Warranty support with Model S

[Evaready]

Afternoon everyone, although not an owner yet I read the other Tesla forum avidly which is mainly visited by Americans. They all seem to wax lyrical about how good Tesla is at fixing things that go wrong during the first four years of ownership with the manufacturer’s warranty. I wondered whether Tesla is as good in the UK at fixing things-both under the Initial four year warranty and also under the new extended warranty that some owners will now be getting.
Thanks for any comments.

 

[DJP31]

Yes they are “good” in that they rarely quibble over anything and try hard to accommodate owners. Unfortunately that are much less “good” in actually delivering the repair. They are constrained by resources, not enough technicians and the Service Centres are under pressure. 2 months for an appointment wouldn’t raise an eye brow.

They are also horribly let down by a hopeless spare parts supply train. It’s haphazard at best woeful at worst. Whether it’s becuase they just don’t have the capacity to produce the spare parts as well as build new cars, or simply inefficient I’ve no idea. Probably both.

As an example, the 12v battery in the car is a known problem, they just don’t last due to the frequent charge/discharge cycles. They accept them as warranty claims rather than a consumable, so fair play there, but they are often out of stock for weeks on end.

After the warranty has expired you can buy an insurance based warranty, and I think the Provider for that has already changed once since introduction a year or so ago. Anecdotally, most owners that I’ve read about have not purchased it, preferring to rely on extended goodwill on known issues, eg battery and door handles and keeping the saving on the premium to one side. Or just keeping fingers crossed!

 

[sidmini]

Hi Evaready, I have had excellent customer services in the UK specifically Gatwick service centre. If you list all your issues they will methodically go and fix each one, order parts and install with no hassle. I have also always been given a Tesla loan vehicle which is great. Have sent you a PM if you want to chat. cheers

 

[WannabeOwner]

Yes they are “good” in that they rarely quibble over anything and try hard to accommodate owners. Unfortunately that are much less “good” in actually delivering the repair.

Saved me typing exactly that, thanks

I have had excellent customer services

I'd wager you've been lucky, so far. I have no truck with what they attempt to achieve, and as DJP31 said the no-quibble approach, but time-to-deliver and ability to predict that time (e.g. "Parts due in tomorrow Sir" for a week, and then "Car will be in workshop tomorrow Sir" for the next week) beggars belief how the organisation can be set up to run that way.

How come they don't know when parts will arrive? or, if they do, why won't they tell me so I can plan for a two-week delay, instead of, every day, assuming that I'll have the car back "tomorrow"?

Tesla have failed to fix the Static on FM on my radio, and "cold feet" issue. Car has been back numerous times, I've now given up moaning about it to them ...

Love the car, love driving the car, but the back-office is a disaster.

 

[sidmini]

Yes have to agree the parts situation is not great at all as they are relying on their suppliers but Tesla are trying to bring everything in house for this reason, they do seem to keep the main items that can fail in stock e.g door handles.

 

[Terry_B58]

Only need service for two items, firstly, I noticed the day or two after delivery that the 'leather' on the drivers seat squab was cracking and peeling. I contacted Stockport SC and sent a photo - immediate answer - no problem, we will order a new seat. Great.

A few weeks later, phone call, your new seat is in, can we arrange a fitting? My first free day for me was the following Friday and that day was agreed, so no real wait.

The week before the appointment my voice command button stopped working,I phoned to say that I was due in for the seat in a say or two can the look at the button - again no issue, we will order a replacement just in case. I thought 'bugger' that isn't going to arrive before the Friday.

Friday came, attended at Stockport - coffee & biscuits while waiting.

Service guy came out and said they had hit a problem, the seat had been fully checked for any damage etc as soon as they received it, when they actually removed my seat and fitted the new one they realised that it was a drivers seat for a LHD car - no access to the seat controls.

They kept me updated each step of the way and said they will get a new one, correctly handed and fit my old one. I was kept fully uptodate, they were very apologetic, almost to the point of embarrassment,.

The service guy then said 'Oh, by the way, we had the voice switches in stock so we have replaced that and it is all working'.

So I am back on the road, awaiting for the new seat with working voice control, but at least the car is still useable.

I fully understand these errors happen (more often and not too me ), but I cannot complain about the service that I received at all.

OK, I have to wait a little while but it is not the end of the world, afterall, I had another excuse for a 'drive out' in an amazing car

 

[WannabeOwner]

as they are relying on their suppliers

I take issue with that, though.

For a "decent size" company its reasonably to expect that a parts' Supply system will be capable of telling you "In stock / delivery tomorrow" or, if not, then "Back ordered, will deliver on XXX" and definitely not "Not in stock, delivery date unknown"

Whilst I'd like everything to be in stock I have no issue with being told that the car won't be available for X hours, days, weeks or (e.g. in Bjorn's case) ... months. I may not like it, but if the Info is reliable I can plan my life around it.

In Bjorn's case he had a road trip / holiday from Norway to Spain booked. As his car was @ Tesla he was going to take the loaner, but I forget he details, maybe Insurance was a problem but at some [maybe that same] point Tesla sold it (whilst he was using it) and he had to swap the loaner with a friend, who could return that to Tesla [or only drive it in Norway ...] and get a different one, and take the friend's Tesla to Spain ......

My view is that this is a Tesla problem that they have made into a Customer problem ...

 

[WannabeOwner]

I fully understand these errors happen

Me too, if it were to be an isolated incident. But getting the wrong seat seems to me to be a bit of an Office Junior Error.

... I would expect a parts system to make it very difficult (e.g. require extra confirmation) to order a LHD Driver Seat on an order placed from the UK Should be as simple as saying "I want driver seat for VIN 1234" and then the parts ordering would guarantee the right one.

If they did order the right one but a wrong one turned up then that's just as bad in my book - "Should never ever happen"

The "cost" of rectifying issues like this is humongous. The most money we save in my company is preventing a cockup from occurring - simply because of the huge disproportionate cost of putting them right (not to mention potential lousy, and potentially even more humongously expensive!, customer PR)