Australian Model 3 Waiting Room

[ArdieLest]

Definitely a shame, I've personally had a gutful of stealerships and after sales support from my time with a VW, was really hoping for a nice change with Tesla. I'll hold hope that they improve as the world adapts to EV, but for now, their support has been pretty *sugar*.

I am curious as to what you would like them to do better so far?
Understandably the plate scenario if you have the personalised plates however we are only talking about a half hour trip to your local governing body office. I do agree they should fix this though.

As for the wheel swaps. That’s a slightly tougher one as you’re paying the money for the car and system to get it ready.
You’re asking them to do more work for free essentially and who is going to pay their service centre to do that job? The sales department can’t as the money you paid them goes to Tesla itself.

 

[AngryLitig8r]

On the contrary however there is also the chance that the other manufacturers will adopt a Tesla like system with EVs.
Take Hyundai as an example. They use an online sales system for the Ioniq5. This of course is essentially the same as Tesla.
They don’t even have test drive vehicles at their “Blue” dealerships.

Also walking into the Tesla centre to look at and drive a car doesn’t feel like a dealership at all.
I for one also like the no haggle pricing structure and this is something I believe the entire industry will do within the next 10 years.

The issue isn’t the business model. The centralised model has now been adopted by a number of manufacturers.

The issue is the communication - which is so bad it borders on hilarious - the lack of consistency when dealing with staff (if you’re lucky enough to find one who can be bothered to respond) and the general approach which follows with being a tech company making cars as opposed to being an auto company.

I’m not saying the product is bad, or that the business model is. But the service is utterly crap - the service I get from Mercedes and used to get from Land Rover and others was/is miles in front of Tesla. I’m buying a Tesla because the product seems better developed as an EV at this stage. If more mainstream manufacturers catch up (and that may take years) Tesla may need to significantly improve service.

Or it could be a massive race to the bottom

Edit - corrected reference to refer to more traditional auto manufacturers.

 

[Kevsaccount]

I am curious as to what you would like them to do better so far?

Please, its a $140,000 order and swapping over the wheels is a very minor thing all things considered, don't make it out to be some major cost, there is plenty of overhead in my $80,000 alone to account for a wheel swap as a one-off show of goodwill. Or, you know, make the wheels available for us to configure in Aus.

Reading over the support, and there are customers in the US who got given different wheels due to stock issues, drive several thousand km, then they sent out a tech to the house of the owner and replaced with new ones when stock came in...

The plates are just ridiculous. More waste, fees and admin that aren't needed, the stamp duty not being waived or applied by Tesla directly is another flaw.

If you think it's unreasonable to expect them to be better here, then frankly, you need to lay off the cool-aid.

Tesla are doing many things right, and making amazing cars to boot, but this is an area for improvement. It's not a bad thing to be critical of a company you support, blind devotion serves nobody.

 

[Sorani]

The issue is the communication - which is so bad it borders on hilarious - the lack of consistency when dealing with staff (if you’re lucky enough to find one who can be bothered to respond) and the general approach which follows with being a tech company making cars as opposed to being a tech company.

I’m not saying the product is bad, or that the business model is. But the service is utterly crap - the service I get from Mercedes and used to get from Land Rover and others was/is miles in front of Tesla. I’m buying a Tesla because the product seems better developed as an EV at this stage. If more mainstream manufacturers catch up (and that may take years) Tesla may need to significantly improve service.

Or it could be a massive race to the bottom

Honestly they don't actually need sales staff/sales advisers at all with the demand levels they have. I think the change you'll see is to fully automated ordering process over the next few years, book a test drive online, show up at a designated area at a certain time, scan some QR codes, upload some documents and off you go for an hour. Order online or in the car at the end of the test drive.

The humans will be gone.

It is very possible that over time as they start to satisfy demand the wait time inconsistency (which is all anyone is really upset about....) will be resolved.

After that it's just service issues and post-delivery that has to be worked on. I don't blame them for not wanting to get involved doing custom things for each order. a repeatable, automated process that is rigid and only has one path is exactly how they continue to scale up production/delivery speeds, but service/post-delivery is something they will likely need to hire a new leadership team to refresh the existing service centre experience (or, lack thereof)

 

[ArdieLest]

Please, its a $140,000 order and swapping over the wheels is a very minor thing all things considered, don't make it out to be some major cost, there is plenty of overhead in my $80,000 alone to account for a wheel swap as a one-off show of goodwill. Or, you know, make the wheels available for us to configure in Aus.

Reading over the support, and there are customers in the US who got given different wheels due to stock issues, drive several thousand km, then they sent out a tech to the house of the owner and replaced with new ones when stock came in...

The plates are just ridiculous. More waste, fees and admin that aren't needed, the stamp duty not being waived or applied by Tesla directly is another flaw.

If you think it's unreasonable to expect them to be better here, then frankly, you need to lay off the cool-aid.

