Anyone have issues with Tesla Customer Service despite the "friendliness" ?

[Zoglog]

This has been irking me since my delivery. My first model 3 went off smoother (probably because they had far less deliveries to deal with). I mean as smooth as taking the car in for a mismatch color bumper fix and getting it back with a huge scratch and cracked charger port can be....

I've had way more issues with my Performance model 3 from delivery onward. I'm currently waiting on some parts, but the communication over service and issues has been pretty horrendous. All the emails I've sent are unanswered or unforwarded to the proper departments.

In the whole Tesla experience it feels like they put on a thin veneer of caring, but there is no proper substance behind it. It's all muddled in a maze of horrible internal and external communication from delivery to service. Anyone else feel this way?

 

[brkaus]

Most (but not all) of the folks I have talked to sounded like they cared, but were simply slammed.

 

[Perry]

This has been irking me since my delivery. My first model 3 went off smoother (probably because they had far less deliveries to deal with). I mean as smooth as taking the car in for a mismatch color bumper fix and getting it back with a huge scratch and cracked charger port can be....

I've had way more issues with my Performance model 3 from delivery onward. I'm currently waiting on some parts, but the communication over service and issues has been pretty horrendous. All the emails I've sent are unanswered or unforwarded to the proper departments.

In the whole Tesla experience it feels like they put on a thin veneer of caring, but there is no proper substance behind it. It's all muddled in a maze of horrible internal and external communication from delivery to service. Anyone else feel this way?

Had the same experience and have the same feeling as you about customer service.

 

[glide]

Tesla customer service is easily the worst in the business.

But everyone is suuuuuper nice.

 

[Blur1895]

Your title is on point, I’ve been promised mobile service twice and one VM saying the same. I asked for help yet again a couple days ago. These were issues that existed when I received my PM3 in July.

 

[3laine]

They're all very nice, but no one seems to *really* know how everything works with delivery/license plates/service/delivery issues/etc. so you get 5 different answers and can't be sure which one is correct.

 

[viperssd]

See my thread here : Started car up yesterday to a bunch of fun errors
One rep was adamant that I shouldn't drive my car and a tow was needed, 20hrs later with nothing changed, suddenly the car is a-ok to drive and a tow would not be covered.

For my delivery, it was radio silence then suddenly "we're not offering the white interior anymore" and you need to pick what you want changed in a very short time period. Then when I finally made the change there was a sudden, congratulations, your delivery is scheduled for tomorrow in the middle of a weekday and no one responded to my repeated emails and calls saying I couldn't make that date. It only got resolved when someone from the actual delivery center called me to confirm the appointment and was then able to change it to a day we could actually make.

In every situation, each individual person seems nice and polite, but there seems to be ZERO internal communication at Tesla between employees and it makes everything seem really amateurish. TBH, I don't think this is unique to Tesla, I've called other companies about problems and had to re-explain the same thing over and over again, but I've never had to do this during the purchasing process and with something like a car, you tend to have the same salesperson all the way through the process.

 

[Perry]

Tesla customer service is easily the worst in the business.

But everyone is suuuuuper nice.

Not everyone but most are.

 

[Perry]

They're all very nice, but no one seems to *really* know how everything works with delivery/license plates/service/delivery issues/etc. so you get 5 different answers and can't be sure which one is correct.

Yea, everyone is clueless to a degree. A lot of them behave like its their first day on the job and have never worked in this field before.

 

[Casper702]

When I picked up my model 3 I brought the FOB and asked the delivery advisor to help me hook it up. The delivery advisor told me to watch YouTube to figure it out.

 

[woodisgood]

I hope they are able to focus some attention in 2019 on streamlining and improving the overall customer experience.

 

[MacGreiner]

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Had the same experience and have the same feeling as you about customer service.

Same. Nice, but not very responsive.
See Rich's latest episode for this as well.
Take a look at the following pics from my last visit. Grubby handprints on the interior and residue from some kind of tape used on the bonnet/front end. They had 2 years to prepare for the influx of model 3s. Not good enough.

 

[notAnExpert]

...
In the whole Tesla experience it feels like they put on a thin veneer of caring, but there is no proper substance behind it. It's all muddled in a maze of horrible internal and external communication from delivery to service. Anyone else feel this way?

I do. In my brief 2-month experience interacting with their sales, delivery, and support organizations for 8-9 things I needed help with, every Tesla employee has been super nice. About half of my things were resolved with the highest level of satisfaction to me. But the others needed time consuming, multiple follow ups.

