Sub Par Service Experience @ Tesla Renton (Seattle)

Service completed under warranty, however process was underwhelming.

We noticed a glass crack last week, scheduled a service appointment, had the work completed (but then were given a new “issue”). On top of all this, they fell behind with scheduling and we missed our travel window before a winter storm took over our region.

- Friday: noticed glass crack and requested appointment for following Wednesday
- Wednesday AM: dropped off car and informed it would be a full day job (needed alignment check for unrelated issue).
- Wednesday PM: arrived back at service center at 5pm, after confirming through Tesla service chat that car would be ready. Car was not ready - the replacement glass had not arrived from another service center until late afternoon. (edit: we were hoping to have our car in the evening, load up and depart 6:00 am Thursday, but not needed to leave the car overnight for an AM job)
- Thursday AM: picked up car around 11:00 am, noticed trim issue. They took a look and said it was “under spec”, but offered to try to rectify at our next scheduled appointment (autopilot concern).
- Thursday PM: left for our road trip around noon, about an hour into the drive, realized we would not have made it safely through Cascade Locks and decided to turn around and hunker down for a couple days for the ice and wind storm to pass. Later, we found out our route to Idaho via I-84 was closed due to forecasted 70 mph gusts, downed trees and up to 0.5” ice! Our only other route to Idaho, via I-90 / Snoqualmie Pass, had also been closed to extreme conditions, crashes and spin outs.

Pros:
- scheduling appointment via Tesla app and service chat
- service rep was as helpful as he could be
- window crack covered by Tesla (per our friend in auto glass industry, it was a stress crack)
- window glass replaced successfully

Cons:
- service tech left a new panel gap
- service chat unresponsive while they had our car, shared inaccurate estimated completion times
- unnecessary travel to/from service center
- service center was pretty disorganized (IMO the employees are not to blame here, rather management and higher-ups should be responsible for this)
- generally, not including our road trip situation, this experience was very inefficient!

I wish the service center had that particular glass in stock before our appointment. Does anyone know why they wouldn’t have it in stock, ordered prior to our appointment? Or is it just stupid luck that their trucks got grounded, labor shortage, etc.? Their employees seemed gassed from the day’s work when we happened to be there during closing hours.

We will be missing Christmas with my in-laws, and although disappointing, we’ve made peace with our decisions and the uncontrollable variables like weather, Tesla service practices, etc. We woke up to about a 0.25” of ice in our driveway, so staying in and binging White Lotus S2 was a good call.

Hope everyone is safe with the crazy weather out there!

 

[Sango2]

We originally wanted Seattle or Bellevue, but chose Renton due to more convenient time for our itinerary. I almost wonder though if their reps and techs are assigned to different locations... I recognized a sales rep at Renton whom we interacted with at the Tesla showroom at Bellevue Square. I'm also guessing that there is a possibility that Tesla service chat is done remotely and further - the possibility of miscommunication between service chat at service tech (could be reason why our service chat was providing inaccurate time estimate).
Please do post here if you do go to Bellevue - I'm curious if its any better.

I went to my appointment today in Renton, as I could not reschedule in Bellevue in time. Turned out their tech are overwhelmed that they were unable to work on a slightly lose adhesive on the driver repeater cam therefore scheduled to have mobile service to go to my home to work on it.

In a way, there was some lost time but ended up going to Target to find Turtle Wax Bug and Tar remover to use to get rid of tar splatter off the PPF.

I did note, a customer complemented on the SA's handling of a situation over the phone were an SA literally hung up on a customer because the customer was verry rude by not allowing him to speak and was warned and I was beside that SA as a different SA was serving me.

 

[nitynity]

Tesla survived so far just because they didn’t have any serious competition and that’s going to change soon. I just picked up my model 3 last week and after the online order the customer service sucked through delivery.

It is a good car with a lot of cool features, but if they don’t catch up with the customer service, they will be losing business sooner or later. Now everybody’s coming up with EV’s and they will have tough competition moving forward.
They can’t take customers and Customer Support for granted anymore. Text based customer support is the worst.

 

[TespaceX]

Tesla survived so far just because they didn’t have any serious competition and that’s going to change soon. I just picked up my model 3 last week and after the online order the customer service sucked through delivery.

It is a good car with a lot of cool features, but if they don’t catch up with the customer service, they will be losing business sooner or later. Now everybody’s coming up with EV’s and they will have tough competition moving forward.
They can’t take customers and Customer Support for granted anymore. Text based customer support is the worst.

