Banned from the Owner's Forum

[Martin]

As many of you know, Tesla Motors runs a "private" forum for Tesla owners, part of the package of services that comprise Roadster Club membership. The purpose of this forum is to allow owners to talk among themselves about their experiences with Tesla and their Roadsters. I do read this forum from time to time, but only have posted there once since my departure last November.

Responding to another post on the forum, I said that I was not happy that Tesla built VIN3 before mine, though I looked forward to getting my car anyway, and invited readers to read about the issue here at Tesla Motors Club .

The thread remained quiet on the Owner's Forum; a week later, there didn't seem to be any new discussion about my car there. But last night I logged in to see what other owners were talking about, only to discover that I was banned from the Forum!

I sent a note to Zak asking what was up, and here is his reply:

You were using the Owners Forum to siphon members to other websites, including your own, where you and others were openly disparaging Tesla Motors. This is not an appropriate use of the Forum for anyone and is the reason that you were banned.
​

The idea that simply providing a link to this site comprises "siphoning users" is crazy!

Since I no longer have access to the Forum, I would appreciate another owner cutting my comment and pasting it here for readers to judge, assuming Tesla has not also removed my lone comment from the Forum as well.

:frown:

 

[OhmExcited]

I guess the soup nazi strikes again. No soup for you!

Can you clarify the date your car was crashed?

 

[Martin]

Can you clarify the date your car was crashed?

11:00 am June 3, Southbound on US 101 in San Jose. So I am told.

 

[Chris H.]

11:00 am June 3, Southbound on US 101 in San Jose. So I am told.

So, I would imagine that there is an accident report by the CHP. Is there any way to request a copy of the report?

BTW Martin, I am sorry to hear that EM is continuing to play his infantile games with you.

All the best,

Chris H.

 

[OhmExcited]

Wow. Weird when X-CEOsWife made a sarcastic (?) remark on May 6 about Darryl making calls to ensure the car would be delivered "without a scratch." Maybe someone will make a movie out of this one day. Pirates of Silicon Valley 2.

ps -- try this, Martin: https://www.sjpd.org/555app/

 

[MDR]

Martin, I just posted your comment on the owners forum in the old "Martin Eberhard" thread in general discussions section.

Also, it does appear that your previous comment has been removed.

I’ll let you all know what happens, unless I get banned as well!:frown:

 

[OhmExcited]

MDR, can you post it here perchance?

Hi Darryl, I see you online. Welcome back. I feared that on May 7 you were signing out for good from here (per your vow). Can you maybe give us an update on the situation? What happened, and why was it going southbound in San Jose on the day it was supposedly being delivered to Martin? I'm way confused.

 

[MDR]

Darryl's response:

Dan

I removed Martin's access to the discussion part of the owner's forum after he posted a comment linking to various sites where there were threads loaded with negative stuff. I want to keep this forum a safe and positive place for discussion between our customers about common issues. The forums that he pointed to had become really nasty and there was no reason to infect this place with more of the same. It is really unfortunate that we are in this kind of situation but I would rather keep this forum clean and valuable rather than have it devolve into a endless back and forth of accusations and recriminations.

If you are interested in that type of discussion - the sites he linked to were www.teslamotorsclub.com and Martin's blog is at www.teslafounders.com.

Darryl


The links were to Tesla Morors Club and Tesla Founders Blog

 

[Chris H.]

So, I guess what Darryl is trying to say is that it was a "pre-emptive strike"... How very Orwellian of him. Thanks Big Bro!

 

[OhmExcited]

So Darryl deleted Martin's links to the other sites, because he was worried about the "negative stuff" on them, then went ahead and posted the links again himself. Righto.

 

[Martin]

I guess Darryl didn't ban himself from the Forum for that infraction either.

 

[Chris H.]

Martin,

did they at least give you a delivery date yet?

 

[Martin]

Martin,

did they at least give you a delivery date yet?

No, not yet.

 

[Cobos]

I can't understand the shortsightedness of whoever is running customer support now. The moment they start censoring the Owners forum it completely looses it's value as a place owners can discuss their cars. This means owners can only use that forum to discuss any positive aspects of the car, and frankly that has very little value. The way they are handling the case of your car Martin is just underscoring the fact that Tesla seems unwilling or unequipped to handle complaints. Genuin and well reasoned complaints. This means they are not selling a luxury experience they are selling a luxury car. Just the car (which still is marvelous) is great, anything else about how they handle paying customers is not. I find this a huge disappointment from Tesla.

