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Difficult to get timely service appointments with loaner?

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E

eidetic

New Member
Dec 10, 2015
3
0
Virginia
#1
TL;DR
Owned for a week and had a sensor error < 1 hour after delivery. Today I was cheerfully informed that it's a 1 month wait for a service appointment with a loaner.


About a week ago after work one evening, I took delivery of my P90D Ludicrous at Tyco Road in VA. I was already in a somewhat sour mood because the leasing team had completely dropped the ball and didn't have my paperwork uploaded until 9pm the night before my delivery day, after promising I'd have it at least 48-72 hours prior.

Anyway, by the time I drove the 19 mile trip home and was weaving my way through the neighborhood 1/2 mile from home, the front left sensor began throwing a barrage of false positive STOP alerts on the instrument panel when I dropped under 5 mph. I took a video and sent to my delivery specialist immediately. Eventually I got a reply and was told to do the double thumbwheel soft reboot, but I'd already garaged it and turned in for the night. Next morning I reboot and it doesn't fix the problem. Later that day I'm told that all details have been passed to the service team and I'll hear from them. Five days elapse with no word from anyone, so I ping again. I finally get a reply back from the service department yesterday, so I re-tell the story and re-send the video. This afternoon after another long wait, I hear back and I'm told "Our first vehicle appointment with a loaner is going to be Monday, January 18th. Does this work for you?" I send back a stunned reply that basically said "Wow! Really??" and heard back "If you do not require alternate transportation, I can get you in sooner but I'm not sure how long your vehicle will be in for service." I hit my delivery team with messages almost immediately and it's been crickets ever since.


I hope I'm not being overly cynical, but back on Halloween before I'd finalized my order, this same SC bent over backwards to get me a P90DL for a 24-hour test drive, and they had it sorted out in about 15 minutes. What happened to that level of service? Is this what's in store for me as an owner rather than a prospective buyer? I wouldn't put up with this in a $30,000 new car and it's even tougher to be patient when it's a $140K car. This is my daily commuter, not a toy. Anyone else get this kind of runaround so soon after signing on the dotted line?
 
#2
Not sure what you're looking for. Sensors break. They're obviously busy and booked solid. They've given you two options...wait for a loaner car and get in Jan 18th or don't wait for a loaner car and get in sooner. There are only so many hours in a day. *shrug*
 
#3
Krugerrand said:
Not sure what you're looking for. Sensors break. They're obviously busy and booked solid. They've given you two options...wait for a loaner car and get in Jan 18th or don't wait for a loaner car and get in sooner. There are only so many hours in a day. *shrug*
Click to expand...

It does appear that they don't have adequate staffing at the service centers or not enough of them. I've been quoted waits of 4-6 weeks for routine service appointments. In their defense, they do seem to be able to work in more urgent situations quickly, but waits for ordinary service are much longer than I've experienced with other brands.
 
#4
Krugerrand said:
Not sure what you're looking for. Sensors break. They're obviously busy and booked solid. They've given you two options...wait for a loaner car and get in Jan 18th or don't wait for a loaner car and get in sooner. There are only so many hours in a day. *shrug*
Click to expand...

i understand this is not a big issue but the OP is trying to convey a message which most of the owners are facing right now. More Tesla cars on the road but less tech personnel and therefore longer wait times.

Tesla's communication skills suck big time.
 
#6
I've read of situations like yours on this forum where Tesla provides a rental no charge if the car isn't driveable. Are there things you can turn off to get rid of the errors temporarily? Have you called the service manager?
 
#7
Loaner are more and more difficult to have, as there is more and more car in service center, and less and less inventory due to high demand.

I write a complaint about this as [FONT=&quot] Elon Musk made the following statement on 26/04/2013 ( I don't know if this applies to 2015 models, but it should)

[/FONT]
http://www.teslamotors.com/fr_CA/blog/creating-world’s-best-service-and-warranty-program-0

[FONT=&quot]E[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Creating the World’s Best Service and Warranty Program[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Elon Musk, Chairman, Product Architect & CEO 26/04/2013 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Elon Musk, Chairman, Product Architect & CEO 26/04/2013 [/FONT]

  • [FONT=&quot]Fully loaded Model S Performance 85 cars or Tesla Roadsters as loaners[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]Tesla will seamlessly valet the loaner cars to your location[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]$600 annual service now optional with no effect on warranty[/FONT]
  • [FONT=&quot]Unconditional [/FONT][FONT=&quot]warranty[/FONT][FONT=&quot] for Model S battery, even for user error[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Making Service Better Than Invisible[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The best way to experience service is, of course, not to experience service. If your car does need service, then it should be swapped with a car that is ideally better in some or many ways. To this end, Tesla is building a fleet of top of the line Model S loaners.


