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Angry about HPWC replacement cost

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I will begin by saying I've owned my Tesla almost 2 yrs now. I owned the stock, and have sung the praises of Tesla from day 1. As a matter of fact, I have sold a total of 6 new Teslas to friends and family in those 2 yrs. I have been a huge fan since before most people knew what Tesla was.

Today, I am pissed. I moved and had my HPWC reinstalled. It wouldn't work. So Tesla service came out. $1000 later, they charged me for a new HPWC. I think this is bull**** This HPWC was only a yr old because I think they came and changed a few months after I got my car because of heat issues. At any rate, something that is less than 2 yrs old should still work. Shame on you Tesla! Today, you lost a fan, supporter, and sales person. I also sold my stock.

For those new people considering buying one, don't forget to factor in the costs of replacing parts every couple of yrs I guess. I suppose the Elon vision of not making huge money off service has changed now that he needs funding for Gigfactory!
 
I'm sorry that you ran into this and felt the need to vent.
Is there a two year warrantee on the HPWC? If so, you should pursue that.
If not, or if the breakage was not due to manufacturing, I'm not surprised they didn't cover it. As a stockholder myself I would be more ticked off if they started giving out free products.

If you wanted to vent, that's fine.
If you are looking for a solution, or discussion if others think this is justified, please share with us what happened to the HPWC.

Two, why did the replacement cost $1000? New HPWCs cost $750.

4 1/2 years of driving Teslas, we have had no out of pocket money for charge cables and units.
 
HWPC is covered under the car warranty for the first 4 years or 50k miles if it was purchased with the car.

I also agree with you about it's quality, it breaks far more often than people realize, mine was replaced right after one year and the new one appears it will need a replacement soon as the cable is starting to act weird when you plug it in the car.

I feel that parts like the on-board chargers and HWPC should be added to the 8 year warranty of the car as they are necessity in order the car to function properly, let alone that the HWPC is quite simply unit itself without many parts that can break easily.

Can you give us an idea what happened to your HWPC? IS the cost $1000 rather than $750, because of the extra electrician work?
 
If the HPWC was purchased with the car, wouldn't it still be covered by the original 4 year warranty? If purchased separately (with a credit card), would your credit card cardmember benefits cover it? All of my credit cards double the original warranty on purchases.
 
As others have said, the HPWC comes w a 4yr warranty IF purchased with your car build. I had my order altered just for this reason. I was going to just buy it separate but saw that the warranty was only 1yr when purchased a la carte.

I am so glad I setup my HPWC to just plug into my 14/50 outlet at 40amp instead of hard wiring for 80amp. I figured that if the HPWC ever broke I would have a backup by using the UMC and plugging it into the outlet.
 
Why would it be silly, am I missing something?

Home charging is integral part and for example I wouldn't have bought the car if I couldn't charge it at home or had to rely on public chargers all the time, so yes for many if not most owners this is necessity.
I'm an owner for about 8 months now and have to say that replacement of a HWPC within 20k miles and 1 more soon shouldn't be normal so often and reading on the forums it appears it's not an isolated case.
My warranty will run out next year and if every year I have to spend $750 for a new one and hiring electrician to replace it kind of defeats the purpose of a low maintenance vehicle.

I'm well aware that there is a possibility for a HWPC to fail just as any other piece of electronics, however not so often and just as the drivetrain being covered for unlimited mileage, I consider UMC and HWPC an integral part of the car and should be covered as well.
 
Why would it be silly, am I missing something?

Home charging is integral part and for example I wouldn't have bought the car if I couldn't charge it at home or had to rely on public chargers all the time, so yes for many if not most owners this is necessity.
I'm an owner for about 8 months now and have to say that replacement of a HPWC within 20k miles and 1 more soon shouldn't be normal so often and reading on the forums it appears it's not an isolated case.
My warranty will run out next year and if every year I have to spend $750 for a new one and hiring electrician to replace it kind of defeats the purpose of a low maintenance vehicle.

I'm well aware that there is a possibility for a HPWC to fail just as any other piece of electronics, however not so often and just as the drivetrain being covered for unlimited mileage, I consider UMC and HWPC an integral part of the car and should be covered as well.

Clipper Creek has a 3 year warranty on their EVSEs.

There's really no way they'd put a huge warranty on the UMC and HPWC because of the uncontrolled environment.

Tesla works on the cheap and deploys early so if you got something from them expect failures. They only have 3 years to change the culture before Model 3.
 
As others have said, the HPWC comes w a 4yr warranty IF purchased with your car build. I had my order altered just for this reason. I was going to just buy it separate but saw that the warranty was only 1yr when purchased a la carte.

This applies to the original UMC that comes with the car as well. I'm on my third UMC, all replaced for free. Having said that, I'm a little distressed as how often it starts failing. Mine is carefully kept in my garage, and is not exposed to the elements at all. It seems to fail at the connector end that plugs into the car. At first, I will have to play around to get it to connect, it will get gradually worse over time, then just refuse to work at all.
 
As someone without home charging, I find this statement a bit silly.

You might not have home charging...BUT...you do have and or use a UMC (or maybe Jplug) regardless both the HPWC and the UMCs have a quite high failure rate. I've had 6 UMC's in my 18 months of ownership. And was told by two different service managers that the HPWC that they are no tougher or rugged than the UMC.
 
