Nightmare Experience! Only 500 miles driven...

[carpendj]

Tesla is like for the independent type of customers. If you want customer service compatible with Audi, Tesla is the wrong choice.

Audi service sucks!!! Maybe its just in Austin but I will never own an Audi again. They even tried to use the Star Wars force on me "You chipped your car right". No dude, I did not. Where did that idea come from Dude. They could never find a problem I had with my Audi TT making grinding noises at the rear. I gave up. When I tried to sell it another dealer, they claimed it had been in a car crash. I laughed in his face. Told him I purchased it from an Audi dealer with only 5 miles on it. Oh and the sales man was so pompous. I thought I was buying a Rolls Royce the way he acted. Never again. Sorry. This is not an Audi thread but it poked me saying Audi service is good. lol. 5000 miles in on my Tesla Model Y performance and I am impressed with the Austin based service guys. They fixed my one issue on delivery day and came out to replace my rear spoiler at my home without any issues.

 

[cbdream99]

Although any car can die anytime anywhere and in worst situation, once I have an ICE car, and it died in the busiest Wendy’s drive thru, the FireStone next door refused to help, not even to push the car!

I think Tesla can do better, have more premium contracts with local tow company, have a better live customer service to evaluate the situation. Having lots of customers but poor service is not an excuse,, although I cam to realize for Tesla premium price does not translate to premium customer service (and it is across all business units), telling others it works for me in my area really doesn’t help.

 

[phonetele226]

Audi service sucks!!! Maybe its just in Austin but I will never own an Audi again. They even tried to use the Star Wars force on me "You chipped your car right". No dude, I did not. Where did that idea come from Dude. They could never find a problem I had with my Audi TT making grinding noises at the rear. I gave up. When I tried to sell it another dealer, they claimed it had been in a car crash. I laughed in his face. Told him I purchased it from an Audi dealer with only 5 miles on it. Oh and the sales man was so pompous. I thought I was buying a Rolls Royce the way he acted. Never again. Sorry. This is not an Audi thread but it poked me saying Audi service is good. lol. 5000 miles in on my Tesla Model Y performance and I am impressed with the Austin based service guys. They fixed my one issue on delivery day and came out to replace my rear spoiler at my home without any issues.

So you had a crappy Audi dealer. I would hesitate to say they are all bad. Just like you apparently had a good Tesla experience it’s not fair to say that they are all good. As long as dealer service centres are staffed with human beings, with their own problems, proficiencies and personalities we are always going to have good and bad service experiences. I have always said a good consistent dealer interaction can make even a mediocre vehicle tolerable.

 

[Mjrotor]

You're on a total island. You absolutely need to have a separate Roadside service other than Tesla, at a minimum. Then, you're at your local Service Center's mercy when there's car issues. Tesla will not let you speak with anyone else. Makes zero sense at all.

I know I sound like a scorned new customer, which I 100% am, but I have zero time for this because Tesla hypes how great their product and service are. Not the case at all and my experience is that they have a single line of defense everywhere across their model. One thing doesn't work and you're SCREWED

I am so sorry for your horrible experience. I don't think Tesla hypes their service. Tesla service is really non existent. It's practically impossible to talk to live person. I cancelled my Model Y order back in June 2021 due to their lack of customer service. However I ended up placing another order in August 2021, and my Model Y was delivered.in November. I accepted that customer service would be an issue. I still got the car but do worry that when there are serious problems with the car it will be difficult. I love my car and have no regrets. I have 6300 miles so far. I hope that you get the issue resolved. I don't blame you if you choose to return the car. Tesla should have been more responsive to your situation. It's horrible how this happened to you. I wish you the best with your car or if you decide to return it.

 

[shingles]

Return the car and move on to the next car. But with your Audi experience, you should know that this can happen to any car brand. Sometimes sh!t happens. I just had to lemon a 5 month old car (not a Tesla). Search ANY car forum and there will be stories like this. It's annoying as hell, but don't let it get you all wound up.

 

[danarcha]

I don't blame you if you choose to return the car.

Return the car and move on to the next car.

Multiple posters including the OP keep talking about returning the car. How does this work exactly? There isn't really a way to return the car, correct? Many years ago, Tesla had a 7 day return policy back when there were no cars available to test drive and people were ordering the cars without having ever sat in one previously. But that policy ended long ago. A single issue with a new car, no matter how serious, does not trigger a lemon law so I don't know why people are telling to OP to just return the car like it is a valid option. Luckily for the OP, with the long wait times and inflated used car prices, he could probably sell the car for a profit after it has been repaired, but I don't think returning the car to Tesla is an option in this case.

