Does anyone else think Tesla Energy is trying to destroy the sterling reputation earned by TesaMotor

[mckemie]

Can anyone offer email contact for anyone in Tesla Energy that may be concerned about abysmal TE customer service?

A bit of background:
I've had a perfectly functional PowerWall now for four months. My only complaint had been that I have not been able to get Tesla to associate the PW with my Tesla account so that I would have app access. A few days ago, without consulting or informing me, TeslaEnergy apparently remotely reconfigured my PW so that it no longer presented accurate power flows and no longer supplied battery power when solar power disappeared.

 

[Derek Kessler]

Hahahahahaha have you had any interactions with Tesla Motors customer service?

 

[PhatCat]

More like a race to the bottom. I have my 2nd Tesla car and I had both the solar roof and power walls on reservation. I would rate my S and 3 order/deliveries as C- and D (being generous since they were at high volume times), the Tesla S service as D- and my dealing with Tesla Energy as F.

I reserved the solar roof the day it was announced and despite repeated inquires to Tesla, the only response i ever received was the refund check when i cancelled the reservation recently. I did get some info about the continued delays on the solar tiles from a local authorized powerwall installer but not a peep from Tesla Energy, even when i made a final request for an update when submitting the cancellation.

After receiving an initial quote from Tesla for PV panels, the only way i discovered that Tesla Energy had dropped service in my area during their purge was when the online configurator displayed a small message that service was not available.

I did get momentarily excited last year when I got a call that my PowerWalls were ready for installation. When i spoke with the rep it turns out he is from the Northeast where my main house is. When i pointed out to him the address on the reservation is in Hawaii, he said, Oh i see that it is...we're not installing there yet.

 

[mckemie]

Hahahahahaha have you had any interactions with Tesla Motors customer service?

I've bought four cars, my first S in 2013 and my last 3 in 2018. Only the last had problems; they changed the way they handled Texas titling. It took about three months for me to get the title and I finally had to do it myself. It was not an option to do the same way as the previous three cars; those first three deliveries were completely trouble-free. I resolved that that 4th car was my last Tesla car.
BUT, service on the cars has always been superior, in my experience.

 

[mckemie]

More like a race to the bottom. I have my 2nd Tesla car and I had both the solar roof and power walls on reservation. I would rate my S and 3 order/deliveries as C- and D (being generous since they were at high volume times), the Tesla S service as D- and my dealing with Tesla Energy as F.

I reserved the solar roof the day it was announced and despite repeated inquires to Tesla, the only response i ever received was the refund check when i cancelled the reservation recently. .

I would give Tesla Motors "A" on both delivery and service of my first three cars.

Same here on a PW. I "reserved" one soon after reservations were accepted. That was something like three years ago. I had essentially no response from Tesla Energy on queries. I STILL have that reservation. I would like to get another PW installed on another of my electric meters.
After hearing of local PWs being ordered through and installed by installers, I ended up ordering a PW from an installer. Installation after order was only a few months.

I've been extremely pleased with the PW. I tout to all friends. The PEOPLE at Tesla Energy seem to be mostly incompetent.

My question is how to bring my sorry treatment to the attention of someone concerned about Tesla Energy reputation.

 

[Saibot]

My car purchase and subsequent interactions have been great. I really wanted Tesla solar, but they didn’t meet my expectations, so I went with a local company.
They have earned their poor reputation.

 

[azred]

It’s a shame the thread couldn’t stay on topic and instead quickly veered to auto service. But since it did, I want to defend them a bit. I realize we all have our individual standards but my interactions for both Teslas at Tempe (many times) and Scottsdale (once) SC’s were very good.

Do I miss my independent shops with decades of experience and face to face discussions with a real mechanic? Sure but that’s an apples to oranges comparison. Apples to apples, I will take Tesla Service over most of the many dealership service departments that I have dealt with in the past.

 

[woferry]

My dealings with Tesla Energy for my Solar Roof and Powerwall were all excellent, my only gripe being the long period of silence from the initial deposit to the first contact from an energy advisor. But once Tesla started talking the communication was great and I was very happy with the crews and the work they did (and the one time I had to contact service for a minor issue), and the products have been great so far. And honestly I've found most big companies to be pretty poor in the consumer communications end, I could say the same thing about PG&E, AT&T, GMC, and the list goes on.

 

[cwied]

Have you tried the Powerwall self-registration page to get app access? Powerwall Self Registration | Tesla

I agree that the Powerwall support group is frustrating to deal with. I don't think it's that surprising given SolarCity's reputation, though.

 

[jsimon7777]

What I heard is that, since Tesla bought Solar City, SC has gone way downhill with lots of layoffs.

 

[ElectricTundra]

My Motors experience, both sales & service in Minneapolis, has been quite good. No complaints.

