Am I the only one that seems to keep having delivery problems. I ordered my Model 3 SR Plus in early March and Tesla demanded that I take delivery of the car by the end of the month even though I was Out of State at the time (I did offer to pay for the car and take delivery April 4 when I was back but they wouldn't do it. Then they gave me a May date and that's changed from early May to late May to possibly mid-June. This has got to be worse experience I've ever had trying to buy a car. They won't last once there's competition if this continues.
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delivery time [out of town for Q1 delivery date, now delivery is end of Q2]
- Thread starter MEWDLW
- Start date
The only thing I am experiencing with my delivery is the time frame constantly changing, but I hear that is the norm.
Communication on the other hand.. is horrible. This is the first time I have ever ordered a car online and no one answers their phones, respond to emails/text messages, and calls people back. At least in my experience.
Communication on the other hand.. is horrible. This is the first time I have ever ordered a car online and no one answers their phones, respond to emails/text messages, and calls people back. At least in my experience.
Tesla does not communicate well, so if that is an expectation, you might want to re evaluate and swap to one of those other cars you said you were considering.
What happened is, you ordered in the last month of the quarter (when all US deliveries happen, basically) and were unavailable to take delivery, so got put back in line when you were available. You can expect to get delivery the last month of Q2 for the most part (sometime in June).
I think anyone considering a Tesla must understand that the supply is MUCH lower than demand. So it incentivizes Tesla to not bother with the buying experience at all. They can choose who buys from them. This is probably great for the SC employees as it probably weeds out the worst/most difficult to work with customers. They have other higher priorities to focus on when demand is infinite.
The order contract to sign to when making your 100$ deposit is crystal clear on that being how deliveries happen. I think that's the third thread I mention that: it still amaze me to the extent to which people don't read the contracts and terms they agree to when buying a product.
The order contract to sign to when making your 100$ deposit is crystal clear on that being how deliveries happen. I think that's the third thread I mention that: it still amaze me to the extent to which people don't read the contracts and terms they agree to when buying a product.
I agree with you for the most part, except for the "weeding out the most difficult customers" part.
Story time (lol)
I am not relating this to the OP in any way. I am just relating a story based on the "difficult customers" that I thought was interesting
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I have been using the same BMW service advisor for 12+ years. I have been leasing BMWs for about 18 years, in 3 year lease cycles, so there are usually not very many problems with them, but they do need at least yearly oil changes, etc. I also buy my tires etc from him etc. Over time, he and I have become quite friendly. He always makes sure my wife and I have the newest loaner car (usually something brand new with less than 200 miles on it).
(there is a point to this story, I promise)
Anyway, over the years we have had some interesting discussions. One of them was around who his "most demanding, difficult customers are" at the BMW service department, and they are not the people with the 100+K 7 series sedans, or the people with the M5s M6.
They are the people with the BMW 320 / 328, with almost no options on it. Those are the people who "demand the world" because they usually say stuff like "I cant believe XXXX with this 40k 50k car!!!!!"
Our discussion around that usually centers around the fact that, for many of those people, a 2 year old stripper BMW 328 is the most expensive car they have ever purchased, and they think that, because "its a BMW, and a luxury car, and everyone should be tripping over themselves at this dealership to cater to my every whim, why wont they do everything I say?!?!"
The people who bought the 70-90-120k BMWs were usually more understanding of what actually could be done, and what couldnt, etc, and were, in general, "much easier to deal with, on average" in his words.
The point of this rambling story is, Tesla has those same customers (and so does every other "mass market luxury" vehicle maker. Many people are "stretching" to make this purchase, or "coming up" from buying a prius, or some other vehicle, and this is their first "luxury" vehicle, so their expectation of what that is like is "they should be catering everything to me".
My BMW service advisor had a co worker at his dealership that left BMW and went to Tesla. When he and I were having this discussion, he told me that he and this other service advisor (who was now a Tesla service advisor) had a chat about this topic, and the Tesla service advisor told him that, "Tesla customers are, on average, worse than the BMW customers I was dealing with in their expectations".
This is obviously anecdotal, but understandable. Having spent my entire life in some form of customer service, or managing people who perform customer service (in IT, not car sales), I have found that, in general, the "most difficult" people to deal with are usually those new to their roles of increased power (and trying to "flex", or those who are "entitled" for some reason. People who are comfortable in their power in their roles, etc, are normally pretty flexible and easy to work with. Not always, but usually.
Again, I AM NOT RELATING THIS TO THE OP, OR ANY SPECIFIC PERSON, I am just making a general observation on what I have experienced personally, and what my long time BMW sales advisor told me about "difficult customers" as it relates to that statement.
Doesn’t change the fact that Tesla isn’t taking care of their customers. Not answering phone calls is unacceptable. Constantly changing delivery dates is unacceptable. They need to do a better job. There will eventually come a time when supply will exceed demand and any car company that can master this phase of the process will clean up. Tesla does so many other things well, why not sales? Communication with the customer should be easy, just talk to them, listen, and be honest.
