Disapointing Delivery Experience

[acal]

Picked up the blue MX 100D today. Car looks nice. Wife was nervous because it's bigger than what she's been driving but reports she was quite comfortable driving it, etc. So far, the car's fine.

The pickup experience kinda sucked.

I'm sure it's partly that expectations were high. It's been reported as a good experience. You have to wait many weeks for the car, drive to the special delivery location, etc etc. Was a let down.

We arrived @ the Fremont DS at 10:30 and were (eventually) met by our delivery person. She walked us out to the car, checked the vin, and said 'here it is. do you want to take delivery?' I told her we wanted to look the car over first and that seemed fine with her. We inspected the car, fumbled a bit with the key fobs trying to figure out how to use them, kids were trying to understand how to control the FWD - she just stood there.

After maybe 10 minutes of checking and fumbling I finally started asking. 'how do you use the key fob'. She showed us. 'what are these things in the frunk?' She actually didn't know. There's an electrical connector w/ 3(4?) 18" long wires on it that was in there - she wasn't sure that was supposed to be there (is it?). There's a thing that looks like a big eye hook. She didn't know about that either.

Even basic questions she had no idea about. How do you open the glove compartment? How do you lock the car (just walk away, apparently?) What happens if the battery runs out on your keyfob - is there some way to open and start the car? Is there an indication somewhere that the fob battery is running low? What if I loose a keyfob? How do you turn off the air? nothing. Almost no question we asked she had an answer to.

I mentioned that I thought someone was supposed to explain the car to us. Apparently not - she just tells us how to drive it ("push down on the stick thing and press the pedal") and we can sign up for a new owners class "if we're confused". At that point she walked off to go prep the docs while we were trying to figure out how I'd unintentionally turned the air on full blast.

I suppose this weekend I'll have to RTFM.

 

[kyfucius]

Tesla will be sending a survey and you can provide feedback then. Not sure how much that would help but at least Tesla will be aware and have data on the declining pickup experience, especially for the higher priced models

 

[Fellsteruk]

That’s crap but it’s always wise to read the manual before picking up any car.

I’m sure you’ll love it once you get past the pick up experience

 

[josher32]

Not all the experience I’ve had with any of my Tesla Deliveries. I’d suggest reporting her to a manager before others have such a terrible time!

 

[Varmint]

Sorry to hear about your crappy experience. Definitely trash them in the survey. It seems the Fremont (i.e. flagship) location is just a shambles based on a high percentage of the comments here. There's just no excuse for it. If they don't have enough resources then they need to hire and train more CS people - period.

 

[jboy210]

Picked up the blue MX 100D today. Car looks nice. Wife was nervous because it's bigger than what she's been driving but reports she was quite comfortable driving it, etc. So far, the car's fine.

The pickup experience kinda sucked.

I'm sure it's partly that expectations were high. It's been reported as a good experience. You have to wait many weeks for the car, drive to the special delivery location, etc etc. Was a let down.

We arrived @ the Fremont DS at 10:30 and were (eventually) met by our delivery person. She walked us out to the car, checked the vin, and said 'here it is. do you want to take delivery?' I told her we wanted to look the car over first and that seemed fine with her. We inspected the car, fumbled a bit with the key fobs trying to figure out how to use them, kids were trying to understand how to control the FWD - she just stood there.

After maybe 10 minutes of checking and fumbling I finally started asking. 'how do you use the key fob'. She showed us. 'what are these things in the frunk?' She actually didn't know. There's an electrical connector w/ 3(4?) 18" long wires on it that was in there - she wasn't sure that was supposed to be there (is it?). There's a thing that looks like a big eye hook. She didn't know about that either.

Even basic questions she had no idea about. How do you open the glove compartment? How do you lock the car (just walk away, apparently?) What happens if the battery runs out on your keyfob - is there some way to open and start the car? Is there an indication somewhere that the fob battery is running low? What if I loose a keyfob? How do you turn off the air? nothing. Almost no question we asked she had an answer to.

I mentioned that I thought someone was supposed to explain the car to us. Apparently not - she just tells us how to drive it ("push down on the stick thing and press the pedal") and we can sign up for a new owners class "if we're confused". At that point she walked off to go prep the docs while we were trying to figure out how I'd unintentionally turned the air on full blast.

I suppose this weekend I'll have to RTFM.

That was my experience also. It was kinda of disappointing. The expectation seems to be you are familiar with the manual or played with a car at the showroom or SC near by you before you got to Fremont. Fremont is a volume delivery center.

And now your questions. The big heavy box contains the towing bar and light wiring harness. You need to get these installed to tow trailers.

The keyfob is pretty expensive ($550, I think) so don't lose it. Your SC can replace it but they have to pair it with you car. However, I suspect you me end up like me. Unlike other cars, 99% of the time I never touch the key fob. Like you saw you just walk up and everything wakes up, and walk away and everything locks up (assuming you have auto lock enabled).

