A Tesla showroom and service center, in Burbank on Friday, Sept. 4, 2020 in Burbank, CA.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Tesla owners have filed thousands of complaints about the car company’s service centers, Vox reports.
Drivers cite delays, parts issues, and instances when their car was in worse condition after visiting the repair shop.
Tesla owners have detailed quality control issues with the carmaker in the past.
Some Tesla owners feel the electric-car maker’s repair shops leave much to be desired.
Tesla customers have filed thousands of complaints, citing issues with the electric-car maker’s services centers, new reporting from Vox reveals.
The publication found that over 120 customers filed complaints related to issues with delays, service, and parts with the Federal Trade Commission. Meanwhile, over 9,000 complaints were also filed with the Better Business Bureau related to similar concerns from Tesla owners, according to the report.
The complaints varied from concerns about available parts and unresponsive service centers to detailed complaints about Teslas that were returned in worse condition than when they went into the shops for repairs.
One Tesla driver alleged they found a dead mouse and rat poison in the car’s front trunk — also known as “frunk” — after a service visit, Vox reported. Another vehicle owner posted on Twitter earlier this month that he discovered part of his car was duct-taped after spending 51 days at a Tesla shop.
It’s not the first time Tesla owners have expressed frustration with Tesla’s repair services. In 2019, a Bloomberg survey of nearly 5,000 Model 3 owners found that the majority were dissatisfied with the speed and quality of repairs at Tesla service centers.
Fixing a Tesla is unlike taking in a Ford or GM vehicle, which can be easily serviced at thousands of independent shops. The majority of Tesla repairs are performed by one of the electric-car maker’s handful of less than 200 in-house service centers across the country.
While electric cars are supposed to require less visits to a mechanic, a J.D. Power survey found the vehicles typically visit repair shops at about the same rate as combustion-engine cars — an issue that could be exasperated by reports of poor quality control from new Tesla owners. Last year, Insider reported that drivers were taking to social media to report issues with their brand new Teslas, including poor paint jobs and misaligned car panels.
Read Vox’s full story on its website.
Do you work for Tesla or drive one of it’s electric cars? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email at gkay@insider.com