Repair Woes - 3 months and counting

[JimmyHendricks]

Good evening Tesla folk,

I'm a Model S 85D owner who was struck head on leaving a baseball game back in mid-August. My car has been sitting at the repair shop untouched since then. My insurance has completed their inspection, conferred with the shop, and payment was issued in early September to begin repairs. It is now November 7th and nothing has been done.

The shop (a Tesla vetted and approved repair facility) says they haven't gotten all of the parts from Tesla yet. The manager said he has been waiting months for parts for other repairs. Tesla's local parts person at the service center referred me back to the shop when I asked what was taking so long.

With all this going on for nearly three months now, questions for all of you who may have gone through a similar situation:

1: Is this typical? A substantial portion of the front end needs to be repaired, along with the windshield, and ALL of the interior airbags went off in the accident. Does it truly take this long for Tesla to send parts?

2: Is there someone in Tesla other than the parts manager at the local service center that I can reach out to in order to expedite the conclusion to all of this?

3: Is the shop dragging their feet here? I know I have a unique automobile, but three months without any work being done seems a little ludicrous. Is there anything I can do to speed this up?

Before I get angry, I wanted to see if anyone has feedback on this. I just want my car back at this point, and I've gone beyond being patient.

Thanks for reading!

 

[MP3Mike]

From how you describe the damage I find it hard to believe that the insurance company wouldn't have totaled it. (Especially given the diminished value payout on top of the repairs as well as the cost of a rental.)

Have you seen what the repair estimate is at this point?

 

[MP3Mike]

You can also try reaching out to Jon McNeill, @JonMc, from Tesla as I think he has helped other people in similar situations.

 

[DOCAL]

I've seen similar complaints in other threads, so it doesn't seem to be that unusual.

Mine has been in the shop for a month so far, with no activity other than the inspections. They've told me to expect another month at least, with the hold up being getting parts from Tesla. My collision was far less severe than yours - low speed, no airbag deployment, only minor damage. So your shop probably aren't dragging their feet.

 

[JimmyHendricks]

From how you describe the damage I find it hard to believe that the insurance company wouldn't have totaled it. (Especially given the diminished value payout on top of the repairs as well as the cost of a rental.)

Have you seen what the repair estimate is at this point?

The repair estimate was a little over $39,000. That was the insurance company's inspection along with a supplemental inspection from the shop. My insurance issued a payment in each situation - two in total.

I was surprised it wasn't totaled. But payment has been issued for repairs - the car is simply sitting there waiting.

 

[NewCow]

I'm in a similar, slightly-worse boat. My wife got rear ended in our S in mid-July, ironically while I was in CA at the Tesla factory (I worked for Tesla at the time). My local Tesla-certified body shop has also been unable to begin work on the repairs (damage was actually less than yours, it was a low-speed collision), specifically because Tesla has been unable to deliver all the required parts. Since I was working for Tesla at the time, I even asked Jon McNeill to help me as a personal favor, since I knew him through work interactions. He asked someone on his team to help, and I left Tesla shortly thereafter.

I just got an update today from the body shop. They found more damage inside, need more parts, and Tesla says those parts are backordered. They had previously told me that even after they get all the parts, the repairs would take 6-8 weeks to complete, so I'm probably looking at 6-7 months total without my car after everything is said and done, and the vast majority of that time is due to Tesla's inability to fulfill parts orders at body shops, so I do blame Tesla directly for the situation. I had only bought the car in January, so had it for about 6 months before the accident, meaning by the time I get my car back it will likely have been in the shop for longer than I drove it.