Tesla service is rapidly becoming one of the worst!!

[Toppatop55]

up until recently, I loved my car and I loved my service center in Milford Connecticut. In the recent weeks tho, I’ve developed a small level of resentment for the car with all the annoying creeks and drop is 3g service which renders the entertainment system unusable. Aside from all of the annoyance with the car, I now cannot get in touch with my service center. I use to be able to call and speak with friendly service reps who I’ve grown to know and like. I was able to call anytime during business hours and ask whatever questions I had about my MS85D and discuss my issues. For the past month or so, I can’t get a hold of the service center and whenever I call the local number I get routed to Texas, Louisiana or some service center across the country. Just minutes ago I called and was routed to Texas, mind you I live in CT. When I explained to the person I needed my service center, I was routed to a general national service center also based in Houston. No I started to get frustrated and asked to speak to someone from the Milford CT service center. This call rep then rudely told me to hold and after five minutes on hold, I got a voicemail stating the Houston service center was busy. This is starting to remind me of the other company with horrible service (Sprint). Does anyone know what has changed and why owners of Tesla’s are being treated like Hyundai owners?

 

[HankLloydRight]

That's not good.

 

[KyleDay]

Why not call the service center directly? My local SC has a local telephone number and I call it and I get a generic tesla phone tree system with options to speak to sales, service, parts, etc all with that local SC.

I find the SC number on any maps software or google

 

[Zythryn]

That's not good.

That also isn’t accurate.
The OP is taking his experience and claiming all customers are be treated, or reacting like he is (which isn’t the case).

Top, I am sorry to hear of your experience.
My understanding is that Tesla now has a central call center. Techs at this central center can run logs, answer questions, schedule appointments or escalate calls to a special tech support group.
When scheduling appointments they also order the parts you need, if any, for delivery to the service center in time for you appointment.

I have found them quite friendly and helpful.
If you are being routed to various service centers, not the main call center, then something isn’t working right.
Tesla is growing and they are going to change. Hopefully while maintaining, or improving customer service as they did in my case.
I am sorry to hear it hasn’t been a good experience for you, and would encourage you to discuss this with your service center manager, the call center folks, or use the online escalation form.

 

[adaptabl]

Wait until you get 200,000 models 3's on the road. Enjoy the great service you have now.

 

[PeterHG]

One of the worst? I've never been able to speak with tech folks from BMW, Audi, Honda, Toyota, etc with a simple phone call. Let's skip the histrionics

 

[MP3Mike]

Just minutes ago I called and was routed to Texas, mind you I live in CT.

Any chance you are calling from a cell phone with a Texas area code?

 

[HankLloydRight]

That also isn’t accurate.

That's not a valid statement to make. Surely much of it is accurate. I assume the OP isn't lying or making it up.

When I said "That's not good" I meant it in several different ways.

• That's not good because I also use Milford and rely in the personal relationships I've already established there.
• That's not good because even if it is embellished a bit, it's a continuing trend across all of Tesla that they just don't know how to scale up, yet.
• That's not good because if it happens to one customer, it's bound to happen again.
• That's not good because if a customer, for whatever reason, wants to talk to the local service center, they should be able to without jumping through hoops at a call center somewhere else.

The OP is taking his experience and claiming all customers are be treated, or reacting like he is (which isn’t the case).

I don't see where he said "all customers". There are many complaints on TMC of bad service at the SCs. It's not a single, isolated case.

I have found them quite friendly and helpful.

How do you know you're not the outlier? You're also relying on a single data point, yours.

Why not call the service center directly?

He did:

. For the past month or so, I can’t get a hold of the service center and whenever I call the local number I get routed to Texas, Louisiana or some service center across the country.

Twice a year we have a "Service Staff Appreciation Day" at the Milford SC, where 30 or more local customers gather there and we buy pizza or lunch for the entire SC crew. We have one scheduled there soon (possibly this Friday) and I'll ask the manager there about this new SOP.

 

[alcibiades]

I called my local SC's number last week and was routed to a national call center. From there I navigated some "push 1 for..." menus until I ended up on an indeterminate hold -- at which point I hung up. Then I texted a service advisor who had previously called me from his cell. He might wanna change his number.

 

[Zythryn]

That's not a valid statement to make. Surely much of it is accurate. I assume the OP isn't lying or making it up.

When I said "That's not good" I meant it in several different ways.

• That's not good because I also use Milford and rely in the personal relationships I've already established there.
• That's not good because even if it is embellished a bit, it's a continuing trend across all of Tesla that they just don't know how to scale up, yet.
• That's not good because if it happens to one customer, it's bound to happen again.
• That's not good because if a customer, for whatever reason, wants to talk to the local service center, they should be able to without jumping through hoops at a call center somewhere else.

When qualifiers are not used, and plurals are, the closing statement implies the statement refers to the group of "owners of Tesla's" as a whole.

Does anyone know what has changed and why owners of Tesla’s are being treated like Hyundai owners?

Your statement of "That's no good" with no qualifiers implies that all of his statement is "not good".
I appreciate the detail you provided.
I also agree to your specific reasons, and that this situation wasn't good.

My point is, the system is new and Tesla is learning as they go.
When the system works, it works very well, even better than the old one.
I agree if it happens to one customer it is likely to happen to another. However, it doesn't happen to EVERYONE. The rate it happens needs to be minimal, and when it does happen, it needs to be corrected.

As for being the outlier, that is possible. However, I don't rely simply on my own experience. I also get feedback from my wife, a close personal friend, and lots of people in our local Tesla club with 1000 members.

