A man whose Tesla Model Y caught fire says customer service told him to haul the burned husk to their service center

Bishal Malla’s
Tesla going up in flames.
Bishal Malla

Bishal Malla thought he had a flat tire when he felt his Tesla shaking. Minutes later, it was aflame.
Customer service was unhelpful, he said. One agent suggested that he bring his burned car in.
“All I need is the answer from them and protect others to not go through the same issue,” he said.

When his Tesla went up in flames, Bishal Malla contacted the company’s customer service hoping for answers. Instead, he was met with silence and one absurd recommendation to drag his burnt car to a Tesla servicing center. 

Malla, a California resident, was out running errands in his Tesla on May 6. As he was about to enter Highway 99, he felt his car shaking, after which he got out to check for a flat tire. 

Instead, he found smoke coming from the bottom. Soon enough, his entire car was engulfed in flames. 

—bishal malla (@bishal_malla1)
May 18, 2023

Malla told Insider that when he contacted Tesla’s customer service to make a complaint, they “took the report,” but “no one responded.”

Since then, he has reached out to the company three to four times, but has gotten “no follow-ups.” 

Eventually, he said he was able to get hold of a customer service agent on the phone — but that didn’t help him much either.

“One agent I talked to had an audacity to tell me to take my fully burned Tesla to the Tesla recommended servicing center,” Malla said on Reddit. “How in the world am I going to do that?”

The agent did not give any recommendations for how he could transport his burned car to the servicing center, he told Insider. 

“Yes, insurance will cover the car, but I need to hear from Tesla,” Malla said on Reddit. “All I need is the answer from them and protect others to not go through the same issue.”

He told NBC-affiliated TV channel KCRA 3 that he was lucky to be alive and “speechless” at what had happened. 

“If this had happened 30 minutes later, my whole family would be in there,” he said on Reddit, adding that he was on his way home to pick up his wife and two children to drive to a family gathering. 

Representatives for Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment sent outside regular business hours.