I've received conflicting information from Tesla Energy about our roof. Zero communication from making a deposit the first minute it was available to some months ago a call from someone there wanting to setup an appt to talk about panels as an option which I said we might be interested in - then that person, Chris, stopped responding. I recently received a call from a gal in Energy (caller ID indicates it did come from the roof install group) saying that we were scheduled for this fall. When I called back someone else told me that we were not scheduled and they had no idea when we would be. This latter was not a pleasant conversation.

I'm a fan of Tesla but my love for them is quickly declining, thanks to Tesla Energy.

 

[mckemie]

Have you tried the Powerwall self-registration page to get app access? Powerwall Self Registration | Tesla

I agree that the Powerwall support group is frustrating to deal with. I don't think it's that surprising given SolarCity's reputation, though.

I had thought that I had done that in the distant past. But, trying again, I find my record of the needed numbers had a typo. Anyway, at your suggestion, I tired it again a few days ago. No results yet.

 

[mckemie]

I got a single message from Tesla Energy on this problem and finally resorted to doing an "installer configuration" myself. That went pretty well and I am back in business after a week of having things screwed up. I had hoped someone here would know of a Tesla ombudsman or somesuch.

Here is a a more detailed account of the whole sorry mess:
Willie: Screwed by Tesla

I find searching this forum rather tedious. I'm all ears if someone can point me to existing threads on:
1) Tesla ombudsmen
2) PowerWall alternatives
3) anything I have touched on above, especially protecting one's self from incompetent Tesla meddling.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

There are two service/communications factors at play here.

First is Tesla overall being essentially a startup trying to service the entire globe. That's just not going to start out well unless you have bottomless resources, which Tesla does not. It's going to be doubly rough when engineers are running the operation as they're not the most personable folks in the world. Seems to have been identified as a huge issue and trending in the right direction.

Second and more to the original topic....Tesla Energy(SolarCity) like a lot of companies has their sales organization silo'd off from installs and operations. Sales runs all the customer interactions and is incentivized just to get the contract signed. Obviously that leaves a huge service gap from signature to interconnection to ongoing maintenance.

I've found homeowners mostly walk into this relationship already wanting solar(ready to sign a contract), and are simply looking for clarity around the install process and a consultative resource when something comes up. When SolarCity put literally 100% of it's effort and financial resources behind the act of closing contracts, I feel they missed the target on what the market was really demanding.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but moving to online sales and service should help A LOT. It forces Tesla Energy to centralize all their processes so anyone can be serviced by anyone within the Energy organization. Previously the individual one-to-one sales and service relationship was closely guarded by the regional sales teams to protect their own revenue, no one was incentivized to communicate or god forbid build a knowledge base. Now everyone will be forced and hopefully incentivized to service as a team.

In the meantime.....squeaky wheel gets the grease. Good luck!

 

[Demerol]

Can anyone offer email contact for anyone in Tesla Energy that may be concerned about abysmal TE customer service?

A bit of background:
I've had a perfectly functional PowerWall now for four months. My only complaint had been that I have not been able to get Tesla to associate the PW with my Tesla account so that I would have app access. A few days ago, without consulting or informing me, TeslaEnergy apparently remotely reconfigured my PW so that it no longer presented accurate power flows and no longer supplied battery power when solar power disappeared.

I agree totally with the customer service from Tesla Energy. In August 2018, we had the Tesla solar guy out to our South Florida home. He was very nice, had the computer simulator and established that they would use the Panasonic HIT panels on the house. He recommended 2 PWs and we thought, hey - it's expensive but it's better in the long run and we burn fewer dead dinosaurs. The system was a 27kW system and the cost was $120,000.
For the first month, things went fine. The "engineer" came to the house to take pictures and climb on the roof. We received semi-regular emails from Tesla and eventually had a phone consultation with the "system designer" about 6 weeks later. During that phone consult, I realized that 3 PWs made a lot more sense and we identified that I would require an update to my AC unit due to cramp amp issues. Back and forth for the next month and I thought we were on track until I got a new invoice through the Tesla Power website stating I had over $9000 in "setup fees". This is where it went downhill fast.
I called my sales guy who didn't return my calls. I eventually got an email from a Tesla "rep" in the power division stating he was taking over my case. We spoke on the phone and I emailed my concerns regarding the AC replacement, power requirements and the setup fees. This went nowhere fast. He stopped returning my emails. I wasted about 6 weeks into February and March trying to get answers. I finally called Tesla Power and spoke to another individual about the poor customer service and how my basic questions were not being answered (like, where did this $9000 fee come from?). He stated he would take over the order from there and gave me his email and direct phone number. At this point I though it was simply a bad employee. I had pleasant experiences with Tesla Motors and my Model X, so I trusted Tesla Power.
I went ahead and changed my entire AC in my house (which honestly needed upgrades anyway). I went online to check the status of my system (a total cluster - I wasn't even in permitting yet. This is 8 months into the contract) and fell onto the Solar Reviews website for Tesla Solar. That's when the roof crashed in. Solar reviews has always had a nice opinion of Tesla, but man the reviews were scathing! I read over 200 1 star reviews written in the past 6 months of customer service and difficulty with performance issues. Inverters blowing and no help for months. I decided to drop Tesla that day. I cancelled my order (the salesperson was definitely NOT surprised) and contacted multiple local companies. I had done plenty of research and preferred Sunpower panels to Panasonic and found a local installer. I now have a Sunpower system with Tesla PWs (3) with fewer panels (higher V and better efficiency with better warranty) in 2 months. My installer warranties repairs for 20 years. My Sunpower system is connected to the internet and undergoes weekly system checks. If enough cells or a panel goes out, Sunpower replaces immediately. I love my Tesla PWs, but the solar side of the company is absolutely terrible.