Cobos

 

[WarpedOne]

So Darryl deleted Martin's links to the other sites, because he was worried about the "negative stuff" on them, then went ahead and posted the links again himself. Righto.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don't rule out malice.

I guess TM now has more than enough of both. Who killed the electric car the second time eh? Bravo Darryl. Bravo Elon.

 

[malcolm]

Just when I think that this can't possibly get any sillier....

Forums change. Threads update and the topics of the moment become yesterdays' news.

Yes there is negative stuff on this site, but it is gradually getting buried in the listings as new topics are discussed.

What is delaying this process is Tesla's continuing comedy of errors regarding the delivery of Martin's Roadster. We keep reviving these threads because this matter has not been resolved satisfactorily.

We are all fans of this car and of Tesla's engineering achievement. But Tesla's Customer Service is, at present, failing to meet the same high standards.

Is this disingenuous? Would we latch onto bad news no matter what? Some will - but others will be willing to balance Martin's unfortunate experience in the context of wider good news.

We've praised drivetrain 1.5 and the new digital PEM already. We'd love to be able to praise the Program Update. Trouble is, there are still too few Roadster owners for us to be able to make such support meaningful.

Come on Tesla, stop drawing even greater attention to Martin's plight by banning him and give us something to be positive about!

Deliver his car. Deliver more Roadsters. Improve customer service esp response to customer feedback - bad as well as good - and start exceeding the Roadster delivery timeline.

And a Whitestar update is also due about now.

 

[vfx]

DS wrote:
"If you are interested in that type of discussion - the sites he linked to were Tesla Motors Club Forum - Powered by vBulletin and Martin's blog is at Tesla Founders Blog. "

The company was set up to be open and transparent. If the new regime wants to control the message there will be some more work ahead to build bigger and more airtight walls.

Still though, Martin and all the future dissenters (and there will be more when cars are on the road) should at least be allowed to read the Owner's forum.

 

[Michael]

So, a forum is only allowed to focus on positives, eh? Well I guess 'silence is golden' sometimes. I'm really beginning to feel that TM is at the point that even if they do something positive it might be too late. I'm thiniking it may be time to request a refund, since it appears that owner's aren't allowed to voice any critisism or complaint or point to other forums that might be of benefit to other owners.

 

[meloccom]

A suggestion about Martin's broken Tesla situation

A few years ago I was 'pushed' from a position in an Insurance company after 14 years loyal service so I think I can understand Martin's anger. However I still insure most of my things with the same company because I have learnt to separate the people responsible from the aims of the company.
Martin, I hope that you learn to see it this way soon as any anger directed at Tesla is directed against what you were trying to achieve when you and Mark started the company.
At the same time Darryl, I think the issue of Martins forum membership could have been handled better, such as letting Martin know he had transgressed and giving hime notice and warning first before pulling his access.
I think you all, including Elon and Zac, need to take a long breath and think about getting together and talking about what happened so that you can all move on.
As a token of Martin's importance in the history of Tesla and an example of the quality of Tesla customer service, perhaps Elon can loan Martin his car (P1) for the period that Martin's car is being repaired.
The above requires great compromise from both 'sides' and is a good start to the healing process.
I think when they write the history books about the development of the electric car Martin, Mark, Elon, Darryl and Zac will all be in it. It would be a great shame if Tesla was damaged by this just at a time when it looks like the time has finally come for the electric car.

 

[vfx]

ELON MUSK: We expect to sell probably 2000 a year of this car, but when we go to model two, we're going to step it up to 20,000 a year. When we go to model three, it might be over 100,000 a year, so we actually expect to have eventually millions of cars on the road. It's certainly going to justify having those sales and service centers. And yes it does take a little more capital, a little more expensive. But this is something I felt very strongly about in the beginning is that we've got to ensure that there's a fantastic customer service experience, which people don't typically have with their cars.


Source:
Extended Interview: Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk | Online NewsHour | June 25, 2008 | PBS