Sydney Service Center and my CHAdeMO adapter.

[MMinehan]

Here's the back story. Imported a 90D into New Zealand. Ordered the CHAdeMO adapter with the car which was in the boot when it arrived in NZ. Tried to use the CHAdeMO adapter at 3 different locations with different makes of DC fast chargers (Veefil, Delta, ABB). Every time I tried to use the adapter I got some sort of 'communication error'. Borrowed a different adapter from a local and it worked perfectly. Rang Sydney service. They said send the adapter back to them for testing. Couriered it over to Sydeny. They tested it and said there is nothing wrong with it and that it could be the car that has the problem. I asked why would another adapter work? They said they would look at the vehicle logs. I sent them the times and locations of where I tried to use the adapter...including photos which I took at the time. Haven't heard anything back.

They have had the adapter for over 2 weeks now. I have rung them and emailed them a few times to ask what is going on. They said they have been very busy and haven't had time.

I offered to buy an adapter locally from a DC faster charger company here in NZ if they just refunded the cost of the adapter. At least that way I could be sure I had a working adapter. But Tesla said they don't do refunds.

Is it just me or is this bordering on poor customer service? I'm not sure what my next move should be. I emailed them again yesterday to say come on guys...what is happening? But no response. I mentioned that the 'early adpoters' in NZ are doing Tesla a favour by showing off the Model S to locals adding to the ground swell.

I know customer service in Australia tends to be less than what Kiwis are used to, but this is starting to piss me off a bit. It's a shame really as it detracts from the whole Tesla experience.

Is the service center in Sydney always this poor?

 

[eclectricdave]

Make sure you have seated the adaptor correctly in the chademo cord & your car.

 

[*KT*]

This week will have been insane workload in Sydney due to the X launch and dealing with those LHD babies. I heard of at least one service tech currently in fremont for X training. Not an excuse for poor service but possibly a reason.
Hope it gets back to normal this week and get your charger issue solved

 

[Homer]

Is the service center in Sydney always this poor?

Have you contacted Huw, the service manager? I've never had a problem with Tesla service at St Leonards. I think Tesla provides more of a tech-company style service than a luxury-car-brand style service and they are mostly fairly young but in saying that I get the strong impression that they genuinely want to help and there seems to be a real culture around customer happiness.

Oh and in my experience dealing with several Kiwi companies, I wouldn't necessarily agree with your comment about the customer service differences between our two countries. You guys can be just as slack as our guys ... it's just that you do it on a tiny scale so fewer people notice.

 

[RichardMcN]

Doesn't sound great @MMinehan .

Maybe ring Adriano (service advisor) +61 2 8424 9524 at St Leonards. Not sure if he is the right person for NZ, but he is REALLY helpful and might be able to get something happening.

If you return it and they still say its good, I would be happy to try out the adapter on a couple of sites before it goes back to you.

 

[MMinehan]

Make sure you have seated the adaptor correctly in the chademo cord & your car.

Trust me....made sure everything was connected firmly. Tried various combinations of adapter/charger sequences....adapter into charger then car. I read some forums that said try starting the charger with the adapter not plugged into car etc. All sorts. And always the same error.

Even another Model S owner, very familiar with fast charging, got the same fault. Admittedly with my charger and my car. We didn't try it on another Model S which we should have done I guess.

 

[MMinehan]

Oh and in my experience dealing with several Kiwi companies, I wouldn't necessarily agree with your comment about the customer service differences between our two countries. You guys can be just as slack as our guys ... it's just that you do it on a tiny scale so fewer people notice

Sort of. New Zealand has specific legislation to protect comsumers. The Consumers Guarantee Act protects consumers beyond manufactures warranty periods. E.g. our Miele hob faulted. Rang Miele NZ which goes to Australia. The Australian call center said sorry..out of warranty. But the act says an appliances must last a reasonable amount of time irrespective of the warranty. A reasonable person would expect a hob to last more than the 2 year warranty period. I quoted the act and after some discussion they conceded that had to pay for the repair as per the act. There are precedents of people getting 7 year old fridges repaired under the act. (Consumer Guarantees Act and Fair Trading Act)

But having said there are some terrible examples of customer service in NZ. Utility companies and telcos seem to be some of the worst.

 

[MMinehan]

Doesn't sound great @MMinehan .

Maybe ring Adriano (service advisor) +61 2 8424 9524 at St Leonards. Not sure if he is the right person for NZ, but he is REALLY helpful and might be able to get something happening.

