Every service experience makes me want to sell my Model S

[ucmndd]

I do not believe they can just band-aid until the clock tick down to zero and then say, oops, sorry not under warranty anymore

lol, of course they can. Tesla owes you a car that functions as designed for the period of the warranty as agreed upon when you bought it. Nothing else.

 

[ArizonaP85]

lol, of course they can. Tesla owes you a car that functions as designed for the period of the warranty as agreed upon when you bought it. Nothing else.

Said the 1970s GM beancounters. How’d that work out?

 

[r1200gs4ok]

lol, of course they can. Tesla owes you a car that functions as designed for the period of the warranty as agreed upon when you bought it. Nothing else.

a warranted item should be replaced and or fixed.....if it keeps happening for the same reason, then lemon laws could kick in.....but, you just cannot run away from it because the warranty just expired.....this is not a ball game with a time clock.....I believe the courts somewhere has ruled on this....will try and find it

 

[ucmndd]

Said the 1970s GM beancounters. How’d that work out?

/shrug

GM seems to be doing fine.

 

[ucmndd]

a warranted item should be replaced and or fixed.....

Agreed.

if it keeps happening for the same reason, then lemon laws could kick in.....

Agreed.

but, you just cannot run away from it because the warranty just expired.....this is not a ball game with a time clock.....

This is where we diverge. Of course it’s a game with the clock. That’s why warranties have very explicit time-bound coverage periods.

 

[ArizonaP85]

Said the 1970s GM beancounters. How’d that work out?

/shrug

GM seems to be doing fine.

I honestly don’t know if you’re also being sarcastic or simply aren’t aware of history:

GM market share by decade
1970 45%
1980 44%
1990 34%
2000 28%
2009 bankruptcy— shareholders wiped out
2010 20%
2019 17%

Not caring about your customers or product beyond initial warranty period is as close to a fatal a disease as a car company could have.

Tesla’s great cars are undercut by an all-too-often disinterested (at best) customer service experience. Early adopters such as myself have been more tolerant of this poor treatment but as Tesla broadens its market into more traditional buyers, it will pay a steeper price for poor service. My goodness, just look at OP in this thread (and many similar threads across TMC.)

 

[r1200gs4ok]

Agreed.


Agreed.


This is where we diverge. Of course it’s a game with the clock. That’s why warranties have very explicit time-bound coverage periods.

I agree we are split here......warranties cover everything that is covered under warranty of r a specific period of time....if they last longer than the warranty fine....but when they fail within the warranty period, on multiple instances, the dealers just cant pick up and take their marbles and say game over, clock ran out.....they have a fiduciary, if not legal responsibility to continue to fix/repair those whether the warranty period expires or not.....the clock stops running on that part until it can withstand a period of warranty given to the specific part after the repair or replacement.....(I do not imply that it get 4yrs/50k miles...just a period deemed appropriate for that particular part, especially if new and not refurbished).....if it is proven to be poor design, then we have a different topic for discussion that takes us back to lemon laws, arbitration and possible buy-backs

I understand your point, but I believe in good faith representations by dealers and just can’t bear the arrogance at some dealers who are just waiting to tell the customer sorry, out of warranty and basically walk away.....especially when they have not fixed the original problem and it continuously fails or breaks.....but then again, one might say, just sell the car.....fortunately, I love my Model # and Modle S too much to do that......just hope I do not have to jump thru hoops like the OP

 

[SO16]

While it's easy to be dismissive of such treatment, this is the stuff that does long term damage to the brand. The US automakers learned this the very hard way. Best to enjoy the low stock price now and take advantage of the the next spike, but don't expect long term repeat customers to support it.

You say the other US automakers learned this? Not by my experiences.

 

[Big Toys]

You say the other US automakers learned this? Not by my experiences.

You didn't experience the Japanese automakers putting practically all the US automakers out of business?

 

[bob_p]

We've purchased 3 Tesla vehicles starting January 2013 (when the nearest service center was over 1000 miles away).

In the past 7 years, we've never had a problem with the local service centers, except a few periods when they were swamped and it took longer than expected to get a service appointment. And now that we can get some service done with mobile service, the experience has been even better (they came out this week to our house to install the AP3 processor in our 2018 X).

If I ever did experience a problem with the local service, I would find a way to report that to Tesla management.

