What Are The Pros And Cons Of Tesla’s Service Model? 

I saved a ton of money on my Tesla service by being too poor to afford a Tesla.

I got my Model Y in November 2021. Service Center told me said they can’t diagnose my extremely loud heating pump because “every car is different.” It’s definitely not the same experience compare to MB or Audi or Volvo. I know two of my friends canceled their orders. One of my friends received car with cracked bumper.; she decided not to pick up and Tesla canceled their order and asked her to re-order with raised price. And after that no response. I don’t think Tesla cares about their individual customer.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my Tesla service experience. I particularly appreciate mobile service, which is an incredible convenience and time saver. My new General Motors product, on the other hand, requires frequent visits to the dealer and hours of down time without a loaner or transportation.

They call them Stealerships for a reason. Especially bending over customers with dealership mark-ups.

I’ve had the Mobil service and the taken my Tesla into a service center. I definitely prefer the mobile service. It’s AMAZING! However, taking it into the service center wasn’t any worse than taking my Mercedes in for service. So, I would still give Tesla the edge.

I am excited for the EV future and I think Tesla is leading the way as a whole. However, I can't bring myself to spend $45k-$65k on a vehicle knowing there are still quality control and service issues. I'll stick with a legacy auto maker for my first EV purchase and give Tesla the time to sort out their shortcomings.

As other commenters have mentioned I find the lack of mention of state regs making it difficult for non-traditional auto companies to establish service and sales presence within their states as a regrettable omission. While I enjoy my Tesla very much I try not to be a "fanboy". However, CNBC certainly seems to cast any shortcomings in the worst possible light. I particularly noticed the comment about recalls without mentioning numbers of recalls to date that required either mobile or a service center visit. Many of the more publicized recalls have been resolved purely by over-the-air updates. It is interesting that CNBC did not even cover the bit about being able to schedule service only through the Tesla phone app. Though I have been intimidated by that at first, the two times I've done this ( a damaged tire replacement, and a 12-volt battery change) turned out to be straightforward and facilitated by a prompt chat with a representative that could arrange the proper type of service, mobile in both cases.

3/4 of Teslas ever sold were sold in the last 3 years. Cars usually don't need major repair within the first 3 years. In 5 years from now though...

My Tesla was rear ended last autumn. Through my insurance company I booked service with a 3rd party repair shop recommended by Tesla. They ordered the parts which took 3 week. When all the parts were available I dropped the car off and could pick it up within a week. In that time, my insurance company paid for rental/cab service. The only time I went to the Tesla service center was to adjust a misalignment of the right beam camera. They paid for uber rides there and back (basically 3 $50 vouchers). I could see the status in the app while they were working on it and could pick it up the next day. One benefit of electric cars, like Rich said, is you need much, much less maintenance and repairs than ICE vehicles. No oil change, gearbox issues, rusted exhaust etc. I do agree that they should build more service centers, but many of the points about 3rd party repair shop availabilty seems outdated or perhaps it's just in the US? I live in Sweden and my lovely model 3 is American built!

Got a mobile service one time in Australia. That was great! and had to take the car to a service center one time - Again no different to dropping the car off to a dealership for service. I'll give Tesla the edge as well knowing I don't have to also take my car in for service every 3-6 months.

"Recalls often have to be dealt with at a brick and motor Tesla service center" Didn't Tesla just perform a recall to 817,143 vehicles by performing over the air updates?

More competition is always welcome….. it will make electic car adoption faster… but dealerships sucks way more than any other bad experience in vehicle ownership

I had a Mercedes ml 350. The transfer case ran dry and was ruined. No way for me to check the fluid level. It took 2 months to get a new case and cost $4000. Replaced it with a model y. Couldn’t be happier.

Toyota's approach to hybridize/PHEV all of their cars and then slowly transition to EVs is the smart incremental approach. The infrastructure for EVs is no where near where it needs to be to make EVs mainstream. People who live within urban city and have to park on city streets don't have access to charging like someone who owns a garage. In addition, the charge time for EVs remains a huge barrier for many consumers.

I like the fact Tesla sells their own cars direct to the customer, no dealership, no markups. The manufacturer quality will improve over the time, the services as well. This is a relatively new car manufacturer. I will have an electric car in the future and I’m thankful for all these customers who are paving the road for future user’s better experience and satisfaction.

