Questionable Bodyshop treatment of battery!!??

[Glan gluaisne]

So I called the repairer, to ask them to charge the car - their first response was a fairly aggressive "You're in your app then" - I said no, I can see everything on Teslamate, to which the response was an incredulous "What?" - I explained that the car constantly sends all its data to Tesla, and I was watching that - she went all sheepish and tried to say they had disconnected the battery (to replace the front bumper, I think not!), but then said they were working on the car - I informed her that the battery had depleted since the car has not actually been turned off since they took it, it wasn't a cliff edge disconnection, and was simply poor management of the car. "Oh I'll go and speak to them" was the response.

@GRiLLA using 300kW of power in the car park, compared to the fractions of that when moving it around every other time, that's what makes me think it was full throttle - as that's the only time I've ever seen the car use that amount of power.

I haven't mentioned this to them yet, but I imagine they'll be doing some frantic googling of Teslamate to see what information you can see on it right about now.

You could always send them a screenshot from the Teslamate drives screen, showing the map and the peak power usage. IIRC, that screen also shows the date and time, so it would be hard for them to dispute it.

 

[leewillis77]

If a door is left open and climate on, you'll see significant power usage.

 

[UrbanSplash]

Hmmm

I would be complaining to your insurer. They may end up with a higher bill to pay if the repairer messes up. I’m sure they know Tesla’s are potentially mega expensive to fix etc. It may prompt them to get in touch with the repairer to see what’s going on etc.

Another way to look at it is that if you didn’t have teslamate and you remained logged out of the app, you would be non the wiser, and you car will turn up all clean shiny and fixed. You would be happy and not stressed.

It’s awful when you end up spending time and effort on these things that were no fault of your own.

Can I ask how this was dealt with from a liability perspective? I guess the dog owner etc won’t be paying the bill. So your insurance takes the cost? If so, will your premium increase as your insurer won’t be able to recover cost? Never thought about a situation like this before. Nightmare

 

[Durzel]

So I called the repairer, to ask them to charge the car - their first response was a fairly aggressive "You're in your app then" - I said no, I can see everything on Teslamate, to which the response was an incredulous "What?" - I explained that the car constantly sends all its data to Tesla, and I was watching that - she went all sheepish and tried to say they had disconnected the battery (to replace the front bumper, I think not!), but then said they were working on the car - I informed her that the battery had depleted since the car has not actually been turned off since they took it, it wasn't a cliff edge disconnection, and was simply poor management of the car. "Oh I'll go and speak to them" was the response.

@GRiLLA using 300kW of power in the car park, compared to the fractions of that when moving it around every other time, that's what makes me think it was full throttle - as that's the only time I've ever seen the car use that amount of power.

I haven't mentioned this to them yet, but I imagine they'll be doing some frantic googling of Teslamate to see what information you can see on it right about now.

Dunno about your comfort level, but I would be at my wits end being treated like that. I would not have any confidence in them based on how they have already treated the car.

The full throttle runs alone would've had me ranting at them.

Tesla explicitly warn against deep discharging the HV battery and it's well known that LiPo batteries do not take kindly to it. It is ridiculous that they've let it discharge to 0%.

 

[ginger biker]

The insurance company was VERY interested in the dashboards from Teslamate - promptly sent over and complaint lodged with them. Funnily enough the car is now charging, showing as failed Health Check and also with approx 8% less projected range than before.

And yes, it looks like the door is open with the air con being run on full as the guy sat in the drivers seat obviously hasn't connected the door being open to the fact he's cold - strange why he's been in the car so long though, unless frantically trying to clear down potential error messaged caused by the health check?

@UrbanSplash the liability was interesting - the dog owner had no insurance on his dog, but had full liability as the dog was off a lead on the road (National Speed Limit road too). Insurance have done financial checks against him, and concluded that their only way to recover the cost would be through the courts and that would cost too much and take too long, so have accepted the claim in much the same way they would an uninsured driver. No liability on my side, and no impact to my no claims bonus, but wholly expect my premium to increase next year as a result. (incidentally the guy tried to offer me £300 to get the repairs done - I had to try REALLY hard to be polite and smile at that stage)

 

[UrbanSplash]

Many thanks for your reply. It’s obviously awful for the dog owner too. Of course you could argue it was avoidable if the dog was on a lead. But accidents happen ey.

Now your insurance company is aware of your experience, I’m sure the repairer will up their game. They don’t want issues with future business etc. You car will soon be back all shiny! Still a shame about the dog though.

 

[ginger biker]

Many thanks for your reply. It’s obviously awful for the dog owner too. Of course you could argue it was avoidable if the dog was on a lead. But accidents happen ey.

Now your insurance company is aware of your experience, I’m sure the repairer will up their game. They don’t want issues with future business etc. You car will soon be back all shiny! Still a shame about the dog though.

