Did anyone else get the call: "Reaching out to early adopters"?

[Bet TSLA]

I got a call a couple of weeks ago asking if I wanted to upgrade. What surprised me was that the sales guy claimed I should hurry because the federal incentive would run out in June or July because Tesla would have sold 200K cars in the US. This is completely bogus. I told him so, and told him to call me again when the Model S got 2170 cells.

 

[EV-lutioin]

Dear Tesla,

Feel free to call me anytime.

Sincerely,

An Appreciative Customer

 

[ThortsMD]

I've had at least two of these calls in the last year or two (6xxx car). I didn't mind. They were short, not pushy. I get many more calls from the gifts for the blind folks. When I have stuff for them, I put it on my porch. When Tesla has a green colored truck for me, I'll open my garage.

 

[Akikiki]

They should probably take a quick peek at the service record before a cold call. If a current owner is having service issues then a sales call is likely just a waste of time for everyone.

Sorry to disagree with you. But that's not the case at all. I used to work at different times for Chevy, Ford, Olds and Toyota. Sales people troll the repair bays and customer lounge looking for people not happy with their car at that time. For some of those folks, that's the perfect time to talk to them about trading. After all, they are already sitting next to the showroom.

 

[scole04]

Tesla called me too. The sales guy wasn't agressive but more inquisitive. All car dealerships reach out for repeat business.

 

[NikeWings]

Sure.........punch out the messenger. Nice.

Mining customers for business is nothing new for any company, consumer, commercial etc.
One of my first jobs as an intern was to essentially do the same. Lousy job. But ever since, I've always appreciated the poor guy/gal on the front line doing the tough part of making these calls. They may not have the best script, or all the facts straight, or even understand the product as non owners but they are trying to do their job. Help them to be better or say no thank you......you might make a difference in their career.

I welcome their call.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Back story: my battery is failing - severely degraded charge rate, not degraded range - and Tesla isn't being straight with me about the problem or the solution. So when I shared my status (that I have an issue that is unresolved) with this Tesla representative and asked for his help in getting better response from Tesla, he said "I want to set the proper expectations", and basically said he would write down my concerns but I shouldn't expect any response from Tesla. He then said that my car with 124k miles is really too old to expect it to be without problems, and that many other early adopters are upgrading way before they get to that mileage.

Sorry to hear about your woes @pnaecker. For information gathering purposes - if relevant - would you be willing to enter your experience into this thread about charge rate degradation?

If you fast charge, Tesla will permanently throttle charging

 

[AnxietyRanger]

My Audi dealer sends me a trade in and trade up offer in the email and paper mail every six months. They use the service history of the cars and send us a soft trade in price. It's not a phone call though. I find phone calls about anything far more intrusive than email or paper mail.

Again one more way dealerships are better than Tesla? With Tesla the owners and interested parties are bound to wound up in their quarterly panic games. Unfortunately.

Tesla, just buy some ads, give some discounts, create a marketing campaign. Stop with that outdated principle already and stop pestering the people that like you.

 

[whitex]

It's sales, nothing to get upset about this IMO. I did get approached by sales last year, told them what it would take to sell me another Tesla (I was looking for a deep discount on AP1 inventory car since AP2 was out) but after doing some searching the sales person told me there were no cars matching what I want for the price I want, so the conversation ended fairly quickly but very politely. No pressure tactics, all very nice conversation I had no problem with. A few months later, I called back the very same sales person, said I was thinking of buying my 3rd Tesla. I ended up buying it and it turned out to be the best Tesla sales experience out of all 3 purchases (most knowledgeable, direct, honest, and responsive sales person I have dealt with to date)!. So I'm actually glad I got approached and saved her contact info.

PS> At some in the last few months Tesla also reached out just looking for feedback on buying experience and how it can be improved. The person I spoke to said they were working on improving the sales experience with Model 3 launch in mind. I was happy to set aside 30 minutes and help. It was definitely not a sales call (nobody tried to sell me anything).

 

[Lump]

I have been having data & connectivity issues for years so one day I was excited to receive a call from Fremont while driving hoping it was engineering finally discovering the cause & offering a fix, turns out it was one of these sales calls instead, a couple minutes into the conversation my MCU froze & rebooted (very common event), I always joke with my kids that next time Tesla calls while driving I will immediately agree to buy a new car because I don't want them sending "death ray" signals killing my car again.

 

[Trunk Gap]

I think ppl are missing the point. It's not that it was a sales call, its that the person who represented Tesla offered zero empathy for a current customer with problems. It's that the salesperson, if they were interested in sales AND service, would have offered to collect the feedback, provide a followup, etc.

