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EVSteve
110% Solar Powered
To be fair GM did replace the steering rack on my Volt 3 separate times under warranty no arguments. After that they sent a letter to every 2013 Volt owner extending their warranty to 150,000 miles in case the part should experience a failure later. They've been nothing but accommodating when it comes to issues with that car. Other vehicles I've owned from them in the past not so much (my 2005 Bonneville GXP was a nightmare) but with their EVs they seem to have a different attitude.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
I've been driving for 52 years. My umpteen cars have been in the shops a few times. Over those years, most (nearly all, but not all) have been ICE. As I think back every single time, every shop, every mechanic, every replaced part was just absolutely perfect. Never a problem, never the wrong part put on, never a mistake made. Every visit to every shop was perfect-O. Oh yeah, Tesla has a lot of catching up, a lot of work to fix their approach to making me happy. Oh Yeah. Better get started Tesla, you are about 5 minutes behind them.
I have a Tesla service story to share as well. Some of is good but most of it was just terrible.
I thought it was pretty cool that Tesla uncorked my December 2016 Model X shaving more than a second off my 0-60. They charged me zero for this but I had to make a phone call and drive the car in for them to keep for a day.
They gave me a Tesla loaner but it had issues, please see below.
Pros:
+ Free performance uncork shaving over a second off 0-60 that would typically cost 5 digits to upgrade through third party or trim upgrades from manufacturer.
+ Model S loaner to use for the day while working on my Model X
Cons:
- I had to call to schedule an appointment to get the uncork done.
- I had to drive my car in myself to get the uncork done.
- I had to wait in the lobby for 10 minutes before someone came to me to complete the paperwork and set me up with a loaner.
- Coffee at the Costa Mesa service center is not very good. Generic keurig stuff and powered creamer and sugar from a can (ewww)
- Loaner Model S was not a P100D, did not have vegan white seats, and did not have 3 position LED Turning lights
- Free car wash after the service was not quite as good as if I washed it myself
GM, Nissan, Porsche haven't gotten to offering complementary performance enhancements yet, but when they do, surely it will be cheaper and better than Tesla!
Somehow I'm drawn to all my future cars being Tesla's despite 3x the cons than pros from this particular experience.
I thought it was pretty cool that Tesla uncorked my December 2016 Model X shaving more than a second off my 0-60. They charged me zero for this but I had to make a phone call and drive the car in for them to keep for a day.
They gave me a Tesla loaner but it had issues, please see below.
Pros:
+ Free performance uncork shaving over a second off 0-60 that would typically cost 5 digits to upgrade through third party or trim upgrades from manufacturer.
+ Model S loaner to use for the day while working on my Model X
Cons:
- I had to call to schedule an appointment to get the uncork done.
- I had to drive my car in myself to get the uncork done.
- I had to wait in the lobby for 10 minutes before someone came to me to complete the paperwork and set me up with a loaner.
- Coffee at the Costa Mesa service center is not very good. Generic keurig stuff and powered creamer and sugar from a can (ewww)
- Loaner Model S was not a P100D, did not have vegan white seats, and did not have 3 position LED Turning lights
- Free car wash after the service was not quite as good as if I washed it myself
GM, Nissan, Porsche haven't gotten to offering complementary performance enhancements yet, but when they do, surely it will be cheaper and better than Tesla!
Somehow I'm drawn to all my future cars being Tesla's despite 3x the cons than pros from this particular experience.
How badly do you want to get rid of your S? Make me an offer.
Also, hate to be bearer of bad news but I don't think you will be taking ANY EVs to Jim's Brake and Tune (conveniently located at my local Gas station).
Jim is independent but most of his wrenches and screwdrivers wouldn't work on my Volt, let alone my Tesla.
Also if you want to give financial advice, put your money where your mouth is and buy some TSLA 2020 Leap puts.
Easiest money according to your statistically undeniable direction of where this company is headed.
*Aspects* of Tesla can be challenging but there is something called the hot-crazy matrix that we have to deal with.
I love my Tesla. I'll live in it and buy a gym membership for showers if my leap calls fail and your leap puts succeed.
