Christ. I can imagine what largely happened: towing guy just dropped it off damaged at the service center, service center noted the damage and went ahead and fixed it(maybe before letting him know, or maybe not!), billing added that repair to the bill, and he got sent the bill. Then, calling them back, nobody can trace anything, or figure out who towed it or serviced it, with the service rep just saying “too bad, we can’t verify what you’re saying since we don’t know who towed it, so you have to pay”.
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Service and communication (out of main)
- Thread starter neroden
- Start date
Christ. I can imagine what largely happened: towing guy just dropped it off damaged at the service center, service center noted the damage and went ahead and fixed it(maybe before letting him know, or maybe not!), billing added that repair to the bill, and he got sent the bill. Then, calling them back, nobody can trace anything, or figure out who towed it or serviced it, with the service rep just saying “too bad, we can’t verify what you’re saying since we don’t know who towed it, so you have to pay”.
I still think that question is insufficient. If Elon answers it, it’ll just be the same “yep, and we improved parts availability and now you can schedule repairs from your phone!” The question needs to be posed as being 100% about communication, noting that it’s both in terms of actually following up with customers, notifying customers of things they’re potentially being charged for, and communication between service teams.
FWIW, a friend of mine (who got one of the few Tesla in my town 5 years ago, and probably in the whole country) has bought a new Model S. The car is amazing, he says, but Tesla somehow messed up with the charging connectors, and he has 4 charging box, between home and office, that don't work with the car. Tesla wants him to pay for a 700€ cable connector, and he's pissed about it. He has free SC miles, so for now he goes there.
From what I understand, he's a bit spoiled (and the people around him love to remind him) with other premium cars and service, which "wine-and-dine" you and try to treat you well (they want your money, of course, but still).
Luckily he already bought the car, so I guess he'll forget the shenanigans after the problem is solved.
From what I understand, he's a bit spoiled (and the people around him love to remind him) with other premium cars and service, which "wine-and-dine" you and try to treat you well (they want your money, of course, but still).
Luckily he already bought the car, so I guess he'll forget the shenanigans after the problem is solved.
I would love to know more about this. What exactly did they mess up? Can you get a picture of his charge port?
Without knowing more specifics, it’s really hard to tell whether Tesla actually messed up in some way, or your friend just ordered some wrong type of chargers and is blaming Tesla for his mistake/demanding they give him a free adaptor. Both possibilities actually seem equally plausible to me.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
The full story from James. Summary: Tesla said James had to use their recommended towing company, towing company damaged the vehicle, Tesla said he'd have to go after the towing company for the damage, James needed the car back so he paid, Tesla pulled some shady sh*t while working on the vehicle.
Buckminster
Well-Known Member
Great post from Karen in the main thread:
Okay, first off, let's include what you omitted:
Supercharger connections (the first actual stat that matters): +34%. Why do you care about the number of Supercharger stations, rather than the number of stalls?
Mobile fleet: +81%
So the # of service centres is only up 13%. But the mobile service fleet growth vastly outpaces vehicle sales growth. I see no problem. They're doing more and more with mobile vehicles these days. Also, the growth in the number of service centres says absolutely nothing about whether they're hiring more people to work at existing service centres. Adding new service centres is just to increase geographic coverage.
Back to Superchargers. Here's the things you're not including:
Overall, I think these numbers are great, all things considered.
- Power was upped from 120kW to 145kW (ignoring the relatively small % of V3s out there). In ideal circumstances, that's an extra 20% throughput. In practice, you're probably averaging more like 10% of an increase in throughput. But in general: the sooner you move out a car, the sooner a stall is free.
- Pack preheating as you approach a Supercharger (to accelerate charge rates) is now enabled. This also speeds up Supercharging, and thus frees up stalls.
- Most of the world's Supercharger stations spend most of their time idle. There is no need to increase the density in these areas until they hit their limits; the amount of vehicle growth just moves them from "mostly idle" to "not as idle". Supercharger growth is only needed to A) expand the geographic extent of the network, and B) in areas where the existing network needs more capacity.
- They're now switching to V3 stations. With a 250kW peak and no throttling between "shared stalls", V3 will have much higher throughput per stall than V2.
ED: Whoa! Just checked Supercharge.info... they're already building in both Macedona and Bulgaria? Awesome! They'll be in Greece and Turkey soon!
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Doesn't address the terrible communications and poor service, and flat out lies which seem to be standard policy with Tesla service.
Another stage in my solar saga: Finally got permission to operate on Feb. 14th. Turned everything on and... nothing happened. Called into support and they said it could take a couple hours. 3 hours later, still nothing so I called in again. They said the inverter is stuck in standby mode and sent it over to remote diagnostics and promised a remote fix or scheduling a tech. Several hours later, still nothing, so I call again and they said it could take 24 hours. Call back on the 15th and they say remote diagnostics doesn't work on Saturdays and to call back on Tuesday since Monday is a holiday. Call back on Tuesday and they say remote diagnostics started looking at it on Saturday(I thought they didn't work then?) but actually take 48 hours to get back. Late Wednesday, I still haven't heard anything so I call back again and they say remote diagnostics couldn't access the system at all(it took 3 full business days to figure that out?) and that scheduling will get back to me within 2 days. Late Friday, I still haven't heard anything so I decide to call in and they go ahead and schedule me... for Thursday the 27th.
Largely because of communication mishaps at every stage(with a little lack of availability of techs sprinkled in), assuming they actually fix it on Thursday, it's taking almost 2 extra weeks to turn on the system. Hopefully I don't ever/often have issues where it requires sending someone again, because this is... not great.
