Repair visit to Tesla, Birmingham

[Alwayshopeful]

I have a second owner model 3 registered September 19 which I have owned for 2 weeks.

On my journey home following its purchase, I noticed a gasket surrounding the sun roof above my head had unseated at the front near the windscreen and was flapping in the wind.

Unknown to me until today this was a 3rd party gasket fitted by the previous owner to fill the gap around the glass.

I naively booked the car into Tesla for repairs the following week. They rang me shortly after dropping off, it was an all-day job to replace the gasket by removing the glass sunroof. Not being an official Tesla part, they would not cover under warranty and wanted to charge me £3000 for the repair.

Following enquiries with the previous owner I discovered that he had fitted this gasket, as many do, I believe, and a repair was not required (cost approx. £10 for the 2.8m gasket). I instructed them having found it was an addon, not to carry out any work.

On collection they proceeded to charge me £87 for the technician having merely looked at the sunroof and clearly did nothing.

Anyone else had these ridiculous fees piled on them for repairs whether needed or not as in my case? Likely travel down to Milton Keynes for any future repairs as I’ve heard good things.

 

[mrkwats]

Wow, imagine if they'd gone ahead with the sunroof-off work! They should have instantly known it was a simple aftermarket mod however! It's Tesla standard policy to seek prior authorisation for 30 minutes diagnosis at £72.50 + VAT on all jobs (which gets waved if it ends up being warranty work). (Their hourly rate is £145 + VAT). I've just discovered this today, as scheduled a mobile service for what I think is a basic warranty job. I rang Tesla and they said it's to cover both parties in the event of an initial diagnosis uncovering any "outside influences" e.g. mods to the car such as wraps (interior and exterior) and I guess aftermarket gaskets like yours. But they should have cleared this with you in advance, so I think you have good grounds to argue that.

 

[Alwayshopeful]

The strange thing is even after I explained to them it was just a 3rd party gasket the service team still insisted that the work needed doing.
When I arrived home I removed the loose gasket and ordered a replacement off eBay for £8. Lesson learned I think

 

[Jason71]

The strange thing is even after I explained to them it was just a 3rd party gasket the service team still insisted that the work needed doing.
When I arrived home I removed the loose gasket and ordered a replacement off eBay for £8. Lesson learned I think

Most people seem to think those are a bit of a waste of time anyway from what I have read.
You have used up a service slot that could have gone to someone else so I am not surprised they charged you. In an ideal world t you would all have had a bit of a laugh about it and called it a day. But that is not the Tesla way.
At any other garage you would have showed someone the problem. They would have explained and you would have been on your way in 5 minutes minus no cash.
Tesla's approach to many things is revolutionary. Right now most aspects of service are not one of them. The rangers are a great idea. apart from that the rest of it sucks right now.
In future I would highly recommend you come here first before talking to Tesla about anything. There are some very knowledgeable people here who are always willing to help and will be able to save you a lot of time and maybe money

 

[Alwayshopeful]

Cheers, will do!

 

[Durzel]

Devils Advocate somewhat...

Let's assume that if someone books a car in for work that the minimum block of time it can realistically be worked on is 1 hour, maybe 30 minutes, as in Tesla (and co) aren't going to allow another customer to book their car in until 30-60 minutes later even if your job takes then a minute to fix.

In that context, £87 isn't terrible. It's not great, for sure, but for something that was ultimately "your fault" I don't think it's the end of the world. As has been said above if you had been local to a SC you could perhaps have been able to drive over and ask for someone to have a quick look, which would've saved the money, but they equally might not have been willing to do that, especially with the COVID situation.

If it's any consolation I have one of those gaskets that I bought prior to getting my car. I tested fitted it and it came off the glass at one corner and started digging in to the seal underneath the glass. I took it off straight away and that was that. From what I've been led to believe they are of negligible benefit anyway, and there's probably an element of confirmation bias around the benefits of fitting them.