Service Frustration - Long Appointment Wait - No Weekend Service

[George75]

My car is showing codes DIR_126 and DIR_103 which from googling can be anything from drive motor failure, to a pump gone or going bad to a value to a coolant leak. I'm sure there could be other reasons. Luckily no coolant puddles or anything else pudding underneath the car. This occurred yesterday, I parked the car, got back in errors are gone but I've also not driven it again since for fear of being stranded on the side of the road somewhere. Yes I can call roadside but I'd rather not risk it to begin with.

So I open the app, schedule service and it tries to give me the next available appointment which is great but it's about two hours away. I do not trust this car to not fail on me or reduce speed again to 62mph while I'm on a toll road. I select the closest service center and the wait time is three weeks which either the app didn't want me to pick or froze every time I tried to pick Eatonville. I honestly don't know can this car make it three weeks? I also don't know if I can drive it over two hours if I avoid toll roads without issues. This is assuming it makes it another week? I know there's no way to talk to anyone at Tesla and I knew this going in three years ago but three years on I stupidly assumed this would be fixed by now or a better system put in place.

It seems my options are to wait and hope I don't end up having it towed back to Tesla. Drive it to Eatonville, hoping it makes it their when service opens on Monday morning and hope they don't have me wait three hours only to send me home with $100 uber credit which will be blown just to drive me home. Hopefully they have a loaner but going by Google reviews it seems this location is somewhere between great to absolute chaos. This is my frustration, it might all be for nothing. My car might be fine and make it three weeks? This is exactly where legacy automakers have Tesla beaten and Tesla badly needs to get service up to par.

 

[zoomer0056]

Schedule with the Tesla Service Center the gives you the most confidence. Then just for it. Be prepared for the worst as far as taking time away from you. I can't thing of anything else you can do.

 

[240vPlug]

My car is showing codes DIR_126 and DIR_103 which from googling can be anything from drive motor failure, to a pump gone or going bad to a value to a coolant leak. I'm sure there could be other reasons. Luckily no coolant puddles or anything else pudding underneath the car. This occurred yesterday, I parked the car, got back in errors are gone but I've also not driven it again since for fear of being stranded on the side of the road somewhere. Yes I can call roadside but I'd rather not risk it to begin with.

So I open the app, schedule service and it tries to give me the next available appointment which is great but it's about two hours away. I do not trust this car to not fail on me or reduce speed again to 62mph while I'm on a toll road. I select the closest service center and the wait time is three weeks which either the app didn't want me to pick or froze every time I tried to pick Eatonville. I honestly don't know can this car make it three weeks? I also don't know if I can drive it over two hours if I avoid toll roads without issues. This is assuming it makes it another week? I know there's no way to talk to anyone at Tesla and I knew this going in three years ago but three years on I stupidly assumed this would be fixed by now or a better system put in place.

It seems my options are to wait and hope I don't end up having it towed back to Tesla. Drive it to Eatonville, hoping it makes it their when service opens on Monday morning and hope they don't have me wait three hours only to send me home with $100 uber credit which will be blown just to drive me home. Hopefully they have a loaner but going by Google reviews it seems this location is somewhere between great to absolute chaos. This is my frustration, it might all be for nothing. My car might be fine and make it three weeks? This is exactly where legacy automakers have Tesla beaten and Tesla badly needs to get service up to par.

Yes this sucks and unfortunately Tesla does not make it convenient for customers to get service. Below is what I would do if faced with your dilemma.

Schedule for closest service center. Message them and tell them you don't feel it's safe to drive. Ask for a loaner. I believe their policy on loaners is the service has to be estimated to take more than four hours....otherwise they will not provide a loaner.

If they refuse wait the three week and if the car breaks down on you between now and then call for roadside.

 

[George75]

Yes this sucks and unfortunately Tesla does not make it convenient for customers to get service. Below is what I would do if faced with your dilemma.

Schedule for closest service center. Message them and tell them you don't feel it's safe to drive. Ask for a loaner. I believe their policy on loaners is the service has to be estimated to take more than four hours....otherwise they will not provide a loaner.

