I can’t imagine how many customers Apple Corporation has (sold over 1 BILLION iPhones) but whenever you call Applel’s customer support you talk to someone on the phone.... I can’t even get a Tesla Delivery Adviser to call or email me back about making my $60k payment. Guess it’s a learning curve that will be worked out.
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Apple vs Tesla
- Thread starter BobAbooey
- Start date
I can’t imagine how many customers Apple Corporation has (sold over 1 BILLION iPhones) but whenever you call Applel’s customer support you talk to someone on the phone.... I can’t even get a Tesla Delivery Adviser to call or email me back about making my $60k payment. Guess it’s a learning curve that will be worked out.
Sure Tesla is still going through some growing pains. They’re going to have to hire a lot more staff to keep up with the increasing Model 3 deliveries. I’m not sure it’s a fair comparison to pit Tesla against the one of the most valuable and profitable companies on the planet though. Comparing them to another car company would make more sense.
Agree that it isn’t fair to compare the situation now, as Tesla is struggling to ramp up, but think it is fair in the long term as Tesla does seem to have a lot of similarity to the Apple approach.
- redfined the product space with new technology
- solid hardware platform with redefineable features via software
- reliance on software based UI rather than physical keys and switches
- over the air updates, so product gets better over time
- pretty opaque on future plans
- often late to deliver new features
- went primarily to a direct sales model
- have innovated in materials and production processes as well as products
- providing premium products in their market space
One thing that I think really helped Apple support is the genius bar. If you really had problems, you had a place to go to get it worked out. I could send my parents there, and it was much better for them than the telephone support. Elon just announced growing the service network, so maybe Tesla is trying to follow that model. The ability to do some disgnosis over the air and the in the field service trucks also help the service experience, but they have to be staffed to appropriate levels and sufficent parts need to be in the field to fix problems. Like the iPhone, I think that Tesla will generally have the hardware issues under control. My bigger concern is the software side. They have a lot of opportunity to make that a strength of the car, but right now it has weak points. Autopilot is behind schedule, the media player is weak. Navigation is still lacking features like multipoint routing. Over the air updates roll out slowly and seem to be a little buggy (i.e. several rapid point releases before done). Time is spent on easter eggs, which are fun but not important. Elon promises features before they are done, so they get deployed before they are really solid.
The “Apple Death Watch” was a running thing for YEARS. Article after article was published explaining how Apple was doomed, certain to be crushed by more established competitors. Steve Balmer actually laughed when asked about the iPhone and expressed confidence in their Windows Mobile OS, which then ran on many millions of phones.
So, there are definitely some parallels. (Especially in the the two company’s enthusiasm for vertical integration and minimalist aesthetics.) But no guarantee, of course, of the same happy ending. Still, hoping for the best!
So, there are definitely some parallels. (Especially in the the two company’s enthusiasm for vertical integration and minimalist aesthetics.) But no guarantee, of course, of the same happy ending. Still, hoping for the best!
JeffK
Well-Known Member
I had a great experience with my sales advisor until she ghosted me...
The delivery advisors are not representative of Tesla service as a whole. My local service center treated me far better and after my sales advisor stopped responding, someone at my SC was able to pick up where she had left off to help me through the rest of the delivery process.
If Tesla had hundreds of millions of customers who were willing to pay 50% margin on a car manufactured in China, Tesla would have great customer service as well.
akidesir
Member
When i have called or gone to Eden Prairie for service it has been great.
When I needed a 12volt replacement mobile repair, it took weeks of calling Chicago and then eventually asking someone at Eden Prairie to escalate.
In my experience locations can individually be good or bad, off site call centers bad and CPO specialist is only helpful if you are ready to blindly hand over a CC number.
When I needed a 12volt replacement mobile repair, it took weeks of calling Chicago and then eventually asking someone at Eden Prairie to escalate.
In my experience locations can individually be good or bad, off site call centers bad and CPO specialist is only helpful if you are ready to blindly hand over a CC number.
FWIW, I've had great luck just stopping by my SC (Denver) They have always made someone available and even stopped what they were doing to fix a couple small things for me without an appointment. I know someone else posted here as well a few weeks back telling folks who were frustrated to just drive to the SC and ask for help. I had a terrible experience leading up to delivery but from the moment I stepped foot on the lot until now, the back-end support has been fantastic. I know not everyone is lucky enough to have a SC close by but wanted to throw it out there. Wish I would have driven over there a day or two before my delivery to ease my worries.
Hang in there. I didn't hear anything from my delivery specialist until late afternoon before I was to take delivery at 10 a.m. the next morning. I too was getting a little miffed about throwing 60k at a company that couldn't even provide basic communication. I was so nervous heading over the following morning that I was sure something was going to go wrong and the car wasn't there, wasn't ready etc after hearing all the horror stories. Everything was perfect including the car. In and out in 20 minutes. Never been more blown away in my life. Zero issues after 1 month and 1k miles. lt will all be worth it when Tesla does grow up like Apple did and we can all say I told you so!
Hang in there. I didn't hear anything from my delivery specialist until late afternoon before I was to take delivery at 10 a.m. the next morning. I too was getting a little miffed about throwing 60k at a company that couldn't even provide basic communication. I was so nervous heading over the following morning that I was sure something was going to go wrong and the car wasn't there, wasn't ready etc after hearing all the horror stories. Everything was perfect including the car. In and out in 20 minutes. Never been more blown away in my life. Zero issues after 1 month and 1k miles. lt will all be worth it when Tesla does grow up like Apple did and we can all say I told you so!
It's easy to look at Apple now totally ignoring they've gone through years of bad phone service (they used to outsource support to India), faced over 60 lawsuits over the iphone battery throttling scandal, reported sweatshop conditions in their China factories, discharged toxic waste from their China factories, poisoned their workers, etc etc.
The road to the richest tech company wasn't all green and pretty, and this is coming from a long time Apple user.
The road to the richest tech company wasn't all green and pretty, and this is coming from a long time Apple user.
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