Go to your project page on Tesla's website. Click the "?" in the bottom right of the page. Click "Project Status". Click "I need more help." That should give you your project advisor's name, number, and extension.
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Discussion: Tesla Energy / Auto Customer Service
- Thread starter jimm01
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- elon is an ass
IRT Rdfield
I've had the same situation that you describe. Over the past six months or so, I've been able to reach "my" advisor precisely zero times. However, when I enter my advisor's extension...and he doesn't pick up...the call goes through to an available advisor. While that means that I have to explain my situation over and over again to a new person every time I call, I have had success in getting other advisors to act when my advisor ignores me. I have no idea how the phone situation is set up for them, but I have been able to get someone to pick up my call, listen to my concerns, and act on my behalf. GLTY.
I've had the same situation that you describe. Over the past six months or so, I've been able to reach "my" advisor precisely zero times. However, when I enter my advisor's extension...and he doesn't pick up...the call goes through to an available advisor. While that means that I have to explain my situation over and over again to a new person every time I call, I have had success in getting other advisors to act when my advisor ignores me. I have no idea how the phone situation is set up for them, but I have been able to get someone to pick up my call, listen to my concerns, and act on my behalf. GLTY.
BigDanSRQ
Member
Ordered a 15kW solar panel + 1 Powerwalls solution back on 10/4/2021. The customer service / response times have been terrible. My gut keeps telling me this is a bad idea but my other side has been romanticizing the perfect outcome. We have two new Model Ys in the garage and the solar would round it out but dang.... it takes many many days to get email responses; I've never ever gotten a response from the 'request a change' or 'get an update' links; emails to my guy take a week+ for a response; I've been on hold for an hour+ when calling in and have never ever talked to my guy. I mean, it's really terrible customer service. So is it all of a sudden going to be perfect when they install it? No movement for the last month so this may just be my de-romance period... come to your senses man!!! This is a disaster.
Anyone had stellar customer service from Tampa and/or Tesla Energy? Can you put my mind at ease please?
Cold Feet in Sarasota.
Dan
Anyone had stellar customer service from Tampa and/or Tesla Energy? Can you put my mind at ease please?
Cold Feet in Sarasota.
Dan
BigDanSRQ
Member
This is all normal for Tesla. They save money by having little (or no) customer service support. In return, they deliver low cost systems, with comparatively advanced batteries. If you want customer service, go with a third party. Be forewarned that Powerwall supplies are tight for third parties, and Tesla seems to be experiencing supply chain issues with their panels at the moment.
Just FYI: As a separate issue, you might want to consider adding more Powerwalls, or at least ensuring that your model Ys will be charging when you are off grid to avoid overloading the Powerwall and shutting down the solar.
All the best,
BG
I have recently had exactly the same problem. The Powerwall stopped working and when I reported the issue to Tesla they came back and informed me that there had been thunderstorms within the area around the time that it had stopped working. So, in spite of the fact that nothing else within the house was affected in any way (the lights didn’t even go out) a £10,000 Powerwall and Gateway was seemingly fried. I have been back and forth with Tesla for the past two months and they are simply saying it is force majeure - in effect ‘tough sh*t’.
For such a seemingly technologically advanced company I am staggered that a lightning strike can totally destroy such an expensive piece of equipment (leaving everything else unscathEd) however it seems that it can and there’s nothing I can do about it apart from try to claim on my insurance.
I’m thinking should I get another one if they’re so susceptible to lightning strike? Why wouldn’t it just happen again when there’s a storm?
Sorry to hear this but I suppose it should not be surprising given that there is some kind of unacknowledged vulnerability within the Gateway system to current surges online when connected to the grid. It's not buffering properly obviously because if nothing else in the house is fried but the Gateway, that says that the Gateway is not properly designed. The other issue is whether the powerwall not working is in fact simply secondary to the Gateway dysfunction, and whether replacing the Gateway actually restores the power wall. Have you had the Gateway computer replaced? Do you have confirmation that the powerwall dysfunction was simultaneous with the Gateway failure? If it was not then you have an argument against an assumption of force majeure on the Powerwall as opposed to the Gateway where that argument is harder and where you have to prove design flaw. The other approach would be to argue that in fact the vulnerability of this system to so-called force majeure is a design failure and not simply an intrinsic vulnerability of any circuit board. My experience and your experience I suspect index a large hidden pool of folks suffering from this design defect. I might indicate to Tesla that if they do not take responsibility for this that you would reserve the right to explore class-action. An interesting question might be whether Tesla could be subpoenaed to supply records of all force majeure events on their systems. I would bet we would discover a Minefield of s***. See here for details: Tesla Energy -- Worst experience
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I am sorry to hear of your troubles and loss.
