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Tesla center can't fix my M3 now doesn't reply back to me

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Hi everyone, I need some suggestion and wisdom from you guys.

Since Nov 04 2021, My M3 has been running into a chain issues starting from the 12v battery failure, I used the app and booked an appointment for a remote service. after a few days a remote service guy came and tried to fix my problem. However, first thing he did was using screw driver and scooped out the tow panel (later I read on the tesla online manual, you don’t scoop it out like most car, you just need to push the upper right of the panel to open it, and of course he broke my tow cover and left a mark on my car) And then he pop the frunk and change the battery (and again he forgot to disconnect some cable under the back seats and did it later when it went all wrong) at the first the car power back on, but then we realized now the car is half paralyzed and can not put into drive mode even tow mode. he tried to do something with the 12v battery again (and broke my air intake part for the AC unit, I didn’t realize this until he left). He gave up and ask me to tow it. I called the tesla tow center and ended up wasted the day because the first guy can’t tow it with out putting it into tow mode, and the second tow company cancelled the tow without telling me and tesla tow center called me back to tell me they cancelled the tow. (One whole day wasted with the pay leave)

Second day a tow company finally towed my M3 and I went with the tow guy to the center and explained what happened. They returned my M3 back and did the recall for reseal front upper control arm ball joints after 4-5 days of waiting. (However, after they touched it, the power steering issue started, I just don’t know if it linked or all together with the battery issue not fully fixed)

Fist of all, when I went pick up my car, I realized my driver side windshield wiper is not rotating right and it will go all the way outside of my driver’s side window, I ask them to fix it right there, but then after I drove home, I realized there are more things they did do it right. There is a plastic cover right under the windshield, it should be “click” into the line gap on the edge of the lower windshield, it was not and barely connected, so I put them back myself (I should have take a picture before I did that) and then they have not fix my air intake park that was broken by the first remote service guy and all the air intake parts was just on top of the broken air intake parts not even click back together. (They surely did something here for the 12V battery issue but why they didn’t put everything correctly that beats me)

So, I have to spend other day off to get other remote service guy over to fix the air intake, this time was a young guy who knows his stuff. He told me he doesn’t have the parts with him (even tho I took the picture of the parts and sent the parts serial number to the center before the appointment date) and he didn’t get any update from the center where I sent the information and picture to. However, he still tried his best and used “M3” tape to tape the broken parts and temporary fixed the issue for me until he got the parts. At the same time, we also found little issue from the last repair, like wires not putting back to the wire holder. And here is one key information I got from him while I am chatting with him. He told me that they were expending way to fast on staff and a lot of new staff was not “well trained and they just don’t know how to fix tesla correctly yet” And he was one of the senior staff who need to give training to the new staff but the company did not give them time to do so.

Before this remote service appointment, I already started getting error message from my car which saying “steering assist reduced” but I thought it was ok because after I search internet, some say it might be caused by the cold weather and since it is starting to get cold here in Maryland, I didn’t mention it to the remote service guy. However, the nightmare starts from here.

First I started getting the same “steering assist reduced” message more frequently, to everyday when I started my M3, and then power steering will lose the power before I even drive out of my parking lot. I started messaging the tesla center but of course they gave me a long waiting appointment date. Until it happened while I was driving on the highway, and I must turn the power steering wheel lost the power. Luckily, I did not get into any accident, and during this time I found one way to fix it is to come out of the car (with my phone key or it wouldn’t work) closed the door and re-enter the car. Which I did, but then I realized how dangerous this becoming after a few trucks drove by while I got out of the car on the side of the road and reentering the car. I have to message the tesla center a couple time to ask if I can bring my car over since this issue is critical. And finally, after I asked them if they suggest me keeping driving until my appointment date (which is about other week or so) They ask me to tow my car to the center.

After all that, now it is Jan 2022, my car started the same issue while I was going to drive my family and my son’s friend, luckily it happens in the parking lot, not on the highway.

My next appointment was scheduled on Jan 13 because they don’t have time to take my car and they also stopped responding to me. Since this is all under warranty, can I just tow my car to the center and ask them to give me a loaners car or Uber credit? I really need a car to work next week. Please help me out and shared your wisdom with me. Thank you!
 
My wife had to take her M3 LR (picked up on 12/28 and had under 700 Miles, 666 :rolleyes::eek:to be exact) for some minor panel gaps and a coolant leak that the SC thought was due to air pockets. They estimated an hour to fix the issues. She opted to wait at the SC. At the end of the hour, they came and told her that the super manifold assembly was the cause of the leak and it would be 3-4 hours before they can complete it. Luckily, they had the part in stock. They offered to get her an Uber to the nearest Enterprise Rent-A-Car and told her to pick out a car of her choice at Enterprise. They apologized for not having a loaner for her.
At 4:00pm, I got the notification that the car was ready and so I told my wife to return the rental and just get a uber and not to bother Tesla for the return trip. The tech was super helpful and offered to move the bags from the Uber to her M3. He again apologized for not having a loaner.
Overall, she was very pleased with the way they handled the whole situation.
She never takes any of the vehicles for service or oil changes. Its been my job. However, with this experience, she offered to take the Tesla any time it required anything. Lol.
Note: I never visit the SC empty handed. I always take a couple dozen donuts and told my wife to do the same.
I will trade my SC with yours lol mine has no donuts not even a bottle of water.
 
