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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

#71

Post by j_koreth »

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.

> You're also free to write your own software for the vehicle to bypass Tesla.

I thought the problem was that this part was illegal also

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

#72

Post by jdalgetty »

cloudwalking wrote: post #53
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…

I bought a new BMW in 2012. I've had a lot of problems with it (including an entire new engine, covered under warranty), and I've always had to wait for BMW to service it. The wait is anywhere from a few days (car towed in and nobody looked for a few days) to two weeks (30k and 60k mile maintenance). I feel like everybody is being hyper-critical of Tesla because most people dislike the auto industry and see Tesla as…

I had tons of issues with my 135 but they always gave me a loaner of similar value.

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

#74

Post by giarc »

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…

I own a GM vehicle in a large city (1 million +). There are plenty of GM dealerships. Whenever I call, they typically offer an appointment time about 1 week out. So I'm not sure I totally believe the argument.

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

#75

Post by giarc »

jdalgetty wrote: post #72
cloudwalking wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a new BMW in 2012. I've had a lot of problems with it (including an entire new engine, covered under warranty), and I've always had to wait for BMW to service it. The wait is anywhere from a few days (car towed in and nobody looked for a few days) to two weeks (30k and 60k mile maintenance). I feel like everybody is being hyper-critical of Tesla because most people dislike the auto industry and see Tesla as…

I had tons of issues with my 135 but they always gave me a loaner of similar value.

Typically the loaner is part of the warranty. Beyond that, service managers can approve loaners for good customers (repeat buyers, high value cars or long service history).

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

#77

Post by Animats »

S_A_P wrote: post #9

If those are the facts of the case, I would say that looks pretty bad. Normally, a new car replacement under warranty is done in an effort to salvage repeat business after extreme duress. This Tesla was a lemon, and it should have been replaced with an equal spec model. This is where Tesla could have gotten tons of goodwill from the press, and I can promise that even the most fervent Tesla haters at the truth about c…

It's not the manufacturers' decision. In California, you can demand a new car replacement under warranty if, after a number of attempts, the manufacturer can't fix it successfully.[1] Most states have "lemon laws". Here are California's rules:

In California, a vehicle is presumed to be a “lemon" if, within 18 months of the vehicle's delivery to the buyer (or 18,000 miles on the odometer):

- 2 attempts or more have been made by the manufacturer to repair a warranty problem that could result in death or serious injury.

- The manufacturer has attempted to repair the same warranty problem at least 4 times.

- The car has been out of service for 30 days or more for repair to warranty problems.

- Problems to the vehicle are not the result of abuse by the owner.

You don't hear about this much any more because most manufacturers don't deliver many lemons.

[1] http://www.dca.ca.gov/acp/pdf_files/englemn.pdf

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

#78

Post by louprado »

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.

I sold a near perfect used Lincoln only to get an angry call from the buyer a day later claiming I sold him a lemon. After he calmed down he told me he had gone to the dealership to have the spark plugs changed. The dealership caused this problem.

Given how easy it is to properly gap a spark plug, I can't help but think this is a scam when it is overlooked. But the scam only works if you don't get the gap too far out of spec. The victim should come back a month later, not a day later.

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

#79

Post by toast0 »

chc wrote: post #40
mcguire wrote: post #39

" In couple weeks I got notified that my refund was approved, and I got contacted by another guy, who suddenly suggested me to get vehicle rebuilt. Of course I agreed to that generous offer saying I’d love to have the same vehicle. " What?

What are you saying "What?" to? It seems pretty clear to me.

I think the problem is with the word "rebuilt". I would take that to mean take the car apart, and put it back together with maybe a couple new parts. Given that Tesla thinks there's nothing wrong with that car, despite there clearly being something wrong with it, taking it apart and putting it back together again and hoping it works is kind of insane. (although it might work if the problem is say a loose or poorly aligned pin in a wiring harness)

I believe the author meant that Tesla would build a new one to the original specifications. This is probably reasonable, the majority of Teslas probably don't have terrible problems or we'd hear more about them, so throw the old one in the river and get a new one isn't a bad idea.

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

#80

Post by mulmen »

louprado wrote: post #78
mulmen wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I sold a near perfect used Lincoln only to get an angry call from the buyer a day later claiming I sold him a lemon. After he calmed down he told me he had gone to the dealership to have the spark plugs changed. The dealership caused this problem. Given how easy it is to properly gap a spark plug, I can't help but think this is a scam when it is overlooked. But the scam only works if you don't get the gap too far out…

Completely agreed. I'm not sure what the solution is. I like the idea of Tesla owning their own service because they can more directly control the quality but that only works if they actually want to provide good service.
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