Are DSA's incompetent or overworked?

[ba2002]

Tesla's communication was terrible 2 years ago when I got my model S. Maybe it's worse now, but the model 3 is not solely responsible for their problems.

I actually don't expect them to answer emails or follow-up when they say they will.

It's actually sorta funny - when I ordered some accessories from shop.tesla.com and they actually shipped and arrived I was like like "oh wow" - I was half expecting for them to just never come.

 

[ForeverFree]

Different experience here.

ISA for our first Model 3 last December was Patrick Setterlund. And, he settered the bar high for information, responsiveness, and follow-through.

However, Nicholas Arnold took things to a new level last month on our P3. E-mail combined with phone call to kick things off. Responded to calls and e-mails within an hour, usually within minutes. Arranged to have our delivery moved up four days from original ... just two days after VIN. Coordinated appointment with delivery center. Helped arrange “emergency” P3 test drive when vehicle arrived two months before expected ... and before I had really finalized my P vs. AWD decision.

Absolutely A+!

 

[notAnExpert]

Good idea. How do I go about finding an owner advisor in the SF store?

tesla.com has a Find Us link that shows the phone number and email address for their stores. I sent my local store (Palo Alto El Camino store) an email with some questions and asking for a test drive. The owner advisor responded promptly and I got a test drive the following day.

Although the owner advisor gave me his cell phone number, I called the store’s main number twice and they answered promptly. I also randomly walked into that store and the one in Stanford shopping center. The staff came over and tried to help without wait.

Calling the Tesla 800 number was a different experience though. I have called that number 3-4 times and each time the announced wait time was over an hour. I hung up. Plus, I filled the form for a test drive on the Tesla.com site over a month ago and nobody responded.

To summarize, in my brief interactions with Tesla so far, the local store experiences have been great, but not so with their corporate center.

 

[Ormond]

I am not positive, but I don,t think that the help is paid very well. The sales and delivery people have all changed since I ordered my Model X. The only people I recognize are the mechanics.

 

[Trevor B]

tesla.com has a Find Us link that shows the phone number and email address for their stores. I sent my local store (Palo Alto El Camino store) an email with some questions and asking for a test drive. The owner advisor responded promptly and I got a test drive the following day.

Although the owner advisor gave me his cell phone number, I called the store’s main number twice and they answered promptly. I also randomly walked into that store and the one in Stanford shopping center. The staff came over and tried to help without wait.

Calling the Tesla 800 number was a different experience though. I have called that number 3-4 times and each time the announced wait time was over an hour. I hung up. Plus, I filled the form for a test drive on the Tesla.com site over a month ago and nobody responded.

To summarize, in my brief interactions with Tesla so far, the local store experiences have been great, but not so with their corporate center.

Hmm ... I'm an existing owner (M3). Would this (owner advisor) apply only to potential buyers?

 

[Trevor B]

Different experience here.

ISA for our first Model 3 last December was Patrick Setterlund. And, he settered the bar high for information, responsiveness, and follow-through.

However, Nicholas Arnold took things to a new level last month on our P3. E-mail combined with phone call to kick things off. Responded to calls and e-mails within an hour, usually within minutes. Arranged to have our delivery moved up four days from original ... just two days after VIN. Coordinated appointment with delivery center. Helped arrange “emergency” P3 test drive when vehicle arrived two months before expected ... and before I had really finalized my P vs. AWD decision.

Absolutely A+!

That's because they are incentived to sell the Performance version with a $300 commission

 

[notAnExpert]

Hmm ... I'm an existing owner (M3). Would this (owner advisor) apply only to potential buyers?

Not sure. I get the impression that “owner advisor” is just a fancy term for sales person, sorta like how vegan leather sounds fancier than leatherette or fake leather

As a potential buyer of a Model, I’d be curious to know what your experience is if you try to contact them.

Although we have had EVs in my household for 5 years now, we have never owned a Tesla. I like what they are doing and want to buy one. But some of the forum posts regarding delivery, fit, and finish are making us pause before ordering.

Their current Model 3 customer base, if I were to go by the online forums, is quite forgiving towards Tesla for things that would bother me. I feel like I either need to be forgiving like them or just wait for things to improve before ordering one. It is certainly a nice car to drive.

 

[CTinCA]

The experience with my Delivery Services Agent has been horrible. I'm wondering if this is par for the course, or abnormal.
Issues I've experienced.
DSA does not answer phone
DSA's voicemail box is full
DSA does not respond to all emails. If you get a response, it's at least 48 hours later.
DSA offered delivery dates via phone and email but did not schedule delivery.
DSA finally scheduled delivery leaving not enough time for the car to get prepped, so delivery cancelled. No re-scheduling available yet because my DSA has not responded to my email or contacted me.

I vote incompetent.
If you can't keep your voicemail working, turn off the voicemail.
If you can't respond to emails in a timely manner you should be let go.

I agree wholeheartedly... I have not received a return call or e-mail for the past 5 days.. Delivery canceled due
to “logistical issues” and not a peep from my DSA.. Can you request to change DSAs?? I need a rescheduled
delivery date and cannot get anyone to help me..

