Great Service...AGAIN

[Skipdd]

I've decided to balance out the (mostly negative) stories by posting positive ones whenever I have a good experience. Personal Pet Peeve.

2 week old S100 D. Had snow tires put on last week (Michellin Ice-X 19"). Was driving Friday night on wet, slushy roads. While parallel parking I heard a distinct squeaking coming from driver front wheel area. As fate would have it a guy walking by flagged me and informed me that the tire was rubbing against the inside of the wheel well. Sure enough when I turned the wheel hard to the right and got out to look, I could see it. When the wheels were straight I could see that there was more clearance on the Passenger front tire than on the Driver's side.

Called Tesla Service 1st thing Sat morning. They said to bring it in and they'd look at it. I would have been ok if they couldnt get to it today as it was a Saturday. But they looked and determined they could adjust the wheel. They redid the alignment and re-torqued the suspension as well. They said that for whatever reason there is less clearance on the 100D than there was on my 85D (used the tires last year on that).

Not sure you will be able to see from this pic, but here it is.

 

[EV-lutioin]

Thanks for the positive report! The service I have received from Tesla has been excellent as well. They go above and beyond to make their customers happy.

 

[Patrick W]

Thanks for posting. Like you I've only had positive experiences with my local (Salt Lake City) service center. I've heard that negative comments are more common not because there are more bad than good experiences but angry people are more likely to vent their feelings than are those who are happy.

 

[speedygonzalez]

I wish I could say the same about the service levels. I go to the Palo Alto service center. I've been told by the team there that the "VIP" owners (ie investors, and other tech celeb owners from the Valley) use this location as well. I have had mediocre to poor service the last few times I've been there. Most recently I went in for my first annual service. They could not confirm if they had done a tire rotation. The record read "Perform tire rotation as needed". When I asked if it was done, the response was yes, if needed. When I asked for more clarification, I got none. The week after I had winter tires installed at another tire shop. They told me that when winter was over, they would not be able to re-install my OEM tires as the tread was 1/32 on 2 of them. I called Tesla to find out why they had not told me that during my annual inspection, and why there was no record of tire wear on the report. For any of my previous ICE cars, the tread wear is always noted anytime I go in for even an oil change. After being on hold and transferred several times, the service center said they could not find a record of anyone doing a tread wear measurement and noting it. I told them how dangerous that was as I was in Tahoe the prior weekend and was driving on some ice with bad tires. They offered to make this up to me somehow but I had enough of them and told them I would pursue it later.

Unfortunately it appears they folks they hire are not well trained, and at some point, a car needs to be serviced like a car, and not a computer.

On a related note, 2 tires had 1/32, 1 had 2/32 and 1 had 3/32. This is on a year old car with 16K miles. Why do they wear out so fast? I know the car is heavy, but the OEM tires should be matched to account for that.

 

[ABVA]

I will echo the positive sentiment. In four plus years, two MSs in the household and five in the family, never had a negative experience. As a matter of fact, at times they went out of their way to accommodate us. They performed Service even when they didn’t have to, like during a walk-in, buffing out major scratches on my 100D simply because they noticed the scratches and a detailer was available.
But as they say, Happiness doesn’t get as much attention as unhappiness.
Rockville MD and Tysons VA SCs are awesome.

 

[Lasttoy]

You just scared me to death. Why was your front suspension loose??? That is impossible. Every car goes thru a high speed test at factory on track out back. Please watch the tire wear very closely. And tell us how it tracks on a flat level road? Snow tires have same tread size. Good luck.

 

[JayyyDeee]

The thing with a post like this is that its actually more negative than positive. How does things like this get past inspection(or lack of inspection)?

 

[Darren Donovan]

The thing with a post like this is that its actually more negative than positive. How does things like this get past inspection(or lack of inspection)?

Exactly! The best service is one that you don't need to use. It's kinda comical to read about people posting something like "my 1-week-old car needed some repair work done and I feel so happy and grateful that it was taken care of promptly". The logical reaction would be "why the hell does a new car need any work done?" LoL.

 

[Skipdd]

Exactly! The best service is one that you don't need to use. It's kinda comical to read about people posting something like "my 1-week-old car needed some repair work done and I feel so happy and grateful that it was taken care of promptly". The logical reaction would be "why the hell does a new car need any work done?" LoL.