I bought my first honda in 2011 determined to finally have a great quality car and service. 2 months in the driver's window was struggling. Brought it to the dealership 3 times. They sprayed the tracks and sent me on my way. Finally the window motor jammed as it was falling off. I checked and indeed this was a build defect. Quality issues happen to the best of them.

That's why I'm waiting until a reputable brand to come out with an EV like Toyota before jumping ship. I need a company with decades of experience in building cars.

I have had a tire repair by Tesla mobile service and had a recall repair at a service center and they were both great and easy experiences. Way better than the 3 months it took for Kia to fix my Soul's engine that blew out at 40K miles. (Kia did fix it though so not dumping on them, just really slow and long and bad communication from the dealer)

As cool as it would be to have a Tesla, the quality issues and this video is the reason why I haven’t bought one. I currently drive a BMW and the car is beautiful and there is no panel gaps. Hopefully they will improve. Edit: Does my comment mention reliability? No it doesn’t.

When I fist got my tesla model 3 last September I got a flat tire in the first week. Tesla couldn’t fix it for two weeks. I called vip auto after 4 other places and they were able to fix it and put a new tire on for $450. They claimed it was some rare tire that just came out and are really expansive. That kind of sucked. Probably cheaper than what tesla would of charged. Sucked not having a spare. I haven’t bought a spare yet but I’m really considering it especially for Trips

Always good to see Richie B!

Our family own 2 Teslas, a Model S P85D and Model Y LR, all the service experiences we had were amazing, so much better than the dealership experience we had with our Audi Q5.

Depends. Some people love their Tesla. Owners who live in California who are close to service centers, a large mobile repair fleet, have access to super chargers will have the most ideal experience. Once you get out of California, owning a Tesla may not be as good service wise. The main issues are service centers are far, so getting in warranty repairs for batteries or motors could be a problem, problems with build quality can’t be resolved in a timely fashion, there are no Super Charger networks available so owners will need to be able to charge their Teslas at home or deal with slow chargers that take 10 or more hours to charge. People in those areas will see Teslas and any EV ownership as frustrating compromises. EVs made by the Big Auto makers such as Ford, Toyota, Honda, BMW, Mercedes, etc may seem like they would be easier to fix since there are more service centers. But what doesn’t get reported is the fact that Big Auto is just starting their EV roll out. It doesn’t matter how many service centers they have if those centers are not equipped to service the new EVs. They need tech the special skills and special tools to do so. In that retrospect, I feel that Tesla even with their faults can fix EVs faster and better than any other EV company. It’s just they are expanding at such a rapid pace, they can’t keep up with demand for service. Another thing that make repairing conventional cars vs EVs easier are 3rd party auto repair shops. Owners can often find better service at 3rd part Auto Shops vs going to the Dealer. My Dad worked for a local Auto Repair chain for over 20 years. He doesn’t like EVs because he thinks they are too expensive, they can only be repaired by the deale, and they take forever to charge if you don’t have access to high speed chargers. I think when thinking of owning an EV, people should ask themselves? Can I charge it at home? Is there high speed charging where I live, can I afford the cost of the vehicle and the insurance which will be much higher than a normal car? Will I be able to accept issues with software and can resolve most of them on my own using online guides and forums, and when I need to contact support I will accept the fact that human customer support in anything isn’t very good these days because companies don’t want to spend much money on support reps? I was thinking about getting a Tesla but I am unable to charge at home, there are no super chargers, there is only once service center in town, finally the roads in my neighborhood are so badly maintained that I think even the Aero tires are too thin to mitigate damage to the rims which are hundreds of dollars a pop.

They don't have to setup a dealer model but there needs to be a franchised service center setup, I would be willing to pay a convenience fee to use such a service center as long as it provided a better experience than the junky Tesla Service centers.

For a SMALL car company….I can’t blame Tesla and I appreciate all the effort they have made so far.

A relative of mine got into the Elon fanboy hype and got a Tesla. He told me it was the worst economic decision he has ever made. It arrived with plenty issues and Tesla Service just didn't care.

This is why I'll never ever give up my old vehicles older vehicles you can fix yourself these new cars you can't touch them which means it's going to cost you a lot of money when they break down.. and they will break down at some point..

I really do wish Tesla would put a service center in Augusta Ga. We have a ton of vehicles here and it would be smart of them to invest in service centers.

