I'm sad to be posting again to this thread, which I started in May 2018 with a description of a problem with my Model S rear hatch not latching properly, leaving the car unlockable, and thus unusable if you think it important to lock your vehicle when it is unattended, which is a must in my urban area. The problem turned out to be due to a failed cinching motor.
Well, it happened again Sun 1 Aug, just over 3 years since last replacing the cinching motor, and 4 months out of warranty. I am scheduled for a Tesla Mobile Service visit 3 days from now, and am functionally left without a vehicle until then. The experience has left me concerned about a number of service-related issues:
1) This sort of failure in hatch closure seems a weak link in the design of the Model S. I cringe to think what the situation would have been like if I had been on a road trip when this happened. It's a pity there is no means of manually securing the hatch from the inside to allow the car to be locked.
2) Although I find the iPhone app quite helpful (and use it often), I despair every time I have to use it for service-related issues. In this instance, I called the phone hotline number, which directs you to use online services or the app, and then turned to the app to set up a service call to my local Service Center (a mile from my home); instead it set up a Mobile Service visit, but at the Service Center. When I tried to correct the address to my home address, the app got wedged (I was unable to change the address, and unable to step backwards through the GUI). I drove to the Service Center and explained the situation, and the patient and courteous check-in person took my home address (still incorrect in the Tesla database, despite multiple "corrections" over the past 4.5 years), implying that would fix the problem (my app started working again, but the address remains that of the SC rather than of my home). The app continued to ask me to accept a service estimate just shy of $560 with no explanation whatsoever of what work/parts were envisaged for the task (the SC contact had explained that they would replace the latch, hatch motor, and cinching motor -- even though it is likely that only the last of these has failed).
3) Although I am sympathetic with the problems of scaling up service support as Tesla makes the move from a niche market to a mass market, and acknowledge that earlier purchasers have been cosseted (something that clearly could not continue), it still seems that Tesla needs a triage system that places greater priority on relatively quick and straightforward repairs for situations such as this, in which a car becomes effectively unusable.
Please do not take these comments in the spirit of Tesla-bashing. I continue to feel grateful every time I get into my Model S, and wish the enterprise and its personnel the best -- but do hope consideration of the issues I raise here will contribute to improving both the vehicles, the firm, and its policies.