Coincidentally, I just discovered yesterday that my UMC has failed and gone dead. (It's a unit modified to have a standard J1772 plug in place of the Tesla plug: the "JESLA" by QuickChargePower/Tony Williams. He's offered to take a look at it to see if it's repairable.)

Hearing how often these UMC's can fail, perhaps I'll go ahead and get some other manufacturer's wall unit and just keep the UMC for the rare need to carry it on trips where I'll need to use an outlet. An expensive backup-only EVSE though.

Anyway, color me disappointed to hear of (and this time encounter) another parts quality issue from Tesla. At least I haven't had to deal with the common need on our RAV4 EV's to replace the Tesla motor yet. (I'm at 16K miles.). As a fan and investor, here's wishing once again that Tesla can correct the sources of these reliability issues soon! And I note again that we LEAF owners did/do not generally have such issues. High reliability and low maintenance can be the norm, including with our Nissan-supplied Panasonic-made EVSE's. (Which were also modified by another active third-party in the EV community to make them plug universal – who has commented on how exceptionally well built they are, particularly when compared for example to those provided with GM's Volt.)
 
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I moved and had my HPWC reinstalled. It wouldn't work.

How do you know if the de-installation, move, and re-install didn't damage the unit?

Now you have a both the new HPWC and the old one? I'm wondering if the damaged one has value. It might be easily fixable. The HPWC itself is $750, so did Tesla change you $250 for the service call, or did an electrician?
 
How do you know if the de-installation, move, and re-install didn't damage the unit?

Now you have a both the new HPWC and the old one? I'm wondering if the damaged one has value. It might be easily fixable. The HPWC itself is $750, so did Tesla change you $250 for the service call, or did an electrician?
This is the sort of question I have.
While I can absolutely relate to the frustration of having an unexpected $1000 expense, it seems to me there are multiple unanswered questions here and while being frustrated may be a natural reaction, it does not mean that the charge wasn't reasonable and legitimate.

1)Who did the de-install? Did that person cause damage? If so, then that's the person you need to go after for reimbursement, particularly if it is a licensed electrician.
2)Who did the new install? Did that person do something wrong and cause damage and were they licensed...see above...
3)Was it damaged in transport--did you use a moving company who failed to take due care and caused the damage?

This doesn't sound likely to be a manufacturing defect or it would have failed prior to the move or would have worked after the move and then failed. Thus, it would not be a warranty issue, IMO.

There are very few facts given here from which any of us can draw reasonable conclusions. But I would conclude that unless this was clearly an issue that is/would be covered under warranty that the OP's reaction is a bit over the top.
 
My HPWC was ordered with the car on June of 2013, and it was selected as an option on the order page. Yet my HPWC was billed to my credit card and was not included in the total purchase price of the vehicle. The documentation that came with the HPWC states a 1 year warranty. Am I covered by the 1 year warranty or the 4 year warranty?
 
You don't have to buy a Tesla HPWC. There are other companies out there.I have a 40 amp Leviton that I charge my Tesla with. It also is nice to have if we add another vehicle that uses J1772 specs. The best part is the unit is on a slide out bracket and just plugs in.I will take it with me if I move.Very reliable unit that charged my Volt for 2 1/2 years before my Tesla arrived.
 
You might not have home charging...BUT...you do have and or use a UMC (or maybe Jplug) regardless both the HPWC and the UMCs have a quite high failure rate. I've had 6 UMC's in my 18 months of ownership. And was told by two different service managers that the HPWC that they are no tougher or rugged than the UMC.

I get what you're saying, but I've used the UMC maybe 3 times in 9 months? It was super helpful in those 3 scenarios tho. I just found the statement implying the car was basically useless without the HPWC and thus Tesla should have an EIGHT YEAR warranty on it absurd. It's not a Jansport backpack, guys.
 
Even though it was purchased with the car, Tesla only warranties it for 1 year unfortunately. Mine had issues 2 weeks before the 1 year mark of purchasing the car, they stated that warranty is only covered for 1 year. Something like that shouldn't break in a short amount of time especially if you are heavily dependent on it. It would be nice to have the warranty for 4 yrs 50k miles too.

HWPC is covered under the car warranty for the first 4 years or 50k miles if it was purchased with the car.

I also agree with you about it's quality, it breaks far more often than people realize, mine was replaced right after one year and the new one appears it will need a replacement soon as the cable is starting to act weird when you plug it in the car.

I feel that parts like the on-board chargers and HWPC should be added to the 8 year warranty of the car as they are necessity in order the car to function properly, let alone that the HWPC is quite simply unit itself without many parts that can break easily.

Can you give us an idea what happened to your HWPC? IS the cost $1000 rather than $750, because of the extra electrician work?
 
I had this exact discussion about the HPWC warranty when purchasing my car and actually took a screenshot from Tesla's website in January as the sales manager at the Chicago store wasn't familiar with the warranty details.

HPWC.jpg
 
I had this exact discussion about the HPWC warranty when purchasing my car and actually took a screenshot from Tesla's website in January as the sales manager at the Chicago store wasn't familiar with the warranty details.

View attachment 81514

Good post, that is interesting and I'm glad you have that screen shot.
In the case of the OP, however, we still have no idea at all whether his was a defect or damaged, or if it was purchased with the car or otherwise. There enlies the key to the whole issue.