Does Tesla Motors have central parts database?

[MileHighMotoring]

Unfortunately, I've had a few times in my 1.5 years of owning two Teslas where parts were needed, and sometimes they took quite a while to locate and arrive. It's been something I seem to notice when reading the forums, too. And after speaking with a Tesla-certified body shop and maybe a dozen people in person who've had the same situation, it seems that the system for finding a part is that Tesla basically has to spend weeks calling every service center to track one down. They call every service center until a part is tracked down, and then have it shipped where it's needed. They don't seem to have a database of what service centers have what parts in stock. This can't be true, right? Surely a silicon valley company with millions of parts must be uber-organized with respect to inventory? I am not bashing Tesla, I'm just baffled by my (and others') experience with parts suppy. And, as with any concern, I'm uneasy about how this is going to affect the massive uptick in ownership that's coming our way. This is obviously a separate concern from the lack of service center bays and repair facilities we're already dealing with as customers.

How can we help this improve, and quickly?

 

[Drucifer]

Had a mishap with road debris 12 days ago. Should have been a 4 day fix, including getting parts. Still waiting on parts today.

Riding a motorcycle until I get the car back. It is raining this week. ugh.

 

[TS_Pasadena]

I feel your pain. My car is still in the body shop for a December 3, 2016 accident. It is now January 23, 2017. Tesla still cannot provide an ETA for the part (a rocker panel, not some mysterious part)!

Knowing Tesla is not the best managing parts inventory, I maintained that my car is still drivable and would keep driving it until the parts were available so I can drive on the carpool lane for my very congested long community from Pasadena to Santa Monica. But the at-fault party's insurance GEICO would not sign off on the Tesla approved body shop's estimate of $18,000 (a lot higher than its GEICO's original estimate of $2500). Eventually Tesla approved body shop had to take my car apart and render it undrivable to show GEICO and GEICO approved the $18,000 estimates.

I have been in a smaller rental for about a month, without a carpool sticker and autopilot, in heavy traffic and rain, and continue to make my Tesla monthly lease payment without a Tesla. And there is still no ETA for the parts.

I found this to be completely ridiculous. I love the Tesla. Our family had purchase two Model S and a Model X to date. But if they can't get the parts inventory management in order, I will have to seriously consider other clean vehicles next time around. Tesla is great to drive. But once you are in an accident, not only it is expensive to fix, it can take forever waiting for the parts.

TESLA PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. RIP ONE OFF THE ASSEMBLY LINE FOR YOUR NEXT DELIVERY AND TAKE CARE OF THE LOYAL EXISTING OWNERS!

 

[MileHighMotoring]

and continue to make my Tesla monthly lease payment without a Tesla

That's the part that hurt the most, honestly. Paying big bucks for a car that's getting older by the day, without use of it, for months on end... wasn't fun.

 

[TS_Pasadena]

That's the part that hurt the most, honestly. Paying big bucks for a car that's getting older by the day, without use of it, for months on end... wasn't fun.

Just got a call from my body shop. Tesla sent the wrong parts.... I am speechless....

 

[MileHighMotoring]

I got that call once. Lots of calls with "They sent a b and c ... .but they're useless without all the other parts we need so we'll talk in another month". Seriously.

 

[mikevbf]

It just occurred to me because Tesla continuously improves their cars and implements those improvements as soon as possible instead of on a yearly basis like pretty much all other automotive companies, keeping track of which improved parts goes to which car must be extremely difficult. An extremely well organized central data base of parts would seem like the obvious foundation from which to avoid the nightmares Tesla customers face in bodywork repairs.

The problem from there is even if they had and maintained this data base meticulously, how can they stock a moving target of continuously improved parts? If they decided to stock 10,000 bolts centrally for fixing seats down, but then changed them the next month and then again 2 months later was it really prudent to have stock piled those bolts? The problem is Tesla really is not that big and they are moving so fast on so many fronts there are bound to be some teething pains like this. Does this reality give them pass? Certainly not. But something does have to give. Either customer satisfaction is bound to go down or they will need to slow down enough to catch up to their own progress. Unfortunately, it looks like we are more in and headed for more of the former.

 

[bonnie]

I'm pretty sure there is a central database - when someone broke into my Roadster and broke some of the steering column parts, my service center was able to identify (while I was sitting there) that the parts needed were at a service center in Florida.

Agree with @mikevbf - inventory management is always high on the list for companies closely managing the bottom line. It's money sitting on the shelf. But it has to balanced against customer satisfaction. Tough line to walk.

 

[mikevbf]

I wonder if something like this:
Tesla is working on opening up its service tools and helping owners repair their own cars with replacement parts
will actually help the situation or become its own Pandora's box ...

 

[MileHighMotoring]

I'm not so sure they have a central database of parts. When I got my Roadster and tried to locate a 120v charger for it, the national parts number was out of them and suggested we call each Service Center. They had no idea who had what in stock, or where it might be. And, each SC had to put me on hold for anywhere from 3-30 minutes while they searched through the boxes in their storage room. Thank goodness for speakerphone mode.

With my Model S in the shop last year for a minor bumper repair, they had no ETA on the parts either. Just months of waiting. I don't know if they were out of them, or had to wait on suppliers to manufacture new ones. I just know that these must be common items as front bumper repairs have to be 90% of parts requests from body shops, and my car was sitting unused for 4 months because of it. I emailed / tweeted everyone I could find at Tesla, and Tesla corporate, including Elon, and never even got a single reply much less a solution. I've been silent about this issue for a year but it's just incredibly frustrating and I drive my Teslas in fear of ever needing parts again.