-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Recell: certified replacement battery packs for low-range/bricked Model S
- Thread starter El Lopo
- Start date
EstebanP212
Member
They gave me a good quote which I was definitely going to go with once my battery went out
But recently they sent me this
So now I’m wondering what’s going on they have no parts or really busy
But recently they sent me this
So now I’m wondering what’s going on they have no parts or really busy
zoomer0056
Active Member
They said "no longer practical for us to offer certified upgrades" and "encourage" you to dive until you can't. Maybe there are problems with upgrades performing as expected with their current process. What is done for an upgrade vs a full replacement?
Can't speak for @Recell (aren't we competitors or something? 
) but, my guess is that they're finding, as we have, that the older S packs just aren't very refurbishable in many cases. That makes pricing any upgrades/replacements around a core pack that has decent value vs one that isn't suitable for resale, pretty difficult since the value of the core pack can vary wildly. This is mainly why I generally don't allow our crew to give any customers 100% final quotes/pricing on battery related tasks (pricing/upgrades) until we've physically inspected the original battery pack, except in some edge case circumstances. This pushes away a lot of customers who prefer Tesla and @Recell's style of quoting upfront, but I'd rather not have to price in the deficiencies of other customer's really bad packs into the cost of everyone's service, if at all avoidable.
We've got a bunch of processes we've developed over the past 6+ years to try and keep overall costs down, and while a lot of this is proprietary, a lot is a matter of general process. That said, there might be some room for some kind of collab with @Recell at some point in the future in some cases.
Suffice it to say, the core value of the older packs is quickly plummeting. And even on ones that can be refurbished, the labor required to do so properly is quite high and getting more and more involved as they age. So if you're planning on doing an upgrade or replacement, I'd suggest doing it sooner rather than later, regardless of which company you plan to use for that service.
) but, my guess is that they're finding, as we have, that the older S packs just aren't very refurbishable in many cases. That makes pricing any upgrades/replacements around a core pack that has decent value vs one that isn't suitable for resale, pretty difficult since the value of the core pack can vary wildly. This is mainly why I generally don't allow our crew to give any customers 100% final quotes/pricing on battery related tasks (pricing/upgrades) until we've physically inspected the original battery pack, except in some edge case circumstances. This pushes away a lot of customers who prefer Tesla and @Recell's style of quoting upfront, but I'd rather not have to price in the deficiencies of other customer's really bad packs into the cost of everyone's service, if at all avoidable.We've got a bunch of processes we've developed over the past 6+ years to try and keep overall costs down, and while a lot of this is proprietary, a lot is a matter of general process. That said, there might be some room for some kind of collab with @Recell at some point in the future in some cases.
Suffice it to say, the core value of the older packs is quickly plummeting. And even on ones that can be refurbished, the labor required to do so properly is quite high and getting more and more involved as they age. So if you're planning on doing an upgrade or replacement, I'd suggest doing it sooner rather than later, regardless of which company you plan to use for that service.
EstebanP212
Member
I kinda got clarification niw it’s because I have 60kw pack which is the least desirable pack as the core isn’t very valuable
EstebanP212
Member
Yes isee and that makes sense just kinda unfortunateCan't speak for @Recell (aren't we competitors or something?
We've got a bunch of processes we've developed over the past 6+ years to try and keep overall costs down, and while a lot of this is proprietary, a lot is a matter of general process. That said, there might be some room for some kind of collab with @Recell at some point in the future in some cases.
Suffice it to say, the core value of the older packs is quickly plummeting. And even on ones that can be refurbished, the labor required to do so properly is quite high and getting more and more involved as they age. So if you're planning on doing an upgrade or replacement, I'd suggest doing it sooner rather than later, regardless of which company you plan to use for that service.
I really do want to use you guys just recell was going to be cheaper overall for shipping from California
And I’ve been just prepping for the day battery goes as I drive a lot and do good amount for supercharging
I think a collab between you guys would be awesome as being in Texas is just a good location I think it’s definitely much more business friendly then California
Hey, it's a free market. You go where you want to go and there's no hard feelings on our end at all.
But yeah, the 60s are pretty much done. We can give some minimal core value for them, but they're basically worthless compared to anything else, unfortunately.
But yeah, the 60s are pretty much done. We can give some minimal core value for them, but they're basically worthless compared to anything else, unfortunately.
EstebanP212
Member
Yeah no worries
Although I really wanna do the autopilot retrofit you guys offer but I feel I need to be ready for battery replacement first.
Either way much respect to what you guys are doing just glad there are 3rd party options.
