service - what to expect

[nigeldodd]

My model 3 is needed at the Bristol service centre to correct an issue resulting in a growth of white fungus in the lower rear boot (trunk). It might require replacement of boot seal and carpet. Initially i was told this was something a visiting technician could do but now they need me to take it to Bristol.

My question is what to expect. Am I expected to leave it there? Or am I expected to wait? It is an hour from home. I suspect the Birmingham service centre might be closer, but I was not offered that.

I feel left in the dark regarding this unusual car's unusual service requirement.

Have other people had a pleasant service experience?

 

[GRiLLA]

They will put you in a S or X while you car is in, they'll likely text you near the time and you can check. To note these cars are generally pretty wreaked from previous drivers, but take a look at the agreement you are required to sign as the excess is rather high. Give you insurer a call and most are likely to just cover you for free for a few days, Churchill have for me.
If it will be finished in the day and you want to wait you probably can, not sure about the Covid regulations at the moment, certainly back in the last lockdown you couldn't wait indoors. Mask up and be respectful to the signs, screens and procedures they have in place to protect their staff. Who knows. looks like Boris might change the rules today anyway.

 

[gangzoom]

Our car has been in service with Tesla twice since March, once at MK, and last week at Birmingham. The staff is friendly and helpful, loaners were provided both times - neither times did anyone check for any damage on the loaners they really are very relaxed unlike say returning a car to Enterprise etc. Phone App will tell you when the work is due to be done, and you can communicate via text.

 

[LukeUK]

You need to make sure you have a courtesy car reserved if you need one. It's not always automatically reserved.

The excess is £2500, if I recall correctly. Also, bear in mind that whilst the S or X they loan you will probably be well worn, you're still looking at adding an expensive car to your insurance policy, if you look to cover it yourself for 48 hours.

At Birmingham, there is a coffee machine, water, biscuits etc. and currently 4 socially distanced seats in the waiting room. Masks to be worn all the time.

In general, on the two occasions I've been to the service centre, I've felt like I might as well have been scraped off the bottom of someone's shoe, I felt that welcome. Very much a 'take it or leave it' attitude. The last time I was there was for Tesla to fix damage they had caused themselves during the first visit, which was to resolve issues logged at collection.

Luke

 

[Yachtsman]

My model 3 is needed at the Bristol service centre to correct an issue resulting in a growth of white fungus in the lower rear boot (trunk). It might require replacement of boot seal and carpet. Initially i was told this was something a visiting technician could do but now they need me to take it to Bristol.

My question is what to expect. Am I expected to leave it there? Or am I expected to wait? It is an hour from home. I suspect the Birmingham service centre might be closer, but I was not offered that.

I feel left in the dark regarding this unusual car's unusual service requirement.

Have other people had a pleasant service experience?

My recent concerns about a service call to replace my o/s rear lights (water ingress) & passenger door realignment were unnecessary. My vist last thursday went well, lights replaced (nice job) i also asked if my boot closure could be adjusted as since id fitted an aftermarket seal it was difficult to close. Knowing it was not a warrenty issue i expected to be charged, but no, now closes easily with no charge. Door realignment is another day at the bodyshop. Oh a loan car was offered but not taken, so ask!
Oh, and the staff were very friendly, so no complaints.

 

[-monky-]

+1 for phoning ahead to reserve a courtesy car. I definitely got the impression I wouldn’t have got one if it wasn’t on the request (and I had only phoned ahead same day). They seemed busy the day I went though, probably just luck of the draw.

 

[LongRanger]

Expect to be generally disappointed at Bristol. I gave up debating with them over a couple of fixes recently, and just sent a meh email to our company fleet management provider, who deal with Leaseplan for me.

Interestingly Bristol then phoned me on Friday after Leaseplan had contacted them saying they weren’t happy because I wasn’t happy, and what could they do to make things right.

I replied by saying “don’t get it wrong the first time when I have a 240 mile round trip to you, and don’t ignore me then listen to my lease provider”. They weren’t quite sure how to respond, I guess they have to learn what customer service means.

 

[kelvin 660]

I went to Bristol SC for a 2 hour slot. Was not offered a loan car. Waiting area has WIFI and water but no coffee.
I decided to walk to the mall (15 min walk) to kill the tome and get a coffee.
The work took about 3 hours to complete but all was done satisfactory.

 

[nigeldodd]

Thanks for all those replies. I don't know whether this is an overnight job, so I don't know whether to reserve a courtesy car. It will certainly mean an early morning start and coffee is the essential mid morning fuel when that happens.

