Motley Fool story - Tesla Replacement Part Delays

[wallstguy]

Hm... given the references to "Bumper Lower" and "Reflector" etc., I wonder if they only had to replace the black lower part of the rear bumper in your case while some of the others in this thread may be talking about replacing the entire rear bumper.

Yeah thats probably the confusion, it is indeed just the lower grey part. It's funny, police report estimated damage at $2,600!

 

[DÆrik]

Hmmm. I was super excited about purchasing a Tesla Model S and a battery pack to take advantage of the solar panel modules I have installed on my roof top. But the repair/service story above kind of scares the hell out of me. Perhaps stick with my Mercedes-Benz...?Have had half a dozen Benz now and happy with the performance and the ease of maintenance and repair.

I'm feeling doubtful about owning a Tesla now...

As an owner, seeing how Jon is handling things, and talking with friends whose cars are currently in shops for body work and actions are truly being taken to expedite repairs, it makes me even more comfortable owning a Tesla. Yes I was concerned hearing about all the stories, but am happy with what has become.

If I was a perspective buyer, I would really like seeing what happened because its showing that it's being addressed.

Thanks Erik

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Reading this thread makes me think you guys get in frequent car accidents. How many significant accidents have you been in your life? Just don't drive like an idiot and the odds are pretty great that you won't have to deal with waiting for parts from Tesla. Just in case though I keep a sledge hammer in the frunk and one in the trunk. If I'm in an accident I'm going to make sure it's totaled.

Does anyone believe in the jinx?

 

[mikevbf]

Does anyone believe in the jinx?

No! You didn't?

 

[seclinton]

Does anyone believe in the jinx?

No but given world population, I'd guess there's between 1.5-3 billion people who believe in Karma

 

[MS16]

Hmmm. I was super excited about purchasing a Tesla Model S and a battery pack to take advantage of the solar panel modules I have installed on my roof top. But the repair/service story above kind of scares the hell out of me. Perhaps stick with my Mercedes-Benz...?Have had half a dozen Benz now and happy with the performance and the ease of maintenance and repair.

I'm feeling doubtful about owning a Tesla now...

As someone who continues to suffer from Tesla's poor quality and poor service, I'd recommend you trust your instincts and stick with what's worked for you.

It's easy for a company to make a post saying they're going to fix something, it's a whole other thing to actually see results.

Just scan these boards and you'll get a sense of how well Tesla has addressed longstanding quality issues. For example, the Model-X ghosting windshield issue, the continued fit and finish problems, the bad wheel alignments from the factory, vibrations and handling issues, and on and on.

In my opinion, this company produces products that struggle to get beyond a beta state. Just my 2 cents.

 

[stillafan1]

Reading this thread makes me think you guys get in frequent car accidents. How many significant accidents have you been in your life? Just don't drive like an idiot and the odds are pretty great that you won't have to deal with waiting for parts from Tesla. Just in case though I keep a sledge hammer in the frunk and one in the trunk. If I'm in an accident I'm going to make sure it's totaled.

Ummmm NOOOO!! Unless the driver is insured and doesn't run..

The wait at the body shop must suck, but at least you are getting the parts.
A driver went into my lane pushing me into a curb and drove away. Looked like minor fender damage, but the tire was flat so I called the specialty tow truck and off my beloved 2015 S went to the local approved shop. 1100 miles on the car!
Come to find out about 5 days later Tesla would not replace a part behind the wheel base behind the wheel that hit the curb.
Car TOTALED.
Of course I had to use my insurance since the careless diver left the scene, California Insurance points because of this has literally made my insurance sky rocket beyond belief.
If you saw the pictures, there's no way anyone would think this car is totaled, but because of a specialty part...

I'll try and post the pic

btw my insurance paid the whole price of the car except $10k. I bought a used 2014 S just because I loved the car so much, I am just paying a fortune to insure it.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

Hmmm. I was super excited about purchasing a Tesla Model S and a battery pack to take advantage of the solar panel modules I have installed on my roof top. But the repair/service story above kind of scares the hell out of me. Perhaps stick with my Mercedes-Benz...?Have had half a dozen Benz now and happy with the performance and the ease of maintenance and repair.

I'm feeling doubtful about owning a Tesla now...

If I had to do it all over again, I would have bought a Mercedes over a tesla. After repeat service center visits, that are ridiculously difficult to schedule, they cannot fix a simple issue. They keep blaming the dashcam I had installed for absolutely unrelated issues. Would you believe they told me that the air conditioning sucks because I had the dashcam installed? I haven't had the serious problems that many others have had, but you never know what surprise the car is hiding the next time I sit in it.