Tesla are doing many things right, and making amazing cars to boot, but this is an area for improvement. It's not a bad thing to be critical of a company you support, blind devotion serves nobody.

I wasn’t saying that they couldn’t improve but just more so curious as to what you wanted them to do.

I also give a reference as I work for a mainstream automaker in a dealership and deal with things like the wheel swap all the time.
In this case what would happen at our dealership is the sales department would spend the $220 of their profit on the car and pay the service department to swap the wheels over.
I can see how this wouldn’t work with Teslas model if they have the two seperate departments.

I must be having a very different experience with buying the Tesla to others as well. I can contact my SA whenever and get an answer quickly.
I was given an ETA which is still to my knowledge correct even though I don’t yet have a VIN.

 

[schnaxxl]

I am curious as to what you would like them to do better so far?
Understandably the plate scenario if you have the personalised plates however we are only talking about a half hour trip to your local governing body office. I do agree they should fix this though.

one point I made is that my current car’s dealer had no issue dealing with my number plates - one staff member’s time, Alexandria to Botany and back, a bit of a wait at the registry
I also had two trips to Botany and had to buy another set of plates to get them off my previous car
some of that will happen again
the point I didn’t make is that Tesla are charging me $115 for the plates I’m not using - non-negotiable - and won’t go to Botany

 

[AngryLitig8r]

Honestly they don't actually need sales staff/sales advisers at all with the demand levels they have. I think the change you'll see is to fully automated ordering process over the next few years, book a test drive online, show up at a designated area at a certain time, scan some QR codes, upload some documents and off you go for an hour. Order online or in the car at the end of the test drive.

The humans will be gone.

It is very possible that over time as they start to satisfy demand the wait time inconsistency (which is all anyone is really upset about....) will be resolved.

After that it's just service issues and post-delivery that has to be worked on. I don't blame them for not wanting to get involved doing custom things for each order. a repeatable, automated process that is rigid and only has one path is exactly how they continue to scale up production/delivery speeds, but service/post-delivery is something they will likely need to hire a new leadership team to refresh the existing service centre experience (or, lack thereof)

I agree that with current demand they can offer minimal to non-existent service and get away with it. The question is whether that situation will persist as other manufacturers catch up and Tesla’s early mover advantage declines.

On this thread I agree that most of the angst is about delivery times - and let’s be frank, it’d be a helluva lot worse if you tried to buy a LandCruiser or a Rav4 at the moment. But look across the forum (and others) more broadly and you’ll see lots of gripes re spare part wait times, issues getting defects/QC items repaired and support for vehicles as they age (MCU1). There are lots of complaints re communication/service more broadly.

It doesn’t mean the product isn’t great - it means the corporate culture could do with some tweaking otherwise Tesla risks losing people to competitors as they come on stream. As I said above, the service from Mercedes is light years above Tesla - I’ll never buy an EQC because it’s dog ugly and I don’t think that Mercedes has the tech nailed down based on my current PHEV - but if/when they and others get the tech right Tesla stands to lose plenty of customers.

As to getting rid of dealerships entirely, the industry would love to at the manufacturer’s level - I don’t see the general customer base accepting such a radical change now (or the dealers themselves given the litigation going on over manufacturers trying to change the dealership model already).

I may well be wrong.

 

[ArdieLest]

one point I made is that my current car’s dealer had no issue dealing with my number plates - one staff member’s time, Alexandria to Botany and back, a bit of a wait at the registry
I also had two trips to Botany and had to buy another set of plates to get them off my previous car
some of that will happen again
the point I didn’t make is that Tesla are charging me $115 for the plates I’m not using - non-negotiable - and won’t go to Botany

That is a fair point.
Is it necessary to have to go to RMS to do this in NSW? Seems a bit backwards if that’s the case.

 

[Sorani]

On this thread I agree that most of the angst is about delivery times - and let’s be frank, it’d be a helluva lot worse if you tried to buy a LandCruiser or a Rav4 at the moment. But look across the forum (and others) more broadly and you’ll see lots of gripes re spare part wait times, issues getting defects/QC items repaired and support for vehicles as they age (MCU1). There are lots of complaints re communication/service more broadly.

Indeed, and while I work in an industry (Telco) that sees radio silence on good days and the world burning down with an asteroid about to hit it on the bad days, I'm keenly aware that the people with issues are the minority - largely why I've opted to get one now, not back in 2019. Especially as for all the information that is available, MIC M3 appear to be extremely well built.

That is not to say that when things goes sideways it's not going to be a nightmare, because it is and will be. And this is why I suspect they will need a new leadership team to replace the entire service centre experience from top to bottom, the current one isn't good and is propped up by the fact that most people don't actually ever have a problem with their Teslas.

One of the things that I'm most disappointed with is that they're not expanding the SC's out fast enough in other countries as vehicle count per state grows, we will be affected by this here at an amplified level, and especially this year as I suspect we're going to see a 2 or 3x increase in total number of Teslas in country.

