Tesla should stop wasting $100s on Uber credits and offer customers the choice to wait

[PhilDavid]

In the "old days" waiting was possible, plus they usually started working on your car the day you dropped it off. Then Elon innovated. Much like his application of web app development agile process to automotive software and hardware development, he's now applying consumer electronics RMA process to service. Consumer electronics RMA process is you mail it in, it sits on a shelf in line for a tech to fix it, then they mail it back to you. The new Tesla process is: you schedule an appointment, they triage your car on admission, then the car is put in a parking lot queue to wait to get into the shop, which may take few days.

This is not sarcasm by the way, this is the process which was explained to me last time I made an appointment a month in advance for a one hour repair, and then when I dropped the car off I asked "Why 1-3 days estimate for a 1hr job? Can I just schedule a time and wait for it to be done?". That is where they explained to me the new process. According to the app by the way, the car was fixed around midnight, so they must have a night shift. I picked it up the next day, so on the low end of the 1-3 day estimate. Still, they had to pay for day of an enterprise rental (which was the only choice for a loaner, 2 vans left, then nothing for the next customer after that - enterprise ran out of loaners for Tesla).

Maybe running 24/7 repairs from a queue adds more efficiency than the queuing system costs (i.e. the loaners and uber costs)?

You describe exactly what I find so wrong, frustrating, and miserable about the current service experience.

Absence of loaner cars, the $100 Uber credit is not enough for me to get through my day on certain days especially when surge prices are in effect costing 2-3X what it normally costs. Plus I'm wasting a total of 3 hours going to the service center twice (45 minutes times twice to drop of the car and twice to pick up the car).

For a two day repair, I can save Tesla $200 in Uber credits by simply taking the car in on two different dates that work with my schedule and get some work done during business hours.

They can still have their parking lot queue for those that just want to drop off their car and receive Uber credits but all I'm saying is give customers the option to wait for their repairs so Tesla can save the money wasted on Uber credits. Not to mention in my case this would make a MUCH better service experience for me. I don't want to be without my car, with no loaner, and my car languishing at a parking lot at the service center.

I've owned a long list of cars previously from basic Hondas to Premium German cars and never have I been so exasperated with how the dealer handles service. This current system of dropping off the car, waiting over an unknown number of days for them to get to your car and get everything done with no option to wait is just plain miserable AND it costs Tesla money.

Wish they would hire a professional to oversee service. Exchanging text messages on an app for service is worse than dealing with a foreign call center.

I really wish I could get my Tesla serviced at the local Mercedes dealer! They even have little offices for customers to work while their car is being worked on and when I used to own a Mercedes, they were happy to offer me the option to work there while they worked on my car.

 

[ucmndd]

Serious question: in three years and 100k miles of ownership, my car has been to the service center... twice.

How often are you going that this is such a problem?

 

[PhilDavid]

Serious question: in three years and 100k miles of ownership, my car has been to the service center... twice.

How often are you going that this is such a problem?

I'm on my third visit this year. Nothing major thankfully.

All I'm saying is that service should not be a hassle whenever it happens. And I wish they'd save those $100 Uber credits and use that money to hire someone to answer the phone at the service center to provide better service for customers.

Just allow customers would would prefer to wait the option to do so and save the money that would be otherwise wasted on Uber credits.

 

[Big Toys]

"Serious question: in three years and 100k miles of ownership, my car has been to the service center... twice."

As with most interactions, 100 positives experiences are offset by the one time you are treated like carp. The probability of satisfaction should not be inversely dependent on the frequency of interactions.

 

[whitex]

Wish they would hire a professional to oversee service.

They had some, they quit, and Elon announced he can do their job better so they didn't rehire for those positions. What you see today is Elon's vision of what service model he thinks people want.

 

[Tesomega]

Serious question: in three years and 100k miles of ownership, my car has been to the service center... twice.

How often are you going that this is such a problem?

Well, the frequent visits are directly related to the inefficiencies with Tesla Service.

