Service and communication (out of main)

[sparcs]

an interesting thread about Tesla parts cost and availability. Seems to indicate that parts availability is getting better for body shops.

Doing a complete rear end on a 19 Model S 100D. 100% approved Tesla repair : teslamotors

Tesla parts are relatively inexpensive. For instance the rear bumper on model s is around $400, German makes like Benz, Porsche, Audi can be double that sometimes depending on options. I just did a Porsche Macan GTS and front bumper alone was almost $3k.

Wait times are extremely long. I ordered a uniside to a model 3, it took Tesla 128 days to supply the part. That was by far the longest. Tesla is getting better though. To get basic bolt on parts/minor sheet metal it's only taking about 2 weeks now.

 

[uselesslogin]

Anyway just to follow up on my service. It was 2 weeks for an appointment which was fine. The mechanic said they had to hire people and catch up. I checked and it is one week out now for service. He came and told me it would take 2 hours and it took 1.5 hours. It is nice that not only do they come to you that also means you get to talk directly to the mechanic instead of the customer service person.

So, perhaps it is hit or miss, but I'd have to think that anyone in Omaha would get good service. There was a Facebook post of a woman who had driver door problems so they came out as soon as they could on Monday and got it fixed while she was at her son's hockey practices. She didn't have to wait 2 weeks since it was a major issue and they prioritized it.

 

[uselesslogin]

an interesting thread about Tesla parts cost and availability. Seems to indicate that parts availability is getting better for body shops.

Doing a complete rear end on a 19 Model S 100D. 100% approved Tesla repair : teslamotors

I hit a cardboard box so I'm experiencing this too. 3 weeks and 2 days and nothing yet. I don't know if they take into account it being minor damage and prioritize others. I sort of forget about it until someone notices and asks me about the damage. Either way the body shop quoted 4-6 weeks from the start.

 

[Sudre]

......My back passenger door is opening itself when all doors are unlocked.
Double press the FOB the door opens.
Pull any handle inside the car the door opens.

Now lets focus on the service part. They can not look at the car until August 13th! .......

Updating this.

Mobile service came out about 2 weeks after I scheduled the appointment. They rebuilt the handle and that stopped the door from opening by itself..... except it also stop the door from opening from the outside, period. The mobile tech could not make the door open so he said I would have to schedule ANOTHER appointment at the service center. Weeks later at that appointment Tesla service was able to get everything working right. It took them a few days to track down the problem.... or so they thought..... a few days ago the same door stopped opening again from the outside. I had to make ANOTHER service appointment and now wait weeks again. SO this issue is still not resolved. The only real problem I have now is the wait time to get the car repaired. Tesla really needs third party repair..... OH and now the driver side door is opening itself when the handle pops out. Turns out this is an expected regular thing in the older Model S and all door handles will need to be rebuilt over time. At least with the drivers door it is more like a feature.

My latest deal is getting my back glass replaced. Since I don't want to wait weeks to get my glass replaced on the hatch I went ahead and used the insurance recommend Safelite. .....

My back glass has finally been replaced a little over a week ago. The Safelite store manager had to drive out to Tesla personally and track down the parts guy. Big kudos to Safelite for going this extra mile.

As far as the other odd... possession type things... moody things. After the mobile tech fixed the door handle and a few software update later most of the moody attitude went away. The.... things are now responsive again. Like pressing the button on the UMC to open the charge port now results in the charge port opening quickly instead of me having to do a wand waiving dance pressing the button to the beat of a song I had never heard. The car also no longer says "Unable to drive - Authentication required" when the fob is in my hand right next to the sensor pressing the button while the doors are locking and unlocking. It does still some times present the message but when I press the FOB it responds and I can start the car. Service tells me to completely stop that from happening I must have passive entry enabled. They don't understand that is a bad idea in the neighborhoods I end up working in good old St. Louis.

The latest moody thing was the car not wanting to stop charging for my wife at a supercharger. She did finally release the handle and let my wife leave but when my wife got the car home it refused to accept the home charger. It would go in but not lock in place right. I took it to a nearby public charger and it would not work their either. I went back home and wait on hold for 20 minutes (I was very impressed after reading other peoples wait times). While waiting I examined the port with a magnifying glass... literally. As I expected from Tesla they were able to do whatever magic they do and after a few assorted instructions and resets the charge port made that very familiar click and I have had no problems since.