So, if they do lend me a courtesy car, is it then up to me to insure it on my existing policy? This sounds fraught with difficulty and expense.

 

[davidmc]

Thanks for all those replies. I don't know whether this is an overnight job, so I don't know whether to reserve a courtesy car. It will certainly mean an early morning start and coffee is the essential mid morning fuel when that happens.

So, if they do lend me a courtesy car, is it then up to me to insure it on my existing policy? This sounds fraught with difficulty and expense.

I have had 3 loaners from them (Birmingham) S P75, X P100D & S P90

On rare occasions you may get a gas car (Merc etc) or they even give you uber credit but you can decline them before (You can ring to find out what you may get). I declined uber credits once as i work 1hr away from my home and prefer to drive myself.

They do all the insurance etc, you just sign the dotted line at the bottom of the paper very quickly!

As mentioned above, they will text you once complete. Most of my times they just phoned me to update me. And also your tesla app will also update you.

I used Birmingham all times and are very helpful and friendly there.

Just note that all loaners now seem to be locked in chill mode. My last one was. Although i was very lucky that the X P100D i had in June was not . And they are usually badly worn cars with things that dont work (like a limpy falcon door!)

 

[Neilman]

I took my M3LR into Crawley on Thursday to chase a "uses more energy when idling" message on screen and the car never sleeping.
Before I took it there I did enquire if it was while-you-wait or possibly longer.
They suggested probably the latter so I asked for a loan car just in case.
They quoted £174 as service fee and £60 per day for the loaner (no mention of insurance and I didn't ask)

I was lent a '66 plate Model S - didn't like it much - all those extra controls and very light regen braking - *needs* the brake pedal.

Contacted them Friday and they said we need to keep it over the weekend.
Contacted them Monday morning but didn't get a definite OK response until 3pm (Service closes at 5pm)
Crawley is 70 miles along the A27 from Southampton and just shy of 2-hours drive - made it with 10 minutes spare!

They had reset stuff but didn't "find an actual fault" so billed me for £174 - fortunately no billing for the loaner or the £7 supercharge I put in it. They wouldn't assure me that the error message will not return

 

[MrBadger]

So, if they do lend me a courtesy car, is it then up to me to insure it on my existing policy? This sounds fraught with difficulty and expense.

They do all the insurance etc, you just sign the dotted line at the bottom of the paper very quickly!

The courtesy cars are insured but have a very high excess which you would be liable. iirc when we were discussing using a courtesy car, it was in region of £2500. You can cover this but temporarily adding this to your insurance. Once I got passed the massive upsell from DL, it did actually seem very simple to do if you get through to someone who knows what you are talking about. If you don't, its a PITA but I did learn a lot about DL products

 

[LukeUK]

Although i was very lucky that the X P100D i had in June was not .

Black with white interior? Trying Ludicrous mode was fun. The red S is locked in chill mode.

As above, the £2.5k insurance excess is pretty heavy.

 

[Cnixon]

Expect to be generally disappointed at Bristol. I gave up debating with them over a couple of fixes recently, and just sent a meh email to our company fleet management provider, who deal with Leaseplan for me.

Interestingly Bristol then phoned me on Friday after Leaseplan had contacted them saying they weren’t happy because I wasn’t happy, and what could they do to make things right.

I replied by saying “don’t get it wrong the first time when I have a 240 mile round trip to you, and don’t ignore me then listen to my lease provider”. They weren’t quite sure how to respond, I guess they have to learn what customer service means.

Thanks that is very interesting...Tesla respond to lease company better than the person driving the car.

 

[davidmc]

Black with white interior? Trying Ludicrous mode was fun. The red S is locked in chill mode.

As above, the £2.5k insurance excess is pretty heavy.

That's the one lol

 

[Irata]

They had reset stuff but didn't "find an actual fault" so billed me for £174 - fortunately no billing for the loaner or the £7 supercharge I put in it. They wouldn't assure me that the error message will not return

That's appalling of them to charge anything for that. That message even states to get a service, it may as well have read "please pay £174". I can't believe they charged for following an instruction given by a car in warranty, even if they failed (yes, the SC's fault) to find the root cause.

Did you take a photo of the message to show them? Was the message gone on the day it went in for service?

I see in similar posts for that message, it's been suggested an issue with the 12v battery. Maybe the 12v just needed charging and it cleared when it had. In which case hopefully it sorted itself. But even so.

