What are the consequences of crappy service on the service center employees?

[FredMertz]

I just had a massively crappy service experience. Long story, short -- my car had a small, deep scratch at delivery that extended on to a headlight lens. We agreed it needed bodywork and a new headlamp and made an appointment.

In the interim between pickup and service, a service manager decided sight-unseen that it could be buffed out of the body and the lens didn't need replacing. I insisted he was wrong and told him that the detailer who was going to put on my PPF said the fender absolutely had to come off and be repainted. He didn't budge.

I showed up for service and was immediately told it needed bodywork and a new headlight, but they had no headlights in stock and no loaners, for what could be a week wait for the part and a week wait for the work.

So, they'll order the part and I'll bring it back when it comes in, whenever that is, and wait another week to get my car back.

And I realized that, despite the woman helping me today seeming genuinely sorry and pissed at the chain of events, there would be absolutely no impact on anyone that worked there that the mistake was made.

No consequence, so no reason to expect behavior to change.

And all I could think of was how much a local dealer would have been all over the situation trying to find a way to make it right.

99% of the no-dealer model is great, but the remaining 1% -- the accountability that comes when you are working with a business owner -- makes a huge difference.

Thanks for listening to my petty rant!

 

[steve841]

Definitely depends on the day, the person, the SC.

Upon my Y arriving, I inspected and spelled out a few things. They delayed delivery till the next morning (headlight replacement).

Was back in yesterday for a door adjustment and homelink and two other quirks we decided would not be fixed (charge port door). But, everything else went perfectly.

But, then again, they know me and I make it very clear upon arrival of previous issues I've experienced.

As for the repercussions, I had a conversation with my sales guy about service and he said they seem to have annual purges of the dead weight.

 

[jsight]

And all I could think of was how much a local dealer would have been all over the situation trying to find a way to make it right.

I feel like a lot of people have vastly different experiences with dealers than I have had.

 

[captanzuelo]

Hey, join the club. I've been waiting for parts(defective on delivery) for almost three months now. Every two weeks, they schedule a service appt and then end up rebooking it because "parts haven't arrived yet" or "we accidentally ordered the wrong part." These aren't crucial safety items, so I keep telling them to get all their parts in stock before calling me to come out again. This will be my third service appointment and I'm sick of them wasting my time. Like Fred said, no accountability so they can keep treating us like sh*t.

For those that have had good experiences, I think it all depends on how busy the SC is. I'm in LA, so not surprised they would be swamped with work with the amount of Teslas driving around out here. In the end, I can't get angry at our service guys because the SC's have to deal with the shoddy workmanship coming out of Fremont.

 

[Matsayz]

Here in Vegas I posted my experience on the local FB page for Tesla owners/club. Apparently the admin of the group is very close to the Service Center manager (sales side) and made my gripes known. I got a phone call within 2hrs of my post to make things as right as possible... So not all of the Service Centers are crap but seems they've hired previous ICE dealership people which partially makes sense but it's still about pushing cars as fast as possible for Tesla (still, years later, still). I've rarely ever had a "good" experience at a normal ICE dealership, but then again I've never been at a Lexus or Merc dealership.

You should try asking for the manager's manager or keep pestering them, hell Tweet Elon cuz ya never know if he'll reply. I say you keep poking them to fix all the things, seems the squeaky wheel gets the grease lately with Tesla.

My opinion/experience, obviously YMMV.

 

[E_R_N]

Not sure what kind of consequences you expect. I pulled wrenches for 16 years, I would be working on sometimes as many as 10-15 cars a day and it is all high pressure because everyone makes their appointments and expects their cars to be in the shop right away. Every once in a while you would screw up and damage a car. It sucks and you feel like crap, all the guys in the shop will make jokes about it, the service manager will have you in the office telling you that you screwed up and caused him a major headache and you need to be more careful and usually you work for free to accommodate the repair (IE you take the fender off so the bodyshop can paint it and you replace the headlight but dont get paid for your time).
What doesnt happen is a public flogging so that customer can see he was punished and then feel better because of it.

 

[dsb411]

I brought my Y in to get the non folding rear seat and misaligned windows fixed. Guess what? After being told to read the manual, I brought the car back again to fix the same issues. I bet they still don’t fix it, because the SC rep is ****ing useless.

 

[FredMertz]

Not sure what kind of consequences you expect. I pulled wrenches for 16 years, I would be working on sometimes as many as 10-15 cars a day and it is all high pressure because everyone makes their appointments and expects their cars to be in the shop right away. Every once in a while you would screw up and damage a car. It sucks and you feel like crap, all the guys in the shop will make jokes about it, the service manager will have you in the office telling you that you screwed up and caused him a major headache and you need to be more careful and usually you work for free to accommodate the repair (IE you take the fender off so the bodyshop can paint it and you replace the headlight but dont get paid for your time).
What doesnt happen is a public flogging so that customer can see he was punished and then feel better because of it.

If you're going to respond to the post, at least read past the subject line. Your response seems to be to some other post.