 

[pepperoni]

Multiple posters including the OP keep talking about returning the car. How does this work exactly? There isn't really a way to return the car, correct? Many years ago, Tesla had a 7 day return policy back when there were no cars available to test drive and people were ordering the cars without having ever sat in one previously. But that policy ended long ago. A single issue with a new car, no matter how serious, does not trigger a lemon law so I don't know why people are telling to OP to just return the car like it is a valid option. Luckily for the OP, with the long wait times and inflated used car prices, he could probably sell the car for a profit after it has been repaired, but I don't think returning the car to Tesla is an option in this case.

Agreed, selling the car is the better and perhaps only option. This isn’t like the Costco 90 day return policy. Tesla almost certainly isn’t going to take the car back, and if they do it’s only because they know they can sell it for more.

 

[alexgr]

my car was stranded for 5 hours between 1:30pm-6:30pm in 110-degree heat in Phoenix, all while blocking a restaurant from serving lunch and dinner service.

I totally disagree! Drive-through does NOT serve lunch, dinner, or any food to that regard. They just shovel junk through a hole. Your Tesla potentially saved many human lives!

 

[alexgr]

Sorry for the bad luck. Technically Any car can fail unpredictability at any time but never fun. There are (3) Tesla dealers In Phoenix did you try calling any of them? Roadside has always been fine for me and quickly replied with just a request granted that is not Teslas service directly just a network so may be different by area. Hope they get it fixed soon.

1) Unless you know someone's direct phone number at a service center, trying to call them will route you to Tesla's main service hub.
It does make sense to know someone at your local SC.
2) I have at least 3 credit cards that have some level of free roadside assistance including towing. If Tesla does not respond quickly, I would get in touch with any other service for sure.

 

[alexgr]

They told me to come to get a loaner which I did.

What's your loaner?
You know you can send messages with questions about your car service in the app. Tesla wants you to do everything through the app, no phone calls. If they don't reply, drive to that SC and ask about your car in person.
If you really decide to sell your car, you'll be surprised that you may actually make some money, not loose money.... it's a Tesla thing.

 

[pepperoni]

What's your loaner?
You know you can send messages with questions about your car service in the app. Tesla wants you to do everything through the app, no phone calls. If they don't reply, drive to that SC and ask about your car in person.
If you really decide to sell your car, you'll be surprised that you may actually make some money, not loose money.... it's a Tesla thing.

And you get a reply through the app? Because in my experience with Service Center correspondence through the app, I rarely received replies to my texts, and when I did they were many hours after I sent my text. I can say on the whole the SC interaction through the app falls short by a lot. I can certainly empathize with the OP. Tesla does not do a lot to make it’s customers feel valued.

 

[brandon8387]

Kick rocks. Find another thread if you don't want to see any of this. No one asked for your opinion

Lol. Tell ‘em. Too many apologist talking in hindsight and not really putting themselves in your shoes. I’m in Phoenix too and being stuck out like that would be hell. Good luck with it all bro.

 

[VT_EE]

And you get a reply through the app? Because in my experience with Service Center correspondence through the app, I rarely received replies to my texts, and when I did they were many hours after I sent my text. I can say on the whole the SC interaction through the app falls short by a lot. I can certainly empathize with the OP. Tesla does not do a lot to make it’s customers feel valued.

Yes. At least at both the Rockville and Owings Mills locations in Maryland, you usually get a response within an hour during work hours. This works if there is an active ticket open even if you haven't dropped the car off yet. Messaging through the app is the only way to go.

 

[m25nyc]

I am sorry you had this experience of your Model Y breaking down and an all-day wait.

This is one of my fears - not enough service/dealer/towing network. All cars fail and Tesla has not built out a capacity to deal with this at scale and seems not interested in doing so. there is not a car in existence that won't need service after a time and personally it is in self-interest to advocate for a robust and responsive service network.

At predominantly ICE brands there are 3x to 5x the number of locations for service as Tesla, and, even more independent garages.

They operate as a revenue and profit source for dealers. This creates an incentive to find issues and charge more, and it drives up supply of service capacity and speed of service and keeps an upper limit on cost. For warranty services the manufacturer pays for it and so this benefits new car buyers as well as used / pre-owned buyers.

As Teslas have become more popular in NYC I tracked service centers and they have not added capacity, due to state law issues and also due to Tesla's philosophy that the vehicle rarely needs service.

So it is a dice roll. So far I have not been unlucky, one small service that was not time sensitive. App reply was very slow, next day at times, and it was a month to schedule! But no regrets - the auto-pilot, a main reason for me getting a Tesla, is greatly superior to any other manufacturer, I was aware fit and finish wouldn't be up to Lexus levels (which are really superb), and there are so many things Tesla does right on the design side that other manufacturers including Lexus could do but don't. My remote climate control on my new Lexus rarely connected and when it did, it would let me know the cabin temperature I had last driven at and return the car to that temperature - not the temperature I wanted based on current weather! Face palm.