It’s just kinda annoying when I ask tesla what they offer for pack replacement they only tell me about the new 90kw for 22k
Or that they have refurbished but only say that price ranges at 10-15k and Dnt say what battery it will be or even let me upgrade since my battery is still working they tell me “no retrofit is available” lol
As @wk057 has noted, the economics on the 60 kWh upgrades can be difficult (though not to be confused with replacements - we have two 60s in this week as a matter of fact) and handing customers a quote north of $13k or more for a 60-kWh upgrade just doesn't sit right.
However, setting aside any of the economics, the larger factor in our decision was just looking at the calendar and doing the math - many of these 60 kWh packs are soon approaching 10 years and in increasingly limited supply. At some point you have to make the call.
That said, we are looking at offering a limited 'buy-back' program for 60 kWh packs in the months ahead, and if we can provide folks like @EstebanP212 and others with a more cost-effective battery pack option, we absolutely will. its always about offering value.
However, setting aside any of the economics, the larger factor in our decision was just looking at the calendar and doing the math - many of these 60 kWh packs are soon approaching 10 years and in increasingly limited supply. At some point you have to make the call.
That said, we are looking at offering a limited 'buy-back' program for 60 kWh packs in the months ahead, and if we can provide folks like @EstebanP212 and others with a more cost-effective battery pack option, we absolutely will. its always about offering value.
Last edited:
EstebanP212
Member
Isee yeah I do understand it makes sense
Thanks for the reply
For now I guess it makes sense to wait and see what options tesla will have for refurbished packs once mine goes out
Cheburashka
Active Member
Great that we are getting more options like this. I'd rather drive my car (with sunroof, fsd, FUSC) beyond the warranty period than buy a new one.
This is a really important point. Folks should never stand for binary/one-size-fits-all pricing such as Tesla's - when it comes to diagnosing your battery pack, hammer meets nail, and conveniently everything looks like a nail...
Being able to diagnose most issues remotely, we're able to provide our customers with a clear estimated cost up front, with a line item breakout for the work involved, as well as a max out-of-pocket guarantee, so there are no surprises once the car gets to our service center - that means a lot for folks.
to be clear: this is not a callout on @wk057 - they do great work and are data driven, it's the only way to be successful in this space.
Just like many of you we got so tired of service reps telling us one price and once the car is up on the lift, the number magically becomes bigger. that's an even larger concern when your car is sitting in a shop many hundred or even thousands of miles away... these packs are not cheap, we know the concern. so, we use the data to enable our team to get you the right price up front. what's more, we stand behind it. no surprises.
Oh, and did we mention we love data?
This is the way.
Last edited:
Definite kudos on the pricing setup you've got going on. Doesn't seem unreasonable from what I've heard, and there's definite value to people in having a set cost for things for sure. Free market competition and options don't hurt things either!This is a really important point. Folks should never stand for binary/one-size-fits-all pricing such as Tesla's - when it comes to diagnosing your battery pack, hammer meets nail, and everything looks like a nail...
Being able to diagnose most issues remotely, we're able to provide our customers with a clear estimated cost up front, as well as a max out-of-pocket guarantee, so there are no surprises once the car gets to our service center - that means a lot for folks.
to be clear: this is not a callout on @wk057 - they do great work and are data driven, it's the only way to be successful in this space.
Just like many of you we got so tired of service reps telling us one price and once the car is up on the lift, the number magically becomes bigger. that's an even larger concern when your car is sitting in a shop many hundred or even thousands of miles away... these packs are not cheap, we know the concern. so, we use the data to enable our team to get you the right price up front. what's more, we stand behind it. no surprises.
Oh, and did we mention we love data?
This is the way.
My worry is that you'll run into the people we've run into pretty regularly who are just out to scam someone else into fixing their problems for pennies on the dollar... and I'm too blunt to try and deal with such people very tactfully. My front end staff is a little more graceful, thankfully, but if something like the stories below end up with me on the horn with the customer, I'm going to tell them how it is. I've fired quite a few customers over the years over such nonsense. lol
And yeah, with the amount of data available we can certainly diagnose most issues remotely with some accuracy with a phone call (and we have some upcoming products that will help with this even further), but there's always the chance that any estimate like that is going to be wildly incorrect and effectively not possible to proceed at the quoted price. We usually quote a range, but the maximum potential price of any pack replacement is in the case of a zero value core... in which case the overall price is significantly higher. We always note this could be the case in a worst case scenario. As much as I wish it were possible to do, we're not able to and aren't going to eat thousands of dollars in costs to complete a battery replacement for someone who has an exceptionally problematic core pack. I don't think any reasonable person would expect a company to do this, either, but...
