Bad sales experience

[Dutchie]

After my test drive last Wednesday, we drove past the flag ship store in Vancouver today. Decided to walk in because we had some additional questions. Am I the only one who find the sales experience underwhelming?

- the person today who is a "product specialist" would have been 21 or maybe 22 years old. Here you are wanting to buy $100,000 - $150,000 car and being helped by such an inexperienced person,

- The answers to all my questions are "I think so.." There was hardly any knowledge there.

- the only question the "specialist" asked is: "So you are going to order in three months?" I mean come on. As a sales person ask questions!

- the person who gave me the test drive on Wednesday was only slightly better;

- non of the persons heard about the controversy regarding the suspension and the reaction in the Tesla blog; come on, be interested in your product and company!

- The test drives were only up-and-down the street. They cannot accommodate anything extensive. No Hihgway test driving possible. I mean, I am about to purchase a $150,000 car and they cannot accommodate that?

I love Tesla and I love the product, but Tesla really need to step up in order to compete with other high-end brands!

 

[Discoducky]

Age has relatively less to do with knowledge than understanding, explanation skills and bedside manner IMHO.

But would hope employees are generally highly knowledgeable but YMMV

 

[Dutchie]

Age has relatively less to do with knowledge than understanding, explanation skills and bedside manner IMHO.

But would hope employees are generally highly knowledgeable but YMMV

Yes, age has not much to do, however, if you experience so much inexperience than you do see the age...

 

[EV-lutioin]

Unfortunately, I have experienced the same thing with almost all of the Tesla reps.... I generally know far more about the cars then they do. (Of course I have been following Tesla before many of these guys/gals got out of elementary school!!) This has been the case with both sales and service. Perhaps this has something to do with the rapid expansion of the company??

 

[rj5620]

I purchased my Tesla at the Blue Ash store in Cincinnati. The manager was in his 30s, but other sales people were in their 20s. Most were very knowledgable about the car and one in particular (age 25) owned on (help from family). The test drive could not have been better and I was impressed at the sales person's command of the controls.

 

[AB4EJ]

My sales experience in Marietta (GA) was good; in fact, now that I think about it, better than many experiences I have had at conventional car dealers. Maybe there are no standards as to what training auto sales reps have to have. Even when buying an electric car... Nissan sales reps vary all over the map - the ones I talked to at multiple dealerships in AL knew nothing about the Leaf; but others have told me that they had a pretty good experience with their Nissan dealer.

If Tesla wants to be a world leader in this area, all they would have to do would be to develop good training material for their sales reps and require that each sales rep who is going to interact with the public pass a test to demonstrate they know enough about the car to sell it, as well as having basic customer relationship skills. That would put them above a lot of conventional car dealers right away,

 

[brucet999]

Sounds like a fault with your particular store.
Cost Mesa store had two sales guys when I bought late last year and both were very well versed in the cars in all versions from skateboard on up to P85D's. Test drives there (and at Fashion Island, Newport Beach) included a run on a nearby freeway for several miles.

 

[Krugerrand]

I'm not sure I'd classify that as a 'bad' experience, but then my definition of 'bad' may (likely?) be different than yours. Certainly the experience wasn't what you were expecting and thus a disappointment. And it's unfortunate when a customer in any market segment knows more about a product than a store associate, but you're probably in the minority in terms of product knowledgeability - as in you know a lot more about Tesla than the average customer - so a sales associate who only had average knowledge would not be helpful to you. Maybe you'd like a second job?

Is a highway ramp significant distance from the store? Or is the store so busy that they can't afford to have associates out giving long test drives?

 

[kort677]

consider all the liars, BS artists, scammers and other nonsense you get when you visit the traditional auto dealerships, a little inexperience from the tesla sales kids really isn't the worst thing.

 

[ecarfan]

The test drives were only up-and-down the street. They cannot accommodate anything extensive. No Hihgway test driving possible. I mean, I am about to purchase a $150,000 car and they cannot accommodate that?

I agree. That doesn't make sense. They should allow you to drive on an open highway, even if that means it will be an hour round trip, which sometimes it might be given the location of the Vancouver showrooms.

That said, I never had a negative sales experience when I was buying my S and I made multiple visits to two different showrooms.

 

[Jeeps17]

Like Discoducky said, YMMV.