The battery in the fob cab be replaced easily and cheaply and should be done annually so the car does not unpair with the fob requiring a trip to the SC and perhaps fob replacement. There is a procedure in the manual for opening the door by placing the fob in a specific spot to get the door open, and in the console to drive the car.

Now that you have the car, you can do like we did to learn more. We read the manual and when we had questions, went to the local SC/showroom and had them take us for a drive and/or sit with us in the car and walked us through the gadgets. Well worth the time.

And finally, congrats on the new car. It is a wondered, and on the leading edge of technology. Expect a little frustration and some glitches. But I bet you will find you will never want to go back to lesser vehicles.

 

[Anzir]

Sounds like par for the course for Fremont. I have heard of people being referred to YouTube to learn how to perform basic functions. My delivery here in Orlando was very good. I had a young guy who was relatively new to the company run through everything and set all my settings. Still only took 30 minutes but much better than a kick out the door. Immerse yourself in the owner's manual while sitting in the car. It can be found under "Controls" and then "Settings." Especially if you are setting up Homelink, it helps to be sitting in the car to see all the buttons and options available.

@jboy210 answered your questions so I'll leave it at that.

Pics of your new X??

 

[dethman]

That's pretty f'd up. Is tesla hiring people off the street now?

Hope you got your questions answered here.

 

[GreenT]

Elon needs to be sleeping on the Fremont DELIVERY floor, not factory floor?

 

[Cirrus MS100D]

Inexcusable.

My wife had an unexpected work emergency pop up moments before we were scheduled to take delivery and had to jump on a conference call. I had already geeked out on all the videos I could watch before we took delivery, so I was mostly comfortable, but the guy still walked me through everything (and was kindly asking along the way, "Are you good with this? Want to speed up or do you want me to cover it in more detail?") Things I was clear on, we skipped, things I didn't quite get, he explained. We were basically all done, good to go, when my wife walked in. I said, "We should be fine - I'll just explain everything to her" and he insisted, "No way, I'm totally fine to do it all over again. I know things happen unexpectedly!" We never felt rushed and his knowledge and understanding of the car was spot on.

Granted, all that happened a year ago before they were in "delivery hell," but how can you send somebody out on the front line as a customer facing employee without having the knowledge? I would also admit that if we were buying a Model 3 today, I'd do the whole "Just give me the paperwork and leave me alone; I know everything already" bit that appears to be an option, but if you want the full rundown, you should absolutely get it.

Inexecusable.

You'll love the X and within a couple of days, you'll likely amass more knowledge about your car than the unprepared individual that got tossed your way.

 

[GreenT]

Cirrus, how do you really feel?

 

[Big John]

Had a better experience than the OP but still short of my expectations-based on many You Tube "pick up" videos. I would rather see a set of Videos like what I hear is available for the M3. It is hard to remember everything said in the orientation session. A video you can re-watch. I especially would like videos on the infotainment features. You really don't want to listen to the finer points of radio options (nothing in the handbooks on this) , tow hooks and charging adapters at the orientation--but there should be be training vids on these subjects. I would also like to see a training video about your options when you have a flat while traveling--what Road Service will and will not do. I learned the hard way.

 

[xyeahtony]

When i bought my car i spent the weeks waiting for it in anticipation watching every youtube video on the car, and every tesla tutorial video. I basically knew everything about the car when i went to go get it.

But i guess that's just me. Be happy you didn't get a car with any flaws because apparently that's a thing.

Most of your questions though probably could've been answered easily. Then again, all those questions were explained on the tesla videos.

Turning off the a/c requires you pressing the button that says "climate" on the front screen.

Opening the glove compartment requires you pressing the one of two physical buttons on the center dash, the other being the hazard lights.

Big eye hook is the tow bar. lots of cars have those.

if your key fob dies, you use the tesla app.

 

[Peteski]

Sounds like crap service on handover, but really you should have made a bit of an effort to read about the basics of the key fob etc before rocking up there. They send you a load of info by email in the weeks leading up to delivery - did you not get any of that or just ignored it?
Our handover experience was better, but I didn't ask many questions of the guy as I had made the effort to RTFM and watched the intro videos of how to use the key fob etc!

 

[Barklikeadog]

Elon needs to be sleeping on the Fremont DELIVERY floor, not factory floor?

Customer: who is that man on sleeping on the floor?
Delivery person: I don't know, have a great day!