Sadly, in the time I've been doing business in this space, I've found that there are a ton of people who have no problem with trying to outright scam companies like 057 and Recell. There are a lot of good people out there for sure, and I'm certain the vast majority of folks are reasonable and honest... but I'd be lying if running this company hasn't made me lose significant faith in humanity in general.
Story time: A case we came across earlier this year was a customer needing a replacement, describing their issue/errors/etc, us quoting a range with our general disclaimer, etc. We got the car only to find that the battery pack had been previously serviced by an initially unknown third party (won't say names, but, they don't appear to be active on this forum or this thread, so...). While that in itself wouldn't be a huge problem, the "fixes" implemented effectively damaged several modules beyond usability, and to top it off the pack was very VERY poorly resealed (literally hardware store $5 silicone caulk) leading to water ingress that damaged additional modules beyond usability or repair. In this case there really was no way to derive any value at all from the core pack to pass along to the customer and stay anywhere near our originally estimated range. Customer was, of course, unhappy about this, but they were pretty shady about the whole deal all around. They clearly knew about the previous third party service prior to shipping us the car (and admitted to this later), clearly knew this was likely the cause of the issue (it'd been less than 2 months since that service), and had originally maintained that the car was working fine "for years" up until XYZ errors popped up. After insisting we "promised" to replace the pack for $X (always stating the low end of our estimate range, ignoring the upper end and the fact that it was pointed out that other issues could cause this to be exceeded, of course), they finally gave up. They weren't entirely surprised, though, it seems. At the end of the day they didn't want to pay the cost for a replacement pack, and we just put the car back to how we found it. They sent someone to pick it up. Didn't hear anything since, no clue where it was headed.
There are people so shady that we've almost been sued by a customer who bought a single Tesla battery module from us, heard nothing from them for months, then get a chargeback claiming we didn't ship their product, leading to an eventual back and forth with an attorney on their end that claimed the customer was supposed to get a full battery pack and not just one module and that 057's staff assured him this was the case in emails and phone calls prior to ordering. This of course was complete nonsense, and the attorney convinced the person to drop the issue once I sent them our complete record of emails, the invoice which clearly states what's being purchased, and phone call recordings of our staff's interactions with the customer.
There's other people who must think we're exceptionally gullible or something also. I have a car sitting here right now, shipped here from a customer of our battery warranty program with zero coordination or warning prior to its arrival. Customer is demanding a replacement battery pack for their car. Ok, that I could deal with in itself. If the pack had failed under our program, and the customer decided to just get the car to us... alright fine, we can deal with the botched logistics. But um... this customer removed the battery pack completely prior to shipping us the vehicle. That's not how any warranty I'm aware of works. The guy claims he wasn't aware that we needed the bad battery pack back (despite this being both logical and clearly stated in many places) as part of the program and he wanted to use the old pack "for a project" since it was "being replaced anyway."
We're still fighting with this guy, going on about a week now. He's insisting we install a replacement battery pack for him. Nope, not happening, dude! Not unless he buys one, that is. "This Service Plan shall be voided [... if] The High Voltage Battery Pack is removed, replaced, altered [...]" It's pretty black and white all around, and his actions are far outside the scope of our service plan terms. To top it off, logs indicate no failure of the original battery pack anyway... so, yeah.Anyway, will conclude my thread hijack, despite having plenty more crazy customer stories from the hall of shame to share.
Bottom line is, I'm not comfortable committing to a firm cost on battery repairs/replacements until we physically inspect the car/battery, and that process definitely doesn't work for everyone. We generally offer to get their car back over to Tesla (local to us) if they decide not to move forward. So far, the only case we've had where the customer hasn't gone forward is the oddball story above.
EstebanP212
Member
Geezus yes sadly this is the con of doing business you always have these kind of people.Definite kudos on the pricing setup you've got going on. Doesn't seem unreasonable from what I've heard, and there's definite value to people in having a set cost for things for sure. Free market competition and options don't hurt things either!
My worry is that you'll run into the people we've run into pretty regularly who are just out to scam someone else into fixing their problems for pennies on the dollar... and I'm too blunt to try and deal with such people very tactfully. My front end staff is a little more graceful, thankfully, but if something like the stories below end up with me on the horn with the customer, I'm going to tell them how it is. I've fired quite a few customers over the years over such nonsense. lol
And yeah, with the amount of data available we can certainly diagnose most issues remotely with some accuracy with a phone call (and we have some upcoming products that will help with this even further), but there's always the chance that any estimate like that is going to be wildly incorrect and effectively not possible to proceed at the quoted price. We usually quote a range, but the maximum potential price of any pack replacement is in the case of a zero value core... in which case the overall price is significantly higher. We always note this could be the case in a worst case scenario. As much as I wish it were possible to do, we're not able to and aren't going to eat thousands of dollars in costs to complete a battery replacement for someone who has an exceptionally problematic core pack. I don't think any reasonable person would expect a company to do this, either, but...