Over all service is starting to get back on the ball. They seem to be working out the kinks. They just need to get these wait times down.

 

[VValleyEV]

I realize that many have had issues with Tesla Service Centers, but submit anecdotally that mine has been very good. I bought an inventory Model S with 8k miles, probably a lot of hard driving in test drives. They diagnosed and fixed some major and minor problems quickly and professionally, all under warrantee. As an investor I am encouraged and hope that they continue to expand and improve their service.

Ron Traver on Twitter

 

[thx1139]

I realize that many have had issues with Tesla Service Centers, but submit anecdotally that mine has been very good. I bought an inventory Model S with 8k miles, probably a lot of hard driving in test drives. They diagnosed and fixed some major and minor problems quickly and professionally, all under warrantee. As an investor I am encouraged and hope that they continue to expand and improve their service.

Ron Traver on Twitter

I have to concur. I have had nothing but great experiences with service. Only issues I have ever had with our S was the door handles. They used to pickup at the office I worked at, except for one time and I will get in to that in a moment. Last time they came to house and fixed in the driveway. We havent had any issues with our 3.

So the one other time was the day we were moving to our new house. Plan was to move fragile stuff we didnt want movers moving. The first load of the day was just small load. Loaded up in the S and drove to new house. It was only a few miles away. Got out of the car and unlocked new house. Went back to car and drivers side door handle wouldnt open. Great. Now I need to go through another door to open the drivers door. Well I immediately called Tesla Service. Told them the situation, told them I couldnt bring the car to the dealership since we were moving and that was counting on the S for fragile stuff (and pets). They said they would head right over to get car and get it back a few hours later. They basically met me back at the old house gave me what looked like a brand new Model S Performance took our car and like 4-5 hours later they met me at the new house and gave us our car back. Had to have used the loaner for like 10 loads including our cat and 3 dogs.

 

[hershey101]

So just to make sure I understand the example correctly:

• Before Jan 1 2020 the expected price of a Model 3 for the next 5 years would be €50.000 + 5 x ~€830 = €54,150
• After Jan 1 2020 the expected price of a Model 3 for the next 5 years would be €50.000 + 5 x ~€2,155 = €60,775 (+12.2%)

Assuming that the 12.2% I calculated is correct, if we apply @neroden's demand pull forward model, sales should drop in the first two and a half months of Q1, and should start picking up in mid March to a more "steady state" flow of sales, which would probably be the levels of ~Q2'2019 I believe, but it's hard to tell.

Neroden's model worked pretty well in a number of cases, so I'd expect January and February sales to be particularly low, and this will be strengthened by the usual slow European winter season as well. Car sales usually pick up in April, as the weather gets better.

Do the tax savings only apply to business owners, or also to private citizens?

Speaking of @neroden... Whatever happened to him? I saw he hasn't posted anything in the past two months.

 

[CorneliusXX]

Speaking of @neroden... Whatever happened to him? I saw he hasn't posted anything in the past two months.

He was banned. A considerable detriment to us all.

 

[SpaceCash]

Speaking of @neroden... Whatever happened to him? I saw he hasn't posted anything in the past two months.

bruh got banned

 

[TheTalkingMule]

Yeah, when is @neroden getting un-banned? No one is checking @jhm 's math in the Shorting Oil thread.

 

[hershey101]

He was banned. A considerable detriment to us all.

porque?

 

[hershey101]

Can someone tell me why @neroden was banned?

 

[JRP3]

Disagreements with moderators and ultimately site admins. He sold his position in Tesla because he was convinced the service issues would kill the company.

 

[aubreymcfato]

I don't think they will un-ban him, apparently it was a permanent ban. I already and vocally disagreed with this, as others did, but we don't have a say in this.

 

[abasile]

I don't think they will un-ban him, apparently it was a permanent ban. I already and vocally disagreed with this, as others did, but we don't have a say in this.

