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Breaking customer promises
- Thread starter msvoyager
- Start date
jeffro01
Active Member
While I'm not quite ready to do a full dump of my current ongoing saga with Tesla, I can assure the OP that they are NOT alone when it comes to Tesla breaking promises to customers and then throwing their hands up and saying "sorry, but that's the policy"...
Great cars, awesome cars, transcending cars... Dishonest company. I'm so far beyond done hearing "we're super busy right now so sorry for X,Y,Z"... Like I told the ownership loyalty supervisor (which honestly is a joke, Tesla isn't remotely concerned about ownership loyalty), Tesla is making it damn difficult for me to ever want to buy another car from them.
I cannot stress enough to current/future owners, do not trust anything Tesla tells you, ever, under any circumstance because when it comes time for that to matter, they'll tuck tail and run to hide behind some "policy"...
I NEVER thought I'd say this, and for some of you here who been watching me post for years and have seen how many times I have been called a fanboy, but I really hope traditional automakers get their act together on EVs quickly so I never have to buy another Tesla again... That's honestly how I feel right now. As I said in my other thread on this (US Bank end of lease), I will not be recommending anyone I know buy a Tesla for the foreseeable future... I'm pretty sure my neighbor canceled his order after hearing my story the other day...
Jeff
Great cars, awesome cars, transcending cars... Dishonest company. I'm so far beyond done hearing "we're super busy right now so sorry for X,Y,Z"... Like I told the ownership loyalty supervisor (which honestly is a joke, Tesla isn't remotely concerned about ownership loyalty), Tesla is making it damn difficult for me to ever want to buy another car from them.
I cannot stress enough to current/future owners, do not trust anything Tesla tells you, ever, under any circumstance because when it comes time for that to matter, they'll tuck tail and run to hide behind some "policy"...
I NEVER thought I'd say this, and for some of you here who been watching me post for years and have seen how many times I have been called a fanboy, but I really hope traditional automakers get their act together on EVs quickly so I never have to buy another Tesla again... That's honestly how I feel right now. As I said in my other thread on this (US Bank end of lease), I will not be recommending anyone I know buy a Tesla for the foreseeable future... I'm pretty sure my neighbor canceled his order after hearing my story the other day...
Jeff
ACA Man
Member
Just wait another 2 years or so then Tesla will kiss your ass to get you to buy their cars.
It’s truly a shame for such a great promising company to start out and then arrogance got in the way to lead to their eventual demise.
It’s truly a shame for such a great promising company to start out and then arrogance got in the way to lead to their eventual demise.
The problem is Tesla tends to live by the motto of do what it takes to survive now, and deal with the consequences later. At least that's as favorable observation as I can give them for what they pulled with FSD.
Any time you do that you have to pay for the promise at some point or deal with the aftermath. There is this huge liability cost sitting out there due to proclaiming the cars as being capable of full-self-driving in the way Elon described. Was the hype/media excitement really worth the cost?
We don't know what the cost will be. So far the biggest cost seems the damage to Elon's credibility in the media. It's hard to tell how much of that is due the FSD promise, or other things he's done/said.
Lots of owners are likely like me where we didn't get it expecting FSD, but for the experience of moving towards FSD. So we won't say much or make much noise. Others will likely feel like they have grounds to sue. Where it will be yet another lawsuit against Tesla for a promise Tesla made. Like the promise on HP with the P85.
strider
Active Member
Agree with everything. After the string of issues with our P85 I was ready to burn Tesla to the ground. Starting with the fact that they ripped off every 85 owner (the car NEVER had 85kWh of capacity) then the string of broken promises (Wi-Fi hotspot, onboard music storage, etc), in and out of warranty replacement of numerous door handles, out of warranty screen replacement due to bubbles, culminating with a problem that prevented one of our doors from opening that took 3 ranger visits to correct (each a month apart). There are more but you get the idea.
But what am I doing? I'm buying a service loaner S100D. I will definitely get the extended warranty this time. Punch me Guido. Punch me in the face. At the end of the day I can't go back to an ICE and Tesla is the only game in town. The I-Pace and Audi's models are behind Tesla's current offerings. Still waiting to see what Porsche will do.