Body repair work is a nightmare, but most service issues seem consistently good. Perhaps it is just our service center. That is certainly possible. But the OPs experience is not universal, and at our service center would be the outlier.

 

[bonnie]

The suggestion to develop personal relationships is always good - whether with your local service center or produce manager at your local grocery.

I have cell numbers & email addresses for sales advisor, service advisor, etc. Next time you're in the service center, get your service advisor's business card. The info will likely all be there. And bring food by once in a while. Cookies are popular. The team likes to know they're appreciated.

 

[cmaster]

Hmm....I can call the SC directly without being routed. I could not relate to your experience. However, I do think the SC is gettting more sales pitched oriented instead of helping you solve a problem.

As a young spirited Tesla Model S owner who visited a SC, the employees think I'm up to my nose in debt and cannot afford good clothes to wear (I was just lazy and don't want to dress up). All I wanted was to replace the DU fluid since at the time, it was recommended by the maintenance plan. It's now taken off the list. The employee was asking, "Why didn't you want to purchase the maintenance plan?" Obviously, I can replace the wipers myself, the brake fluid myself, rotate tires myself. No big deal.

In all honesty, they probably paid the same amount as any retail customer service associate, but, sometimes are obnoxious themselves. You know, judging a person by their looks. I am a freaking software developer making freaking 6 figures! I just feel more comfortable wearing ghetto clothing. Geeze. Don't judge me!

 

[liuping]

Hmm....I can call the SC directly without being routed. I could not relate to your experience. However, I do think the SC is gettting more sales pitched oriented instead of helping you solve a problem.

As a young spirited Tesla Model S owner who visited a SC, the employees think I'm up to my nose in debt and cannot afford good clothes to wear (I was just lazy and don't want to dress up). All I wanted was to replace the DU fluid since at the time, it was recommended by the maintenance plan. It's now taken off the list. The employee was asking, "Why didn't you want to purchase the maintenance plan?" Obviously, I can replace the wipers myself, the brake fluid myself, rotate tires myself. No big deal.

In all honesty, they probably paid the same amount as any retail customer service associate, but, sometimes are obnoxious themselves. You know, judging a person by their looks. I am a freaking software developer making freaking 6 figures! I just feel more comfortable wearing ghetto clothing. Geeze. Don't judge me!

I've stooped by Tesla store In shorts and a tee shirt many times. They never seem to judge me based on that (though Maybe that's a San Diego thing)

 

[commasign]

The suggestion to develop personal relationships is always good - whether with your local service center or produce manager at your local grocery.

I have cell numbers & email addresses for sales advisor, service advisor, etc. Next time you're in the service center, get your service advisor's business card. The info will likely all be there. And bring food by once in a while. Cookies are popular. The team likes to know they're appreciated.

+1 what Bonnie said. Some additional tips:

Don’t bother your service center at end of quarter. They are extremely busy on work related to deliveries. Yes, ideally a company’s level of customer service shouldn’t be affected by investor concerns about car deliveries but Tesla is under an immense pressure to deliver cars and become profitable. Survival of the company is at stake.

A lot of things can actually be handled by mobile service now and the mobile techs are very knowledgeable and have a lot of autonomy. Something like 3G to LTE retrofit can probably be handled by mobile. While they’re working you can pick the tech’s brain in the comfort of your own home and get other stuff at least looked at if not taken care of.

If you can’t get through by phone (which again means they’re super busy), you can always just stop by the service center for urgent stuff or quick questions. Obviously this depends how close you are, but the drive may be worth it to skip the phone tree and call center.

 

[Toppatop55]

Why not call the service center directly? My local SC has a local telephone number and I call it and I get a generic tesla phone tree system with options to speak to sales, service, parts, etc all with that local SC.

I find the SC number on any maps software or google

The local number is what I’ve been calling. It’s the same number I always used when calling my local SC. After an hour in the phone today, a rep explained to me that all SC will be transitioning to this new model to alleviate stress on the SC so they can concentrate on dealing with owners who are in the SC.

 

[Toppatop55]

One of the worst? I've never been able to speak with tech folks from BMW, Audi, Honda, Toyota, etc with a simple phone call. Let's skip the histrionics

Maybe not for you. But I’ve always been able to call me locale Audi service advisor right to his office. And like I said, this was my experience today which I was told will soon be the be standard. In due time you will understand my frustration.

 

[Toppatop55]

Any chance you are calling from a cell phone with a Texas area code?

No. Never lived in Texas and my area code is 860 which is Connecticut

 

[jboy210]

I believe the OP. My car died on Tuesday and was towed to the local Service Center (Dublin, CA). Every day I have received a call the same call (I never answer my phone so I let it go to voicemail) saying "it is in the queue to have a tech run diagnostics". The caller ID shows it is from "Madison Research". The caller identifies himself as "Josh" but the voice changes.

 

[Barklikeadog]

The suggestion to develop personal relationships is always good - whether with your local service center or produce manager at your local grocery.

I have cell numbers & email addresses for sales advisor, service advisor, etc. Next time you're in the service center, get your service advisor's business card. The info will likely all be there. And bring food by once in a while. Cookies are popular. The team likes to know they're appreciated.

Personal relationships? That sounds like dealership talk

 

[Darren Donovan]

Personal relationships? That sounds like dealership talk

Doesn't Tesla want to be different from "traditional" dealerships (the vast majority which have been excellent to me)? The suggestion for customers to "kiss up" to Tesla sales advisors in order to get acceptable service is ridiculous. When I go to a "traditional" dealer, that Tesla owners love to look down on, there are usually some refreshment and cookies, fruits,..... I don't want, or have to, bring cookies to them (as someone mentioned upthread), Lol.