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Comment by cloudwalking | Hacker News Reader

  The Model S does not need to be brought to our  
  service center by the owner. Tesla will pick up  
  the car at a location of the owner’s convenience,  
  provide a Model S loaner if needed, perform the  
  work and bring the car back to the owner a few  
  hours later.

Does anybody else offer service like this?

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Canon, if you're a pro photographer. I assume Nikon has a similar support system for professionals. It's pretty amazing. Test/Evaluation loans on $15k lenses for weeks, emergency equipment loaners, dedicated support at major events (Superbowl, etc.).

The high end models of "regular" high end car manufacturers also get service like this -- at the Audi dealer I use for dealer service (Stevens Creek), they have 2 dedicated mechanics for R8s. If you have an R8, you get essentially the Tesla service -- it's picked up at your home or office, you're chauffeured in an A8L if necessary, etc. For my 7 year old used A4, I just get a free loaner A4, TT, or Q5 for as long as service takes, which is fine too. I still go to an indy shop (Advanced Autowerks in SF) for non-warranty stuff now that I'm out of Audi Care service period, though, where they just give you $4 for the 3rd St Muni roundtrip. I assume MB SLS and other similar cars get similar treatment. Although, outside of San Francisco (parking), it seems unlikely anyone who owns a $200-300k car only owns that one car.

> Canon, if you're a pro photographer. I assume Nikon has a similar support system for professionals. It's pretty amazing. Test/Evaluation loans on $15k lenses for weeks, emergency equipment loaners, dedicated support at major events (Superbowl, etc.).

Yes, but I believe you may need to be in a special "pro photographers club" that each of these manufacturers offer to get this kind of service. They don't do it for the average consumer.

Indeed:

http://www.cps.usa.canon.com/about_cps/about.shtml

Summary: you only get loaners and and such once you've purchased "20 CPS points" worth of stuff, which seems to roughly amount to $12-15K worth of gear.

It's a lot less than 12-15k for the Gold tier; more like a couple $1-2k bodies and $3k of lenses (which could be used), which is pretty standard for even the lowest end professional. The $100/yr membership at that tier is more of an issue.

For the top tier, it's probably $10-20k of gear, and $500/yr.

I guess Tesla buyers cannot be considered "average consumers" either :)

Strange that you mention the Audi A8L since I saw one for the first time a week ago in Monte Carlo. It's very rare even in Europe.

"The Audi A8 L is the first automobile in the world to be available with an integrated WLAN hotspot. A UMTS module provides the connection to the Internet."

Is that really a big deal? I have a MiFi device that cost £70 or so that does that and works a treat in cars.

It's worth mentioning since it's integrated. It's the same reason something like Pandora integration would be worth mentioning despite the fact that many people could use Pandora with an FM tuner or 3.5mm to aux input (not to say the Audi A8L has Pandora).

Its funny that you say "rare even in Europe", since I wouldn't call the A8L to be rare in the US (at least on the east coast). I see different ages of them all the time.

Yeah, they're pretty common in the Bay Area too. S8 are still rare, though.

It's weird how German cars are so much more expensive in Europe, for the same spec, than in the US. And yet the US only gets the high-end/luxury versions of cars (engines, trims) from BMW/Mercedes/Audi, so the entry price points are comparable. (obviously even worse in places with high taxes or other restrictions; in UAE BMWs were about 2x the US price, and Singapore has the 100% tax)

I don't know when that was from, but a Wifi hotspot is optional equipment on any Mercedes (possibly excluding the 2dr SLK and SL)

Lexus did exactly the same thing when their first US model required a recall. There were stories of them flying mechanics by helicopter to do work with customers. It was a very effective stunt for covering for the cock-up, and establishing them in peoples' minds as a genuine luxury brand rather than a badge-engineering exercise.

High-end luxury car dealerships frequently offer loaner cars, often times nicer than the car that needed servicing, and some of them definitely do pick-ups.

It makes people buy new cars. Exact thing just happened to my boss. Chucked in his workhorse of 13 years to buy the new model he got loaned.

Now that is smart business.

The Mercedes dealer I used to go to would give out Mercedes as loaners to owners of E & S classes. M & C class owners got Hondas from their other dealership. While I was there numerous times for problems with my ML (something broke on average every 8.5 weeks), the dealer always took care of me. And that's the only reason why I'd consider having another Mercedes.

Hopefully Tesla is able to maintain their customer goodwill through this by doing similar.

That's an awful dealership and you should never buy from there again.

