I'm back home in Kelowna now. That was quite the experience
You know what I like best about the prospect of Tesla ownership? The intelligence and consideration level of the owners. Seriously, I've used so many forums where I would have expected responses like, "yeah cause you're an idiot" and/or simply "LOL fail!", etc. So this is refreshing. Below I'll address some comments/questions and then summarize what went down and how it wrapped up.
I assume you tried all of the available Supercharger at Hope.
I guess you must have tried others so it was probably the car.
Part of the issue could have been your inexperience in inserting the charging plug, but more likely there was an issue with the car that just hadn't been noticed
Yes, I tried all 6. After 3 I figured there was little reason to try the other 3, but I was sitting there doing not much so it made more sense than twiddling my thumbs. I concluded the same... something wrong with the car, or else I was doing something wrong but I couldn't figure out what as I imagined they would have shown me how if there was a trick to it.
Personally, I'd rate the customer service as excellent from the local Service Center.
I'll agree with that. Powell told me I could have called his cell and he would have taken care of it. I believe that. These people seem very dedicated and I would suggest Tesla has a very competent HR department with a good skill at employee selection. Perhaps the call center is outsourced or underfunded, I don't know.
I think is Hope is great.
I was frustrated. I shouldn't have taken it out with my disparaging comments on the fine town of Hope. I was under the influence from all the pot wafting in the air (I think the specific location of the chargers is a bit sketchy) and I'm biased because a *#$# of an ex-girlfriend was from there... but yeah, Hope is a great place and I shouldn't have said what I said. Ah heck, the girl was a fine girl too... at least to the other guy(s).
After you returned the car, did Tesla give you an explanation of what could have happened? I can understand that you will not be satisfied with any excuses. We are just curious to know how Tesla Vancouver handle the failed test drive (if I may call it that way).
With the charging, yes. With the customer service... he said he'd look into it and that he's never heard of somebody not being called back (more on that below).
So with the charging... after waiting and waiting for tech support, I read through the manual and determined I was doing it right. The message kept indicating I didn't have it in all the way. Being stranded and it not being my car (poor attitude, perhaps) with no help (so attitude perhaps justified)... I decided to give it a shove. Then a bit of a whack. The whack made it turn green briefly, then yellow again. That was the first time I saw green. So I gave it one more really hard shot. To give you an idea, I'm not a little old man. I'm a healthy 260 lb 6'4" 39 year old. I'm no weakling. So when I say I gave it a hard shot... I realize that's relative, but I mean it. Had I not lined it up well, I'm certain it would have dented the car or at least chipped the paint. I'm just stressing that so you realize it was abnormal. But it worked and I charged it for an unknown amount of time while I continued reading the manual and playing with the settings. It was well past midnight and my place to sleep was no longer available to me, so I drove to Squamish for the heck of it and tried those chargers too. On the first try, I gave it a stern push but not nearly as hard. It worked on that first try. I slept in the car while it charged overnight. That wasn't particularly comfortable, because this car had the (I'm told "rare") executive rear seats that don't fold down and have a big plastic console so you can't even attempt to curl up in the back. So I was front-seating it. But the climate control worked flawlessly and I was able to get a few hours sleep until some huge delivery truck scared the stuffing out of me at 6:30. I killed some time at Stanley Park before making my way, somewhat refreshed, to Tesla Vancouver where Powell greeted me and listened while I expressed my concerns. One of the first things he did was have me use the charge connector in the showroom and it was immediately obvious that what I experienced was abnormal. As you all know, it does not take much force at all. I think he had someone check out the car I was using and they said it didn't require any abnormal force (maybe they meant last time they charged it, I'm not sure), so the theory is perhaps some debris was there and I dislodged it. I can accept that.
Now, as for tech support. After calmly discussing it with Powell and going over the events in my head... and also just logically that they wouldn't enjoy a good customer service reputation if this was the norm... I have to concede that perhaps I screwed up and gave them the wrong number or, as one of you suggested, a simple mistake was made on their end. Either way, we're all human so if someone (me or them) made a mistake, so be it. It doesn't explain why I never got a human in the first 20-30 minutes before leaving my number to the call-back service, but whatever. With Powell's word that I can call him... I can accept that. Plus, I'm just not that unlucky so I think I got my lemon out of the way and it wasn't even mine
So I take back the "decision" to not buy based on this strange experience. However... the test drive other than that was not all roses. I have unexpected pluses, and I have unexpected minuses. Those go along with the pluses and minuses I knew going in. I guess I have < 24 hours now to make the call. The test drive was immensely valuable in giving me more data to work with, but I'm afraid it hasn't made my decision any easier!
Sorry for the book.
- Steven
