Discussion: Tesla Energy / Auto Customer Service

[Nmtdriver]

Not surprised at all, unfortunately. 5 months and still waiting for them to set my poorly installed panels right. Should have listened to so many people who told me not to go with Tesla. Definitely not their cars now.

Same here ! I'm in LA. Installed July 2022 and PTO last month. Always had production issues and half my system has been down since October. It really sucks to be paying the loan AND pay a sizable electricity bill.

I figure, at least I got PTO under NEM 2.0 and time. So many people are going through the same thing - I'm pretty sure this is grounds for a class action suit.

Edit: I think I might just file a complaint with the AG. Consumer Complaint Against A Business/Company

 

[cciesingh]

I have filled with AG also, Tesla customer service is non-existent

 

[vickh]

I termed my solar rental. They showed up today out of the blue for removal. Didn't have the paint for patches handy so used something close so it wouldn't be white. I told them they'd have to come back. Their answer: that's on you!

Q: Any recourse

 

[Nmtdriver]

I got a technician's personal cell from his visit last month. Said he's willing to help solve the problem which is quite lucky for me and had engineering monitor my system this week. On the service side, I sent a pretty strong email about providing warranty work within 30 days (cited CA state law) yesterday and got them to also work with engineering. My app told me that service was ready to be scheduled this morning. Texted the technician a screenshot and he put me on his route next week.

The observation that Tesla Energy departments operate in silos with very little collaboration is SPOT ON. After PTO, you deal with service managers, engineering (indirectly) and maintenance technicians. Service managers and engineering seem to operate all over the country. Techs are obviously stuck in one region. Engineering will investigate and approve service, then service probably assigns techs based on their availability so you often end up with multiple visits with different techs each time. The techs end up re-doing eachother's diagnostics without the time needed to make progress. Then the service managers have to stall customers until they have to push the case back onto engineering to investigate (I'm assuming engineering hates everyone because nothing ever gets fixed, service hates everyone because nothing gets fixed and techs hate everyone because they never get to take their time and figure out the problems). Engineering needs to determine that maintenance is required and then service techs have to find availability for the next appointment (often with a different tech). Rinse repeat until you're lucky.

The goal, it seems, is to stay home and latch onto the tech that comes and incentivize them to come back if things don't resolve. Technicians have the ability to push things back onto engineering as well as Service. If things aren't resolved, get it's imperative pressure your tech and service to get another service visit approved by engineering. From there your tech should be able to schedule based on his availability and service managers should hopefully not meddle with your appointment.

TL;DR - You gotta play QB and push both CSRs and Technicians (get your tech's # and a give him incentive to go above and beyond for you) to get maintenance approved by engineering to get things done.

 

[astrotoy]

Does anyone have a sense of what percentage of the solar roof (not panels) buyers have been unhappy with the purchase. We have been quite satisfied with our Solar City panels from 2009 and Powerwalls from 2021. However, we are replacing our roof on our almost 50 year old house, and the cost will actually be higher than the cost of a solar roof (even before the Federal tax credit.) Both are over $100K for our roof (Tesla includes 2 powerwalls in their estimate). If we add installing new solar panels (we would have to go to another company since Tesla doesn't install panels on metal roofs) then the cost differential is even higher in favor of Tesla.

I know there is a bias toward reporting problems. Is there another thread which just has people report experience with their solar roof install? I am in the SF East Bay. Thanks.

 

[pl804]

Anyone have an escalation contact on the Powerwall team?


2015 Nov: Won a Powerwall as part of the referral program.

2016 Jun: Signed order form. Cost after referral credits: $1,751

2019 Nov: Sent requested site survey photos.

2020 Aug: Updated order form + cost: $2,500 – paid

2021 Jun: Installed. City denied permit. New plans to mount on a concrete pad, which Tesla agreed to pick up the cost of.

2022 Mar: Sent requested site survey photos.

2022 Apr: Sent requested site survey photos.

2023 Jan: Updated order form + cost: +$4,700. Asked what happened to Tesla agreeing to pick up the cost of the pad.

2023 Feb (today): No reply since Jan. Powerwall permit still incomplete.


Emails so far: 169

 

[charlesj]

Wow, 7+years?

 

[jjrandorin]

Wow, 7+years?

It looks that way, although the time from 2015 - Aug 2020 seems to be the slack time because it was a referral powerwall prize, not a regular order.

 

[jgleigh]

Emails so far: 169

Yeah, I'm pretty sure no one at Tesla monitors their emails. Better to try phone or online chat.

 

[pl804]

Booked the 1st phone slot available, 2 days out.

 

[charlesj]

Booked the 1st phone slot available, 2 days out.

What? Now you need to reserve a phone in time?

 

[jjrandorin]

What? Now you need to reserve a phone in time?

I am virtually 100% positive that this is a joke post by this OP to talk about teslas phone support.

 

[SO16]

This may be a good video to watch to understand a solar setup. Pay attention to the inverter at 2:50.

 

[pl804]

I am virtually 100% positive that this is a joke post by this OP to talk about teslas phone support.

Not a joke post. Tesla called at the scheduled time. They didn’t have any information about my case, so they said they would look into it and started another email thread.

 

[GasDoc]

I've been waiting for a Powerwall referral since 2018. This year they finally completed the paperwork. But no survey or project start date in sight.

Class action time?

 

[5rivers]

Tesla solar panels were installed in first week of October 2022. Got my PTO in last week of oct. In nov 2022 I have had 2 periods of no production one lasted 15 days other lasted 4 days. Tesla tech came out and “fixed” things. But since Feb of 2023 when ever it is sunny in my neck of the woods ( 20 miles from Sacramento in the country side ) I loose solar production it just drop to zero or near zero. For example today it was 58F beautiful sunny day with not a single cloud and suddenly the system goes to zero.
System spec
9.6 kWh system
1 power wall
Inverter is 7.6 kw
Dc to Ac ratio 1.26
All panels face south I get some shading in winter but there is no shading from March to October.
I am attaching today’s screen shot.
Can anyone figure out what is going on. I have a case pending with Tesla since last 4 weeks.
I have a serious case of buyer remorse.
I have reset the system many times. The fan is not an issue in the inverter.

I am not new in solar game I bought my first system in 2015 from sunworks on a different property it’s been almost 8 year that system has seen zero down time since install. I have not even rebooted that system once.
7.9 kw system
hanwha q cells.
Solaredge inverter.

 

[jjrandorin]

This is obviously not right, but you need whomever is the installer (sounds like Tesla) to come fix it. It sounds like your inverter is shutting off, just based on your description. There isnt anything you or anyone else here is going to be able to advise other than "get the installer back out to fix it" which makes this a customer service issue.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

This may be a good video to watch to understand a solar setup. Pay attention to the inverter at 2:50.

Go back to pvwatts and input your four arrays individually and add the results. You have north, east, south and west arrays; your peak will not be close to the full dc capacity. Please update your video and post when you do.
I do hate that tesla is combining mppt’s. I would like to see how combining string of different directions affects production.

 

[SO16]

Go back to pvwatts and input your four arrays individually and add the results. You have north, east, south and west arrays; your peak will not be close to the full dc capacity. Please update your video and post when you do.

FYI - I didn’t make the video.

 

[Techkids]

Why when my solar went out it takes all most a month for a tech to come out? I charge car off solar and run house on PowerWalls.