[proposed] Class action lawsuit against tesla - door handles unreliable

[TroyGuy]

How much did Tesla service want to charge you to repair the door handles on your car?

$1,300 per door handle.

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@troyguy Idon'tthinkanyoneisgoingtoreplytoyourthreadseriously.

You are right! My initial post was a copy and paste of the wrong correspondence and on top of that, the spacing did not paste correctly for some reason. I'm trying to get the thread deleted.

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OP since your broke and have alot of time on your hands to make useless posts, send me the bill I'll pay for it.

PM me with your address, lol.

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Ah, good point. Of course, didn't think of that so am wrong if he has over 50,000 miles. But you're right, being a normal person and speaking with them calmly especially if this issue has been going on that long would usually lead them to replace it anyway.

Agreed, unfortunately doing that multiple times did not work. Usually, I use honey to attract bees successfully, but for some reason, the Service Center will not assist.

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Sadly I think as more cars go out of warranty we are going to see more of these kinds of posts to do with sticker shock for certain our of warranty repairs. What is the actual cost for each door handle to be fixed out of warranty? If more than one goes bad I can see this being a relatively big and unexpected expense.

No one complains about these issues when they are covered under warranty. IMHO I think Tesla should figure out a fair amount to provide Extended Warranty coverage for cars that are out of warranty and encourage owners to purchase an Extended Warranty. This way:

+ Tesla gets money to cover out of warranty repairs.
+ Obviously not every car will need repairs but the warranty will allow all repairs to be amortized across a larger segment of buyers shielding a few unfortunate owners from huge repair bills.
+ In some ways this would further incentivize Tesla to make their components more reliable.

Agreed and thanks for your post. It is definitely in the lines of what I intended to post. My original post was not the intended correspondence, and hence deleted. I'm trying to get this thread removed accordingly.

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I agree. The letter is hard to read with all the spacing errors, and no one will take that seriously in a business setting. It also doesn't read like it has gone through a lawyer yet, so looks very suspicious. I'm pretty sure there will be no owner contacting the OP about getting into a class action (even if they had the same concern), given how the post is written.

Word of advice to OP. Make sure you have pursued all customer service options (it appears you have never gone past the service manager to corporate) before you threaten to sue Tesla. When you do so, you shut the door in resolving the issue in any other way than legal. Regular personnel will no longer be able to talk to you to offer resolution, and your communication will be filtered by Tesla's legal counsel.

That is good advice. Again, not only was the entirely wrong letter posted, when I copied and pasted the post, for some reason the spacing did not come through. Can't explain why, but as you can see, I deleted my original post and I'm trying to get the thread deleted accordingly. My apologies.

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Tesla should have some sort of good will program for the handles if they truly are an issue. After all, it is a reasonable expectation to be able to enter your car and if they fail with any kind of regularly, $1300 is not an acceptable price for replacement. $500 perhaps. $300 even better and if the customer has a car with a known defective variation of the handle, replace it for free, even if they're out of warranty.

I understand the frustration and anger. On the same token, I think the original post is silly.

Agreed on all accounts above.

 

[Electroman]

The first one failed after warranty and was replaced as good-will. And now the 2nd one failed and they want to charge $1300 or so to fix that.

And there is a very good chance the remaining two might also fail and he is looking at a total cost of close to $4000 to get those door handles upgraded - an item which has broken for a lot of other folks and for which Tesla has replaced them with next gen components for free.

Now we know one thing - the first gen door handles had a design problem and was fixed by 2nd generation and a lot of folks got the new version upgraded for free, only because they were lucky enough to have them fail before the warranty expiry, whereas OP was unlucky that it failed after warranty period.

So why shouldn't OP be upset about it?

I understand, class action and all that is over the top, but we are talking about a component that has failed for many and was even mentioned in CR as a defect.

 

[S'toon]

You say that as though it was a bad thing.

When the court costs of an individual taking a company to court outweigh the cost of the complaint, it allows companies to do economic harm to many individuals without fear of consequences for their actions. However, when those consumers can band together as a class, then there can be a redress of grievance. When you make it harder for a class action to go to court, it puts a thumb on the scale of justice in the favour of companies over those of the citizens.

 

[TroyGuy]

The first one failed after warranty and was replaced as good-will. And now the 2nd one failed and they want to charge $1300 or so to fix that.

And there is a very good chance the remaining two might also fail and he is looking at a total cost of close to $4000 to get those door handles upgraded - an item which has broken for a lot of other folks and for which Tesla has replaced them with next gen components for free.

Now we know one thing - the first gen door handles had a design problem and was fixed by 2nd generation and a lot of folks got the new version upgraded for free, only because they were lucky enough to have them fail before the warranty expiry, whereas OP was unlucky that it failed after warranty period.

So why shouldn't OP be upset about it?

I understand, class action and all that is over the top, but we are talking about a component that has failed for many and was even mentioned in CR as a defect.

Thanks for your post and I agree. However, I'm not convinced that a class action is over-the-top, particularly since it has failed for so many (hence the purpose of a class action). See S'toon's post right below yours.

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When the court costs of an individual taking a company to court outweigh the cost of the complaint, it allows companies to do economic harm to many individuals without fear of consequences for their actions. However, when those consumers can band together as a class, then there can be a redress of grievance. When you make it harder for a class action to go to court, it puts a thumb on the scale of justice in the favour of companies over those of the citizens.

