Tesla Service Experience - General Question

[Wstrasser]

Good morning all, I am awaiting the delivery of my new YP sometime in August 2022. Very exciting. I work in Rockville, MD and there is a Tesla service center around the corner from my office. Now that I'm an upcoming Tesla owner, I've noticed about 1,000 Teslas in several building parking lots within 1 mile of my office. Some pics attached of neighboring building parking lot. I thought these were all new cars, but realized today that they are all service cars. Every car has a red service tag # and some grease paint notes on the car. My general question relates to the amount of service that Teslas require? Most of these cars seems to have some minor mechanical squawks and a lot require body work. What can I expect service wise from my Tesla? Will it be in the shop a lot? Will there be extended delays when in shop that I'll need a rental car? Just concerned to see so many cars waiting for service. How are all these owners commuting? Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

[t3sl4drvr]

When the car works, it is great. Unfortunately Teslas have way more issues than anything else I have ever seen. Thus with less than perfect luck, the car will not always work as advertised.

Lousy quality combined with the super fast growth had led to service centers being extremely over capacity. This has in turn led to horrible service experience where you need to wait for many weeks (or months) to get your car fixed, issues are often not really fixed, and no-one at Tesla seems to care (if you ever get to talk to anyone).

This is not an evil plan by Tesla or anything. They just have become victim of being super successful. It does not help that the management is extremely product development oriented - not at all customer oriented.

My recommendation (as a Tesla car owner): cancel the order and buy something else than a Tesla. You still have time.

If you take you changes with Tesla, read the contract carefully. Opt-out of arbitration clause. Treat the contract and document all interactions with Tesla as you would be preparing for a legal battle. Because you might have to.

 

[Tronguy]

Um. I've been driving a 2018 M3 for almost four years now. 2018 was roughly when the M3 hit the market; so, there were the equivalent of recalls and such and the car's been in and out of the shop for this and that:

• Had a short in the wiring harness and blew the pyro fuse. That took.. about a week to get fixed, partly because of getting in line with the diagnostician, partly waiting for the Tesla people in CA to diagnose what that guy found, and a couple of days to get a new pagoda wiring harness. Actual fixit took a couple of days and the car's worked fine in that regard since then; they even threw in a new 12V battery.
• Rock hit the windshield and cracked same. At the time the only purveyor in NJ for a new windshield was Tesla. Took them a few days to get it in and two days to replace the windshield, although the second day was mostly about letting glue dry.
• The charge door flap stopped flapping. That was fixed by a mobile tech who rolled up, replaced the assembly, and rolled away. Didn't stop the car from charging but had to pull the door up by hand.
• Bought FSD in 2019 or so. At the time, going from the 2.5 computer to the 3.0 comp was done at the SC rather than by the mobile tech, although that was standard practice later. Nowadays, that's not a problem since all new cars come with the 3.0 computer.
• At one point in 2021 the running board got somewhat separated from the car. Mobile tech came down and snapped it into position.

On the other hand: This car's been driven all around the North East, out to Chicago, Kentucky, and South Carolina. No problems. And, when they get your car, mostly it's in and out. At least, in my experience.

 

[Wstrasser]

Thank you Tronguy for your feedback. Very helpful. Since I’m new to Tesla im missing the meaning of some of your acronyms but I’ll get caught up. I’ve received some other feedback and it seems opinions are all over the place in terms of service. My biggest concern is I feel that if something goes wrong I’ll need a rental car for an undetermined amount of time. Something I never think about with my hybrid Honda. Seems service wait times can vary based on the service center delays etc. Is the service center app booking system reliable? Thanks again.

 

[Tronguy]

Thank you Tronguy for your feedback. Very helpful. Since I’m new to Tesla im missing the meaning of some of your acronyms but I’ll get caught up. I’ve received some other feedback and it seems opinions are all over the place in terms of service. My biggest concern is I feel that if something goes wrong I’ll need a rental car for an undetermined amount of time. Something I never think about with my hybrid Honda. Seems service wait times can vary based on the service center delays etc. Is the service center app booking system reliable? Thanks again.

Generally: Whenever one of our Teslas has been in the shop, they generally offer Uber credits on the spot, for the length of time the car'll be in the shop. In at least one case (the blown pyro fuse) we got Uber credits for the first couple of days; then, when it was realized that the car was going to be in the shop for a few days, we ended up with an older Model S loaner.

My general understanding is that most SC's have a fixed, limited number of loaners that get passed around as they're available, but people mostly get Uber credits these days.

We haven't had to rent a car, ever.

