I thought I'd share my first mobile repair experience here since there's likely a lot of new Tesla owners, like myself on this board. Also, hoping this is the correct sub-thread section for this.
Long story short, I was comped some all weather floor mats + homelink. The SA scheduled a mobile repair service for the installation + to review some other items that I still have outstanding for when we brought the car in for service post delivery. The communication is pretty straightforward. It's just like scheduling and communicating with your SA when opening a regular service ticket. Tesla had to reschedule a couple of times due to their parts availability so any dates you are provided initially are just placeholder. The theme of estimates being just loose estimate with Tesla is still on point, haha.
Tesla does give you a window of time to choose from and for my case there has only been 2 options and both were borderline Xfinity time window (If you know, you know). It was either 8-12 or 12-4...the positive is that, you can technically have them come out anywhere, like your work parking or something. There's also no additional checklist or confirmation aside from your work order and the scheduled date/range of time on your app. The tech came between that window and communicated via app + calling when they are there at the location.
Items for the mobile tech to review/install are:
All weather floor mats were straight forward. Since it was a delivery and install, he did it pretty quickly.
He got a brand new driver side interior door panel and proceed to replace it. When it was all done, he asked me to inspect it. Unfortunately there were what he called "plastic defect" on it. Kind of odd and a waste of time for him to notice it and then asked me and waited for me to ask him (during inspection) about it before he told me that he also noticed it when he was installing it, haha. He also mentioned that he doesn't inspect the parts prior to installation which I kind of see both sides of it. On one side, you don't want to scuff it prior to the installation BUT if there's already a defect and you're coming in to replace something with a defect, why waste more time by not inspecting it and dealing with it then and there BEFORE the appointment? Also, as he was asking me to inspect it, he noticed that I saw a bunch of bolts left on the driver mat and that's when he noticed that he forgot to install the bolts holding down the panel, plus the side marker...what? lol
Prior to him replacing the passenger coat hanger hook that doesn't clip in 100% of the time, I told him that the SA I spoke to when picking up the car mentioned that this is a known issue. The mobile tech looked surprised when I told him this but since this requires removal of the roof liner, he suggested that we take a look at the new part. It was indeed brand new and when we compared it, sure enough, it was also doing the clicking noise prior to engaging the hook as if it's bad out of the box. Given that's the case, I decided not to replace it as who knows what he'll miss during the swap out.
He did check out taillight and did call it a defect, a cosmetic one at that. He said he will create a new ticket and take care of that.
Overall, it was alright. The convenient of them coming to you is pretty neat. The gotcha is that parts are not readily available so it is likely that they will have to make multiple visits if they don't have the right part/s with them. I do like that the mobile tech is able to create a ticket on the spot for you versus having to phone back in to an SA. At a normal dealership, you know that the tech can't do any ticket creation as they might miss some upcharge opportunity, lol.
So yes, definitely some pros but not everything is peachy. There are some room for improvements. Really feels like it's more fluid and there are a lot less structure operationality. So at times when it works out, it feels good and how servicing your car should be but when it doesn't, it feels like the whole process is an afterthought. I would definitely inspect their work when they are there. Better to do it then and there versus having to schedule another appt. if you can help it.
Improvements:
"Tesla Seattle - Service Van" by JoeInSouthernCA is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog thumbnail.
Long story short, I was comped some all weather floor mats + homelink. The SA scheduled a mobile repair service for the installation + to review some other items that I still have outstanding for when we brought the car in for service post delivery. The communication is pretty straightforward. It's just like scheduling and communicating with your SA when opening a regular service ticket. Tesla had to reschedule a couple of times due to their parts availability so any dates you are provided initially are just placeholder. The theme of estimates being just loose estimate with Tesla is still on point, haha.
Tesla does give you a window of time to choose from and for my case there has only been 2 options and both were borderline Xfinity time window (If you know, you know). It was either 8-12 or 12-4...the positive is that, you can technically have them come out anywhere, like your work parking or something. There's also no additional checklist or confirmation aside from your work order and the scheduled date/range of time on your app. The tech came between that window and communicated via app + calling when they are there at the location.
Items for the mobile tech to review/install are:
- Install homelink
- Install all weather floor mats (lol)
- Replace driver side interior door panel due to gouges
- Replace rear right passenger coat hanger hook
- Review internal scuff marks on rear taillights
All weather floor mats were straight forward. Since it was a delivery and install, he did it pretty quickly.
He got a brand new driver side interior door panel and proceed to replace it. When it was all done, he asked me to inspect it. Unfortunately there were what he called "plastic defect" on it. Kind of odd and a waste of time for him to notice it and then asked me and waited for me to ask him (during inspection) about it before he told me that he also noticed it when he was installing it, haha. He also mentioned that he doesn't inspect the parts prior to installation which I kind of see both sides of it. On one side, you don't want to scuff it prior to the installation BUT if there's already a defect and you're coming in to replace something with a defect, why waste more time by not inspecting it and dealing with it then and there BEFORE the appointment? Also, as he was asking me to inspect it, he noticed that I saw a bunch of bolts left on the driver mat and that's when he noticed that he forgot to install the bolts holding down the panel, plus the side marker...what? lol
Prior to him replacing the passenger coat hanger hook that doesn't clip in 100% of the time, I told him that the SA I spoke to when picking up the car mentioned that this is a known issue. The mobile tech looked surprised when I told him this but since this requires removal of the roof liner, he suggested that we take a look at the new part. It was indeed brand new and when we compared it, sure enough, it was also doing the clicking noise prior to engaging the hook as if it's bad out of the box. Given that's the case, I decided not to replace it as who knows what he'll miss during the swap out.
He did check out taillight and did call it a defect, a cosmetic one at that. He said he will create a new ticket and take care of that.
Overall, it was alright. The convenient of them coming to you is pretty neat. The gotcha is that parts are not readily available so it is likely that they will have to make multiple visits if they don't have the right part/s with them. I do like that the mobile tech is able to create a ticket on the spot for you versus having to phone back in to an SA. At a normal dealership, you know that the tech can't do any ticket creation as they might miss some upcharge opportunity, lol.
So yes, definitely some pros but not everything is peachy. There are some room for improvements. Really feels like it's more fluid and there are a lot less structure operationality. So at times when it works out, it feels good and how servicing your car should be but when it doesn't, it feels like the whole process is an afterthought. I would definitely inspect their work when they are there. Better to do it then and there versus having to schedule another appt. if you can help it.
Improvements:
- When talking to an SA on the app, they should put names or agent ID or something to distinguish who you are communicating with. It's seamless, which is good but I can't tell if I talking to someone that knows about my ticket, like the actual mobile tech or if it's some random SA from a local service center. I had awkwardly ask on the app if I was talking to the mobile tech to which he replied to yes. It then got transferred to a new SA without notice so that person is likely confused when I was talking as if I was still talking to the mobile tech.
- Have a smaller window for arrival. In chucks of 2 hours is more realistic.
- Inspect parts prior to the appointment. It's a waste of everyone's time if we're always rolling the dice. QC is not Tesla's strong points so why skip a step when we all know that this is a place that needs the most improvement?
- Have better checklist/QC sheet for the tech versus working on memory. Could just be my mobile tech but it's getting old having to be Tesla's QC team, haha.
"Tesla Seattle - Service Van" by JoeInSouthernCA is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog thumbnail.