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By "free" they mean when they settle they will take a giant chunk of your settlement money. They wouldn't invest significant time/resources to lemoning a car unless it's an absolute slam dunk. In which case, just lemon it yourself. If the car gets fixed up and you want to get rid of it, you're better off selling in this hot market vs trying to lemon. It seems likely that Tesla will fix your steering problem and hopefully you can avoid having more inexperienced techs touch your car.



Elon is the devil confirmed. Or your wife. 😂
Thanks for the advice, I guess I will likely end up doing the lemon my self.
 
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I will trade my SC with yours lol mine has no donuts not even a bottle of water.

I believe you misunderstood what @GeoG ment. They ment that THEY take donuts to the service center employees, not that the service center has donuts for customers.

I havent ever done that with SC employees, but I do offer snacks / drinks etc to anyone I have doing work for me at home, including my gardner, or any contractors I have doing anything . That little courtesy tends to work very well in getting someone to want to do everything they can do to help you / perform whatever functions they can for you.

I have said this in various threads here, but speaking as someone (myself) who has either performed customer service, or managed people who do the same for my entire working career, there almost always is a LARGE difference between what someone "has" to do, and what someone "can" do to help you when it comes to ANY customer service situation.

The trick is usually to get someone to WANT to do everything they CAN do (not what they have to do) for you. Remember that anyone in a customer service roll likely gets basically yelled at, either politely or not so politely, all day, every day, and every single contact they have is with someone with a problem.

They are usually sympathetic, but anyone coming at a customer service person with an aggressive tone is ensuring that they will only get what "has" to be done, from both them, and likely anyone up the chain from them as well. "politely insistent" is a term that I like to use, because that works, in most cases.

I could give a few more tips, but in general what happens is people start saying stuff like " I dont give a Q#$Q# those people are there to do a JOB and they are supposed to HELP ME!" or some variation of that. so I will refrain from making any more tips except to say that if one keeps "polite" in mind, and also the fact that there is almost a gap between "policy" and what someone can actually do, and the goal is convincing them to "bend" policy for YOUR case, you are on the right track.
 
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I believe you misunderstood what @GeoG ment. They ment that THEY take donuts to the service center employees, not that the service center has donuts for customers.

I havent ever done that with SC employees, but I do offer snacks / drinks etc to anyone I have doing work for me at home, including my gardner, or any contractors I have doing anything . That little courtesy tends to work very well in getting someone to want to do everything they can do to help you / perform whatever functions they can for you.

I have said this in various threads here, but speaking as someone (myself) who has either performed customer service, or managed people who do the same for my entire working career, there almost always is a LARGE difference between what someone "has" to do, and what someone "can" do to help you when it comes to ANY customer service situation.

The trick is usually to get someone to WANT to do everything they CAN do (not what they have to do) for you. Remember that anyone in a customer service roll likely gets basically yelled at, either politely or not so politely, all day, every day, and every single contact they have is with someone with a problem.

They are usually sympathetic, but anyone coming at a customer service person with an aggressive tone is ensuring that they will only get what "has" to be done, from both them, and likely anyone up the chain from them as well. "politely insistent" is a term that I like to use, because that works, in most cases.

I could give a few more tips, but in general what happens is people start saying stuff like " I dont give a Q#$Q# those people are there to do a JOB and they are supposed to HELP ME!" or some variation of that. so I will refrain from making any more tips except to say that if one keeps "polite" in mind, and also the fact that there is almost a gap between "policy" and what someone can actually do, and the goal is convincing them to "bend" policy for YOUR case, you are on the right track.
Thanks for clearing that up :)
I agree with efverythjing you have said. You definitely get treated based on how you treat them.
The Christmas season was a great excuse to start dropping off some goodies and get to be friends with them. The sausage and cheese platter was a huge hit as well.
 
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Building just a bit on what I said in my last post, something else I have said about Tesla specifically in a few threads here, is that Tesla as a company has done a VERY good job of "hiding people who can say YES" from the general public.

"Yes" almost always cost a company more money. The whole "pushing everyone to the app" etc, in my opinion anyway, is as much about removing people who can say "Yes" (thus "bend" policy) from the decision making equation, and removing the contact that would encourage them to do so.

From a pure numbers standpoint it makes sense, and is actually somewhat decent strategy (again from a numbers standpoint). My opinion only here, with no particular insight into Tesla as a company, but this is why its very difficult to (for example) get anyone beside a line level employee on the phone for tesla energy concerns, or get past a service writer at a SC.