Sadly, in the time I've been doing business in this space, I've found that there are a ton of people who have no problem with trying to outright scam companies like 057 and Recell. There are a lot of good people out there for sure, and I'm certain the vast majority of folks are reasonable and honest... but I'd be lying if running this company hasn't made me lose significant faith in humanity in general.
Story time: A case we came across earlier this year was a customer needing a replacement, describing their issue/errors/etc, us quoting a range with our general disclaimer, etc. We got the car only to find that the battery pack had been previously serviced by an initially unknown third party (won't say names, but, they don't appear to be active on this forum or this thread, so...). While that in itself wouldn't be a huge problem, the "fixes" implemented effectively damaged several modules beyond usability, and to top it off the pack was very VERY poorly resealed (literally hardware store $5 silicone caulk) leading to water ingress that damaged additional modules beyond usability or repair. In this case there really was no way to derive any value at all from the core pack to pass along to the customer and stay anywhere near our originally estimated range. Customer was, of course, unhappy about this, but they were pretty shady about the whole deal all around. They clearly knew about the previous third party service prior to shipping us the car (and admitted to this later), clearly knew this was likely the cause of the issue (it'd been less than 2 months since that service), and had originally maintained that the car was working fine "for years" up until XYZ errors popped up. After insisting we "promised" to replace the pack for $X (always stating the low end of our estimate range, ignoring the upper end and the fact that it was pointed out that other issues could cause this to be exceeded, of course), they finally gave up. They weren't entirely surprised, though, it seems. At the end of the day they didn't want to pay the cost for a replacement pack, and we just put the car back to how we found it. They sent someone to pick it up. Didn't hear anything since, no clue where it was headed.
There are people so shady that we've almost been sued by a customer who bought a single Tesla battery module from us, heard nothing from them for months, then get a chargeback claiming we didn't ship their product, leading to an eventual back and forth with an attorney on their end that claimed the customer was supposed to get a full battery pack and not just one module and that 057's staff assured him this was the case in emails and phone calls prior to ordering. This of course was complete nonsense, and the attorney convinced the person to drop the issue once I sent them our complete record of emails, the invoice which clearly states what's being purchased, and phone call recordings of our staff's interactions with the customer.
There's other people who must think we're exceptionally gullible or something also. I have a car sitting here right now, shipped here from a customer of our battery warranty program with zero coordination or warning prior to its arrival. Customer is demanding a replacement battery pack for their car. Ok, that I could deal with in itself. If the pack had failed under our program, and the customer decided to just get the car to us... alright fine, we can deal with the botched logistics. But um... this customer removed the battery pack completely prior to shipping us the vehicle. That's not how any warranty I'm aware of works. The guy claims he wasn't aware that we needed the bad battery pack back (despite this being both logical and clearly stated in many places) as part of the program and he wanted to use the old pack "for a project" since it was "being replaced anyway."
Anyway, will conclude my thread hijack, despite having plenty more crazy customer stories from the hall of shame to share.
Bottom line is, I'm not comfortable committing to a firm cost on battery repairs/replacements until we physically inspect the car/battery, and that process definitely doesn't work for everyone. We generally offer to get their car back over to Tesla (local to us) if they decide not to move forward. So far, the only case we've had where the customer hasn't gone forward is the oddball story above.
look at this>
www.thedrive.com
Dealership Quotes $30,000 to Replace Battery in a $10,000 Chevrolet Volt
It's a huge sum to pay for a new battery in an old hybrid, but cheaper alternatives may exist.
www.thedrive.com
EstebanP212
Member
Just heard about that yesterday crazy lol I really like the volt to but dang that makes repairability a. Concernlook at this>
Dealership Quotes $30,000 to Replace Battery in a $10,000 Chevrolet Volt
It's a huge sum to pay for a new battery in an old hybrid, but cheaper alternatives may exist.
we totally respect that.
the dude removing the battery is almost comical - were it not so painful to deal with. oof, been there.
we've had the odd occasion where folks 'forgot to mention' that the car had been flooded (not uncommon along the Gulf coast...) and Tesla told them that the reason things were acting up was that 'the brakes got a little wet...'
sometimes it's innocent enough - not everyone is one with their car, and in those cases we'll do whatever we can to work with them to get their car back on the road. in fact, we had a car in from Houston last week in this exact situation. in the case of outright malfeasance however, yes, it becomes a different conversation...
Last edited:
Hey Chris, where are you at in Germany? My Model S is being shipped from the States and I'll probably require your services at some point.
Similar threads