 

[CTinCA]

Some could be incompetent, but most are all swamped. They're delivering way above capacity so they're pretty stretched to the limit. It really doesn't help though when people keep contacting them for things that take time, but they aren't things that help anybody. I know people who keep requesting for an update on their car during transit almost daily. Each time 1 person out of hundreds they are serving asks for a transit update, they gotta track down the car just to respond with "it's in transit". And we know logistics is currently a bottleneck for Tesla, so it probably takes more time than usual for them to track down a car in transit.

Now multiply that request by a factor of 100's, daily, and for each person you +1 email and +1 voice mail because leaving 1 contact method isn't enough for most people. And this is just tracking down a car in transit request lol. There's no excuse for them to be this swamped but I kinda see it as growing pain. Tesla's expanding rapidly and some parts are gonna hurt for awhile until they train enough people to cover the load.

I agree that they are busy.. but not one call or e-mail across a period of four days with the delivery canceled?? Really,
Nothing at all?? Swamped or not I cannot believe one call or e-mail, at least acknowledging they are aware of the problem is too much to ask for..

 

[GoCanes]

I agree that they are busy.. but not one call or e-mail across a period of four days with the delivery canceled?? Really,
Nothing at all?? Swamped or not I cannot believe one call or e-mail, at least acknowledging they are aware of the problem is too much to ask for..

FWIW, my daughter in San Francisco is taking delivery of her Model 3 tomorrow - it will be a "drop off" at her apartment building. They initially had a 3 for her 3 weeks ago, but she was scheduled to be out of town, so they had to find another white 3 that would be available when she got back. So far, she has had no complaints in dealing with her DS, especially with the change in schedule - but then she's been able to practice driving my X and she is familiar with the concept of "Tesla time".

It will be interesting to see how the delivery goes tomorrow!

 

[GoCanes]

True to form, my daughter’s delivery was postponed due to delays in getting the wire transfer from Alliant Credit Union. After a 3 day delay, she took delivery yesterday & is very happy with her 3.

 

[Jedi2155]

Do we know if DS handle a particular geographical region or are they handling customers across the US? I wonder how well they're balancing the work load or if some is really worse.

I have not had a great experience with mine and wondering if its relatdd to me being in SoCal.

 

[DerekS]

Mine has been fairly frustrating.

Demanding we send payment from the credit union when we didn't have an MVPA.
Demanding I go pay online when the site hadn't changed to allow me to, etc.

Now I'm in a state where all the money is paid and...radio silence.

I never thought I'd miss the dealership experience, but it's certainly easier.

 

[Dmagyar]

My take is that hoping the car doesn’t have issues because I see the beginnings of a cluster **** when it comes to service.
Our delivery included: no vin until the day before the second scheduled delivery, couldn’t locate our original $1000 reservation (from April 6 2016), outside of the car was washed, but inside all doors, trunk and trunk all surfaces were spattered with dirt guesstimated to be from the amount of time it was waiting to be delivered.
After that’s behind us, and having the car for just over two weeks, the cars great and happy to have purchased into electric vehicles.

 

[psykobunny83]

Reading posts like this always makes me so frustrated, especially when close to putting down $100k CAD on a new vehicle. I've only ever owned BMWs, with my last one being a 2016 X4 that I never even test drove as we just love BMW. Your delivery experience and purchase process is similar to staying at a Hilton or high end hotel where you're treated like royalty. Personally I don't think it's acceptable to not return customer calls or take 48+ hours to reply to emails when someone is buying such an expensive vehicle.

 

[psykobunny83]

Imagine having 100 clients to tend to at any given moment. You, the delivery advisor, are tasked to be the liaison between the factory, the service center, and the contracts department. The client, only sees you as their window of communication between all three moving pieces of the puzzle. Therefore, you get all the flack when the issue lies within one of the three other departments.

Given an 8 hour work day, trying to chase down the bottleneck for each client and then relay that information (and probably getting interrupted numerous times on the phone when trying to type out that informative email response), or trying to get a hold of a client on the phone (chances are the client is at work, and the delivery advisor only works during business hours as well), it sounds like an extremely stressful job.

I don't know if these delivery agents are measured in an SLA/some form of a metric, but I'd cut them some slack as from what I can tell, it's not as simple as tracking a package on their end. It's obvious Tesla is still fairly logistically unorganized. Sure, there are probably some bad delivery advisors in the bunch, but I'd wager that they are more overworked than incompetent.

Sorry but this is not an excuse. Tesla is a premium motor brand, not some golf cart company. I'd LOVE to use that line at work when a customer calls in complaining about how long their internet is taking to be installed "Ummm imagine having 100 other clients I need to tend to, you need to be patient and realize I have a LOT of other customers I'm helping, as in you're just a number, now take a seat." Right.

 

[frank69]

They really suck. Took mine over 48 hours to answer a question and that's after I demanded she answer. I left her a message on Thursday, but it is Saturday and never responded.