I could post all of the Tesla texts, but I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus. I just wanted to find out if anybody else has had the same problems and maybe if they have or if anybody in the future needs to know what’s going on they don’t have to go through the same BS that I went through.
Thanks, I bought a 2014 MS60 about 4 months ago and just today tried to use AP for the first time today and it didn't work, so now laying in bed doing research and ran across this post. My care is a "bare bones" base model with nothing optional licensed, no SuperCharging, no Navigation, no Tech Package... Nada. So it doesn't really surprise me now to find out that, even though the car has the hardware, it's not licensed to use it. I'm definitely not spending $3K to enable it.
I too have had poor service from my SC. They don't seem to know much about the older models, especially ones like mine that didn't automatically come with everything already licensed. I'm new to Tesla's and didn't spend tons of time learning every Tesla feature and whether or not the car was licensed for it, before I bought the car. I didn't realize how ala carte they were!
Here are a few examples:
- My car is not licensed for SuperCharging. A couple of times when I was at the SC for other things I asked about it and was told it would be $2500 to enable it. I wasn't sure I needed it so held off. Now they're saying, oops, not $2500, actually it's $12,000!!! But it includes lifetime free supercharging! For $12K they should install a SuperCharger at my house!
- Not wanting to spend $2500 for SuC, I saw the CCS retrofit kit for $450, a much better price. The Tesla website said to login to my account to confirm compatibility. I did, and it said that it just needed the retrofit kit (the adapter itself is $250). I bought it, the SC installed and enabled it, and guess what? It didn't work. They said that, oops, SuC needs to be enabled first, the CCS is in addition to it. That's when they told me about it being $12.5k instead of $2.5K!!!!! Oh well, what's another $10K, right?
- when they de-installed the retrofit kit and gave me a refund, they triggered some alerts. They wanted to charge me $2900 to replace my onboard charger and $850 to replace the battery heater pump. The alerts happened LITTERALLY 2 minutes after I gave the mobile tech the keys to de-install the retrofit kit (it's on my Ring security cam video), what a coinky-dink, ya think? I was certain the alerts were false alarms so I didn't have them replace either, and I've charged and preconditioned my battery several times in the past month with no additional alerts. The weather has dropped a bunch during that time too, in the -15 degree range a week or so ago, so I know the battery heater pump is working!
- One of the service managers actually told me that the CCS kit failure was my fault for not doing enough research on it and for getting info from forums like this! WTF!!!! Maybe they should have confirmed if my car was compatible before they wasted my time and their mobile techs time installing and de-installing it, ya think?!?!?! They know everything about my car, it's hardware and software - aren't they a tech company?
And it may be a case that they're wrong and just didn't make the right settings in the firmware! I'm hoping that's the case.
- Yesterday I went to a different SC to get a second opinion on the costs and requirements for SuC & CCS DC Fast Charging because I have very little confidence in my local SC.
I guess they feel that we have no other viable choice for service so they don't have to give good service. Where else are we going to go, what other shops service Tesla's?