 

[schnaxxl]

That is a fair point.
Is it necessary to have to go to RMS to do this in NSW? Seems a bit backwards if that’s the case.

the physical plates have to be collected and swapped at some point
my last experience of this in 2019: RMS/SNSW told me I had to surrender the plates and buy new ones for the car I was selling
then they held the plates until the dealer collected them to put on my new car
I wasn’t aware of any arrangement per @Trello comment above
if I can do that it will be a bit easier, but I’m still buying plates I won’t use

 

[schnaxxl]

the physical plates have to be collected and swapped at some point
my last experience of this in 2019: RMS/SNSW told me I had to surrender the plates and buy new ones for the car I was selling
then they held the plates until the dealer collected them to put on my new car
I wasn’t aware of any arrangement per @Trello comment above #1240
if I can do that it will be a bit easier, but I’m still buying plates I won’t use

 

[sas076]

Please, its a $140,000 order and swapping over the wheels is a very minor thing all things considered, don't make it out to be some major cost, there is plenty of overhead in my $80,000 alone to account for a wheel swap as a one-off show of goodwill. Or, you know, make the wheels available for us to configure in Aus.

Reading over the support, and there are customers in the US who got given different wheels due to stock issues, drive several thousand km, then they sent out a tech to the house of the owner and replaced with new ones when stock came in...

The plates are just ridiculous. More waste, fees and admin that aren't needed, the stamp duty not being waived or applied by Tesla directly is another flaw.

If you think it's unreasonable to expect them to be better here, then frankly, you need to lay off the cool-aid.

Tesla are doing many things right, and making amazing cars to boot, but this is an area for improvement. It's not a bad thing to be critical of a company you support, blind devotion serves nobody.

I agree Tesla needs to put in more focus on pre/post sales, this is going to be critical for their success in the long run. However, IMO for providing support for situations as yours there isn’t any motivation(financial & logistics) for Tesla dealership due its business model doesn’t matter if you are buying a tesla worth 60k or 150k everything goes to the company straight away whereas ICE dealerships make commission as well as cut in the car price which essentially justifies their gesture of goodwill.
Having said that I believe Tesla should have some incentive based model for these dealers in terms of pre/after sales customer service

 

[Parramaniac]

I’m not a Tesla owner yet, but the reference to Mercedes giving great service comes because you pay for that service and handsomely. I have never walked out of Mercedes’ with a $240 service invoice. You need to add a zero. But that is the territory.

My current AMG bought new in may last year is waiting on warranty parts since Aug 21 (stuck suspension button and busted floor mat clip) due to low global avaialability.

They never follow up with me, I have to regualrly call and chase on latest update, mind you each time I follow up they have to look into it.

By the way I have no issue with MB, and if I want to keep that feeling of MB looking after me, I am going to have to keep buying their cars. After 6 years now I have little interest in their cars for the foreseeable future, and their after sales service is not really something I am going to miss as a current owner because it really hasn’t been that special. Anyway that’s just how I feel.

 

[schnaxxl]

I’m not a Tesla owner yet, but the reference to Mercedes giving great service comes because you pay for that service and handsomely. I have never walked out of Mercedes’ with a $240 service invoice. You need to add a zero. But that is the territory.

my current car is a Merc
I have fixed-price servicing, the rates for which were communicated at the time of purchase
fortunately no warranty claims
I’m leasing my car, so I’m unloading it relatively young - maybe the prices go up after the third year?
it’s also not an EV and they don’t sell one that I want

 

[Parramaniac]

I just saw this posted on Twitter. It has the orders and production numbers for Shanghai in it.

 

[Sorani]

I just saw this posted on Twitter. It has the orders and production numbers for Shanghai in it.

This appears to be missing "APAC" for the P models. Hmm....

 

[schnaxxl]

This appears to be missing "APAC" for the P models. Hmm....

LR as well?
perhaps the APAC figure is all M3 types

 

[m3rwd]

Fair point.

You won't notice the difference. The feeling you get isn't the 0-100 in 5.6s, it is the instant torque. That won't be noticeable. It is still a very fast car and I doubt you will be flooring it at every set of lights anyway during the ownership of your Model 3.

That's true. The instant response made the LR feel faster than other fast cars I've driven like GTRs and 911 turbos.

 

[moa999]

was also planning to get rid of current car beforehand, in which case it will need new plates -

One of the reasons I did a straight swap, and then sold the car later.

My understanding if wanting to sell first.
1. Do a plate exchange for new plates for personalised plates and put personalised plates on hold.
2. Sell car
3. Collect Tesla
4. Do another exchange for the personalised plates for the new plates and surrender.

I also can't see any online way to do an exchange -

Apply to exchange existing number plates between vehicles

You can exchange number plates between 2 currently registered vehicles, without changing the registered operators of the vehicles.If either set of plates being…

www.service.nsw.gov.au

 

[Parramaniac]

LR as well?
perhaps the APAC figure is all M3 types

Yeah my guess is that all APAC are lobbed together.