The unusual smell that comes from the cabin is called "Elon Musk"

**Here is the fix to these problems** : Buy a Toyota or a Honda.

Simple solution: buy an ev from another brand other than Tesla that have more physical dealerships/service centers.. Hyundai, Kia, Ford, Audi, etc etc etc. Heck even Jeep and Hummer now have ev's

where did they get that service center map for tesla from because there are a LOT of service centers that were not showing a red dot on the map

My model 3 is absolutely amazing. I’ll never go back, but the service has got to step up to keep pace with vehicle sales.

This is huge. I bought a stop gap hybrid. Maybe the whole ev market will be a lil more mature in 5-10 years. But as for now I strongly believe it's still in it's infancy.

I had bad experience (15 services in total in the first year) with Tesla, stuck it out and made them pay for all the fixes. They used to put parts on the ground and service people would trip over them and scratch them and then try to put scratched parts back onto the car. The service manager said because of me they started putting the parts on racks instead of the floor. It sucked for the time it was in getting fixed, but worth the wait and headache, Tesla Model X is second to none!!!!!!

Even if there were enough service centers, the experience is still by far the worst I've experienced in my life. Though I would admit that if the wait wasn't 5 weeks for an appointment, I wouldn't be as disappointed at the unsuccessful service attempts.

saved a ton of $ on Tesla... by buying a corolla hybrid; or Prius, RAV (or yet to be introduced) Lexuses primes if one wants 4wd and plug-in... or blue Z06 like Rich has, that's much more fun to drive in corners.

I am very luck to have a Tesla service Center within 3 miles of my house and another within 10 miles. We have two Tesla and we hope we never have to make a service appointment.

Never had a problem at service center. A rattle from passenger seat was fixed with NO complaints!

Uncle Rich got featured in CNBC

At 9:14 you have shown (i reckon sample) of appointment UI the date mentioned is 29 September 2022, quite ODD

The issue of lack of service stations is state governments

No one does service like CAT. Their dealer model and service is amazing. When equipment goes down 90 percent of the time we have parts and repairs the next day. They come to you for repairs and maintenance and have rentals if needed.

Ive had to go to service a few times because I had an early model 3 and they have been fantastic. Honda was terrible, things would break they wouldn't fix it, wouldn't know why it was broken, took forever to get to, wouldn't have the part. I will never go back to anything but a Tesla. They drive to my house and show up at my front door to fix most things its fantastic. My window randomly went down the other day and wouldn't go back up all the way (about an inch gap) until the next morning and it didnt do it again but they insisted on coming out to reset it even though I said don't worry about it we will wait to see if it does it again. So they came out and reset it anyway. He let me know why it might have happened and how to avoid it in the future (dust and dirty may have tripped up the object sensor, I didnt even know my windows had an object sensor!). the one thing I do here, is that not all Tesla service centers are equal in quality. I am very lucky mine is fantastic. But right down the road on my husbands Honda we had 4 tires replaced. 2 years later and 3 Honda visits and other service center visits we get the RIGHT GUY who could figure it out. One of the tires that got put on our car was a SMALLER DIAMETER and it was tripping up the sensors. Are you kidding me? I had to sell the car so I needed to Clear out the error. Could not believe that, two service centers that couldn't figure it out for two years.. one Honda and one independent. This is an issue for every car place not just tesla. You need talented people.

I bought an model S with free supercharging. We need independent mechanics that specialize in Tesla and other EV’s.

I own and love my Tesla. Yes, service is not a the level of other luxury car brands but I'm okay with that. They are innovators in hyper growth mode. I understand scaling is hard and know this going into the transition. I think most Tesla own have similar expectations. Most criticism come from non-Tesla people who want to see them fail. Tesla's tech is amazing. BTW, this Tesla is my second EV. I accepted lots of compromises on my first EV which was a 2015 KIA Soul. I'm planning on choosing an EV for my future cars. No oil changes, no tune-ups and the tons of other problems that come with complex internal combustion vehicles.

I used to have an Audi or BMW and with that I had a lot of options where to service and repair my car. Now I have a Tesla model 3 LG and one month ago someone bumped in to my left door. And since the doors are made of aluminium the reapir shop can not repair it but they had to order new doors from Tesla. After one month I still drive damaged door and no word when the new one is coming.... so Tesla you already get a negative point for service time from my side.... Iam located in Slovenia/Europe.

when i decided to go for an electric car it was between a tesla model 3 and a hyundai kona ev. having to travel 600km/400 miles for a repair to the tesla put me off. my kona went 4 times to the shop for a total of 200$ services. about time tesla made some partners like Bosch for servicing the millions of cars they are putting out there.