OP isn't saying it's the end of the world that he/she got a sales call, I don't think, OP is saying how disappointed they were that under the guise of "customer appreciation" their concerns were not only ignored, but flat out disregarded/devalued. That's not the impression any product/service provider wants to leave after an interaction. Period. Don't see anything wrong w OP's perspective and find some of these responses on here fascinating.

 

[bro1999]

I think ppl are missing the point. It's not that it was a sales call, its that the person who represented Tesla offered zero empathy for a current customer with problems. It's that the salesperson, if they were interested in sales AND service, would have offered to collect the feedback, provide a followup, etc.

OP isn't saying it's the end of the world that he/she got a sales call, I don't think, OP is saying how disappointed they were that under the guise of "customer appreciation" their concerns were not only ignored, but flat out disregarded/devalued. That's not the impression any product/service provider wants to leave after an interaction. Period. Don't see anything wrong w OP's perspective and find some of these responses on here fascinating.

We are over halfway through the quarter...must be a push from the C-suite underway to get people to purchase a new Model by the end of June.

 

[whitex]

I think ppl are missing the point. It's not that it was a sales call, its that the person who represented Tesla offered zero empathy for a current customer with problems. It's that the salesperson, if they were interested in sales AND service, would have offered to collect the feedback, provide a followup, etc.

OP isn't saying it's the end of the world that he/she got a sales call, I don't think, OP is saying how disappointed they were that under the guise of "customer appreciation" their concerns were not only ignored, but flat out disregarded/devalued. That's not the impression any product/service provider wants to leave after an interaction. Period. Don't see anything wrong w OP's perspective and find some of these responses on here fascinating.

Sales people often have nothing to do with service, and likely have no power to do anything for an out of warranty car. I wouldn't say the OP's sales person showed zero empathy - they could have just said "I don't want to hear about your problems" but instead listened and noted them down and then set expectations - what else would you have them do (assume they have absolutely no power to offer any deals, free services, or anything like that)? Maybe the confusion here stems from the fact that OP assumed that the caller represented Tesla customer service rather than sales - two separate departments. If you get pulled over by county sheriff, would you expect them to do anything about your property taxes just because they work for the county? Yes officer, I know you want to give me a speeding ticket, but anything you can do about my property assessment which is way above actual market value therefore making my taxes due higher than they should be?

 

[Trunk Gap]

Your analogy is horrendous, in so many ways, really, read it again and think about that (speeding/criminal offense vs sales call; govt vs for profit entity, competitive market vs no alternatives, etc...can keep going, its just not relevant.) I make terrible analogies all the time, I get it, just calling it out.

Yes, I expect salespeople that represent a brand that I spent $150k with months ago, who is calling me to upsell me (which I also welcome) to also care, and extend themselves a bit to ensure my satisfaction with the brand. They represent the brand, not just their immediate interests. This is what I expect as a consumer, period. Not saying everyone needs to think that way, everyone can feel the way they feel, who am I to say what's right other than related to my own expectations.

 

[doubleohwhat]

Sorry to disagree with you. But that's not the case at all. I used to work at different times for Chevy, Ford, Olds and Toyota. Sales people troll the repair bays and customer lounge looking for people not happy with their car at that time. For some of those folks, that's the perfect time to talk to them about trading. After all, they are already sitting next to the showroom.

A) We're talking about phone calls. Not people sitting in the dealership/store waiting on service repairs

B) While I can see how that kind of sales trolling (your word) can sometimes be effective (Hey, you could keep spending $$$ on your out of warranty car or you could put that $ towards a new one!), the same sales trolling can also backfire. Such a sales pitch is actually why I'm driving a Tesla today. I was sitting in the BMW service department after just being told I'd have to pay $3K to replace a navigation module because my $9K (purchased via BMW) extended warranty didn't cover "non-critical" electrical components on my 2011 550i. A sales guy walked up and started pitching a new car pretty hard. I told him I wasn't interested but he just kept on. I went from "upset" about the repair cost to "oh hell no" pretty fast. After the sales guy finally left, I researched other cars while waiting on my BMW to get repaired. Up until that day I had been planning on replacing my 550i with a 2018 M550i and doing the european delivery.That night I ordered a Tesla and the next day I sold my 550i to CarMax. I had owned nothing but BMWs in the past. My wife wanted a BMW SUV but now she has an early model 3 reservation. My mother has a Z4 and I see a model 3 in her future as well.