As they don't have any parts stored, they have to order them and only after seeing the vehicle. for.eg: my last service visit they had kept my vehicle for 5 days for UV treatment of screen and year 2 maintenance and requested that I come back for Service Bulletin repair (expected 4 hrs of work) that I specifically stated that i need as part of my service appointment..

 

[Tesomega]

One of the thoughts I have had in the past is that Elon might choose to run his Taxi Business just for Service Center base pick up /drop off of Tesla Customers and they are using the Uber $100/Credit/Day as a place holder to get that insight into what it might look for Tesla Robo Taxi Service... A long stretch I know. but a thought...

 

[ucmndd]

As with most interactions, 100 positives experiences are offset by the one time you are treated like carp. The probability of satisfaction should not be inversely dependent on the frequency of interactions.

Fair point, but in a real world where we’re investing finite resources, I’d rather they be focused on keeping me out of the service center entirely vs fluffing my derrière while I’m there.

Mobile service is always my first choice. Let’s keep expanding that and increasing accessibility. While I’ve happily sat in a lounge at a service center before, I’m not in favor of replicating the high end German experience where the company spends a bunch of money to try and make you forget that maintaining their product is a time-intensive pain in the ass.

Tesla’s not dumb, they’ve obviously run the numbers and determined that the Uber credits plus overbooking the service center are more cost effective than loaners and time-blocked service, so I find the very premise of this post (“Tesla could save so much money if they just did things the way that would be most convenient for ME”) to be questionable at best.

 

[PhilDavid]

Fair point, but in a real world where we’re investing finite resources, I’d rather they be focused on keeping me out of the service center entirely vs fluffing my derrière while I’m there.

Mobile service is always my first choice. Let’s keep expanding that and increasing accessibility. While I’ve happily sat in a lounge at a service center before, I’m not in favor of replicating the high end German experience where the company spends a bunch of money to try and make you forget that maintaining their product is a time-intensive pain in the ass.

Tesla’s not dumb, they’ve obviously run the numbers and determined that the Uber credits plus overbooking the service center are more cost effective than loaners and time-blocked service, so I find the very premise of this post (“Tesla could save so much money if they just did things the way that would be most convenient for ME”) to be questionable at best.

In my case I've had fewer issues with the German cars I've owned and when I had issues, I did not dread going to the dealer for service. I could call someone, find out how long the issue is expected to take and be productive and get some work done while they worked on the car.

I don't know how wasting $100s in Uber credits is helping Tesla or their customers. If they can't get to my car on the day service is scheduled, I'd love for them to contact me the day before and reschedule so we can save everyone the hassle and cost.

Otherwise you end up with situations like this that help no one:
Boy Am I Pissed Now.

 

[Big Toys]

Fair point, but in a real world where we’re investing finite resources, I’d rather they be focused on keeping me out of the service center entirely vs fluffing my derrière while I’m there.

Mobile service is always my first choice. Let’s keep expanding that and increasing accessibility. While I’ve happily sat in a lounge at a service center before, I’m not in favor of replicating the high end German experience where the company spends a bunch of money to try and make you forget that maintaining their product is a time-intensive pain in the ass.

Tesla’s not dumb, they’ve obviously run the numbers and determined that the Uber credits plus overbooking the service center are more cost effective than loaners and time-blocked service, so I find the very premise of this post (“Tesla could save so much money if they just did things the way that would be most convenient for ME”) to be questionable at best.

Mobile service is always the least expensive and least time consuming. The problem comes with the service center. Yes they are dumb, because they will sour the milk so badly that at these price points people will flee to other options once they are sufficiently available. Although I do like my MS, I really do like they way CS handles my wife's MB, and at this stage of my game, I think the days of wrenching my own car to save money are over, mostly. Thus, service and attention to my needs and my schedule have become more important. Overbooking the SC to make you wait a week for your car back is stupid.

 

[rsg123]

Fair point, but in a real world where we’re investing finite resources, I’d rather they be focused on keeping me out of the service center entirely vs fluffing my derrière while I’m there.