I would love to have a Cybertruck, but I live in rural OK, where the politicians are owned by oil.

Dealership can also add whatever markup they want and put customers into bidding war, if you haven’t noticed

Dealerships have been fleecing customers with high priced service. Nothing new. Independent service garages do the same thing but usually are much cheaper. They all charge by the hour and the parts prices have gone way up in the last year. The problem is finding an honest service center. The major automakers like Ford and GM have had a hundred years to allow the service center network to build up. Tesla will get there. Ford and GM had the same problems back in the day. They worked through it. The dealership lobby in the US is a problem. I applaud Tesla for taking them on and selling directly to the consumer. Something had to change and Tesla is that change. BEV's are far more reliable. Fewer parts and far simpler drivetrain. Also zero emmisions. Tesla will work through the quality problems and their cars are getting better. Tesla is very proactive and listens to their customers better than GM and Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Guy, lets be real here... This video not having a #Ad or similar enough tag is criminal! Shame on you CNBC!

What is the necessary density of owners to get a service center in place? Especially when targeting new countries... Crossing a border to get service seems like a risk factor...

Lot of stuff wrong with this video. For example, "per car" support by Tesla Service Centers actually exceeds "per car" support of Ford, yet the numbers provided at the start of the video are shown as absolutes (not per vehicle). Also, the thumbnail for this video said Tesla Service CONTINUES to be a problem for owners, yet the all the negative information in the video is from 2018, 3 years old. And I just now tried booking an appt through the app, and the first available date compares with that of the first available date for my Hyundai SUV (granted I do live in a major US city). The Tesla recalls sighted (if you look into the details) have mostly been handled by over the air updates, not Service center visits - they are just computer bugs, but for cars count as recalls. Tesla's dont need oil, only a cabin filter, and other maint that ICE vehicle require frequently (they did mention this) and so the need for more Service Centers per car for ICE vehicles. One thing CNBC got right - the ICE dealership model is corrupt and broken, and Tesla eliminates that model. In fact, dealers in some states are legally blocking Tesla from operating in their states (I live in TX and am likewise required to call a CA phone number for service, instead of the people at my local Tesla - that's the TX Dealers doing). In this video, CNBC shows a few isolated unhappy owners, yet admit the overall satisfaction rating for Tesla exceeds all brands - that says it all - all 4 Models are rated the top vehicles in the US by their owners, so that essentially says, in counter to the video thumbnail (click-bait), Service is no longer an issue.

The vast marjoity of Teslas have no problems at all.

Maybe I gonna wait for Toyota EV

I don’t like the dealership model, I have never had a good experience. I wish they would get pressure to be better. CNBC, why don’t you do special videos on this?

I'm a over the road truck driver and love Tesla but I've seen no more then 3 dealerships in 5yr as driver who averages 150,000 miles a year. I see them being haul and at ports/lots but that's at it🤔

It is so wrong how they treat rich rebuilds and taking away his referral roadster he earned He's really helping them with their cars and getting people interested

Title used to say Tesla's downfall is still their customer service... CNBC changed it

I’ll pass. When Toyota or Lexus releases full EV I’ll buy

My daughter had a model s , car had many issues in the 18 months she had it. The service was horrible. It took three trips for them to figure out one of the front suspension arms was faulty from the factory. There will be no more Tesla's in this family.

25,000 oil change places?!.. wow..that sounds super easy to get your oil changed.. if only it were easy to get a Tesla oil changed..

My friends who feel like they need to get pampered and coddled throughout the Tesla Experience are the ones having a difficult time at first to understand the futuristic EV sales model. It’s like getting a new iPhone - they aren’t going to pamper you to come into the store to get one. They had you at “auto-pilot,” no gasoline - ever and space engineers designed the Model 3/Y.

Uncle Rich!!

I have owned a model 3 since 2018. I can tell you that Tesla service sucks big time. I will never buy another Tesla.

