Tesla service and how they treat owners, really disappointed

[rtheron]

First let me say I love my MX, best thing I've ever purchased

But I'm bitterly disappointed in Tesla service/customer service in general, San Francisco service center specifically

I know they no longer give loaner vehicles (issue 1), so for the few minor issues I have I scheduled a service appointment for a time that I knew I'd be out of town, the plan being to drop off the vehicle late the day before since my flight departure time overlapped with the service appointment time - flight was booked after service appointment (first issue 2: appointments have to be booked way in advance now) - I have no interest in their Uber credits during service, I don't want to deal with some sub par ride share

Contacting the service center via phone redirects you to customer service (issue no 3), which takes forever, so nearly impossible to reach the service center to find out if I could drop the car of the evening before or make arrangements to do so

On arrival, even though the service team are clearly not doing anything but standing around, issue 4: I'm told they don't allow early drop off and that I would have to pay 200$ a night for each night the car stays there (one night early drop off and every night I'm not back in time from travel after they are done so at least one or two more nights)

I understand that model 3 sales have swamped them in terms of service volume, but model 3 production and sales projections were carefully planned, they knew EXACTLY what was coming and chose not to compensate. I've never had a service center treat me this way when owning a luxury vehicle (Audi's & BMW'S before my MX)

If you are going to position yourself as a luxury vehicle manufacturer & dealer then behave like one, these cars aren't cheap, give your customers the level of service we deserve

 

[MXWing]

carefully planned

 

[cwerdna]

issue 4: I'm told they don't allow early drop off and that I would have to pay 200$ a night for each night the car stays there (one night early drop off and every night I'm not back in time from travel after they are done so at least one or two more nights)

The first part's insane. I've never heard of even non-luxury car dealer service centers doing that. They seem to encourage one night early dropoffs. As for the latter, I've never been charged anything extra for leaving a car extra time, but I never really pushed it beyond a night or so extra.

 

[rjdoc74]

Apparently, at some centers you are not even allowed to speak to the service advisor at drop off. What a s***t show.

Telsa really doesn't want people to come to their service center for service

“And here’s the new kicker... they now send a text message the day before your service telling you not to attempt to talk to a service advisor when you arrive. The text instructs you to park in a numbered spot, drop your key in the drop bin, and walk away. They specifically tell you not to talk to the service advisors.”

 

[alloverx]

Yes the days of Tesla being a different kind of company are over. They now need to focus on making money.

 

[rkish]

I have had worst experience at Plano, TX service center. My MX had numerous body panel misalignment and delivery person told me service would address later. Later service says that should be delivery issue. They keep saying everything is within "spec", and they don't have anything to show what spec is. Panel below driver side headlight is bent and there's gap. Huge gaps by panel under side mirror. Front emblem is not at the center of frunk. I can whats inside freon the gaps of frunk. All gasps are several mm off/crooked. Several more..
They keep saying fixing panels can cause more issues so they won't touch. Worst owner tratment and car service for a $100K car. This is worse than Hondas and Toyota. I want to go back to Range Rover.

 

[rkish]

My MX is only two weeks old.

 

[rjdoc74]

I have had worst experience at Plano, TX service center. My MX had numerous body panel misalignment and delivery person told me service would address later. Later service says that should be delivery issue. They keep saying everything is within "spec", and they don't have anything to show what spec is. Panel below driver side headlight is bent and there's gap. Huge gaps by panel under side mirror. Front emblem is not at the center of frunk. I can whats inside freon the gaps of frunk. All gasps are several mm off/crooked. Several more..
They keep saying fixing panels can cause more issues so they won't touch. Worst owner tratment and car service for a $100K car. This is worse than Hondas and Toyota. I want to go back to Range Rover.

Welcome to Tesla lottery. You lost.

