Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Warning before you buy a tesla model S

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Just writing to share an ongoing problem I'm having with my model S. I got in an accident in early March, and there were some dents/scratches on the back quarter panel of my model S. I took it to a repair shop and they said the part would ship April 10th, and my car would be ready by the 28th. It is now June 12th, and the part hasn't shipped yet. Finally on May 4th I emailed body shop support. They said they escalated it, and would get back to me. On may 7th I received this email:

Wanted to touch base with you.
The final two parts for your vehicle have been assigned for picking today.
They will ship out shortly.
I will update you once the shipment leaves our distribution center.
Please feel free to reach out with any quetsions or concerns.

I thought phew, it will be shipping soon. On May 16th I reached out after not hearing anything. No response. On May 20th I reached out again. No response. Finally on May 22nd I called them, and she said that it was not shipping out and she couldn't give me an ETA. On June 6th I emailed again to try to get a confirmation. Then on June 8th I got a reply saying the part would ship on June 14th. This is all well and good except the repair shop got ahold of me today, saying Tesla had talked to them yesterday and said that they don't even have the part in stock, and they will be arriving on June 25th. So body support has just been lying to me the whole time? I'm not really sure at this point. So my car has been out of commission for 3 months now, and I expect it to be out of commission for another month or 2.

So customer service handles this extremely poorly, and small accidents can have your car out of commission for many months. Until Tesla gets a handle on this, seems like a bad idea to buy a Tesla.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KyleDay
Maybe I don't understand the details, but why would the repair shop need to hold your car while waiting for parts, etc? If it is just cosmetic and doesn't affect the driveability, can't you continue to use your car while you wait for the parts to be delivered? Then bring it in for the repairs once you receive confirmation that the parts are available?
 
  • Like
  • Helpful
Reactions: SW2Fiddler and Vip
Warning!

My buddy had a Smurf Blue Audi S4. Was really cool. Till he curbed it at 15 mph making it not drivable. Took 3 and a half months for him to get his car. Parts they said. Parts delayed. Nothing new here in car world. It's not a Camry. Watch out those Audi's. Scratch them you might never see your car again.:eek:
Nothing against Audi owners.

Not sure why you don't drive the car unless the body shop took it all apart without the parts because they thought they were coming in?
That kind of is something I never heard of. Body shops don't like to have cars just sitting around if they are safe and drivable. They usually like to wait till the parts come in.

I would love to see those photos of the damage.

By the way. Welcome to the forums.
 
For those of you asking why the body shop is holding his car, keep in mind that they're not going to expend money if they're not in physical possession of your car (what's to prevent the owner from not coming back?).

Same thing happened to me. Car was drivable after I got hit but needed a rear bumper and quarter panel. The deal I made with the body shop was to have the insurance company give them a deposit to cover the cost of parts they had to order. Then I waited the two months, and brought the car in when the parts arrived. Still took three weeks to repair, but better than going three months without my car, particularly when my insurer only pays one month rental car.
 
For those of you asking why the body shop is holding his car, keep in mind that they're not going to expend money if they're not in physical possession of your car (what's to prevent the owner from not coming back?).

Same thing happened to me. Car was drivable after I got hit but needed a rear bumper and quarter panel. The deal I made with the body shop was to have the insurance company give them a deposit to cover the cost of parts they had to order. Then I waited the two months, and brought the car in when the parts arrived. Still took three weeks to repair, but better than going three months without my car, particularly when my insurer only pays one month rental car.

3 weeks is not 3 months. Um I guess someones word and the insurance company. Body shop has that. I kind of wonder why someone would go to a body shop get the insurance company involved. A deposit. A claim has been filed. Maybe those would be the reasons why people go back to the body shop.....:confused:
 
I was without my MS from March 15 until today, so I feel your pain. Parts/inventory management is a problem with Tesla because they are using most of that for new production. Sucks, but that's part of the deal when driving spaceship, the manufacturer of which is furiously trying to meet demand for sales. Didn't stop me from getting another MS, though.

If there is a next time (and I sincerely hope there isn't one for you), don't let the body shop hold your car *until* they get the parts. FWIW, for those of us in the San Francisco/South Bay Area, my insurance dude told me Tesla is opening its own body shop in our area. I think removing the third-party body shop from the equation might/should reduce the number of variables that go into this equation.

Best of luck, Bears. See you around the boards.
 
Last edited:
  • Funny
Reactions: X Fan
Hey look ANOTHER "i hate tesla because of my parts delay" thread. This is why TMC content has been meh lately :(
People come to vent and/or warn others. In the past there was more cool things Tesla did to offset the negative with positive. People also believed Elon's tweets more. Wouldn't you love to see "I just summoned my car to my work from my house 20 miles away" story? Unfortunately, people get bored with just tweets from Elon that don't materialize, or materialize into something disappointing - think Elon promising AP1 Summon "will find you anywhere on private property" vs delivered "drives up to 20 feet in a straight line while you hold a button and watch to make sure it doesn't hit anything", or "691hp car" end up delivering 463hp, and to add insult to injury Tesla tells the owners how their cars are "capable of 691hp", but not all of the car, only some part of it.
 
  • Helpful
Reactions: TaoJones
You guys criticizing the poster who has a legitimate beef is tiring.

Tesla has had years to sort out the parts situation and they have failed. Period.

Their move into the body shop business may help the costs but I don't see how that is going to fix the parts side of things.
Maybe when Elon realizes how he's paying body shop employees to just sit and wait for parts, he will decide to prioritize the problem. Until it starts hitting their bottom line, it's not a problem for the company. Hey, a media hype on how hard it is to fix Tesla's might get Elon's attention too, as he seems to take the media more seriously than customers who already paid for the product.
 
  • Like
Reactions: croman and GaryREM
People come to vent and/or warn others. In the past there was more cool things Tesla did to offset the negative with positive. People also believed Elon's tweets more. Wouldn't you love to see "I just summoned my car to my work from my house 20 miles away" story? Unfortunately, people get bored with just tweets from Elon that don't materialize, or materialize into something disappointing - think Elon promising AP1 Summon "will find you anywhere on private property" vs delivered "drives up to 20 feet in a straight line while you hold a button and watch to make sure it doesn't hit anything", or "691hp car" end up delivering 463hp, and to add insult to injury Tesla tells the owners how their cars are "capable of 691hp", but not all of the car, only some part of it.

I think it has more to do with the title of his post, and thinking hes the only one... and his warning is some 10 commandments style on-high call to stay away from Tesla. Clearly another uninformed owner, or someone who thought it wouldnt happen to them.

Spoiler alert, it happened to me too
 
I think it has more to do with the title of his post, and thinking hes the only one... and his warning is some 10 commandments style on-high call to stay away from Tesla. Clearly another uninformed owner, or someone who thought it wouldnt happen to them.

Spoiler alert, it happened to me too
Clearly someone new to Tesla. From an outsider point of view I could see this as an alarming situation. Other new people may want to see a headline like that.
 
So don't buy a Tesla because of a hypothetical situation that probably won't happen? weird advice. good luck.
What hypothetical situation? Parts not shipping for a long time is an ongoing problem. Just because only relatively few people get into accidents, doesn't make it hypothetical. By your logic, why Tesla's high crash safety rating is useless and should be ignored, since the majority of people will never experience an accident where it's useful.