As you have found out to your detriment, Tesla equipment is filled with expensive semiconductors. While it is too late for your existing equipment, I do encourage all solar and storage customers to install whole house surge suppression to limit the damage of electrical surges, regardless of origin, e.g. lightning, solar storms, grid equipment malfunctions, etc. Truly cheap insurance in the grand scheme of things and many surge suppression companies offer additional insurance coverage for price of purchase.
All the best,
BG
You might do your homework on this post before you post such boilerplate. The Unsolved Mystery in relationship to the Gateway computer system is how it is the single greatest point of vulnerability in current surges in houses filled with unprotected Electronics. That's been documented and it actually happened to us. Nothing else damaged but two Gateway systems in two side-by-side houses where one lightning strike fried one Transformer but not the other resulted in both Gateway computers being fused. No other electronics in either house including very sensitive things like computers, high powered audio equipment, TVs, routers, refrigerators, pool pumps and their Associated Electronics, all of which were mostly unprotected by surge protectors were not harmed (we did install some additional surge protectors after that). So there is an unknown vulnerability of the Gateway system to current and power surges. No one that Tesla is able to explain this. Perhaps you could direct your attention to that mystery and help us solve it. The boilerplate on the other hand comes across as patronizing and not particularly helpful.
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I have tried to find out from Tesla how many Gateway computers have actually been fried by lightning strikes. Can't seem to get any information but the fact that several people have posted about this suggest that the system is not surge protected at all.
I'm not disputing that the Gateway should have more robust surge protection, but when observing that the Gateway was damaged while other electronic devices were not you should consider that the only part of the other devices that would touch the AC line would be the AC side of a DC power supply whereas the Gateway must have circuitry to sense what the AC waveform is doing so it can respond appropriately.
I don't know enough to respond to your comment. But I do know from personal inspection that the 240 line coming into the gateway is completely without surge protection. Therefore it seems extremely vulnerable. Leave it to folks with degrees in electrical engineering to debate the pros and cons and possibilities of surge protection on a grid sensing line. It does make me very nervous in terms of the long-term health of the Gateway on both our systems.
In Florida, not having surge suppression on your incoming line is asking for trouble. As for Tesla's gateway being fragile, it is hard to design a inverter that will deal with a surge gracefully, especially when efficiency is critical. Surge suppression helps, but only to a degree.
It would be interesting to learn what damage the computer board suffers. My guess is that it would be front-end analog components that might be feasible to repair.
One anecdote does not a trend make but I thought I would relay my most recent Tesla Energy experience that seemed to be an improvement over many of the abysmal stories heard around the web.
I had my installation right at Christmas during which a piece of roof tile debris may have come off an upper story of my house and impacted and cracked one of the newly installed, lower panels. This occurred at sundown as the Tesla team was demobilizing and finishing the job. In fact, the team lead heard it happen rather than saw it and investigated by taking the time to rig up and get back on the roof.
They sourced the new panel in three weeks and came and replaced. In the interim I made three calls to check on scheduling and to talk to a project advisor and my hold time was zero each time.
Finally, on replacement day, when they left after completing, I noticed that the 8 panel string they worked on was showing 70V at midday. I called the help line and again got through on the first ring. The tech support guy was able to get the installation team via text message and at 6:00pm that same day, the team made an hour drive across town to come back to check connections and resolved the issue. Honestly some of the best and most responsive customer service I’ve had.
Biggest surprise to me out of all this was the lack of phone hold times. Each time I would call I made sure to have a two hour block of my calendar cleared and I kid you not, I used maybe 5 minutes. Wonder if I got lucky or if Tesla is making changes to their service model in the Energy team.
