jkirkwood001
Active Member
Well, I received that promised call back in short order. From Las Vegas area. It was an unsatisfying "customer service" experiences (except for the fact that the promised call came quickly).
I am not at all convinced that the "corporate sales" guy who called me back to clear things up had any more knowledge than I did. In fact, it is pretty clear that he had much less.
1. After the initial CS person made clear to me that something was amiss with my order, this guy said that my order was fine and perfectly on track, and that it always takes at 6-8 weeks from order to having VIN assigned. (For those who are keeping score at home, I'm at seven weeks and two days, so right there in the pocket of "don't worry about it"). Yet... how does this account for the many owners who have already taken delivery of their identically-configured cars... and who ordered after I did?).
2. He went on and on with his demonstration of inside knowledge (telling me that the cars are painted in batches, and even the wheel type is batched, that delivery location plays into it etc... all stuff I'm aware of). He spent zero time answering any of my (few and concise, and pleasantly asked) questions. Did I mention that he went on and on with info that I wasn't asking for? He did. And on. Seemed to have nothing else to do with his time, and also made it seem that I was calling to hear about how Tesla batches the cars.
3. After standing in line to reserve, then configuring and confirming my cash purchase of AWD as soon as possible (and I might add without Tesla every notifying me that AWD was available for me to order) my main question was: How is it that cars configured to my exact specification have already been delivered to people who live in my town... and to many others who live on the other side of the country? In many cases, they reserved AND ordered after I did. These folks weren't just assigned a VIN (though now it seems that many, many more have also been assigned a VIN who have ordered after me), these cars have been actually delivered. In response, he repeated item #2 above. And here's the whopper: He went on to say that probably some of those new owners had ordered the "basic configuration" of the car, and that those "basic configurations" were shipping before the ones with all the options.
At that point it was clearly just a waste of my time to explain that the only more basic configuration that is currently available for my car would be black paint instead of blue, and no EAP. Unless he meant RWD? Nah... he actually mentioned interior choice and battery size. He kept talking about all the "options" and I was half expecting him to say that the automatic transmission took longer to make than the manual trans. Of course we're talking about AWD cars with the SAME configuration as mine. And AWD is a different order than RWD. So I held my tongue. He went on to impress upon me that my car is being built just for me, to my exact specifications, so this isn't like choosing a car off the lot the way we used to do it. I had no indication that was was familiar with what a Model 3 even was. He kept referring to "Teslas" as a generic car.
He then cautioned me against changing anything in my order (after having told him that I haven't been allowed to change anything in six weeks!). He said if I changed anything, I would go clear back to the "end of the line."
In the end he said that the *reasons* he knows that everything is fine with my order are:
1. It hasn't been eight weeks yet, so hearing about my order is expected and normal.
2. My delivery window of Sept-Nov hasn't even opened yet, so it would be silly to expect the car before that.
Yeah. So I was cheery and pleasant. Thanked him for making the call, and assuring me that all was fine with my order. Just because I sound all bitchy in this post, please don't assume that I was a butt-head on the call. I wasn't.
But man. 100% unsatisfying. Wouldn't it be great if somebody could tell me "if you just changed to white, and took delivery at Rocklin, we could assign you a VIN right now!" Or I don't know... told me ANYTHING about my order made almost two months ago?
You sound about my exact same standard level of patience and tolerance. I would also have had smoke coming out my ears - cue the Looney Tunes GIF - so I sympathize with you. Hoping you get one soon, @EVnut!
