19” wheels looking to cancel order

[SKing]

“
Customers resort to public forums to get their questions answered by other members of the public. What kind of business are we buying in to? It seems the GiffGaff of car manufacturers .”

You cant disagree with that ! Heartbreakingly true!

 

[Artiste]

I am having a serious wobble. If (big IF) I get a call Monday morning saying I can collect Monday afternoon I'm going to refuse. I'm travelling on business next week anyway and am going to talk the decision over with my boss. He is fairly impartial in all this, lives in California, familiar with EVs but views them as just another car without the "obsession" attached to many of us on this forum. It is fair to say I have become obsessed with getting this car (it's also partly the transition to EVs in general). So it is tougher than the usual SUV/Saloon/Sport/Brand decision.

I can honestly say I have never been so disappointed with a purchase experience in my entire life. Whilst there is no doubt I would love the car this experience has filled me with dread. The main issue being the attitude of Tesla UK staff through the entire process peaking with my experience with the guy on the front desk in Birmingham, who couldn't have cared any less. The only other staff member who spoke to me was the finance paperwork guy. Nobody called after I left, despite the promises, no emails and no calls from the main delivery team. Nothing again today until I contacted the Delivery Manager for UK North and Ireland who was the chance contact I made when I decided to ditch my original spec. She's a beacon amongst an otherwise careless Tesla UK culture and Birmingham isn't even her area.

Mine is not a one-off issue. This is symptomatic of Tesla UK and runs throughout the organisation. When things go well they are all fluffy and nice, when things go wrong or are difficult they all hide. When you get hold of them they lie, make stuff up and fob you off. One thing is for sure, something will go wrong with the car at some point and I cannot deal with the thought that this will be what I'm up against. A bunch of people who don't know what they are doing, working for a business which has no structure, systems or customer service to deal with customers with issues. What if I back into a post, get shoved into a verge, write of wheels in a pothole, get hit in a car park or worse? I'll be up against this all over again. Without a car and without any kind of communication, concern, urgency, customer care for weeks or months.

No doubting it is a truly great product, but the great part of Tesla just isn't here in the UK yet. I consider myself an early adopter, but I'm not into this kind of masochistic decision making. Once bitten, twice shy, this could be a blessing. In the lifecycle of a car a couple of years is nothing and by then Tesla may have arrived in the UK properly, the Y will be about and there will be other EVs around.

My plan is to refuse delivery next week for two weeks (super busy the week I get back anyway) and if they give my car to someone else, they will make the decision for me. If not, and I still feel the same once my blood cools I will ask for my £9k back, leave the £2k in as a deposit and revert to my original spec and order. The order will no doubt take months to match to a car with 19" Sport wheels and I'll have more time to think before I finally pull the trigger to cancel. I'll be watching pricing at the same time. One of the main reasons I was so keen on the Model 3 early adoption was the thought the reservation system would help avoid all this inevitable mayhem, but it hasn't made any difference either.

How they handle the whole process in the coming weeks will be the kicker for me. I know the car is fabulous, but I can't abide in dealing with people who couldn't care less about customers, let alone some general courtesy to fellow human beings. Perhaps I may even get an apology. I'm not expecting BMW or Mercedes customer service here either, just the crappy usual dealership customer service will do. At least they apologise when things go wrong, offer some kind of assistance, reply to emails, pick up the phone or talk to you when you walk in.

This is possibly the most accurate description of Tesla in the UK on this forum. They must surely practice being utterly shambolic to be so good at it. In more than 30 years of buying cars with many different manufacturers I can say that Tesla has been the worst by a huge margin. They get away with it at the moment because there is no real competition in their market, but that will change. Tesla fanboys and fan girls assure us that they are at the very forefront of technical innovation. Just a shame they are completely incapable of getting the basics right.

 

[M3LRP]

This is possibly the most accurate description of Tesla in the UK on this forum. They must surely practice being utterly shambolic to be so good at it. In more than 30 years of buying cars with many different manufacturers I can say that Tesla has been the worst by a huge margin. They get away with it at the moment because there is no real competition in their market, but that will change. Tesla fanboys and fan girls assure us that they are at the very forefront of technical innovation. Just a shame they are completely incapable of getting the basics right.

I believe that encouragement should be taken that Elon has started to worry about logistics Elon Musk wants to fix Tesla's logistic issues by taking a page out of Amazon's book - Electrek. It will take time and early adopters like ourselves bare the growing pains until things are more slick and kinks in their systems and processes are ironed out.

 

[Artiste]

I believe that encouragement should be taken that Elon has started to worry about logistics Elon Musk wants to fix Tesla's logistic issues by taking a page out of Amazon's book - Electrek. It will take time and early adopters like ourselves bare the growing pains until things are more slick and kinks in their systems and processes are ironed out.

Hopefully that will lead to improvements but it’s still not perfect. Elon wants people to be able to pick up their car at their convenience. I can’t remember when I last had to pick up a new car - in the £50K+ range I’m used to them being delivered to my front door.

But delivery is only half the issue, and perhaps not the most important half. What happens if your car needs repair? Even now Teslas can be off the road for literally weeks over quite minor problems because parts are not available and the maintenance infrastructure is not in place. This will surely only get worse as more and more cars hit the road.