If you return it and they still say its good, I would be happy to try out the adapter on a couple of sites before it goes back to you.

Thanks Richard. That's some great advice. And thank you for the kind offer to test it. I might take you up on the offer depending on the outcome. I will call Tesla again on Monday. I guess the introduction of the X has slowed them down a bit.

 

[Homer]

Sort of. New Zealand has specific legislation to protect comsumers.

Yes, we have the same thing here and you'll find most western countries have similar laws; there's nothing particularly unique about the NZ situation (and, like a lot of NZ law, it may be based on ours anyway). The Australian consumer law provides that "Warranties are separate from your automatic consumer guarantees. The consumer guarantees which apply regardless of any warranties suppliers sell or give to you, apply for a reasonable time depending on the nature of the goods or services. This means consumer guarantees may continue to apply after the time period for the warranty has expired." More here.

 

[garyjac]

Al quite right. If an article is "not fit for purpose" then you can have it repaired, a refund, or have it replaced, but that is YOUR option, not the option of the retailer. As for saying "we don't give refunds" then that too is contrary to the law mentioned. It is even contrary to Consumer Law to display a sign saying: "No Refunds". Tsk, Tsk, Tesla. That said, I suspect they'll get the finger out when confronted with slackness. Talking to Huw has helped in the past.

 

[MMinehan]

Yes, we have the same thing here and you'll find most western countries have similar laws

That's good to know. I wonder why Miele Australia were being so difficult then. It's not like it's a new concept for them.

Talking to Huw has helped in the past.

I'll give him a call on Monday. Thanks.

 

[garyjac]

Companies are "difficult" because they don't think they will be challenged on this point. Statutory warranty also continues well beyond the manufacturer's explicit written warranty and what is "reasonable" is based on the cost of the article in question and the period of time in general practice (the life of the article in question that is "normal").

 

[meloccom]

I would start a conversation with SteveWest as he had one of the first Model S in NZ and is heavily involved in the promotion of fast charging in NZ.
I also recall when the Uni of Queensland installed some Vefill CHADEMO chargers they needed a firmware update before they would talk to a Tesla via the adapter but as an alternate adapter worked it doesn't sound like your issue.

 

[SteveWest]

I'm already in the loop on this. I was the "local" that verified that my adaptor worked without a problem on the same car/charger combo.

 

[eclectricdave]

Ill check the pin outs on my Chardemo adaptor which i have used 3X and let you know later in the week because its at the farm. you can then get Richard to check yours with the info provided. You could borrow a NZ unit to check your car. Have a look in the outlet & see if there is any detritus preventing a good connection.

 

[MMinehan]

You could borrow a NZ unit to check your car.

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply. We did check my car with another adapter (Steve West's) and it worked. Which is why I'm thinking it's the adapter. But from what I have read on the interwebs it's all a bit complicated as there is a processor and firmware etc in the adapter. There are a few posts of similar problems being fixed with adapter firmware updates.
I'll ring Sydney again today and see what they have to say.
Cheers, M.

 

[MMinehan]

So...an update.
I rang Sydney yesterday. Spoke to Ruby who said they have sent the problem to engineering. They also said they would let me know by the afternoon what the problem was. And guess what.....no response. It annoys me when people say they will get back to you and they don't. Grrr. So still waiting on a solution.

It's been 3 weeks since they had the adapter in hand. Not impressed.

 

[MMinehan]

So finally had a call 10 days ago from a technician called Mike who has been really helpful. After looking at the logs and me doing some more testing with another borrowed adapter it turns out there is a 'calibration problem' with the latch in the charge port which he says requires a technician/ranger to fix. Either the port needs to be re-calibrated or replaced. So out of luck for us Kiwis.

But I did figure out a way to get it to work. I have to plug in adapter and hold the adapter plug firmly upwards until it latches (about 5 seconds), unlike my wall charger plug that I just plug in and walk away from.

I don't know how the charge port latch actually works but it seems there is some sort of detection system that can be calibrated.

But....I am still waiting for them to send my adapter back as they said there is a firmware upgrade for the adapter that they are going to apply. I have spoken to other NZ owners recently who also mentioned the support of Kiwis has significantly declined recently. I guess they are busy with the X and trying to get the 3 into production. Which is a shame as we are actually doing Tesla a favor by 'advancing the cause' here in NZ.