In general, I have no problem with a ban in cases where the moderators/admins feel that disagreements cannot be resolved. One would hope, though, that if a long-valued contributor were to come back months or years later, with a willingness to tone things down, there would at least be a possibility of reinstating their account.

I do appreciate the "investor activism" that @neroden performed by contacting higher-ups at Tesla to express concerns about service and communication. I continue to feel that Tesla can and should do better at communicating with customers, through whatever channels customers may prefer.

That being said, we continue to be overall very happy with our own experiences with Tesla, and we do not at all feel that service/communication issues will "kill the company". It helps that our Tesla vehicles haven't needed much service in the last 1.5 years; for instance, our year-old Model 3 has never needed to be taken to a service center. No service, or only Mobile Service, is indeed the best kind of service.

Also, when talking about Tesla's service, we shouldn't take for granted the Supercharger network, as that's a key part of the ownership experience for the majority of us. Tesla has, by all objective accounts, done a wonderful job of keeping Superchargers serviced and available. Yes, there's always room for improvement, and we've encountered Superchargers with sub-par performance, but Tesla has proven itself to be competent at running the world's most extensive DC charging network. That should say something about the quality of the company.

 

[hershey101]

Disagreements with moderators and ultimately site admins. He sold his position in Tesla because he was convinced the service issues would kill the company.

Ok that's pretty much bullshit. Bans are meant for people who are being explicitly rude to others on the form, making racist, homophobic, etc. remarks or threatening people etc. You can't just go banning people because they have a different view-point from this echo chamber of tesla fanboys or because they sold their equity. Tesla has been pretty much a *sugar* long-term investment. Only way to make money in the company is to trade both sides and use the momentum & volatility to your advantage. Good luck beating the S&P with a HODL strategy.

And I agree, Tesla service is overpriced BS.

 

[JRP3]

While I'm not privy to the details I think it went beyond "different view-points". To be clear he sold his position after the ban, so that was not the cause of the ban.

And I agree, Tesla service is overpriced BS.

The real concern seems to be that some percentage of people end up in a vortex where they can't get any service or communication from Tesla, at any price. Occasionally people drop off into a black hole and only with great effort are they eventually able to get through to someone who can actually help them. That shouldn't ever happen.

 

[abasile]

Tesla has been pretty much a *sugar* long-term investment.

Ha ha, it's all a matter of timing. Tesla would have been a great long-term investment for anyone who bought early on, even if they're still holding those shares today. Who is to say TSLA is stuck in the current range forever? I would contend that the shares are undervalued today and that the price is likely to spike upward considerably. I just don't know when - it could be this afternoon or ten years from now. "Not an advice."

 

[cpa]

Most, if not all, companies that have extensive sales to the public have toll-free numbers to call to report problems, questions, compliments, and any other sort of issue that the customer deems worthy. Those calls are recorded, and some have supervisors eavesdropping on the conversation. Yes, this is an overhead cost to these companies.

These customer service centers have their fingers on the pulses of their customers. While they in and of themselves cannot effect changes with the company, you can be assured that if there are enough complaints or concerns about products, that eventually this information makes its way up the food chain in that company for review, analysis, and correction if necessary. For common consumer goods that were damaged in transit or short-filled or spoiled, these customer service representatives have reasonable remedies to cure the defects reported. In most cases, the customer leaves the exchange with the customer service representative feeling a little better about the company because someone listened, and someone tried to remedy the situation that the customer perceived as important. These customer centers benefit both the company and the consumer.

I have been told that only 20% of the public reports 80% of the problems. This may or may not be an accurate rubric, but it does illustrate that most of us do not bother with expressing our views until we reach a certain tipping point.

Tesla has reached adolescence as a company. It must start behaving more like an adult and less like a child. In my opinion, Tesla needs to start having call centers available six days per week for a minimum of 12 hours per day for us to call to complain, compliment, question, or otherwise express concerns about our vehicles. And Tesla needs to compile all this information to be reviewed by individuals with access to the board of directors.

 

[bkp_duke]

You're replying to a 3 month old post from someone who has been banned from the forums.

Banned for?