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FWIW, we used to buy GM. We had 3 of them. We don't buy GM anymore nor do we buy American brands anymore. We didn't really have issues w/the dealers or service depts, it was just their lack of reliability and how quickly some wear items would wear out (e.g. rear shocks) vs. the Japanese cars we experienced later.
In my family, our Toyotas have definitely been the best in reliability. Nissan is definitely inferior here. Have 0 experience w/Hondas. Each of the two brands has their share of good and bad service depts. I've luckily been able to avoid the bad ones and find out which ones are ok to good.
That said, I'm (amazingly) willing to give GM a shot again as long as the model I'm interested in holds up ok in CR reliability ratings. Gen 1 Volt was actually ok (but not gen 2). Bolt is apparently Chevy's most reliable car and surprisingly good for a 1st model year GM car.
(Yes, I know in Consumer Reports, owner satisfaction ratings for Nissan and Infiniti and many of their models are actually quite poor. Not sure what the reasons are other than certain models being ummm... not very good (e.g. Sentra and Versa) but it extends beyond those models.)
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Good luck with that one. Porsche has substantial problems with new technology also. All manufacturers do.
I live in France and bought my Tesla Model X 100D new last September here. I had a few issues, starting by a (very rare) front motor that needed to be replaced after less than 500km driving the car. Then automatic OTA SW up-dates that were failing, and that finally pointed at a bottom left Falcon door proximity capter generating internal/invisible errors that ended up blocking the OTAs. I was overall extremely satisfied by their Service Center in Chambourcy (France HQ, near Paris), for all these issues. Only problem was they had ZERO parts needed in any of their European parts stocks, neither the motor that took more than 2 weeks to arrive (But car drives very well with just the rear motor, and they gave me a loaner Mod X 100D during the days they took to replace it), nor for the falcon capter that I'm still waiting them to receive 1.5 weeks after they ordered it for me (But this is not blocking anything. The Falcons work perfectly, just sending invisible internal error messages behind the scene that seam to have little consequences blocking OTAs, hence better replacing them). I also smashed (my fault) a plastic cache surrounding my rear right wheel, that they ordered in the same week as falcon capter and i'm still waiting for 2 weeks later, with no news of when it will arrive yet. So for me the replacement parts availability is their main issue, both for warranty and out of warranty, but I expect this to improve overtime (Start Up growth not that easy to manage on hazardeous issues like this). Everything else has been working fine for me yet... May be with the exception of the Tesla Assistance hot Line, that I had to call late on a Friday afternoon, and took several hours to call me back, then did not do much to solve my problem along the way of my extended week-end trip, preferring to let me manage it when I return with my usal Service Center in Chambourcy near Paris. But my motor error was not blocking, and I had no issue driving 2000km on one motor, so fine. Just wondering the day I'll have a real accident with the car, requiring tons of parts to be replaced.... But cross fingers it does not happen too soon... I love Tesla and wish them all goodness !
@neroden I understand your frustration with your recent service debacle. I also hate wasting time (and a lot of time) on mistakes and incompetence of others.
I just wanted to address your assertion and title that this will "kill" Tesla and to dump TSLA stock by 2020 if they don't fix these problems.
My take is that there's a lot of inefficiency and communication problems in Tesla. This leads to certain situations where it's completely unacceptable.
However, in the area of service I think Tesla is improving things. Their service center experience has gotten a lot faster in my opinion. It's still very far from optimal (especially when new parts need to be ordered). But I think a large part of it is Tesla needing to save money. They don't stock as many parts as they should at their service centers and rely on shipping them. I think this is due to trying to save money. As their revenue and cash flow grow, they will be able to stock more parts in their service center and also improve the service experience. I think right now it's a matter of priority and while they value service, they know they can't offer the service they ultimately are capable of just right now.
I think we'll see more growing pains in the area of service. There are a lot of inefficiencies, for sure. Just yesterday my friend told me he was charged a ridiculous amount of money for an out-of-warranty replacement of a tail light... and then he confronted the manager and was given it as goodwill. I think that kind of summarizes things with Tesla service at the moment. Why charge a ridiculous amount for an out-of warranty simple repair in the first place? But on the other hand, most of the guys at Tesla are nice folks and they want to do the right thing... thus the gesture of good will.