All that to say, I do hope that the other makers step up. That is the only way Tesla will fix this. My hope is that by the time we're ready to replace this S100D Tesla will either have shaped up or there will be other options.[/QUOTE]
Wow. I didn't realize there are several out here who feel as being treated unfairly as I feel now. Actually pretty scary to see how lacking Tesla is treating existing customers. As well known in Marketing, and a principle I follow as a project manager for commercial products: You should ALWAYS spend the most effort to keep your existing customers, instead of focusing on getting new ones. If you do just that the latter, you are going the wrong direction. With all that said, yes the Tesla is a GREAT car, the SA who helped me with my first Tesla was/is great, and I really hope management gets to their senses about this. I really think if higher management knew about this, they would recognize how unfair this is, and would immediately correct it to show they can keep their word and make it right. The problem is, I don't know a way to make higher management aware ...
strider
Active Member
I'm sure they are aware. But they have no choice but to dance to Wall Street's tune. Without a steady stream of funding from Wall Street Tesla would be dead in months. So Tesla has to put up the numbers that Wall Street cares about. And Wall Street only cares about how many cars were produced and sold, not customer retention. Wall Street also cares about cash burn rates which is why Tesla is pulling the OP's free SCing along with a myriad other things they promised to do. My Ranger told me they laid off most of their warehouse staff and the last time he checked one of the warehouses was 2,800 orders behind. They have the parts, there just aren't people to ship them out. Tesla is literally living quarter to quarter until they can get on top of M3 production. The hope is that once they get a handle on that they'll have the cash flow to bring customer service back up to the level it needs to be.
That being said, my Ranger is freaking outstanding. He goes out of his way to take care of his customers. And it seems like his mgmt gives him a long leash to do the right thing. So there are certainly bright spots...
Why would he have to “assume” at all? They said “any new S or X you buy” - full stop.
Thanks Varmint. That's exactly my point. Also, it wasn't an "offer" or an "add" or a "promotion" or... No. It was a fact. Stated in writing in my account the moment I got my car. If you would be reasoning that "no offer is forever" I could also count on it that after say 3 years, Tesla just decided to pull unlimited charging on all sold cars, because, hey, why would anyone expect that to be forever even though it was part of the car when you bought it. Because no offer is forever right? No, I don't buy that. If one cannot count on that, but should always expect that all agreements are meaningless, we create an nasty place without trust.
Tam
Well-Known Member
Tam
Well-Known Member
You can trust that if you are slow and not taking an offer quickly enough, it might change at any time.
An offer is not a contract.
An offer can change at any time until you accept it.
To accept it means you paid for it then it's locked in as a contract.
You never rejected the offer but you didn't buy new S or X to seal in the offer timely before it changed.
⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️
Village Idiot
I'm 99.9% certain this is not true.
⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️
Village Idiot
It sounds ambiguous to me. It doesn’t say forever and it doesn’t say for as long as we are offering unlimited Supercharging on new purchases. At the time all car purchases came with unlimited free Supercharging. There was no plan to ever phase it out. The plan was to always have free Supercharging. They did end up phasing it out. I guess you want to hold them liable for three vague sentences. You can also give free unlimited Supercharging to five friends you refer. Do you expect them to honor that forever too?
But on the other hand you would expect them to honor the transfer of the free Supercharging to the next owner, forever. It’s confusing. Tesla should just give you the free Supercharging on your resent purchase to make up for being so ambiguous. It would cost them very little. Tesla is being stupid on this. It’s not like you bought a cheap Model 3.
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strider
Active Member
First off, let me say that I have no position AT ALL in TSLA. I am simply a customer and have been for a very long time. But I know how this stuff works.
Months may have been a bit strong, but you tell me where they're going to get the cash to pay back the billions of dollars in bonds that are maturing soon? They will have to roll much of that debt over and because of that they have no choice but to sing from Wall Street's songbook.
Besides, the alternative is that they really are a bunch of a-holes that treat their customers like garbage. I prefer the first explanation.
This is ridiculously unacceptable. If that was the case, Tesla should've made it clear to OP that she'd have to buy the new car within a certain timeframe, beyond that, no free supercharging.
[QUOTE=" Tesla should've made it clear to OP that she'd have to buy the new car within a certain timeframe[/QUOTE]
Yes, that's what I thought and expected Tesla to do too. I just don't get it, I am really very disappointed how Tesla choose to treat me. Gives me a bad taste, and has changed how I perceive the company from now on.
Thanks for the moral support, appreciate it.
Brass Guy
Active Member
I remember that wording. I also interpreted it to mean as early supporters of the company, when one of the risks to purchasing the car was whether the company would even last another year or two (it was on my mind), they'd honor us with the gesture of continuing our unlimited supercharging if we are repeat customers. I mean, it's not huge, but that's nice. My car is a 17xxx. Sure, not a signature, but pretty early still.
Now as I read it again, with an open mind, it can also easily be interpreted to indicate "during this promotion." But that is definitely not how I interpreted it when it was the policy.
