Questionable Bodyshop treatment of battery!!??

[ME1357]

M###### I##### are a bunch of cowboys, had a Passat getting fix there years ago and they used 3 party Chinese bits to repair it to the point that when you hit the door it sounded as if it had no sound deadening in it and sounded completely different to the other 3 door. Also a bit of the door trim under the door fell off as soon as i opened it because they had tried to fit it upside down. This is from a place that's supposed to be Ferrari approved as well.

 

[ME1357]

Just read that last post again and thought it was the original poster

 

[init6]

Mitchell Inglis are a bunch of cowboys,

They did a good job with the stone chips I reported on delivery. Car was fully charged when I picked it up too. So looks like they know how to treat Teslas better than the OP's bodyshop.

 

[ginger biker]

They did a good job with the stone chips I reported on delivery. Car was fully charged when I picked it up too. So looks like they know how to treat Teslas better than the OP's bodyshop.

To be fair, it's not difficult to treat the car better than this lot seem to have done

 

[Sixer]

I am in exactly the same position with a authorised Tesla repairer. It may be the same one! I have no Teslafi or anything similar on the car. They have had it for nearly 3 months. Countless conversations and excuses about lack of parts etc and me reminding them to charge it. I am due to pick it up this week.

Goodness know what state the battery is in. Based on the original figure from the guess o meter my car had 216 miles of range at the 100% SoC. I am going with the positive thoughts of it being fine. Unlike the original poster, the repairer simply put the car into service status when it arrived so I have no way of knowing how they have treat it.

What should I look out for when I pick it up?

 

[Billbrown1982]

Jesus, absoloute sympathy with you on this whole situation. The real problem is you don't know what, if any, long term detriment you will have.

Will this have an effect on the battery years from now when its far too late to even think about coming back to the bodyshop?

Seeing as how you have the evidence and backup from Tesla on this one I think I would be SORELY tempted to see if you can get Telsa to run some sort of diagnostics on the batteries and if ANY harm has been done, go after the bodyshop for it.

 

[Peteski]

I would be well pissed off with this kind of service! I'm still trying to get my head around why they needed to take it 270 miles away for repair? I would like to know what insurance company insisted on dragging your car halfway across the country for what I presume is only front bumper damage? All sounds very dubious and clearly a bunch of cowboys handling the repair.

 

[Godsense]

@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.

Always wondered if service mode dropped out logging. Though I believe it also significantly reduces vehicle speed to sub 15mph.

How do you access the data whilst the car is in service mode?

They certainly sound a shady bunch, have never liked leaving my cars in the hands of others. Even when they have been company cars (yes Listers, I'm talking about you)

I hope you get the car back soon though.

 

[ginger biker]

So the saga continues - had an interesting call with the head office of the repair company. They had been sold a story of me constantly checking my app, looking at the cameras, and even more cock and bull.
I had to explain at length exactly how teslamate works, that it is not the Tesla app that controls the car and surely if I had kept the app logged into and was worried about them leaving the car unlocked and switched on, surely I would have simply used the app to maybe, I don’t know, lock the car and put it to sleep to stop the battery draining!!
I then got a call from my insurance company who seemed to have bought the line from the company hook, line and sinker - along with the extra bullsh1t fed to them about the stats the ‘app’ is showing being incorrect because they’ve removed a wiring loom. I did point out to the insurance company that removal of the 12V loom for the foglight and parking sensor would have zero bearing on the High Voltage battery status being reported by the car to Tesla.
You really couldn’t make this up!!

 

[ACarneiro]

Formal complaint process with the insurance company may be in order.
What a nightmare!
Who are the insurers so I can avoid them in the future?

 

[Irata]

I think they got the message, the fact they had to invent a load of nonsense because they are scared of the insurance company does speak volumes. It kinda shows how vulnerable they are to be unable to take criticism without attacking back.

Keep all the data, it's worth far more than their words and they know it.

I hope it all gets sorted soon.

 

[UrbanSplash]

I can only thank you documenting this here for us all. Insurance is all one massive con of an industry. All looking after themselves for £.

Anyway, if your insurance company (for which you are their customer, paying them) are taking side with the repairer, I would consider getting hardline with them.

You need to document everything. Prepare to get formal with them. Advise them to get the car back to you ASAP. You have the data from your car, it doesn’t matter they can’t grasp the facts at this stage. You have the facts, that’s what’s going to matter. Complain to the ombudsman with these facts.

I looks to me like your insurance company and their repairer are aligning to get out of any additional repair costs relating to the battery by blaming you. It’s all about the £.

What a miserable situation.

 

[NorfolkMustard]

How do you access the data whilst the car is in service mode?

also interested in this

 

[s88ats]

Wow, I'm speechless.

I can't believe you're having to go through this palaver and have been mistreated by both the insurance company and the cowboy repairers.
They firstly shouldn't have requested you to log out of the app and switched the car into service mode - that would have been a red flag in itself.

Secondly, joy riding the car? Thank god for Teslamate otherwise, you'd have been none the wiser (which some would argue ignorance is bliss) however I assume the repairers thought they could have some fun and get away with it at your expense. Completely out of order!

Thirdly, their lack of knowledge on the "app" you keep logging into draining the car's battery is again absurd. This is not the purpose of Teslamate (which I'm sure you're already aware of, but they clearly do not).

I have no knowledge of a wiring loom being removed affected the HV battery, perhaps getting something in writing from Tesla would help your case.

Completely agree with the others, keep as much evidence as possible and log a formal complaint. God knows what else these guys would f**k up out of not knowing much about the car/ out of spite. Sounds to me with their attitude unfortunately might be the latter. Either way, I wouldn't want to continue getting my car repaired by them and in this situation personally would demand my car back! I do want to know which insurance company your with so I too can avoid them, as others have said it's very dubious why your car got transported halfway around the country!

Lastly, I didn't know there was a way of accessing the car whilst in service mode?

 

[davidmc]

looking at the cameras

I think all Tesla drivers would love to know how to do this!

Sorry to hear your pain.

 

[UrbanSplash]

Perhaps you can also ask Tesla how this repairer is ‘approved’. They don’t seem to know much about Tesla.

 

[davidmc]

Lastly, I didn't know there was a way of accessing the car whilst in service mode?

The car still sends data in Service mode, so Teslafi/Teslamate etc can still receive the information about the car. Which is handy

 

[NigelT]

Perhaps you can also ask Tesla how this repairer is ‘approved’. They don’t seem to know much about Tesla.

Great shout

 

[Ben177]

Thirdly, their lack of knowledge on the "app" you keep logging into draining the car's battery is again absurd. This is not the purpose of Teslamate (which I'm sure you're already aware of, but they clearly do not).

In fairness, I wouldn't expect a car repairer to have any understanding of how car to manufacturer communication works, nor how APIs are used to access that information. They will be under the impression that car sends data directly to the app and vice-versa, and have no idea that the car is always sending data direct to Tesla, where it sits until retrieved by an application via an API.

They'll ask people to log out of apps, because they've probably had incidents in the past with people remotely locking cars they're working on and the like. Rightly or wrongly. Repairers need to come up with new ways of working with modern cars that are permanently connected.

None of this excuses their treatment of the car, but other than flooring it, I'd put most of it into ignorance rather than malice.

 

[UrbanSplash]

If they have no knowledge then they shouldn’t be commenting and communicating back to the insurer on matters they don’t understand, specifically to potentially blame the claimant for any future battery issues.