Typical trip: About six weeks ago, while coming down a steep, busy, two-lane, curbless street in the dark of the night, a cop with lights flashing was coming up the other way. Like everybody else, shifted to the right to get out of the cop's way and slowed down. But not slow enough: One of the homeowners had a bunch of rocks on the steepish front of their property and one of those had rolled down into and out of the gutter, where my front right found it. Split the tire right to the rim. All the alarms went off in the car, Got down to the bottom of the hill, turned off the busy road, onto a side street, and parked.

Called Tesla on the app. 30 minutes later a truck showed up; this guy's contracted to run around putting loaner wheels (not donuts) on disabled Teslas, apparently, and did that for the car. Over the next couple of days found a shop in Texas, of all places, that had the identical tire and had it shipped to the local Tesla SC, as per the SC's instructions. Tire arrived on Saturday; talked to the scheduler on Monday; took the car in on Tuesday, and did computer work in the waiting room. In an hour the new tire was mounted on the old rim (which was undamaged) and was on my way.

Didn't pay for the wheel swap (although, on this car, that service expires this coming September), but did have to pay a bit for the tire mounting. So, not too much damage to the pocketbook and relatively quick service. In principle, with another car, could have had the work done somewhere other than Tesla; it's just a tire, after all. But the wheel swap thing was pretty cool and better than running around on a donut.

As an aside: The tire that got killed by that rock was bought from Tirerack. It was a Michelin with 25K miles on it (out of the 50k it's good for). But normal tire warranties really only cover early wear, not road hazards. But Tirerack gives one a road hazard warranty with every tire one buys from them. Applied for the insurance, sent pictures, the above description of how it all happened, and got a check for the purchase price of the tire a couple weeks later. Not bad.

 

[Wstrasser]

Thanks Tronguy. More great feedback. Good to hear that you’ve never been stuck without a car. I got a little worried when I saw those hundreds of Teslas with red tags in the window near my office. The pics in my original post. Don’t know if those are waiting for service (with customers waiting) or are they trade in waiting to be cleaned up. Did you see my pics? Any thoughts ?

 

[username123]

Thanks Tronguy. More great feedback. Good to hear that you’ve never been stuck without a car. I got a little worried when I saw those hundreds of Teslas with red tags in the window near my office. The pics in my original post. Don’t know if those are waiting for service (with customers waiting) or are they trade in waiting to be cleaned up. Did you see my pics? Any thoughts ?

I don’t know about those cars but where I’m from, the service center tends to delay appointments by a lot, maybe to avoid what you’re seeing. They also have terrible service

I got my car in February. The car was making a lot of noises so they came to my home end of February to fix it. They ended up making the noise worse by putting a bad product.

They came back a week later, fixed that issue but couldn’t fix another noise issue since they had to change the entire passenger seat.

Appointment for march 23, on march 22 I get a message that they didn’t get the part so they changed the appointment to April 20.

They come change the seat and at the same time they took some paint off of my door. I went to the SC to complain and the guy said it’s not his problem. I then called Tesla, explained the issue, and the person acted like they couldn’t hear me and hung up on me.

I sent an email to another SC which forwarded it to the SC that ignored me. No response so I go to the SC and they say that the person who damaged my car is on vacation so I show my the video of what happened and they say they still have to wait for him to come back.

1 week later I get a message that I have an appointment for June 2nd and will get a loaner for 4 days. May 31st I get a message that they don’t have loaners so they move my appointment to July 6th and if I can’t that day, it’s going to be moved to august.

TLDR: Tesla service breaks your car as they fix other things so expect to constantly be requesting service. I have to wait 3 months for them to fix something that they damaged and now the car has more issues as well. The back window makes a tearing noise each time I roll it down a little bit and the driver seat makes a creaking noise each time I move or hit small potholes.

 

[AdamHLG]

Here is my practical stream of consciousness advice. Do not cancel your order, but realize that Tesla is in fact experiencing growing pains on the service side. There is a mobile service fleet for most issues, but if your vehicle ends up in the SvC (Service Center), do be careful as it can take a while. Back in 2017 when I got my first Tesla, service was amazing. Back then, you could bring it in for fit and finish items at delivery and they would fix it same day or next day latest. Back then, minor fit and finish items were repaired with open arms to enhance the customer experience. Those days are over. My best advice: If you can live with minor fit and finish items, DO NOT schedule a visit to the shop. We love our cars and we are perfectionists no doubt, but look at the ****show world we live in now, and appreciate how lucky you will be to have a Tesla EV in this economy - - wany have been waiting a long time (as you are) but at that point your wait will be over while many others are still waiting.