Could not have said it better myself.

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

I've had 2 handles that 'failed' and >4 that were replaced with new handles
I'd be pretty pissed if it happened after 50K miles...and will be a bit disturbed if it does happen again... might end up being a 'dukes of hazard' style car (jumping over stuff while playing Dixie on the horn too)

 

[Chris TX]

Serious Bizness:

 

[dgpcolorado]

...That said, I'll be buying a CPO car before long, and I have to admit, I'm tempted to limit my search to cars built after they changed the door handle design...

Do you know when that was (VIN)?

 

[Mike K]

Personally, I think it would be nice if Tesla offered handle upgrades for a reasonable price on older cars, as the newer handles are a lot better IMO, but I don't get the feeling they should be obligated to. That said, I'll be buying a CPO car before long, and I have to admit, I'm tempted to limit my search to cars built after they changed the door handle design.

I have it on good authority (myself) that if you ask nicely when the car is in for other service, they'll swap out the handles for you. Obviously I'm not making any guarantees but they did it for me.

As for the difference in handles, other than continuity (one of my handles was new and the rest were old) I wouldn't pick one car over the other for handles alone. The newer handles are marginally better. My only real complaint with the originals is that because they don't have any give, you sometimes pull to open the door before the latch has released. That's not an issue on the new handles since they have that 1/4" of give.

 

[TroyGuy]

I have it on good authority (myself) that if you ask nicely when the car is in for other service, they'll swap out the handles for you. Obviously I'm not making any guarantees but they did it for me.

As for the difference in handles, other than continuity (one of my handles was new and the rest were old) I wouldn't pick one car over the other for handles alone. The newer handles are marginally better. My only real complaint with the originals is that because they don't have any give, you sometimes pull to open the door before the latch has released. That's not an issue on the new handles since they have that 1/4" of give.

Of course, your handles were probably under warrantee, isn't that what you said?

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Oh well, looks like I missed all of the excitement...

 

[strider]

Since this thread doesn't seem to have a specific topic anymore...

@Strider: There is no "service contract," and to be literal there is no "extended warranty."
They have a "prepaid service plan" and they have an "extended service agreement."

The service plan, which I think you're talking about, essentially pays for future "annual service" (check-up) that'll include (IIRC) brake pads, wiper blades and fluids (coolant, brake, washer). Under this plan, any other parts found to need replacing, if not covered under warranty (or the extended service agreement), will have to be paid for by the customer. Probably plus the labor.
The service agreement is the one everybody's calling extended warranty.

It is a bit unfortunate that the names are so similar, but they mean very different things.

You're right. I was talking about the pre-paid service plan. Here's the quote from Joost's blog post: "Unlike service contracts at most automotive companies, Tesla Service includes all replacement parts such as wiper blades and brake pads that wear out from day-to-day driving, excluding tires."

Door handles are a day-to-day driving item and so if one of them wears out/stops working I would expect it to be replaced at my next annual service as only tires are excluded.

 

[tinm]

I've had two door-handle problems.

First one was within the first week of owning the car. Rear left door handle would present, but pulling it did nothing. They replaced that one. That was like Sept 2013.

Second door handle was just last month. Same problem: this time the front passenger door handle would present, but pulling it did nothing and door wouldn't open. Service center fixed it rather than replaced it, so I hear.

I'm within 9800mi of the end of my 50k warranty. Do I expect more door handles to fail? Of course, since I have a "Classic" 2013 VIN.

Would I join a class-action suit? Nah. I will prolly do the extended warranty though I don't relish the idea of $200 deductibles.

 

[CuriousG]

It's poorly written, poorly conveyed, lacks context and adequate explanation and then there's the spelling and grammer [sic] errors.

:redface:

 

[Mike K]

:redface:

Boom.

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Of course, your handles were probably under warrantee, isn't that what you said?

Yes. My response was directly to the gentleman that said he was just looking for CPO cars with the newer handles though.

 

[smil3193]

Serious Bizness:

Love this!

 

[supratachophobia]

Door handles are a day-to-day driving item and so if one of them wears out/stops working I would expect it to be replaced at my next annual service as only tires are excluded.

Very interesting interpretation of the annual service. As someone who has had seven (7) door handles, a couple of door control modules, and a harness, door handles are my #1 concern out of warranty right now.

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Love this!

Wait until it gets the tip.... just the tip.

 

[DFibRL8R]

As a data point for those interested, I just had my handle replaced out of warranty for $896 parts and labor (parts cost $738). Had previously had one handle replaced under warranty. Hopefully the other classic handles (along with all my other out of warranty classic parts) will hold up

 

[segarvv]

As a data point for those interested, I just had my handle replaced out of warranty for $896 parts and labor (parts cost $738). Had previously had one handle replaced under warranty. Hopefully the other classic handles (along with all my other out of warranty classic parts) will hold up

Well that sounds like quite an expensive door handle...

 

[DFibRL8R]

Well that sounds like quite an expensive door handle...

Yeah but it's ok because Elon posted that service would not be a profit center for Tesla right? Plus it seems very reasonable that door handle failure would be tied to milage on the warranty...

 

[NewCow]

When I took delivery of my CPO in late January, my DS said they replace with 2nd generation handles.