Definitely, we have a dog and couldn't imagine what it would be like to have him go through that. It certainly shook me up for a good few days. Luckily the owner is a decent chap, and we chat/text weekly (shame about the circumstances mind). He actually just text me saying he's realised the dog was insured after all, so hopefully that side of things all gets sorted out now and it's off my insurance company's books.

Garage meanwhile has now claimed that the car was showing over 50 (15% battery?!) miles of range this morning, despite showing as 0% in both the Tesla app and on Teslamate. Got to love an attempted asscovering exercise!!!

 

[Durzel]

Bear in mind it's a legal requirement to inform the Police if you hit a dog. Not sure if you've done that yet, but just FYI.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Regarding insurance and claims against people at fault that have no cover, I had a similar incident years ago. A pedstrian out running (wearing headphones) ran across the dual carriageway I was driving on. He ran out behind a truck in the inside lane that had just passed him, and failed to see that I was in the process of overtaking that truck, so he ran straight into the front nearside of my car, was catapulted on to the windscreen, with the force of the impact bending the roof down to the level of the dash in the centre. He rolled off the car as I braked and ended up on the road, with life-changing injuries.

The accident seriously shook me up for months, to the extent that I couldn't drive and could barely function, but my insurance company were great, they handled the recovery and repair of the car wonderfully. There was no question of trying to recover anything from the pedestrian, even though there were several eye witness accounts as to what had happened, and the pedestrian himself admitted (after he regained consciousness) that he'd been stupid, not looked in my direction and his headphones meant he didn't hear me coming. There was a full police investigation, as at the time it was thought that the chap wouldn't survive. The police completely exonerated me from any blame, even going so far as to appoint a lovely liaison officer that kept me updated about everything for months afterwards, checking to see how I was.

The second shock for me was when I got a letter from a no-win, no-fee solicitor, trying to claim damages from me for the life changing injuries incurred by the pedestrian. Much as I felt desperately sorry for the chap, I didn't see any reason why I should be held responsible for his injuries. I took legal advice and was told I could either get my insurers to sort it (which would almost certainly result in a very hefty uplift in future premiums) or I could handle it myself. I did discover that some household insurance policies include legal assistance, and also may provide some cover for activities outside the home.

I submitted a claim for uninsured loss, including personal injury, loss of earnings, impact on my mental health, etc to the no-win. no-fee, solicitors acting for the pedestrian, stating that I intended to pursue this claim with vigour, despite my sympathy for the plight of their client. I received a letter, almost by return of post, asking if I would be prepared to drop my claim if their client agreed to drop his.

 

[ginger biker]

Bear in mind it's a legal requirement to inform the Police if you hit a dog. Not sure if you've done that yet, but just FYI.

Yeah, the incident happened on 17th Jan, all legal requirements were fulfilled.

 

[ginger biker]

Regarding insurance and claims against people at fault that have no cover, I had a similar incident years ago. A pedstrian out running (wearing headphones) ran across the dual carriageway I was driving on. He ran out behind a truck in the inside lane that had just passed him, and failed to see that I was in the process of overtaking that truck, so he ran straight into the front nearside of my car, was catapulted on to the windscreen, with the force of the impact bending the roof down to the level of the dash in the centre. He rolled off the car as I braked and ended up on the road, with life-changing injuries.

The accident seriously shook me up for months, to the extent that I couldn't drive and could barely function, but my insurance company were great, they handled the recovery and repair of the car wonderfully. There was no question of trying to recover anything from the pedestrian, even though there were several eye witness accounts as to what had happened, and the pedestrian himself admitted (after he regained consciousness) that he'd been stupid, not looked in my direction and his headphones meant he didn't hear me coming. There was a full police investigation, as at the time it was thought that the chap wouldn't survive. The police completely exonerated me from any blame, even going so far as to appoint a lovely liaison officer that kept me updated about everything for months afterwards, checking to see how I was.

The second shock for me was when I got a letter from a no-win, no-fee solicitor, trying to claim damages from me for the life changing injuries incurred by the pedestrian. Much as I felt desperately sorry for the chap, I didn't see any reason why I should be held responsible for his injuries. I took legal advice and was told I could either get my insurers to sort it (which would almost certainly result in a very hefty uplift in future premiums) or I could handle it myself. I did discover that some household insurance policies include legal assistance, and also may provide some cover for activities outside the home.

I submitted a claim for uninsured loss, including personal injury, loss of earnings, impact on my mental health, etc to the no-win. no-fee, solicitors acting for the pedestrian, stating that I intended to pursue this claim with vigour, despite my sympathy for the plight of their client. I received a letter, almost by return of post, asking if I would be prepared to drop my claim if their client agreed to drop his.

