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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

#131

Post by rasz_pl »

bcrescimanno wrote: post #123
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…

This sounds so bizzare to an European.

Here you leave the car at the dealer, go to the reception and ask if they will be providing replacement car or have a preferred rental company.

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

#133

Post by Lightbody »

base698 wrote: post #95
Lightbody wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Actually, as an owner of both I tend to agree the core _is_ more reliable. With the exception of a minor drivetrain issue (which took a couple hours to fix), all the issues I've had have been fit and finish issues, such as squeaks and groans, which can happen regardless of whether it's electric or ICE. Tesla has also fixed almost all of them, the latest round of fixes coming 3.5 years later and all part of free warranty work.

Compared to the ICE cars I've owned, which have had all sorts of issues with the fuel injector, transmission, carburetor, etc.

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

#134

Post by emiliobumachar »

jasonmp85 wrote: post #7
automathematics wrote: post #2

Thanks for sharing this. I hope Tesla respond in time, as this seems very unacceptable to me.

Honest question: why root for Tesla? Great EVs are starting to appear from other manufacturers, so why cheer for one company in particular?

I, for one, am still fearful that our new electric-car revolution might still whimper and die.

Tesla is the one single entity most important in assuring that future. Not that it cannot happen without them, but, it might not.

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

#135

Post by prostoalex »

mulmen wrote: post #61
sk5t wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a reason for the existence of dealerships: they are local businesses that local jurisdictions can hold accountable for such things as lemon law refunds. I'm not sure this argument holds water. Civil and criminal law hold all sorts of corporate entities accountable without forcing them to franchise out the business of sales and service. We have a sort of "protected status" for car dealers now in order to pre…

A franchised BMW dealership tried to charge me $15,000.00 for a new engine. It turns out the problem was two spark plus that they installed improperly. Their diagnosis turned out to be entirely manufactured. The idea that franchised dealerships somehow improve customer service is laughable.

The manufacturer and dealer incentives are somewhat misaligned.

The former has an incentive to portray its product as a stress-free and worry-free purchase, as most people are not thrilled about buying a clunker that has consistent issues. Highest mark of success here is the complete lack of future customer interaction - no complaints, no warranty claims, no recalls, no class-action lawsuits.

The latter one does not get paid until the customer comes in for service, and the higher the frequency, the better.

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

#136

Post by jhoechtl »

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…

> The incentive structure at a dealer service department is the exact opposite of favorable to the customer.

As is at the doctors. A doctor should be paid for not seeing you.

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

#137

Post by lucaspiller »

gtvwill wrote: post #31

Wow that's sounds like a crappy experience all-round given the avg customer service response! A few things regarding the towing situation tho... Do tesla's honestly not have any form of rear tow hitch/chassis/axle? The bit where the tow truck driver had to push the vehicle out of a park because it was nose-in boggles my mind. Like,why didn't he just strap on to a rear axle/chassis point and pull it out with his truck…

> Do tesla's honestly not have any form of rear tow hitch/chassis/axle?

I suspect the issue is more to do with the electric drive. There is no neutral unlike a traditional ICE vehicle, so any kind of towing could potentially damage the electric motors.

I have a Prius and it's the same issue - if I need to get it taken to a garage, it's recommended to get a flatbed with a crane.

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

#138

Post by taneq »

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…

But that's precisely why they should have done a recall-and-replace. Funny error message? Intermittent fault? No worries, give it a thorough looking over. Find nothing. Okay, give it back to the customer. More weird error messages followed by a persistent fault? The prudent thing at this point is to instantly swap out the car, and this time go through it with a fine toothed comb.

Now you're not just looking for a dodgy cable. You're looking for one of three things:

1) An as-yet-unknown design flaw, which needs to be documented for maintainers and fixed in future revisions.

2) A manufacturing defect, which should be investigated by quality control and again documented in case it reoccurs.

3) Malfeasance, in which case you want to preserve any possible evidence, finger prints on parts, damaged tamper seals etc.

It's not just about good customer service, it's about finding out exactly what happened.

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

#139

Post by mulmen »

jhoechtl wrote: post #136
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…

> The incentive structure at a dealer service department is the exact opposite of favorable to the customer. As is at the doctors. A doctor should be paid for not seeing you.

Hah, never really thought of it that way. That doesn't seem quite right though, do you mean a doctor should be paid for you not needing to be seen?

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

#140

Post by khedoros1 »

Zhenya wrote: post #126

Dmitry, If I understood correctly, they sold your old car to someone else?!? If they did, i would not recommend posting the vin here so that the owner might find the story. Don't do that.

It sounded like they sold the loaner car that he was using at the time.
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