Should I let the service centre detail my car?

[steamerd]

I had a disappointing recent experience at the Tesla service centre. Brand new Model 3 went in with a noise issue, asked for the car not to be washed. Collected the car and not only had it been washed but it had also sustained damage to the front bumper and one of the lights, which wasn't flagged to me. Tesla accepted this damage was not present when I dropped the car, but could not explain how it had happened during their care. They are replacing the bumper and the light, which is good that they are sorting it out but I'm still not delighted with the whole thing, I guess accidents happen.

Anyway, when I get the car home, and view it in the dark under my security light the wash they performed has inflicted some really bad swirls across the whole car. Worse still the noise issue hasn't even been resolved.

Needless to say I'm pretty unhappy. Car is going back this week for replacement bumper, and to have the noise issue fixed. They have also told me they will detail the car, and are confident they can remove the swirls. Now given the washing practices they must have used to put them there in the first place I'm not very confident they can achieve this. In fact I'm worried they might make it worse. They did mention getting someone over from the delivery centre to do it who is apparently very competent. So my question is should I let them have a go at it? How much more damage could they inflict? As it stands I'm going to have to get the car professionally polished and detailed as I can't bear the way it looks at the moment, so I was thinking that assuming they cant make it much worse then I may as well let them try. Then if its still not right I will request they contribute to or pay for the detailing by someone who can actually make it right.

Would you cut your losses and just get the paintwork correction done by a third party or let Tesla try and sort it first?

 

[DM206433]

Which Tesla dealership was this?

If they really intend to do this in-house then I'd request to see examples of his previous work. If they can't provide that, I'd ask them to pay for a detailer of your choice to have the paint correction done.

Either way I'd expect them to be paying for it.

 

[GlynG]

Swirls are something only the very particular owner would notice and just about every garage offers a free car wash after service and not one of them do even a half decent job of the washing, they have a young kid with a hose and bucket - or even a power lance to blast the car - their aim is to spend the least amount of time on the car as they can. I have a laminated sign i hang in the car if my car ever goes into a garage which hangs from the interior mirror "Please do not wash this car" - its bright red and yellow - cant be missed. I also tell them not to wash when booking in.

I absolutely hate swirls and spend many days detailing my car when i first get it to ensure the paintwork is fully corrected and then a couple of coats of Carnauba wax to make the car better than new.
In your situation I would let them do the detail - your logic that they couldn't make it any worse, plus, you intend to pay for a proper detailing once they are finished with it may just mean they do it right and you save yourself the additional cost - but at worst you are in no worse a condition if they do a rubbish job.

Prior to taking the car in take lots of photos of the car and adjust the light to ensure all the defects are visible, once they have finished take a load more photos - if your still unhappy then book your professional detailer to correct it, the detailer will take before and after he has finished photos - so you will have a record of just how much work has been done - and give Tesla a copy of your detailing bill to see what they propose.

This is your car not Tesla's so you are entitled to be as fussy as you like, In law you have recourse to a small claim as the introduction of swirls is damages and your claim would be a tort under negligence. (They failed to do something they should have or they did something they shouldn't have done) You told them not to wash it, they did and they swirled the paintwork, they offered and you accepted a full detail to correct it - If they don't correct it then they should settle the detailers bill you paid for. Obviously the process wont be so easy as they will resist paying and try every trick in the book to avoid paying out but stick to your guns and they will back down - or a simple claim in the small claims court will get them moving.

 

[steamerd]

Swirls are something only the very particular owner would notice and just about every garage offers a free car wash after service and not one of them do even a half decent job of the washing, they have a young kid with a hose and bucket - or even a power lance to blast the car - their aim is to spend the least amount of time on the car as they can. I have a laminated sign i hang in the car if my car ever goes into a garage which hangs from the interior mirror "Please do not wash this car" - its bright red and yellow - cant be missed. I also tell them not to wash when booking in.

I absolutely hate swirls and spend many days detailing my car when i first get it to ensure the paintwork is fully corrected and then a couple of coats of Carnauba wax to make the car better than new.
In your situation I would let them do the detail - your logic that they couldn't make it any worse, plus, you intend to pay for a proper detailing once they are finished with it may just mean they do it right and you save yourself the additional cost - but at worst you are in no worse a condition if they do a rubbish job.