If you thought that the customer service during delivery was bad, just wait until you see how bad the experience at a service center can get. Oh, boy, you’re in for fun times.
My closest service center is now averaging 80-90 new car appointments per day. No loaners. Only $100 Uber credit if your car needs to be in for more than 24 hours. And, that $100 can’t be used towards tipping the Uber driver. Imagine buying a $150K Plaid model and told to hitch your own ride.

No advisor or tech gives a crap. I just picked up my car with windows half way down during the rainstorm CA just had over the New Years weekend.

Fortunately, many new owners soon find out first hand shortly after getting their new Tesla. Unfortunately, most don’t research and find out before taking delivery.

 

[nitynity]

If you thought that the customer service during delivery was bad, just wait until you see how bad the experience at a service center can get. Oh, boy, you’re in for fun times.
My closest service center is now averaging 80-90 new car appointments per day. No loaners. Only $100 Uber credit if your car needs to be in for more than 24 hours. And, that $100 can’t be used towards tipping the Uber driver. Imagine buying a $150K Plaid model and told to hitch your own ride.

No advisor or tech gives a crap. I just picked up my car with windows half way down during the rainstorm CA just had over the New Years weekend.

Fortunately, many new owners soon find out first hand shortly after getting their new Tesla. Unfortunately, most don’t research and find out before taking delivery.

I was having hard time getting in touch with a live agent after placing the order. I did look up the reviews on yelp for the two local service centers and they both validate your statement. 2 star or below ratings. I am seriously hoping Tesla willl start adding more service centers as that is going to affect their business big time if not.

 

[Turchard]

It’s a shame as the tech and service was what made me forego build quality issues, but the service has become that lax that it can’t mask the other disappointments now. Their tune changes from car to car with lies also. I had a charge port latching issue in which the full unit was replaced on my own property driveway. On my second car they scheduled it for a home visit (charge port was catching and not closing properly) and they rescheduled it because they needed it on site, or so they claimed. It was obvious that they just couldn’t cope with what service they offered so asked me to complete a 140 mile trip to rectify something they caused. They had the audacity to try and charge me for it when the issue only occurred because they had fitted a tail light replacement incorrectly.

 

[TespaceX]

It’s a shame as the tech and service was what made me forego build quality issues, but the service has become that lax that it can’t mask the other disappointments now. Their tune changes from car to car with lies also. I had a charge port latching issue in which the full unit was replaced on my own property driveway. On my second car they scheduled it for a home visit (charge port was catching and not closing properly) and they rescheduled it because they needed it on site, or so they claimed. It was obvious that they just couldn’t cope with what service they offered so asked me to complete a 140 mile trip to rectify something they caused. They had the audacity to try and charge me for it when the issue only occurred because they had fitted a tail light replacement incorrectly.

This is what happened to me.

In my case, they clearly messed up something during a repair while under warranty less than a couple months ago. Now, my warranty just lapsed and service center told me to pay for the repair. They said the 1-year work guarantee only applies to repair work done by cash pay and not free under warranty. Like who the hell pays for warranty work while under warranty? Showed them the warranty guidelines and even brought it up to service manager. Told me to take my car back if I don’t pay. No go. Done with this.

Why did I not go back immediately? Because that was the closest appointment time available for me.

 

[Zimo]

With my 3 year old M3, I’ve had my car into a service center only once And service was fine. That was to replace a parking sensor after I hit a piece of truck tire that knocked the sensor out. I’ve had 3 other maintenance issues. Replaced 12v battery (warranty), tire rotation, and rear light (warrenty) all handled efficiently by a mobile tech. Maybe I’m a fanboy or maybe I have a great car and have experienced great service.

 

[Turchard]

With my 3 year old M3, I’ve had my car into a service center only once And service was fine. That was to replace a parking sensor after I hit a piece of truck tire that knocked the sensor out. I’ve had 3 other maintenance issues. Replaced 12v battery (warranty), tire rotation, and rear light (warrenty) all handled efficiently by a mobile tech. Maybe I’m a fanboy or maybe I have a great car and have experienced great service.

I bought a Tesla and think it’s a great car. You’ve had 3 issues that have had to be replaced

 

[Turchard]

My issue was the wording of the advice really. This is the update I was provided in December….initially going in in June and accepting the advice. As it wasn’t solved in that time I was basically asked to monitor the fault, whilst driving, and knowingly putting my family in the seats with the issue. I was charged every time I took the car in whilst I was concerned with the issue. This appears to be an unsolvable issue that I simply have to be comfortable with every time I get in the car.