Yellow screen? Force Tesla to Replace it!

[markb1]

The trick is to call a few service centers that morning and get names of people you spoke to and times of call. He can't dispute that when you have multiple data points.

That's a good idea, if you can actually get someone on the phone at the service center. But I've heard many reports recently that the service centers don't answer the phone and done return voicemail!

Maybe leave voicemails at different service center and make a log. Then in arbitration, you can present the log as evidence that you can't even get ahold of the service center!

 

[KArnold]

Same lawyer; same double-speak . Said Tesla did not have a "reasonable opportunity" to repair my car. I had the evidence of 6 attempts of me trying to schedule an appointment. All were denied.

I asked "Isn't that a reasonable opportunity?"

He said "I don't deny you tried 6 times to schedule a repair appointment and were denied. I'm saying Tesla never had their hands on your car to have a reasonable opportunity to repair it."

Say what?? Maybe they should sue themselves then. Makes as much sense.

I'm sure he reads these threads too. Just know I pray for you. Seriously.

 

[MSVroomVroom]

He said "I don't deny you tried 6 times to schedule a repair appointment and were denied. I'm saying Tesla never had their hands on your car to have a reasonable opportunity to repair it."

That has to be the most asinine argument I have ever heard. Tesla is just making themselves look foolish. The fact that they have to resort to these sort of slimy tactics to dupe some arbitrators into siding with them just goes to show how thin their case really is. They can't win one of these cases on merit so they just lie.

I've said it before, but, I really hope this is just one bad apple at Tesla and is not indicative of some deeper trend in how Tesla plans to conduct itself in the future. This sort of behavior drives customers away.

 

[rjdoc74]

Do we have an attorney in this group who can advise on this?

 

[jwlsh]

You can ask him what constitutes a reasonable opportunity to repair? what conditions must exist to provide for that? ( repair kit available, Service Center staff trained on it's use, appointment scheduled, car delivered to SC, etc ) and if you have attempted to deliver on your elements and Tesla has been unable to do so, then the fault lies with them

 

[KyleDay]

Same lawyer; same double-speak . Said Tesla did not have a "reasonable opportunity" to repair my car. I had the evidence of 6 attempts of me trying to schedule an appointment. All were denied.

I asked "Isn't that a reasonable opportunity?"

He said "I don't deny you tried 6 times to schedule a repair appointment and were denied. I'm saying Tesla never had their hands on your car to have a reasonable opportunity to repair it."

Say what?? Maybe they should sue themselves then. Makes as much sense.

I'm sure he reads these threads too. Just know I pray for you. Seriously.

I'm a pretty reasonable guy, but if someone made that argument to me I would lose it.

This Ryan character needs to understand how awful he's making the experience of trying to get warranty service for a seriously immaterial repair cost. It will cost much more in customer retention than the repairs ever would.

 

[rjdoc74]

I'm a pretty reasonable guy, but if someone made that argument to me I would lose it.

This Ryan character needs to understand how awful he's making the experience of trying to get warranty service for a seriously immaterial repair cost. It will cost much more in customer retention than the repairs ever would.

His is high billable hour hot shot Palo Alto attorney hired by Tesla to save them $$$. Do you really think he cares about how awful he is making warranty repair experience???

 

[KyleDay]

His is high billable hour hot shot Palo Alto attorney hired by Tesla to save them $$$. Do you really think he cares about how awful he is making warranty repair experience???

He's internal Counsel to Tesla on salary. He's an employee. Yes, he should care. I know how attorneys work- I work for them.

 

[rjdoc74]

He's internal Counsel to Tesla on salary. He's an employee. Yes, he should care. I know how attorneys work- I work for them.

I don’t think anyone knows fRyan’s employment status for sure. One thing we can all agree on is we all know his current task and that he doesn’t really care (no does Tesla for that matter) about customers’ experience. Whether he should or not is a different question entirely.

 

[Matias]

My assumption is that it is glue within the screen causing the yellow border - that would be the manufacturer. You're saying that Tesla glued components together & didn't purchase an assembled MCU?

But if it were manufactures defect (not Tesla’s ’) Tesla would get reimbursements from manufacturer? So why would Tesla be so unwilling to replace the screens?

 

[P100D_Me]

So why would Tesla be so unwilling to replace the screens?

I'm guessing someone was told a cost cutting measure wouldn't work but ignored advice and therefore no warranty given by the manufacturer....but they will supply them cheaper in that case, however the risk is on Tesla's bottom line of if it turns bad.
Just an assumption.

 

[VT_EE]

Just waiting for a class action lawsuit. That’s all.

I agree this situation is totally unacceptable, but what exactly is a class action lawsuit going to accomplish? It seems Tesla has a UV fix that sometimes works, and replaces the screen if that doesn’t work.

 

[re04586]

It seems Tesla has a UV fix that sometimes works, and replaces the screen if that doesn’t work.

I think that's accurate but incomplete. Those instances where the screen was replaced if the UV fix did not work were attached to arbitration cases. At this point, I don't think they are doing any screen replacements under goodwill.