Mobile service is always my first choice. Let’s keep expanding that and increasing accessibility. While I’ve happily sat in a lounge at a service center before, I’m not in favor of replicating the high end German experience where the company spends a bunch of money to try and make you forget that maintaining their product is a time-intensive pain in the ass.

Tesla’s not dumb, they’ve obviously run the numbers and determined that the Uber credits plus overbooking the service center are more cost effective than loaners and time-blocked service, so I find the very premise of this post (“Tesla could save so much money if they just did things the way that would be most convenient for ME”) to be questionable at best.

Mobile service is great, but with no way to call the SC after making an appointment online, it’s completely up to them to reach out and change it to mobile. For example, I was hoping they’d change my 12V replacement appointment to mobile, but no, I had to rush after work to make the appointment.

 

[DCEV]

I too prefer to wait at the Service Center and drive back my own car home rather than making the trip a second time to pick up the car.

In fact I have a service appointment tomorrow for the shuddering during acceleration issue that is a part of a Service Bulletin and I have asked to wait for them to complete the job, which should be a single day job based on all the notes for that Service Bulletin.

Hopefully they will let me wait and I can get some work done with my laptop rather than waste my time and their money on Uber credits.

For service tasks that can be completed in one day, I'd rather wait than even receive a loaner.

They should let you specify on the App that you prefer to wait.

 

[aesculus]

I guess I have been lucky the last few service appointments but I have been able to wait each of the last two visits. First I do some self diagnosis and alert them when I make the appointment. I also ask for a callback to insure they have the parts expected in stock (like air struts) before I agree to an appointment time. I then make sure my appointment is the first one of the day and also request that a service tech drives with me if there is something that needs confirmation.

I also let them know I play on waiting and take up space while I wait. So far it has worked for me always but once they dug deeper into a problem and found another issue that I had to leave the car with them.

Waiting is the only way to go IMHO. I agree they should encourage this as much as possible and prioritize these quicker repairs vs ones that will take days to resolve. If you have to leave your car for two or three days and a fourth really won't make a lot of difference. Getting a car out of their shop same day or better same half day should be a metric they strive for. This is the way almost all the brands I have bought strive for from my experience. Heck my old Acura dealer had a tailor experience with food, work areas, quiet conference rooms etc just to cater to waiters.

 

[whitex]

Serious question: in three years and 100k miles of ownership, my car has been to the service center... twice.

How often are you going that this is such a problem?

My experience is that every Tesla I bought required some visits when brand new. Things like "mirror doesn't unfold and flops in the wind" required 3 or 4 visits before it was permanently fixed for example - not the service fault by the way, it was Tesla that designed an inferior mirror assembly and deployed it to production following Elon's agile methodology, then took 4-6 months to redesign and manufacture a part which doesn't fail after few weeks in the field. Once fixed, the Tesla's I've had held up well, with the exception of yellow screen on one and impending MCU failure on another (both also design flaws IMO).

 

[whitex]

I guess I have been lucky the last few service appointments but I have been able to wait each of the last two visits. First I do some self diagnosis and alert them when I make the appointment. I also ask for a callback to insure they have the parts expected in stock (like air struts) before I agree to an appointment time. I then make sure my appointment is the first one of the day and also request that a service tech drives with me if there is something that needs confirmation.

I also let them know I play on waiting and take up space while I wait. So far it has worked for me always but once they dug deeper into a problem and found another issue that I had to leave the car with them.

Waiting is the only way to go IMHO. I agree they should encourage this as much as possible and prioritize these quicker repairs vs ones that will take days to resolve. If you have to leave your car for two or three days and a fourth really won't make a lot of difference. Getting a car out of their shop same day or better same half day should be a metric they strive for. This is the way almost all the brands I have bought strive for from my experience. Heck my old Acura dealer had a tailor experience with food, work areas, quiet conference rooms etc just to cater to waiters.

I used to to the same as you describe, but that is no longer an option at the SC I go to (I know, I asked).

