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Getting more info from Tesla Service when slow / non-informative

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Hi all,

I'm a long time reader here, first time poster. I have a 2014 P85DL, which was delivered at the very end of 2014, who purchased the ludicrous upgrade once it became available. This summer, my car was parked outside in a friends driveway during an intense rain storm, which included very high winds. When I went out to the car to go home, it included an error message indicating low 12 V power, car may not start, and contact Tesla service. I did so, and Tesla came and picked up the car and said water had found its way into the high voltage pack, so the battery had isolated itself. This was about 4 months ago (mid-July). Tesla sent the pack back to Fremont for inspection and rebuild, and gave me a loaner pack (non-ludicrous).

I feel like I've been really patient, but haven't been able to get any status update other than it is still with the reman team. My local service center has been unable to share any information beyond that. While I'm upset that I'm missing the ludicrous mode performance on my car as all this time passes, I'm more frustrated that there has been a lack of any kind of meaningful updates. Finally, with the AP 2.0 release, I'm interested in selling the car and will probably have a hard time doing that while awaiting the repair. The mileage is approaching 50,000 (44,000) and if I'm going to sell it, I'd like the new buyer to have the chance to buy the extended service agreement which can only be purchased before 50,000 miles is reached.

I'm hoping someone here has had an experience where they may direct me to someone at Tesla who can give me more information. 4 months seems like a really long time to wait for a warranty repair. Any advice / thoughts are appreciated!
 
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I wonder if its likely that there was a flaw exposed and they are having engineers study the pack. Why they can't give you a rebuilt pack is kind of weird though.

Do you have a lemon law in your state? 4 mos would far exceed the repair time for many lemon laws to apply to new vehicles under 50k miles in my state anyway.
 
Hi all,

I'm a long time reader here, first time poster. I have a 2014 P85DL, which was delivered at the very end of 2014, who purchased the ludicrous upgrade once it became available. This summer, my car was parked outside in a friends driveway during an intense rain storm, which included very high winds. When I went out to the car to go home, it included an error message indicating low 12 V power, car may not start, and contact Tesla service. I did so, and Tesla came and picked up the car and said water had found its way into the high voltage pack, so the battery had isolated itself. This was about 4 months ago (mid-July). Tesla sent the pack back to Fremont for inspection and rebuild, and gave me a loaner pack (non-ludicrous).

I feel like I've been really patient, but haven't been able to get any status update other than it is still with the reman team. My local service center has been unable to share any information beyond that. While I'm upset that I'm missing the ludicrous mode performance on my car as all this time passes, I'm more frustrated that there has been a lack of any kind of meaningful updates. Finally, with the AP 2.0 release, I'm interested in selling the car and will probably have a hard time doing that while awaiting the repair. The mileage is approaching 50,000 (44,000) and if I'm going to sell it, I'd like the new buyer to have the chance to buy the extended service agreement which can only be purchased before 50,000 miles is reached.

I'm hoping someone here has had an experience where they may direct me to someone at Tesla who can give me more information. 4 months seems like a really long time to wait for a warranty repair. Any advice / thoughts are appreciated!


I recognize the event and consequence. Heavy rain, then 12 volt issue, same warning and then complete car shutdown. Car is 6 months old, Tesla picked it up 3 weeks ago and since then driving a loaner. Given I prefer the loaner over my car I am not complaining but a weird situation nevertheless. Especially that the otherwise regular information flow is now completely absent....
 
Thanks for the empathy! I'm frustrated, but not prepared to act on a lemon law at this point. I'm hoping maybe someone out there knows the best way to escalate within Tesla without taking legal action or making legal threats so I can find out what's actually going on?

Additional advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
Do you have a lemon law in your state? 4 mos would far exceed the repair time for many lemon laws to apply to new vehicles under 50k miles in my state anyway.
Depends on the wording of the lemon law in his particular jurisdiction. In many cases the law talks about time that you are unable to use the vehicle, rather than time the vehicle takes to be repaired. As he has his own car right now, with a loaner battery pack, it may not count as meeting minimum time requirements for a lemon law claim. That said, what Tesla should have done to completely negate those sorts of concerns would have been to give a loaner pack equivalent to the original pack (ie a ludicrous equipped pack)
 
I am in similar situation. At least i was getting daily call back from service manager but now regional SM is much worse. no return to my calls and doesnt callback as promised.
There is really no escalation path at Tesla. No one even seem to know how to reach a VP of services. They r either not telling the truth or its really screwed up the way their service staff is trained.
 
I am in similar situation. At least i was getting daily call back from service manager but now regional SM is much worse. no return to my calls and doesnt callback as promised.
There is really no escalation path at Tesla. No one even seem to know how to reach a VP of services. They r either not telling the truth or its really screwed up the way their service staff is trained.
Near as I can tell, the only real escalation path at Tesla is the one listed in your warranty:
Send a registered letter to Tesla informing them that you are going to arbitration. According to the warranty paperwork, if you do that they'll try to work out your issue. If that fails, go to arbitration, it's binding on Tesla, but not on you.

It's ridiculous that that is the only escalation method, but maybe if enough people use it they'll come up with a better way.
 
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Arbitration will only work if you have a legitimate lemon law complaint. No need to send a letter to Tesla, the arbiter informs the manufacture through direct channels.
Arbitration doesn't require something as big as lemon law, it can be for more minor issues that the manufacturer hasn't fixed.
The point to sending the letter is to let Tesla know you're serious about the issue, and hopefully have them work to resolve it without having to go through the actual arbitration process. Send a letter with a deadline of a couple of weeks or a month, and see if they work with you. If they do, great, problem solved, if they don't, well, that's what the arbitration is for.