During our European Model 3 tour, which started first week of February 2019 in Drammen, Norway, we tried to visit as many Tesla stores and service locations as possible and had very interesting discussions in Malmo (Sweden), Hamburg & Munich (Germany) and Vienna (Austria), right about the time when Model 3 arrived in Europe.
Six month later, while the Model 3 success in Europe is evident from sales statistics and registration charts, the social media buzz is all about Tesla Service being slow and overloaded. Vienna and Graz, where Austrian and East European customers try to get their problems solved, seem to be currently overwhelmed, as we anticipated back in February.
Trying to get a soft ware update for our US spec Model 3, which would allow us to use CHAdeMO fast chargers on our trip back to Norway, was not an easy task.
Two phone calls with service support, are a patience challenge, because nobody picks up the phone before ringing for 30min. The OTA update task was assigned to Graz and despite some email traffic, the task was not completed, while the car was in Romania, before leaving for our long trip back to Motor City, Michigan.
Despite Elon Musk tweeting about Tesla customers being able to drive their cars all around the world, this is not completely true, when you „dare” to take your beloved car out of the home country or region.
Getting used to the slow charging process for our US spec Tesla in Europe, was not a problem, when charging overnight. However, on a long trip, multiple hours charging stops are not funny at all.
Even charging overnight can become a problem, when the process stops for whatever reason, as it happened to us in St. Polten, Austria. Instead of 100%, in the morning we got about 75% battery charged, insufficient to reach our next stop in Nuernberg, Germany.
Being pretty close to Linz, we decided to stop at the local Tesla Service and try again the software update which would enable fast CHAdeMO charging.
Tesla Serrvice Center Linz, Austria
It is a nice, well organized and clean location, where things seem to be under control.
Showing up without an appointment in general creates a little reaction, but the team in Linz was overwhelmingly nice, even if the first „official” approach in Europe was so far: „US car? … can do nothing…”
Tesla is a desirable place to work and people getting hired worldwide are some of the best. Linz was no exception and once we met Jana Plamberger, all our worries seemed to go away.
Jana kindly moved a Model X out of the way, to be able to connect our Model 3 and then started working the internal communication channels to contact Tesla Graz team and get the soft ware update pushed to our car.
Good service is what every customer expects, but spending a little time chatting about travels to US, or being asked if hungry, is the „extra mile” which makes you, as a Tesla owner, feel „at home” at a service center in an unknown city, in a foreign country, and it really makes a huge difference.
Thank you Jana, thank you ALL nice people I met at Linz Tesla Center.
My lifelong automotive career started with design and testing of ICEs, continued with service and sales, followed by 20 years of global seat design, requirements and knowledge management.
My recent passion for electric vehicles found its home at 24auto.ro and electromobilitate.
