This service situation is getting abysmal.

[ct101]

In with my second re-do on delivery issues with my refresh MSLR (first set of parts was defective). Was promised a loaner in the app and by the service team (I live in an area where I can’t call an Uber.)

No loaners! Uber only! So I’m stuck here and my entire work day is ruined.

Ponderous, really. Nearly $100k car and trillion dollar company. I love the car, but feel I made such a mistake getting involved with this company. Just had to vent. Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

 

[bro1999]

In with my second re-do on delivery issues with my refresh MSLR (first set of parts was defective). Was promised a loaner in the app and by the service team (I live in an area where I can’t call an Uber.)

No loaners! Uber only! So I’m stuck here and my entire work day is ruined.

Ponderous, really. Nearly $100k car and trillion dollar company. I love the car, but feel I made such a mistake getting involved with this company. Just had to vent. Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

Same experience I received taking my 3 SR+ in for service. 2+ weeks for soonest appointment, no loaner car (Uber credits instead). They ordered parts and told me "no ETA" as far as when the parts were arriving. Then when I reached back out to them (had to create a new service appointment and another date 2+ weeks out) they told me "your parts should be here in time for your appointment". So I'll end up having to exclusively Supercharge my car for a month until my car is (hopefully) fixed. Yeesh.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Service was AMAZING 2013-2018. Then someone pulled the plug, and now I'd rather deal with USPS than Tesla. Uber Credits aren't a car!

 

[ct101]

Service was AMAZING 2013-2018. Then someone pulled the plug, and now I'd rather deal with USPS than Tesla. Uber Credits aren't a car!

And not everyone lives in the city or California. Ever try calling an Uber in the mountains in Colorado?

 

[DerbyDave]

This scares me. No issues yet, but Tesla is 90 minutes from my house. I am also in an area not served by Uber. There needs to be an alternative when I need transportation. Uber is not one size fits all in substitute transportation. This could be a crippling problem, since I currently live alone and Tesla is my only car. If I run into a similar problem, I guess lesson learned -- Tesla the company is not flexible enough to provide the required service for its vehicles, which includes alternate transportation methods. It would be embarrassing to ask a friend to drive 3 hours to get me and bring me home, and then a return 3 hours to pick up my car. I couldn't ask that.

 

[ct101]

This scares me. No issues yet, but Tesla is 90 minutes from my house. I am also in an area not served by Uber. There needs to be an alternative when I need transportation. Uber is not one size fits all in substitute transportation. This could be a crippling problem, since I currently live alone and Tesla is my only car. If I run into a similar problem, I guess lesson learned -- Tesla the company is not flexible enough to provide the required service for its vehicles, which includes alternate transportation methods. It would be embarrassing to ask a friend to drive 3 hours to get me and bring me home, and then a return 3 hours to pick up my car. I couldn't ask that.

It’s a serious problem, as at this point Tesla the company is starting to feel like a trillion dollar vanity experiment run by one guy. There’s just zero incentive to care. They’ve succeeded in their mission in proving electric cars work - and made a trillion along the way. Nothing else matters or motivates beyond that.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Yeah, even my Jeep dealer gives out loaners for inspections. Tesla won't care until they stop selling.

 

[Chisale]

Agree. This is the major flaw in the company right now. (Though the botched roll out of FSD is giving it a run for its money.) Uber credits are passable for a day or two if you live in the city. I live in the country (and not even that far out) and you can get an Uber but it often takes a while. The last time I spoke with the service rep she said they have plans to open more shops. But the pace of these opening is in no way shape or form remotely keeping up with demand or the volume of cars they are selling now.

 

[nilesborg]

I'm in SF Bay Area and have had to bring '21 MS LR (refresh) in for service on a ton of little things at least 3 times + one mobile service. Wait weeks for each appointment + wait for parts, days and days without the car each time. Have been lucky enough to get a loaner each time, but I know that's not always guaranteed. Have had the car since June 30 and still going back and forth on this and that.

