Another bad SP100D delivery experience

[number12]

Just to put my two sense. First reaction was this is fake. I mean if I'm shorting Tesla with a couple million dollars I could have someone on payroll trolling Tesla online and probably effect numbers.

Second reaction probably real, but just wanted to second Jeffs reaction.

 

[Gizmotoy]

Why is it that everyone seems to give every new poster the immediate benefit of the doubt without even questioning the truthfulness or accuracy of the post? There are some things there that are certainly plausible but a few things stand out as complete fabrications... There is no way a car was delivered with those kinds of mistakes in the software/features/what was ordered, not to mention the "corrupt software" bit...

Yeah I'm going to get called a fanboy and whatever other derogatory things one would like to use but come on people... Why do you take everything at face value without even remotely questioning it's accuracy? Do you really believe everything you read on the internet...???

Dislike away...

I mean, I get it, but we've seen countless stories, even from trusted members, of issues ordering inventory cars that weren't as described in regards to feature sets. It's been more rare lately, but it's happened enough that it's hard to discount a story based on it.

Especially since these were things OP wanted in a BTO, and Tesla found him an inventory car available sooner that could fit the bill. It's entirely possible that car didn't have the software + Ludicrous items he mentioned when it was built, and Tesla intended to add them before delivery and forgot. On a new car I agree it's relatively unheard of, but I don't think the same is true for inventory vehicles.

Software corruption is the only thing that stuck out to me as odd, but that could really mean anything. We should ask.

In general, I don't really find the need to defend Tesla. The post wasn't overly negative, and OP has responded to questions. I don't see any particular reason to doubt the story, IMO.

 

[AirKuhl]

Good question actually. For me specifically, I've been here for awhile and have read countless delivery experience threads and as such, can spot things that are outside of the norm. This account is full of them... I totally buy the paint issues unfortunately as this has been a problem since day one although even I'll admit that the depth of what the OP claims seems a bit on the extreme side... However, I can't recall a single delivery story, positive or otherwise, where the car had corrupted software or missing software features that were supposedly on the MVPA. Either the OP didn't order the car they thought they did or Tesla made a mistake that is extremely difficult to buy... The way these cars are built almost makes that impossible in that the options are uploaded to the build sheet of the car and the software is deployed according to those specifications. The handling of the software install is entirely electronic/automated so again, either the features weren't on the MVPA or....

Call me jaded if you will... I just no longer take people at face value, especially new members posting outlandishly bad delivery experiences... Consider this, if things have been this bad for so long why did the OP wait so long to vent about them...???

Something doesn't seem right here and my instincts can't let me look past that...

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Wow, your cynicism is weird and saddening.

My account is inaccurate in one small detail, I left out a few things that weren't as significant. For example, they also forgot to put the little underline under the rear model designation to indicate Ludicrous mode. I assume that was because they forgot to load that option anyway.

Some of you may recall that Tesla pulled those "standard" functions on some cars in Q4 to make pricing more attractive. I can't say why they didn't put them back on my car, I can only assume it was for the same reason they cut the factory tours in half time-wise in late December, because they were scrambling to make the quarter.

The specific software issue was missing driver profiles. The delivery guy verified that the software version was correct to enable that function, but it was clearly missing. They called another guy over and he agreed. They took the car back to another part of the tent to work on it. They couldn't get it to work or reload properly. The guy came back to me (after an hour or so) and told me that they think it may have gotten corrupted (their word) somehow and pulled an engineer from the building to reload the whole thing. The entire process to add the missing features and fix the profiles setting took them around 4 hours, so I assume it wasn't minor.

As to why I waited to post this, I just got my car back from service a few days ago, so I didn't really wait that long. I did wait to see if the guy would call me like he said he would, and he didn't. I gave him 2 more days and still no call, so I posted this. As I already wrote, sharing my experience was cathartic for me. I can't even speculate what other nefarious reason you think I might have to do so. If it offended you somehow, well, I don't know what to say, other than a quick search shows that my negative experience is not the first.

As far as calling me a liar, that's something you have to own. I don't know you so your opinion is irrelevant to me. However, I'm here in the Bay area and while I refuse to doxx anyone at Tesla that I worked with, I will offer to meet you in person, show you some of the emails and voicemails, then look you in the eye and repeat everything I said here.

