This article was very difficult for me to write and I delayed, even considered not writing this at all. I have been a big advocate for Tesla since purchasing my Model 3 AWD in January of 2020 and have enjoyed every last 35,000 km of travel. Sadly when it comes to service, Tesla still has significant problems that have not been addressed and the future is also unclear in this area. This is not a new problem and I don’t believe this will go away anytime soon.
I can NO LONGER recommend anyone purchase a Tesla Vehicle if they live more than 200 km away from a Tesla Service center.
A number of times through the 2020 year I created Service appointments with Tesla relating to problems ranging from Wind Noise coming from my windows (they are not sealing properly) to safety issues where I get warnings on my screen about the safety restraint system having a problem (this is a known problem for some Model 3’s). Each time I was told to drive 4+ hours to a location with 1+ months in the future as the earliest service date. I accumulated about 3-4 items and asked Tesla to let me know when Mobile service will come to My location as they had done in previous years for other customers. While this was annoying, I was willing to accept this with the idea they would come within the next 12 months.
In February of 2021 a Tesla member in our loca Facebook group posted about the following problem (this was during a cold snap of -30C):
Anyone else had issues with heat in their car? My model 3 hasn’t made heat for 3 days. Tesla indicates it needs a new part and I’d have to drive to Vancouver of Kelowna and wait a month to get an appointment. Anyone need any work done here? Can we pressure them to make a mobile service trip up?
To say the least, this type of scenario is exactly the kind of problem that all Tesla owners are curious to know the manner in which Tesla is willing to service their vehicles. We are promised 4 and 8-year warranties but how good is that if you can’t get the work done, and in a timely manner? Notice the distance from my location to the Tesla Service center:
I decided to follow up with Tesla Service to see when they could come to service my queued problems. The first call I spent a while on the phone with a Tesla Rep out of Utah who eventually pointed out that Tesla Mobile Service had specifically decided NOT to service out location recently. The following email reply was sent as a followup to my mentioning I was going to make a youtube video reviewing my 1 year of ownership of a Tesla Model 3 in Northern BC and this issue was a significant problem and would lead to me NO LONGER recommending Tesla for people living far away from a service center:
On 2021-02-18 12:30 p.m., CustomerSupport wrote:
Hello Mark,
I am happy to help point you in the right direction. Please visit our Find Us page where you can find the contact info for all local service centers in your area. For all other inquiries, please visit our Tesla Support page.
Thank you!
Roger R. | Tesla Support
12832 Frontrunner Blvd., Draper, UT 84020
https://www.tesla.com/support
Not satisfied with this, I contacted a Tesla rep in Vancouver to get clarification of this matter and had discussion about making a youtube video to talk about my ownership experience and the concern about service changing my recommendation from yes to NO for buying Tesla. The rep seemed very concerned and promised to dig deep into the issue, the email trail is what remained of that discussion, in short too bad so sad no service for you, get your car 400+ km south and wait 1+ months to get service!
The entire email trail discussion is shown below read from the bottom up to follow the timeline:
On 2021-03-02 6:50 a.m., Mark Vejvoda wrote:
Still no reply to this so last chance before I make this video and post all over Facebook etc telling people that they should avoid buying a Tesla if they are far away from a service center. I really don’t want to do this but you are giving me no choice with the silence.
Thanks
On 2021-02-26 12:29 p.m., Vladimir Bello-Cohen wrote:
+ BC Mobile Service team for visibility and to advise on below.
Best,
Vlad Bello-Cohen (he/him)
Tesla Advisor | Canada West
1636 West 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC., V6J 1L9
E. vlbellocohen@tesla.com p. 604.255.4427
Away from office Sunday and Monday
The content of this message is the proprietary and confidential property of Tesla Inc, and should be treated as such. If you are not the intended recipient and have received this message in error, please delete this message from your computer system and notify me immediately by reply e-mail. Any unauthorized use or distribution of the content of this message is prohibited.
From: Mark Vejvoda <mark_vejvoda@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2021 12:58 PM
To: Vladimir Bello-Cohen <vlbellocohen@tesla.com>
Subject: Re: Vlad @ Tesla
Hi Vlad so to confirm there are currently no plans to service Tesla Vehicles in Northern BC.
All problems require customers to get the car many hundreds of KM’s south to the lower 1/3 of the province right?
Remember I will be you-tubing about this and if this is the answer I will no longer recommend people purchase a Tesla if they live further away from service centers… actually anywhere in Canada as this could be repeated and no way to know for sure since we were all lead to believe we would get service here for major issues.
Slowly becoming less of a Tesla fan:
Mark Vejvoda
On 2021-02-24 5:05 p.m., Vladimir Bello-Cohen wrote:
Hi Mark,
Got note from our delivery team that at this time there isn’t ranger service available in Prince George, but they could meet in Kamloops or Kelowna.
No word yet on future developments to include servicing Prince George market, but considering that a couple years back we didn’t service Kamloops/Kelowna, I’m confident that as demand grows so will our mobile service team.
Truly appreciate you raising this concern and the severity of its impact as it’ll help us continue to grow and better serve our owners. Please feel free to keep my info as a resource for anything else that needs our attention – I’m a huge fan of the company and its mission, so will happily assist as best I can to help us improve.
Best,
Vlad Bello-Cohen (he/him)
Tesla Advisor | Canada West
1636 West 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC., V6J 1L9
E. vlbellocohen@tesla.com p. 604.255.4427
Away from office Sunday and Monday
The content of this message is the proprietary and confidential property of Tesla Inc, and should be treated as such. If you are not the intended recipient and have received this message in error, please delete this message from your computer system and notify me immediately by reply e-mail. Any unauthorized use or distribution of the content of this message is prohibited.
From: Mark Vejvoda <mark_vejvoda@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2021 12:16 PM
To: Vladimir Bello-Cohen <vlbellocohen@tesla.com>
Subject: Re: Vlad @ Tesla
Thanks Vlad, please get back to me with an answer regarding what type of service customers in Prince George, BC can expect as I will be making a youtube video reporting on my 1 year of ownership in a few days and this sticking point was my main sour point. If there is no mobile service in areas further away from a service center this needs to be made clear as all of us were told there would be mobile service for major issues.
Thanks
On 2021-02-24 11:06 a.m., Vladimir Bello-Cohen wrote:
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your call today. I’ve emailed the Mobile Service team for more info on our service in Prince George and will revert as soon as I hear more. Please feel free to ping back with anything else that comes up.
Plaid Speed,
Vlad Bello-Cohen (he/him)
Tesla Advisor | Canada West
1636 West 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC., V6J 1L9
E. vlbellocohen@tesla.com p. 604.255.4427
Away from office Sunday and Monday
The content of this message is the proprietary and confidential property of Tesla Inc, and should be treated as such. If you are not the intended recipient and have received this message in error, please delete this message from your computer system and notify me immediately by reply e-mail. Any unauthorized use or distribution of the content of this message is prohibited.
In conclusion, I have been a staunch advocate for Tesla related subjects (see the numerous Tesla related youtube videos on my channel) but I feel a serious let down due to being promised one thing when purchasing the car, then experiencing the opposite in the area of customer service. Thankfully I have not encountered a show stopping problem with my car, but I now know that if i do I will be without a vehicle for a very long time and will need to move heaven and earth to get the car to a location 4-9 hours south from where I live. This is unacceptable to me and I wish this was clearly communicated by Tesla but i suppose I am the sucker as their sales people are just as slimy as every other car salesperson.
Update: see part 2 here: https://ev.princegeorge.tech/?p=239