What's the best way to negotiate repair work on a Tesla (or in general)?
I have a ding/scrape on the front of the car and probably need to replace the front part. I got two estimates for ~$2k, the two shops have quite different opinions on what to do and wildly different labor rates and number of hours estimated but magically are within $100 on the bottom line estimate cost, which seems odd. I tried getting in touch with the Tesla repair shop, but they don't respond.
What I really want to do is to send pictures to 10 good shops, get a firm price from each and negotiate from there. That's how I bought the car I had before this Tesla - worked great, very easy and got a good price. This isn't working here because only 2 shops would even take pictures and even those two are doing an "estimate" which is no commitment. Everyone wants to inspect the car physically, which means I have to make an appointment, show up and be subjected to whatever their sales game is while I wait. It might be reasonable that they want to inspect, but if I just tell them to replace the part, that should be a standardized thing that they can just tell me what it costs to do - no dice so far.
What's the best way to do this without wasting a lot of time driving around while having to dodge sales techniques? Or is that just the only way? I can't imagine just taking the first price you get is going to be good?
I have a ding/scrape on the front of the car and probably need to replace the front part. I got two estimates for ~$2k, the two shops have quite different opinions on what to do and wildly different labor rates and number of hours estimated but magically are within $100 on the bottom line estimate cost, which seems odd. I tried getting in touch with the Tesla repair shop, but they don't respond.
What I really want to do is to send pictures to 10 good shops, get a firm price from each and negotiate from there. That's how I bought the car I had before this Tesla - worked great, very easy and got a good price. This isn't working here because only 2 shops would even take pictures and even those two are doing an "estimate" which is no commitment. Everyone wants to inspect the car physically, which means I have to make an appointment, show up and be subjected to whatever their sales game is while I wait. It might be reasonable that they want to inspect, but if I just tell them to replace the part, that should be a standardized thing that they can just tell me what it costs to do - no dice so far.
What's the best way to do this without wasting a lot of time driving around while having to dodge sales techniques? Or is that just the only way? I can't imagine just taking the first price you get is going to be good?