Delivery and service nightmare

[kelledy]

I check on a Friday to see when my model y will be coming and expected delievery date was pushed back to two months from the date I checked. The very next day, a Saturday, I get a message saying your model y is ready schedule your pick up my Wednesday. I’m almost certain someone before me was suppose to get my car and declined it which I should’ve done.

I was in a horrible a horrible car accident where my prior vehicle was totaled. I settle early for property damage with the at fault parties insurance shorting myself a couple thousand in order to get the money to get the car in teslas demanded time frame. I also flew back into town a couple days early from a trip to be able to pick up the car.

When I went to pick up my brand new model y I was the last appointment of the day. As I’m handing them my check they turn the lights off. I walk out to see the car and it’s parked under a large tree. The car filthy and covered in bird droppings. There are scratches in the paint, swirls everywhere, a crack in the the windshield. The employee tells me give us 10 mins we’ll be able to clean all this off. They use their waterless cleaner and get 90% of the bird droppings off. The car is still dirty and now has more dust all over it from the waterless cleaner. They tell me they fixed the most noticeable scratch and I can look and see that it’s not fixed just slightly better. I ask to speak to the manager. A guy who says he's the manager and his name is Chris comes out (later when I called Tesla on the phone they said Chris isn’t a manager). He’s being condescending and manipulative. He’s pretty much yelling at me saying do you want to take the car or not. It’s clear everyone is ready to go home. I’m in tears I’m so frustrated and I couldn’t tell you the last time I cried. Because I went through so much to get the car that week, I don’t know when the next car will come and I am without a car because of the accident. I accept the car. I was totaled anything under 100 miles would be fixed.

I make a service appointment it’s not for two weeks out. Two days into having the car with hardly any miles added to it none of the doors will open. I have to crawl through the trunk to get my purse out. I had it towed to Tesla center. They say it’s an easy fix and something got knocked out of a place in delivery. They say a new windshield has been ordered and they will fix the scratches. They have my car for over a week just to resolve the scratch issue the windshield has come in yet. When I get my car back it’s still filthy there are still scratches on it and i quite certain even more scratches. The back tail light is out of alignment which I don’t think it was before. I take the car to an auto body shop and ask what he thinks of the scratches. He tells me honestly I would return this car and if they won’t let you return it get a lawyer. He said the cars paint looked like a 6 month old car that’s not well taken care off. He said several panels were out of alignment, there is orange foam on the car, there are areas where the entire panel needs to be repainted. He said I am going to have to constantly have the car buffed and waxed.

Of course I take it to Tesla and they say there is no return policy I can submit to have a buy back. The manger at the sc says bring the car on Monday we won’t be able to fix all the scratches but we can get most of them. They keep saying you bought “a black car it’s going to have scratches”. I no longer trust them or anyone at Tesla. Has anyone has success with a good lemon law lawyer they are willing to share?

These are just a preview of the many issues all over the entire car

 

[kelledy]

Sorry for the many grammatical errors. It’s been a stressful day and I am up late unable to sleep thinking about this.

 

[kelledy]

Also since the car has been back from the service center the display has been having these strange lines. Any one else’s have this issue or know what’s going on?

 

[kelledy]

Also since the car has been back from the service center the display has been having these strange lines. Any one else’s have this issue or know what’s going on?

 

[kelledy]

I’m also quite certain the odometer is off when I test drove the car outside of my parking garage and back in which was maybe .2 of a mile if that, 5 miles were add to the odometer. The car is still under 100 miles and about 35-40 miles of those under 100 miles were added by Tesla.

 

[cwerdna]

That looks pretty crappy. FWIW, I do NOT buy black cars.

I can't help w/lemon law lawyers, but keep in mind what California lemon law looks like.
Buying and Maintaining a Car - look under California Lemon Law

https://www.dca.ca.gov/acp/pdf_files/lemonlaw_qa.pdf

You can find more by Googling for site:ca.gov lemon law.

I'm not sure I can add much else that's useful. I had my former '19 Chevy Bolt (bought new at end Jan 2019) bought back related to its battery recall that extended to all Bolts built up until around Aug 2021. I didn't use a lawyer. I requested a buyback w/GM's EV concierge. Their paperwork made mentions of California lemon law and there was a deduction for usage (by mileage out of 120K miles, which is allowed per CA lemon law). Took months for GM to give me an offer and I returned it exactly at the 3 year mark in exchange for a VERY nice check.

Repurchase timeline survey was a table with a very small subset of Bolt drivers who tried for a buyback. My handle is there. The table is a bit confusing now due to lack of years...

Between chevybolt.org + some Bolt Facebook groups, a few folks lawyered up, but usually the story I heard was at that point, EV concierge has to cut communications with you if you threaten legal action. At that point, it will be between your lawyer and the automaker.