Anyway, I agree with the inefficiencies and at times incompetence, but I also think service is improving in general and will improve as Tesla gets more cash cushion. That said, I think we're in for some major growing pains with Model 3 service as Tesla tries to accommodate a huge and growing new customer base.
I don't think Tesla will fail and I think folks should keep their TSLA stock beyond 2020.
I just wanted to address your assertion and title that this will "kill" Tesla and to dump TSLA stock by 2020 if they don't fix these problems.
My take is that there's a lot of inefficiency and communication problems in Tesla. This leads to certain situations where it's completely unacceptable.
However, in the area of service I think Tesla is improving things. Their service center experience has gotten a lot faster in my opinion. It's still very far from optimal (especially when new parts need to be ordered). But I think a large part of it is Tesla needing to save money. They don't stock as many parts as they should at their service centers and rely on shipping them. I think this is due to trying to save money. As their revenue and cash flow grow, they will be able to stock more parts in their service center and also improve the service experience. I think right now it's a matter of priority and while they value service, they know they can't offer the service they ultimately are capable of just right now.
I think we'll see more growing pains in the area of service. There are a lot of inefficiencies, for sure. Just yesterday my friend told me he was charged a ridiculous amount of money for an out-of-warranty replacement of a tail light... and then he confronted the manager and was given it as goodwill. I think that kind of summarizes things with Tesla service at the moment. Why charge a ridiculous amount for an out-of warranty simple repair in the first place? But on the other hand, most of the guys at Tesla are nice folks and they want to do the right thing... thus the gesture of good will.
Anyway, I agree with the inefficiencies and at times incompetence, but I also think service is improving in general and will improve as Tesla gets more cash cushion. That said, I think we're in for some major growing pains with Model 3 service as Tesla tries to accommodate a huge and growing new customer base.
I don't think Tesla will fail and I think folks should keep their TSLA stock beyond 2020.
Big-T
Member
So to be clear, does this mean you're selling your Tesla and buying the next gen Leaf from Nissan? I don't know what your minimum range specs are, but as the saying goes - talk is cheap, until there's some action Tesla has no incentive to change their practices.
For sure, but they don't have problems with customer service, which is what the OP is about.
You’re sure you’re referring to Porsche the carmaker, part of VAG? I have owned multiple Porsche. My last two had major problems that Porsche denied on warranty. One front suspension and one 4-wd gearbox problem. The first never was covered. The second only after legal action. I quit buying Porsche after those two.
As I said above EVERY car manufacturer screws up sometimes. The Tesla issue is slightly different in that the primary problem seems to be too few Service Centers and consequent overcrowding of the ones they have rather than anything else.
All these individual make anecdotes, including mine, are anecdotes, not necessarily systematic issues. I have had zero service issues with my Tesla, which infers nothing at all about service in less We’ll served areas.
tinm
2020 Model S LR+ Owner
I side with @neroden. Management from Elon on down at Tesla does not and has never understood how accountability and managing expectations and paying attention to detail and communicating reliably with customers are all essential. I have been talking about this for years. I have warned that Tesla is not ready to have hundreds of thousands of new Model 3 owners, many who are not early adopter longtime Tesla diehards willing to forgive all the nonsense Tesla puts customers through, they’re regular folks who will not tolerate a company that has no care for accountability, doesn’t understand the importance of managing expectations, lacks attention to detail, and can’t communicate. I have told Tesla execs this repeatedly. I have offered to drop everything, move to Palo Alto, and work with Tesla to fix these eminently fixable problems.They aren’t interested. They do not care. They are oblivious. They are going to fail and they’ll be scratching their heads for years wondering “what did we miss?”
As long as we are telling personal stories - Our worst car ownership experience by far was our POS Chevy Suburban. They did rebuild the engine under warranty, but we had to pay for tons of other stuff, including ball joints on the front end that had to be replaced every 15-20,000 miles. We had to get it repaired so often, that the service guy started recognizing my wife when she pulled in, and he would start doing a happy dance when she arrived. One time he commented on all the money they were making. It REALLY pissed my wife off. I don't plan on ever buying another GM pile of garbage.
