Roadside assistance nightmare x2

[Atom111]

Was stuck in an underground parking lot for 9 hours trying to get help from Tesla roadside assistance.
They basically ignored my situation, car, and myself. Total shame and disappointment to Tesla for hiring Evil people to assist peoples in emergency situations.

All I needed was a key fob battery since where the car died I also did not have LTE signal (underground lot). The assistant “Angelica” I believe her name was, basically said they could send someone with batteries or key fob. But she kept denying that they could do this and kept pushing me to tow the car … which is what I ended up doing because she didn’t send a quote abs totally ignored my calls texts and request as if we were in a relationship!!

burns me up just writing this stuff up. 9 hours, a damaged rear diffuser, and 3 tow truck drivers later I got my car above ground and turned it on with the satellite signal.

I hope someone responsible reads this and takes action for other people’s suffering. People in emergency situations sounds be dealt with such urgency. This person told me to call my family to bring my a key fob or a battery. As if I had access to any of those things.

 

[scottf200]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Not sure what car you are in. The Model X key fob has a battery that is harder to find. I was locked out in South Dakota at a Tesla outside event (opening doors/wings/hood too much and at end of battery life) and a bad storm was coming (disbanded event). I couldn't find that battery in any near town. I could drive with the phone since I had cell access tho. I've also been in 'remote' areas of MT where I gotten out and there was no service. Glad fob didn't die.

Was there no nearby place in those hours you could have gotten a fob battery in the worse case?

Suggestions:
order extra batteries and put them in your glove box;
know how / where to physically place the fob under low battery situations to get the car started (specific locations close to receiver).

 

[Art VandeIay]

Hey @Atom111 that really sucks!

Not to make you feel even worse, but what the Tesla Roadside Assistant should have actually done was guide you through all the steps outlined in the Owner's Manual required to Unlock and Start your Tesla using your completely dead key fob. We have resorted to this method twice with my wife's Model X, as batteries tend to run out quickly for us (even though they get replaced every year at the Service Center during its annual inspection).

If you have some spare time on your hands, give the Owner's Manual a good read. I found quite useful the official towing and jacking procedures as well as the emergency opening of the falcon wing doors in case of an accident that cuts all power to them, especially if you have kids or travel with backseat passengers often:

 

[scottf200]

Well, we don't know if they are driving an X or not, and thus my question.

I am pretty sure there was a fob software update to address an overzealous fob to car communication (ie. fob hanging in mudroom and car in the garage). I'm sure I got this but my aging memory could be playing tricks on me.

I've used this 'Faraday' Altoid box for a while.

https://imgur.com/qeqSWs8

 

[Baxterdown]

Option 3: Go to a place in the building with cell service. Unlock the car and touch the Keys icon on the app. You have two minutes to get back to the car and start driving.

 

[mxnym]

Option 3: Go to a place in the building with cell service. Unlock the car and touch the Keys icon on the app. You have two minutes to get back to the car and start driving.

So are you being funny, or do you think it's likely that the Tesla has a cell signal even though the cell phone right next to it doesn't?

 

[Baxterdown]

@mxnym, you have a great point! I totally forgot about the car part of the cell signal!! LOL! With that said, I've been in a couple of situations where I have no cell service on my phone (T-Mobile) and the car has service (sometimes even three and four bars). I think my idea is totally worth a try.

 

[mxnym]

@mxnym, you have a great point! I totally forgot about the car part of the cell signal!! LOL! With that said, I've been in a couple of situations where I have no cell service on my phone (T-Mobile) and the car has service (sometimes even three and four bars). I think my idea is totally worth a try.

It theoretically could work, and trying prior to calling roadside would potentially better than not (better if it works, likely not too harmful if it doesn't) for anyone who might experience a similar issue in the future, but it seems especially unlikely to have worked in this case due to the underground part and I should imagine that roadside tried and couldn't connect to the car to unlock it, anyway (effectively, it was likely technically tried the hard way, using roadside's Internet connection).

 

[peety3]

Not a direct fix in this situation, but I saw a tip on another site and I'll pass it along as I think it's wise.

If your phone has a personal hotspot feature, go add your phone hotspot to the list of preconfigured Wifi networks in the car.

This is especially useful if your phone is on a different carrier than the car. My understanding is that Tesla uses Verizon in the US (no idea outside of US and haven't verified this either), and we have AT&T phones. So if we end up in a Verizon dead zone that's got AT&T signal, we can fire up our personal hotspot and the car can get to the Tesla cloud via our phone. Hence the app can send unlock/drive codes to the car, getting us out of a bind if the fob batteries die.

The corollary may be that if you're in an underground garage that has some sort of available Wifi, perhaps join that if you're going to be in it regularly or long-term.

 

[scottf200]

Not a direct fix in this situation, but I saw a tip on another site and I'll pass it along as I think it's wise.

If your phone has a personal hotspot feature, go add your phone hotspot to the list of preconfigured Wifi networks in the car.

This is especially useful if your phone is on a different carrier than the car. My understanding is that Tesla uses Verizon in the US (no idea outside of US and haven't verified this either), and we have AT&T phones. So if we end up in a Verizon dead zone that's got AT&T signal, we can fire up our personal hotspot and the car can get to the Tesla cloud via our phone. Hence the app can send unlock/drive codes to the car, getting us out of a bind if the fob batteries die.

The corollary may be that if you're in an underground garage that has some sort of available Wifi, perhaps join that if you're going to be in it regularly or long-term.

Interesting tip. I've been to places without reception but it is usually both the car (AT&T) and my phone (Verizon). Maybe a useful precaution tho depending on where you travel.

Below via: Undocumented – TeslaTap