Service Plan: Mileage Requirement Reinstated

apacheguy · Oct 30, 2014

Attention service plan patrons:

There has been a great deal of confusion surrounding the annual service interval for those who purchased the service contract. I decided to set the record straight and sent an email off to ownership. This is the response I got:

Thank you for contacting Tesla Motors Technical Support. We recommend a service at either 1 year or every 12500 miles whichever comes first. You can choose to do the service annually and it will not affect your warranty coverage however your 4+4 service plan does have a time limit of either 8 years or 100,000 miles whichever comes first.This means that the plan will no longer be valid after the term of 8 years or if your mileage reaches beyond 100,000 miles before you use all 8 services.

A previous email posted on the forums had indicated that the mileage requirement had been waived:

Thank you for contacting Tesla Motors. You are correct, we have loosened mileage interval limitations. We have set the expectation that a 4+4 pre-paid service plan is free of any type of mileage limitation but 8 instances must be used in the span of 8 years. That is to say, to maximize the benefit of your plan, you would still be best served bringing your vehicle in annually to utilize all 8 visits.

I have not heard of any timeline for when the agreements will change, but I have spoken with Jerome, our VP of Service, directly regarding this issue and he has affirmed that this is how we intend to enforce these prepaid plans moving forward.

Source: Tesla service plan / annual mileage (post #6)

Tesla has changed course and is now reinstating the mileage requirement for the service plan. They have directly contradicted themselves. Ugh.

AnOutsider · Oct 31, 2014

This sounds like one of those Tesla things that would change depending on the person you talked to. Blah, I believe I have 2 services left, and a little more than 2 years. I'm going to set Evernote reminders now to make sure I take advantage.

CmdrThor · Oct 31, 2014

This is why it is dangerous to go on the emails of Tesla employees when the contract language still says you have to use the services within both the time and mileage limits ... One would hope once you talk to enough people you will end up getting your service done past 100,000 miles, but it shouldn't be up to the customer to jump through hoops to get service.

apacheguy · Oct 31, 2014

Yeah, I just thought it was interesting that the statement regarding the mileage intervals came directly from the top (Jerome Guillen). If that is indeed how they planned on enforcing the service plan, then they sure didn't do a good job of getting the memo out to everyone.

tomas · Oct 31, 2014

OK that's one thing. The other is that I have yet to see what I get in the service plan that others are not getting gratis as warranty or goodwill.

I've got the perfect blind test: I got my MS in Late 2012 and bought 4 year service plan. Close friend got his early 2013 and did not. So far, we've compared service records, and same work has been done.

My hypothesis has been that year 1 was a "goodwill" year to work any bugs out of car, demonstrate excellent service, etc. But I now fear it was nothing so intentional... your information indicates further that they launched the service plan without a clue as to what it would/should include and for how long... and they're making it up as they go along.

I'm not ticked... what I paid for the service plan is not disturbing in the whole scheme of things for annual service for luxury car. And, if others are getting same for free... good for them. Just pretty surprised that TM has had significant time to figure this out and clarify with customers, and it still ain't clear!

gg_got_a_tesla · Oct 31, 2014

@tomas, I think it's the accepted wisdom now that all that the prepaid service plans got anyone over the pay-as-you-go plans is the discount - $475 per service rather than $600. Everything else remains the same.

If anything, with the prepaid plans, one's locked into these timeframe/mileage restrictions while one's free to do what they want in terms of "annual" service visits when they go the pay-as-you-go route.

tomas · Oct 31, 2014

gg_got_a_tesla said:
@tomas, I think it's the accepted wisdom now that all that the prepaid service plans got anyone over the pay-as-you-go plans is the discount - $475 per service rather than $600. Everything else remains the same.

If anything, with the prepaid plans, one's locked into these timeframe/mileage restrictions while one's free to do what they want in terms of "annual" service visits when they go the pay-as-you-go route.

Wait. My friends cost has been zero. Not 600. They've been doing same work as warranty and goodwill. I don't know of anybody without svc plan who has been charged.

markb1 · Oct 31, 2014

tomas said:
Wait. My friends cost has been zero. Not 600. They've been doing same work as warranty and goodwill. I don't know of anybody without svc plan who has been charged.

Then I guess neither you nor your friend have had an annual service. Anyway, I think the topic whether there are benefits to prepaid service has been discussed to death in other threads.

tomas · Oct 31, 2014

markb1 said:
Then I guess neither you nor your friend have had an annual service. Anyway, I think the topic whether there are benefits to prepaid service has been discussed to death in other threads.

Plz don't patronize. I've had annual service. Friend has brought car in for various things, and in process gotten same items done (as warranty/goodwill) that I had on annual service bill. Yes, discussed to death. Still not clear. Just like service period/mileage.

liuping · Oct 31, 2014

That is unfortunate. I guess I lost one of my 8 services then, since I waited until nearly my one year anniversary to schedule my first Service (at about 19k miles).

So I basically threw away $450. I guess that's the cost of trusting what Tesla says, but does not put in the contract.