 

[AirKuhl]

I mean, I get it, but we've seen countless stories, even from trusted members, of issues ordering inventory cars that weren't as described in regards to feature sets. It's been more rare lately, but it's happened enough that it's hard to discount a story based on it.

Especially since these were things OP wanted in a BTO, and Tesla found him an inventory car available sooner that could fit the bill. It's entirely possible that car didn't have the software + Ludicrous items he mentioned when it was built, and Tesla intended to add them before delivery and forgot. On a new car I agree it's relatively unheard of, but I don't think the same is true for inventory vehicles.

Software corruption is the only thing that stuck out to me as odd, but that could really mean anything. We should ask.

In general, I don't really find the need to defend Tesla. The post wasn't overly negative, and OP has responded to questions. I don't see any particular reason to doubt the story, IMO.

Thanks for the support. It's tough enough to go through all that only to be victim-shamed.

It's all good though, I'm here and I'm not going away anytime soon. If anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer. Good news is that I finally have my car back and it's a joy to drive. I look forward to any local gatherings and meeting some fellow Tesla enthusiasts.

Also, I had an AP1 loaner for 6 weeks up until a few days ago, so I'm in a pretty good position to compare the two.

 

[bonnie]

I've been called a fan girl multiple times, have read every story, etc etc - and the OP's story has the ring of truth to me. Usually the stories that fire up my cynicism are a bit overly dramatic. This one isn't.

I have every reason to believe that Tesla will make this right for you, @AirKuhl, and hopefully you'll become another satisfied customer that experiences the great customer service I've experienced.

Welcome to the forum, sorry for the rough entry.

 

[FlatSix911]

AirKuhl Sorry to hear about your delivery woes ... it will soon be a distant memory and you will be driving a great car
Are you also a Rennlist member, perchance?

I was hoping my first post here would be more positive, but so it goes. Sorry for the wall of text but it's cathartic to write it down.

Like many others, I was intrigued yet cautious about Tesla for quite a while and I assumed that with the latest facelift the Model S was finally sorted out. I went to a showroom in December where a really nice nice person helped me out, it was the best part of the experience. Since I wanted to close the deal by year-end, I settled for a built car with only 50 miles that didn't have my preferred interior trim in order to take advantage of the free supercharging offer being EOL'd. But that was my call, not a problem and I was also well aware of where AP2 was on it's learning curve.

I chose a factory delivery in Fremont, the tour was fun, so far so good. Then we walked back to the tent and the car was delivered dirty with 3 separate paint defects, a defective body seal, dented side camera housing, loose A pillar cover, corrupted software, missing Ludicrous, EAP and FSD. The paperwork was in error and quoted a higher price than was agreed to. The software issues were bad enough that they had an engineer come out of the factory to sort it out. We had to wait over 4 hours after our scheduled time to address the worst of these issues so we went to grab some dinner and got a text saying to come back. When we arrived we had to bang on the door because it was after closing and the person helping us just left, and no one knew we were coming.

When scheduling an appointment to address the due bill, I was given a date 2 weeks out and I have to take time off of work to come to the service center. I dropped the car off and got a cheap loaner car. I did ask 3 times over the next few days for a Tesla loaner if possible and was finally given one. Good thing it turns out, since I had no idea at the time I would be without my car for almost 6 weeks.

I understand the weather played a part in the paint repairs and some defective parts were ordered that had to be re-ordered. During this time I got rare and infrequent updates, usually only after initiating them and finally appearing in person a few times.

When I finally got a text that my car was ready after a month, I showed up only to find that the 2 worst paint defects which were documented both during drop off and on the original due bill from the factory, were not repaired. Due to the crazy Bay area weather at the time, it was about a 2 hour drive each way to come get the car (hwy 17) and that’s leaving at 5:30 AM to beat most of the traffic.

During most of this time, I was getting emails about a rebuild car. I didn't ask for a replacement, but I was impressed that Tesla would go above and beyond and perhaps let me spec the interior trim that I originally wanted. I enjoyed watching the progress on the MyTesla webpage. I even had a call from someone to schedule delivery. Then I got another phone call saying that Tesla has changed their minds and I will no longer receive it. It felt like it was just a cruel taunting this whole time. From an emotional point of view this is probably the worst part and I didn't even ask for it.

