Is it no longer possible to reach a service center directly?

[voip-ninja]

So I made an appointment a couple of weeks ago to have several minor problems on my Model 3 addressed. I put notes in the appointment to please contact me prior to the drop off to confirm if a loaner would be available and if they could give me an idea of how long they would need the vehicle.

The last time I had work done, they sprung it on me that they would need the car for "a few days" just to get to it. They ended up having my car for nearly a week. I was trying to avoid that this time.

Nobody reached out to me prior to the appointment (which was for today) so yesterday I tried calling the service center using several local numbers that appear to be redirected to a call center.

The call center agent was useless. He seemed to be making *sugar* up as he went. When I asked him if he could contact the service center and find out how long they would need the vehicle he insisted that he "knew how long these types of repairs take" and "I'm sure they won't need your car for more than a day".

Finally in frustration I cancelled the appointment.

Is it possible to reach a local service center directly? Is it possible to schedule mobile service? It is possible that the issues I need addressed could be resolved by a mobile tech.

I am very frustrated by the Tesla service experience. I have gotten better service and faster turnaround from low-rent Ford dealers working on my company car in the past.

 

[ForeverFree]

Get the number for your local service center. Dial it. Press option 2, for service.

Your call will still be routed to the national system.

Press option 2 again ... and then another time.

You’ll be connected to your local SC ... so long as they pick up promptly. If they don’t, sigh ...

 

[voip-ninja]

Get the number for your local service center. Dial it. Press option 2, for service.

Your call will still be routed to the national system.

Press option 2 again ... and then another time.

You’ll be connected to your local SC ... so long as they pick up promptly. If they don’t, sigh ...

Thanks for the tip, I will try to get through to them today and see what their backlog looks like

 

[Gavyne]

They are swamped. The best way to reach the service center is to drive there, walk in, and talk to someone face to face. I did that recently and worked out great.

By the way the service center I went to had no parking spot available at all inside/out, just to give an idea of how swamped they are. And walking in, there were at least 10 service agents, and every single one of them were on the phone or filling out paperwork. They were doing things not just sitting around. So yeah, they're swamped, want to reach them best walk in and you'll get to talk to someone directly.

They were really nice to me by the way for showing up.

 

[PhaseWhite]

@voip-ninja I've always just called my local service center phone number and the phone menu for service to talk to the local service reps. But you can also schedule service appointments online now in your Tesla account. I think they are pushing people to use that now to reduce call volumes as they are obviously overwhelmed. It's going to take some time for them to scale up service to the new required levels. Hopefully 2019 sees a big push for that.

 

[voip-ninja]

They are swamped. The best way to reach the service center is to drive there, walk in, and talk to someone face to face. I did that recently and worked out great.

By the way the service center I went to had no parking spot available at all inside/out, just to give an idea of how swamped they are. And walking in, there were at least 10 service agents, and every single one of them were on the phone or filling out paperwork. They were doing things not just sitting around. So yeah, they're swamped, want to reach them best walk in and you'll get to talk to someone directly.

They were really nice to me by the way for showing up.

I get that they are swamped, it's not my problem or any other customer's problem. They knew this was coming and instead of ramping on # of service techs and facilities they are flailing around acting like they are surprised that the thousands of cars a week they are delivering that have numerous factory defects need to be repaired. They recently opened up a second service location further north but it's kind of hilarious to look at the google street view, looks like they took over a two bay jiffy lube and are going to try to service cars out of it.

The problems I have are minor, but they are irritating and I want them fixed. I currently have a bad taste in my mouth about the amount of $$ I've spent and how hard it is to get minor items sorted by Tesla service.

I'm tempted to just hold off until next year, around April/May as I would hope that by that time they have some semblance of competence established. Knowing Tesla the conversation will then shift to "well why didn't you tell us about any of this sooner".

 

[Gavyne]

I get that it's not your problem, I simply offered a solution that worked for many, myself included. Rather than spending hours upon hours of phone dance and get frustrated and waste a bunch of time. Just drive up to the service center and talk to someone. It would take a fraction of the time and frustration.

 

[Big City]

They are swamped. The best way to reach the service center is to drive there, walk in, and talk to someone face to face. I did that recently and worked out great.

By the way the service center I went to had no parking spot available at all inside/out, just to give an idea of how swamped they are. And walking in, there were at least 10 service agents, and every single one of them were on the phone or filling out paperwork. They were doing things not just sitting around. So yeah, they're swamped, want to reach them best walk in and you'll get to talk to someone directly.

They were really nice to me by the way for showing up.

This is great if you happen to live near a service center. I live almost three hours away, so that option won't work for me.

 

[voip-ninja]

This is great if you happen to live near a service center. I live almost three hours away, so that option won't work for me.

SoCal alone has something like ten service centers. There is one for my entire state, some states have zero. I think the SoCal people might not understand that it's a bit tougher for people that live in other parts of the country.

 

[Glamisduner]

So I made an appointment a couple of weeks ago to have several minor problems on my Model 3 addressed. I put notes in the appointment to please contact me prior to the drop off to confirm if a loaner would be available and if they could give me an idea of how long they would need the vehicle.

The last time I had work done, they sprung it on me that they would need the car for "a few days" just to get to it. They ended up having my car for nearly a week. I was trying to avoid that this time.

