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Bad Tesla Customer Service

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For a CEO that can put men safely on a space station and will eventually get them to Mars and for a CEO who can get a car to drive itself on curved roads, how in the world can he not get the customer service piece right. My Tesla 3 did not start (apparently the 12V battery was dead without any warning). That's not even my problem. Things break down- no big deal, and the car has been excellent and trouble-free for 33,000 miles.

My real problems were about to begin. I called Tesla and waited for 43 minutes before I got to speak to a human being. (You may want to ask why they have such crazy wait times in the middle of a pandemic when most of their customer base in CA are not even on the road?) I knew I was low on the phone battery and gave the individual another number to call, in case we got cut off. He did try to help me for 15 minutes, and the car could not be started remotely. I was actually ok with all that, but since my app was not working (circle of death), once the call did cut off (and no he never called back), I could not get a hold of Tesla and actually had to call their towing service myself and pay to tow it to the local dealership in Tampa.

Now the story gets worse. I have called the Tampa (N. Florida location) two times today and e-mailed them to ask about the status of my car. I could not use the app until about an hour ago and used that to ping them further. Still no return call. Don't even know if they know my car is there. I guess the only way in the modern age to get hold of Tesla is for me to ride my bike over there to talk to a human being. Elon, this is the easiest part to get right. You've built a wonderful vehicle with world class technology, yet the customer service technology that has been available to the human race since the 1990's is nowhere to be found on your platform. Talk to your customers when they are having problems. It's generally the best way to keep them happy.
 
I had the exact same issue when my 12V failed. I just waited on the line for a while, finally got them to get the car to tow it to the service center. Then just waited for the process to figure it self out and they texted me when my car was ready a few days later.
 
Lots of 12V posts lately. These batteries seem to be dropping like flies at the 2 year mark. Probably best to either preemptively change every 18 months or keep one on hand by the time you hit 2 years.

I don't get it. How hard is it to have a 12V battery that lasts? My last car's battery lasted almost 4 years and I thought that was short because the car before that the battery lasted 7 years.
 
I don't get it. How hard is it to have a 12V battery that lasts? My last car's battery lasted almost 4 years and I thought that was short because the car before that the battery lasted 7 years.

2 possibilities come to mind: 1) they are buying crappy batteries thinking that it saves money (maybe it does even with all the warranty claims, maybe not) 2) Tesla's iffy software engineering is doing something wrong with the charging routine to shorten the life of the battery.
 
I don't get it. How hard is it to have a 12V battery that lasts? My last car's battery lasted almost 4 years and I thought that was short because the car before that the battery lasted 7 years.

I have had batteries last 4 years and batteries that last one. I think as we move more and more into electronic systems in lieu of mechanical batteries will go sooner and sooner. They are easy to replace so it wont be a high priority for the manufacturers to change. Its just such a pita when they do go.

Is the Model 3 battery an AGM unit?
 
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For a CEO that can put men safely on a space station and will eventually get them to Mars and for a CEO who can get a car to drive itself on curved roads, how in the world can he not get the customer service piece right. My Tesla 3 did not start (apparently the 12V battery was dead without any warning). That's not even my problem. Things break down- no big deal, and the car has been excellent and trouble-free for 33,000 miles.

My real problems were about to begin. I called Tesla and waited for 43 minutes before I got to speak to a human being. (You may want to ask why they have such crazy wait times in the middle of a pandemic when most of their customer base in CA are not even on the road?) I knew I was low on the phone battery and gave the individual another number to call, in case we got cut off. He did try to help me for 15 minutes, and the car could not be started remotely. I was actually ok with all that, but since my app was not working (circle of death), once the call did cut off (and no he never called back), I could not get a hold of Tesla and actually had to call their towing service myself and pay to tow it to the local dealership in Tampa.

Now the story gets worse. I have called the Tampa (N. Florida location) two times today and e-mailed them to ask about the status of my car. I could not use the app until about an hour ago and used that to ping them further. Still no return call. Don't even know if they know my car is there. I guess the only way in the modern age to get hold of Tesla is for me to ride my bike over there to talk to a human being. Elon, this is the easiest part to get right. You've built a wonderful vehicle with world class technology, yet the customer service technology that has been available to the human race since the 1990's is nowhere to be found on your platform. Talk to your customers when they are having problems. It's generally the best way to keep them happy.

did you call roadside assistance from the beginning ?
 
I had the exact same issue when my 12V failed. I just waited on the line for a while, finally got them to get the car to tow it to the service center. Then just waited for the process to figure it self out and they texted me when my car was ready a few days later.

why in the world can't mobile service replace something as simple as a 12V battery the same day? Towing a car ($$) to a SC and have it sit there for days to replace as 12V battery is nuts
 
Mine just went dead out of nowhere on Tuesday. Purchased Nov18 and around 35k miles now. No prior warnings but when I went out to the car all systems were acting crazy, screen wouldn't boot, and the car couldn't move. It still had enough power to pop the frunk (to leave it open for service) and I got the window aligned where it wouldn't hit when opening/closing the driver door. Eventually it was able to boot the screen and did show 12v warnings among other things. Luckily I was at home with the car in the garage. I did a service request and originally got a mobile appointment about 4 days out. The next day I got a text saying they could squeeze me in the following morning. Mobile service came out and replaced the 12v under warranty in about 15 minutes (total elapsed time from service request about 36 hours). Would have been a much worse experience if I needed the car though.
 
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It’s similar for some hybrids, I owned 2 Priuses and their batteries died suddenly, though about 5 years in. They are dead when they do, and you are lucky if you get any notice. And notice usually means random hybrid drive messages.

Heck my Jeep has a stop/start battery (used during engine auto-shutoff), and if it goes you sometimes can’t start back up even with the primary 12V in top shape.

if i ever get the 12V warning ... I'm hopping into the car and drive to the SC that same day. If the car is dead in the garage... roadside assistance.
 
so pro-actively spending ~$200 every 18 months on something which should last 3-4 years negates the low TCO concept for an EV....

why in the world can't mobile service replace something as simple as a 12V battery the same day? Towing a car ($$) to a SC and have it sit there for days to replace as 12V battery is nuts

FWIW, the cost for the battery is under a hundred bucks, and it's literally the easiest battery replacement I've ever done in a car.

Not saying that it's not a problem, because it clearly is, but it's one that's easily managed if you want to avoid dealing with the Tesla Service Clusterfudge.
 
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FWIW, the cost for the battery is under a hundred bucks, and it's literally the easiest battery replacement I've ever done in a car.

Not saying that it's not a problem, because it clearly is, but it's one that's easily managed if you want to avoid dealing with the Tesla Service Clusterfudge.

You still have to source the battery from Tesla though, right? Or has the 3 moved to a more off-the-shelf part than the S/X? I looked around quickly and it didn't seem like Autozone, Walmart, etc is an option (would be nice).
 
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