Subtitles are broken

Worst customer service

Meh, I'll probably just keep my old Toyota another couple decades.

without proper service these cars can be a nightmare and Tesla is approaching the service aspect of their products the same way that apple does with doing everything they can to keep repair from going to other parties if the Tesla holds a monopoly for the repair and servicing of their cars they can just charge whatever they want

How much the each tesla tire cost?

This is all FUD. I live in the middle of nowhere and have had excellent experiences with Tesla service.

CNBC makes only Tesla negative news and it ends being wrong in near future. Lol! They need some better analysts..

But how is car dealerships any better? I have couple friends in the car dealership service department. They always tell me how they can rob customers by doing unnecessary service. It’s big name companies too.

THIS is the reason we no longer own our 2 Teslas. Now I have a Macan and the Mrs. has a Volvo XC40 Recharge EV. 100x better quality of life we have now. Life was all about "what's broken now?" and NOW we never go into service. AT ALL. It wouldn't be so bad if they car's weren't built poorly to begin with. But stack that poor build quality on top of Tesla's terrible service centers, and it's just pain. And the Tesla service "Kids" are beaten down and depressed. They have lost the twinkle in their eyes.

This sure hits home, we just traded in our Model Y after 40 days in the service center, it was not finished being fixed. In 15 months of owning our Y it was in service for more than 2 months of it. The last words from Rich Rebuilds rings loudly, Tesla knows their service is terrible, and they do not care!

Wasn't this video already uploaded earlier?

Con: It's merely a battery company that attaches them to wheels and composites.

Violation of warranty is a myth

People will be kicking themselves in regret in few weeks, if they miss the opportunity to invest now

I think Tesla is actually better than most with regards to service. The franchise model is the one that is severely flawed. It's easy to get caught up in the dealership glitz with fancy showrooms, free coffee, and loaner cars everywhere but the reality is that traditional dealerships rely too much on service as a profit center and they engage in predatory business practices that benefit themselves and not the customer. I am sure 99/100 people watching this can share a crappy franchise dealership service experience where they have felt like they have been taken advantage of.

00:25 the pain of not talking trash about Tesla. This guy is blinded by is bias against Tesla

Uncle Rich! 1:25

It’s similar to a used car dealership in a sketchy neighborhood. (Model 3 owner)

Crap cars with crap service it is really just that simple.

Hmm

15 service centers for whole country 🤯🤯😱😱

Would be interesting if down the road, the other car companies end up being more popular just due to their logistical and servicing infrastructure as versus Tesla's ability to streamline output and manufacturing.

Consumer reports shows that Tesla has the HIGHEST satisfaction compared to every other brand.

At least tesla don’t sell you anything when you do service not like dealership they will tell you this need to change that need to changed even you don’t need to.

20 grand for a battery after 3 years on a 90,000 K car 🤣 that's enough for me to say no. I'll go pay 100,000 for a diesel Denali instead

Tesla is garbage in quality and they lack service despite what this thing says. Tesla is WAY BEHIND other the curve compared to all other manufactures. The Tesla experience begins and ends with shopping for the vehicle, their quality in build is terrible and if some of the things that they have actually delivered to people happened by one of the real car companies the outcry would be deafening but for some reason the terrible quality that is Tesla is allowed to take place with almost not even a peep. Tesla's original vehicles for instance HAVE NO PARTS available so if you have an accident (even a minor one) you are screwed and the car is done, there are actual chop shops to part our cars.

Owners should be pushing Tesla HARD for "right to repair"... if Tesla cannot (or will not) ramp-up service capacity, they need to make the services avaialbe to the owners. I think Tesla's #1 issue right now is off the line build quality. Owners that take possession and then immediately have small issues that need to be fixed. In Software Development there's a concept of 1, 10 ,100. Spend 1 hour in design, saves you 10 hours in development, and 100 hours in release. If Tesla ramps up (or over-hauls) their POC and pre-customer delivery process, I imagine they would save 100x in service hours.

The reason is money. Tesla doesn't care if you are treated with bad service. Once they have you locked in, you are stuck.

Quite simply, they have too many cars on the road now and can’t keep up with their service centres

Everyone in the coments is gangsta defending the Tesla bad repair services until Uncle Rich joins this video in his 911 turbo.

Is Ryan Shaw lector od this video?

Wow! Hopefully they will fix the problem

Would they be offering mechanics or electricians??

Best part was when they criticized Tesla for not being able to take advantage of 25,000 oil change locations. When the reality is the opposite.