I would say easily Tesla is 10 years ahead on tech, and it gets better with every few updates on average - a slight regression sometimes but on the average, better, which of course still no other company is doing as they are sticking with their hundreds-of-chips model of powering the tech behind the car rather than the computer-on-wheels model of a Tesla. I've even noticed some engineering deficits in the Model Y, like clunky brake pedals, get better as it is a drive by wire system and the software compensates.

As to roadside assistance I have used Lexus and Audi roadside, not yet Tesla, and also a "private client auto insurance" company's subcontracted towing service. All were slow. Some were atrocious, one tried to strand me on the side of the road he was high on stimulants it was middle of winter and he refused to turn on the truck cabin heater, and he started fighting me. Another left me stranded at night - saying his company doesn't permit passengers in the cabin - no taxis available for hours, no Uber in the town, wouldn't even take me to a train station which was a few miles away. I wound up driving home on a flat tire at 10 MPH risking damaging the rim rather than have to hike.

Roadside assistance runs on a business model where there is little relationship between quality of service and the company getting repeat business as the customer is the auto manufacturer or insurance company, and they subcontract to local companies that don't even brand (I think AAA may be different haven't had them in a while but where I live I don't see their logo on tow trucks so maybe they subcontract too). In some countries roadside assistance is a direct contract from driver to a national brand that brands on all its trucks. Whether franchise or company owned the customer is the driver, that seems to me a better model for roadside assistance and towing since bad service and bad word of mouth directly means fewer customers.

Since Tesla runs its own maintenance and roadside, eventually when sales growth levels, they will have to pivot to improving service to maintain market share. But that is a long time from now as they have such an edge in so many ways they are still in growth phase, and the majority of their vehicles-on-road are new enough most have few service needs yet.

 

[cbdream99]

What's your loaner?
You know you can send messages with questions about your car service in the app. Tesla wants you to do everything through the app, no phone calls. If they don't reply, drive to that SC and ask about your car in person.
If you really decide to sell your car, you'll be surprised that you may actually make some money, not loose money.... it's a Tesla thing.

Supply and demand have caught up, expecting making profits is a pipe dream.

 

[sperkin]

I was stuck in LA morning traffic in 2018 with my brand new Model 3. It was a fault in the drive unit. Since they replaced it, it has been perfect.

I have never been late to work in over 25 years in my trusty Toyotas, but late to work twice because of Tesla. Other time I was stuck in my garage because the charger will not unplug. Tesla mobile came and replaced the charge port. Been fine since too.

Hope you car gets fixed soon and be trouble free like mine.

 

[roblab]

Tesla is like for the independent type of customers. If you want customer service compatible with Audi, Tesla is the wrong choice.

But... on the flip side of this coin, Teslas rarely need service. And I can't understand why the car couldn't be pushed out of the way, nor why it took so long to get a tow truck.

As to customer service "compatible with AudI," well, I wouldn't want that, either. I've seen a friend's car sit for nearly a day waiting for a tow truck, but that has nothing to do with the type of car.

 

[djuzi05]

Car broke down, you waited a long time for Road Side (Pretty normal no matter who you use) and the service center gave you a loaner the next day.

Sounds like a great service experience to me.

 

[Pianewman]

roblab: I agree. I still don't understand why Tesla doesn't have the ability to roll when the rear drive unit goes out.

As for service, that discussion has been beaten to death here. Tesla: few and far between SCenters, frequently poorly managed.

 

[jjrandorin]

After being tarred and feathered here I would not be surprised if he does not return. I hope he does however just to find out if the SC made it right.

I have said this in a few other threads here, but my experience here on TMC is that, with a few exceptions, although thread tone of a specific thread can shift all over the place, the general tone of the thread title and of the original poster (OP) tends to drive the tone of the most of the responses.

If the thread title and opening post is fairly sensational, then the responses from many members will respond in kind. If it isnt, the responses normally arent either.

One of those "exceptions" I mentioned is the topic of tesla service. Posts about tesla service tend to basically summon some specific people (both very pro and very anti tesla) who seem to like to discuss that topic. Additionally, this particular topic (Tesla service) is also one that people who dont even have a tesla vehicle like to join here and point out deficiencies in, even though they havent experienced it themselves.

I used to think that people who made these type threads were looking for suggestions on what to do, but have since determined that isnt the case, most of the time. Most of the time, I think people are just looking to vent, and the responses they are looking for are not suggestions on actions, but either sympathy, or "yeah me too", in a "misery loves company" type of way.

No matter how rare a situation is, if it impacts "you" it seems major. Its like, if you are at work and work for a company with 100k employees, and they announce "minimal" layoffs and state "we had to lay off 15 people out of our workforce today, most people are going to think thats very minimal, but if YOU are one of those 15, you are 100% impacted and are not interested in hearing anything about "minimal impact".

When I saw this thread title and the opening post, I was fairly sure how it was going to go based on the thread title, topic and tone of the first post (and which regular TMC posters would show up to talk about it) and both of my internal guesses turned out to be correct.