That's awful, but just goes to show the ruthless nature of the no-win no-fee world. I'm fully expecting one to drop on my doorstep for emotional distress / compensation for loss of the dog soon enough, especially now it turns out there was insurance.

To be fair, my insurance company have been great, once I was passed the initial form filler-inner.

 

[nightowl]

Definitely, we have a dog and couldn't imagine what it would be like to have him go through that. It certainly shook me up for a good few days. Luckily the owner is a decent chap, and we chat/text weekly (shame about the circumstances mind). He actually just text me saying he's realised the dog was insured after all, so hopefully that side of things all gets sorted out now and it's off my insurance company's books.

Garage meanwhile has now claimed that the car was showing over 50 (15% battery?!) miles of range this morning, despite showing as 0% in both the Tesla app and on Teslamate. Got to love an attempted asscovering exercise!!!

Could that, by any chance, be as a result of them charging the car earlier?!

 

[Ben177]

And yes, it looks like the door is open with the air con being run on full as the guy sat in the drivers seat obviously hasn't connected the door being open to the fact he's cold - strange why he's been in the car so long though, unless frantically trying to clear down potential error messaged caused by the health check?

More likely they simply don't know how to turn off the air con. Or even that they need to lock it to turn it off. Most repair shops I've seen tend to leave cars unlocked while they're working on them as they're in various states of dismantlement. If they're working on your front, then that'll explain why the frunk is popped all the time.

I'd be pissed at the treatment of the car as well, and it would have resulted in a very blunt phone call from me telling them to stop dicking around with it.

 

[ginger biker]

Could that, by any chance, be as a result of them charging the car earlier?!

Not likely, I called them as soon as they opened this morning.

Funnily enough, the car is now no longer communicating with Tesla.....they've since sent a shot showing that the car now has 105miles of range having been plugged in all morning - and even showing how many miles of range have been added, which undermines their own assertions....

 

[ginger biker]

More likely they simply don't know how to turn off the air con. Or even that they need to lock it to turn it off. Most repair shops I've seen tend to leave cars unlocked while they're working on them as they're in various states of dismantlement. If they're working on your front, then that'll explain why the frunk is popped all the time.

I'd be pissed at the treatment of the car as well, and it would have resulted in a very blunt phone call from me telling them to stop dicking around with it.

They've now tried to say it's my fault the battery drained, that I had the cameras on (even though their collection driver checked they were off before he picked it up, and I have the USB at home with me so they'd be pretty useless anyway).

That and, that the technicians don't routinely lock the cars whilst they are in the car park, because "There's a fence and a gate"

 

[NigelT]

Really disappointing to hear you're going through this experience. The fact that they are now pointing the finger back at you, for me, really shows how unprofessional they are. Cameras or no cameras etc., all they need is a plug socket. I think you did the right thing going to your insurance company as well; good move. I hope you get it all sorted.

 

[Durzel]

TeslaMate is a completely passive app, it just reads data. It can't send commands to the car (as far as I know). I think TeslaFi can, though.

Don't want to scare you unnecessarily but if this is what their attitude is like now, imagine how they're going to be if you're not happy with the work?

 

[Cnixon]

Thanks for all the responses so far. I wasn’t particularly happy with the app thing, the repairer claimed it was “for the technicians safety” but as you guys rightly point out, service mode would be enough, besides, I have the USB from the dashcam here with me (I pulled it in case the insurance wanted the footage as part of any investigation as while they’re covering the repairs it’s actually the dog owners liability and he can’t pay)

im in two minds as to whether to call them today, or keep collecting evidence to present back to the insurance company. Either way, I’m going to sign back in to the app, will be an interesting few days/weeks ahead......

as to the 270 miles - no idea, I did point out to the form filler when I initially raised the claim that there are much more local, fully approved, Tesla repair centres but they’ve insisted on taking the car from Lancashire to Hampshire to repair (backhander maybe?)

Ironic there is a tesla approved body shop in Basingstoke.

 

[ginger biker]

@Durzel yeah, was a toss up between call them out now before they do some damage, or wait until the car is back and then argue with them after. Fully wasn't expecting them to be so shady about it, could have lived with a "Joe Bloggs parked it next to the charger on Thursday but forgot to plug it in" or something similar, but straight away it was turned back onto me.

I've spoken now to Tesla, who have verbally confirmed the battery status over the weekend aligned with the app / Teslamate, and actually laughed when I told them what the repairer said about it having 50miles of range this morning. They've also told me how I can get hold of the data the car is sending whilst it's in service mode (activated at 1125 this morning to stop the link to the 3rd party Teslamate service) to see what else goes on with the car.

 

[init6]

FYI here was the usage for my car when it was in getting some chips seen to on the front bumper. Pretty sure they removed the bumper as the Frunk had been emptied into the boot when I collected it. Somewhat less than 300kW used.