Another regular nugget, those people (1st line phone support, for example) are almost always also judged on how many things they escalate. There is a metric that is generally used called "first call resolution" that a company will use to determine what percentage of calls the phone support person is supposed to be able to handle without escalation.

That number is going to be something like 80-85 or even 90%. If you are on the phone with someone and it seems like they dont want to escalate something or you are having issues getting them to escalate something, this metric is likely the reason. The metric exists because, as you go up the customer service chain from 1st level up through however many levels of support an organization has, the problem is supposed to get more complex, need more seasoned (thus more expensive) people to resolve.

TL ; DR -- 1st level support people are also part gatekeepers, since people above them have even more "ability to say Yes" than they do.

Tesla usually prevents all customer contact with anyone other than 1st line help people, with a few exceptions, at least in my own personal experience, so they dont have as many "Yes" (that cost extra money).

I guess I could also say that, in general terms, I find that Tesla customer support people are generally willing to help, once someone takes a bit of time to be polite / commiserate with their situation, with something like:
===========================
" I am pretty frustrated right now, but please realize that I know that you did not cause my issue and are trying to help. Here is what I am frustrated about (explain). I would greatly appreciate if you could advise me on next steps in resolving / A great outcome for me would be if I could (explain what you want).
==========================

errr... I said I wasnt going to get into more of this and I have anyway... ill stop here, except to say that I usually get what I am looking for out of customer service interactions in general.
 
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Thank you I did check the Lemon but it has be be within 2 years and under 18000 mils, which my M3 just passed the 2 years mark and is about 23000 mils.
Almost positive that this timeline is satisfied by the first time you give Tesla the opportunity to repair the issue.

For example, if I purchased a Tesla on January 1st, 2020, and my state's lemon law gave me 2 years, as long as I put in a service request by January 1st, 2022, I will have had met such requirement.
 
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By "free" they mean when they settle they will take a giant chunk of your settlement money. They wouldn't invest significant time/resources to lemoning a car unless it's an absolute slam dunk.
The car owner is presented with the proposed settlement, and must agree in writing, after having the opportunity to go over the details. An attorney cannot agree to a settlement without your full consent and knowledge of the settlement details.

When I had to lemon my 2020 Honda Civic, I agreed to a settlement of $96k in which I was awarded $50k (took care of the entire car, and some extra for my time), and the remaining $46k was to be given to my attorney. Had I lemon'd the car myself, I would not be looking at a settlement anywhere close to the $50k I received, so I was more than happy to let my attorney take the rest, since I was already fairly compensated.

Pursuing a lemon car on your own may seem simple in theory, but wait until you see the charades car manufacturers play to make your life as humanly difficult as possible. Getting an honest lemon law attorney will do you better.
 
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Sadly, I am using Owings Mills SC. the first remote service guy who broke my car parts were from DC SC that is why I am trying to pick one that is less bad >_>;;;
I have always had decent service there, but they are absolutely overloaded, dealing with cars from the greater Baltimore area as well as York, Harrisburg, etc in PA. A location in Mechanicsburg, PA is supposed to open soon, which should take a good bit of that PA workload.
 
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I have always had decent service there, but they are absolutely overloaded, dealing with cars from the greater Baltimore area as well as York, Harrisburg, etc in PA. A location in Mechanicsburg, PA is supposed to open soon, which should take a good bit of that PA workload.
Oh no!! That's my (Owings Mills) SC too! Where do we go then? Rockville? Now you have me wondering if there are SC limitations? Like, can we choose between the two for service with no hassle? @Mr.Samurai, I don't actually see an SC in DC?
 
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Oh no!! That's my (Owings Mills) SC too! Where do we go then? Rockville? Now you have me wondering if there are SC limitations? Like, can we choose between the two for service with no hassle? @Mr.Samurai, I don't actually see an SC in DC?
I think this is a one-off. I will continue going to Owings Mills as they have always met or exceeded expectations. I like the idea of bringing them donuts or cookies and will the next time I'm there.
 
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Is the Owings Mills service center not showing up as an option for scheduling service for anyone else? I had some work done there a couple of weeks ago that introduced a lot of new issues and now I can't schedule a follow up there. It's telling me that the closest SC is in Rockville (an hour away from me). Really sucks because I can't turn on heat/defrost remotely anymore since the last service appointment (it was working fine before) and it's been consistenly below freezing, so sometimes I can't even open the doors.
 
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Is the Owings Mills service center not showing up as an option for scheduling service for anyone else? I had some work done there a couple of weeks ago that introduced a lot of new issues and now I can't schedule a follow up there. It's telling me that the closest SC is in Rockville (an hour away from me). Really sucks because I can't turn on heat/defrost remotely anymore since the last service appointment (it was working fine before) and it's been consistenly below freezing, so sometimes I can't even open the doors.
Oh oh, all I can see now is Rockville, Sterling and Vienna? Maybe we have to call direct to find out what's going on?
 
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