I'd say yes abysmal sums it up. My service advisor is awesome, which makes the experience better at least from the human standpoint.

 

[ct101]

Just an update.

After the loaner situation, they messaged me to tell me the repairs were complete. I headed the 40 minutes down to pick up the car, but 3/4 of the way there got a sneaking suspicion something wasn’t right.

I looked at the work order - my issues were a stuck center console drawer and a lump in the material in the door panel. The only thing they said they did was that they “lubed” the console drawer.

Sent a message, and what do you know - 5 minutes from the SC, get a text back “whoops we forgot. Come back tomorrow.” It was now rush hour, which means a 2 hour round trip wasted.

I went to the SC anyways and got pretty damn heated. The person at the desk basically told me too bad nothing they could do.

Reminding them this was my second visit for the same problem, after waiting 5 months for parts, and then the loaner crap this morning - I asked if this was what I could expect after buying a $100k car from Tesla.

At that point the shop manager jumped in, admitted they dropped the ball, and told me he’d put the door panel on himself if I could wait 30 minutes. Why they didn’t offer this in the first place I don’t know.

Well, felt better - but in the process of putting the door panel on, they chipped the wood. So now I got that going for me. And the console drawer still sticks. It’s better, but it creeps out and sticks.

Trying to wonder if it’s time to choose my battles and I actually let these things go on this car. Yes, these are small problems but it’s a new car and the most expensive one I have ever purchased.. but I feel defeated, and just gave this awful, bitter taste in my mouth about Tesla now.

What sucks is all of this could have been easily avoided through a little communication. I was willing to let the loaner issue go as long as the repair went well - and all they had to do was check their work, and I’d be a relatively happy customer tonight.

Damn shame. I really wanted to root for Tesla after this purchase. I was telling my wife how when I worked at Best Buy as a kid, I did more to make sure customers were happy. It’s not THAT hard. Communication does wonders, and Tesla just sucks at it.

As for my SA.. lol.. he checked out the moment I signed the delivery paperwork.

 

[DBV1]

As a potential new Tesla owner this month, this type of stuff makes me nervous to go forward. I always get a loaner when my BMW’s get service and can’t have Uber credits when I travel for business or anytime. I thought one of points of buying a Tesla was less maintenance and service visits?

Sad - you spend $100k plus or minus and get service like that.

 

[DerbyDave]

As a potential new Tesla owner this month, this type of stuff makes me nervous to go forward. I always get a loaner when my BMW’s get service and can’t have Uber credits when I travel for business or anytime. I thought one of points of buying a Tesla was less maintenance and service visits?

Sad - you spend $100k plus or minus and get service like that.

I have had 2 mobile service visits, which most issues and maintenance can be done with mobile service. The Tesla store service, they provided a loaner for the one service visit, but this is not guaranteed. There is a ton less maintenance. Hopefully few service calls. So far this is my experience. Keeping my fingers crossed that my experience in nearly a year and a half continues.

 

[goodbadboys9]

Unfortunately this kind of attitude is getting pretty common @tesla service or parts department.I would rather to go to dentist than Tesla service.They act like they are doing us a favor by selling parts or servicing the car.

 

[2101Guy]

Its my understanding that there are no performance goals/targets/benchmarks for each SC. Meaning, high performing SC's arent compensated or rewarded or treated any differently than low performing SC's. The survey results that customers send in post-repair work, dont result in anything punitive nor rewarding, for the SC leadership. IN the "old" days some companies might use stack/ranking performance ratings to drive up customer service levels. Tesla doesnt care because as Elon recently stated "demand far outpaces supply". And as long as thats the case? Zero incentive to spend money to improve service.