The changing delivery dates is crystal clear in the order document. They contractually tell you that delivery dates are difficult. It’s like half the document is about delivery.
They own 90% of the US EV market. My anecdotal experience with Tesla is aside from delivery dates, they are extremely easy to deal with. In my personal circles, there are many Tesla owners. None of them have regrets or complaints on their vehicles.
The best way to take care of your customers is to focus on building the best product. They lead on that aspect IMO. They don’t need to do better at sales. And looking at how the legacy car makers respond to Tesla, Tesla is set to dominate the market for a long time.
They own 90% of the US EV market. My anecdotal experience with Tesla is aside from delivery dates, they are extremely easy to deal with. In my personal circles, there are many Tesla owners. None of them have regrets or complaints on their vehicles.
The best way to take care of your customers is to focus on building the best product. They lead on that aspect IMO. They don’t need to do better at sales. And looking at how the legacy car makers respond to Tesla, Tesla is set to dominate the market for a long time.
I didnt say it was excusable. I simply said what it is, and what you should expect because thats how they are currently, and if that doesnt meet your expectations you might want to re evaluate your purchase, because its not going to magically get better.
Dont get me wrong, I love my car, and when I am in person with people at Tesla, they usually are very nice, but they are not going to magically communicate better than they do, so you either have to live with it or vote with your wallet. Life is too short to agonize over this stuff, so I was just suggesting you re evaluate if they are not meeting your expectations, because that part (the communication) isnt going to change.
You miss the point. The sales process is frustrating and customers expectations are continually set then reset. People deserve the right to be treated honesty and fairly. Don’t you agree that if you have a question someone should be there to answer? I’ve yet to have some one from the local dealer answer a call or call me back if I leave my number. This is a process that needs to be fixed.
I do not miss the point. The contract you signed explains exactly how the delivery process will happen and based on what you relate about your experience is going exactly like the contract says it will. Your frustration seems to come from a misunderstanding on the contract you signed rather than how things are going. You can believe how the sales process should be as hard as you want, it will not change it.
Think of it this way: for every customer with your expectations, there are probably 100s or even 1000s who are 100% ok withthe process they have. They don’t need you as a customer. You want their product. So as @jjrandorin already mentioned, your can either choose that you would rather have a Tesla than a traditional sales process OR have a traditional sales process with not-a-Tesla.
Think of it this way: for every customer with your expectations, there are probably 100s or even 1000s who are 100% ok withthe process they have. They don’t need you as a customer. You want their product. So as @jjrandorin already mentioned, your can either choose that you would rather have a Tesla than a traditional sales process OR have a traditional sales process with not-a-Tesla.
I think the point is, dont "expect it to get fixed". Either you are ok with working through it the way it is, or you are not and likely want to do business with a different company. I am not saying your expectations are wrong, nor am I making excuses for tesla. I am saying "this is how it is, so make your business decision accordingly".
Your expectations are fine, but they are not going to meet them, in the communication department. So, you have a decision to make then. Again, you keep saying "they should do XXX" and there is nothing wrong with thinking that, but its not going to happen anytime soon, so you have to plan accordingly and either purchase or not, based on what they do now.
My wife and I ordered a custom trimmed out Jeep a couple of years ago and they told us it’d be 6-8 weeks. Just like the Tesla website gives you a timeframe. We got the Jeep in 7 weeks and went about our life. We didn’t need to call the dealership and obsess over our delivery timeframe. We were called when the Jeep was on its way and scheduled a delivery date. I think Tesla giving their customers an account page with varying dates is what’s driving people nuts. They should just leave it as a 6-8 weeks note. The OP’s situation is different but just wanted to add our experience with a legacy brand.
Ekanas
Member
I have been working with a local Tesla showroom associate and he has been awesome with communication. The delivery times suck but with everything going on in the world right now it has become the norm with anything you order. Even refinancing our home was a long drawn out process due to the current environment. I have zero patience so trust me, I get it. But I am confident that in the end it will all be worth it!
I would find that different in my experience. I've been with my Volvo dealership for years now as well and they do things like come and pick my car up for service (I'm 25 mins away) and all the various niceties of having a luxury car. Volvo is by no means Mercedes or BMW or Porsche, but the level of service is very good. However, the Tesla I am getting is in the same price category and I'm getting a lot less communication that I have received in the past from the Volvo dealership.
It surprises me that newer companies always assume that the demand will always be there and that they don't have to invest in customer service.
Tesla makes a very large point about not being a "dealership" so they can provide better services. I have yet to see that.
snikt
Member
I'm not sure it's any better?
The Mach-E is currently on a 5-6+ month wait and the ID.4 AWD only says "October-December" which was pushed back from Summer 2021 already
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