If they refuse wait the three week and if the car breaks down on you between now and then call for roadside.

Thanks however service is closed on the weekend for "Orlando" the best I could do was email otherwise I'm just going to keep driving hoping it doesn't die. If it dies it dies, I'll have it towed back to Orlando. I've read a few horror stories about people being denied loaners and stuck with Uber for days. No offense to anyone that drives for Uber but Uber just isn't an option for me and the thought of having to drive a gas powered rental with a million buttons is not at all appetizing. I know first world problems.

 

[240vPlug]

Thanks however service is closed on the weekend for "Orlando" the best I could do was email otherwise I'm just going to keep driving hoping it doesn't die. If it dies it dies, I'll have it towed back to Orlando. I've read a few horror stories about people being denied loaners and stuck with Uber for days. No offense to anyone that drives for Uber but Uber just isn't an option for me and the thought of having to drive a gas powered rental with a million buttons is not at all appetizing. I know first world problems.

Totally understand. Sometimes you have to play their game. Do the Uber for one day and then complain. Be persistent. That's the only way you will get anywhere with Tesla. Is it a good way to do business.... absolutely not...but this is the way it is with Tesla unfortunately.

 

[zoomer0056]

play their game

I agree. They have a system in place, use it anyway you can.

 

[ChapterBook7]

My car is showing codes DIR_126 and DIR_103 which from googling can be anything from drive motor failure, to a pump gone or going bad to a value to a coolant leak. I'm sure there could be other reasons. Luckily no coolant puddles or anything else pudding underneath the car. This occurred yesterday, I parked the car, got back in errors are gone but I've also not driven it again since for fear of being stranded on the side of the road somewhere. Yes I can call roadside but I'd rather not risk it to begin with.

So I open the app, schedule service and it tries to give me the next available appointment which is great but it's about two hours away. I do not trust this car to not fail on me or reduce speed again to 62mph while I'm on a toll road. I select the closest service center and the wait time is three weeks which either the app didn't want me to pick or froze every time I tried to pick Eatonville. I honestly don't know can this car make it three weeks? I also don't know if I can drive it over two hours if I avoid toll roads without issues. This is assuming it makes it another week? I know there's no way to talk to anyone at Tesla and I knew this going in three years ago but three years on I stupidly assumed this would be fixed by now or a better system put in place.

It seems my options are to wait and hope I don't end up having it towed back to Tesla. Drive it to Eatonville, hoping it makes it their when service opens on Monday morning and hope they don't have me wait three hours only to send me home with $100 uber credit which will be blown just to drive me home. Hopefully they have a loaner but going by Google reviews it seems this location is somewhere between great to absolute chaos. This is my frustration, it might all be for nothing. My car might be fine and make it three weeks? This is exactly where legacy automakers have Tesla beaten and Tesla badly needs to get service up to par.

Welcome to Tesla service.

 

[240vPlug]

George75, did you ever get the issue fixed? If so, mind sharing what it was?

 

[George75]

George75, did you ever get the issue fixed? If so, mind sharing what it was?

I'll know for sure next week. I just dropped my car off. The invoice reflects they'd be replacing some washers and the super bottle. I was expecting the traditional experience. Bring in your vehicle, wait all day for them to work on it. Not the case they swapped me into a new Model X and took my Model 3. I was in and out in less than 30 minutes.

 

[George75]

It's the next week and no updates from Tesla and no changes in the app. Therefore I assume they haven't gotten the part or got to my vehicle yet. I suppose I should just suffer onward in this Model X with free supercharging

When they took my car in I lost all control over it. Apparently sentry was on even through I set it to off. The battery was dropping by about 10% per day. Sent a message via the app asking it be turned off which they apparently did as I've not lost only about 2% since the weekend.

 

[George75]

I got the car back, I was in the service area (outside tent) for all of five minutes. The fastest I've ever been in and out of any service area. However, there's always something. The inside of the car now stinks like some kind of chemicals. Hopefully this will dissipate within a few days.