I'm sorry for the long read guys.
Last Wednesday I drove from my home in Tilburg (The Netherlands) to Nuremberg (Germany), together with a college to visit the Embedded World trade show for a day. Normally this is a 2x 593km (368 miles) trip, but for the Tesla I planned in 2 SuperCharger stops, making the trip 2x 715km (444 miles). A bit of a detour, but I figured it would be a nice experiment.
The route was planned and everything was prepared: I got myself a Dutch card to use public chargers and had German chargers enabled. The Hotel had kindly offered me a free VIP parking spot with an outlet to charge, and the exhibition center in Nuremberg had done the same and had arranged a temporary high power utility outlet to charge during my visit.
When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I did what I always do first thing in the morning and that is to reach for my phone to turn on interior heating. But while doing so, I noticed that my car was charged to only 80%. Weird, because I ordered a full range charge the night before. Trying to start charging was to no avail. The app told me to check the cable. So I went outside and noticed a red flashing LED on my UMC.
Now I had noticed a red flashing LED on my UMC before. But I didn't think much of it because so far it had always turned green when plugging in my car. I didn't think much of it: My TV shows a red LED too for the better part of the day and that means that it's turned off, nothing alarming.
This time however, I couldn't get it starting to charge anymore. Unplugging, replugging, resetting and power-cycling the 3-phase output, all more than once, but nothing helped. It just didn't want to charge. But I had to leave to pick up my colleague and leave to Germany within 45 minutes. So I called Tesla Service. They told me that nothing's wrong with my UMC and that this LED means there was something wrong with the grounding of my utility outlet. I told them this outlet was new and had worked fine for two months, but their reply was that this especially happened on new installations. Now 80% is a bit few for the first SuperCharger, 289km (185 miles) away. I was suggested to drive to the SC in Oosterhout first, but that's 25km (16 miles) into the wrong direction, so not really beneficial. I asked if I could used the Tesla distribution center SC in Tilburg, but that one was out of order. Instead Tesla Service arranged me to charge at the showroom in Dusseldorf. Again a small detour, and not an SC but it would help.
When I was close to Dusseldorf, power consumption and range looked really well. Well enough to drive to our original SC directly, without the detour to the Tesla showroom. So we decided to try that. But 100km (62 miles) before the SC the hills started and we wouldn't have much of a surplus. After missing a exit we got doubtful: The SC was still 25km away, and we had 15km of projected range left. We thought we could make it, but decided not to take any changes and drove to a public charger in Siegen, 10km before the SC. There we charged for 15 minutes using my until that time unproven charging card and continued our way to the first SC on a autohof in Wilnsdorf. We had lunch there and with full tummies a batteries we left.
We figured we could skip the second SC and drive to Nuremberg directly, but we were in no hurry and decided not to take any changes an continued our voyage to the SC in Bad Rappenau. There we had coffee and with a full battery we left for Nuremberg. Half way on our way, another colleague called me to invite us for dinner. To meet up with him in time, I decided to step on it and at 19:00 we checked in at our hotel. I parked my Tesla at our VIP spot and plugged in the charger and there it was again: The dreaded red LED was flashing. Again plugging, replugged and reveres plugged, but nothing helped. Wiggling the cable got the green LED on briefly, but only for a couple of seconds. This really annoyed me, especially because I reported the problem before I left, even told the guy I was leaving for Germany and was told that it was not the charger.
So I called service. The guy was friendly, but didn't really seem to know what he needed to do. I urged him to find a solution tonight, so that the logistics could that place that night. When I still had him on the phone when we arrived at the restaurant, I asked him to think of something and call me back when he had a solution. Nobody called back. When we left the restaurant at 23:00 I called back Tesla, to check on what they came up with. But the phone was answered by a local generic AAA service call center, both Dutch and German service. They tried to reach Tesla, but nobody at Tesla answered their phone. It was 1:30am now and it didn't look like any action would be taken before morning. As a last resort the call center gave me the phone number of Tesla Service USA. So I called them, from my Dutch contract cell phone in Germany, transatlantic. I haven't got a clue what that will cost me. The guy I talked to was the first one showing to be focused to get the problem solved. He even offered to get us a tow truck back to the nearest SC. But I figured that would be a waste of money, regardless of who pays the bill. So he escalated the case to make sure that Tesla Germany would take action the next morning, so I have a working UMC delivered at the exhibition center before noon next day, so I could still easily charge enough to get back to the SC in Bad Rappenau. It was now 2:30am, I was tired and wanted to go to bed.