If you actually have significant odometer error, then that is a case for Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) non-conformance. 843 units of 2002 NISSAN MAXIMA 4-DR | NHTSA (look under campaign 02V010000) were recalled for this:
"ON CERTAIN PASSENGER VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH A TRACTION CONTROL SYSTEM, THE ODOMETER IN THE SUBJECT VEHICLES REGISTERS DISTANCE IN KILOMETERS INSTEAD OF MILES AS IS SPECIFIED IN THE DESIGN. THE ODOMETER DOES NOT HAVE A LABEL THAT INDICATES "KILOMETERS" OR "KM" AS REQUIRED BY FMVSS NO. 101, "CONTROLS AND DISPLAYS.""

Good luck!

 

[jason29252]

The lines are from the parking assistance. Very crappy system but that’s not broken.

 

[glide]

That looks absolutely horrible.

The first thing you need to do ASAP is opt out of the binding arbitration clause in your order agreement. You will need to send a letter, return receipt, to the address mentioned.

Then hire an attorney. Then Tesla will start taking your requests seriously.

Please also note, Tesla can, and has, blacklisted people from making future purchases due to buyback requests.

 

[Pianewman]

Have you spoken with the most senior manager at the SC? You'll probably have to work to get that far up the admin chain, but seriously, your car is a disaster that should be bought back, regardless of Tesla "policy."

 

[P3dStealth]

The lines are parking assist.

You did not have to exit the car from the trunk. The doors have a manual handle you can pull. Just pull up on the door in front of the window controls. Seems odd your doors stopped working though. Sounds like it was a software glitch and they pushed you an update.

The tail light doesn't look unaligned. If you want it's easily moved. It's only two tiny nuts on the inside and the tail light just comes off. You can move it slightly and tighten them.

The orange foam is normal. He probably looked under that car and seen the battery pack sealant foam that dries outside of the seems.

The scratches I can't really get a good perspective on because you are so zoomed into them. Some look like normal swirl marks from them wiping the car with towels. The corner picture looks like a little clear coat defect. I see those both all the time on teslas. The line next to what I think is the plastic wheel trim is a scratch that may or may not buff out.

It is common to see the swirl marks in black cars and the paint defects straight from the factory. Not just with teslas. I am not saying it's good but it happens. I would ask them to pay for a good paint correction. GM did it for me with my previous black vehicle. Most of it will be fixed. I think they need to stop using waterless car wash at that service center.

Not my video:

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A LAWYER.

I can only offer advice from my experience.
At least in FL, the lemon law applies to a vehicle with MECHANICAL PROBLEMS.
Laws differ from state to state. Some require the car to have been in for repair 3 times or a total of 30 days,
to give the dealer a chance to repair the car.

My experience has been with my 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 SEL which has a well-documented dead 12v battery problem
which has a parasitic draw that Hyundai has been unable to find the cause of.
After my car was in the shop around 30 days, I hired a lemon law firm to handle my case.
To date, my car has been in the shop FOR OVER 5 MONTHS while my LL suit has still not been resolved.
The law firm has sent 5 or 6 demand letters for settlement to Hyundai which they ignore. My lawyer has asked me to wait until the
end of this month to see if we can get a resolution. That will make the total time in the shop 6 months.
If no success at that time, they will file a lawsuit and take this to court, which means it will take much longer to
settle and for me to get my money. Once you take Hyundai to court, your lemon law suit goes away and you
are back at square one.

I only had the car exactly 7 months when the problem began and 1,100 miles.

Thinking my case would not take this long to settle, I ordered my MYP on Feb. 3 and picked it up on Mar. 21.
And there is sits in my garage (undriven) because I continue to drive the Sonata loaner I have and don't feel
like insuring 2 cars - I have minimum coverage on the Y just enough to legally keep it registered.
I picked it up with 6 miles on the odo, drove 16 miles home from SC, and is now at 22 miles while I drive
an ICE car. I had to go back to the dealer I purchased my Ioniq 5 from last week to allow them to inspect it
and for me to sign another loaner agreement. While there, I asked if I could remove a few things from my car,
such as floor mats, and umbrella, and other small items. This is what my car looks like after sitting at the shop
for over 5 months - sad. I have no idea how long it has been like this, and whether or not they are actively
attempting to find the problem. I don't really care, as I am not going to get the car back.

 

[N0SQL]

I went through a lemon process. My lawyers met with Tesla’s. They went over all the concerns I had and agreed there were lots of issues (mostly cosmetic). They said they could either buy the car back or give me hush money and keep the vehicle. I kept the handsome amount of hush money and sold it right when used Teslas were selling for more than new. Just follow your state’s lemon law rules and hire an excellent attorney. You’ll be okay.

 

[kelledy]

]

The lines are parking assist.

You did not have to exit the car from the trunk. The doors have a manual handle you can pull. Just pull up on the door in front of the window controls. Seems odd your doors stopped working though. Sounds like it was a software glitch and they pushed you an update.

The tail light doesn't look unaligned. If you want it's easily moved. It's only two tiny nuts on the inside and the tail light just comes off. You can move it slightly and tighten them.