I finally picked up my car a few days ago and it looks OK. The service guy apologized for everything and offered me a free detail for my trouble. Oh boy, be still my foolish heart. Of course, the car was filthy and since it was still rainy no point in detailing it then anyway. I can't help but acknowledge that I paid for 2 months of owning a car I couldn't drive, not an insignificant amount as the car has every option except the third seat. But the worst of it was over 6 weeks of stress with very little communication, much of it wrong anyway. I lay awake at night several times regretting my purchase. If I see a picture of a Tesla online I get tense instead of happy. I got an email early last week from another Tesla person promising to call me last Friday to talk about this, and as you can probably predict, no one called me.

I love the technology, but I just can't support a company that treated me like this. Fantastic car if you are wiling to accept it's limitations, and I am. But the worst customer service I've ever experienced on any product, including random $100 gadgets.

 

[Pollux]

There really *are* trolls out there. I accept that now, although it took me a long time to believe it. I still can't quite comprehend actually making an EFFORT to go spread FUD, even when there are dollars at stake. I'm fairly serious about the benefits of capitalism and definitely a beneficiary of same, yet trolls are a good reminder why I don't believe in laissez-faire capitalism. Economic systems are intimately intertwined with social systems.

That said, I have not yet figured out how to readily identify a troll except by watching over a period of time. I see plenty of emotional people who heat up the space around themselves, yet I wouldn't call them trolls. I see plenty of hyper-logical and/or argumentative people, who sometimes can crush my will to live, but I wouldn't call them trolls. It's rare that I see an actual, clearly-motivated-by-money, or clearly-motivated-just-to-annoy poster, who I *would* label a troll. Maybe that's the "magic" of TMC.

Unfortunately, the strategy of identifying trolls through accusation seems to me to be a losing proposition. Far more non-trolls are annoyed and offended (e.g., OP) than actual trolls identified.

As for OP... kudos to you for offering to meet in real life. Forums and the Internet make it way too easy to dismiss people. If you're ever out in the Maryland / DC / Virginia area, please give me a shout. I'd love to buy you lunch. And have you crawl over my P100D and point out any flaws so I can sign up for a trip to my friendly Service Center, whom I adore.

Thanks,
Alan

 

[AirKuhl]

AirKuhl Sorry to hear about your delivery woes ... it will soon be a distant memory and you will be driving a great car
Are you also a Rennlist member, perchance?

Hey man, I know you! 550 Spyder pic? Now where's that damn :cheers: emoticon???

And yes, Moxxi puts a smile on my face every time I floor the rheostat. I don't blame the car for anything, hell, even the Tesla folks have been super nice if ineffective.

This place cool? Should I stick around?

 

[FlatSix911]

Hey man, I know you! 550 Spyder pic? Now where's that damn :cheers: emoticon???

And yes, Moxxi puts a smile on my face every time I floor the rheostat. I don't blame the car for anything, hell, even the Tesla folks have been super nice if ineffective.

This place cool? Should I stick around?

This is a very cool place with some interesting people ... stick around and I may find the cheers emoticon!

 

[mkspeedr]

I agree. Most of the time this is a cool place. Sorry to hear about your car. My family has up to 4 model S. The P100D delivered this month had a couple small minor issues - all fixed at time of delivery. The other 3 P85Ds have been almost flawless.

My opinion - the model S may have some issues but I really cannot imagine driving ICE cars at least on the street anymore.

 

[bhzmark]

while I refuse to doxx anyone at Tesla that I worked with,

But do report them to Tesla in some way. The person or people responsible need retraining or termination. The hardest part about growing a business is hiring good people and it appears that the hires you worked with didn't take ownership or have appropriate attention to detail.

They should probably be replaced with employees more like the ones I have worked with that have good knowledge, attitude and communication.

 

[MrAustraliaTax]

...if I'm shorting Tesla with a couple million dollars I could have someone on payroll trolling Tesla online and probably effect numbers.

