Service Center "brushed my car up against another car"

[EVDoc]

I'll try to keep this short because these things can go on forever. Basically, an already tumultuous time at the service center that was supposed to be a 1 day repair turning into a 5 day repair (heat pump broken? they haven't actually explained what was wrong yet, but basically lost climate control). The morning of day 5 (today), I get a call from the center saying there was a collision between my car and another car inside the service center. They said they are looking for a bumper replacement right now and will give me the car back while they make arrangements for a loaner so they can take to a body shop for final repair of a fender that apparently is also damaged...

I've always been frustrated with the service centers with their poor judgement of wait times, exorbitant prices whenever something isn't covered by warranty, and often poor communication about what they are doing, but this takes the cake. This is my first new car, about a year old (performance model 3) and in excellent condition. Now it has collision damage of some sort, and by 'taking it to a body shop' does that mean they are considering Bondo'ing some of their damage? Doesn't damage like this affect the car's value?

What should I do in this situation, or what would you do if this were you? Is there anything I even can do? For starters, I feel like any affected exterior panels should be replaced with new panels, right? That doesn't seem too much to ask. It seems they are planning to make arrangements for a loaner for when the fender is repaired. I'm not sure what else they can do or could be reasonably expected of them. Should I request the send images of the collision? I wonder if the collision actually happened earlier, and they just didn't tell me until day 5 so they wouldn't feel the need to give me a loaner earlier...

Any input from the TMC community is appreciated!

-b

 

[VT_EE]

Is let them

I'll try to keep this short because these things can go on forever. Basically, an already tumultuous time at the service center that was supposed to be a 1 day repair turning into a 5 day repair (heat pump broken? they haven't actually explained what was wrong yet, but basically lost climate control). The morning of day 5 (today), I get a call from the center saying there was a collision between my car and another car inside the service center. They said they are looking for a bumper replacement right now and will give me the car back while they make arrangements for a loaner so they can take to a body shop for final repair of a fender that apparently is also damaged...

I've always been frustrated with the service centers with their poor judgement of wait times, exorbitant prices whenever something isn't covered by warranty, and often poor communication about what they are doing, but this takes the cake. This is my first new car, about a year old (performance model 3) and in excellent condition. Now it has collision damage of some sort, and by 'taking it to a body shop' does that mean they are considering Bondo'ing some of their damage? Doesn't damage like this affect the car's value?

What should I do in this situation, or what would you do if this were you? Is there anything I even can do? For starters, I feel like any affected exterior panels should be replaced with new panels, right? That doesn't seem too much to ask. It seems they are planning to make arrangements for a loaner for when the fender is repaired. I'm not sure what else they can do or could be reasonably expected of them. Should I request the send images of the collision? I wonder if the collision actually happened earlier, and they just didn't tell me until day 5 so they wouldn't feel the need to give me a loaner earlier...

Any input from the TMC community is appreciated!

I’d let the body shop repaint. If there is no physical damage to the bumper, I don’t see a need to have it replace. Just make sure everything looks good when you get it back.

 

[EVDoc]

Is let them

I’d let the body shop repaint. If there is no physical damage to the bumper, I don’t see a need to have it replace. Just make sure everything looks good when you get it back.

Yeah, that is the plan, more or less. Apparently there was enough physical damage that they are already replacing the bumper today, and then there is remaining damage to the fender (which I assume is a quarter-panel), which may just be needing paint/body shop work. I guess not much else you can do other than to make sure it looks ok to the naked eye...

 

[EVDoc]

Just following up with developments:

Well, they replaced the rear bumper due to 'that area getting the brunt of the damage', although I have to say it's a little weird never seeing what the original damage was like. They didn't supply any photos or anything.

The new bumper looks new/nice. Couple of scratches on the left rear fender near the bumper that they said they need me to bring the car back so they can send to body shop to repaint. Unfortunately, when I looked at in the light, the front drivers side looks like the front fender and headlight got marred by something over a 8"x10" area, but they never mentioned anything about it when I picked the car up. I took pix of it and send it in to the app. Hopefully the body shop will fix all the new cosmetic damage.

Apparently the Tesla guy said while he doesn't think they report the bumper to whatever the Carfax record is, but the body shop may report some of the repairs. I'm guessing that may pop up as a red mark if someone looking to purchase it down the road looks up it's history. I guess there is no way to really be reimbursed for that. Just one of those things..