If you own a Tesla, you have probably received some sort of goodwill gesture from the automaker as Tesla has been a company known for their generosity when it comes to out-of-warranty service repairs. We have seen them go as far as to give free parts and labor to those in need simply due to their compassion for the average consumer.
Disclaimer: In order to protect the identity of this source numbers have been skewed and rounded but the original message still stands; Tesla has put an end to goodwill and it will make a significant impact on their financials.
Our source is a verified Tesla employee who would hold such knowledge but without visual verification, the information given here should be taken with a grain of salt. We have reached out to Tesla with no response.
Goodwill is the act of providing a service or product out of shear generosity. These are services performed to vehicles that were not required under warranty.
According to our source, Tesla has finally put an end to their generosity. He claims that their store is one of the most conservative in spending and still managed to rack in a bill over $3 million last quarter.
With 82 Tesla Service Centers in the U.S, this is upwards of $300 million in quarterly expenditures. This is significant as Tesla’s only profitable quarter turned a $312 million profit.
These changes were put into affect at the beginning of this quarter. Our source claims that since the start of these new rule sets, the entire east coast has only spent ~$300,000 in goodwill. A absolutely massive drop off seeing as how we are already halfway through the quarter. There are 28 service centers on the east coast and according to him, the west coast spends even more on average.
Last year we saw a few Tesla Model 3 bumpers fall off after going through shallow puddles. An interesting note is that he mentioned this is no longer covered by Tesla and all previous repairs were done under goodwill.
1/2 hr, bringing Model 3 home, run in to heavy rain on the streets & bumper comes off #devastated @Tesla #help @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/mOh2UAjWWr
— Rithesh Nair (@rithesh) August 12, 2018
While it is great to see Tesla saving some money, I am sure their complaint department is getting an ear-full. If this information turns out to be accurate, Tesla is a lot closer to turning a profit this quarter than they were the previous.
Goodwill is not directly reported in Tesla’s earning reports so we will never really know the exact numbers and how much this played a role in anything.
We estimate that Tesla has spent nearly $4,000 on our Tesla Model S since the purchase last year. This is a combination of cosmetic issues brought up during delivery and goodwill. According to some, Tesla leads in warranty spending per vehicle sold.
One of the arguments on why Tesla should franchise lies in their spending. Having no one in charge to reap the benefits of saving money leaves to overspending. If putting the hammer down actually worked this well, Tesla could be better off continuing with direct sales for the time being.
4 comments
My 2019 Tesla Model X had a leaky front windshield. They classified it as Goodwill. My front end kept creaking over bumps. They replaced the sway bar under Goodwill.
Tesla manipulates the use of Goodwill repairs to decrease the numbers of Warranty repairs. It’s a shady practice.
Goodwill repair is not a warranty repair, it’s a repair that is not covered by warranty but Tesla was generous enough to pick up the tab.
A perfect reason for avoiding Tesla and not believing anything that comes out of Elon Musk’s mouth. So he wholedamn car can collapse in a heap and Tesla wil charge you $40,000 to repaie. Apparently amatuer automaker Tesla is unaware of the lemon laws. They will shortly learn better.
Depending on the nature of the Goodwill it may severely damage their sales. Right now the story is “There are some fit and finish issues, as well as some new design flaws, but Tesla will do right by you”. If they take a strict line on it and don’t fix some issues that are technically not covered by the warranty while the car is still under warranty (especially items that show up in the first few weeks of delivery), people will turn on Tesla very quickly. It will result in an increase of vehicles rejected upon delivery as well as many people choosing other manufacturers.
If Tesla doesn’t stand by their product who will want to accept delivery of a vehicle with visible manufacturing flaws? Even if they promise to fix the ones you spot on delivery, it may be an indication of more that you won’t find for a few weeks. Better to reject it if they won’t do the right thing.
Here’s a Tesla SC fix for a VIN plate rattling less than 2 weeks after delivery. https://ibb.co/RzmqHN1
That foam that is glued to my dashboard and visible as I drive. I’m requesting they really address it, including removal of all trace of that glue. I’m not sure if that was considered to be a Goodwill fix.