 

[1375mlm]

I do think that’s quite unacceptable.
If I were you I would have asked politely for someone “who may know the answer”.
To start the Tesla experience that way is the opposite of what I think tesla intends.
Maybe going back and requesting a demo? I agree with reporting the employee. Doesn’t sound like she should be working anywhere near deliveries. And for a Tesla employee not to know basic climate controls and regular car controls, and much less not able to go get another employee who may know, means she may need another Job outside of the tesla family

 

[bFlat]

For all you Fremont delivery customers - make sure you drink all the expresso drinks that you can possibly consume. Because that is all you get for swag. If it makes you feel any better, my delivery appointment was at the same time as an ex-CEO of a very large silicon valley company and he/she got the exact same treatment. Sorry, not mentioning names out of respect for their privacy.

 

[hallcp]

I am very close to my delivery day, but Tesla did send emails suggesting I watch their YouTube videos beforehand. The videos are helpful, as is a walk-though from Evoto car rentals on YouTube. This isn't exactly a Toyota Camry, there's going to be a learning curve if you want to get the most out of the car. And as someone else said, that hook thing may be the same hook thing in the back of every car... or it may be the special towing package gear now included standard (that wire is for installing electric trailer brakes, should you decide to do so at a later date).
All that being said, in future Tesla will have to be prepared for such customers as you... and perhaps me! I have a ton of questions that the videos did not answer! If Elon is not on top of this there will be a lot of needless bad vibes out there.

 

[jboy210]

I am very close to my delivery day, but Tesla did send emails suggesting I watch their YouTube videos beforehand. The videos are helpful, as is a walk-though from Evoto car rentals on YouTube. This isn't exactly a Toyota Camry, there's going to be a learning curve if you want to get the most out of the car. And as someone else said, that hook thing may be the same hook thing in the back of every car... or it may be the special towing package gear now included standard (that wire is for installing electric trailer brakes, should you decide to do so at a later date).
All that being said, in future Tesla will have to be prepared for such customers as you... and perhaps me! I have a ton of questions that the videos did not answer! If Elon is not on top of this there will be a lot of needless bad vibes out there.

Remember, this is at a unique place, the Fremont delivery center. Tesla has 8 or 9 SC and showrooms in a 30 minute drive from this center. Recently all delivery traffic for these centers (except SF ) is being routed to SF or Fremont. Also, a lot of people want the "factory delivery experience". You see people flying in from SoCal and out of state to take the factory tour one day and pick up their cars a mile away the next day.

They deliver something like 20 cars every hour or so in Fremont. The day I went there 2 Model X, 3 Model S and the rest were Model 3 being delivered in the same time window. So there is a definite bias in the staff toward the Model 3. And they have other staff available to demo as many features as you want on the Model 3 and X they have set up specifically for showing you how things works. But, if you don't ask they assume you really do not need help and just want to get your car and go.

If you not taking delivery at one of this or the SoCal delivery center I suspect the staff at the SC will be happy to spend quite a bit of time with you since you will be one of the few deliveries they do that day. They may even line up and applaud as you drive away.

PS. the heavy bag you get is the towing hitch (no ball) and electrical wiring. Don't drop it. It can break a toe!

 

[Sandollars]

Remember, this is at a unique place, the Fremont delivery center. Tesla has 8 or 9 SC and showrooms in a 30 minute drive from this center. Recently all delivery traffic for these centers (except SF ) is being routed to SF or Fremont. Also, a lot of people want the "factory delivery experience". You see people flying in from SoCal and out of state to take the factory tour one day and pick up their cars a mile away the next day.

They deliver something like 20 cars every hour or so in Fremont. The day I went there 2 Model X, 3 Model S and the rest were Model 3. So there is a definite bias in the staff toward the Model 3. And they have other staff available to demo as many features as you want on the Model 3 and X they have set up specifically for showing you how things works. But, if you don't ask they assume you really do not need help and just want to get your car and go.

If you not taking delivery at one of this or the SoCal delivery center I suspect the staff at the SC will be happy to spend quite a bit of time with you since you will be one of the few deliveries they do that day. They may even line up and applaud as drive away.

PS. the heavy bag you get is the towing hitch (no ball) and electrical wiring. Don't drop it. It can break a toe!

Having taken delivery in SoCal this past March, I can tell you my experience was about the same as the OP. Wait until you have to take it in for service...

We here in California may have the luxury of Superchargers at every Starbucks, but we also have to deal with the absolutely deplorable growing pains this company is going through. I have been living for the past 2+ months with an unreliable AC system that arbitrarily and spontaneously shuts off ( the longest period was 3 hours in 100+ degree weather) while they "Wait for my part to arrive". I was told they know what I need and that it is a faulty valve. I just tried calling the SC and the auto bot said the wait was over 15 minutes to talk to a person. It is super frustrating to be waiting on a part that gets put in every single new car at a factory that I could drive to in an afternoon. Why pray tell, couldn't they just go grab one off the floor and stick it in a box........ Wait.....Sorry for the rant...... But I share your disappointment.