Back in January my Roadster's PEM failed: suddenly, completely, and without warning. I had to get it hauled on a flatbed to the service center, and then came the bad news. It needed to be replaced. It took a while for Tesla to come up with a replacement PEM (though not as long as I had feared, based on some stories I'd heard), and it was a pretty expensive repair.
A few weeks ago the rear cooling fan, which serves the PEM, failed. Once again I had the car hauled to the service center. It took a couple of weeks for them to get the required parts together. I just went to pick it up yesterday, but when I got there I had a surprise. They had an invoice for me with two pages of things done to my car and replacement parts they put on it, and each item was marked zero dollars.
The lady at the front desk said they wrote it off as "good will". Here's your car, enjoy!
I'm afraid I was too startled to properly express my appreciation. I hope I didn't come across as an ungrateful jerk.
Now, I can think of a number of reasons why someone at Tesla may have wanted to give me a break. The cooling fan had been going bad for a while (more on that later), so it may have contributed to the earlier PEM failure. Plus, I'd just paid one large bill to them not long ago, and maybe they just didn't want to stick me up again so soon after.
Even so, I can't help think that most dealerships (including the nearby Lotus dealership that I'd dealt with before) would have been tickled pink by an opportunity to stick me with yet another repair bill on an out-of-warranty car.
Maybe someone at Tesla thought, this guy has a Roadster, and he just might be contemplating one of the new Roadsters that we have coming out in the near future. Maybe we should stay on his good side.
Whatever the reason, if they wanted to buy my good will... It worked. Well played, Tesla. It really makes me feel confident that this is a company that won't leave me hanging, and that aren't out to rip me off any way they can.
On the subject of the fan, it's been pretty noisy during the summer months. At times it sounded like I was hauling a lawnmower in the back of my car. I had asked about it here, and some people told me, "Well, the fan does sometimes get pretty loud." So I thought, maybe it's normal for my car to sound like a Cessna during Texas summers! Just another of those Roadster quirks, eh? Since the repair, it most definitely doesn't sound like that anymore. If I'd realized how unnatural that sound was, I'd have had it in the shop two years ago.
A few weeks ago the rear cooling fan, which serves the PEM, failed. Once again I had the car hauled to the service center. It took a couple of weeks for them to get the required parts together. I just went to pick it up yesterday, but when I got there I had a surprise. They had an invoice for me with two pages of things done to my car and replacement parts they put on it, and each item was marked zero dollars.
The lady at the front desk said they wrote it off as "good will". Here's your car, enjoy!
I'm afraid I was too startled to properly express my appreciation. I hope I didn't come across as an ungrateful jerk.
Now, I can think of a number of reasons why someone at Tesla may have wanted to give me a break. The cooling fan had been going bad for a while (more on that later), so it may have contributed to the earlier PEM failure. Plus, I'd just paid one large bill to them not long ago, and maybe they just didn't want to stick me up again so soon after.
Even so, I can't help think that most dealerships (including the nearby Lotus dealership that I'd dealt with before) would have been tickled pink by an opportunity to stick me with yet another repair bill on an out-of-warranty car.
Maybe someone at Tesla thought, this guy has a Roadster, and he just might be contemplating one of the new Roadsters that we have coming out in the near future. Maybe we should stay on his good side.
Whatever the reason, if they wanted to buy my good will... It worked. Well played, Tesla. It really makes me feel confident that this is a company that won't leave me hanging, and that aren't out to rip me off any way they can.
On the subject of the fan, it's been pretty noisy during the summer months. At times it sounded like I was hauling a lawnmower in the back of my car. I had asked about it here, and some people told me, "Well, the fan does sometimes get pretty loud." So I thought, maybe it's normal for my car to sound like a Cessna during Texas summers! Just another of those Roadster quirks, eh? Since the repair, it most definitely doesn't sound like that anymore. If I'd realized how unnatural that sound was, I'd have had it in the shop two years ago.
