Hi all,
I can see a lot of you are either getting ready to pick up your cars or, like me, picked it up very recently. I thought I’d give you a run through of my collection as it may dispel some myths for you?
Perhaps then others who have picked up from *different* Service Centers can say how their experience differs?
SC = Heathrow.
Collection Time = 10am
Arrival
Upon arrival it was pretty easy to work out where to go with “Collections” clearly marked. When I entered there was somebody asking for your name. As I was running about 10 minutes late I was told to hurry up round the corner and watch the presentation. As I had taken black horse finance I was told to come back and see her afterwards to sign the paperwork.
Collection Area
The whole thing is basically conducted in a large warehouse - pretty immaculate - but a warehouse none the less. The presentation was conducted in one corner of this and was screened off with temporary screens. Near to the presentation area was a coffee/tea machine and I saw people using that throughout.
There were also two iMacs labelled as “Tesla/black horse finance” that seemed completely redundant. I suspect as they get busier this is where you may need to go to sign for finance.
At the front is a Tesla employee with a laptop and a widescreen TV - then a row of seats and stalls behind each other and finally lots of us standing up at the back.
If you are hard of hearing or have sight issues then arrive early and get to the front. The Tesla Employee was very good but quite quiet and annoyingly in the background (behind the screens) they were moving some of the cars around. Whilst the car makes no noise the tyres on the shiny warehouse floor do - so I did struggle to hear a lot of what was said.
Presentation
This was pretty much a more in depth replay of the videos you can watch on the website and they didn’t really want questions at the end! He did show us the keys, phone and the fob that you can buy and I think he did a pretty good of explaining most things - such as regen braking and charging. He was really passionate about the Model 3 and Tesla and whilst I’m not a fan of the “apple store clap you out as you buy the latest shiny thing” mentality (even though I am an apple fan boy) I did appreciate his enthusiasm and it did get me excited.
Car Collection
After the presentation was over we were told to line up and we would be shown to our cars - that bit seemed a bit chaotic but I had finance stuff to attend to so I didn’t worry. I then went back to the front desk to do this. I was asked to confirm my name again, the employee could see that I had paid my deposit on the system and then I was told I would get a text message with a code - I did - and I gave that to her - and that was that! I was then told to go pick my car up!
I joined the by then very small line and when I got to the front I was asked to sign for the car - nothing was really explained about WHAT I was signing for, simply that I had to put my signature in. That was the only time I did by the way. Of course by this point you’re very excited and just want to see your car so I signed willingly - having previously told myself I wouldn’t sign anything until I saw the car!
The Car and inspection
Well then we couldn’t see my car - I was looking for the reg number. Turns out it was there in front of us... with no reg plate on! I think this is because I’d had an issue with collection on a Wednesday (they said it didn’t arrive!) and so when I went on Friday I think they’d kind of forgotten about it! The car also had that chalk paint on the windscreen saying my name and collection date. Both issues were quickly resolved and the number plates attached.
I was then told to set up my profile and to grab someone if I needed something - you are then pretty much left alone to play with your car and check things out - to be fair there were several employees walking around who you could grab. In the corner of the warehouse there looked to be a small paint shop or workshop.
I had brought an inspection list but most of it went out of the window if I am honest. I checked the basics - could I one everything, were there any panel misalignments etc, but really you want to be inside playing with the screen don’t you!
I did eventually find a mis fitting of a seal between the two roof glass segments but someone came over, had a look, then brought somebody else over with a tool to remove it.
One last check (as it had been mentioned several times before) - did I have the charger cable set? No! one of the team basically stole a set from out of another car that no one was in!!
Car was about 50% charge which was more than enough to get home and whilst I thought about diverting to a supercharger to try that out I was a bit overwhelmed with all the tech etc and just drove home.
Subsequently I have noticed a minor pain scratch and a scratch on the centre console that I will book in via the app.
Overall the experience is very different to a normal car handover but not necessarily the worse for it - I Wasn’t given the hard sell for tyre or paint protection or overly expensive GAP insurance either. I’d say the staff were interested but not that caring - but then they were handing over 50 cars that day - how caring can you be with each customer?!
The car itself is utterly amazing!
