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Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

dmitryzavyalov.livejournal.com

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Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#91

Post by FireBeyond »

sp0rk wrote: post #88
taneq wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The overall picture I'm getting of Tesla is that they have great tech, are very innovative, but they have a hell of an attitude problem. It's not like the guy was making it up, they had clearly-detailed logs of the problems and the car was provably misbehaving. Even though in the end they did do the right thing, it would have been far better handled if they'd simply offered a replacement the moment the (just freshly…

> It's not like the guy was making it up, they had clearly-detailed logs of the problems and the car was provably misbehaving. The fact that problems exist says nothing of what caused them. I don't imagine it would be difficult for a competitor to intentionally damage a Tesla in a way that they could make a blog post like this about it. I'm not generally conspiracy-minded, but I feel like this is something worth cons…

Don't worry - I guarantee if this is a hit piece, and even if not - Tesla will make a blog post listing specifics from the vehicle telemetry and so forth to paint the (ex-) owner in a bad light.

It wouldn't be the first time they've done that.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#92

Post by FireBeyond »

sammydavis wrote: post #55
dmode wrote: post #35

I have a Model S and Tesla service is generally exceptional. This sounds like they messed up. I am sure if he escalates they would take care of it

Wow, there's an amazing amount of down voting in this article. Is that because people hate tesla? I don't get it. I once bought an suv. It had a problem soon after I bought it and got service for a while and i didn't have a car. It was frustrating. It wasn't a tesla by the way :-) They didn't offer to give me a loaner during that time, but I was pretty young and not aware that was a normal expectation. Eventually my…

Things can repeatedly break until you're out hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, and until it has spent more time being (not) repaired in the shop, while the dealership repeatedly tells you nothing is wrong with the vehicle despite the vehicle saying there is, to the point where lemon laws kick in.

But you seem to think he's just whining.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#93

Post by ryao »

stcredzero wrote: post #32
eridius wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. The car being returned to Tesla was, at that time, in good working order. Tesla had repaired it after the last issue. Now of course given the car's history it's possible that there were still other things wrong with it, but to the best of Tesla's knowledge, at the time the letter was signed, the car was defect-free.

to the best of Tesla's knowledge, at the time the letter was signed, the car was defect-free. This is what happens when there is in fact an intermittent defect, but the technical staff does not believe the user/customer. Basically, this is poor epistemology on the part of the Tesla staff. If this is an exceptionally difficult intermittent problem, their choice is between replacing the unit, or losing a customer. They…

They should have logs showing that a problem was detected.

That said, hearing that they provide fossil fuel powerred vehicles as loaners has lowered my opinion of them.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#94

Post by ocdtrekkie »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #56
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am impressed with Elon Musk and his accomplishments, no doubt. But this is not even close to the worst Tesla customer service story I've heard. The company is a nightmare. The only state you can even SEE a service manual for these cars is in Massachusetts where they mandate it by law, and you have to pay by the hour to see it! There's huge issues that haven't been tested in court with how Tesla treats these cars as…

You own the Tesla hardware. You do not own the software. You're also not forced to buy one. You're also free to write your own software for the vehicle to bypass Tesla.

While that may be technically true, I do not know if that will hold in court, as currently Tesla owns a monopoly on software that runs on Teslas, and they disable their software to prevent the legal owner from using their own vehicle. I suspect this is wholly illegal behavior, and I really look forward to seeing it get tested in court.

While this grey area has generally survived in smaller items, I suspect a car, where you literally have a title to it, is not so defensible under that claim. Especially when they also make it effectively impossible to repair the hardware outside of their company as well.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#95

Post by base698 »

Lightbody wrote: post #58
coredog64 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about the same level of service I would expect from Toyota should I buy a Corolla or Camry. I would expect better were I to buy a Lexus LS (random example in the same price range)

I own a Lexus and Tesla and while nothing has been bad with Lexus service, my experience has been better customer service from Tesla (more friendly, better loaners, more flexible scheduling, etc). Now, on the other hand: my Lexus has had a lot fewer issues.

People are finally starting to see that, "an electric car has fewer parts so is more reliable." Is but marketing speak. Even if it's less parts it's still got plenty enough to cause a plethora of technical issues.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#96

Post by eridius »

ryao wrote: post #93
stcredzero wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to the best of Tesla's knowledge, at the time the letter was signed, the car was defect-free. This is what happens when there is in fact an intermittent defect, but the technical staff does not believe the user/customer. Basically, this is poor epistemology on the part of the Tesla staff. If this is an exceptionally difficult intermittent problem, their choice is between replacing the unit, or losing a customer. They…

They should have logs showing that a problem was detected. That said, hearing that they provide fossil fuel powerred vehicles as loaners has lowered my opinion of them.

It's not like Tesla has a bunch of spare Teslas to give out as loaners. They're selling them as fast as they can make them.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#97

Post by mulmen »

overcast wrote: post #90
mulmen wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took mine in for an oil change and they also removed that drain plug panel. In addition they broke the plastic cover for the cabin air filter by over-tightening the bolt that holds it on. It's a staggering level of incompetence.

Yeh it's crazy, and you reminded me about the coolant cap they didn't fully tighten as well! All things you find out about six months later, when alarms go off. No way to every hold anyone accountable.

I changed the oil myself the next time and they had the filter cover torqued down so tight I had to make a wrench out of an old timing belt to get enough leverage to remove it. The cap has a torque spec printed right on it that is much lower than whatever the dealer tightened it to.

The amazing thing isn't just the degree to which they make mistakes it's the frequency. More often than not they are doing the job wrong.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#98

Post by overcast »

mulmen wrote: post #97
overcast wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeh it's crazy, and you reminded me about the coolant cap they didn't fully tighten as well! All things you find out about six months later, when alarms go off. No way to every hold anyone accountable.

I changed the oil myself the next time and they had the filter cover torqued down so tight I had to make a wrench out of an old timing belt to get enough leverage to remove it. The cap has a torque spec printed right on it that is much lower than whatever the dealer tightened it to. The amazing thing isn't just the degree to which they make mistakes it's the frequency. More often than not they are doing the job wrong…

I've always changed my own oil, and at every 7500, rather than the insane 15000 BMW states for their service intervals. So while it was in warranty, I took advantage of the 15000 mile changes, and did my own in between. In hindsight, it's not even worth my time, and I won't be doing it again with a future car. Oil change is quick, and you can get 5L Liqui Moly for much cheaper than "BMW" brand oil.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#99

Post by noonespecial »

Something lots of car companies don't seem to get. If the service center has your name on it, its an advertisement. PR goes all the way down to the street.

Its so easy for a service center manager to blow $500K in goodwill chasing $1k in savings to secure his $2k Christmas bonus.

2 brand spanking new Teslas passed out like party favors would have been cheaper than having this story hit front page on HN alone.

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