My experience with the sales (and service) staff in Montreal has been exemplary - of course I did not deal with all of them - for all ages (generally 30 or less) lack of knowledge was never an issue.

Although like many on these forums, I can't say they taught me anything either (yet) !

Now that they are getting much busier though, I had one friend tell me that he felt his test drive was a bit rushed and he did not feel welcome, first negative comment I have heard to date.

It would be nice to have longer test drives including highways, but that is not always possible. For example, our SC is extremely close to two intersecting highways, but that area is essentially in permanent gridlock during business hours. So they do the next best thing and take drivers on quieter back roads and let them have a bit of fun.

 

[WileyTheMan]

When my 78-year-old father-in-law was shopping for cars, we went to the local Tesla dealer to see if it was something he was interested in. Again, definitely a young crowd running the place. Obviously going for the Apple Store feel and look. The guy we deal with was great. Considerate to us and knowledgeable about the product. The only thing I had to do was tell him to slow down on the info because I could see my father-in-law getting overwhelmed (the man's last car was a '92 Ford truck). But anyway, we had a good experience, as well as the follow-on visits. It just depends on the stock of people they get to work with I guess. I live in the SF bay area so tech experience is highly available.

 

[Canuck]

I think the problem is that a lot of people who are not serious about buying take them on test drives. I let them know up front that I was really serious, I went in wearing a suit and tie, and instead of the usual 15 minute test drive I went on the highway and over the bridge into West Vancouver -- but that was from the Powell Street service centre location. Still, the test drive was a long one. From Kits they should go to UBC which would give you a bit of a highway experience - and perhaps a ticket.

I agree that some of the sales people don't know a lot about the vehicles and that needs to change but I'll take that experience over all the BS and call backs you get from the traditional car salesman.

 

[Dutchie]

Thanks for all your reactions. I also send a line to North American Sales. It is not that I'm taken off by Tesla. I care too much about them. Extra training would be very helpful I think.
Yes, I have been following Tesla quite a while and I think I am quite knowledgeable. On top of that I have been in sales for more than 20 years (enterprise sales) and have had numerous sales trainings. This makes the associates a bit in a disadvantage. I might be expecting too much.
I can see that Tesla is in a predicament with the test drives. These drives do cost money and it is hard to judge whether people are serious or not.

 

[CatB]

When I test-drove (December 2012), the sales woman apologized for being new, still knew a lot and checked with co-workers whenever she wasn't sure - and once she stumped the other 2 sales people and then one of them went online to find the answer. I'll take honest unsureness over scamming or negligent misinformation. But if you're looking for polished, I can see why you might be disappointed. I was relieved not to have "slick"

 

[B8BB8B]

That's crazy! I was at the Tesla store downtown Vancouver and the guys offered us a 90D for the night!

I didn't even have to ask for it. We put probably 350kms on the car in a day and a half! lol

But again the knowledge of the car was pretty shitty - needless to say I knew a lot of stuff going into the store before hand.

 

[Dutchie]

That's crazy! I was at the Tesla store downtown Vancouver and the guys offered us a 90D for the night!

I didn't even have to ask for it. We put probably 350kms on the car in a day and a half! lol

But again the knowledge of the car was pretty shitty - needless to say I knew a lot of stuff going into the store before hand.

Wow, that is pretty awesome. So it is possible. Maybe I should ask for that.

 

[Dutchie]

When I test-drove (December 2012), the sales woman apologized for being new, still knew a lot and checked with co-workers whenever she wasn't sure - and once she stumped the other 2 sales people and then one of them went online to find the answer. I'll take honest unsureness over scamming or negligent misinformation. But if you're looking for polished, I can see why you might be disappointed. I was relieved not to have "slick"

I would not have an issue with that either. We all have to start somewhere. But hey, say so! Don't just stand there and say "I guess so.." It all is a matter of training"

 

[Xenoilphobe]

Here is Virginia the folks at Tysons are amazing. They know everything about these cars and really go out of their way to please the customer. I have never experienced any issues with the sales team. Ever. Also don't underestimate a 20-something. They could probably show you things about your phone/car/tech that you didn't even know it could do....my kids amaze me everyday and they are only teenagers..

I would rather have an junior sales associate than some slimy dealer rep telling me stuff that isn't even true.

 

[ModelX]

SLC team is great!