 

[kaffine]

As a mechanic I always hated working on cars when the owner was waiting.

I would be working on another car and then someone that wants to wait takes priority so I get pulled off the other car to work on the waiter. This is a frequent cause of issues as when I get back to the first car I was working on I have to figure out where I left off this leads to screws being left loose ect. I might have to put the car I am working on back together some so i can move it out of the bay to pull the other car in. This wastes my time and I don't get paid by the hour I get paid by the job. The more time I waste the less money I make.

Other issues is I spend 2 hours troubleshooting the car and have several parts off to gain access then find out we don't have the part but could have it tomorrow. After the customer has waited several hours the service writer isn't going to tell the customer sorry we have to keep your car overnight, now I have to put the car back together so the customer can take it. Having to reassemble the car just to take it apart a few days later when the part gets in wastes my time and costs me money.

If I am working on a car while the owner waits then I don't feel like I can take lunch and need to work through my lunch break so they aren't having to wait another hour.

Granted some of the issues could be improved by different policies for service. However it will add to the inefficiency of the service department. The service department can dedicate mechanics to work on cars with people waiting but then what do the mechanics do when someone isn't waiting. If they then go work on other cars they will have to get pulled off the other car when someone wants to wait.

 

[PhilDavid]

As a mechanic I always hated working on cars when the owner was waiting.

I would be working on another car and then someone that wants to wait takes priority so I get pulled off the other car to work on the waiter. This is a frequent cause of issues as when I get back to the first car I was working on I have to figure out where I left off this leads to screws being left loose ect. I might have to put the car I am working on back together some so i can move it out of the bay to pull the other car in. This wastes my time and I don't get paid by the hour I get paid by the job. The more time I waste the less money I make.

Other issues is I spend 2 hours troubleshooting the car and have several parts off to gain access then find out we don't have the part but could have it tomorrow. After the customer has waited several hours the service writer isn't going to tell the customer sorry we have to keep your car overnight, now I have to put the car back together so the customer can take it. Having to reassemble the car just to take it apart a few days later when the part gets in wastes my time and costs me money.

If I am working on a car while the owner waits then I don't feel like I can take lunch and need to work through my lunch break so they aren't having to wait another hour.

Granted some of the issues could be improved by different policies for service. However it will add to the inefficiency of the service department. The service department can dedicate mechanics to work on cars with people waiting but then what do the mechanics do when someone isn't waiting. If they then go work on other cars they will have to get pulled off the other car when someone wants to wait.

So the solution to that is to let the technician work on the car he was assigned to work on and finish the job.

Hence having timed appointments.

 

[PhilDavid]

Mobile service is always the least expensive and least time consuming. The problem comes with the service center. Yes they are dumb, because they will sour the milk so badly that at these price points people will flee to other options once they are sufficiently available. Although I do like my MS, I really do like they way CS handles my wife's MB, and at this stage of my game, I think the days of wrenching my own car to save money are over, mostly. Thus, service and attention to my needs and my schedule have become more important. Overbooking the SC to make you wait a week for your car back is stupid.

Overbooking service centers seems to be the norm now. They schedule cars to be brought in days before they have any hope of working on the car. How can this be an efficient way to run a business when they are wasting hundreds per day for each car that sits for days before they can work on the car.

Why not let the owner keep their car until the service center is available to work on the car? Service will be a whole lot better if they save those Uber credits to spend on a human being at the service center who can answer the phone and coordinate service with customers.

 

[smilepak]

I agree. But wish they bring back the loaner. It’s 45 mins drive each way to a service center. But if they need to keep my vehicle for days, it’s a 1.5 hrs work commute for me. I can’t see myself having to Uber each day for a 80 miles round trip.

 

[smilepak]

Serious question: in three years and 100k miles of ownership, my car has been to the service center... twice.

How often are you going that this is such a problem?

I visited the service center at least once a year in almost five years ownership. 86k miles. Twice for them to fix a water leak when it rain, still not fully fixed