I ordered 1 hour access to their service manuals. They charged my card and sent me an auto response that I would get an activation link, or a password or something, which never came.
After several weeks of e-mailing different addresses, including the standard servicehelp-eu address with no response, I called my bank and claimed credit card fraud. Got the money back from the bank. Still haven't heard from Tesla, but I suppose their credit card reputation is getting a bit wonky. And that must feel great when people are trying to pay for luxury cars...
I can't do much but shake my head. I have a Model 3 reservation, and still confident that I will buy it, but I hope there is little or no problems with it, or my patience will blow up in someone's face:
My 2014 S85 has been in the shop 8 times. Probably they could have fixed it in 2 trips if they just did what they were supposed to on the first try. But I am not holding warranty screw-ups against them, it is worse with the paid service just before our long Europe road trip/vacation, where they
-didn't change the brake fluid
-didn't change the coolant
-didn't update the maps, so there was no route to most of the superchargers. Brussels service center could tell me that the maps were the original 2014 version from the factory.
-didn't change batteries in the keys, or actually somehow screwed them up, so the car locked us out, alarms went off, and it went bananas several times during the trip before we could get all this fixed in Brussels service center (who were awesome! probably because I was their only customer that week
)
-screwed up the the wheel alignment again, which I didn't ask for, and didn't know was included in the service. In total it's had alignments I think 6 times. When the car was new it was very unstable when accellerating, I complained and they fixed it, and it was perfect. After that, they have been screwing with the alignment many times without me asking for it, I always bring it back to complain, and they could never get it back to that perfect 1st alignment. I tried to complain recently, but the mechanic who drove it said it was normal. (However I need 2 lanes if the asphalt is worn (excaggerating a lot here, but it's frickin' annoying to have a super fast luxury car that has less precise steering than my dad's 1987 Fiat tractor with no-feedback hydraulic steering)
On the positive side, yes, they managed to change the HVAC air filter for 5000 NOK (or actually, I haven't checked that they did, maybe they didn't?)
I now have a pretty long backlog of warranty work that should be done some time soon before the warranty runs out, but I hate dealing with them so much that I am planning to just swap the car in for the 3 when it arrives. Then they can get a taste of their own shitty warrany work and alignment machine
I can also add to the list
- was yelled at by a sour old employee for parking where the receptionist told me to park. He didn't calm down when I explained that to him, but told me I was stupid for parking outside the marked spots, which were all full, and why I asked the receptionist where to park.
- drove a shitty mercedes (OK it was actually really good, C250 diesel, I liked it a lot, probably a lot less headache) for 2 weeks while my car was parked OUTSIDE the service center. Only the last they they took it in.
- was called telling me to come in on a friday, but they said they didn't have parts, so they couldn't work on it. they still wanted me to come in. I suggested I'd wait until they get the parts, where the person responded 'that's a GREAT idea!'
- tried to buy a roof rack for several months. every time I was in, the 'parts counter' was closed. so in the end I bought a service, to get the rack back with the car. they said they put it in the car, of course I believed them, and it wasn't. So I came back on a saturday, and the parts counter was closed again. I asked them if they could just look through the door of the workshop to see if my rack was standing along the wall, but they refused to do it.
- I gave up spending the rest of my referral prize money, becuase it was basically impossible without taking time off work in the middle of the week, since they refuse to sell you anything on saturdays.
- One time I came in to leave the car and go back to work with a loaner. This woman told me that I could not EXPECT to get a loaner every time, and she didn't have one. I was at a loss for words, and after thinking a second, I said I would have to take my car back to work then. She said OK. Then, she called me later the same day and said she had a loaner for me. (In Norway, loaner usually means a tiny rental Honda). So I left from work AGAIN, to pick up the loaner car. What I find a bit funny about this, is, before I bought the car they used to say that they would pick up the car at your workplace and leave a loaner, if you ever had a problem or needed service. Yeah right.
- Drove 120 km round-trips THREE times to pick up my winter tires to try to get new TPMS sensors. Story was something like this: 1. TPMS error. Swap receiver, and in-tire senders on the summer tires. Receptionist told me to come by 'any time' to deliver the winter tires to get new sensors in those as well. Drove 120 km to pick up those tires, tried to deliver them, recieved weird facial expressions (from the same person). Was gone for 30 minutes. Came back and said I have to have the tires on the car, in order for the sensors to calibrate/auto detect. I said that there is a button on the screen that does this, can't i just press it when the winter tires are on? Answer was, nope, come back when winter is here. So I did. And can you imagine how easy it was to get an appointment to do THAT? Can you imagine how hard it was to explain all this to somebody on the Tesla receptionist level??? Needless to say, I was there plenty of times. Also, I asked a few different people in Tesla if I would get a tire pressure reading in my screen after the upgrade, and they said no. Well, I have tire pressure readings now
And despite all this I still love the car!!?!?!?! Can you IMAGINE how good that car is !?!? I caught myself contemplating getting my own 4 wheel laser aligment machine, just so I can get the toe-in, caster, KPI and rear thrust angle that I want without having to deal with these clowns.
Add to that all the software bugs STILL PRESENT AFTER THE CAR HAS BEEN ON SALE FOR 6 YEARS. I am going to make a video of the bugs I've had, mirrors fold out only every other day, spotify sometimes plays only 2 songs, sometimes none, auto dimming screens was only fixed after FIVE years, I still have around 10 bugs I see from time to time that has NOT been fixed for as long as I've had the car, probably some of them were introduced during my ownership as well.
I am glad this thread exists, and I hope they pick up on it, and do something about it. Because once the competitors catch up (I mean they just have to stuff some laptop batteries in the floor, that idea was genius, but now everyone knows what to do if they choose to do it) Tesla will have a hard time keeping people if they treat them like they treated me. For me I suppose I will get the Model 3, but after that, it will be a BMW, Mercedes, or whichever other brand has managed to make a cool-ish fast-ish sedan. Or if the Tesla Pickup is super awesome I have to have that one, and I'll buy the laser machine and build my own canbus tools. I am already pretty well on my way with that last one, I have developed the 'Scan My Tesla' app.