So while I get that sales pitches and upselling are a thing, you gotta be careful with doling out those pitches when a customer is already upset with the brand. If you insist on making a sales pitch to an owner who already feels like they're getting screwed then you better at least have something to offer other than full retail price for a new car.

 

[Akikiki]

A) We're talking about phone calls. Not people sitting in the dealership/store waiting on service repairs

B) While I can see how that kind of sales trolling (your word) can sometimes be effective (Hey, you could keep spending $$$ on your out of warranty car or you could put that $ towards a new one!), the same sales trolling can also backfire. Such a sales pitch is actually why I'm driving a Tesla today. I was sitting in the BMW service department after just being told I'd have to pay $3K to replace a navigation module because my $9K (purchased via BMW) extended warranty didn't cover "non-critical" electrical components on my 2011 550i. A sales guy walked up and started pitching a new car pretty hard. I told him I wasn't interested but he just kept on. I went from "upset" about the repair cost to "oh hell no" pretty fast. After the sales guy finally left, I researched other cars while waiting on my BMW to get repaired. Up until that day I had been planning on replacing my 550i with a 2018 M550i and doing the european delivery.That night I ordered a Tesla and the next day I sold my 550i to CarMax. I had owned nothing but BMWs in the past. My wife wanted a BMW SUV but now she has an early model 3 reservation. My mother has a Z4 and I see a model 3 in her future as well.

So while I get that sales pitches and upselling are a thing, you gotta be careful with doling out those pitches when a customer is already upset with the brand. If you insist on making a sales pitch to an owner who already feels like they're getting screwed then you better at least have something to offer other than full retail price for a new car.

doubleohwhat, I was commenting on your post where you said the sales people should check service records before they call because the owner might have been having issues with the car or maintenance. My point was that sales people used the people in the customer lounge/waiting on car repairs as an excuse to approach them to consider a trade. I don't understand why so many people are villagers on a rampage because they got a phone call from a salesman. (Tesla can call me any time, however, I hope VM nevers finds my number.)

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I'm pretty sure you can set your contact preferences to indicate if you'd like them to contact you via phone or email or both. No matter how much I love a product or company, I never appreciate unsolicited phone calls so I always set my preferences to be email only. My phone numbers are on the Do Not Call lists and over the past decade or so, I've rarely received any unsolicited calls.

I have been having data & connectivity issues for years so one day I was excited to receive a call from Fremont while driving hoping it was engineering finally discovering the cause & offering a fix, turns out it was one of these sales calls instead, a couple minutes into the conversation my MCU froze & rebooted (very common event), I always joke with my kids that next time Tesla calls while driving I will immediately agree to buy a new car because I don't want them sending "death ray" signals killing my car again.

I used to work for Primestar/DirecTV and we'd often get customers who would ask us to cancel their service because they didn't agree with their bill. Since they were used to the old cable companies needing to actually come out to the house to turn things off, they were quite surprised when I would "send a hit" to disconnect their service within seconds. More often than not, they requested we turn it back on right away.

 

[anticitizen13.7]

doubleohwhat, I was commenting on your post where you said the sales people should check service records before they call because the owner might have been having issues with the car or maintenance. My point was that sales people used the people in the customer lounge/waiting on car repairs as an excuse to approach them to consider a trade. I don't understand why so many people are villagers on a rampage because they got a phone call from a salesman. (Tesla can call me any time, however, I hope VM nevers finds my number.)

The OP isn't mad about the call being about sales. They're mad because the call was dishonestly masquerading as a customer care call. I'd be irritated too. Though I never actually answer my phone if I don't recognize who is calling!

This may have just been a mistake on the part of the Tesla employee. But I think all sales calls like that should get right to the point: "We see that you have a Model S from y year with x miles. Would you be interested in an upgrade to a new Tesla with z features?"

 

[copyhacker]

Again one more way dealerships are better than Tesla? With Tesla the owners and interested parties are bound to wound up in their quarterly panic games. Unfortunately.

Tesla, just buy some ads, give some discounts, create a marketing campaign. Stop with that outdated principle already and stop pestering the people that like you.

As an engineer with an innate (and probably unfair) distrust for all things sales, I find it sort of refreshing that Tesla's clumsy at it. I can picture Elon gritting his teeth and wondering why they have to do it at all--it should be obvious from first principles that everyone should just buy a Tesla.

 

[kort677]

As an engineer with an innate (and probably unfair) distrust for all things sales,

do realize that if someone isn't selling the work that you do your work won't be necessary