If someone is short Tesla a couple million dollars then they would be smart enough to realise that a random internet troll would not have any significant effect on TSLA's price.

 

[K-MTG]

I hope someone from Tesla, possibly @JonMc will reach out to you and make things right. It's unfortunate that scenarios (like the situation you experienced) exist, I hope that Tesla learns from your experience in providing a better customer experience to prevent the notion of having the best service from further stagnating. They must have some plan to revamp the process, especially since the M3 is coming.

 

[trayloader]

Proper pictures or it didn´t happen.

 

[AirKuhl]

But do report them to Tesla in some way. The person or people responsible need retraining or termination. The hardest part about growing a business is hiring good people and it appears that the hires you worked with didn't take ownership or have appropriate attention to detail.

They should probably be replaced with employees more like the ones I have worked with that have good knowledge, attitude and communication.

If anyone from Tesla contacts me and seems sincere and able to do something with the information, my intention is to provide data on all contacts, including the wonderful sales guy at Santana Row that not only made the purchase itself a pleasure, but also tried to follow up a few times despite it not being his job. Great guy.

If someone is short Tesla a couple million dollars then they would be smart enough to realise that a random internet troll would not have any significant effect on TSLA's price.

What, you mean I have to tell Soros that our evil plan to short Tesla didn't work??? Dammit, back under the bridge for me.

Proper pictures or it didn´t happen.

Now this post I fully understand. If I actually had possession of my car more than a couple weeks I'd have better pictures, but here's my son during delivery, scheming about how to convince me to let him drive.

 

[electracity]

That was painful to read--not because of length but content! My Model S is almost a year old & I love it but I'm not sure if my next car will be a Tesla. I have had some head-scratching experiences (first-hand & reading several here) that make me think if they don't get their service, communication, parts availability & production poop together, they won't make it. I hope I am wrong since a Model X would make a great next car but they have to get this stuff fixed before they add more customers.

I hate car dealers, but it does outsource a lot of these problems. Maybe a new car company that wants to grow fast should be using fixed price dealers.

 

[jeffro01]

Hi Jeff,

Wow, your cynicism is weird and saddening.

My account is inaccurate in one small detail, I left out a few things that weren't as significant. For example, they also forgot to put the little underline under the rear model designation to indicate Ludicrous mode. I assume that was because they forgot to load that option anyway.

Some of you may recall that Tesla pulled those "standard" functions on some cars in Q4 to make pricing more attractive. I can't say why they didn't put them back on my car, I can only assume it was for the same reason they cut the factory tours in half time-wise in late December, because they were scrambling to make the quarter.

The specific software issue was missing driver profiles. The delivery guy verified that the software version was correct to enable that function, but it was clearly missing. They called another guy over and he agreed. They took the car back to another part of the tent to work on it. They couldn't get it to work or reload properly. The guy came back to me (after an hour or so) and told me that they think it may have gotten corrupted (their word) somehow and pulled an engineer from the building to reload the whole thing. The entire process to add the missing features and fix the profiles setting took them around 4 hours, so I assume it wasn't minor.

As to why I waited to post this, I just got my car back from service a few days ago, so I didn't really wait that long. I did wait to see if the guy would call me like he said he would, and he didn't. I gave him 2 more days and still no call, so I posted this. As I already wrote, sharing my experience was cathartic for me. I can't even speculate what other nefarious reason you think I might have to do so. If it offended you somehow, well, I don't know what to say, other than a quick search shows that my negative experience is not the first.

As far as calling me a liar, that's something you have to own. I don't know you so your opinion is irrelevant to me. However, I'm here in the Bay area and while I refuse to doxx anyone at Tesla that I worked with, I will offer to meet you in person, show you some of the emails and voicemails, then look you in the eye and repeat everything I said here.

While I haven't been here as long as some members have, I've been around long enough to see all manor of delivery stories from the really awesome to the really WTF... I still don't fully buy parts of your story and I was pretty clear that I, for the most part, believe you had paint issues which still shouldn't happen but Tesla seems to be the only auto maker that can't reliably paint a car... That by itself is a bit ridiculous given how many cars Tesla has now built but that's neither here or there... Hell I had a crazy scratch on my car at delivery that luckily they were able to buff out while we waited...

