Worried about service centers

[Petrocelli]

Are you a frequent poster on the MB Forums? Would love to see you experience that you have shared over the years on your satisfied leases of MB's.

I see a Petrocelli. Just joined the MB Forums this month. Maybe it is you.

MBWorld.org Forums - View Profile: Petrocelli

Similar car to yours as well. Wow. Getting a lease on a C class. Amazing.

"Hi. I am thinking of leasing a C300 Coupe, with a sticker of $50,125.

36 month lease, 45,000 miles, $2,500 down (which includes first payment and fees totaling about $1400.

Payment $625 a month including 10% sales tax.

Sound fair?

Thanks."

Wow for a diehard MB fan. Only 2 posts? Only questions about what your new payment would be.

Which proves many a point posted here. For such a satisfied customer you never went there to gloat, or share your awesome service experience. Which is fine. Yet you come here and tell us how great that you only were on hold for 1:53 seconds when you called MB. Or how your car was ready on your wedding anniversary. Why not share it there as well? Because people don't. They don't share in a large majority of the positive experiences in life.

Your rationale and research methodology is flawed, if presented to a group setting at my company you would be laughed out of the boardroom.

Enjoy the car.

Yep. That's me!

Frankly, I don't spend a lot of time on internet bulletin boards yammering on about my car. I do, however, read the Mercedes forums about every month or so.

When I am considering changing the brand of car I have driven since 1997, I may want to get a few opinions. I don't need information on the Mercedes, because I have driven one for 22 years.

In that thread on the Mercedes forum, I was asking about a lease deal for the C Coupe, and one poster said this:

"You will generally not find 'good lease deals' on the coupe, especially for fully loaded models. The Coupe is not a high volume, high production car for MB compared to the C sedan, GLE and GLC. It's safe to say you might even pay a $150ish premium per month for the same MSRP coupe vs. sedan."

So the answer is: if you are getting a C300 coupe for the same price as a C300 sedan, you are kicking a**. May the force be with you. You are the car-leasing equivalent of Michael Jordan crossed with Charlemagne and Plato.

As for my research methodology, I certainly realize that the stories on this board are anecdotal. However, there are dozens of posts about stinking cars, roofs spontaneously cracking, people ordering kits from China for $19.99 to reduce cabin noise, service phones manned by dead people, dogs mating with cats in the frunk, and cars needed to be rebooted like an old Radio Shack computer. This indicates to me (but does not prove) Tesla has growing pains.

In terms of problems, the fact that Consumer reports rated Tesla 27th out of 29 car manufacturers in reliability means a lot more to me.

The fact that, a few weeks ago, Nextmove cancelled the order of 100 Model 3s after taking delivery of 15 of them meant a lot. The fact that Nextmove found a whole host of problems with the 15 cars indicated what may be instore for me as a Tesla owner. Now, I realize Germans can be cranky. However, we can safely assume that the German that runs Nextmove is not a Tesla fan. (I don't think he posts here though.)

If you want, I'll come to your boardroom and explain my research methodology if you are in driving distance. Where the heck is your tin can?

 

[5_+JqckQttqck]

Just broke 40,000kms (25,000 miles) of Model 3 commuting/road tripping and the only issue has been (in order of occurrence).

1. Went in to solve clicking issue with rear wheels. Brake clips were the culprit, replaced under warranty and the car kept for a weekend by Toronto Mississauga SC for a wiring hardness upgrade (Early builds) - Got a 100D loaner, fast and fun, but less agile. I missed my 3.

2. Car horn high frequency died, may have been caused by celebrating Raptor's wins. Mobile came and repaired both while I was at work.

3. Smelly A/C - Mobile came and delivered two new filters and advised against changing - paid only for filters. Eventually DIY changed after foaming with A/C HVAC cleaner. Smell gone for 1 hour of labour (The mobile tech said it typically cost $40 for this on his mobile calls).

4. Clicking noise returned, rear axle needs some lube. Arrived early and was let in 1 hour before my appointment. Was allowed in before official shop hours. Was out in 1.5 hours, goodwill rotated the tires while they fixed the clicking.

Car never once broke down on the road. Compared to my 2018 Civic (no A/C, known issue - appointment to get it looked it) both are working out great as new vehicles.

My service experience has been great in Toronto. I suppose it depends on the teams available at X SC. After all, people make things happen. Some good, some bad, some incompetent, some excel at everything they do. Roll of the dice with every product out there. Tesla service is still a work in progress - I have no doubt Tesla service will continue to be improve.

 

[Daniel in SD]

One interesting thing is that in their Q2 report Tesla claims to have spent only $61 million on warranty costs. This seems preposterously low to me. There are ~400 service centers worldwide. If the average service center is only doing $150k of warranty work a quarter then maybe there really is no service center shortage (fake news?).

Mystery solved! New Tesla In Need Of A Repair? Check If It Was Marked Goodwill
I was always mystified by how Tesla's warranty costs are so low while the service centers seem so crowded with brand new cars. It appears that much of the service they do on new vehicles is "goodwill" not warranty repairs.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Mystery solved! New Tesla In Need Of A Repair? Check If It Was Marked Goodwill
I was always mystified by how Tesla's warranty costs are so low while the service centers seem so crowded with brand new cars. It appears that much of the service they do on new vehicles is "goodwill" not warranty repairs.