I think Elon specifically mentioned during the supercharger unveil, that supercharging is free for the life of the car. I'm hoping they at least continue to honor this, and so far they have. All our "classic" cars (and some newer) continue to transfer free unlimited supercharging.
I think that if they didn't intend for the offer to be perpetual they should have worded it differently. The sentence before it was about free supercharging, which does not expire. While reading the next sentence (future purchases) the non-expire theme is still on my mind; and neither confirmed or refuted. On my page, the following sentence stated that free supercharging would transfer to whomever I sold the car, which also does not expire. Nothing in those 3 sentences would have caused me to consider that the future purchase offer was temporary.
Well I don't think any of us has ever denied Tesla's communication issues.
Now as I read it again, with an open mind, it can also easily be interpreted to indicate "during this promotion." But that is definitely not how I interpreted it when it was the policy.
I think Elon specifically mentioned during the supercharger unveil, that supercharging is free for the life of the car. I'm hoping they at least continue to honor this, and so far they have. All our "classic" cars (and some newer) continue to transfer free unlimited supercharging.
Now here I'm a little confused, as it sounds like you read it and ignored it. If you noticed this before you ordered a new car then you should have followed up to be sure. If it was brought to your attention after you ordered, then it is unfortunate but understandable.
I think that if they didn't intend for the offer to be perpetual they should have worded it differently. The sentence before it was about free supercharging, which does not expire. While reading the next sentence (future purchases) the non-expire theme is still on my mind; and neither confirmed or refuted. On my page, the following sentence stated that free supercharging would transfer to whomever I sold the car, which also does not expire. Nothing in those 3 sentences would have caused me to consider that the future purchase offer was temporary.
Well I don't think any of us has ever denied Tesla's communication issues.
I think that there's a devil that lies in the details somewhere in the definitions of the term "promise" and the term "offer."
I think that one could take the stance that Tesla made an "offer" to msvoyager, and subsequently Tesla withdrew that offer and replaced it with another offer.
Yes, its kind of sucky to think that Tesla told him that he could buy cars from Tesla for the rest of his life, and NEVER have to pay to charge my car (at the supercharging stations), ever, and then yank it away. But hey, its business, not a giveaway.
So its time to think of it as a lost opportunity, and move on.
Just think of all the screenshots I could've taken regarding the volatile pricing of the Model 3's options. People are grumpy that they didn't strike while the iron is hot, but that's life.
I have enough problems dealing my car when it magically unplugs itself at charging stations, or range that melts away faster than an ice cube in a frying pan, or the kamikaze-esque Auto-Park feature that is determined to take out my wheel rims, or tires that act like nail magnets.
But then I look at the odometer. Over 74,000 miles. Okay, its worth it.
-- Ardie
And I kicked my habit of grabbing Cokes and Slim-Jims whenever I stopped at the gas station. Mostly.
I think that one could take the stance that Tesla made an "offer" to msvoyager, and subsequently Tesla withdrew that offer and replaced it with another offer.
Yes, its kind of sucky to think that Tesla told him that he could buy cars from Tesla for the rest of his life, and NEVER have to pay to charge my car (at the supercharging stations), ever, and then yank it away. But hey, its business, not a giveaway.
So its time to think of it as a lost opportunity, and move on.
Just think of all the screenshots I could've taken regarding the volatile pricing of the Model 3's options. People are grumpy that they didn't strike while the iron is hot, but that's life.
I have enough problems dealing my car when it magically unplugs itself at charging stations, or range that melts away faster than an ice cube in a frying pan, or the kamikaze-esque Auto-Park feature that is determined to take out my wheel rims, or tires that act like nail magnets.
But then I look at the odometer. Over 74,000 miles. Okay, its worth it.
-- Ardie
And I kicked my habit of grabbing Cokes and Slim-Jims whenever I stopped at the gas station. Mostly.
I noticed that a week or so after I had already ordered the inventory car and placed my down payment, when I was checking up on the status of the new order car. Otherwise I dont check my account page, so I dont know when exactly my account text was changed. When I checked the account page of my new car I noticed the supercharging text was missing for the new car, which made me send a note to the SA, and that is when I saw the new text with 1/31/2018 expiry date.
Which is also beyond me, why would that changed text with the added date then still even be there, when its already December 2018??
Well, its all history now, I am have changed my high opinion about Tesla as a company that keeps their word, the new car is removed from my account, order is canceled, and Tesla promised to still refund the downpayment.
I might hope that at least that promise is kept...
I really wish I had not even tried to order, and would not have experienced this. It has colored my feeling when I am driving my Tesla. I hope that wont influence the pleasure, but for sure influenced that I wont recommend to become a customer. Four people bought a Tesla thanks to me, and now it will stay at that.
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