1st Tesla - Shocked at process

[artsci]

My service center, Owings Mills Maryland, has always been great and treated me with great respect. They are always responsive and do a very reliable job whenever there are problems, which are few and far between. In fact, my Model S P85 (bought in early 2013) and Model 3 dual motor performance have required very few repairs (the Model 3 none) (the Model S a drive train replacement). So bad experiences with Tesla have not been among mine.

 

[Durzel]

So I ordered a Model S last October. My SA assured me there was not going to be any "refresh" coming. (First mistake was trusting him.) Forward to December and the Tesla Factory had just shut down. I was concerned hearing about suspension issues in China and also that a refresh could be coming. I was called by delivery department and wanted to ask some questions. Mind you I had already been waiting two months for an $80K car. The delivery department basically said we don't know. Take it or leave it. This was my first experience with Tesla. I have been driving the Lexus brand for 20 years, and drive a less expensive car, and have had a far better experience with the process. Needless to say I didn't take delivery. Then there was the period of darkness where nobody knew anything. I had to pull my current car off the market for sale. Then the refresh news. Ok fine. Glad I waited and didn't buy an outdated car. But then I am told that I will have to pay the new price (when my SA said that you are locked in on pricing no matter what happens) with a measly $2K discount. Fine. I will let it go, although now I am getting really ticked off. Then as I start to question everything this SA told me (including Tesla gives out loaner cars during service in LA - wrong again), I am really disappointed this is the level of customer care they offer. Moving forward my account was changed from Feb 15th- March 15th delivery date to "we will reach out to you". Absolutely no time frame while others who ordered AFTER the refresh was announced have dates or at least the month of March.
Now I finally get a new order agreement in, and it is wrong. No discounts. No delivery date. Also being told I will not even be able to test drive the car because I will likely have it before showrooms have test vehicles. How does someone now buy a $90k car with a whole new steering system and no stalks without a test drive? And if I delay delivery, I will likely go to the back of the line again and have to wait months. I reach out to a new SA who doesn't respond back. I mean this is absolutely shockingly bad customer service. I might understand for a Model 3, but for a Model S or X they need better customer care. Not impressed with Tesla thus far. At some point this is going to catch up with Tesla as more EV brands hit the road and other options are available.

With the greatest of respect, there is a lot to unpack there and I think in some of this you are perhaps the architect of your own stresses?

Test drives of the refresh car. Service Centres either have them, or they don't. What do you suppose they do to try and facilitate a test drive when they don't have a car for you to use? You can blame those processes, but them saying you'll likely have it before the showrooms (SC) do sounds to me like refreshing honesty to me, particularly as its a car that no one has yet.

So you're given the option to have to wait for a test drive, as it's clearly important to you, and this means having to wait longer to get an actual car because other customers are buying them sight unseen. Again, what do you expect? You can't have it both ways. You're participating in a market and if there are other customers willing to buy the car on a press release, as obviously there is (and this is not particularly remarkable - I should add - look at Porsche GTs, etc), then why should Tesla deny a paying customer their car just so you can test drive one and maybe buy it?

Also "already been waiting two months for an $80K car"? A whole two months?! Here in the UK we're not going to see the refresh S/X until 2022. Again, it is not atypical for other manufacturers to offer cars with long lead times. Taycan wait times are (were) at least 6 months, with Ferrari you could be waiting a year or more to get your car.

At the end of the day you're putting down $100 on this $90k car. That is a LOT less than the deposits required for build slots for other cars. I think maybe you need to recalibrate your expectations of buying a pretty exclusive car, to be honest (Tesla may strive for volume but they still have far more keen buyers than they do cars to sell to them)

 

[Tigers]

With the greatest of respect, there is a lot to unpack there and I think in some of this you are perhaps the architect of your own stresses?

Test drives of the refresh car. Service Centres either have them, or they don't. What do you suppose they do to try and facilitate a test drive when they don't have a car for you to use? You can blame those processes, but them saying you'll likely have it before the showrooms (SC) do sounds to me like refreshing honesty to me, particularly as its a car that no one has yet.