There are some fatal design flaws. The 12v battery dies every year and is very hard to replace yourself. Door handles are unreliable. Sunroofs leak. These are defects, and Tesla ought to reengineer these parts are provide free replacements to existing owners. But they can't. Because they don't care, and their service centers are super overloaded. I can't imagine what it'll be like when model 3 rolls out. I know Jon says that their service hit another record but my local service center takes 3 days to return a call to schedule an appointment that is 6 weeks out, for an issue that I have today. And try not to miss their call either. Not like you can go any other mechanic like free capitalism would usually allow.

I am not happy that Tesla is producing a substandard beta car at this price point. It's great that Jon is giving things attention, but the fact that things did get so bad in the first place is just not right. Also words are cheap. Check back in 6 months, or 12 months to see if things have actually improved or not.

One last thought: Tesla forums are full of fanboyism, and an extreme penchant for forgiveness. I had not realized this before I purchased the car. Frequently many who are defending either work for tesla or own tesla stock. You need to talk to atleast 10 owners who have no other vested interest other than having a nice reliable car. And they might totally disagree with what I said, but atleast you would have done your homework then.

 

[T2v]

Jon,

Thanks for handling this very well. It is indeed a huge concern and could possibly be something that pulls Tesla down in the months and years ahead if its not well thought through.

I am one of the early Model S owners having reserved mine in 2012 ( ( P11040) and probably the only one with 4 accidents to date and last one being last Tuesday.

It is exactly as you say - Every time the folks at TSC ( especially here at Raleigh TSC - Trevor, Gwenen and the team are family to us ! ) have been so so so quick in their turn around it is unbelievable - it is always the body shop and the delay in the parts ordering processes where it gets delayed. Let me detail my various experiences reverse chronologically FYI :

1. Accident 7 Mar 2017 : ( BTW both my wife's and my life's saved only because it was a Tesla - we opened the doors and walked away even though there were 10 ways we could have died that day ! But that another story )

1. 7 Mar : Car towed to Body Shop ( Caliber Collision )
2. 9 Mar : initial inspection done only then because they have 14 Tesla's in line and 1 trained person to handle them ! Insurance agent visits but they decide it needs to be taken to TSC to check suspension and wheel damage as well as possible impact on motor.
3. 13 Mar : I call and push and prod
4. 14 Mar : Again call push and prod and car finally towed to TSC
5. 15 Mar : TSC inspects it, finds damage to suspension and one wheel and fix it immediately
6. 16 Mar : they have the car driving again to test alignment and end of day it will be ready to go back to Body shop ( TSC turnaround in 24 hours )
7. However the body shop will be able to strip it down for final estimate only next week as they have 14 Teslas ahead of me
8. So somewhere toward the mid or end of next week alone will they be able to order the parts - i.e 2 weeks + already gone by !
9. Then comes the parts ordering nightmare which in my past experiences have taken anywhere between 3 weeks to 3 months !

2. Accident on 19 Aug 2015 - side swiped - could drive car - however ordering and body shop work took 1 month + to fix . Parts Ordered 31 Aug - arrived Sep 10 - Car fixed Oct 1 week.
3. Accident 0n 10 Mar 2015 - Rear ended - couldn't drive car - took 1 month + got it on 16 April just to replace bumper and rear incidentals . TSC Service Manager Trevor was very helpful in calling up Tesla CA to get a last remaining part in time for us to got the MD Tesla meetup
4. Accident on 6 Dec 2016 - Rear ended - got it back after almost 3 Months ! - 26 Feb - At that time there were huge delays in getting parts and at the end of 2 months of waiting TSC Raleigh was good enough to acknowledge Tesla delay and give me a loaner.

So bottom line Jon, things have come a long way from those days. Tesla Service Centers are awesome ! However as long as Tesla doesn't have control over the entire process Tesla will not be able to deliver the same impeccably outstanding level of service that we owners are so used to and even spoilt with now !

So hope with the Model 3 coming out ( 2 of which I am waiting for as well ) the stress will be all the more ( or less with autonomous driving ) but either way thing these body shop work also needs to be brought in house to ensure that level of quality and customer experience !

On a personal note hope yu will have someone assigned to the case for my P11040 and deal directly with Caliber Collision ( Raleigh, NC ) so that the parts are delivered in time and someone from Tesla is at the very least managing the process and not making me have to call them every day !