[/FONT]
 
#8
msnow said:
I've read of situations like yours on this forum where Tesla provides a rental no charge if the car isn't driveable. Are there things you can turn off to get rid of the errors temporarily? Have you called the service manager?
Click to expand...
I'd read those too, so was disappointed that their offer was a 1 month wait. As for tweaking my car's settings, yeah I immediately assumed the problem was my own user error so I turned off things like forward collision warnings, etc. despite the fact that it supposedly doesn't operate below 4mph. That didn't stop the dings. I'm planning to call the service manager tomorrow, assuming they're open on Christmas Eve.

As a veteran management consultant I've had it drummed into my head for decades that I should always strive for the win/win solution with my customers. "Grin and bear it for a month" or "Suck it up and Uber to work for an indeterminate number of days" are not win/win solutions, particularly for someone who just took delivery. So far Tesla is fumbling this into a lose/lose. Poor demand forecasting (despite my recent experience to the contrary with the same SC and loaner fleet), communications, and QC are about to earn them poor word-of-mouth from me. Despite the many negatives of the legacy auto dealer networks, at least it gives those of us in large metro areas some reasonable options for taking our service business to the one offering a superior experience vs. their competitors. In cases like this, it becomes clear that Tesla has their own kind of monopoly and I hope they have plans to make the situation better for all of us soon.


==========manual newbie signature==========
P90D Ludicrous | Midnight Silver | Black NextGen/Black Alcantara | Premium Interior | SAS | AP | Pano | Glossy Obeche | Stock 19s | 3rd Row Seats | Delivered 12/16/2015
 
#9
We have had our model S for three years. Over that time I have seen service wait times and loaner availability vary. Sometimes they have valets drive customers when loaners are scarce. One time the valet drove me around in a Ford truck that I think was intended for Rangers. Then they go from lots of valets to only one and lots of loaners. At then end of quarters loaners are unavailable. I have had to wait 5 weeks for a service appointment. Tesla opens another service center in our area and when I call for an appointment the receptionist says "I am very sorry sir but we do not have an opening until Thursday." One time I stopped by to have my tires rotated on a Saturday, and I am told, "instead of waiting 30 minutes, please borrow this P85D for a couple of hours of fun. Sometimes the loaners are brand new and other times it could be a trade in for the CPO program. Once I had a service advisor who had worked at a Toyota dealership and it showed. Afterward I had several calls from Tesla management asking me about her and she is no longer around. At an annual service I told the advisor my daytime running lights were partially out. When I get the car back they tell me all the lights are working and they could find nothing wrong. Two weeks later a get a call out of the blue asking me if I want to get my daytime running lights fixed.

Tesla is such a young company that the service policy is constantly changing. They try really hard, but rapid expansion means they are hiring lots of people.
 
#10
taurusking said:
i understand this is not a big issue but the OP is trying to convey a message which most of the owners are facing right now. More Tesla cars on the road but less tech personnel and therefore longer wait times.

Tesla's communication skills suck big time.
Click to expand...

How is this a communication's problem? Tesla communicated to the OP - loaner car means Jan 18th appointment, no loaner car means before Jan 18th appointment. What'd I miss?

Yes, in some areas more SCs are required and or more people at some SCs is required. Tesla is/has been working on it all year long, all last year, all the year before, and I suspect next year, and in 2017, etc... expanding just as fast as their little feet can go. I'm sure somewhere else in the world, someone has had to wait for a non-emergency appointment for their car (for every single make of car, especially during the holiday season). This isn't particularly rare in auto circles or unique to Tesla.
 
#11
Won't they give you an Enterprise loaner? That's what they do here if they don't have any Teslas available. I don't see Enterprise running out of them. Or are things that different at every service center? Seems they should standardize their practices if so.
 
#12
JenniferQ said:
Won't they give you an Enterprise loaner? That's what they do here if they don't have any Teslas available. I don't see Enterprise running out of them. Or are things that different at every service center? Seems they should standardize their practices if so.
Click to expand...

