Regular readers (do I have those?) might remember that shipping Joulee the Free Salvage Tesla to the islands using Matson was a horror show that took 71 days. To be fair, the port personnel both here and on the mainland were great, but the corporate people were dreadful. Someone left a door open and drained the battery. They lost the key and then (after they’d been driving the car around various ports for over a month) claimed they never had it. They lost the car. They repeatedly lied about where the car was and when it would be available. They hung up on us when we asked questions. They got it all the way to the island, then sent it back to an intermediate port instead of telling us it was here. They refused to plug it into a wall socket to recharge it after they left the door open and discharged it, even after they promised they would, instead requiring us to have it towed to a Tesla service station and pay for the towing there and back and a couple of hundred bucks to have it charged and “inspected.” When we picked up the car on our island, Matson was still claiming it was on a different island hundreds of miles away.
And the car had a major dent that wasn’t there when we dropped it off.
They took pictures of the car when we dropped it off. They readily admitted that they caused the damage but then put one barrier after another in the way of getting it fixed. They disputed the estimates we got. They “lost the paperwork” and had no record of a claim being filed. On and on. The body shop folks said it would take months, at best, to collect.
Finally, as the car was insured for the voyage by our mainland insurance company, we just filed a claim with them under the comprehensive coverage with a $250 deductible. Then it would be up to our insurance to collect from Matson and refund the deductible.
The original claim was filed on October 30, 2024. We finally received the refund check on May 9, 2025. One hundred and ninety one days for Matson to pay a claim that they acknowledged on day one was their obligation.
Disgusting, but it’s good to finally have it over with 262 days after we dropped the car off for shipping.
—2p