I really hope some legislation comes in regarding diagnostic fees, it really needs looking at. Because if a car was booked in for a genuine reason (can the customer access car logs of all messages as proof, for example), and they fail to find anything - it's not the customer who has failed, yet the customer pays The warranty claim can still be genuine, even if no fault is found on that occasion. Warranty is not meant to disadvantage the customer.

 

[Durzel]

Expect to be generally disappointed at Bristol. I gave up debating with them over a couple of fixes recently, and just sent a meh email to our company fleet management provider, who deal with Leaseplan for me.

Interestingly Bristol then phoned me on Friday after Leaseplan had contacted them saying they weren’t happy because I wasn’t happy, and what could they do to make things right.

I replied by saying “don’t get it wrong the first time when I have a 240 mile round trip to you, and don’t ignore me then listen to my lease provider”. They weren’t quite sure how to respond, I guess they have to learn what customer service means.

Where are you coming from that it’s a 120 mile trip each way?

I have been mostly happy with Bristol, except for the fact the last time it went in I’m 99% certain they caused damage to the drivers door, because I don’t do an awful lot of mileage and am fastidious about cleaning it, so I know every inch of it, but more notably - the scuff had been touched up! I only noticed after washing the car recently. So unless a member of the public had a touch up bottle handy of the exact same paint it’s pretty safe to say it happened there. No one told me either, so it was covered up.

Oh and on pick-up while the lady was going through what has been done I witnessed one of the techs driving into and over a high sided kerb in someone’s Model S when moving it in the yard (carelessly, not as a mistake). I expressed surprise to the lady and I could tell she didn’t know what to say about it either.

So yeah, casts a shadow over the relationship and means I have to waste lots of time going over the car with a fine toothconb when dropped off and picked up.

(To be clear - accidents happen. If the damage had occurred and they’d held their hands up I’d still be irritated but would’ve accepted it)

 

[Tonytheteslà]

Looks like you have all the info you need, but in case you don't.

I just dropped my M3 2019 SR+ in (Dartford) for a leak from boot ceiling, water in lower storage area and water inside the boot lid. They gave me a MS loaner and said that they couldn't give me an accurate estimate of repair due to lockdown restrictions from tomorrow.

Excess is £2500, so I called Direct Line for temporary cover. 3 days cost me £1.50, so well worth doing.

Previously when dropping the car off (for a leak in the boot), they have given me a loaner or Uber credits. Everyone very pleasant, answered all my questions and kept me informed via text.

 

[nigeldodd]

The final chapter is that yesterday's visit to Tesla in Patchway, Bristol was a pleasant experience.

I was phoned the day before by the nice lady who explained that they had a loan car if needed but she said it may be possible to complete the work while I waited.

This is exactly what happened. I arrived at 8.15 and the car was taken in straight away for a replacement seal followed by water jet test. This apparently revealed there was still a leak. It seems water can follow the wiring loom or the hydraulic strut. They corrected this and put a new lower boot carpet assembly in to replace the mushroom farm.

The work was finished by midday.

I took the opportunity while waiting to explore the surrounding area on foot. Unfortunately I had left the Ordnance Survey maps in the car but they would have been out of date. The area is close to the now disused British Aerospace runway where Concord was developed. Now there is lots of house building, but it is worth a walk to Catbrain Hill. Alternatively it is a 10 minute walk to the big shopping mall if your immune system is up to it.

 

[Cnixon]

That's appalling of them to charge anything for that. That message even states to get a service, it may as well have read "please pay £174". I can't believe they charged for following an instruction given by a car in warranty, even if they failed (yes, the SC's fault) to find the root cause.

Did you take a photo of the message to show them? Was the message gone on the day it went in for service?

I see in similar posts for that message, it's been suggested an issue with the 12v battery. Maybe the 12v just needed charging and it cleared when it had. In which case hopefully it sorted itself. But even so.

I really hope some legislation comes in regarding diagnostic fees, it really needs looking at. Because if a car was booked in for a genuine reason (can the customer access car logs of all messages as proof, for example), and they fail to find anything - it's not the customer who has failed, yet the customer pays The warranty claim can still be genuine, even if no fault is found on that occasion. Warranty is not meant to disadvantage the customer.

I thought all historical messages are be stored in car. This cash demand is bad. I know I would not have paid it. Email "alovelett(at)tesla.com" and include photo if you have it.