Not the best service center experience... could be worse ?

[cybercricket]

Scheduled an appointment to do the cant rail recall, tire rotation and a couple of minor checks. The closest date was over two weeks away, but fine. I go in, they ask me to leave the truck as they won't work on it the same day and offered a loaner... it's a two hour round trip for me to go there... fine. Three days later I get a message that the truck is ready for pick up. I get there, and notice that I have a new tire on one of the wheels... one of the things I reported was a slow leak in one of the tires. Then I look at the cant rail that they've replaced and see that it doesn't line up on one of the sides - its front is overlapping the larger panel. Then I notice that there is nearly $700 additional charge waiting for me... turns out they replaced the wheel I complained about without confirming with me if I want to pay for it.

Luckily it was during the business hours so I go in and bring it up with the service advisor. He talked to the technician, and determined there was some confusion about the wheel - they patched up the original AND also installed a new wheel, while it was supposed to be either OR. He suggested I leave the truck as they can then also fix the misalignment of the cant rail. NOT FINE. As the middle ground he proposed to put the old wheel back on and charge me only half for the patch, which would take 45 mins. 1.5 hours later they had it done and actually realigned the cant rail (gaps are different on two sides now).

It's understandable that people can make mistakes, but this is an example of an outright disdain of customers.

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[Gigahorse]

To many people putting in a service ticket for windshield wiper blade changes and tire pressure checks.

 

[Jager]

Not going to disagree that you should be advised of and have the opportunity to decline any prescribed work. But when you post something like "one of the things I reported was a slow leak in one of the tires" what did you expect was going to happen?

Generally, Tesla SC's will not "patch" a punctured tire. They usually will only replace with a new one. Some may disagree with that policy, but one can understand the liability that lies behind it.

The cant rail is mostly luck of the draw - how knowledgeable, experienced (at that particular service task), and quality conscious the technician who was assigned is.

Actually, that luck-of-the-draw thing applies to any service work, from the simplest replace-the-windshield-wiper to the most invasive replace-the-entire-HV-pack kind of thing.

I'm taking my CT in this week for, hopefully, its PCS2 replacement. I'm fully aware of how invasive that service procedure is. I know how easily something could go sideways during or after that work.

It is what it is.

 

[cybercricket]

Not going to disagree that you should be advised of and have the opportunity to decline any prescribed work. But when you post something like "one of the things I reported was a slow leak in one of the tires" what did you expect was going to happen?

Generally, Tesla SC's will not "patch" a punctured tire. They usually will only replace with a new one. Some may disagree with that policy, but one can understand the liability that lies behind it.

The cant rail is mostly luck of the draw - how knowledgeable, experienced (at that particular service task), and quality conscious the technician who was assigned is.

Actually, that luck-of-the-draw thing applies to any service work, from the simplest replace-the-windshield-wiper to the most invasive replace-the-entire-HV-pack kind of thing.

I'm taking my CT in this week for, hopefully, its PCS2 replacement. I'm fully aware of how invasive that service procedure is. I know how easily something could go sideways during or after that work.

It is what it is.

For starters I expected them to try to identify the problem since they're going to be removing wheels (for rotation) anyway and will have a good access to see what's up, and then decide how to handle it. On my previous rotation at a different SC I asked them the same exact thing (same wheel) and they did nothing at all. Second, I talked to a service advisor (or equivalent role) before leaving my truck and he was the one who wrote it down in my presence for the technicians. His notes specifically said patch the wheel or consider replacement if patch isn't possible. And again if it's not clear from my earlier post - they did patch the wheel, and put it in the bed of the truck. But ALSO they installed a new wheel. And service guy admitted that the technician was confused (after checking with the technician when I brought it up) which is why this happened.

I also don't understand what you're pointing out regarding the luck... you're saying a customer should feel lucky that their vehicle is returned to them without obvious visual defects as opposed to expecting that ?

 

[Jager]

I also don't understand what you're pointing out regarding the luck... you're saying a customer should feel lucky that their vehicle is returned to them without obvious visual defects as opposed to expecting that ?

I'm not suggesting that service work ought not be what you describe. I'm simply pointing out the world as it is. The real world. The world where stuff happens.

 

[JCERRN]

For starters I expected them to try to identify the problem since they're going to be removing wheels (for rotation) anyway and will have a good access to see what's up, and then decide how to handle it. On my previous rotation at a different SC I asked them the same exact thing (same wheel) and they did nothing at all. Second, I talked to a service advisor (or equivalent role) before leaving my truck and he was the one who wrote it down in my presence for the technicians. His notes specifically said patch the wheel or consider replacement if patch isn't possible. And again if it's not clear from my earlier post - they did patch the wheel, and put it in the bed of the truck. But ALSO they installed a new wheel. And service guy admitted that the technician was confused (after checking with the technician when I brought it up) which is why this happened.