Electric700
Active Member
Neroden, I recommend you send a message to [email protected] and ask them to escalate your issue. Let's help Tesla succeed, and there are multiple reasons why we should do so. They really need to resolve communications / service enablement issues like this as soon as possible.
My main complaint is lead time and communications. Once I actually get service they're great.
Ranger came to the office today, readjusted handles but log investigation indicates a problem with the module. So he'll be back shortly to fix that. Also gave me a workaround to pull the handle when it won't present (tie a string around it).
I know it would be expensive to ramp up now when they don't know when the 3's are coming... but it'll be a mess when they finally do arrive.
Ranger came to the office today, readjusted handles but log investigation indicates a problem with the module. So he'll be back shortly to fix that. Also gave me a workaround to pull the handle when it won't present (tie a string around it).
I know it would be expensive to ramp up now when they don't know when the 3's are coming... but it'll be a mess when they finally do arrive.
dhrivnak
Active Member
Not sure of your story but I have a Volt and had an Avalanche for 12 years (and my son for 2 more) and both were better on quality and speed of service than my Tesla.
Chickenlittle
Banned
My daughter has volt and I was impressed by service. They did 8 safety recalls (1year old car) that they never notified us of despite sending marketing materials so we knew they had contact info. They also fixed an oil leak in the one year old car. Impressed....NOT
Tesla tops Consumer Reports' satisfaction survey
FAKE NEWS.
Consumer Reports should be tallying responses from this thread instead of whatever statistically fake methods they used to arrive at their current conclusion.
Also, Tesla should be dumping all their high level management and hiring from the critics here. They can solve all of Tesla's service problems overnight because everything is so obvious and simple.
After all, the keyboard critics have a successful track record of building companies with over 30,000 employees selling disruptive products as complex, if not greater than Electric cars with a worldwide charging infrastructure.
I would wager just about anything I can find tons of inefficiencies in how the critics manage things (if they are even in management roles AT ALL)
I also would wager I could be the OP and would have gotten my latch fixed already and not waste time making a post calling management idiots which accomplished nothing. While one prefers everything be handed to them, sometimes you just have to manage your own resolution and move on to other things.
1.) Why did you wait weeks for a call back? More than 48 hours, you need to follow up -nicely-.
2.) You said you were busy for a week. How does YOUR schedule count AGAINST Tesla problem resolution time? Since you failed to follow up on this "life and death issue", its partially your fault.
3.) I would love Omar's side of the story but it was probably pointless to ask for his bosses, bosses, bosses number. You could have arranged an "understanding" to get it all fixed within a day or two before needing to ask for any numbers.
How some people can afford a Tesla amazes me with such lack of understanding on how "things work".
FAKE NEWS.
Consumer Reports should be tallying responses from this thread instead of whatever statistically fake methods they used to arrive at their current conclusion.
Also, Tesla should be dumping all their high level management and hiring from the critics here. They can solve all of Tesla's service problems overnight because everything is so obvious and simple.
After all, the keyboard critics have a successful track record of building companies with over 30,000 employees selling disruptive products as complex, if not greater than Electric cars with a worldwide charging infrastructure.
I would wager just about anything I can find tons of inefficiencies in how the critics manage things (if they are even in management roles AT ALL)
I also would wager I could be the OP and would have gotten my latch fixed already and not waste time making a post calling management idiots which accomplished nothing. While one prefers everything be handed to them, sometimes you just have to manage your own resolution and move on to other things.
1.) Why did you wait weeks for a call back? More than 48 hours, you need to follow up -nicely-.
2.) You said you were busy for a week. How does YOUR schedule count AGAINST Tesla problem resolution time? Since you failed to follow up on this "life and death issue", its partially your fault.
3.) I would love Omar's side of the story but it was probably pointless to ask for his bosses, bosses, bosses number. You could have arranged an "understanding" to get it all fixed within a day or two before needing to ask for any numbers.
How some people can afford a Tesla amazes me with such lack of understanding on how "things work".
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