As for service, think of it as vehicle triage. The cars that are not drivable will have first priority. The vehicle with a 2mm gap and some grease on the armrest at delivery will sit in the lot you posted for weeks if not longer, and then get returned to you after someone looks at it and says "within tolerance" and tries to wipe of that grease but instead made it worse. Just went through this with my new X (not for the example issues I posted), and my car sat in the SvC for almost 2 weeks, and they only fixed one issue and not any of the fit and finish issues. This was the first negative experience I ever had with Tesla service - not because of the fit and finish part - but because they held my car for 2 weeks when they could have told me the deal up front. I still love the car, and so will you. In the end, you will be fine. Remember, lots of people complain and vent on internet forums. Not to say those folks didn't have the horrible experiences they describe, but for the most part the odds are in your favor you wont be one of them. Just go into a service appointment with eyes open. Ask about parts availability. Ask if you can keep your car until the parts arrive (if it is drivable). If you do have an issue, you will be better off trying to be pleasant with the SvC employees. I have to imagine that the customer-facing service reps must have it rough these days. Give them a break. If you are nice, maybe try and work out a service pre-plan, you might have a better outcome from the start. Just my $.02

 

[ct101]

Frustration is the word to summarize the experience.

If you live in the state of California or in a major city, you may do better - but anything else is going to frustrate the crap out of you.

Delays, no parts available, disagreements over which problems are actually problems.. and the whole loaner / Uber game.

I think I may have made a mistake buying a Tesla as a non-Californian. Seriously. It’s a CA car and a CA company, and they simply don’t understand how to operate in other areas.

 

[Tronguy]

Frustration is the word to summarize the experience.

If you live in the state of California or in a major city, you may do better - but anything else is going to frustrate the crap out of you.

Delays, no parts available, disagreements over which problems are actually problems.. and the whole loaner / Uber game.

I think I may have made a mistake buying a Tesla as a non-Californian. Seriously. It’s a CA car and a CA company, and they simply don’t understand how to operate in other areas.

I dunno. I'm in New Jersey; I've been in one or the other of a couple of the Service Centers and, frankly, haven't had any real problems.

Having been on $RANDOM forums for a few years.. My impression is that most people tend to have a decent time. And there's the occasional car or SC that, well, has Issues. Again, that hasn't happened to me. But I guess, over the years, I vaguely remember somebody from NJ complaining about some issue or other.

But, thinking about it: My first car was a VW Bug, '71 vintage. Some VW dealerships of the day were top notch; others, not so much. Now that you've got me thinking, there was this Datsun B210 I owned. Bought it used from a dealer in Massachusetts. It ran OK for a couple of weeks then deteriorated. It took a while and a few service manuals, but I discovered, eventually, that engine consisted of a block from one vintage car and a head from another, older car. They happened to fit together which worked well for that particular stealership. But, once I started investigating, the older head didn't have hose connections to various emissions tubes (which were carefully tucked out of the way). And this was a car with a carburetor; the carb was for the older head, but the engine had a larger displacement. As a result, it was possible to (barely) tune the engine, but it would fall out of tune at the drop of a hat.

As it happened, I owned this car when I was in college. I was heading to California for a summer job, going through Colorado on my way west, and discovered that the mis-tuned engine would only go over passes at 30 mph on 60 mph roads. With all those missing hoses and what-all the higher altitudes didn't work all that well.

Now, for the fun. As some of you may have noticed, (1) California, then as now had some pretty strict emissions control regulations that were enforced and (2) CA has a government consumer protection group that has spiders on staff. They'll take a radio or TV (back then, it was common to get these repaired rather than replaced), break something obvious and normal, then have their pet spiders dirty the TV or radio right up so it looked like a typical piece of gear from a citizen. They'd then approach the repair place and ask them to fix it.

It'd be an easy fix if the shop owner would, well, you know, troubleshoot and fix it. But these repair places (this is why all the regs got passed) had a habit of replacing all the tubes and random other working things, then charging up the wazoo for the job. All profit, right?

Until they ran into one of those spider-dirtied, Consumer Protection TV sets. One Shot And They Were Out; closed down for six months to a year, then maybe allowed to go back into business.

And, you know, those auto repair places that played those games? They would get hit, too. I'm not sure if the entire repair department for a dealership would get shut down, but whatever it was that the Consumer Protection guys did, it was draconian. They were attack dogs on a short leash.

I didn't know any of this, though. I just made a plaintive call to a local Datsun dealer, telling them the problem (wrong head and all) and asked if there was anything they could do to help. Not expecting much, really.