Between my wife and I, we've owned several Mercedes, and I've never gotten a worse loaner than the car I dropped off. Also, an ML costs more than an E350 so that sounds pretty backwards.

At the time (1999) the ML was pretty entry-level. You could get a C class with a four-cylinder for less. The E class started a few thousand above the six-cylinder M class. Also, at the time, Mercedes had poor product quality (a friend with a W210 E class went through 5 window regulators in 3 years) so service loaners were in high demand. Not surprising then that some differentiation was done between the customers.

Ah I didn't realize it was so long ago.

Yes, Mercedes has really turned around their quality in the last few years. My wife owned a W204 C350 for 4 years that was absolutely flawless. A couple minor repairs. Now she's in an X204 that is too new to judge but so far so good.

I heard the W211 had a much improved track record from the W210 but I don't have any personal experience.

"That's an awful dealership and you should never buy from there again."

Can you make that judgement without taking selling price of the car into consideration (discounts etc.?). Raising the dealers costs requires them to make it up somewhere. Now in a perfect world perhaps giving that level of service might get more business and they would make it up on volume. Or maybe not.

> Raising the dealers costs requires them to make it up somewhere.

This is faulty logic in these arguments. They can make it up by their shareholders buying a smaller boat.

Not just high-end, at least in the UK. All the dealers I've used from Vauxhall (ie the old Saturn in the US) through to Saab offer courtesy cars, the option for the dealer to pick the car up for service, or to give a lift from the dealer to work.

Not just high end in the US either. My old Mini had some issues and they handed me keys to the closest thing they had available on the lot (another Mini).

I wouldn't consider Mini to be a high end brand... and I didn't exactly have the nicest car they made. But the dealers always seemed to go out of their way to ensure that any downtime was as pleasurable as possible.

I got loaned an ActiveHybrid 5 from BMW when I took my (2004) 330Ci in for engine service.

I got loaned a Tiguan when I took my Jetta TDI in.

They both had nice features, but I'm dedicated to my cars and I have no intention to rid myself of them.

You're most likely to find this service if the company in question is dealing with

1) Innovators/Early Adopters (their goodwill, word of mouth etc. is highly desired as is the feedback you can get)

2) High end stuff that is bought because it is high end (some level of service similar to this is standard for Porsche etc...also a good chance to sell you a new car :P)

3) Equipment that professionals use, it's basically an implicit insurance policy (cameras, lab equipment)

Porsche is actually known for NOT being helpful to owners when they screw up. They deny fault for many major recall worthy issues, go visit some Porsche forums and see for yourself.

Last summer a friend of my wife's was visiting from Japan. She spent a few days in Vegas, staying at the Bellagio hotel. Then she came to spend a week with us in Los Angeles. We went to eat one night, and she noticed she didn't have her sweater. "Oh, no, I left it at the hotel in Vegas" she said (in Japanese). From the parking lot at the restaurant, I called the hotel, gave my friend's name, room number, and dates of stay, and asked about the sweater, not hoping much. They had it. I asked if they could ship it to LA. They said yes, that it would take 3 days. My wife's friend was leaving for Japan in 3 days. I asked if they could ship to Japan instead, and that I would pay for the cost. They replied: "We'll ship it to Japan. There's no charge."

We were all very, very impressed. That's service!

And most likely you all have a very positive impression of the hotel now, which will most likely come to mind the next time you need to plan a visit, or possibly even if you have a random conversation about Vegas, in which you have a chance to impress someone else. Here, you've recalled it from just a good customer service discussion.

Considering a Casino can make many times the cost of the room on a visit depending on the customer, this is very, very good business.

Indeed!

Hotels seem to be the last remaining bastion of the true service industry. You can ask most of them very nearly anything and they will get it done, possibly for a price.

What hotel was it?

"She spent a few days in Vegas, staying at the Bellagio hotel"

I have had two similar experiences with my Amazon Kindle. (This is in the UK, in case it's relevant).

The first time, it broke. I called on a Tuesday at 6pm, they acknowledged the problem, and the day after I had a new one at 10am. I can't remember exactly how I returned the broken one, but I think I did it myself on the following days, to their freepost address.

The second time, I lost it. A couple of days later, they contacted me saying somebody had found it and called them. They shipped it back to me for free.

I had a similar experience. The screen had been cracked in my bag, they ran me through a number of questions to determine whether it was my fault or just simple bad luck, determined bad luck and had a new one with me in 2 days (only day I could be in to swap the broken one). Great customer experience, it's one of the reasons I recommend people to buy Kindles over the competition.

