There are people who ordered in July who are getting their cars now. (i ordered in May). The truth is that Tesla is choosing to do this. In any other business, this lack of communication and changing dates would wreck havoc on profitability. There are people who sold their ICE cars because of the delivery dates and now are waiting months for their Tesla. New York State changed its rebate from $2000 to $500 in June so that cost me $1500 hard dollars because Tesla did not honor the 2-week delivery date at order.
I know it is clearly a first world problem. I also think that Elon is taking a calculated gamble that in a few years, when the market supports multiple charging networks, that people will stand by Tesla. If Mr. musk thinks that customer service doesn’t matter, in 3 years I think he’ll be taking a beating. Make a note of it and we can talk about it here in three years. Even the President of the United States is saying that the charging infrastructure will be shored up.
Customer service is not rocket science and Elon could easily appoint a customer service czar for the car business. They know exactly what cars are being made when and where and when and how they will be delivered. They choose to not use that data to relate to their customers. Do you really think that tesla manufacturing, inventory and the supply chain is loosy-goosy? Come on.
I know of people who have multiple orders going on, some performance, some long range, because they will take delivery of the first one and cancel the other orders. That does not help Tesla at all. In any other business, changing committed dates and not communicating is near fatal. Look at spirit airlines over the last week. There’s no guarantee that airline will survive.
Online car purchasing is supposed to be less stressful when compared with buying in a dealer. I agree that ordering the MY on my phone was cool. The lack of communication from and condescension of the SAs in the Galleries, when compared with the premier treatment one gets in BMW, Audi, Merc and Lexus, is way more stressful, IMO. And studies have shown that customers who feel abused eventually vote with their pocketbooks. When there are 20 EVs to choose from and the Supercharger network doesn't much matter, the game changes.
At the end of September, I fear that Tesla will redirect East Coast orders to the west to increase deliveries for their quarter report. Again, we have no recourse.... for now!
