I'm getting pretty cheesed at the repair time on my Model Y, which has been sitting at Hendrick Luxury Collision Center for 40 days. Rather than call and scream at them (I've been polite so far) I'm going to document the saga here.
Back in mid-October my wife got rear-ended by a lady who had gone from a dead stop to dropping the hammer while looking at her phone. A double-whammy, actually, as she didn't let off the gas until she bounced off and hit a second time. Her Hyundai SUV was ruined and our poor baby had ~$11k in damage.
There are only two shops approved for this kinda work in the Charlotte area, and HLCC was closer and had an opening sooner. I'd called them on October 21st and got an appointment for December 15th. Until then we could drive the jacked up Y with a trunk I didn't dare open as long as it wasn't raining.
Drop it off on Dec 15th and give them my phone number as a contact. Early the week after they'd already torn it apart and, yup, they need more parts. The original estimate was about 5k but now it's closer to 11k. Insurance will take care of it*, NBD. But they (Bret A) called my wife, whose number I didn't give them. It must be on the insurance paperwork. I kindly ask Bret to call me as my wife doesn't like making people's life more difficult, deferring to me to handle that. It becomes a comms triangle... "Sure, I'll update you specifically with an ETA on parts"
I call again on the 27th for an update, knowing that parts can take a while. "I left you a message". Okay, well, like I said, don't call my wife. She never checks her messages, and doesn't know what we need to know (she's already ravenous to get the car back but bad at phoning). My update is "we never get tracking info". Which, for my part, I feel has to be complete BS, but I'm not in the industry and figure whatever.
A week later and no update. I call in and leave a message, please call me back at MY number, don't call my wife. No response. I call two days later, same message. Wife tells me "oh, yeah, he called to say that the parts should be there on Friday." I'm frustrated with Bret's inability to remember to call me but figure he's got a heavy workload. I call back again to ask if repairs can start.
It's about the 11th when the rental agency says we have to return the car on the 16th, so I call Bret to see if our parts are in. "No, because this one part still isn't here, I swear I'll call you back with an ETA later today." This happened three days in a row. Bret then calls my wife at the end of that week to let her know that they think it'll be there within three weeks.
1. What the heck is wrong with this industry IF they can't manage product flow?!
2. What the heck is wrong with HLCC if they can't get their crap together?
I get it. Logistics suck, but Bret could do better with managing expectations.
So it's last Monday (the 16th) and he calls my wife to tell her that the part is in and they should be done by Friday. Great.
Friday rolls around and the car is parked in the back lot. No call. I call a few times and he calls my wife back to let her know that their calibration guy wasn't there that day so the car won't be done until Monday or Tuesday (today). I'm a bit pissed here because the ball is now in their court. Perhaps calibration man was sick or on vacation, but they would know that one way or the other, and could have managed the expectation.
I call yesterday and Brett tells me that, yes, Calibration Man is there and he hopes it's done by Wednesday. "Hold on a minute. You said last week that Friday was a possible day and now you're sticking another few days in here. What's going on?". Brett says, "You're at the top of the list, but we have others in line first."... Well, IGNORING the definition of "top", do you really have other Tesla owners that have been going through the same *sugar*-storm I have? It's been 39 days. Brett says, "Yeah, we do".
I was too pissed to go on... I politely asked him to give me an update this morning, not my wife. Me. He promised. I very civilly reminded him that he has promised to call me, specifically, about a dozen times with updates and has never done so. My car went in at > 40% battery and it was sitting in the parking lot at 12% during that call. I asked him if they were planning to give it juice before the calibration guy got to it, and he said they would, but this morning we're at 8%.
Anyways, at noon today I'm probably going into Karen mode. I don't know how long it takes to certify a Tesla. (I've looked) But I want to know now.
Back in mid-October my wife got rear-ended by a lady who had gone from a dead stop to dropping the hammer while looking at her phone. A double-whammy, actually, as she didn't let off the gas until she bounced off and hit a second time. Her Hyundai SUV was ruined and our poor baby had ~$11k in damage.
There are only two shops approved for this kinda work in the Charlotte area, and HLCC was closer and had an opening sooner. I'd called them on October 21st and got an appointment for December 15th. Until then we could drive the jacked up Y with a trunk I didn't dare open as long as it wasn't raining.
Drop it off on Dec 15th and give them my phone number as a contact. Early the week after they'd already torn it apart and, yup, they need more parts. The original estimate was about 5k but now it's closer to 11k. Insurance will take care of it*, NBD. But they (Bret A) called my wife, whose number I didn't give them. It must be on the insurance paperwork. I kindly ask Bret to call me as my wife doesn't like making people's life more difficult, deferring to me to handle that. It becomes a comms triangle... "Sure, I'll update you specifically with an ETA on parts"
I call again on the 27th for an update, knowing that parts can take a while. "I left you a message". Okay, well, like I said, don't call my wife. She never checks her messages, and doesn't know what we need to know (she's already ravenous to get the car back but bad at phoning). My update is "we never get tracking info". Which, for my part, I feel has to be complete BS, but I'm not in the industry and figure whatever.
A week later and no update. I call in and leave a message, please call me back at MY number, don't call my wife. No response. I call two days later, same message. Wife tells me "oh, yeah, he called to say that the parts should be there on Friday." I'm frustrated with Bret's inability to remember to call me but figure he's got a heavy workload. I call back again to ask if repairs can start.
It's about the 11th when the rental agency says we have to return the car on the 16th, so I call Bret to see if our parts are in. "No, because this one part still isn't here, I swear I'll call you back with an ETA later today." This happened three days in a row. Bret then calls my wife at the end of that week to let her know that they think it'll be there within three weeks.
1. What the heck is wrong with this industry IF they can't manage product flow?!
2. What the heck is wrong with HLCC if they can't get their crap together?
I get it. Logistics suck, but Bret could do better with managing expectations.
So it's last Monday (the 16th) and he calls my wife to tell her that the part is in and they should be done by Friday. Great.
Friday rolls around and the car is parked in the back lot. No call. I call a few times and he calls my wife back to let her know that their calibration guy wasn't there that day so the car won't be done until Monday or Tuesday (today). I'm a bit pissed here because the ball is now in their court. Perhaps calibration man was sick or on vacation, but they would know that one way or the other, and could have managed the expectation.
I call yesterday and Brett tells me that, yes, Calibration Man is there and he hopes it's done by Wednesday. "Hold on a minute. You said last week that Friday was a possible day and now you're sticking another few days in here. What's going on?". Brett says, "You're at the top of the list, but we have others in line first."... Well, IGNORING the definition of "top", do you really have other Tesla owners that have been going through the same *sugar*-storm I have? It's been 39 days. Brett says, "Yeah, we do".
I was too pissed to go on... I politely asked him to give me an update this morning, not my wife. Me. He promised. I very civilly reminded him that he has promised to call me, specifically, about a dozen times with updates and has never done so. My car went in at > 40% battery and it was sitting in the parking lot at 12% during that call. I asked him if they were planning to give it juice before the calibration guy got to it, and he said they would, but this morning we're at 8%.
Anyways, at noon today I'm probably going into Karen mode. I don't know how long it takes to certify a Tesla. (I've looked) But I want to know now.