4.5 Hours of restless sleep later I got up for a long day of tradeshow. Tesla Service Germany called me at 8:00am, but the first thing the guy said was that he didn't have any personnel to bring me a new UMC. Tossing one into a taxi and send it to the exhibition center wasn't something that occurred to him. Or to me, but I don't work for service. He offered me to send me one by mail tomorrow, but I replied that that's the reason I started to make calls yesterday, because and extra we cost us an extra €370 of hotel rooms and two billable days. The other two remaining 'solutions': I could either drive to a public charger on the other side of town and take a taxi to the tradeshow and back. Or I could drive to another Tesla owner to charge my car at his house. The first was logistically inconvenient and we wouldn't even know if my charging card would work there. The second wasn't something I would consider, but out of politeness I told the guy I would do that, thinking that I would just take my chances on driving back to the SC with the remaining charge. Half an hour later Tesla Service called back to tell me they had called their customer. I wasn't planning on going there, but because the customer was now expecting me, I called him to thank him for his kind offer, but that I would just take my chances. The customer asked me how much charge I had left and when I told him, he told me I would never make it to the SC. When I told him I had my public charging card as a backup, he told me that my card wouldn't work in Southern Germany. He had already left to his office, but at the end of the day we would be most welcome and I accepted his offer.
At the end of the day we left the tradeshow straight to his home. Completely embarrassed I asked for his help. Fortunately he was a very friendly guy. We had coffee and chatted for hours, until my car was charged. With a couple of hours of delay, we were on our way home, to the SC in Bad Rappenau.
I arrived home at 3:30am, way later than expected, and I slept until 9:30. My Tesla is on my drive way now, but two days later, my initial problem of the broken UMC still isn't solved, so it's completely useless with 10% of charge and no way of charging it. Fortunately I didn't sell my old car yet, and with that car I drove to my customer today. Not a single word from Tesla this morning, not a single word this afternoon after I've sent them my opinion on how they handled this case. Nothing. It's a bloody shame. It wouldn't be as bad if only they wouldn't have their mouth full of superior service...
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Update
At 16:30 this afternoon I received the following message from the Service Manager in Germany:
I replied the following:
I am mad as hell because I reported this problem two days ago, received no service in between, was on my own the whole time, and still didn't hear anything after reminding Service this afternoon that the problem still exists.
I arrived home at 3:30am last night, with 10% charge left, but still no means to charge my car. Fortunately I didn't sell my old car yet, otherwise I would not have been able to drive to my customer today, missing a full billable day.
I have sent Mr. Xxxxx an excellent bottle of vintage Port wine today for saving my day. I'd suggest Tesla does the same.
But I'm actually insulted by the message because I'm really wondering what they are thinking and what purpose it served. A real service manager would have tossed a working UMC in a taxi and sent it to the exhibition center. As a very least he would have informed the Service department in The Netherlands about this case still not being solved, requesting his colleagues to send a new UMC to my home address. But instead nobody does a thing, and I'm without my car for the weekend. This isn't just poor service, it's no service at all, in my hour of need.
Last Wednesday I drove from my home in Tilburg (The Netherlands) to Nuremberg (Germany), together with a college to visit the Embedded World trade show for a day. Normally this is a 2x 593km (368 miles) trip, but for the Tesla I planned in 2 SuperCharger stops, making the trip 2x 715km (444 miles). A bit of a detour, but I figured it would be a nice experiment.
The route was planned and everything was prepared: I got myself a Dutch card to use public chargers and had German chargers enabled. The Hotel had kindly offered me a free VIP parking spot with an outlet to charge, and the exhibition center in Nuremberg had done the same and had arranged a temporary high power utility outlet to charge during my visit.
When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I did what I always do first thing in the morning and that is to reach for my phone to turn on interior heating. But while doing so, I noticed that my car was charged to only 80%. Weird, because I ordered a full range charge the night before. Trying to start charging was to no avail. The app told me to check the cable. So I went outside and noticed a red flashing LED on my UMC.
Now I had noticed a red flashing LED on my UMC before. But I didn't think much of it because so far it had always turned green when plugging in my car. I didn't think much of it: My TV shows a red LED too for the better part of the day and that means that it's turned off, nothing alarming.
This time however, I couldn't get it starting to charge anymore. Unplugging, replugging, resetting and power-cycling the 3-phase output, all more than once, but nothing helped. It just didn't want to charge. But I had to leave to pick up my colleague and leave to Germany within 45 minutes. So I called Tesla Service. They told me that nothing's wrong with my UMC and that this LED means there was something wrong with the grounding of my utility outlet. I told them this outlet was new and had worked fine for two months, but their reply was that this especially happened on new installations. Now 80% is a bit few for the first SuperCharger, 289km (185 miles) away. I was suggested to drive to the SC in Oosterhout first, but that's 25km (16 miles) into the wrong direction, so not really beneficial. I asked if I could used the Tesla distribution center SC in Tilburg, but that one was out of order. Instead Tesla Service arranged me to charge at the showroom in Dusseldorf. Again a small detour, and not an SC but it would help.
When I was close to Dusseldorf, power consumption and range looked really well. Well enough to drive to our original SC directly, without the detour to the Tesla showroom. So we decided to try that. But 100km (62 miles) before the SC the hills started and we wouldn't have much of a surplus. After missing a exit we got doubtful: The SC was still 25km away, and we had 15km of projected range left. We thought we could make it, but decided not to take any changes and drove to a public charger in Siegen, 10km before the SC. There we charged for 15 minutes using my until that time unproven charging card and continued our way to the first SC on a autohof in Wilnsdorf. We had lunch there and with full tummies a batteries we left.