 

[kkillebrew]

To be fair, the Austin service center has been excellent. Compared to Jaguar or Lexus it is first class. No chip-on-the-shoulder grumpy service managers (Charles Maunde Jag in Austin out of business no wonder), or "You are here to be sold something your car concerns are secondary" attitude like Champion Toyota. I am no expert and my experience is limited, but I have only been met with courtesy, timeliness, and sincerity at the Austin center. We shall see as time progresses. But let me tell you I have a whole lot of years experience with the other high end ICE service centers, and in general they stink. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Daisame]

Think everyone needs to keep sharing horror stories of their service experience. Even if they are in the minority. Those types of things should not be allowed to continue. Specific examples are things that Tesla (or any company) can fix. Simply saying something sucks is hard to put a plan around. So while sharing that info here may be cathartic, I would strongly recommend tweets to Tesla and full accounts of the issues to Tesla customer support.

Most of the people here want Tesla to succeed. I hope that Tesla takes this feedback in the manner it was intended, not as simple complaints, but as opportunities to improve the experience and truly make owning a Tesla a transformative experience.

 

[rjdoc74]

Think everyone needs to keep sharing horror stories of their service experience. Even if they are in the minority. Those types of things should not be allowed to continue. Specific examples are things that Tesla (or any company) can fix. Simply saying something sucks is hard to put a plan around. So while sharing that info here may be cathartic, I would strongly recommend tweets to Tesla and full accounts of the issues to Tesla customer support.

Most of the people here want Tesla to succeed. I hope that Tesla takes this feedback in the manner it was intended, not as simple complaints, but as opportunities to improve the experience and truly make owning a Tesla a transformative experience.

We have been. Things just get worse.

 

[BulldogsRus]

My MX is only two weeks old.

Ouch.

 

[BulldogsRus]

Most of the people here want Tesla to succeed.

That's probably two-fold: most want the technology to succeed, Tesla owners want/need it to succeed to justify the purchase as early adopters, along with customer service support for their vehicles longterm. If somehow they went belly up next year it would be a shitshow, as they already have issues w/repair times and remedying issues appropriately to customers' expectations. I love Tesla and want they've managed to accomplish, but I'm not gonna lie...getting pampered by Lexus, Benz and BMW the past 3 decades with overall good to great reliability will be really hard to leave if Tesla doesn't get the ship righted soon regarding these growing pains they are experiencing. It's never a good sign when a company grows and starts scaling back warranty coverage and customer perks.

 

[kkillebrew]

That's probably two-fold: most want the technology to succeed, Tesla owners want/need it to succeed to justify the purchase as early adopters, along with customer service support for their vehicles longterm. If somehow they went belly up next year it would be a shitshow, as they already have issues w/repair times and remedying issues appropriately to customers' expectations. I love Tesla and want they've managed to accomplish, but I'm not gonna lie...getting pampered by Lexus, Benz and BMW the past 3 decades with overall good to great reliability will be really hard to leave if Tesla doesn't get the ship righted soon regarding these growing pains they are experiencing. It's never a good sign when a company grows and starts scaling back warranty coverage and customer perks.

I have not owned Mercedes or a BMW so I cannot speak for them, but the pampering you describe I have not seen in others. But I will reserve further judgement because I am a relatively new Tesla owner.

I also think that when you buy a high tech car you get the benefits along with the problems. So maybe some of you should switch to another manufacturer if you are not satisfied. If you are satisfied but frustrated make your criticisms constructive and informative. We all buy for different reasons.

 

[BulldogsRus]

I have not owned Mercedes or a BMW so I cannot speak for them, but the pampering you describe I have not seen in others. But I will reserve further judgement because I am a relatively new Tesla owner.

I also think that when you buy a high tech car you get the benefits along with the problems. So maybe some of you should switch to another manufacturer if you are not satisfied. If you are satisfied but frustrated make your criticisms constructive and informative. We all buy for different reasons.