So you're given the option to have to wait for a test drive, as it's clearly important to you, and this means having to wait longer to get an actual car because other customers are buying them sight unseen. Again, what do you expect? You can't have it both ways. You're participating in a market and if there are other customers willing to buy the car on a press release, as obviously there is (and this is not particularly remarkable - I should add - look at Porsche GTs, etc), then why should Tesla deny a paying customer their car just so you can test drive one and maybe buy it?

Also "already been waiting two months for an $80K car"? A whole two months?! Here in the UK we're not going to see the refresh S/X until 2022. Again, it is not atypical for other manufacturers to offer cars with long lead times. Taycan wait times are (were) at least 6 months, with Ferrari you could be waiting a year or more to get your car.

At the end of the day you're putting down $100 on this $90k car. That is a LOT less than the deposits required for build slots for other cars. I think maybe you need to recalibrate your expectations of buying a pretty exclusive car, to be honest (Tesla may strive for volume but they still have far more keen buyers than they do cars to sell to them)

See, the problem is though, manufacturers often give updates on timing. If anything pops up, I'm quite confident they would give me a call and let me know. See Ford Mustang Mach E.

For Tesla, we are already 2 weeks beyond (at a minimum) what Elon said was the initial delivery dates. And even with that, no one, not anyone at Tesla, not Elon, has bothered to give us any update whatsoever. Is it delayed? Have they started ramping production? Is it more likely to be Q2? No idea. None. This can be fixed with one simple tweet or one simple email to reservation holders:

"Model S reservation holders:

Thank you so much for your patience, as we fine tune our production process for these new exciting cars! Right now, we are making some final adjustments and your SAs will be reaching out within the next two weeks regarding your specific VIN."

Nope, we get dead silence AFTER a missed timeline.

 

[Durzel]

I don't disagree that it is not commensurate with the prices being charged, but it's also not particularly surprising either - unless, I guess, you are totally new to Tesla. This is their "disruptive" way of doing business.

Unfortunately "disruptive" can often mean annoying, inconvenient and/or frustrating to people who just want to be given straight, consistent answers.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

Sorry, but there is effectively NO HANDHOLDING with Tesla. You have to be a Big Boy or Big Girl to own one.

If you want to test drive a new Model S, you'll just have to wait. Period. They don't really even exist yet. Get over it--either buy the car, or simply defer your order until you have a chance to drive one. It's not the end of the world, but I'll probably wait to test drive one too; we'll see. This Model S will be our 10th, but this is a big change compared to the 2013 thru 2020's we've owned.

As for the general lack of answers, and/or wrong answers, well, it's par for the course.

It's generally an outstanding product, assuming they'll build yours correctly. If not, for many issues there IS mobile service, something far, far better than anything Lexus, BMW or MBZ have ever offered . . . .

The best part is that buying one helps leave a usable planet for others. I don't think any other brand can claim that as their EV sales just allow them more credits to sell carbon-dumping ICE garbage.

 

[brunla]

With the greatest of respect, there is a lot to unpack there and I think in some of this you are perhaps the architect of your own stresses?

Test drives of the refresh car. Service Centres either have them, or they don't. What do you suppose they do to try and facilitate a test drive when they don't have a car for you to use? You can blame those processes, but them saying you'll likely have it before the showrooms (SC) do sounds to me like refreshing honesty to me, particularly as its a car that no one has yet.

So you're given the option to have to wait for a test drive, as it's clearly important to you, and this means having to wait longer to get an actual car because other customers are buying them sight unseen. Again, what do you expect? You can't have it both ways. You're participating in a market and if there are other customers willing to buy the car on a press release, as obviously there is (and this is not particularly remarkable - I should add - look at Porsche GTs, etc), then why should Tesla deny a paying customer their car just so you can test drive one and maybe buy it?

Also "already been waiting two months for an $80K car"? A whole two months?! Here in the UK we're not going to see the refresh S/X until 2022. Again, it is not atypical for other manufacturers to offer cars with long lead times. Taycan wait times are (were) at least 6 months, with Ferrari you could be waiting a year or more to get your car.

