"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" star Glenn Howerton has detailed the frustrating experience of having his Tesla stuck in a parking garage for more than 24 hours, saying that the electric carmaker has lost him as a customer.
Speaking with his co-stars on "The Always Sunny Podcast" Monday, the actor traced the ordeal back to Friday night when his key fob broke and he was forced to leave his Tesla overnight on the bottom floor of a Los Angeles parking garage after he was unable to connect to WiFi and access the vehicle.
As Tesla notes on its website, for its Model X "your phone and vehicle must both be actively connected to cellular service to allow the mobile app to communicate with your vehicle."
"It sent me into a rage," Howerton said. "Every step of the way throughout this journey, every single thing that could go wrong went wrong."
The next morning, after studying the issue, Howerton placed the key on a designated area on the car and was able to get into the vehicle, which still was unable to start because the key fob was having difficulty "talking to the car."
Making the situation worse, he was unable to have the vehicle towed because of the low ceiling in the garage and because he was unable to put the car in Transport Mode.
Howerton spent eight hours in the parking garage on Saturday trying to fix the issue. It was "very difficult" to get through to Tesla's support teams, he added, noting that he was also not able to get in contact with Tesla's roadside assistance and vehicle support teams. Desperate, Howerton decided to call Tesla's sales department.
"I was like, 'You guys lost a customer today. I've been a Tesla customer for 10 years,'" he said.
Howerton described being "tossed" back and forth between Tesla departments to no avail. In the end, he was able to find a tow truck driver with a vehicle small enough to get into the parking garage who was able to jack the car up so that its wheels wouldn't have to touch the ground.
Since then, Howerton said he has been relying solely on Tesla's app to drive his car and has not had the fob fixed yet.