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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

#121

Post by prklmn »

greglindahl wrote: post #48
georgemcbay wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't that the car had an issue, it was that Tesla's customer service operation is apparently Google-esque in the way that it is over-automated to the point where it is difficult to reach a human, and when you do they are apparently script-reading cogs in a wheel that change every time you contact the company. I'm willing to deal with that when it comes to buying a $300 cellphone, but for a $100,000 car i…

Huh, every time I've called the Tesla support line, a human has answered. Sometimes it's a real engineer. Tesla is #1 in customer loyalty among car brands, so it appears that my experience isn't unusual.

This story is a perfect example of why that statistic doesn't mean much. People buying Tessa's now are so giddy to purchase that almost nothing could dissuade them from sticking with Tesla. It's a small sample size of excited early adopters. Once the hype dies down, so too will their loyalty if they continue to produce cars with poor reliability. Great customer service doesn't make up for not being able to drive the cars. http://www.autoblog.com/photos/consumer-reports-least-reliab...

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

#122

Post by bcrescimanno »

As a (now former) Tesla owner, there's not a single moment of this story that surprises me. As I tweeted on the day that I was told that I would be receiving $5,000 less for my car than they had offered me and that I would be waiting 2-3 weeks (I actually waited over 6 weeks and had to follow-up multiple times to get the check which incidentally arrived today), a Tesla is a nice car--but the company is garbage.

I've got 3 years of experience with them that tells me it's just not worth it. Sad too, I really wanted to be a Tesla owner for life when I got the car.

https://twitter.com/bcrescimanno/status/809137117171482624

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

#123

Post by bcrescimanno »

kylec wrote: post #43

In my opinion the most damning sentence in the article is this: This was the day of first bitter truth of Tesla: even you have a new car covered by warranty, you will need to wait in line for a few days to get it checked up. This says one of two things to me, both of them bad. Either there are so many Teslas with issues that the technicians are constantly booked up days in advance, or Tesla doesn't care about providi…

My first experience with Tesla service was when my car created an alert telling me that there was a coolant leak. When I called them, they told me that it didn't make sense as the car had no radiator. I had to send them a picture of the warning on my dash before they realized that I must be telling the truth.

When I brought the car in to the service center in Sunnyvale, they told me they were backed up and that they probably wouldn't be able to look at it until the end of the day. At the end of the 2nd day, having heard nothing, I called them and they told me they wouldn't be able to even look at it until the end of the week. It took me half a dozen angry phone calls to the service manager to convince them to look at it the following day, determine that it needed a new part that had to be ordered, and order the part. All told, the car was with them just over a week.

About 2 weeks later, my AC stopped working (South Bay Area Summer--hooray!) Again, they tell me it'll be days before they can look at it.

All told, from the moment I drove out of the Fremont factory in December 2013 as a happy customer, Tesla the company did everything in their power to lose me culminating in a bait and switch offer on my car after 3 years.

They want people to believe they are different. They're not. :(

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

#124

Post by dba7dba »

mulmen wrote: post #115
dingo_bat wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this problem specific to BMW? Because I've never heard any of those things happen to a Honda or a Toyota.

It's very common at all dealerships. My dad worked at a Toyota dealership for 20+ years. He still takes his cars there for service. They frequently overfill them with oil because they don't take the time to let the crankcase drain fully. I worked for a guy who took his vehicles in to the same dealer for service and the Toyota shop forgot to put his drain plug back in then drove his truck around the lot and told him i…

One of my ex-coworker took his Toyota sedan to dealership for every single service need, like engine oil changes. And you know they advertise people should bring in cars to dealership despite the higher price because they do complete inspection in every visit.

Guess what. In of his his visits to the dealership, the mechanic came around and pointed out with 'pride' that he had found completely worn out brake pads. His brake pads were worn out to the point where simple replacing replacing wasn't enough. Because the brake pads weren't replaced in time, the repair was going to be more complicated and $$.

The thing is my coworker had been taking the car to the same dealership since he had bought it there like 3 years before. And apparently no one had inspected or bothered to inform customer about the worn out brake pads.

Think about it. Elon Musk, the man who very possibly could put first humans on Mars, is annoyed with car dealerships enough to the point he refuses to sell his Teslas through dealers. He is going through needless hassle with sales channel of Tesla because he's sick of car dealerships.

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

#125

Post by disillusioned »

mulmen wrote: post #66
gkop wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least with BMW, if you can afford to pay for service, despite being in-warranty, you have the option of going to an independent shop.

