Service Nightmare

[Beta V]

What a nightmare. I got the system upgrade last week and when I got home, the car would not connect to my WiFi without an error message. We've discussed this here and on Facebook at length and none of the suggestions fixed it.

I made a mobile service request and today a week later, the tech came right on time. But he was not there to fix the WiFi. He came to fix something THEY had broken (a dash panel) during the upgrade.

I called Tesla's corporate service. A guy answers and talked like he was stoned--speech slurred, mumbling, incoherent answers. He was (in contrast to everyone else I talk to) less than helpful. I asked to speak to a supervisor. "No one is available," he mumbles. "Have him call me," says I. "Sure. <click>" I'm now beyond furious. <deep breath>

The mobile tech says he thinks a new firmware flash will fix the WiFi and 40 minutes later we try it. WiFi now connects. GREAT! And then the WiFi turns itself off by itself "WiFi will resume when you start driving" it says. Wait. What? I need the WiFi in the garage when the car is sitting here in park so it can do updates. We reboot. Same deal. The tech gives up. Now I have to take it back to the Bellevue Service Center to have them fix it again. #notahappycamper

It seems when the Bellevue Service Center created the mobile appt. to replace the cracked dash panel, they OVERWROTE my WiFi service request so there was no record of it--except on my phone in the Tesla app. The app had no record of any dash panel appt. Something is not synchronizing.

I also noticed that none of the (several) confirmation and reminder emails said WHAT they were coming out to fix or what I was bringing the car in to fix. Another bug IMHO. I would have brought the car in earlier tomorrow (when they gave me a service appointment), but I'm in a VA Chronic Pain and STRESS Management class. Somehow, I don't think I should skip it this week.

 

[pereiks]

Mixed feelings.
It's good that you report bad customer experience, it will make SCs better.

On the other hand, it's just car wifi, c'mon. So something got broken with update, they'll fix it. Don't rush into SC, choose the time which suits you, it's just wifi, your car isn't broken.

 

[Beta V]

Excuse me? "Just" WiFi? The vehicle requires WiFi to receive updates. Sure, the car will still drive without WiFi but when they fix another problem or enable a new feature, I won't be able to receive it without WiFi. Oh, wait. I could take it to the dealer and let them keep it for a few hours (or in this case for over a week) and have them upload the changes.

UPDATE: It's still not fixed as of this morning (April 2). They think they've found the root cause of the problem--one of the HW3 boards they installed is faulty. Perhaps it will come home today--that will make the time spent in the shop was two weeks.

 

[Batt Car]

Drama.

Car still drives, no safety issues, let them fix it.

 

[qdeathstar]

I would not let this frustrate my life.

 

[ek993]

I would not let this frustrate my life.

Agreed. Given everything else that is going on in this world with people losing their lives and jobs / businesses I wouldn’t get so stressed out about WiFi not working on my car. They are fixing it right?

Not as if the updates really provide anything critical other than new games or fart noises and other non essential stuff and your car is going to stop functioning if your WiFi doesn’t work for a few weeks.

 

[balefire]

My car routinely updates without WiFi.
Update just delayed a few days.
Relax.
Get it fixed at your leisure

 

[Master Chief]

Will the car evenutally update via the onboard cellular data service if you do not hook up with a WiFi signal?

 

[Beta V]

I finally replaced my Frontier router with a TP-Link AX3000. It worked the first time on both 2.4 and 5.0mhz.
I decided to take that route when I discovered my daughter's router would connect (she has Comcast) but none of my Frontier neighbors would. It still won't work with my iPhone's access point.

 

[Houstonatl]

Sounds like you really don’t like your car or your experience with the company. Maybe cut your losses and get rid of it. Nightmare resolved.