I can see a lot of you are either getting ready to pick up your cars or, like me, picked it up very recently. I thought I’d give you a run through of my collection as it may dispel some myths for you?
Perhaps then others who have picked up from *different* Service Centers can say how their experience differs?
SC = Heathrow.
Collection Time = 10am
Arrival
Upon arrival it was pretty easy to work out where to go with “Collections” clearly marked. When I entered there was somebody asking for your name. As I was running about 10 minutes late I was told to hurry up round the corner and watch the presentation. As I had taken black horse finance I was told to come back and see her afterwards to sign the paperwork.
Collection Area
The whole thing is basically conducted in a large warehouse - pretty immaculate - but a warehouse none the less. The presentation was conducted in one corner of this and was screened off with temporary screens. Near to the presentation area was a coffee/tea machine and I saw people using that throughout.
There were also two iMacs labelled as “Tesla/black horse finance” that seemed completely redundant. I suspect as they get busier this is where you may need to go to sign for finance.
At the front is a Tesla employee with a laptop and a widescreen TV - then a row of seats and stalls behind each other and finally lots of us standing up at the back.
If you are hard of hearing or have sight issues then arrive early and get to the front. The Tesla Employee was very good but quite quiet and annoyingly in the background (behind the screens) they were moving some of the cars around. Whilst the car makes no noise the tyres on the shiny warehouse floor do - so I did struggle to hear a lot of what was said.
Presentation
This was pretty much a more in depth replay of the videos you can watch on the website and they didn’t really want questions at the end! He did show us the keys, phone and the fob that you can buy and I think he did a pretty good of explaining most things - such as regen braking and charging. He was really passionate about the Model 3 and Tesla and whilst I’m not a fan of the “apple store clap you out as you buy the latest shiny thing” mentality (even though I am an apple fan boy) I did appreciate his enthusiasm and it did get me excited.
Car Collection
After the presentation was over we were told to line up and we would be shown to our cars - that bit seemed a bit chaotic but I had finance stuff to attend to so I didn’t worry. I then went back to the front desk to do this. I was asked to confirm my name again, the employee could see that I had paid my deposit on the system and then I was told I would get a text message with a code - I did - and I gave that to her - and that was that! I was then told to go pick my car up!
I joined the by then very small line and when I got to the front I was asked to sign for the car - nothing was really explained about WHAT I was signing for, simply that I had to put my signature in. That was the only time I did by the way. Of course by this point you’re very excited and just want to see your car so I signed willingly - having previously told myself I wouldn’t sign anything until I saw the car!
The Car and inspection
Well then we couldn’t see my car - I was looking for the reg number. Turns out it was there in front of us... with no reg plate on! I think this is because I’d had an issue with collection on a Wednesday (they said it didn’t arrive!) and so when I went on Friday I think they’d kind of forgotten about it! The car also had that chalk paint on the windscreen saying my name and collection date. Both issues were quickly resolved and the number plates attached.
I was then told to set up my profile and to grab someone if I needed something - you are then pretty much left alone to play with your car and check things out - to be fair there were several employees walking around who you could grab. In the corner of the warehouse there looked to be a small paint shop or workshop.
I had brought an inspection list but most of it went out of the window if I am honest. I checked the basics - could I one everything, were there any panel misalignments etc, but really you want to be inside playing with the screen don’t you!
I did eventually find a mis fitting of a seal between the two roof glass segments but someone came over, had a look, then brought somebody else over with a tool to remove it.
One last check (as it had been mentioned several times before) - did I have the charger cable set? No! one of the team basically stole a set from out of another car that no one was in!!
Car was about 50% charge which was more than enough to get home and whilst I thought about diverting to a supercharger to try that out I was a bit overwhelmed with all the tech etc and just drove home.
Subsequently I have noticed a minor pain scratch and a scratch on the centre console that I will book in via the app.
Overall the experience is very different to a normal car handover but not necessarily the worse for it - I Wasn’t given the hard sell for tyre or paint protection or overly expensive GAP insurance either. I’d say the staff were interested but not that caring - but then they were handing over 50 cars that day - how caring can you be with each customer?!
The car itself is utterly amazing!