I also don't understand what you're pointing out regarding the luck... you're saying a customer should feel lucky that their vehicle is returned to them without obvious visual defects as opposed to expecting that ?

Honestly, yes.
Technicians are not some special class of humans. They are not physicians. They are not bound by any duty to do their jobs well, their liability is limited.

id argue that its a combination of how the sc feels about you, what kind if day they are having, how obvious and how simple the issue is, and how competent the tech you get it. Ive had 10 service visits for my truck, a lot of it is because one service center didnt fix an issue so i tried another one and they did. On My upcoming appointment, 5 of the 8 tickets are repeat/unresolved issues, 3 of them have been looked at at least 3 times

 

[Engi_Nerd]

We brought our 10 month old Juniper MY in last week because the headliner speakers produce zero sound under any conditions, including using service mode to excite them. They told me "No faults on the screen, no repair. Have a nice day". Service seems to ebb and flow with Tesla, and IMO, it's currently quite crap.

 

[cybercricket]

Honestly, yes.
Technicians are not some special class of humans. They are not physicians. They are not bound by any duty to do their jobs well, their liability is limited.

Who knew doing one's job reasonably well is a physical impossibility. A dentist who attempted to fix your tooth but destroyed another instead. A plumber who was fixing a flush tank and got shit all over the house instead. List goes on.

id argue that its a combination of how the sc feels about you, what kind if day they are having, how obvious and how simple the issue is, and how competent the tech you get it.

So Tesla Service Centers are total shit without any reasonable customer service standards ? That's what you're arguing ? I guess that was my question in the first place...

 

[cybercricket]

I'm not suggesting that service work ought not be what you describe. I'm simply pointing out the world as it is. The real world. The world where stuff happens.

This doesn't actually happen in the real world. World where there are forcing functions in place - establishments that do shitty work lose customers and eventually are forced to terminate shitty workers and/or close altogether. In this case it's an unusual variation of that principle because Tesla locks buyers of their vehicles into servicing them at their own SCs.... but that just delays the enforcement, not eliminates it.

 

[JCERRN]

Who knew doing one's job reasonably well is a physical impossibility. A dentist who attempted to fix your tooth but destroyed another instead. A plumber who was fixing a flush tank and got shit all over the house instead. List goes on.




So Tesla Service Centers are total shit without any reasonable customer service standards ? That's what you're arguing ? I guess that was my question in the first place...

Plumber, dentist, electrician, all beholden to the standards of their licensure. Not an auto tech. Sure, they get “training and certification” from the mfg, but thats it.

re: 2nd question: the “service advisors” and “service techs” and “master field service techs” are all completely separate groups. The “customer service” branch are the service advisors and management. They are the talking head. The quality of the actual work that gets done depends on the techs. You could have a horrible customer experience but the problem gets perfectly solved, or you could have a great customer service experience, and the tech says “within spec” for a panel gap the size of a carrot.

it really is variable and inconsistent

 

[Jager]

Human endeavor in any field exists on a bell curve. Successful companies do their best - because it's ultimately in their financial interest to do so - to establish and oversee quality guidelines so employee work variances mostly fall within a reasonable range.

But there are quick limits to how much of that quality control consumers will accept before rebelling. You're already complaining because they installed a new tire for you, which you didn't want to pay for.

Automotive techs, while expected to hit general quality guidelines, are under continual pressure to hurry. Every job they are assigned has a clock on it, an already-determined amount of time that some engineer far away has said that task should take. That clock begins winding down the moment the tech picks up the ticket. It doesn't pause when they head to the john to take a leak. It doesn't care that they're sick, or hungover, and don't quite have their A-game today. It doesn't care that they had a fight with their wife this morning, or that their daughter came home late from a date last night.

What do you think happens to techs who consistently fail to meet that bogey?

Cant Rail replacement is a somewhat fiddly process, hard to get exactly, precisely right. It's notorious for variance from tech to tech. There's a reason so many Cybertruck owners, reasonably satisfied with their current panel gaps, have demurred rushing to their local SC to have it done.

In the end, paying another human being for any kind of service brings a question mark with it. That's just the way it is.

Or you can do the work yourself.

 

[Lenny 1973]

Tesla service centers and advisors are some of the worst in the industry. I quickly learned that in 22 when picking up my Y and again in 23 when traded for the overpriced X. Both couldn't complete a 250 mile one way commute unless temperatures in the 80s and average 65mph instead of 70mph. It was a terrible experience at the Memphis SC. I'm not going to look up all of the trips I made between the two cars but on average it took two visits to get it done correctly. I live 75 miles south so it wasn't convenient. It's the reason I used my Missouri address when ordering my PAWD hoping the St. Louis SC will be the opposite of Memphis even though it's two hours north of my work address. My father has had a great experience using them with his Y

I've visited Nashville and a couple in California and they weren’t much better than Memphis.

 

[ruralfmmd]

Memphis is the worst in my opinion

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