Sure, there is always the "well, the competition will change all of that and take away market share". But for many, paying thousands more for competition cars that are slower and have less range, wont be much of an option right now. And to Tesla's credit, engineering and tech and performance of their product? They dont sit still...even legendary Porsche cant keep up with the acceleration and performance of the Plaid. Not even at almost twice the price. Mach E GT. Very nice. But slower and less range than the Y performance. And no supercharging network..

 

[dschol]

This is one of those things that is going to hurt Tesla over the medium/long term if they don’t get it sorted out. Because of Tesla’s awful service, I, for one, will not buy another Tesla once another manufacturer has an electric car that meets my needs. (I need 400 miles of range for a frequent trip I make and I need a new car before the Lucid Air will be available.)

It’s crazy that Tesla doesn’t fix their service. It wouldn’t be hard. Simply triaging service appointments when they’re scheduled would make a HUGE difference since it would enable the SC to have parts on hand for repairs in advance of appointments instead of scrambling to get them last minute.

 

[2101Guy]

This is one of those things that is going to hurt Tesla over the medium/long term if they don’t get it sorted out. Because of Tesla’s awful service, I, for one, will not buy another Tesla once another manufacturer has an electric car that meets my needs. (I need 400 miles of range for a frequent trip I make and I need a new car before the Lucid Air will be available.)

It’s crazy that Tesla doesn’t fix their service. It wouldn’t be hard. Simply triaging service appointments when they’re scheduled would make a HUGE difference since it would enable the SC to have parts on hand for repairs in advance of appointments instead of scrambling to get them last minute.

my guess is at some point, they will. They see the survey scores, read industry articles, etc. But they also see their marketshare (especially in the US) of EV's, and they closely watch the competition, their price point, their market saturation trends, etc. And right now, my guess is that the Tesla actuaries have calculated that its more profitable to put the resources/spend into product than it is to put it towards Customer Service.

Im not saying I agree with it (not by a Long shot), but in the end...it's business. Finances. Quarterly financial goals. Some one has calculated (for example) put $10 million into customer service? Or put $10 million into Giga Texas. and theyve calculated the ROI..

 

[CopterPilot]

This is one of those things that is going to hurt Tesla over the medium/long term if they don’t get it sorted out. Because of Tesla’s awful service, I, for one, will not buy another Tesla once another manufacturer has an electric car that meets my needs. (I need 400 miles of range for a frequent trip I make and I need a new car before the Lucid Air will be available.)

It’s crazy that Tesla doesn’t fix their service. It wouldn’t be hard. Simply triaging service appointments when they’re scheduled would make a HUGE difference since it would enable the SC to have parts on hand for repairs in advance of appointments instead of scrambling to get them last minute.

Hi all - long time/first time My understanding is that Tesla does triage all service appointments as they are created... I had a few instances when technicians would text me saying they are diagnosing my concerns remotely (before my scheduled appointment) and once they asked to change the date due to part delays. I think it's just hard to keep up with such an exponential growth in delivered cars. Good customer service doesn't come instantly to new hires, especially since no one has Tesla-specific experience until Tesla provides the training.
I think the quality of service is really location specific, which is not OK, but eventually it has to level out. It's a short-term thing I think.

 

[CopterPilot]

Its my understanding that there are no performance goals/targets/benchmarks for each SC. Meaning, high performing SC's arent compensated or rewarded or treated any differently than low performing SC's. The survey results that customers send in post-repair work, dont result in anything punitive nor rewarding, for the SC leadership. IN the "old" days some companies might use stack/ranking performance ratings to drive up customer service levels. Tesla doesnt care because as Elon recently stated "demand far outpaces supply". And as long as thats the case? Zero incentive to spend money to improve service.

Sure, there is always the "well, the competition will change all of that and take away market share". But for many, paying thousands more for competition cars that are slower and have less range, wont be much of an option right now. And to Tesla's credit, engineering and tech and performance of their product? They dont sit still...even legendary Porsche cant keep up with the acceleration and performance of the Plaid. Not even at almost twice the price. Mach E GT. Very nice. But slower and less range than the Y performance. And no supercharging network..