We agree to disagree. A couple of points. The issue was not on the factory supplied tires, but on the snow tires I had them mount 1 week later. Per the tech, the snow tires are thicker than the regular ones. Should they have noticed that the front left tire was closer to the fender and "could rub it with a snow tire"? It's also possible I hit a pothole and knocked it out of alignment. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

As has been noted in multiple other threads/posts, others (including me) have had issues with new cars. You expect when you have an issue in such a situation that it is handled well. It was, in my judgment.

Since we are on the topic of things they should have caught - I purchased an inventory vehicle (95 miles) being used for demos. They forgot to remove the 85 mph limit. I discovered this on 12/22 driving on I95 enroute to SC. Sent my local SC an email that night. Received a call the following morning advising it was fixed - over the air. I verified it later that day on Bypass 17 (Myrtle Beach), much to the dismay of my wife. Yes, I was annoyed they missed it, but really pleased at how quickly they addressed it. I can't remember the last time a car company fixed an issue for me REMOTELY, without me doing anything other than email them. You may say the glass is half empty; I say it's half full.

 

[Skipdd]

I wish I could say the same about the service levels. I go to the Palo Alto service center. I've been told by the team there that the "VIP" owners (ie investors, and other tech celeb owners from the Valley) use this location as well. I have had mediocre to poor service the last few times I've been there. Most recently I went in for my first annual service. They could not confirm if they had done a tire rotation. The record read "Perform tire rotation as needed". When I asked if it was done, the response was yes, if needed. When I asked for more clarification, I got none. The week after I had winter tires installed at another tire shop. They told me that when winter was over, they would not be able to re-install my OEM tires as the tread was 1/32 on 2 of them. I called Tesla to find out why they had not told me that during my annual inspection, and why there was no record of tire wear on the report. For any of my previous ICE cars, the tread wear is always noted anytime I go in for even an oil change. After being on hold and transferred several times, the service center said they could not find a record of anyone doing a tread wear measurement and noting it. I told them how dangerous that was as I was in Tahoe the prior weekend and was driving on some ice with bad tires. They offered to make this up to me somehow but I had enough of them and told them I would pursue it later.

Unfortunately it appears they folks they hire are not well trained, and at some point, a car needs to be serviced like a car, and not a computer.

On a related note, 2 tires had 1/32, 1 had 2/32 and 1 had 3/32. This is on a year old car with 16K miles. Why do they wear out so fast? I know the car is heavy, but the OEM tires should be matched to account for that.

I agree with your assessment - that is poor service, and I would escalate and/or go to a different SC. Also as other posters noted this doesnt sound like normal tread wear. The car is harder on tires and you do get fewer miles. I had 19" wheels on my S 85D and needed to change the tires out at about 32k miles. Not sure if it would be the same for larger wheels. Definitely something to be investigated. Good luck!

 

[NewTMSMan]

Ok maybe a few points; if they mounted tires for you that have such a different dimension such as to cause rubbing of the tire against the wheel well they should have not done it. What is the snow tire size you had mounted?

A second point, there is almost no amount of knocking you car out of alignment that would cause tire rub unless you damage the suspension.

Third, there should be no difference between you 85D and 100D unless one has air suspension and the other doesn't. If not no reason tires should be any different.

 

[Skipdd]

Ok maybe a few points; if they mounted tires for you that have such a different dimension such as to cause rubbing of the tire against the wheel well they should have not done it. What is the snow tire size you had mounted?

A second point, there is almost no amount of knocking you car out of alignment that would cause tire rub unless you damage the suspension.

Third, there should be no difference between you 85D and 100D unless one has air suspension and the other doesn't. If not no reason tires should be any different.

Tire size (19" wheels) was same between models. Tech said Michellin X-Ice is thicker than the Goodyears that now come standard on the 100D. Tech agreed that there shouldnt be an issue in using the Michellin's. Air suspension was/is on both models. So, I infer that they should have noticed when mounting the snow tires that the front passenger tire would rub when the wheel was sharply turned? Good to know that normal alignment issues wouldn't cause this.

 

[whitex]

Just to chime in on the quality of Tesla Service. I've been a customer since 2013 and Service has been stellar. I can complain about a number of things Tesla corporate has done in the past, but service was always great, doing whatever they can to help customers and going above and beyond - always helpful and accommodating within what corporate can do of course (e.g. they cannot help it if a part has a design flaw or every time Elon fails to deliver on his promises).