 

[Beta V]

Houstonatl, I have been working with new and leading-edge technology and the companies who create it for over 40 years. I worked for many of them since the '70s and even designed computers and peripherals along the way. When I get a new computer, printer, disk drive, or a $100,000 car, I expect a number of issues if the product is new--most of the best of them are. I report these issues to the company and work with them to improve it. Sometimes these issues are quickly resolved, other times not-so-much. This was not the first issue with my Tesla. I have had a litany of serious problems in the years that I have owned it. Do I not like the car? I don't like how I can't depend on it. I don't like the fact that it fails unpredictably in autodrive. I don't like how the seams don't align, the mirrors attack me as I approach, the wipers which have just started to work correctly (after years), the horn which failed, the front seat needed to be replaced, and when the car literally locked me inside when the door latches failed. It has been in the shop more times than any car I've owned since my first car, a stock 1930 Model A Ford. But I still love it. I love the power and handling. I love how I don't have to support the fossil fuel industry or buy oil or get lube jobs. I love the comfortable seats but dislike the center console. I like the visibility and the technology that records people getting near it. I love the capacity--it has more room inside than any SUV I've ever owned (and I've owned six different models). So no, I'm not going to give up on it and no, I'm not going to let the dealership or the engineers in California off the hook when they build a flawed design.

 

[SilverString]

Regarding your specific posts and the problems encountered with your MX and 5ghz/AC band connections. There have been a number of very good questions aimed at solving the problem, and I have not seen any applicable answers, but perhaps I have missed something. To be honest and no disrespect intended, the way you are using the term router, and erroneously connecting the network problems to HW3 indicates a fundamental lack of knowledge about how WiFi, routers vs access points, the various 802.11.xx protocols, what layers over what, and so on. It is not simple, and I am sorry you are having problems but accurate communication is essential. You describe yourself as a technology critic but I see little to no understanding here, mostly grandstanding.

From reading your posts the problem is isolated to your home network, so it is about a 99.9% sure thing the problem has something to do with your home network, or its configuration. The first thing I would suspect are DNS problems due to the default enabling of DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) on your multiple home "routers", which is like having two traffic cops at a busy intersection that do not see each other - it may work but you may have some crashes. For a normal home network where you can easily share services you need one router with DHCP enabled, and the rest of the "routers" need to be just access points without DHCP enabled. Many home routers have the option of being configured as Access Points. Maybe this is not the problem, but it is my first suspicion based on reading your posts. The fact that it worked before, or works sporadically means nothing because your MX could have had it's IP info cached, but it got reset with the HW3 install and now you have connectivity issues that act like DNS errors - you get a WIFI radio connection but no internet connection.

I suggest you unplug every device but the one wiFi router that connects directly to your ISP's D mark, or cable modem, what ever you have, and see if that works.

5 Ghz AC routers need to be close by as you know, and the Tesla 5G / LG Innotek implementation is not great, but there is actually zero problem here because the car only needs the speeds of an N connection, and if you want reliability you should dump the AC connection even if it works at full speed.

 

[Beta V]

I did figure it out (as I have posted before), through exhaustive trial-and-error that the new HW3 hardware would not connect to my or any router-exposed WiFi access point (to be precise) in my home or in any of the others I checked in the area. I tried to simplify my network, set up a new Access point 3' away from the car, and even sniffed the IP interaction with the car. I saw it was being assigned an IP address and make the connection (and this was reflected in the UI on the car), but a few seconds later, the car would subsequently decide there was something wrong and throw an exception. The dealership saw the same thing and worked on it for many days, finally getting it to work by replacing the HW3 hardware and then using another router. I expect the common factor here at my home was that all WiFi sources in my neighborhood were all using the Frontier-issued Routers/Access points which were for some reason incompatible with whatever the HW3 hardware was looking for. I WAS able to connect to another WiFi Router/Access point in another neighborhood that did not use Frontier hardware or ISP services. I subsequently replaced the Frontier hardware with a new WiFi Router/WiFi access point and it worked correctly using both 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz. I have detailed these issues in earlier posts. I especially appreciate the personal attack as grandstanding. I'll remember this the next time you need help on a frustrating problem.