I spoke to one of the service managers at length about this. Customer satisfaction is absolutely a KPI for them. What makes Tesla different is that they do not receive financial incentives from the "OEM" like traditional dealers. One result is little to no investment in the cushy, luxurious customer lounge accommodations and constant coddling, but we're also not upsold relentlessly. They really seem to just want the car fixed and out of there.

 

[hotsoup]

Just an update.

After the loaner situation, they messaged me to tell me the repairs were complete. I headed the 40 minutes down to pick up the car, but 3/4 of the way there got a sneaking suspicion something wasn’t right.

I looked at the work order - my issues were a stuck center console drawer and a lump in the material in the door panel. The only thing they said they did was that they “lubed” the console drawer.

Sent a message, and what do you know - 5 minutes from the SC, get a text back “whoops we forgot. Come back tomorrow.” It was now rush hour, which means a 2 hour round trip wasted.

I went to the SC anyways and got pretty damn heated. The person at the desk basically told me too bad nothing they could do.

Reminding them this was my second visit for the same problem, after waiting 5 months for parts, and then the loaner crap this morning - I asked if this was what I could expect after buying a $100k car from Tesla.

At that point the shop manager jumped in, admitted they dropped the ball, and told me he’d put the door panel on himself if I could wait 30 minutes. Why they didn’t offer this in the first place I don’t know.

Well, felt better - but in the process of putting the door panel on, they chipped the wood. So now I got that going for me. And the console drawer still sticks. It’s better, but it creeps out and sticks.

Trying to wonder if it’s time to choose my battles and I actually let these things go on this car. Yes, these are small problems but it’s a new car and the most expensive one I have ever purchased.. but I feel defeated, and just gave this awful, bitter taste in my mouth about Tesla now.

What sucks is all of this could have been easily avoided through a little communication. I was willing to let the loaner issue go as long as the repair went well - and all they had to do was check their work, and I’d be a relatively happy customer tonight.

Damn shame. I really wanted to root for Tesla after this purchase. I was telling my wife how when I worked at Best Buy as a kid, I did more to make sure customers were happy. It’s not THAT hard. Communication does wonders, and Tesla just sucks at it.

As for my SA.. lol.. he checked out the moment I signed the delivery paperwork.

Looks like you've gone through the unfortunately-typical five stages of grief of new Tesla owners (I just went through this myself).

High expectations / noting every flaw -> Angry about service, repair quality, communication -> Learning to pick your battles -> Hating on Tesla -> Lowering expectations/living with defects.

You should read through the defects/issues thread. It's enlightening. Honestly, the key learning/takeaway to minimize further pain is to maximize marginal satisfaction per service visit. Or in other words, minimize your service visits by only really addressing the biggest issues you have. The more visits and repairs you request, at some point the worse your car gets because every repair moves your car away from factory spec or risks even more damage (like you experienced with the wood chip). Very soon you will forget about the issues and start enjoying your car.

 

[ct101]

Looks like you've gone through the unfortunately-typical five stages of grief of new Tesla owners (I just went through this myself).

High expectations / noting every flaw -> Angry about service, repair quality, communication -> Learning to pick your battles -> Hating on Tesla -> Lowering expectations/living with defects.

You should read through the defects/issues thread. It's enlightening. Honestly, the key learning/takeaway to minimize further pain is to maximize marginal satisfaction per service visit. Or in other words, minimize your service visits by only really addressing the biggest issues you have. The more visits and repairs you request, at some point the worse your car gets because every repair moves your car away from factory spec or risks even more damage (like you experienced with the wood chip). Very soon you will forget about the issues and start enjoying your car.

I hope so. Just annoying that my previous purchase (Acura) was much smoother with delivery issues than this. Granted there were no problems whatsoever with that car after the first months - hoping this will be the same with Tesla once the kinks are ironed out.