Thanks
Thomas

Hi everyone –

This week, the service team hit a global customer service satisfaction record. The team has done a fantastic job on what we control currently: our own service centers. We’re now turning our efforts on the centers we don’t control: accident repairs in body shops.

The body shop in the OP article did not begin repairs on the car for three months and then ordered more than 90 parts and took over seven months to repair the car. Neither of those are indicators of competence. To top it off, they blamed their performance on Tesla. We know from complaints that the body shop experience needs to get a lot better – and fast.

What the service team has done so far is a roadmap of how we’re going to fix the autobody experience. Wait times for appointments measured in hours and a handful of days currently. We’re providing same-day service from the Bay Area to Oslo and everywhere in between. In fact, almost 20% of jobs in our flagship center in Palo Alto are handled before the customer can finish their cup of coffee (yes, you read that correctly).

Thankfully, only a handful of our owners experience accidents each year. Since customers schedule and interface with the body shops on their own, we’re largely blind to the service pace.

Most of the customer complaints about body shops mentioned parts, so we focused on this issue. To date, we’ve reduced backlog by over 80%.

Even though we reduced part wait times, we continued to dig into the body shop complaints. What we found was astounding – cars sat at body shops for weeks and sometimes months before the body shops took action and, more often than not, the body shops blaming Tesla for parts delays were the very shops that hadn’t even ordered parts or started the repair.

We are applying brute force to this immediately. We will have individuals on our team personally manage each car on behalf of our customers that are in 3rd party body shops.

We’re also going to increase our approved shop count by 300 over the next few weeks as well as eliminating poor performing shops.

If you have an issue with a shop, please PM me directly and our team will advocate and manage your repair.

Tesla owners will get the service they expect from us – period.

Thanks to the entire service team for their commitment to setting the highest standard for service in the industry,

Jon

 

[shonline]

If I had to do it all over again, I would have bought a Mercedes over a tesla. After repeat service center visits, that are ridiculously difficult to schedule, they cannot fix a simple issue. They keep blaming the dashcam I had installed for absolutely unrelated issues. Would you believe they told me that the air conditioning sucks because I had the dashcam installed? I haven't had the serious problems that many others have had, but you never know what surprise the car is hiding the next time I sit in it.

There are some fatal design flaws. The 12v battery dies every year and is very hard to replace yourself. Door handles are unreliable. Sunroofs leak. These are defects, and Tesla ought to reengineer these parts are provide free replacements to existing owners. But they can't. Because they don't care, and their service centers are super overloaded. I can't imagine what it'll be like when model 3 rolls out. I know Jon says that their service hit another record but my local service center takes 3 days to return a call to schedule an appointment that is 6 weeks out, for an issue that I have today. And try not to miss their call either. Not like you can go any other mechanic like free capitalism would usually allow.

I am not happy that Tesla is producing a substandard beta car at this price point. It's great that Jon is giving things attention, but the fact that things did get so bad in the first place is just not right. Also words are cheap. Check back in 6 months, or 12 months to see if things have actually improved or not.

One last thought: Tesla forums are full of fanboyism, and an extreme penchant for forgiveness. I had not realized this before I purchased the car. Frequently many who are defending either work for tesla or own tesla stock. You need to talk to atleast 10 owners who have no other vested interest other than having a nice reliable car. And they might totally disagree with what I said, but atleast you would have done your homework then.

As an owner of 1 year old model s, who owns no stock and does not work for Tesla, I can report having none of the issues reported by you or other at all.

Quite the opposite actually.

I've found service to be outstanding, (and I have some pretty amazing stories to prove it) and far better than our local MB dealer (who are horrific).

My one instance at a collision shop had two bumper dents/scrapes fixed and car back to me in 24 hours.

Just being honest.

 

[Digital49er]

Hi everyone –

This week, the service team hit a global customer service satisfaction record. The team has done a fantastic job on what we control currently: our own service centers. We’re now turning our efforts on the centers we don’t control: accident repairs in body shops.

The body shop in the OP article did not begin repairs on the car for three months and then ordered more than 90 parts and took over seven months to repair the car. Neither of those are indicators of competence. To top it off, they blamed their performance on Tesla. We know from complaints that the body shop experience needs to get a lot better – and fast.

What the service team has done so far is a roadmap of how we’re going to fix the autobody experience. Wait times for appointments measured in hours and a handful of days currently. We’re providing same-day service from the Bay Area to Oslo and everywhere in between. In fact, almost 20% of jobs in our flagship center in Palo Alto are handled before the customer can finish their cup of coffee (yes, you read that correctly).