I get the sense that Tesla has done a good job of hiring customer centric staff, but hasn’t installed good backend processes and systems to support the staff. I hope it gets better soon. Buyers in 2019 aren’t going to be as forgiving or patient as the earlier buyers. I have to think Tesla is aware.

 

[AmateurX]

I have had similar issues, but I thought it was the dealer in OH, but it seems it's more systemic.

I picked up my car at the end of October. At the time I noticed a paint defect, and was told that I'd be contacted to start the repair process. After 6 weeks I still hadn't been contacted and trying to track down an actual person was a chore. I went through the sales department who eventually put me in touch with the one guy who dealt with post-sales customer service. Eventually he gave me the name of a local Ferrari dealer who they've contracted to do the paint touch ups. After that it took me another month to get a hold of them to work out an actual schedule. Apparently the Ferrari dealer said they're swamped with paint repairs from Tesla. Which, to me, is rather interesting since they are only servicing the Detroit area.

Every time I get a person on the phone from Tesla, they're always courteous, but it's actually getting them on the phone that is the hard part.

 

[335eye]

Had a lot dealings with customer service recently, must have heard them say.. 'I'm not sure..' about a hundred times. Also no way to call directly to them, interfacing by email is not fun. I think a real go-getter good go far as a Tesla employee by learning all aspects of the business and helping customers promptly. Not too many of them around. But they are nice : (.

 

[AriS]

I was at whole foods new years eve and it was raining. couldnt get my adapter out of the charging port. Called customer service and they were outstanding. didnt know their was a manual way to unlock the charging port.(its in the trunk). I guess they are having some issues with these.

 

[israndy]

They had 2 years to prepare for the influx of model 3s. Not good enough.

Compared to what? Elon has said that during the height of the Production Hell they came w/i single digit weeks of closing down. This was the last bet the company release. And he has said that Support and Superchargers are the big focus now that they are in the black.

Had a lot dealings with customer service recently, must have heard them say.. 'I'm not sure..' about a hundred times. Also no way to call directly to them, interfacing by email is not fun. I think a real go-getter good go far as a Tesla employee by learning all aspects of the business and helping customers promptly. Not too many of them around. But they are nice : (.

I was at Apple during the turn-around, basically, the entire life of the Apple Stores, then retired last year. When I started they were hiring Apple FanBoiz like me and over time they straightened much of it out. A key learning at Apple was the phrase "Let's find out together" instead of IDK. Apple is a similarly difficult environment in which to support customers. Apple got huge in a short time and never had enough staff. Apple always thought the other shoe was about to drop. Until they had BIG bucks in the bank everything was shoestring. Kinda like where Tesla is.

Now Apple has a how-to Twitter account that releases great videos and tech tips all the time. A way to schedule time with a genius on every device and every medium. Stores w/i 15 minutes of 95+% of the population. Telephone, email, and chat support for quick questions is almost immediately available. Oh, and they are 100% renewable and recyclable. But it took YEARS to get there.

I suppose, very much like the early days of Apple, if you have a problem with the solution the company is providing there are other companies you can try. But I feel we are quickly getting to the "Why would you go with anyone else" period. And us early adopters have been treated VERY well, new features all the time, new experiences with the company all the time. It's a great time to be a Tesla Fanboi

...and invester. Pretty exciting. Though Tesla was only up 1% year over year yesterday, and looks like its actually down today.

 

[MacGreiner]

24 months of forenotice is more than anyone in any industry I can think of gets to plan for a set amount of demand. Raising capital is usually the response to demand. It is poor management to under plan.
If this was a sh!t box $15k car - then expectations would match. At this level of competition it is not good enough. Fan folks like us can weather the rubbish service. People coming in from the outside who are used to techs following basic best practice using gloves and seat protectors when they work on vehicles will not be used to this level of service.
That is what I am saying.

 

[Zoglog]

I'm curious if Tesla and Elon are aware of this. I sure hope they put it on as a priority to improve this year as they sell more model 3s.

 

[jchau]

This has been irking me since my delivery. My first model 3 went off smoother (probably because they had far less deliveries to deal with). I mean as smooth as taking the car in for a mismatch color bumper fix and getting it back with a huge scratch and cracked charger port can be....

I've had way more issues with my Performance model 3 from delivery onward. I'm currently waiting on some parts, but the communication over service and issues has been pretty horrendous. All the emails I've sent are unanswered or unforwarded to the proper departments.

In the whole Tesla experience it feels like they put on a thin veneer of caring, but there is no proper substance behind it. It's all muddled in a maze of horrible internal and external communication from delivery to service. Anyone else feel this way?

Many many emails go unanswered. I had a service worker txt me stating my service could be done with their mobile service, but after a few text message they stopped replying to my text. Never got serviced