger zapped the car since it only happened after that .

Obviously there is chip somewhere between the charge port and its connection point (ie the socket as mentioned) that induces an error message if the port itself is not reporting good health.

Its a very short run of cable up to that connector so to answer one of your questions might be ... how long is a piece of string?.... Its down to the person troubleshooting it and how savvy/logic they are... doesn't help you though and I appreciate that telling them how to suck eggs isn't necessarily a good option since allot of these people are not techie minded and just follow an on-screen script. Im not just singling Tesla for this as unfortunately it across the whole board with the exception that you come across a person that thinks out of the box.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I’d forget the car you were getting and look at inventory listings to see if a similar spec exists. There’s also about £3k off quite a few performance models at the moment if that’s an option for you. If there’s a car there thas acceptable then try and get that one, but i can’t see it being tomorrow.

As an aside, I’ve used the destination chargers in Jurbys a couple of times before now, the son of the guy who owns the motor museum has had a Tesla for a while IIRC.

 

[OneTinyFish]

I’d forget the car you were getting and look at inventory listings to see if a similar spec exists. There’s also about £3k off quite a few performance models at the moment if that’s an option for you. If there’s a car there thas acceptable then try and get that one, but i can’t see it being tomorrow.

As an aside, I’ve used the destination chargers in Jurbys a couple of times before now, the son of the guy who owns the motor museum has had a Tesla for a while IIRC.

Ah, the motor museum. Just five miles away from us. The concern I have about the performance model is the tyres. They’ll puncture right out on the first day on the island the moment one drives off the TT course.

So 18” tyres all the way. I had a Blue Model 3 LR on order and I can’t see any inventory LR at all. Just SR+ and Performance.

 

[OneTinyFish]

Update - some to'ing and fro'ing between Tesla delivery centre and me and I'm not any closer to knowing what's happened to my car.

Paid cash. No car. Was advised to keep an eye on inventory and pay the deposit on another.

I'm going off Tesla now. The experience to date has been awful.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Sadly thats the way they are at the moment. They've either become too big too fast or arrogant or both and as soon as things deviate from the norm they just can't manage the situation. Some other poor sod has probaboly had a call to say ttheir car is ready (and given the one you rejected)

 

[OneTinyFish]

Hi George,

I've had a chat with Tesla today, apparently, the car needs parts (for the charger/charge port/whatever) so probably hasn't gone out to anyone. I wonder how the car made it out of the factory in this state.

Either way, I'm waiting for the parts now for a car I've spent £50,000 on and haven't seen. I haven't even sat in a model 3 before. Perhaps I'm the crazy one, maybe we all are for accepting poor quality service or products.

 

[OneTinyFish]

Sadly thats the way they are at the moment. They've either become too big too fast or arrogant or both and as soon as things deviate from the norm they just can't manage the situation. Some other poor sod has probaboly had a call to say ttheir car is ready (and given the one you rejected)

That said, I saw an identical spec car appear on inventory today, briefly at Edinburgh. So it could have been the same car which has been ordered by someone else!

Tesla is looking into alternatives for me but they don't have any long-range in inventory, I'm not sure how they're going to find one.

 

[JS77]

Paid cash. No car. Was advised to keep an eye on inventory and pay the deposit on another.

I'm going off Tesla now. The experience to date has been awful.

I’m feeling that way too... I rejected my delivery car yesterday due to a long list of issues and they said they’d try and find me an alternative car but I’ve not had any correspondence today and my existing car designation remains unchanged in my account.... starting to fall out of love with the idea of owning a Model 3...

 

[Js1977]

That said, I saw an identical spec car appear on inventory today, briefly at Edinburgh. So it could have been the same car which has been ordered by someone else!

Tesla is looking into alternatives for me but they don't have any long-range in inventory, I'm not sure how they're going to find one.

They are discounting performance models considerably....maybe ask for one at a slight premium in regards to your order or something as "to make good"

If you dont ask...

 

[OneTinyFish]

I’m feeling that way too... I rejected my delivery car yesterday due to a long list of issues and they said they’d try and find me an alternative car but I’ve not had any correspondence today and my existing car designation remains unchanged in my account.... starting to fall out of love with the idea of owning a Model 3...

They'll be keeping your existing VIN on your account intentionally while sorting out the issues and looking to swap you over. You may need to chase them for signs of activity, however.

I saw yours was a M3P and there are quite a few of those in the inventory so it shouldn't be too difficult to swap your vehicle across.

They are discounting performance models considerably....maybe ask for one at a slight premium in regards to your order or something as "to make good"

If you dont ask...

I'll ask them tomorrow. Judging by others' comments I think the best I'd get from them is some store credit for Tesla-branded red hotpants.

 

[Drew57]

@OneTinyFish - not wanting to add to your stress levels but I've not met a Tesla owner yet that hasn't needed to visit an SC or arrange a Ranger visit to fix post delivery issues, often small like my car (2 separate appointments) but frequently more significant.

Have you agreed how will Tesla manage that from IOM if the car needs attention, or ferry/accommodation costs if you have to travel to Stockport SC?

 

[OneTinyFish]

@OneTinyFish - not wanting to add to your stress levels but I've not met a Tesla owner yet that hasn't needed to visit an SC or arrange a Ranger visit to fix post delivery issues, often small like my car (2 separate appointments) but frequently more significant.

Have you agreed how will Tesla manage that from IOM if the car needs attention, or ferry/accommodation costs if you have to travel to Stockport SC?

Right. And now you've met me; and I've not even seen the car yet.

No, nothing's agreed. The car will have to be attended to from the UK/Manchester South.

As long as it's mobile it won't need to be put on a trailer. Hopefully nothing is ever going to be *that* bad.

 

[MrBadger]

As long as it's mobile it won't need to be put on a trailer. Hopefully nothing is ever going to be *that* bad.

It would imho be prudent to have a plan for if the car requires a service that it may be away for a number of days/weeks (parts availability is very much order when required and they come in from mainland Europe of America) and that service/repair durations can fluctuate from the initial estimate.

In addition, courtesy cars are often provided but come with a hefty excess that you may want to include on your regular insurance and worth checking if there are any limitations as to the geographical region that Tesla allow them to be used.

Hopefully just some questions to be asked earlier rather than later and planning around these unknowns is not an issue.

I think NI owners are/were in the similar boat so may have some experience with this.

 

[Dilly]

@OneTinyFish - not wanting to add to your stress levels but I've not met a Tesla owner yet that hasn't needed to visit an SC or arrange a Ranger visit to fix post delivery issues, often small like my car (2 separate appointments) but frequently more significant.

Have you agreed how will Tesla manage that from IOM if the car needs attention, or ferry/accommodation costs if you have to travel to Stockport SC?

I’m one of the ones whose car had no issues at day one and never been near an SC.
The only fault I could find was the tiniest nick in a wheel arch that a pin head would hide several times over.
I think that as with most forums, you have to make some allowance for a silent majority.
I met a young lady at a supercharger the other day. She had a recent M3P with no issues but is not on this forum.
I don’t deny by any means that Tesla QC at source and PDI needs some serious overhaul, I’m just saying it ain’t all bad news.

 

[OneTinyFish]

It's good to hear of your experience @Dilly in that you've got a nearly perfect car. It's the opposite experience of mine which involves paying for a car I've not seen and promises of callbacks don't always happen.

I appreciate that the parts have to come from the US but surely there should be a repository of parts close to the service centres where they are used. Elon was talking about this last night; having a factory on each continent to reduce the time from order to money in the bank.

My situation is the inverse of this; they've got the money but I haven't got a car.