Who want's an ICE as a loaner? How could it be "[FONT=&amp]better in some or many ways"? as Elon stated.[/FONT]
 
#14
Krugerrand said:
Not sure what you're looking for. Sensors break. They're obviously busy and booked solid. They've given you two options...wait for a loaner car and get in Jan 18th or don't wait for a loaner car and get in sooner. There are only so many hours in a day. *shrug*
Click to expand...

It's always disappointing to see people giving tesla a pass when BS like this happens.

This isn't a car that's been driven for two years with some unknown history and unknown user errors--it failed an hour after delivery. That's a serious problem with any consumer product.

The service center should bend over backwards to figure this one out.
 
#15
Quite frankly, Tesla service has been nothing but a complete disappointment for a number of owners for some time now. Myself included.

A brand new car shouldn't have that problem, I understand shouldn't certainly doesn't mean won't or can't. Okay, stuff happens. It should have been fixed immediately and without hesitation. Asking the customer to wait weeks to fix something that broke ON THEIR BRAND NEW CAR is simply unacceptable in every possible way. This is something that has to improve. Tesla, are you reading this??? This type of new customer treatment is completely unacceptable. I myself am waiting to fix a defective passenger seatbelt that has a mind of it's own. Soonest I could get in was 1/12/16 and I made that appointment in early December, for a defective seatbelt... So I am waiting damn near 6 weeks for a safety issue that simply shouldn't be "okay". Furthermore, in my case, I am still quite upset that I had to call the Dublin service center to find out when my part was in to even get the appointment scheduled... They had it for a freaking week, no one called me... I was told someone texted me to tell me it was in... TEXTED ME???? Really???? No follow-up phone call? Nothing... Nope... I had to call to find out because all I could get was a text from the phone of the tech who validated my issue in the first place, which I never got. You'd think when you on't get a reply for days that maybe I didn't get it and you should possibly call to double check, nope. That is horrible customer service. The longer I sit and look at the appointment on my calendar the more frustrated I get.

I fully understand where the OP is coming from and Tesla if you're reading this, you have a LONG ways to go to get your service department up to anywhere near the levels you advertise it to be. It's Not. Even. Close.

Jeff
 
#16
jeffro01 said:
Quite frankly, Tesla service has been nothing but a complete disappointment for a number of owners for some time now. Myself included.

A brand new car shouldn't have that problem, I understand shouldn't certainly doesn't mean won't or can't. Okay, stuff happens. It should have been fixed immediately and without hesitation. Asking the customer to wait weeks to fix something that broke ON THEIR BRAND NEW CAR is simply unacceptable in every possible way. This is something that has to improve. Tesla, are you reading this??? This type of new customer treatment is completely unacceptable. I myself am waiting to fix a defective passenger seatbelt that has a mind of it's own. Soonest I could get in was 1/12/16 and I made that appointment in early December, for a defective seatbelt... So I am waiting damn near 6 weeks for a safety issue that simply shouldn't be "okay". Furthermore, in my case, I am still quite upset that I had to call the Dublin service center to find out when my part was in to even get the appointment scheduled... They had it for a freaking week, no one called me... I was told someone texted me to tell me it was in... TEXTED ME???? Really???? No follow-up phone call? Nothing... Nope... I had to call to find out because all I could get was a text from the phone of the tech who validated my issue in the first place, which I never got. You'd think when you on't get a reply for days that maybe I didn't get it and you should possibly call to double check, nope. That is horrible customer service. The longer I sit and look at the appointment on my calendar the more frustrated I get.

I fully understand where the OP is coming from and Tesla if you're reading this, you have a LONG ways to go to get your service department up to anywhere near the levels you advertise it to be. It's Not. Even. Close.

Jeff
Click to expand...

I'd agree with this. Immediate failure is pretty much an extension of "dead on arrival" delivery and should be treated more urgently than the same issue months after delivery, where it's more typical unit failure.
 
#18
hybridbear said:
This is one of the major concerns we have about potentially buying a Model S. It would be our only vehicle, making reliability & loaner availability essential.
Click to expand...
What you're reading here are uncommon exceptions. That's why people are posting about it. No one posts about all the times they're taken care of promptly. It would be a shame if these posts dissuade you from buying a Model S.
 
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