We figured we could skip the second SC and drive to Nuremberg directly, but we were in no hurry and decided not to take any changes an continued our voyage to the SC in Bad Rappenau. There we had coffee and with a full battery we left for Nuremberg. Half way on our way, another colleague called me to invite us for dinner. To meet up with him in time, I decided to step on it and at 19:00 we checked in at our hotel. I parked my Tesla at our VIP spot and plugged in the charger and there it was again: The dreaded red LED was flashing. Again plugging, replugged and reveres plugged, but nothing helped. Wiggling the cable got the green LED on briefly, but only for a couple of seconds. This really annoyed me, especially because I reported the problem before I left, even told the guy I was leaving for Germany and was told that it was not the charger.
So I called service. The guy was friendly, but didn't really seem to know what he needed to do. I urged him to find a solution tonight, so that the logistics could that place that night. When I still had him on the phone when we arrived at the restaurant, I asked him to think of something and call me back when he had a solution. Nobody called back. When we left the restaurant at 23:00 I called back Tesla, to check on what they came up with. But the phone was answered by a local generic AAA service call center, both Dutch and German service. They tried to reach Tesla, but nobody at Tesla answered their phone. It was 1:30am now and it didn't look like any action would be taken before morning. As a last resort the call center gave me the phone number of Tesla Service USA. So I called them, from my Dutch contract cell phone in Germany, transatlantic. I haven't got a clue what that will cost me. The guy I talked to was the first one showing to be focused to get the problem solved. He even offered to get us a tow truck back to the nearest SC. But I figured that would be a waste of money, regardless of who pays the bill. So he escalated the case to make sure that Tesla Germany would take action the next morning, so I have a working UMC delivered at the exhibition center before noon next day, so I could still easily charge enough to get back to the SC in Bad Rappenau. It was now 2:30am, I was tired and wanted to go to bed.
4.5 Hours of restless sleep later I got up for a long day of tradeshow. Tesla Service Germany called me at 8:00am, but the first thing the guy said was that he didn't have any personnel to bring me a new UMC. Tossing one into a taxi and send it to the exhibition center wasn't something that occurred to him. Or to me, but I don't work for service. He offered me to send me one by mail tomorrow, but I replied that that's the reason I started to make calls yesterday, because and extra we cost us an extra €370 of hotel rooms and two billable days. The other two remaining 'solutions': I could either drive to a public charger on the other side of town and take a taxi to the tradeshow and back. Or I could drive to another Tesla owner to charge my car at his house. The first was logistically inconvenient and we wouldn't even know if my charging card would work there. The second wasn't something I would consider, but out of politeness I told the guy I would do that, thinking that I would just take my chances on driving back to the SC with the remaining charge. Half an hour later Tesla Service called back to tell me they had called their customer. I wasn't planning on going there, but because the customer was now expecting me, I called him to thank him for his kind offer, but that I would just take my chances. The customer asked me how much charge I had left and when I told him, he told me I would never make it to the SC. When I told him I had my public charging card as a backup, he told me that my card wouldn't work in Southern Germany. He had already left to his office, but at the end of the day we would be most welcome and I accepted his offer.
At the end of the day we left the tradeshow straight to his home. Completely embarrassed I asked for his help. Fortunately he was a very friendly guy. We had coffee and chatted for hours, until my car was charged. With a couple of hours of delay, we were on our way home, to the SC in Bad Rappenau.
I arrived home at 3:30am, way later than expected, and I slept until 9:30. My Tesla is on my drive way now, but two days later, my initial problem of the broken UMC still isn't solved, so it's completely useless with 10% of charge and no way of charging it. Fortunately I didn't sell my old car yet, and with that car I drove to my customer today. Not a single word from Tesla this morning, not a single word this afternoon after I've sent them my opinion on how they handled this case. Nothing. It's a bloody shame. It wouldn't be as bad if only they wouldn't have their mouth full of superior service...
- - - Updated - - -
Update
At 16:30 this afternoon I received the following message from the Service Manager in Germany:
I replied the following:
I am mad as hell because I reported this problem two days ago, received no service in between, was on my own the whole time, and still didn't hear anything after reminding Service this afternoon that the problem still exists.
I arrived home at 3:30am last night, with 10% charge left, but still no means to charge my car. Fortunately I didn't sell my old car yet, otherwise I would not have been able to drive to my customer today, missing a full billable day.
I have sent Mr. Xxxxx an excellent bottle of vintage Port wine today for saving my day. I'd suggest Tesla does the same.
But I'm actually insulted by the message because I'm really wondering what they are thinking and what purpose it served. A real service manager would have tossed a working UMC in a taxi and sent it to the exhibition center. As a very least he would have informed the Service department in The Netherlands about this case still not being solved, requesting his colleagues to send a new UMC to my home address. But instead nobody does a thing, and I'm without my car for the weekend. This isn't just poor service, it's no service at all, in my hour of need.
I mean I'd never really expect a standard dealership to send me spare parts with a cab, but I could contemplate that Tesla might actually do it... Of course I've not yet been stuck with charging issues so can't say how it'd be ...