I'm not talking about an honest mistake. I'm talking about a service manager insisting that his own employee who said it needed to go to the body shop was wrong, even though he had never seen the car. Once I got there, it took less than five minutes for them to realize they couldn't fix the car vs the >1 hour I spent driving to and from the SC. Nobody there could understand what had happened or why the manager did what he did.

I'm not asking for a public flogging as if I wanted that I am confident I could have complained enough to make it happen. I'm just noting that when there is no local ownership that has a direct financial interest in the success of the business, employees don't have a whole lot of incentive to excel at their jobs. It's like the help you get in Home Depot vs a locally owned Tru Value.

 

[Klau2]

If you're going to respond to the post, at least read past the subject line. Your response seems to be to some other post.

I'm not talking about an honest mistake. I'm talking about a service manager insisting that his own employee who said it needed to go to the body shop was wrong, even though he had never seen the car. Once I got there, it took less than five minutes for them to realize they couldn't fix the car vs the >1 hour I spent driving to and from the SC. Nobody there could understand what had happened or why the manager did what he did.

I'm not asking for a public flogging as if I wanted that I am confident I could have complained enough to make it happen. I'm just noting that when there is no local ownership that has a direct financial interest in the success of the business, employees don't have a whole lot of incentive to excel at their jobs. It's like the help you get in Home Depot vs a locally owned Tru Value.

Agreed, there is almost no consequences to their mistake? Who do we even report to? Tesla communication is so bad, trying to talk to a live person when you call them takes skills and almost impossible. Why would they care? I am waiting for parts to fix the misaligned rear seats for i think over a month now. All I get is the same email every week telling me the part still isn't there yet. Who do we go and complain? I am fortunate, that the SC is less than 10 mins from my work so I can always pop in and try to ask them in person what's going on. imagine others who lives much farther away?

 

[E_R_N]

If you're going to respond to the post, at least read past the subject line. Your response seems to be to some other post.

I'm not talking about an honest mistake. I'm talking about a service manager insisting that his own employee who said it needed to go to the body shop was wrong, even though he had never seen the car. Once I got there, it took less than five minutes for them to realize they couldn't fix the car vs the >1 hour I spent driving to and from the SC. Nobody there could understand what had happened or why the manager did what he did.

I'm not asking for a public flogging as if I wanted that I am confident I could have complained enough to make it happen. I'm just noting that when there is no local ownership that has a direct financial interest in the success of the business, employees don't have a whole lot of incentive to excel at their jobs. It's like the help you get in Home Depot vs a locally owned Tru Value.

SOrry then, I misunderstood the title of "
consequences of crappy service on the service center employees"
and "And I realized that, despite the woman helping me today seeming genuinely sorry and pissed at the chain of events, there would be absolutely no impact on anyone that worked there that the mistake was made" to mean the employee wasnt punished enough to satisfy you, what I think you are trying to say is you are frustrated that the management of the center is doing a crap job and you have no recourse with Tesla to complain about the management of that service center. The disappointment in the SC management is definitely something I can get behind. I have my own horror stories but I have lost interest in using them because I have the ability to fix most things myself.

 

[Wennfred]

Just going to jump to the end of this one, simple answer for something like this, refuse delivery, big gash that includes the head light, the more people refuse these damaged cars the better message Tesla will get with their delivery QC process. They want your money, they will find you a replacement.

Fred

 

[jsight]

I'm not asking for a public flogging as if I wanted that I am confident I could have complained enough to make it happen. I'm just noting that when there is no local ownership that has a direct financial interest in the success of the business, employees don't have a whole lot of incentive to excel at their jobs. It's like the help you get in Home Depot vs a locally owned Tru Value.

This doesn't match my experience with actual dealers. Their direct financial interest always seemed to somehow align with trying to attach extra work to warranty work. I've had $2k quotes added to warranty work for stuff that wasn't needed at all[1]. They were just local owners with a direct financial interest in the profit of their own business, after all. That was an extreme case, but I've seen the same pattern at a completely unrelated, but also locally owned dealer for another brand.

There is no perfect model when profit is involved.

[1] The code was related to the warranty work itself. The work quoted was an unrelated module that showed they weren't even reading the code right when generating the quote.

 

[CyberGus]

A big part of Customer Service is managing expectations, and this requires active communication. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Tesla is lacking in this regard (calls and emails ignored, bad information given).

Structurally, the SCs appear to be decentralized. Maybe communication would improve with a broader support center to handle the bulk of customer interaction, taking the burden off the SCs and letting them work.

 

[imola.zhp]

If you happen to be within your 7 day return period, return the car. Not sure if this will reflect directly on the service center, but it will reflect on Tesla.

If its too late or you don't want to return the car, next time, if there is a next time, don't accept a damaged car. We walked away from VIN 25225 when the person helping us said she would have the frunk re-painted to correct fisheye's. There was also a dent in the quarter panel, a busted inner taillight and a deep scratch on the other quarter panel. I could have accepted with the busted tail lamp and the laundry list of other interior issues but paint issues are not something I can accept.