When I had a high end BMW the dealer did that on a couple of occasions.

Heh, you must not have gone to the BMW dealership in SF then.

The most I've gotten out of them is a one way shuttle, which is only available until about noon each day.

Hah those guys are the worst. My next car was an Infiniti and the closest dealer was in Marin. I was always given at least as good of a loaner and they'd even reimburse me for bridge tolls.

High end.

I had a lower-end BMW model from a dealer that also sold other luxury brands (and Honda).

Whenever I needed a loaner from the service department, I got a Honda. When I had the car in for service and the service rep could see I had more than 100,000 miles on the car, I still got a Honda. When I sold the car I bought...a Toyota.

A perfect sales opportunity completely lost.

No? And not just in the automotive industry.

Apple comes close, but from stories like smoke being considered a biohazard, I'd say no (they did offer replacement if you broke your screen on iPad IIRC). That said I don't consider that Tesla won't ever have a gaffe, but they are doing things perfectly so far.

IIyama, twice I've had an IIyama screen die on me, once within warranty (due to the high volume of electric devices dying I installed a surge protector, since then no problems) and once outside of warranty. Both times they send a courier service to pick up the screen at my house and deliver me a replacement one at no charge.

Logitech will also do that, had a mouse die, call them:

> Yeah so my mouse doesn't work anymore, it's a <whatever model>

>> Ok do you have a serial number?

> Sure it's <serial number>

>> Could I have your address to send a replacement?

> <address>

>> OK thanks a lot, we'll get the new one send right away

> How do I send the old one back?

>> It's broken yeah?

> Yeah

>> Then you just throw it out or whatever, try to repair it if you enjoy that

No charge, no fuss, no bother. Love it when companies do that.

Had roughly the same experience with Logitech when my MX518 died. They asked me to email a phone camera pic of the label with the serial number and shipped out a brand new G500 right away. No hassle over troubleshooting, no wasted postage mailing back a broken mouse and waiting two weeks.

It's nice to be treated like a customer rather than a fraudster, and I definitely factor in warranty claim friendliness when I buy new hardware nowadays.

Amazon has replaced my Kindle like that twice. Once I definitely broke it myself, once I don't think I did (but had no evidence). They did ask me to return the broken one through.

Haven't owned a high-end car but friends in college owned maseratis who offered service of this level.

Actually you'll find that most dealers that sell cars at a similar price to the Model S offer these kinds of services.

$70-100K cars are a most definitely a luxury item.

I've bought a couple others (BMW & Porsche) and neither of them would dream of offering the service I get with Tesla. My guess it is because in the bay area there are far too many BMWs and Porsches to offer that level of service.

Once there are as many Teslas on the road as there are 328/335's and Boxsters, service will be different from Tesla.

Maybe. I've never had to deal with a recall but, when my Alfa was serviced the dealership collected it from my workplace, dropping off a courtesy car (a better model than mine) for me to use.

I did need to drive to the dealership to collect it again, but I also had to be there to pay for the work done (giving me a chance to talk to the mechanic at the time).

Other manufacturers have a dealer network. Presumably the official Tesla service center is in California; a bit unreasonable to expect every owner in the world to be able to drive there. Likely they will have a local contractor do the work in various countries and far-flung states.

That paragraph just made me want a Model S even more. :-)

Very cool. I doubt they can keep it up when they start producing cars in high volume though. Here's hoping I'm wrong :)

In small towns any car dealer will do that.

I live in Hollywood, CA. My local BMW dealership won't pick up my car but they'll give me a round trip complimentary shuttle service. I'll get a loaner if the service will take a few days.

Unfortunately they currently have 2 loaners, a p85 and 60, in the entire DFW metroplex. I took mine in for service and they gave me a Yaris from enterprise because the loaners were being used. I'm just glad I got something for free, although a p85 would of been fun. :)

Jaguar does (or did when my parents had one). I think other luxury car dealers typically do as well.

Well, the loaner part is not that uncommon I think. I get a loaner if there is anything that needs to be fixed on my not high end Nissan.

But the fact they do it at a place of your convenience seems really good.

Some of the BMW and Audi dealerships do, even for routine service visits. It's typically called a "Valet service".

any high end car dealer will offer something like this, especially if you have one of the nicer models.

when hyundai launched the equus, they specifically offered this feature as a selling point to people who couldn't afford a 7 series, and would other wise get a 5 series.

Porsche has done that.

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