What stands out to me specifically is the software/missing feature(s) claim... I went back and looked and can't find a single instance where someone has reported a similar incident. I fully realize that doesn't necessarily mean much in the grand scheme as not everyone who has an issue makes a public post about it, but it still stands as odd... Usually someone immediately asks for you to post your MVPA to see about the feature stuff and we usually find it's a misunderstanding between what you thought you ordered and what you actually did order but by the way you describe it, that doesn't seem to be the issue here so this one is again, just odd... Perhaps the oddity of it is what makes your situation so believable to others, I don't know.

As for calling you a liar, yeah. I own it. You have to realize, or maybe you don't, that there are a number of people out there who try to use TMC to damage Tesla's stock price in order to cash in on their investment position. This is something that has been happening here since I joined... In the early days any negative claim of any kind was met with a skeptical furry that puts even my post to shame... Over time as the membership has grown and more cars have been delivered, things here have lightened up considerably. People such as myself, and not speaking for anyone but me, still remember those days and still take every negative claim with a giant grain of salt. I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately, I'm extremely jaded at this point so I tend to look at things through a very specific set of lenses... That doesn't make me right, but it also doesn't make me wrong either.

I commend you for offering to meet me in person to validate your story. I respectfully decline the invitation as it's a waste of your time, and mine, to validate something to someone who doesn't work for Tesla and doesn't have any ability to rectify your situation (me). However, I will simply close out my post by saying that I won't question you any further and will simply walk away from the thread unless I'm asked a specific question that needs a reply.

Jeff

 

[AirKuhl]

Thanks Jeff, I appreciate your reply and no hard feelings at all. I fight my own tendency towards cynicism every day and sometimes I fail.

Clearly your intentions are good and I hope folks recognize that mine are as well.

 

[Pollux]

I hate car dealers, but it does outsource a lot of these problems. Maybe a new car company that wants to grow fast should be using fixed price dealers.

Please, I beg you, no dealers. I fully agree with the Musk wisdom that putting your fate in the hands of the car dealers is, well, a fatal mistake. It is very hard to find a dealer/dealership that adds value; best case seems to be dealers not screwing up too badly. And they sure don't seem to want to learn anything about electric vehicles, even when their own manufacturers make them.

Dealers, taken as a whole, are value subtractors. Middlemen who no longer provide anything that can't be provided some other way. Service center operators who make most of their money from service and are terrified at the thought of cars that need LESS service. I hope the few good, decent dealers figure out how to survive. But I will not cry to see the rest vanish under the tsunami of technological, economic and social change. Good riddance to bad rubbish.(*)

Tesla leads the way not only in its products but also its business model that includes responsibility all the way into the customer's hands and then service as well. When someone like @AirKuhl has a bad experience, there is NO ONE ELSE TO POINT THE FINGER AT. It's Tesla's responsibility, pure and simple. No dealer / manufacturing finger-pointing. If @AirKuhl has a good experience with sales, credit belongs to Tesla and its motivated salesman (who I think still doesn't work on commission). If @AirKuhl has a bad experience with the delivery, then that responsibility clearly and un-confusingly lies with Tesla.

Alan

(*)I had to edit this post a few times to get down to this relaxed, devil-may-care attitude.

 

[Pollux]

And now I turn around and praise @jeffro1. Not because I believe every player in the game should get a feel-good award, either.

Skepticism is a critical component of any healthy human system, IMHO. We desperately need skeptics in all walks of life, including TMC. Sometimes I play that role in other areas of *my* life, and sometimes I don't. I sometimes wish @jeffro1 and some of the other skeptics on TMC would find other ways to express themselves, but not at the cost of eliminating the skepticism.

I thought @AirKuhl's mention of corrupted software was strange, I wondered what he meant. Under @jeffro1's questioning, @AirKuhl mentioned that his car was delivered without working driver profiles. I was done right there -- I didn't and don't understand how that's possible, but that weirdness was enough to (in my mind) lend credibility. I can easily picture a software guy screwing around with the car, trying to figure out the root cause of the problem, and finally just saying "f*ck it, I'm just gonna slam a complete new set of good bits all over every processor in the car".

Now, let's have a Kumbaya moment.

Alan