Prior to taking the car in take lots of photos of the car and adjust the light to ensure all the defects are visible, once they have finished take a load more photos - if your still unhappy then book your professional detailer to correct it, the detailer will take before and after he has finished photos - so you will have a record of just how much work has been done - and give Tesla a copy of your detailing bill to see what they propose.

This is your car not Tesla's so you are entitled to be as fussy as you like, In law you have recourse to a small claim as the introduction of swirls is damages and your claim would be a tort under negligence. (They failed to do something they should have or they did something they shouldn't have done) You told them not to wash it, they did and they swirled the paintwork, they offered and you accepted a full detail to correct it - If they don't correct it then they should settle the detailers bill you paid for. Obviously the process wont be so easy as they will resist paying and try every trick in the book to avoid paying out but stick to your guns and they will back down - or a simple claim in the small claims court will get them moving.

Thanks for the reply, I will definitely get one of those signs made up in the future. And I will take the pictures to log everything. I will be pursuing this one way or another until the car is back into the condition that it should be in.

Assuming for now that I get the car back and the noise is fixed, the bumper is replaced and looks fine, and all the paintwork is sorted, I still feel aggravated by the whole experience - the amount of time wasted going back and forth to the garage (I was without my car for 2 days, and they say they "hope" to get me a loaner when it goes back but I may be without it and a loaner from Friday morning to Monday), writing messages, speaking to people on the phone, the general irritation it has caused me etc.

I think Tesla should offer me something for my inconvenience and their general poor service here. I'm not sure what, maybe some merch or extent my free connectivity period, or anything, just a gesture of goodwill really. Do you think its reasonable to expect something, and how would you tackle that with them? I find the general methods of contacting Tesla quite frustrating in general to be honest, even at the service centre its like a ghost town and end up stood round for ages as they will seemingly rather do anything than talk to you face to face.

 

[Envchem]

Which SC is this one? On all my visits so far on SCs (Manchester and Chester) they never bothered washing it.
Especially during my car's extended visit on the Manchester one last year (car stayed there for two weeks) when I got it back it I was surprised that they didn't even run some water over it. I had to leave the car on a side road due to front motor failure during a storm and the car was covered in mud top to bottom.

 

[steamerd]

Which SC is this one? On all my visits so far on SCs (Manchester and Chester) they never bothered washing it.
Especially during my car's extended visit on the Manchester one last year (car stayed there for two weeks) when I got it back it I was surprised that they didn't even run some water over it. I had to leave the car on a side road due to front motor failure during a storm and the car was covered in mud top to bottom.

Manchester. Its funny cos I asked why it got washed when I requested no. And I was told normally they don't wash it, so he didn't know why it had been done. It was also pretty clean when it went in anyway as I'd cleaned it myself a week earlier and not used it much. He thought it may be that the car has ended up covered in finger prints from working on it and so that prompted them to clean it, this would probably make sense with where the heaviest swirling is around the bonnet and wheel arches, which is where they were working mainly and presumably most finger marks would be.

 

[glide]

I had a disappointing recent experience at the Tesla service centre. Brand new Model 3 went in with a noise issue, asked for the car not to be washed. Collected the car and not only had it been washed but it had also sustained damage to the front bumper and one of the lights, which wasn't flagged to me. Tesla accepted this damage was not present when I dropped the car, but could not explain how it had happened during their care. They are replacing the bumper and the light, which is good that they are sorting it out but I'm still not delighted with the whole thing, I guess accidents happen.

Anyway, when I get the car home, and view it in the dark under my security light the wash they performed has inflicted some really bad swirls across the whole car. Worse still the noise issue hasn't even been resolved.

Needless to say I'm pretty unhappy. Car is going back this week for replacement bumper, and to have the noise issue fixed. They have also told me they will detail the car, and are confident they can remove the swirls. Now given the washing practices they must have used to put them there in the first place I'm not very confident they can achieve this. In fact I'm worried they might make it worse. They did mention getting someone over from the delivery centre to do it who is apparently very competent. So my question is should I let them have a go at it? How much more damage could they inflict? As it stands I'm going to have to get the car professionally polished and detailed as I can't bear the way it looks at the moment, so I was thinking that assuming they cant make it much worse then I may as well let them try. Then if its still not right I will request they contribute to or pay for the detailing by someone who can actually make it right.

Would you cut your losses and just get the paintwork correction done by a third party or let Tesla try and sort it first?

I don’t even like letting them service my car. No way in hell I would trust then to detail it properly.