The Case Of The Zip Tied Tesla: Episode 2 Safety Sacrificed.....

Last time, we began our investigation into “The Case of the Zip-Tied Tesla” by explaining how a brief – yet unpleasant – interaction with a deer on the road in May 2023 forced John to relinquish his Model 3 to a Tesla-Approved Collision Center, Auto Collision & Glass. For two months, he dealt with continued delays, broken promises and an overall customer service experience that fell far short of his expectations for a TACC, as what should have been a routine repair morphed into a disgraceful series of interactions which lasted over 70 days. But with his keys finally returned on July 19th, he could at least feel confident that his car was safe to drive again…or was it? Just two days after taking possession of the vehicle, John’s hood emblem began to delaminate. Annoying…sure, but it didn’t seem to be cause for any real concerns about the overall quality of work performed by AC&G. And that cosmetic malfunction certainly gave no reason for John to be concerned for his safety. He probably didn’t even consider whether there were safety issues since he had a busy couple of weeks ahead of him with trips planned to Chautauqua (Sha-tok-wa), New York and Michigan. But during those journeys, John noticed additional flaws in the paint. Recalling the unease he’d felt multiple times while his car was at AC&G, he decided that it was time to get a second opinion. Fortunately, while his car was being repaired, John had attended a Tesla event where he’d met Joe, an estimator at Fetzner’s Collision, a Tesla-certified shop in the next county. On August 2, he took his car in for a post-repair inspection. Since he’d already identified several cosmetic flaws with his untrained eye, John likely expected Fetzner’s Collision to find something during the post-repair inspection – but no one could have anticipated the devastation that would be found under the hood of John’s Tesla Model 3.