My X has now come back from the Austin Service center damaged twice

[TheQ]

Not sure what to do....I have had the car 20 days and 11 of them the car has been back in the service center. First to fix the drivers door latch and the X doors not lining up right, car came back with a good size paint chip in right rear quarter panel and the car was very dirty. Telsa Austin said they would have it fixed it and have it detailed. Picked it up on Monday and brought it back today. There is debris in the pant on the inside door panel and the front right quarter panel black strip has over spray on it and it looks like for some reason they painted the front right bumper area, I see mis-matched paint and paint on the black front lower strip.

I wanted to tell them to just take it back but both the delivery guy and myself were thinking its safer at my house than the service center....given the past events.

Now what? I left a message for Tesla Corporate but I don't want a car that has messed up paint all over it for 115k and I am fed up.

 

[jeffro01]

Nor would I... Pictures perhaps?

I'd keep pushing and don't let up. I forget what the lemon law triggers are, others here will likely chime in and provide that, but clearly this situation is less than ideal...

Jeff

 

[Maaz]

That's sad. I'm so sorry about your position.

 

[Lump]

Get your money back.

 

[TheQ]

i will post some pics but it will be very hard to see the paint issues, the black strip is very obvious.....

 

[TaoJones]

Ugh. Someone asked me the other day what my three biggest concerns were with owning a Tesla. They were trying to be clever, having noted most people ask what I like about the car (and they would be right).

Sad to say, my biggest concerns going forward include, in no particular order:

1. Service variability (I've had episodes of awful service and of stellar, world class, best ever service - sometimes from the same SvC)
2. ICEing by our own (owners who do not vacate the SC stall immediately upon charging being complete).
3. Getting into an accident or body damage by some other means. See #1 above, combined with body shop/parts snafus.

 

[TexasEV]

I suggest you escalate this to the regional service manager.

 

[TheQ]

I just did that, waiting for a call back from the regional SM.....

Austin Service Manager called me and said he will do what ever it takes to make it right, can we come get it? I said bring a check and its yours otherwise I no longer trust the car in your care. He said he knows it left in perfect shape, I am like there is no way this happen in transit, and it took me 2 seconds to see the issues which means no one looked at it before it left. He was very nice and but I don't really care at this point. I don't trust them. He said he would escalate the issue.

Now we wait.

 

[LJordan]

If someone says "(I) will do whatever it takes to make it right,", why the heck would you not take him up on his word?

 

[TheQ]

because their track record of making it right SUCKS!

And who buys a brand new car to have paint work done on it.

 

[systemcrashed]

because their track record of making it right SUCKS!

And who buys a brand new car to have paint work done on it.

Ask to have the work done at a different SC, I'm sure some are better equipped/ staffed to handle the X than others. I would be equally frustrated, but sometimes cooler heads prevail. You have expressed your level of frustration, now give them a chance to respond and fix it.

 

[Drivin]

Send a note with pics to Elon.
He can make this right for you.
Besides fixing your car, he can then do the root cause analysis to make sure it never happens again.

 

[TaoJones]

Send a note with pics to Elon.
He can make this right for you.
Besides fixing your car, he can then do the root cause analysis to make sure it never happens again.

Good idea. Definitely an opportunity for process improvement here. Improvement that will save everyone time and money and grief and damage to the all-important word of mouth, not to mention having to bother the CEO less over time, at least with repetitive issues - as much.

Careless cosmetic damage is just annoying - and costly - I've had it done to my car at least twice now during various servicings - three times, actually. This is how I know that it costs $361 to replace the MCU bezel (U-shaped metal trim piece around the touchscreen).

One thing about the damage - sometimes, even though they shouldn't, things end up in the Carfax record. It's doubtful this botched body work will, for a few reasons (no insurance company involved, zero structural damage, no parts replaced, DMV unaware, and probably not very expensive to fix, relatively speaking) but it's worth thinking about in terms of how this episode will affect resale value (it's a matter of whether the overspray or work in general will be noticeable, for starters).

I have no idea how they're going to make it right to the OP's satisfaction at this point, short of throwing money at it (complimentary ESA?). It's going to take more than a jacket, I'd suspect.

Please let us know how it goes.

 

[Drivin]

thinking about in terms of how this episode will affect resale value (it's a matter of whether the overspray or work in general will be noticeable, for starters).

.

It doesn't have to be noticeable. When I had my car in for opticoat, the installer mentioned that for high end cars, people use a $250 painter gauge to determine if it is original factory paint.

Some people are picky about that for a used car.

 

[ivengo]

Sorry to hear about your experience.

I had my car in Austin Service Center twice and each time the service was exceptional.
They returned to me the car like new each time.

 

[paintpolisher]

It doesn't have to be noticeable. When I had my car in for opticoat, the installer mentioned that for high end cars, people use a $250 painter gauge to determine if it is original factory paint.

Some people are picky about that for a used car.

You need the $2700 PTG to check any plastic or composite panels. Front and rear bumper covers.

 

[Drivin]

You need the $2700 PTG to check any plastic or composite panels. Front and rear bumper covers.

You just need to bring it to a body shop or mechanic who has one. Or you can trust the guy who is selling you a $100k car

 

[TaoJones]

Sorry to hear about your experience.

I had my car in Austin Service Center twice and each time the service was exceptional.
They returned to me the car like new each time.

See, that's the thing. As noted, I've experienced world class service and costly mistakes during service, occasionally at the same SvC. Now you could count on, when Jerome was at the Service helm, that there would be enthusiastic and incremental improvement. I hope it's the same way under the new guy. When teams buy in to continuous improvement, it's a beautiful thing.

I am reminded of the Toyota factory workers, and this was in a culture in which you did not want to be the nail that stuck up, who embraced kaizen and, one day, approached their boss with a way to improve a hood assembly process from 8 minutes to 6 minutes. Now, at the time, 8 minutes was already the world's best effort. Their manager, being a manager, asked "Well, who asked you to spend time toward this?" Their response? "Because we could, and because it's good for the company."

While it sucks when problems affect us, as long as they show improvement quarter over quarter, year over year, and as long as the rank and file are engaged (contributing actively to the process without being afraid of getting fired), then someday this will collectively get better. And better, and better.

The oft-cited "Well, it's better than ICE brand X service." Is of absolutely no value. To be the best, it's always a battle of #1 versus #1 - internal - not external. Leave external to the Marketing Department.

 

[balefire]

My SVC does not paint. They outsource. I suspect the same happened. Paint body shops have guarantees on quality. I would fight them.

Not letting Tesla have the car is unreasonable.

Without pics, this thread is useless

 

[Coolcarx]

My SVC does not paint. They outsource. I suspect the same happened. Paint body shops have guarantees on quality. I would fight them.

Not letting Tesla have the car is unreasonable.

Without pics, this thread is useless

It can be very difficult to photograph paint issues. Your almost better taking a video in florecent light. Pour food colored water over finish and squeegee it to highlight pockmarks & scratches.
The problem is the body shop has proved their work is poor. So do you delay the inevitable and wait for more poor work to come back. The other option is to regroup and let them rack up enough complaints and find another body shop. A high end body shop is very expensive. Maybe just say, where is my beautiful new 100k+ X is paid for? This price range vehicle does not allow for amateur quality. If they can't get the quality where it needs to be they will not be successful. The whole operation needs a new QC Zar. Anyone in that position should see the quality issues before the customer.