 

[navt]

I empathise with you @RjbT3. Only difference is that to date, I have no VIN, let alone delivery date. When I first placed my order, my wife said she hadn’t seen me this excited about something for a long time. She wonders now why I never talk about it. The only thing stopping me cancelling the order is I would probably lose the 19” wheels forever.

 

[iTinck]

I empathise with you @RjbT3. Only difference is that to date, I have no VIN, let alone delivery date. When I first placed my order, my wife said she hadn’t seen me this excited about something for a long time. She wonders now why I never talk about it. The only thing stopping me cancelling the order is I would probably lose the 19” wheels forever.

If it’s any comfort Delivery Team GB just gave me a fairly convincing explanation that Tesla Inc is aware of the 19” problem and have plans in place to resolve it by end November. Still a long wait, of course, but changing spec now might not be any faster.

 

[Huggybear]

If it’s any comfort Delivery Team GB just gave me a fairly convincing explanation that Tesla Inc is aware of the 19” problem and have plans in place to resolve it by end November. Still a long wait, of course, but changing spec now might not be any faster.

End of November are they having a laugh. That’s 7 months since a configured my car. What explanation did they give you? I can’t think of something that would convince me. As I keep saying they still sell the 19” wheels in the USA.

 

[navt]

If it’s any comfort Delivery Team GB just gave me a fairly convincing explanation that Tesla Inc is aware of the 19” problem and have plans in place to resolve it by end November. Still a long wait, of course, but changing spec now might not be any faster.

A plan which involves customers dropping dead, changing config or simply loosing faith in Tesla and moving on with life. Did they say November this year or next?

 

[MrBadger]

There must be something more going on than just the rims, surely? Are the tyres in short supply?

If so, maybe they could offer a winter set to tide people over?

 

[iTinck]

End of November are they having a laugh. That’s 7 months since a configured my car. What explanation did they give you? I can’t think of something that would convince me. As I keep saying they still sell the 19” wheels in the USA.

I think their Model 3 run/batch manufacturing process has been described hereabouts before and it sounded much like that. But I can only really report that they seemed genuinely aware of the problem and intent on getting it sorted pronto.

Are you worried that they won’t achieve November or that November is too late for you?

 

[iTinck]

A plan which involves customers dropping dead, changing config or simply loosing faith in Tesla and moving on with life. Did they say November this year or next?

November 2019

 

[Trickstar81]

I originally ordered a LR with 19"s in early May. Went to change order to P+ in late August due to delay and no updates but reassured that original order would be filled by September so agreed to keep it. Still no VIN by mid September so went in again to be told that advice was no longer valid and that delivery was still unknown! At the same time I received a call from my charger installer to say my OLEV grant had been declined due to lack of car. I told Tesla this and they sent a letter to the installer saying the estimated delivery was now mid-November.
After holding it together for 4.5 months, I finally lost my sh1t at this news. I have had enough of Tesla customer Service hiding behind a veil of ignorance. Their response has been to offer me a P- car. Having considered this I have taken them up on this offer as it is coming in £1500 cheaper than my current spec and I have been told I will have it by the end of the month...I'll believe it when I see it!

 

[Huggybear]

I originally ordered a LR with 19"s in early May. Went to change order to P+ in late August due to delay and no updates but reassured that original order would be filled by September so agreed to keep it. Still no VIN by mid September so went in again to be told that advice was no longer valid and that delivery was still unknown! At the same time I received a call from my charger installer to say my OLEV grant had been declined due to lack of car. I told Tesla this and they sent a letter to the installer saying the estimated delivery was now mid-November.
After holding it together for 4.5 months, I finally lost my sh1t at this news. I have had enough of Tesla customer Service hiding behind a veil of ignorance. Their response has been to offer me a P- car. Having considered this I have taken them up on this offer as it is coming in £1500 cheaper than my current spec and I have been told I will have it by the end of the month...I'll believe it when I see it!

When you say their response has been to offer a P- how did they offer you that? Did they offer this to stop you from cancelling or did they have a car ready to go for you. Also how was it £1500 cheaper. My thought is if you kick up enough of a fuss they might do/offer something rather then those who just don’t do anything. Thanks.

 

[Rooster6655]

Common issue with Tesla. They don't want to deal with customers that constantly change their orders, want to chit chat or need hand holding. Are trying to be as efficient as possible, which often means going radio silent after getting the order. Will not pop up again until all is ready for delivery. Then they will contact you to arrange financing and delivery.

Yeah think this is the case, they stopped replying to emails for me about 4-5 weeks ago and I think someone waited 6 weeks for a reply, but on the phone they can look into the email request straight away so its a bit bizarre!

 

[Trickstar81]

When you say their response has been to offer a P- how did they offer you that? Did they offer this to stop you from cancelling or did they have a car ready to go for you. Also how was it £1500 cheaper. My thought is if you kick up enough of a fuss they might do/offer something rather then those who just don’t do anything. Thanks.

Think it’s an element of right time, right place. I work round the corner from Tesla Edinburgh so I have been in fairly regularly for updates and to vent frustrations. After the most recent episode I was told there was a small number of unallocated P- cars available and given the option to switch. Worth enquiring but I can’t imagine they will be available for long. I now have a SC VIN...so promising progress!