Motley Fool story - Tesla Replacement Part Delays

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

There´s a reason all of a sudden the service manuals "leaked", there was "talk" about empowering the customer to do own repairs etc.

Seriously? This is the first I heard about this. Where can I find my Model S shop manual? Oh wait, I'm under warranty still. First time I've ever owned a car that had any warranty left.

 

[Ace007]

Jons post today helped restore some of my confidence in Tesla. Still hoping our car gets repaired soon though. Tesla has done their part now and has gotten all but one part to the shop. Now just waiting on the shop to free up a tech to work on it.

 

[neroden]

Thank you, Jon.

Now can you address the elephant in the room: the lack of service centers in entire geographic areas?

We're still waiting for one in upstate NY (preferably Syracuse, it would serve the most people). Neither you nor I like the fact that my car has to be shipped 250 miles each way to get service.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

Well,
all your posts sound very biased. You do know that the official shops pay thousands of $$$ for courses, certifications and thus approvals.
Your suggested unprofessional behavior would mean business suicide. No one does this. Naive.

Not biased, but angry that this is how the situation is. And I cannot fathom why a body shop would make a specific brand of a car sit for months before starting to work on it, despite going through the certification process.

You can call me biased, or queen Elizabeth, doesn't really matter. My point is,

1. I don't think body shops are squarely to blame
2. And even if they are, this is still a tesla issue.

.. and
3. Good thing that tesla is fixing the problem. However, I personally would want to see this issue be of a thing of past completely before I can recommend this car to anyone.

 

[geometro]

Ditto on Insurance problems due to high cost-of-repair; I had to cancel my 100D order because my Geico quote went from ~$1200/yr to $2800/yr once I gave them the correct model and VIN. And the $2800 quote was with a $2500 deductible on collision/comprehensive ($500 deductible would've been over 3k/year).

Not sure what to say, but... wow! $2800 with a $2500 deductible.

Kudos to Tesla for stepping up, but it's unfortunate that it had to come to this (i.e., coverage by a journalist).

 

[scott2613]

Well,
all your posts sound very biased. You do know that the official shops pay thousands of $$$ for courses, certifications and thus approvals.
Your suggested unprofessional behavior would mean business suicide. No one does this. Naive.

Actually, unprofessional behavior is quite rampant in the autobody industry. Many have poor to non existent computer literacy, do not understand the customer, are adversarial to insurance companies and have weak management. Business suicide? Absolutely! Within the past 30 years more than two thirds have gone out of business. How do i know this? I've been in the industry for 39 years myself, have spent the last 8 years alongside my son, training those still around in the principles of sustainable lean process control and a system that's built around the customer. It often feels like a fools errand.
Tesla's being aluminum, require good technical skills but they are not difficult to repair. We fix 3 or 4 a week and our average keys to keys time for Tesla is 9.14 days including weekends. There were problems getting parts for a while but that's mostly gone away now.

 

[ikjadoon]

I think our car sat at the body shop for 3-4 weeks before they even took a look at it and started ordering parts. I think it took at least a month (from what the shop told me) for parts to start coming in. I have had good luck reaching our to Tesla corporate support number at 877-798-3752 and ask them to look in to your parts. Within a week the shop now has everything except for the front bumper which is in transit. Unfortunately the shop (same one as original author) is saying there are several cars ahead of us and he does not yet have a start date for them working on the car.

Tesla did say they in their email that they are working on expanding the number of qualified shops in their network. As we all know that is certainly their challenge growing the support network to not only support current owners but future ones as well. I'm trying to keep the faith that they will fix this issue and continue to grow.

What crazy world am I living in? Is this normal? I've never heard of this happening with any cars at any body shops. 3-4 weeks before they even look at it to see what parts are needed? Is this like a one-man shop drowning in hundreds of cars needing body repair? I honestly don't understand. Every time I go to a body shop, I ask "When should I expect the car to be ready?" And it's never more than 2 weeks total (for parts & repair on my import car). They don't understand how to diagnose a Tesla? They didn't do well in their Tesla certification courses (which I imagine should have some assessment)? They only work from 9am to 1pm?

What am I missing here?

And then a month for parts to arrive? I'd be going insane. God speed to you all.

 

[Lidosgreeneyes]

My Tesla has been in a repair shop since the 1st week of January. First was the delay in getting parts from CA; then another delay because more parts had to be ordered. Then a delay because the computer was not communicating with the car right. it was flat bedded to the Dania, FL Tesla dealership and repair shop. It has been returned again for the 2nd time via flatbedding for further computer glitches. Our rental car provided by the insurance company has been returned as our coverage for this is over. So here we are functioning with one car and constantly visiting gas stations. Oh, how I miss my fueling up in my garage. I am truly fed up with the wait. While I love my Tesla, I would think a long time before recommending or buying one again. A minor front end accident has turned into a 2 1/2 month nightmare. I still have no idea when it will be returned.

 

[SMAlset]

Just wondering how you can quickly add 300 shops. Most of what I've read always seems to focus on how highly specialized these shops are with a big investment in equipment, training, etc

Are these proposed 300 shops going to be able to handle all things Tesla immediatley?

I have a feeling with the upcoming onslaught of Model 3s in the pipeline more shops have been interested in getting certified. I'm guessing new shops have been in the works for a while, and due to the Motley Fools article appearing, the announcement was made to quell some of the flack Tesla has been receiving in the media and from users. 300 sounds like a lot but the US territory is pretty expansive so sure this will alleviate waits for some people but still leave others without much relief. Not putting down the effort to build this Tesla ecosystem which has been a tremendous effort from cars to superchargers to SCs. Have no idea what the overseas situation is.