The orange foam is normal. He probably looked under that car and seen the battery pack sealant foam that dries outside of the seems.

The scratches I can't really get a good perspective on because you are so zoomed into them. Some look like normal swirl marks from them wiping the car with towels. The corner picture looks like a little clear coat defect. I see those both all the time on teslas. The line next to what I think is the plastic wheel trim is a scratch that may or may not buff out.

It is common to see the swirl marks in black cars and the paint defects straight from the factory. Not just with teslas. I am not saying it's good but it happens. I would ask them to pay for a good paint correction. GM did it for me with my previous black vehicle. Most of it will be fixed. I think they need to stop using waterless car wash at that service center.

Not my video:

Unfortunately I did have to crawl through the trunk. I was on the phone with Tesla at that time and they told me it was the only way. When I rolled the window on the driver’s door down fully for the first time it made a concerning loud noise and had a hard time coming back up. That’s when the door stopped working. When I went to Tesla they had to take the door apart to fix it. They said when the window rolled down it disconnected something they had to reconnect.

I took the car to a paint shop that I had never been to before but had great reviews. I told him I wanted an estimate for paint correction and I would take it to Tesla to get the body shop to fix the car. I asked him if this was “ normal for a new black car” even though I had a black car for 8 years that never had the scratches this car has. He said absolutely not. He told me return this car and get a lawyer immediately. He could’ve just gave me an estimate to make money.

Oh and the day before I was suppose to pick up my Tesla after they had it for a week doing “paint correction”, I messaged them asking if tomorrow was still the pick up date. I get a message back saying no we still need to take you car to the auto body shop. I’ll screen shot the messages. I think they had my car sitting outside for a week not getting worked on and rushed it to the body shop for half a day of fixing. The fixed a couple of the scratches while some how adding many more.


I meant orange peel not orange foam. He said the orange peel on the car was also much worse than standard.

 

[kelledy]

 

[P3dStealth]

While I do believe you had a door issue... There is no way you had to crawl through the trunk. The manual door release is connected to the latch by a metal cable. It opens the latch no matter what. If the electric opener was not working the manual one still would.

Even if the manual one did not work on that specific door for some reason would it not make more sense to open the passenger door? It also has both an electric and manual door release option.

You would have to have both the electric system turn off and the metal cables be cut in all doors to actually need to crawl into the trunk. Although I will say the back seat door manual releases are awkward to pull out.

 

[kelledy]

I think you misunderstood. I got out of the vehicle just fine. I had to crawl through the trunk to get back in the vehicle and get my purse from the front seat. None of the doors would open from the outside. The only way to get in was use the app and open the trunk. At the sc they were also unable to open.

 

[P3dStealth]

I think you misunderstood. I got out of the vehicle just fine. I had to crawl through the trunk to get back in the vehicle and get my purse from the front seat. None of the doors would open from the outside. The only way to get in was use the app and open the trunk. At the sc they were also unable to open.

Oh yes I did misunderstand then. The door entry from outside is only the electric handles. There was a glitch some people were experiencing where the outside handles stopped working. It's been in the forums a few times. You can open the driver's door with the app but it's not intuitive to find the option.

If you open the app and hold down one of the quick launch icons under the picture of the car it will bring up more icons that you can click and drag into for quick launch use. The one that says "unlatch door" will pop open the driver's door when the handle doesn't work. It's good to know in case the door handle fails.

 

[rlsd]

It's bad. I spent at least 30 minutes to inspect the car before I accepted the delivery on the phone app. After that I spent more than 1 hour to check car using a 7 page checklist before I drove the car home. When ordering the car I requested to have home delivery. Later I changed to in-store pickup so that I could inspect the car.

 

[jsight]

All cars collect scratches and dark (especially black) show them the worst. Having said that, this is beyond normal microabrasions from normal washing and wear. This is worse than what I'd expect after years of careful care. Like you, I've owned black cars for a while and know the common issues. This is so much worse.

Some of the pictures show signs of someone attempting a repair without fully knowing what they are doing. It really does warrant a full respray in places, IMO.

I think you aren't wrong to pursue a buy back. Getting a full estimate for a proper repair might be a good way to start making the case for that.

I'm sorry this happened to you. I hope you are able to get a successful resolution.

 

[kelledy]

I was on the phone with a Tesla advisor at the time. I tried opening it through the app it wouldn’t work. He even tried some emergency open on his end : / That’s when he told me try the trunk and tow the car to sc.

Oh yes I did misunderstand then. The door entry from outside is only the electric handles. There was a glitch some people were experiencing where the outside handles stopped working. It's been in the forums a few times. You can open the driver's door with the app but it's not intuitive to find the option.

If you open the app and hold down one of the quick launch icons under the picture of the car it will bring up more icons that you can click and drag into for quick launch use. The one that says "unlatch door" will pop open the driver's door when the handle doesn't work. It's good to know in case the door handle fails.