Thankfully, only a handful of our owners experience accidents each year. Since customers schedule and interface with the body shops on their own, we’re largely blind to the service pace.

Most of the customer complaints about body shops mentioned parts, so we focused on this issue. To date, we’ve reduced backlog by over 80%.

Even though we reduced part wait times, we continued to dig into the body shop complaints. What we found was astounding – cars sat at body shops for weeks and sometimes months before the body shops took action and, more often than not, the body shops blaming Tesla for parts delays were the very shops that hadn’t even ordered parts or started the repair.

We are applying brute force to this immediately. We will have individuals on our team personally manage each car on behalf of our customers that are in 3rd party body shops.

We’re also going to increase our approved shop count by 300 over the next few weeks as well as eliminating poor performing shops.

If you have an issue with a shop, please PM me directly and our team will advocate and manage your repair.

Tesla owners will get the service they expect from us – period.

Thanks to the entire service team for their commitment to setting the highest standard for service in the industry,

Jon

Jon,

I'm a future Model S owner (pickup is 3/31 in Chicago!!), and I work as the IT Director for a large auto group in Indiana. We have 4 bodyshops across the state and we're interested in becoming a Tesla approved bodyshop. Can you point me in the right direction to find out more on joining your bodyshop network? We would like to help improve the bodyshop experience for your customers. Thanks!

 

[rush6410]

Things to consider when reading these posts...only complaints get posted here. So to judge Tesla on these posts are very short-sighted. Don't get me wrong, I think the stories here are real and legitimate. But are not representative of the 100,000's of vehicles that have been just fine. If you want to know the issues that can happen and is possible no matter the percentage to good builds, then this is the right place for you. For the posters that said they should have bought a Mercedes or other. Please!!!!!!!! go by one. Innovation is not for you.

 

[Barry]

For the posters that said they should have bought a Mercedes or other. Please!!!!!!!! go by one. Innovation is not for you.

Put down your Kool-aid and face facts. Innovation is not the issue. Customer service, even good, not exemplary, as promised by EM, is needed.

 

[rush6410]

Put down your Kool-aid and face facts. Innovation is not the issue. Customer service, even good, not exemplary, as promised by EM, is needed.

My experience has been perfect. Best delivery and quality of build exceeding my expectations. No Kool-aid needed. Just simple facts and experience.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

No! You didn't?

Yes I jinxed myself. Three days after I posted that, I was hit by a 16yr old girl backing up in a parking lot. It was kind of a douchebag post so maybe it serves me right. She was insured and her insurance is going to cover the full cost of repair and car rental. The estimate was $4,600 to replace the driver's side rear door. One month to get parts and 8 days to make repair. The other body shop said three months before they could start on it. Luckily the car is still drivable. If she would have hit me 12" further in either direction probably would have doubled the cost.

 

[mikevbf]

Sorry to hear it. At least it's drivable until they have the parts. Did you get the estimate from a Tesla certified body shop?

 

[MS16]

My experience has been perfect. Best delivery and quality of build exceeding my expectations. No Kool-aid needed. Just simple facts and experience.

Your post is a perfect example of how many people here perceive things when it comes to Tesla. For example, you say your Tesla experience has been "perfect" yet your X has the ghosting problem. To this day, that ghosting problems remains unaddressed by Tesla.

No disrespect, but I would not call that problem and Tesla's continued lack of fixing it a "perfect" experience.

What is does illustrate to me, in my opinion, is how many Tesla owners will easily excuse or deflect or minimize issues with Tesla that they wouldn't accept from other manufacturers.

 

[ahurst]

My car is driveable.
However, I need a liftgate that Tesla has agreed to replace on their dime.
Tesla ordered the part on Feb 25. Over one month and counting.
Per Tesla, the part is "constrained", which to them means delayed.

 

[seclinton]

I will note from my repair just completed on 3/10; now following up on replacing my GPS antenna; I was informed that they are now seeing turnaround parts times from tesla of 1-3 days. So something changed and in at least one case, it's so far looking like Jon and Tesla are making good already

 

[shonline]

Your post is a perfect example of how many people here perceive things when it comes to Tesla. For example, you say your Tesla experience has been "perfect" yet your X has the ghosting problem. To this day, that ghosting problems remains unaddressed by Tesla.

No disrespect, but I would not call that problem and Tesla's continued lack of fixing it a "perfect" experience.

What is does illustrate to me, in my opinion, is how many Tesla owners will easily excuse or deflect or minimize issues with Tesla that they wouldn't accept from other manufacturers.

Are you an owner with a different experience? I don't see any info on your car in your signature.