 

[PhilDavid]

I agree this situation is totally unacceptable, but what exactly is a class action lawsuit going to accomplish? It seems Tesla has a UV fix that sometimes works, and replaces the screen if that doesn’t work.

What you said only works that way if a customer files for arbitration.

If Tesla just came out and said they have a UV fix that will be covered under warranty and if that does not work, they will replace or fix the defective displays, this thread will conclude and everyone will be satisfied.

The problem is I don't think we've heard them say what you are saying above. Instead, there has been a parade of some fine BS thrown at customers about sunlight, oxygen, humidity, or some other nonsense. Customers are looking for a solution to address the defective displays with either a fix or replacement.

The Model 3 display seems to work just fine with conditions you typically find on earth and Model S customers are also asking for a similarly non-defective screen.

They should come up with a reasonable fix/solution and announce it as the current void of information and BS force customers to seek arbitration for what should be a warranty repair.

It's crazy we've reached a point where a customers needs to file for arbitration to get warranty service

 

[MSVroomVroom]

I agree this situation is totally unacceptable, but what exactly is a class action lawsuit going to accomplish? It seems Tesla has a UV fix that sometimes works, and replaces the screen if that doesn’t work.

It remains to be seen what happens when the UV treatment doesn't work and the owner didn't go through arbitration. Will Tesla still replace the screens in that case or will they tell the owner too bad? It will probably be some time before we know the answer to this as arbitration seems to be the only reliable way to get any form of service on this issue at the moment.

The advantage of a class action would be that it settles the matter for all customers. Despite the number of people in this thread there is likely orders of magnitude more customers who are impacted. Those customers should have a voice too. They shouldn't have to go to the extremes of filing an arbitration case just to get a few hundred dollar part repaired on a ~$100k car.

Of course, Tesla could just make a class action or an onslaught of arbitration cases go away if they were to simply honor their warranty and stop insulting and lying to customers. This is really an issue of their own making.

 

[MSVroomVroom]

After the arbitration, but before I received the claim denied response, I reported to the Tesla lawyer example posts in this thread about Tesla service centers claiming repeatedly that the UV fix is temporary. I was rather pointed in my email that it appears either Tesla has an internal communications problem, or the lawyer has an honesty problem. The lawyer re-iterated his stance that the UV fix is permanent, and that I should not to impugn his honesty. So I'll take him at his word, and apparently this whole "UV fix permanency" is just an honest mistake in internal communications. Time will tell.

Tesla's communication on this is such that I'm not sure I trust what anyone at Tesla is saying. Either because they have "an honesty problem" or because they just don't know what is going on. Tesla supposedly has an internal wiki page(s) on the UV treatment for the service centers. Maybe this lawyer should go update the wiki with the accurate information if the service centers are running around making false statements.

It quite frankly is stunning to me that the service centers seem to have been left to fend for themselves. I would expect any competent company to come up with an internal set of talking points and a strict statement for the service people to stick to. Instead if you talk to a dozen different service people you get a dozen different answers. It just looks amateurish and makes you feel like no one at Tesla has any idea what is really going on with this problem (the lawyer included), not to mention how frustrating it is to customers. I feel bad for the front line service people. Tesla management has hung them out to dry and left them to fend off upset customers without so much as a consistent playbook on how to handle it.

 

[whitex]

The lawyer re-iterated his stance that the UV fix is permanent, and that I should not to impugn his honesty.

Did you ask him if he's willing to put it in writing in a form of lifetime replacement warranty against yellowing for a fixed screen?

 

[whitex]

Because my arbiter focused solely on the sunlight issue in his denial determination

Did the arbiter seriously determine that driving or parking the a Tesla anywhere where sun can shine on it is using the car outside of its intended operational parameters?!? Or is it that the screen is considered a wear and tear part, with MTBF somewhere around 6 months (so much for Elon's low operating cost if you have to fix the car every 6 months if you drive it out in the sun)?

 

[whitex]

I just took delivery of a new inventory P100D from 2018 with 5k miles on it. Didn't realize it then, but there's a giant yellow band on the MCU. It doesn't bother me all that much but it probably means that yellow banding is more about time passed than miles driven.

Our happened overnight, while parked in the garage, so it appeared without sun exposure. Of course, we have driven the car on sunny days too (Seattle is not famous for a lot of sunny days ). Actually, if we're going to go that far fetched, maybe the Tesla ranger caused it, he was the last one who drove that car the day before it happened (he came to so a recall on another car, but drove this one to help diagnose a warped rotor)?

 

[whitex]

If the issue is caused by sunlight is Tesla being negligent when my car is in for service and they park it out in the sun before/after service? Clearly, I should be doing all I can to keep this fragile item away from sunlight (only drive at night, park in the garage, etc)... shouldn't they?

Thanks. I will use that for my arbitration claim. At home the car is garaged, but it has in the past been parked at Tesla service in sunny weather, so I guess I could have a damaged while in service claim (our screen went yellow overnight in a dark garage, so obviously previous exposure did it, and service policy of parking cars in the sun caused the damage). Brilliant!