Does not look like this could come out of any “goodwill” on the balance sheet though. I have no idea how they account for it...

I guess this could be rolled into a cost associated with sales or something.

 

[super20g]

Mystery solved! New Tesla In Need Of A Repair? Check If It Was Marked Goodwill
I was always mystified by how Tesla's warranty costs are so low while the service centers seem so crowded with brand new cars. It appears that much of the service they do on new vehicles is "goodwill" not warranty repairs.

My service work is almost always listed as goodwill because they think it will make it harder for me to lemon the car. You might remember the last 3 I bought had 4 torn jack points that I have pictures of 2 days after taking delivery. It took them months and me giving them examples of other cars with the exact same damage discovered after delivery for them to agree to fix it. They replaced the HV battery pack and listed it as goodwill and put a comment that said 'expected customer damage'. Why? So they could call it goodwill and not bill it as warranty / 'defects in materials' work. Nice of them to give me some BS paperwork telling my I tore out the jack points on my 2 day old car and they were nice enough to goodwill me a 15k+ part??? LMAO. These guys play games so hard it is unbelievable it hasn't caught up with them yet.

 

[VT_EE]

My service work is almost always listed as goodwill. You might remember the last 3 I bought had 4 torn jack points that I have pictures of 2 days after taking delivery. It took them months and me giving them examples of other cars with the exact same damage discovered after delivery for them to agree to fix it. They replaced the HV battery pack and listed it as goodwill and put a comment that said 'expected customer damage'. Why? So they could call it goodwill and not bill it as warranty / 'defects in materials' work. Nice of them to give me some BS paperwork telling my I tore out the jack points on my 2 day old car and they were nice enough to goodwill me a 15k+ part??? LMAO. These guys play games so hard it is unbelievable it hasn't caught up with them yet.

I’m not sure it really matters what they call it as the cost still comes off their bottom line. I’ve had Mazda do the same thing. It’s not unique to Tesla.

 

[super20g]

I’m not sure it really matters what they call it as the cost still comes off their bottom line. I’ve had Mazda do the same thing. It’s not unique to Tesla.

Edited my post. It is also a way for them to make it harder for a customer to lemon the car.

 

[NOLADriver]

Dont forget the "we dont give receipts for warranty work" scam. I had to literally demand a receipt for some work I had done there. They told me they dont give them out. WTF kind of shop wont give you a document saying you brought a car in for repair...The kind that is avoiding Lemon Laws.

 

[super20g]

Dont forget the "we dont give receipts for warranty work" scam. I had to literally demand a receipt for some work I had done there. They told me they dont give them out. WTF kind of shop wont give you a document saying you brought a car in for repair...The kind that is avoiding Lemon Laws.

Another recent example of their outright dishonesty that correlates with your experience:

They just came out last week for mobile service. One of the issues was that at the last service center service, they fixed a door rattle and broke the auto up/down window function. It has not worked once since they worked on the door. I have tested it dozens if times. I have a video of me testing it within minutes of the tech arriving. When the service tech arrived, I came out to greet him, to give him the keycard, and demonstrate the window feature failure. Well, he remotely unlocked the car from his service van, made a beeline for my car, ignored me, got in the car, performed a reset on the window by holding the button down which fixed it, then told me it was working fine and he put that it was working when he arrived on the invoice. What a loser. I don't even know what to say. They will stoop to any level they have to to save their own skin...

There was a range issue and a defective seat belts staining the white seatback issue also reported to be addressed. The tech said he wasn't equipped to address them. There was no mention of them on the invoice. There was no estimate provided prior to the service visit even though the appointment was scheduled roughly a month prior. They just flat out won't document reported issues.

I emailed the mobile tech, his boss, the manager of the service center asking for help. No response... All the way up the chain they cover for one another. I've never seen anything like it.

I guess they think they are really getting one over one me or something... I file an arb case every single time they pull this BS. I guess they would rather pay 3k a pop for arb cases than to act like grown ups... Who does that? Dirtbags...

 

[Daniel in SD]

I’m not sure it really matters what they call it as the cost still comes off their bottom line. I’ve had Mazda do the same thing. It’s not unique to Tesla.

I wonder where it shows up on the balance sheet? Warranty costs actually don't come off the bottom line, they come out of the warranty reserve fund. Tesla appears to play games with their warranty reserve fund each quarter to make profitable quarters more profitable and unprofitable quarters more unprofitable.
I suppose the advantage of doing warranty repairs as goodwill is that it allows you to keep a smaller warranty reserve fund which helps profitability in the short term.

 

[vickh]

I wonder where it shows up on the balance sheet? Warranty costs actually don't come off the bottom line, they come out of the warranty reserve fund. Tesla appears to play games with their warranty reserve fund each quarter to make profitable quarters more profitable and unprofitable quarters more unprofitable.
I suppose the advantage of doing warranty repairs as goodwill is that it allows you to keep a smaller warranty reserve fund which helps profitability in the short term.

yes where does Goodwill get accounted for? still an expense...