My car is out of the factory warranty now but I purchased a third party warranty that allows me to go to independent mechanics. My local dealership has a 100% failure rate with my car. Every service action they took has resulted in an egregious misdiagnosis or future failure of a part due to improper service. I'm not sure if I will ever buy a new BMW unless I can be reimbursed for the factory warranty that I will nev…

God, this. I had my car drift one month out of warranty when the alternator failed at 45,000 miles. Was not happy. Was MUCH LESS HAPPY when they called me to tell me "this is weird, but the B post under the hood has melted. Do you know anything about that?" "Do YOU know anything about that? I never jumped the car. I drove it to your driveway and you told me you had to jump it to get it into the service bay." "Well, it's about $600 to fix." "That sucks for you. You guys nuked it. I dropped it off with a working B post. See: HOW DO YOU THINK YOU MOVED IT FROM YOUR DRIVEWAY?" "Oh. Well, we'll take care of it this time."

I haven't ever left a BMW service center NOT feeling like I was being fleeced.

I did have my Model S throw a 12 V Battery Needs Service error 3,000 miles in. Called them on the way to work, they remote diagnosed that it was NOT the HVLV connector (Tesla's take on the alternator, effectively), and offered to have a Ranger out to my office to swap the battery later that afternoon. Done and done. Though I've heard plenty of complaints for very long waits for more complex fixes, I've also heard of those for every manufacturer.

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

#127

Post by mulmen »

disillusioned wrote: post #125
mulmen wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My car is out of the factory warranty now but I purchased a third party warranty that allows me to go to independent mechanics. My local dealership has a 100% failure rate with my car. Every service action they took has resulted in an egregious misdiagnosis or future failure of a part due to improper service. I'm not sure if I will ever buy a new BMW unless I can be reimbursed for the factory warranty that I will nev…

God, this. I had my car drift one month out of warranty when the alternator failed at 45,000 miles. Was not happy. Was MUCH LESS HAPPY when they called me to tell me "this is weird, but the B post under the hood has melted. Do you know anything about that?" "Do YOU know anything about that? I never jumped the car. I drove it to your driveway and you told me you had to jump it to get it into the service bay." "Well, i…

When my car was in being diagnosed they put 40(!) miles on it then told me that it was impossible that they did any engine damage, even though they cleaned the intake ports which involves removing the intake manifold and media blasting the parts they claim were damaged and would cost $15,000.00 to fix. They also claimed it was impossible that they caused the wheel damage that wasn't there when I dropped the car off "because there are no curbs here".

Right, because car dealerships are always built in perfectly smooth fields and you put 40 miles on it using a treadmill. /s

They also told me that if I brought the loaner car back with less than a full tank they would charge me $5.00/gallon(!!) to top it off. They put 40 miles on my car and didn't reimburse me.

Franchised dealer service departments really are the worst. I am very impressed with the engineering and build quality of my BMW but the service is so bad the rest doesn't really matter. I hope Tesla is able to improve the level of service and forces others to do the same.

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

#128

Post by lostlogin »

mulmen wrote: post #115
dingo_bat wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this problem specific to BMW? Because I've never heard any of those things happen to a Honda or a Toyota.

It's very common at all dealerships. My dad worked at a Toyota dealership for 20+ years. He still takes his cars there for service. They frequently overfill them with oil because they don't take the time to let the crankcase drain fully. I worked for a guy who took his vehicles in to the same dealer for service and the Toyota shop forgot to put his drain plug back in then drove his truck around the lot and told him i…

Over tightened wheel nuts are a complete nightmare. I got a flat in the middle of nowhere at night and found that the idiot who had fitted my new tyres had done this. I couldn't get the wheel off with an extra long wrench I was jumping on. Wheel fitting places fit into the equation a few rungs below car dealers.

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

#129

Post by kranner »

nurettin wrote: post #104

I found one way to avoid all the costs, the taxes, the service times, the accidents and that annoying kid who always scratches your doors with a key: Don't buy a car.

Not an option if public transport is not great in your city.

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

#130

Post by mulmen »

lostlogin wrote: post #128
mulmen wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very common at all dealerships. My dad worked at a Toyota dealership for 20+ years. He still takes his cars there for service. They frequently overfill them with oil because they don't take the time to let the crankcase drain fully. I worked for a guy who took his vehicles in to the same dealer for service and the Toyota shop forgot to put his drain plug back in then drove his truck around the lot and told him i…

Over tightened wheel nuts are a complete nightmare. I got a flat in the middle of nowhere at night and found that the idiot who had fitted my new tyres had done this. I couldn't get the wheel off with an extra long wrench I was jumping on. Wheel fitting places fit into the equation a few rungs below car dealers.

Les Schwab has provided consistently excellent service to me over the years. I can't speak for other tire places but of the four Les Schwabs I have done business with I have never had a single problem.

From my personal experience dealers are much worse than tire shops but I'm not going to claim that's true in general.

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