Bummed to report that I ended up refusing delivery of our white M3 at the Fremont delivery center on Friday because of a deep scratch on the front quarter panel just ahead of the passenger side door, behind the passenger front wheel well, about 12-18 inches from the ground. The scratch was very significant, about 6 inches long, down to the aluminum body of the car--not as if someone might have just brushed against it and didn’t notice. More like a piece of equipment hit and dragged along the car. It’s hard to imagine not being aware of it at the time that it occurred.
I was not going over the car with a fine-tooth comb—spotted the scratch on a casual walkaround, like you’d do when looking for pre-existing damage on a rental car. So we're disappointed and concerned for several reasons:
-The scratch was not subtle at all, and should have easily been picked up during a walkaround of the car as part of quality control prior to delivery.
-If it was missed by Tesla quality control but picked up by me, I'm concerned about the QC on components of the car we can't see.
-If it was seen but not pointed out to me, I'm disappointed that Tesla would consider delivering it to us as a new car without at least acknowledging it. I understand that things happen, but I would have much preferred to have been called and notified of the problem and the steps needed to fix it prior to driving over to Fremont on Friday afternoon.
-When the person helping with my paperwork suggested that it was good news that I could take delivery and arrange for a service center to fix the car, I decided to refuse delivery because having to immediately bring in a new car for service made no sense to me. Again, seems like I could have been given some options over the phone prior to the delivery appointment.
Just filled our DS in this morning, so waiting to hear back about what needs to be done to fix the scratch (e.g. repaint vs replace the panel) and how long I should expect to be waiting. Honestly, this has me wondering whether 1) I should request a different VIN (e.g. one later in production, presumably as the production process gets more reliable), and 2) whether I want to proceed with the purchase at all. Figure I’ll give Tesla the chance to make it right, but given our experience so far, I’ll be reviewing things much more closely when the car is ready to be delivered.
I was not going over the car with a fine-tooth comb—spotted the scratch on a casual walkaround, like you’d do when looking for pre-existing damage on a rental car. So we're disappointed and concerned for several reasons:
-The scratch was not subtle at all, and should have easily been picked up during a walkaround of the car as part of quality control prior to delivery.
-If it was missed by Tesla quality control but picked up by me, I'm concerned about the QC on components of the car we can't see.
-If it was seen but not pointed out to me, I'm disappointed that Tesla would consider delivering it to us as a new car without at least acknowledging it. I understand that things happen, but I would have much preferred to have been called and notified of the problem and the steps needed to fix it prior to driving over to Fremont on Friday afternoon.
-When the person helping with my paperwork suggested that it was good news that I could take delivery and arrange for a service center to fix the car, I decided to refuse delivery because having to immediately bring in a new car for service made no sense to me. Again, seems like I could have been given some options over the phone prior to the delivery appointment.
Just filled our DS in this morning, so waiting to hear back about what needs to be done to fix the scratch (e.g. repaint vs replace the panel) and how long I should expect to be waiting. Honestly, this has me wondering whether 1) I should request a different VIN (e.g. one later in production, presumably as the production process gets more reliable), and 2) whether I want to proceed with the purchase at all. Figure I’ll give Tesla the chance to make it right, but given our experience so far, I’ll be reviewing things much more closely when the car is ready to be delivered.