 

[Demerol]

There are two service/communications factors at play here.

First is Tesla overall being essentially a startup trying to service the entire globe. That's just not going to start out well unless you have bottomless resources, which Tesla does not. It's going to be doubly rough when engineers are running the operation as they're not the most personable folks in the world. Seems to have been identified as a huge issue and trending in the right direction.

Second and more to the original topic....Tesla Energy(SolarCity) like a lot of companies has their sales organization silo'd off from installs and operations. Sales runs all the customer interactions and is incentivized just to get the contract signed. Obviously that leaves a huge service gap from signature to interconnection to ongoing maintenance.

I've found homeowners mostly walk into this relationship already wanting solar(ready to sign a contract), and are simply looking for clarity around the install process and a consultative resource when something comes up. When SolarCity put literally 100% of it's effort and financial resources behind the act of closing contracts, I feel they missed the target on what the market was really demanding.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but moving to online sales and service should help A LOT. It forces Tesla Energy to centralize all their processes so anyone can be serviced by anyone within the Energy organization. Previously the individual one-to-one sales and service relationship was closely guarded by the regional sales teams to protect their own revenue, no one was incentivized to communicate or god forbid build a knowledge base. Now everyone will be forced and hopefully incentivized to service as a team.

In the meantime.....squeaky wheel gets the grease. Good luck!

I agree with your initial concept except that Tesla Solar will fail due to lack of initiative. Asking a customer who is ready NOW for their panels to wait (in my personal experience) over 9 months to submit permits is insane. That leads to brand destruction. Tesla Energy contracts out it's installations, warranties, and replacements to companies with their own customers. Where do you think that contracted companies loyalties lie? Certainly NOT with Tesla. You can't ask a capitalistic society to embrace a socialist solar installation model when they perceive Tesla as part of the problem. Tesla needs to show that they can do solar installation better, cheaper, and more efficiently and THEN incorporate the masses to join them. What they have right now is a clusterfuck of disorganization.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Tesla Energy contracts out it's installations, warranties, and replacements to companies with their own customers.

That varies, depending our your location. Our installation was done by Tesla employees and any warranty work is handled by Tesla.

We had a 16.575 kW system put in last year and only had a minor issue with the inverters needing a firmware update. Other than that, the system is working great. The Powerwall firmware changes their behavior from time to time but no hardware issues for us.

 

[Sylvia Else]

A few days ago, without consulting or informing me, TeslaEnergy apparently remotely reconfigured my PW

You probably thought that because it's bought and paid for, that means it's yours. Telsa take a different view towards property rights, and consider that since they built into it the ability to tinker with it remotely, that fully entitles them to do so, and you have no grounds to object. Telling them not to will achieve nothing. The only way to prevent it is to disconnect the thing from the Internet, which will have the side effect of preventing the Ap from working.

 

[mckemie]

You probably thought that because it's bought and paid for, that means it's yours. Telsa take a different view towards property rights, and consider that since they built into it the ability to tinker with it remotely, that fully entitles them to do so, and you have no grounds to object. Telling them not to will achieve nothing. The only way to prevent it is to disconnect the thing from the Internet, which will have the side effect of preventing the Ap from working.

Good points, all.

Since Tesla has denied me app access, I don't have that to lose.

Apart from a customer's internet connection, I believe the gateways have cell phone access. There are two knobs on the top of the gateway housing that are likely cell phone antenna. I wonder what happens if they are disconnected?

Since I've learned to do "installer configuration", I don't think I'm subject to more than the temporary inconvenience of correcting Tesla's meddling.

For my second PowerWall like install, on another grid connection, I'll be searching diligently for a PowerWall competitor. Does anyone have suggestions?

I have a large (and growing) PV system. I use the PW to avoid all grid power draw and to have back up in the case of grid failure. I am dependent on the grid only to take my excess power. With a long power failure, most to all of my PV would be shutdown by the PW since there would be no place for the power to go. I imagine and hope that, in the event of a long power failure, my PW would cycle PV as needed to keep the battery charged.

 

[NuShrike]

For my second PowerWall like install, on another grid connection, I'll be searching diligently for a PowerWall competitor. Does anyone have suggestions?

LG Chem, Sonnen. Both have much better and mature "TBC", and solar-panel curtailment, than Tesla's current flailing.

Though you'll pay out the nose for either to achieve the same parity capacity.