Unlike the other manufacturers who are seeing declining vehicle sales and are reliant on a redundant dealership network for sales/service, Tesla is continuing to add capacity by opening new service centers, hiring new staff, and adding mobile service vehicles. Whenever a company expands like that, there's always a risk that some of the new staff won't work out - and hopefully the bad service experiences are related more to the quality of the local staff vs. a strategy by Tesla to provide poorer service (which we haven't seen).

 

[SO16]

You didn't experience the Japanese automakers putting practically all the US automakers out of business?

I and my family experience crappy support for my US vehicles fro dealers. IE Ford, GM and Jeep.

Japanese automakers improved quality which did force US automakers to improve quality. And my Tesla has performed better with 44k+ miles and 3+ years than all my previous vehicles.

 

[mswlogo]

I have a 2017 Model S100D. Purchased new - paid $120k back then. It's been a great car, albeit with many service issues. At first, Tesla service was exceptional. They would drive 60 miles each way from the Gigafactory 1 to Lake Tahoe to perform onsite service. And the mobile technicians were great. But it's all gone to hell in the past year.

Summary: Tesla doesn't put the customer first. Their service decisions are based on expedience and lowest cost for Tesla; not the customer's best interest. They creatively interpret their warranty to their own benefit - setting aside the reasonable rights of their customers. Their service advisors are pompous and self-righteous - knowing that that I have no alternatives and my only recourse is suing. They act as if they don't care (I can't tell if they do care). This is no way to retain customers. You can make a great product, but if you treat your customers like sh*t, they won't come back.

Examples:
MCU1 with yellow border. Fixed it the first time with replacement screen. OK for < 1 year. I reported my yellow screen today and they said that they don't replace them anymore. They just treat the symptom with UV light and the symptom goes away for a while while underlying problem still exists. Just long enough for my warranty to expire - no doubt. They further told me that they would do this UV treatment once for free. But after that, I had to pay to have it done again regardless of my warranty coverage. They acted as if they were doing me a favor. Tesla equips the car with a defective product, replace it once with a product they new was still defective before they installed it, then they say they won't replace it again despite my warranty coverage. WTF???

Squeaks and rattles. Took my car into service for a few squeaks and rattles. Unlike every other car costing $120k, they say that squeaks and rattles aren't covered under the warranty and I have to pay for it. Verified it in the warranty statement (last time I don't read the warranty!). $200 later, fixed at my cost.

AP3 upgrade. I inquired about that today and they said that while they've completed the replacement on a bunch of cars, they've mostly been Model 3s. So I pay $7,000 up front for FSD 3 years ago, and they upgrade the cheaper 1 year old models first. WTF??? They don't get it that for $120k, customers expect more than if they pay $60k.

I get it that in purchasing a Model S back then, I was on the bleeding edge. I paid a lot of money for my car and watched Tesla depreciate it by $30k solely through price reductions in the first 6 months. I've come to terms with that. But Tesla service is worse than that of Chevy. It's really pathetic.

I've decided to sell my car before the warranty runs out. As much as I love the car, I hate the service experience so much that I refuse to deal with it anymore. And short of dramatic improvements in Tesla service, this will be my last Tesla. So sad.

If you bought a computer and the screen had an issue 3 years in, they replaced it once, refurbed it once and you'd expect them to keep doing it forever, for free? Based on other threads it's not to expensive for light treatment or DIY type thing. What would be more upsetting to me would be their lack of offering an MCU2 upgrade path. Even if expensive, I'd want the option.

As far as AP3 goes they actually started with S and X for quite some time. But I have not heard any MCU1 having their AP3 upgraded yet. Not sure what the deal is, like do they even have a software build for that configuration. The MCU and AP computers seems somewhat coupled (at the software level). That could be a good thing and might force a MCU2 option.

I don't think you paid $7000 3 years ago for FSD. I just paid that this past December and I know I paid a lot less back in the fall of 2018, I think it was $5000 (EAP and FSD) total. And the FSD portion was only like $2000.00 back in fall of 2018 (and that's the part that covers the AP3 upgrade).

 

[SO16]

If you bought a computer and the screen had an issue 3 years in, they replaced it once, refurbed it once and you'd expect them to keep doing it forever, for free? Based on other threads it's not to expensive for light treatment or DIY type thing. What would be more upsetting to me would be their lack of offering an MCU2 upgrade path. Even if expensive, I'd want the option.