Nobody reached out to me prior to the appointment (which was for today) so yesterday I tried calling the service center using several local numbers that appear to be redirected to a call center.

The call center agent was useless. He seemed to be making *sugar* up as he went. When I asked him if he could contact the service center and find out how long they would need the vehicle he insisted that he "knew how long these types of repairs take" and "I'm sure they won't need your car for more than a day".

Finally in frustration I cancelled the appointment.

Is it possible to reach a local service center directly? Is it possible to schedule mobile service? It is possible that the issues I need addressed could be resolved by a mobile tech.

I am very frustrated by the Tesla service experience. I have gotten better service and faster turnaround from low-rent Ford dealers working on my company car in the past.

They are super busy, mine has been there over a month for minor issues. I know they wan to the loaner back!

 

[Gavyne]

SoCal alone has something like ten service centers. There is one for my entire state, some states have zero. I think the SoCal people might not understand that it's a bit tougher for people that live in other parts of the country.

True, my condolences. I hope they add more service centers soon for everybody. But if the driving distance isn't too far, I still would recommend driving there. You could spend days waiting for responses via phone & email. I know for myself I was being bounced between departments for an issue I had, and after a week I just drove to the service center and got taken care of right away.

 

[SMAlset]

Knowing that the onslaught of Teslas (mostly Model 3s) were going to be hitting the roads end of this year, that the current service stations were going to be limited by capacity, and that Tesla was low on money and needing to get to profitability before more capital investments were made (or additional staff could be hired and trained), it’s hard to imagine the service turnaround is a surprise to anyone who owns or recently bought a Tesla and certainly shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone following on the forum. Also assume people buying a Tesla know where and how many service centers there are currently in their area. Sorry, I see this as grin and bear it for the moment and don’t doubt that those service people are all working hard to get the cars in, serviced, and out as quickly as possible. Most combo service stations/stores even in my area don’t have enough parking spots to accommodate visitor parking for the store area, let alone cars in various stages of waiting for parts and repair.

Here in the Bay area with a few service centers spaced out around the Bay, which has probably the highest volume of Tesla owners, it’s been nice to see the increase in Tesla mobile cars/vans able to do simple “fixes”. Had one sent out to our house recently and it worked out well for me. I will say I find it frustrating to want to speak to the local service center (was having due bill work done) and really didn’t like having to go through some call center. I’m sure with Tesla pulling out into profitability, lots of plans for improvement are already in the works. Service centers, body shops (third party certified and Tesla run ones), and Supercharger locations I think have had to be postponed until 2019 which after Q4 earnings report will go into high gear.

Back to the original question of being able to directly speak to a local service center, that seemed to change for me sometime in October, after September rush when all those additional cars were out there.

 

[surfrasch]

When you call up the national line for service, just request mobile service. This worked for me, they followed up within like 24 hrs with a web link to schedule. I didn't have emergency stuff, availability for my area was like 5 weeks out, they come to the house, works for me.

 

[voip-ninja]

When you call up the national line for service, just request mobile service. This worked for me, they followed up within like 24 hrs with a web link to schedule. I didn't have emergency stuff, availability for my area was like 5 weeks out, they come to the house, works for me.

After quite a bit of time I got through to someone at the local SC and she said the backlog was "15-20 cars are currently in queue waiting for repairs". That sounds awfully similar to the backlog when I brought my car in the last time.

So I asked about mobile service. I'm sure a mobile tech could fix this stuff, she mentioned that Denver is in beta for customer scheduling of mobile service but she would send me the link to schedule.

I got the link and when I click on it I get "server not found". Don't see any obvious typos. Great.

 

[BluestarE3]

Here in the Bay area with a few service centers spaced out around the Bay, which has probably the highest volume of Tesla owners, it’s been nice to see the increase in Tesla mobile cars/vans able to do simple “fixes”. Had one sent out to our house recently and it worked out well for me. I will say I find it frustrating to want to speak to the local service center (was having due bill work done) and really didn’t like having to go through some call center.

Same here. Had my call to the local Service Center routed to the call center for the interminable queue. I hung up and called one of the 800 numbers and, after explaining to the agent that I couldn't get through to local Service, he was able to connect me with someone (not sure if local or national) to schedule my appointment for some due bill work. The local Service Center later called me to say the part was not in yet and asked if I'd rather have Mobile Service do the work at my home once the part came in. I agreed. Mobile Service arrived on the appointed date and time and was in-and-out in 15 minutes. It would have taken me as long just to drive to the Service Center. No telling how long it would have taken to get my car checked in and triaged before they could even start working on it if I had taken the car in to the shop instead.

 

[Coolcarx]

I had a small leak in my tire. I called, 30min wait time, and talked to Tesla two times to be sure. Both people told me it’s under warranty and to drive to a service center to get an instant fix. I drove 60 miles to be told it’s not patchable. I was told there is no roadside warranty on tires period. My car has 5000 miles. I paid 350 for a new tire. If I was told there was no tire warranty I could have saved money and a 120mi trip.

 

[75Shappyt]

I never had a problem calling my local service center, got in, got a loaner, car back same day, not sure what OP is doing, I always got great service