My air conditioning on my ICE car started acting up Thursday, had it in the shop Friday and they kept it thru today as it was intermittent issue that finally showed up. It was nice to get it back today with the new compressor unit which for the shop was a matter of a phone call to a local supplier. The guys stayed past closing to finish the install. Until Tesla gets parts inventory squared away, I know I'm going to miss that quick turnaround when something goes wrong on our MS. I am in the Bay area so probably in a better situation than others. Haven't had the heart to tell our body shop that we've been going to for years now that we are getting rid of one of our cars for an EV and eventually my car as well. Small shop with maybe 3-4 service bays and doubt they will have the capital to invest in Tesla certification. Sure there will be lots of ICE cars left on the roads for some time to keep them busy but hate to loose the use of a great, dependable shop in our town.

 

[seclinton]

Please PM me your VIN? Thanks.

You'll see I sent you a message Jon. Please feel welcome to summarize your findings on my car I'm more than happy to share my documented communications and timeline of events.

 

[skitch23]

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.

While I can only sympathize with the people who have had issues with their cars waiting for months to be repaired, I sincerely hope that the people assigned to manage cars are more competent than the people I dealt with during my CPO purchase. No response for sometimes days from both the CPO advisor and my DS. When I finally was able to reach the DS via phone, her only goal was to see how quickly she could hang up the phone. It has been nearly a month and I still have yet to be contacted about my due bill repairs. That is unacceptable customer service in my book.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

Hey @JonMc while we have your attention, can you please glance over this thread too?
Weird Steering Issue

Basically owners (more than one) are reporting that the steering wheel randomly locks. This sounds really really dangerous. Is this something Tesla is aware of? Should I be worried for my safety when I drive my car?

This has not happened to me! But I don't want to be the one to find out as I go under a truck either.

 

[RclKag]

hummm... any positions available for a retired body shop owner(30yrs+) in canada?

 

[wallstguy]

Here's my real-life example:
Need a new bumper cover (just the outer plastic, everything OK underneath): Tesla-approved shop tells me $2,300 and 1-month to get parts
Had bumper cover replaced on my BMW last year (same thing, outer plastic only): BMW-approved shop charged $980 and got part in one day.

There is nothing specialized about replacing and painting plastic bumper covers, Tesla has been selling cars in volume for over 5-years, and they sell more Model S's than many other models by other manufactures... time to stop using the "small boutique brand" excuse.

I've had my issues with the Model X, but my experience with accident repair was actually amazing.

Something seems off about your post for the bumper cover. I had a small incident where I got rear ended, only thing that needed to be fixed was rear bumper cover. Took 1 month from start to finish, at the ONLY Tesla approved body shop in Toronto, Canada, and the total bill including taxes and labour was $500 CAD....thats about $370 USD for both parts and labour.

I was only without the vehicle for 1 day.

And this is from the "ONLY" body shop authorized to do Tesla repairs in Ontario I think.

Something similar for my previous lexus would've easily been >$1000 CAD

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Kudos to @JonMc for his response. I'm glad Tesla still pays attention to the complaints in the forums. I wish Tesla would pop in here more often.

 

[RayW]

I've had my issues with the Model X, but my experience with accident repair was actually amazing.

Something seems off about your post for the bumper cover. I had a small incident where I got rear ended, only thing that needed to be fixed was rear bumper cover. Took 1 month from start to finish, at the ONLY Tesla approved body shop in Toronto, Canada, and the total bill including taxes and labour was $500 CAD....thats about $370 USD for both parts and labour.

I was only without the vehicle for 1 day.

And this is from the "ONLY" body shop authorized to do Tesla repairs in Ontario I think.

Something similar for my previous lexus would've easily been >$1000 CAD

@wallstguy, that's interesting. Pharmaceuticals and Telsa bodywork are both much cheaper in Canada... maybe I should take a road trip up North.

Did they repair your existing cover or replace & repair with a new cover? The new cover alone is about $500USD.

 

[wallstguy]

@wallstguy, that's interesting. Pharmaceuticals and Telsa bodywork are both much cheaper in Canada... maybe I should take a road trip up North.

Did they repair your existing cover or replace & repair with a new cover? The new cover alone is about $500USD.

I was told they replaced it. In Canada, insurance is pretty standard (at least for Ontario), and part of all policies is first year or 2 of ownership, only brand new OEM parts can be used.

Invoice shows $300 CAD for parts + $202.50 for Labour + 13% sales tax

New parts include:
"Cover, RR Bumper Lower $186"
"Reflector, Rear Bumper $8"
"Filler, Rear Bumper, $13"
"Shield, Lower Air, $93"

Note: these prices are in CAD.

So more like $222 USD for Parts + $150 USD for Labour

 

[somnambule]

I was told they replaced it. In Canada, insurance is pretty standard (at least for Ontario), and part of all policies is first year or 2 of ownership, only brand new OEM parts can be used.

Invoice shows $300 CAD for parts + $202.50 for Labour + 13% sales tax

New parts include:
"Cover, RR Bumper Lower $186"
"Reflector, Rear Bumper $8"
"Filler, Rear Bumper, $13"
"Shield, Lower Air, $93"

Note: these prices are in CAD.

So more like $222 USD for Parts + $150 USD for Labour

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.

 

[rajkrishnan]

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

How do we get in touch with this specific person handling our repairs my MS in north. J shop since jan paets ordered still waiting for some not happy visiting factory wed 3/22 can i meet my repair manager ?

 

[Cloudfullboy]

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...