1. I was ordered (yeah, ordered) to be there in half an hour. The car would be there for at least a day or two. There were buses.
2. They re-jetted the carb. I had heard of that kind of thing, like, for race cars. I had no idea that a dealer would do that to a production car, even if it was mangled.
3. Out of the three or four hoses that weren't connected, one was left disconnected and taped shut, the others re-routed somehow to appropriate places. The carbon canister the loose one was supposed to be connected to wasn't in the car, nor was there a place for the canister.
4. They gave me a list of custom timing numbers (degrees before top dead center, gap on the distributor, etc.) which I kept in the glove box.
5. The car drove smoothly, nicely, and could make it up hills that it never could before, at speed.
6. I think they did charge me, but, frankly, given the time they must have spent on the car, it wasn't much. Something about emissions controls and warranties, although that car was seriously out of warranty at the time. (But it had been sold to me by a Datsun dealer, albeit on the other coast.)

Shocked, I was. I told my mentor/co-workers at the summer job. They grinned and explained about the Consumer Protection people. Apparently re-jetting carbs was something dealers were supposed to be able to do.

So, there are good dealerships. And there's bad dealerships.

Eventually sold the car to another deserving college student when I had graduated and had money enough to buy a non-beater car.

 

[PB FUTED]

Well, my car died on me loss power while driving 80mph on a high speed interstate. Towed to a SC 1 week ago and it’s been sitting there with no one looking at it. I can’t talk to it bc it lost all power dead as a door nail. I went by yesterday to pick up something I left inside and can’t open the door. A repair guy came up to me to assist and I asked what’s the problem with my car? He said they haven’t even looked at it.

Tesla controls the narrative by not allowing you to talk to your local SC for a reason. They’ve trained their call center to sell you a story when in fact they are not even working on your car. I’ve been shuttled around for a week using Uber they give me $100 voucher per day. But that doesn’t take car my inconveniences. I can’t go out on the weekends with my dogs in an Uber. I don’t have a car to run errands at my leisure. I message them and they are now trying to get me a loaner. Still no ETA in when I can expect my car.

 

[VICE]

Service at Tesla is hit and miss. If your car is newer you get pretty good warranty service. When you have a problems that are intermittent and hard to pin down it's better to make a detailed summary of the problem and put in writing for the technician(IMPORTANT). Some of the service advisors are new and really don't know how to listen to you and you can spend multiple visits trying to get a simple problem fixed just because the "customer states" is just wrong. So technician doesn't know the problem.

I took my model Y in under Warranty and got the white glove treatment, model S loaner. 1 day repair, just awesome

2 weeks later

Took my 2012 Model S in yesterday, got a rude service advisor that obviously didn't like that the car had multiple issues, then she just completely ignored me as I talked. Took my car in for service. Refused to give Uber miles (guess she thought I was too demanding), stating that Tesla does not provide Uber miles them anymore. Literally left me stranded outside the service center.

I've been taking my car in for 10 years now, so I expect some bad experience with service, like any service center. Fortunately the car is still awesome after 10 years will never give it up.

Good Luck

 

[Cavedriver]

I use that Rockville service center and it's poor, verging on chaos. Two locals I was just talking to there mentioned they had heard the Tyson's one (iirc) is better. When we bought our 2019 I was ready to put up with whatever BS because we were under warranty and no other company made a car that could compete thoroughly with the Tesla. Now that there are more options I will be looking elsewhere for our next car. At least the Mustang turned out to have better range than Ford thought it would, and the Lucid, although very pricy, has longer range and faster charging. Meanwhile, yes, expect long delays on service. I ordered a rim last Tuesday, they told me on Friday it had arrived, showed up today and they said, oops, sorry, not here, keep waiting. Got them to give me a loaner rim rather than try to beg a loaner car from them for a non-warranty repair. Note that there is a recall out on the Tesla model 3 since this spring and I just saw they they delayed delivery of the warranty parts until spring of 2023. Yeah, on a recall for a wiring harness. Granted it's just the backup camera (and mine is still working), but how hard can it be to source a wiring harness piece?
Fwiw, I also heard they are opening a new Silver Spring location, probably because they are so overloaded with all the cars they've sold. They had at least 15 cars waiting for owners to pick them up today. If you walk down a row of 15 new Teslas it's fun to notice the variation in panel gaps. Not that the variations were all that bad (our 3 had zero issues), but at least 2 cars had small variations, and a couple taking delivery of a new X was debating something that looked like they were pointing to a panel gap with the delivery rep. Another car that had previously been delivered was stripped almost down to the frame in the driveway as the technician tried to figure how to fix a panel gap the owner had complained about. Since the car was already apart I couldn't tell who was in the right on that one, but you can see they are overwhelmed.