Tesla Service West Los Angeles-Santa Monica Blvd. — Local services in Los Angeles

I write today to share my customer service experience with Donald Whitcraft at the Santa Monica Tesla Service Center. I want the weight and value of this letter to not be shortchanged. I have not had a good customer experience with Tesla, as a whole, thus far in ownership of my vehicle. At each encounter, I am hopeful to see improvement from the company and Donald provided that for me with this service visit.

Donald was professional and transparent with me. He was sure to communicate all changes that were happening throughout the duration of my vehicle being serviced and was quick to make sure I was accommodated appropriately with a loaner vehicle. He worked with my schedule to provide as little disruption to my daily routine as possible and was patient and courteous in response to my many questions. Donald promptly recognized and addressed a situation that could have resulted in a different experience shortly after my arrival at the service center. When I arrived, someone greeted me as I exited the car and said someone would be with me shortly. I was pleased thus far. Then another employee came out and took pictures of my car, and left without ever communicating with me about what he was doing. It was a busy day and there were many cars in the small space allotted to pull in and out of the service area. There were employees bustling all around me, but no one had said another word to me since the initial greeting I got when I arrived. It was now starting to feel like my regular encounters with Tesla. I was getting disgruntled, quickly. I happened to make eye contact through the glass with Donald. He immediately came out of the office and asked if I had been helped, and how he could help. He was quick to listen to my frustrations and patient with my complaints. He offered his apologies and recognition of my experience. Donald was professional in his responses and maintained support of the company through my candid grievances. He made me feel like my concerns were valued, while still maintaining the integrity of the company. I found this to be an impressive trait and an exemplary response to the situation. Further, I had some issues with the loaner vehicle that was provided to me. I, actually, ended up with two different loaner vehicles for the duration of my service. As each issue surfaced, Donald was timely in his responses to me and deliberate in his efforts to rectify the issues. I was specifically impressed with his dedication to the customer in handling the issue with my power cord. The power cord for the first loaner I was given didn’t work. I don’t know what the check-in/check-out process is for loaner vehicles, but I was surprised when it didn’t work. Nonetheless, I was annoyed and it disrupted my weekend plan, as I had to make other arrangements to find a supercharger to charge the car. I notified Donald of the issue and he said he could immediately get me a working cord and he would work with my schedule. We arranged for me to come by during working hours to swap cords, but my day got busy and I was unable to make it there before close of business. I called and Donald made arrangements to wait, after hours, for me to arrive to make the swap so I could have a working cord and further interruption to my daily routine would be minimized. His willingness to wait after hours in dedication to the customer experience is commendable and should be regarded as valued action taken. This type of esteemed behavior from your employees helps to build a strong foundation of respect for your brand.

Through this experience, Donald restored some confidence in me of the Tesla brand. I hope to see his actions recognized so that other employees in your organization have an example to measure. I don’t look forward to having to bring my vehicle in again for service, but if I need to, I certainly look forward to Donald handling my...

To set the right context: This is a service center, not a spa. That means something has already gone wrong, or you're already having to go out of your way for scheduled maintenance. No one likes that.

This also is not a review of the Tesla app. The message concept is great; execution is not great.

BUT, this review has to do with the experience after I finally got someone on the phone, and bringing my wife's 21' Model Y in.

The service center experience: After a bit over a year, our 12V battery died in the car overnight. We couldn't even open the doors in the morning. Completely dead. And we needed the car for an early morning appointment the next day and child care obligations. So this was a major inconvenience.

I was able to get someone (Humood) on the phone and explained the issue. He said he'd see if there was a mobile tech that could actually come to our house to swap the battery that night. I was hopeful, but when he called back they couldn't send someone over until late the next morning, which was too late for us. I was disappointed, but I don't know of any other auto co's that would send someone to your house to fix something in less than 24 hours. So, I get it.

BUT, Humood and I hashed a bit of a creative plan, where I "jump started" the Tesla after watching a few youtube videos (which was shockingly easy) and drove it over to the dealership, where Humood had a few people quickly help swap out the battery that evening. Even at 8:30 pm every tech was heads down working on cars.

We coincidently have another appointment scheduled for later this week to replace an HVAC component which will take a few days, but we were able to schedule via the app. Not clear when the car will be back (but fortunately not as urgent).

Ultimately Tesla needs to continue to expand service centers. I'm constantly seeing semi trucks full of new Teslas being delivered, so I imagine the service centers are going to get increasingly busy, and they're already super busy. That said, all OEM dealerships are typically really busy. I (and, I imagine others...) have especially high...

Honestly the worst service I've ever received at any business in my life, resulting in the violation of six federal and state laws. I still can't believe what happened.

I brought my Tesla in to have the shattered top windshield repaired, but instead, they replaced the front windshield, which had no issues whatsoever. The technician even questioned the replacement, yet no one called to confirm.

Despite this blatant error, Tesla insists on charging me in full for the incorrect repair, offering no apology or resolution. They even threatened to send my bill to collections. To make matters worse, when I raised my concerns, the service manager refused to even come out and speak to me. This level of unprofessionalism and lack of accountability is astounding.

Additionally, Tesla refused to fix a known defect in the upper control arms, which is acknowledged in service bulletin SB-20-31-006 R3, despite my car only having 30,000 miles. They claimed it wasn’t covered because the car is out of warranty, even though this is a manufacturing defect that impacts the safety and performance of the vehicle.

The service center is in violation of six laws, including the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act, by failing to properly address these defects and charging me for an unnecessary repair. After waiting over two weeks for this appointment, driving 2 hours round trip, and wasting an entire day, I was left with an unresolved issue and poor customer service. Tesla needs to take responsibility and fix this immediately, or I’ll be escalating...