I had my installation right at Christmas during which a piece of roof tile debris may have come off an upper story of my house and impacted and cracked one of the newly installed, lower panels. This occurred at sundown as the Tesla team was demobilizing and finishing the job. In fact, the team lead heard it happen rather than saw it and investigated by taking the time to rig up and get back on the roof.
They sourced the new panel in three weeks and came and replaced. In the interim I made three calls to check on scheduling and to talk to a project advisor and my hold time was zero each time.
Finally, on replacement day, when they left after completing, I noticed that the 8 panel string they worked on was showing 70V at midday. I called the help line and again got through on the first ring. The tech support guy was able to get the installation team via text message and at 6:00pm that same day, the team made an hour drive across town to come back to check connections and resolved the issue. Honestly some of the best and most responsive customer service I’ve had.
Biggest surprise to me out of all this was the lack of phone hold times. Each time I would call I made sure to have a two hour block of my calendar cleared and I kid you not, I used maybe 5 minutes. Wonder if I got lucky or if Tesla is making changes to their service model in the Energy team.
I ordered a 16.8KW system in February 2021, knowing it would require a main panel upgrade from 200-400 AMP.
a month later, they returned a quote to me for a 14.98 KW system. I told them I ordered/wanted the 16, and it took them another 6 months to give me the quote for the 16. I accepted the contract immediately. Then 4 more months later with me calling in once a week they finally did the upgrade and actually installed the system. (They did both panel upgrade and install at the same time, took them 2 days total). It was a total of around 10 months from the time I ordered the system, until it was installed on the roof.
Yes the customer service sucks, LONG hold times on the phone with no option for a call back, I have NEVER spoken to my assigned advisor, I always get someone different when I call in, and for months I got the same excuses over and over as to why the project was not moving forward. I stuck with it though and called once a week every week. Eventually through persistence , it was installed... Reason why I even bothered with Tesla was because Tesla was around 10K cheaper than 3 other competitors I called for the same size system.
a month later, they returned a quote to me for a 14.98 KW system. I told them I ordered/wanted the 16, and it took them another 6 months to give me the quote for the 16. I accepted the contract immediately. Then 4 more months later with me calling in once a week they finally did the upgrade and actually installed the system. (They did both panel upgrade and install at the same time, took them 2 days total). It was a total of around 10 months from the time I ordered the system, until it was installed on the roof.
Yes the customer service sucks, LONG hold times on the phone with no option for a call back, I have NEVER spoken to my assigned advisor, I always get someone different when I call in, and for months I got the same excuses over and over as to why the project was not moving forward. I stuck with it though and called once a week every week. Eventually through persistence , it was installed... Reason why I even bothered with Tesla was because Tesla was around 10K cheaper than 3 other competitors I called for the same size system.
Jedi2155
Model 3 has Arrived.
Would it not make sense if that was the case to install a surge protection system in front of the gateway so as to protect that? Even Tesla does not provide the design, I would find a way to put the Tesla system behind a whole home surge protector especially if you expect regular lightning strikes.
Regarding my personal question though, it sounds normal to wait several days / weeks for Tesla to respond to a system redesign request? I put an order in a week and a half ago and haven't heard anything. I haven't accepted the design as originally made.
Regarding my personal question though, it sounds normal to wait several days / weeks for Tesla to respond to a system redesign request? I put an order in a week and a half ago and haven't heard anything. I haven't accepted the design as originally made.
That was the point I was trying to make originally. Given the costs of these ESS systems, I think it is prudent to install a whole house surge suppression system on the first panel, ahead of the pricey gateway and powerwalls, not to mention the home electronic equipment. Don't get me wrong, I think Tesla should either build it in, or install it at the time of purchase/install, but either way, a Gateway and powerwalls is a nontrivial amount of capital at risk, and typically much more than a couple of PCs, and appliances. A top of line Siemens unit is $200-300, or so, with 150V clamping.
Having a gateway a few (wire) feet away from a main panel improves the suppression capabilities of a whole home surge suppression system; it gives the suppression system several nanoseconds to clamp the peak.
In answer to your second point: Yes, design changes with Tesla can take awhile. It is part of the process. Good luck.
All the best,
BG
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