Live and learn (and pause a little longer when replying to the almost daily "How do you like your Tesla?" questions)

markb1 · Oct 31, 2014

tomas said:
Plz don't patronize. I've had annual service. Friend has brought car in for various things, and in process gotten same items done (as warranty/goodwill) that I had on annual service bill. Yes, discussed to death. Still not clear. Just like service period/mileage.

I don't intend to patronize. But really, there's a line item on my annual service invoice that says "annual service". Tesla doesn't give that away for free, so I don't see how either you or your friend could have had that done, if you both have had the exact same services performed. I'm just applying logic. You may not have gotten the service that you paid for.

HankLloydRight · Oct 31, 2014

liuping said:
That is unfortunate. I guess I lost one of my 8 services then, since I waited until nearly my one year anniversary to schedule my first Service (at about 19k miles).

So I basically threw away $450. I guess that's the cost of trusting what Tesla says, but does not put in the contract.

I wouldn't think so.. just take your car in once per year for 8 years regardless of mileage... except that if you go over 100k miles, you might lose the last one. That's my interpretation of it.

liuping · Oct 31, 2014

HankLloydRight said:
I wouldn't think so.. just take your car in once per year for 8 years regardless of mileage... except that if you go over 100k miles, you might lose the last one. That's my interpretation of it.

I'll be over 100k miles by the 5th year. So basically I have to start doing them faster than 1 a year to get to 8 before 100k miles.

apacheguy · Oct 31, 2014

markb1 said:
I don't intend to patronize. But really, there's a line item on my annual service invoice that says "annual service". Tesla doesn't give that away for free, so I don't see how either you or your friend could have had that done, if you both have had the exact same services performed. I'm just applying logic. You may not have gotten the service that you paid for.

At best, the most @tomas would have gotten out of that service is new fob batteries and wiper blades. Some people claim the inspection adds to the cost, but I've seen several instances where folks walk in without paying for service and Tesla still performs a goodwill inspection. Hence, I see little value in paying for service if your only argument in favor is the inspection.

The mileage limitation merely serves to further devalue a service that wasn't worth much in the beginning, IMO.

HankLloydRight said:
I wouldn't think so.. just take your car in once per year for 8 years regardless of mileage... except that if you go over 100k miles, you might lose the last one. That's my interpretation of it.

That's my interpretation as well, however, at 20 K a year, I'd lose out of 3 annual services since I purchased the 4+4 plan.

AmpedRealtor · Oct 31, 2014

My service manager told me that they did not lift the mileage restriction, but Ownership told me they did lift the restriction. So I just wrote to Jerome and he confirmed that they have lifted the mileage restriction. He copied the local service and regional managers on his email to make sure the information was communicated. In fact, Jerome went so far as to say that you don't even have to bring it in every 12 months. He said Owners can essentially do whatever they want - bring it in every 6 months or every 18 months - but that we will still receive the four services that we paid for.

Atebit · Oct 31, 2014

Well, that's well & good, but he could've saved himself some trouble simply by getting the policy updated on the web. If the VP of Sales & Service can't make that happen after all this time, IMHO that bodes poorly for the future.

breser · Oct 31, 2014

AmpedRealtor said:
My service manager told me that they did not lift the mileage restriction, but Ownership told me they did lift the restriction. So I just wrote to Jerome and he confirmed that they have lifted the mileage restriction. He copied the local service and regional managers on his email to make sure the information was communicated. In fact, Jerome went so far as to say that you don't even have to bring it in every 12 months. He said Owners can essentially do whatever they want - bring it in every 6 months or every 18 months - but that we will still receive the four services that we paid for.

If this is really what they intend why don't they just update the contract and send an ammendment out to all the people with the existing service plans to sign? That would put an end to all this nonsense over what is required or not required...

apacheguy · Oct 31, 2014

AmpedRealtor said:
My service manager told me that they did not lift the mileage restriction, but Ownership told me they did lift the restriction. So I just wrote to Jerome and he confirmed that they have lifted the mileage restriction. He copied the local service and regional managers on his email to make sure the information was communicated. In fact, Jerome went so far as to say that you don't even have to bring it in every 12 months. He said Owners can essentially do whatever they want - bring it in every 6 months or every 18 months - but that we will still receive the four services that we paid for.

@Amped - thanks for posting. Can you please post the exact language Jerome used? I just emailed Tesla HQ two days ago and got the response that I posted in the OP. It seems to directly contradict what Jerome told you.

breser said:
If this is really what they intend why don't they just update the contract and send an ammendment out to all the people with the existing service plans to sign? That would put an end to all this nonsense over what is required or not required...

Seriously. I am downright confused about this whole service plan situation.

Atebit · Nov 1, 2014

Exactly. Trying to manage this via email fragmentary orders almost guarantees that the service manager in particular you end up dealing with didn't get the memo.

jerry33 · Nov 1, 2014

breser said:
If this is really what they intend why don't they just update the contract and send an ammendment out to all the people with the existing service plans to sign? That would put an end to all this nonsense over what is required or not required...

I suspect a couple of reasons: 1. Leaving the contract as is, protects them from abusers. 2. It costs money to change the contract--even with in-house lawyers. A tweet from Elon is a lot cheaper.

Service Plan: Mileage Requirement Reinstated

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