As far as AP3 goes they actually started with S and X for quite some time. But I have not heard any MCU1 having their AP3 upgraded yet. Not sure what the deal is, like do they even have a software build for that configuration. The MCU and AP computers seems somewhat coupled (at the software level). That could be a good thing and might force a MCU2 option.

I don't think you paid $7000 3 years ago for FSD. I just paid that this past December and I know I paid a lot less back in the fall of 2018, I think it was $5000 (EAP and FSD) total. And the FSD portion was only like $2000.00 back in fall of 2018 (and that's the part that covers the AP3 upgrade).

I received my Model S in early 2017 with HW 2.0. I didn’t buy any AP at the time. For a while, FSD was 13k (if you didn’t have any autopilot software license). Wasn’t worth it to me. I purchased it when they had the full suite fire sale for 5k.

 

[Ostrichsak]

We've purchased 3 Tesla vehicles starting January 2013 (when the nearest service center was over 1000 miles away).

In the past 7 years, we've never had a problem with the local service centers, except a few periods when they were swamped and it took longer than expected to get a service appointment. And now that we can get some service done with mobile service, the experience has been even better (they came out this week to our house to install the AP3 processor in our 2018 X).

If I ever did experience a problem with the local service, I would find a way to report that to Tesla management.

Unlike the other manufacturers who are seeing declining vehicle sales and are reliant on a redundant dealership network for sales/service, Tesla is continuing to add capacity by opening new service centers, hiring new staff, and adding mobile service vehicles. Whenever a company expands like that, there's always a risk that some of the new staff won't work out - and hopefully the bad service experiences are related more to the quality of the local staff vs. a strategy by Tesla to provide poorer service (which we haven't seen).

Curious the specifics on how you would accomplish this. Just saying you would do that means nothing unless you actually can.

Trust me, I dealt with attempting this for countless hours over about a year's time with numerous big problems across three (now four) different Model S cars and was dreadfully unsuccessful. Escalating issues is nearly impossible with Tesla by design.

I think a lot of people that say Tesla "customer service" is just fine and similar to other manufacturer's service have never actually attempted to do exactly what you mention here in passing as if it were a given. I feel like those of us who have had to live these nightmares feel undermined by such statements making it seem like WE are the ones who are crazy and expecting far too much.

 

[PhilDavid]

It's an interesting concept, and I think some manner of "pay to play" is a perfectly valid solution to the problem provided it's rolled out and managed effectively. Market it as an added benefit for stepping up to an S/X. "Model S and X owners enjoy extra benefits including dedicated service centers (where available), guaranteed loaners, priority appointment availability, free popcorn, breath mints, and the ability to speak and interact with a real live human!"

Humans beings FTW!

 

[Cheburashka]

As we speak, my car has been in service for a week. They did the work but when I got it back it didn't even drive straight. They were supposed to fix it on Wednesday, but it's now Friday, my Uber credits are at an end, and when I call the service center nobody picks up. I received no texts, so I don't even have a way of asking for anything.

 

[Az_Rael]

I don't think you paid $7000 3 years ago for FSD. I just paid that this past December and I know I paid a lot less back in the fall of 2018, I think it was $5000 (EAP and FSD) total. And the FSD portion was only like $2000.00 back in fall of 2018 (and that's the part that covers the AP3 upgrade).

In 2017 EAP was $5000 and FSD was $3000. The only time I am aware that both packages were priced at $5000 together was for about 1 month in early 2019 during the "fire sale".

So it was essentially the same price as today, since EAP contains all the current "FSD" features.

 

[aerodyne]

Well, I can tell you that selling the model S and buying a new MB S class 560 will not make you happy.

Both service and parts suck to a much greater degree than I can describe here.

Right now, no MB coolant for 2019 car exists in North America. But Stealership insists on lying and saying what they have in stock is approved. Did the same thing regarding oil a few weeks back, but I found an on line source.

And you won't find a forum to find answers to hard questions or extensive data. The MB forums are almost as devoid of content as a Lexus forum.

 

[aerodyne]

And the MB autopilot will drive you off the road before it corrects, GUI is inferior, no auto fold mirrors, suspension or home link.

If you just sit in it and don't drive you have a great view of expensive leather and the sound is good.

 

[Cheburashka]

Nobody said anything about MB in this thread... Stop deflecting.