Largely because of communication mishaps at every stage(with a little lack of availability of techs sprinkled in), assuming they actually fix it on Thursday, it's taking almost 2 extra weeks to turn on the system. Hopefully I don't ever/often have issues where it requires sending someone again, because this is... not great.
Bet TSLA
Active Member
Yeah. Sadly, the "fix" for this is that every time there's a problem just schedule an appointment right away. If they can fix the problem remotely before then, that's great and you cancel the appointment. If not, well you have the appointment scheduled already for much earlier than would be the case if you had waited for the other modes to fail.
Good(also kinda sad?) to know for the future. In this case, I don't think I could have, since the system has never actually been activated since I didn't have permission to operate yet before, so it doesn't yet show up in the Tesla app at all, and I'm not aware of another way to schedule such appointments.
Solar and Powerwall finally work(it took the tech ~20 minutes to fix it after a 2 week wait. Sigh.)! Unfortunately, the app is still showing only the car and the ad thing for solar/powerwall. Tech support is investigating, but I have a feeling it ties back to that same email address mismatch issue from before. It’s like whoever worked on their user database has never heard of a foreign key.
Bet TSLA
Active Member
So the latest evidence that their communication issues are not going away. Got e-mail about one of the local showrooms doing an event this weekend, including test drives of Models S, X, and 3. Some indication from the wording that it was sent to Model Y reservation holders. Okay. But nothing in the e-mail gave any indication that they knew I've bought three Teslas so far. Okay.
Next I get a follow-up phone call. Still no hint they know I'm an owner. I tell the guy I'm interested in driving a performance Raven Model S, so we set something up.
Over the next two days I get two more calls about the same event from people who obviously have no information. The second guy I ask if he's a Tesla employee (yes), and then ask him how it's possible that he's wasting his time this way. He has no answer. I suggest to him that perhaps Tesla should fix this problem.
Second bit of evidence. My glove box in my Model 3 recently stopped opening -- it simply didn't respond to voice or screen commands to open. I scheduled a mobile tech appointment to fix it. I got a call a couple of days before, but the guy obviously had no idea about the repair history of my car. I mentioned that it had gotten the FSD replacement done the month before and that maybe that had something to do with it. He said he'd make a note. Today the mobile tech showed up. He clearly had no idea about that information. I told him and he said that he suspected that they had failed to put a connector back properly after the replacement. Sure enough, that's what it turned out to be. If I hadn't made sure he had this information, then the fix would obviously have taken longer.
So, it's pretty clear that Tesla is not making good use of the information they have. Still.
Next I get a follow-up phone call. Still no hint they know I'm an owner. I tell the guy I'm interested in driving a performance Raven Model S, so we set something up.
Over the next two days I get two more calls about the same event from people who obviously have no information. The second guy I ask if he's a Tesla employee (yes), and then ask him how it's possible that he's wasting his time this way. He has no answer. I suggest to him that perhaps Tesla should fix this problem.
Second bit of evidence. My glove box in my Model 3 recently stopped opening -- it simply didn't respond to voice or screen commands to open. I scheduled a mobile tech appointment to fix it. I got a call a couple of days before, but the guy obviously had no idea about the repair history of my car. I mentioned that it had gotten the FSD replacement done the month before and that maybe that had something to do with it. He said he'd make a note. Today the mobile tech showed up. He clearly had no idea about that information. I told him and he said that he suspected that they had failed to put a connector back properly after the replacement. Sure enough, that's what it turned out to be. If I hadn't made sure he had this information, then the fix would obviously have taken longer.
So, it's pretty clear that Tesla is not making good use of the information they have. Still.
No, a family member was home at the time and saw them there but it was all outside so didn’t take any interaction. I know the inverter was stuck in “standby mode”, but not sure why. (One theory I’ve had is that it’s because we had power outages in between when they installed and when they actually turned it on)
adiggs
Well-Known Member
I've been a customer of Tesla's since 2013. That final conclusion - like they've never heard of master data, single source of truth, foreign key - I've been having that thought for 7 years off and on.
You'll be happy to know that the database basics problems evolve over the years though - they're not stagnant.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
More service issues, Tesla loses another customer:
I'll remain a fan, but as of today I'm out as an owner. : teslamotors
More complaints in the comments as well.
I'll remain a fan, but as of today I'm out as an owner. : teslamotors
More complaints in the comments as well.
Generally, if someone is in the market for a used Model S, particularly a Model S 60, they'd probably be happier buying a new or gently used Model 3 instead, or perhaps a Model Y. Tesla's newer vehicles seem to be much more reliable than the older cars, and it's great to have Autopilot and the other safety features that come with new Teslas.
Today, for someone who is constrained by a tight budget and for whom a Model 3 or Model Y would be too expensive, it could make sense to buy an older, used Model S if they want/need Supercharger access, lots of cargo space, and of course the beauty, performance, and crash worthiness of a Tesla. If they can do without those things and just want a reliable, cost effective EV for a long commute, then a Chevy Bolt might be the best fit, particularly if Tesla service centers are far away. It's too bad the above Reddit user had to experience pain with a Model S 60 before coming to that realization.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
I've written off the idea of ever getting a used S or X, too many potential issues and too many service horror stories. Probably wouldn't consider a new one either for the same reasons. I'd also no longer recommend either of those to any friends. Doesn't feel good saying that about a company I support and have so much invested in.
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