Companies like the ones I mentioned have to do this because they want you to rate them highly in the follow-up survey, which then gives them access to addl. perks and incentives that are cash-based. On top of that they are expected to be held to a higher level than your ordinary KIA dept. simply because people associate higher costs with it. What does it say when Tesla is now advising you to not even contact let alone confront their service people? No one will have to switch because there are many more on the fence waiting it out, knowing that the competition is already building vehicles to challenge Tesla. What good is all that tech if the company that makes it has trouble fixing it? Tesla right now has a small window to iron this out, but fairly soon the landscape will change and they may have no one to blame but themselves. Remember, this is the company that announced they were closing down locations and laying off salespeople which is exactly what you shouldn't do when customers are complaining about lack of contact or too few options for service.

 

[toonman]

I have had worst experience at Plano, TX service center. My MX had numerous body panel misalignment and delivery person told me service would address later. Later service says that should be delivery issue. They keep saying everything is within "spec", and they don't have anything to show what spec is. Panel below driver side headlight is bent and there's gap. Huge gaps by panel under side mirror. Front emblem is not at the center of frunk. I can whats inside freon the gaps of frunk. All gasps are several mm off/crooked. Several more..
They keep saying fixing panels can cause more issues so they won't touch. Worst owner tratment and car service for a $100K car. This is worse than Hondas and Toyota. I want to go back to Range Rover.

Plano service center used to be excellent when they just opened. I would bring my new Model X in and they will fix all the gaps and imperfection (or at least try to). Now, their standard answer is it is within spec. I was shock when I found out a solution to my squeaking seat sound is a felt tape. A $100K car is supposed to be fixed using a felt tape?
All I can say is the last batch of people at this service center were excellent. Now it is bunch of half ass.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Tesla, nor any other manufacturer, gets their quality feedback from forums like there.

They get most of their data from warranty tickets. They can calculate the % of defects and precise cost to repair them.

If their warranty expenses increase on a per car basis, then they know that things are going wrong in engineering or assembly.

In Tesla case, their warranty expenses have been going down. They need to know if it is because their cars are getting better, or if service is just blowing off warranty claims "within Spec".

See some posts about the Tesla lottery. Belief is that some cars are absolutely perfect, and those are the lottery winners. More of the cars come with some small items, that are easily fixed by service, and others are kind of a mess, and owners wonder how they ever got through quality control inspections.

My impression is that they are getting better, but the higher volumes they are producing will also produce a higher volume of complaints.

 

[rjdoc74]

Tesla, nor any other manufacturer, gets their quality feedback from forums like there.

They get most of their data from warranty tickets. They can calculate the % of defects and precise cost to repair them.

If their warranty expenses increase on a per car basis, then they know that things are going wrong in engineering or assembly.

In Tesla case, their warranty expenses have been going down. They need to know if it is because their cars are getting better, or if service is just blowing off warranty claims "within Spec".

See some posts about the Tesla lottery. Belief is that some cars are absolutely perfect, and those are the lottery winners. More of the cars come with some small items, that are easily fixed by service, and others are kind of a mess, and owners wonder how they ever got through quality control inspections.

My impression is that they are getting better, but the higher volumes they are producing will also produce a higher volume of complaints.

Good points. I will just add that the reason warranty tickets are going down also is because they mark most repairs as goodwill, not warranty repair. In addition, last 2 times I was at SC for repairs, I received NO invoice at all. So occasionally they don't even acknowledge the car was even in

 

[Tessaract]

Truly feel for all of the people with the above stories. But I gotta say that Tesla service here in Ottawa (consisting of mobile service until recently when a real Service Center opened) has been first rate. I've had three visits by mobile service, and problems promptly dealt with in my own garage, and one visit to the new Service Center. The technicians have been competent, friendly, and have applied service bulletin fixed (called recalls by some) before I was even aware the SB's existed.

 

[rtheron]

My MX is only two weeks old.

I feel your pain, I had similar minor issues on delivery and got the white glove treatment with them fixing it, if only they would settle somewhere between the terrible service they give now and the excellent service they used to have