At the end of the day you're putting down $100 on this $90k car. That is a LOT less than the deposits required for build slots for other cars. I think maybe you need to recalibrate your expectations of buying a pretty exclusive car, to be honest (Tesla may strive for volume but they still have far more keen buyers than they do cars to sell to them)

I've been waiting for my car since OCTOBER. Now 5 and a half months. Don't cherry pick what you need to make it fit your narrative. And when you are told you are getting your car on a certain date and they push it and push it, and quite frankly treat you like dirt when you are now buying a $92k car, I'm sorry that's not right. The reason they get away with this stuff is people like you who excuse it. Common courtesy emails and dialogue could have helped. People should do EXACTLY what I'm doing and call them out. EV choices will be plentiful in the next few years and they need to get their act together when it comes to customer service. At least in the Los Angeles area.

 

[Durzel]

I've been waiting for my car since OCTOBER. Now 5 and a half months. Don't cherry pick what you need to make it fit your narrative. And when you are told you are getting your car on a certain date and they push it and push it, and quite frankly treat you like dirt when you are now buying a $92k car, I'm sorry that's not right. The reason they get away with this stuff is people like you who excuse it. Common courtesy emails and dialogue could have helped. People should do EXACTLY what I'm doing and call them out. EV choices will be plentiful in the next few years and they need to get their act together when it comes to customer service. At least in the Los Angeles area.

My understanding of your story (correct me if I'm wrong) is this:

- You ordered in October 2020, were contacted in December with a view to take delivery. You had a few questions that weren't answered, so you abandoned (?) it ("Needless to say I didn't take delivery"). How did they "push it and push it" if you rejected delivery?

- At that point it's unclear what happened. You said there was a "period of darkness where nobody knew anything". I don't know whether you were waiting for Tesla to call you to answer your questions, whether you followed it up, or what. From my limited knowledge of Tesla it seems to be the case that if you refuse delivery of a specific vehicle then it gets allocated to someone else and the onus is basically on you to let them know when you will take delivery (assuming they have something available then)

- Later the refresh was announced, and you were offered $2k off (this is what everyone was offered). I would say that it was definitely wrong of the sales assistant to promise that it would be "locked in on pricing no matter what happens" when it wasn't even known at that point definitively that there was a refresh coming, what form it would take, or what the price delta would be. All anyone knew for sure was that manufacturing was shut down for a period of time. I can't second guess the exact context of that conversation with the sales assistant.

- After that it seemed that you had more questions and wanted a test drive of the refresh, presumably before you'd consider ordering, and they told you why that wouldn't be feasible when they don't have a car for you to use. In an ideal world Tesla would have cars for people to test drive, but as said before clearly they have enough people buying sight unseen, who aren't asking questions and aren't demanding test drives, who are just happy to order. I'm sorry to say that if you're skittish about buying the refresh car, then you're naturally going to end up queueing behind customers who are willing to buy the car sight unseen.

I'm not going to say that Tesla is perfect at customer service, far from it, but as said I think you have to consider that as a customer you're "competing" with everyone else who wants the new car. Demand will be exceptionally high. If Tesla are selling these cars hand over fist to people who are buying them sight unseen, which clearly seems to be the case, then for everyone person wanting to question this and that, get test drives, etc they have 10 customers who are willing to pull the trigger without any of that.

Whether or not that is objectively bad customer service or not depends on your perspective. There will be people who have paid in full for the refresh car, as soon as it was possible to do so, who are just waiting for a delivery date (or have one already), who don't care about questions or test drives. Those people are probably perfectly happy about their purchasing experience.

 

[SO16]

A Tesla S/X is often like a special order for other products. If you order, then turn it down, then try to get one during a model update, there’s going to be some issues.

Communication could certainly be improved. But after ordering my Model S, I found the simplest thing to do was order and just wait. It then showed up like it was supposed to.

 

[trm2]

Tesla should really put a notice on their order page.

Estimated delivery x to x + 3 weeks*.

*Time doesn’t really mean anything to Tesla. Think of it this way, a year on Mars is 687 Earth Days.

 

[Tigers]

I swear, if the Rivian R1T with a 400 mile pack was coming out in June, I'd just wait for that. I am losing it.

 

[captanzuelo]

I swear, if the Rivian R1T with a 400 mile pack was coming out in June, I'd just wait for that. I am losing it.

But its not, so we will all continue to moan and groan. And then go crawling back to Tesla.

I ordered my Y sight unseen, when the Fremont factory had just re-opened amidst the Pandemic. Granted, there was a 7 day return policy when I had bought mine. Even still, when I got on the freeway to drive home and felt that Tesla rush of acceleration, I was in love with the car. Buying and owning a Tesla is unlike any other new car purchase experience. You just can't compare it as such.

 

[elguapo]

I’m lucky too. My service center is awesome. Always has been. Dedham, MA.

Agree. My Service Center has been really great and I don’t have any horror stories there. Tesla is far ahead of others with range, so it’s not just products we need, they need to match range. Porsche and Audi are examples of nice cars, poor range for the $. Also, my Audi service was the worst I’ve ever had.

 

[elguapo]

I swear, if the Rivian R1T with a 400 mile pack was coming out in June, I'd just wait for that. I am losing it.

I hear you, but the Rivian is vapor ware still just like Lucid. And think how long it took Tesla to work out the (still exist at) kinks...

 

[hcdavis3]

I hear you, but the Rivian is vapor ware still just like Lucid. And think how long it took Tesla to work out the (still exist at) kinks...

High hopes for Lucid. Ain’t happening.

 

[Tigers]

I hear you, but the Rivian is vapor ware still just like Lucid. And think how long it took Tesla to work out the (still exist at) kinks...

Agreed. Both Rivian and Lucid also delayed their cars quite significantly (Rivian moreso). Rivian blamed the pandemic, but even in March last year it was pretty obvious that they weren't on track.

Not to mention, the Electrify America network isn't as good as the Tesla Superchargers and god knows what Rivian is even going to do. Build out an "adventure" network? Cool, bro. I guess I can charge once every 5 years I go to the Grand Canyon.

But, right now, the Model S refresh is vaporware. Plaid+ is def vaporware.

 

[aerodyne]

Tesla should really put a notice on their order page.

Estimated delivery x to x + 3 weeks*.

*Time doesn’t really mean anything to Tesla. Think of it this way, a year on Mars is 687 Earth Days.

Finally! A possible metric to calibrate Elon Time!

 

[Sbaimo]

I ordered 1st Tesla in December not knowing how the company works. Worst car buying experience ever. Hope it is worth the wait. SA says 4 more weeks but they don’t really know from what I gather.

 

[SO16]

I ordered 1st Tesla in December not knowing how the company works. Worst car buying experience ever. Hope it is worth the wait. SA says 4 more weeks but they don’t really know from what I gather.

Unfortunately a bad time to order with the refresh happening and all. I suspect in a few months, it should be back to a reasonable process.

 

[Iain]

not dealing with a dealer is a massive plus for me. Like many have said you are waiting for the latest and greatest and as of now it hasn’t been released. My SA wasn’t the greatest communicator and I had to take care of a few things on my own, but in the end they delivered me a perfect car. One thing I’ve noticed on this board is misery loves company. I’m just an individual owner, but so far I’ve had exactly zero issues in a year of ownership, except my car has continual got better since I bought it. I have full FSD and love being along for the ride. I don’t bitch and moan about what Elon has said in a tweet, I just love the car and this is the first time I can honestly say that about any car I’ve ever owned ( I’m 58 and owned my fair share)....but since everyone is upset I’ll join in to let you know my FSD 8.2 beta hasn’t shown up yet even though I keep checking.

 

[Electric700]

My service center, Owings Mills Maryland, has always been great and treated me with great respect. They are always responsive and do a very reliable job whenever there are problems, which are few and far between. In fact, my Model S P85 (bought in early 2013) and Model 3 dual motor performance have required very few repairs (the Model 3 none) (the Model S a drive train replacement). So bad experiences with Tesla have not been among mine.

For me too, in Florida. These positive experiences should be the standard at every Tesla location.