Drama with delivery

[Kyleresq]

So I'm about to be a new Tesla owner and I am not getting off to a great start.

I live in Santa Rosa Beach Florida. I placed an order for my Tesla Model 3 about 10 days ago online. While I was placing the order I saw that my options for pickup were either in Jacksonville Florida or Atlanta Georgia, both a little bit over 5 hours away. I called the 1-800 number and got a very nice lady who told me that I would absolutely not have to drive 5 hours to pick up my car and that I should go ahead and place my order and then call them back when we were getting close to delivery and we would figure out a better location.

My order was placed. I got my VIN yesterday, I got a text about delivery today. I called back to the 1-800 number this afternoon to ask them what my options were for delivery since Jacksonville is the only option that's popping up in the app and that is not feasible. The woman I talked to said she was going to call the Jacksonville location and see what their options were in terms of getting the car closer to me and that she would call me back. She did not call me back but a man from Decatur Georgia called me he said that he is my sales rep (even though he's not in my state) and he told me that my only two options are to drive to Jacksonville or to pay $750 to have it delivered to my house.

I told him that's not what I was told when I placed my order, I have now sold my car in preparation for my Tesla delivery, and I am unclear how I'm supposed to get five hours away to pick a car up because that would be the most expensive Uber ride in the history of the world.

He claims to have talked to a couple of managers and called me back and stood firm that I have to pay that $750 bucks or drive 5 hours. Anyone else have a situation like this and any guidance for where to go from here? I requested to have a manager call me back but I'm not sure where that's going to get me.

Thank you!

 

[MackT83]

You got your VIN in 10 days!? Wtf. I’ll pay your $750 and they can deliver it to my house. Have it delivered, you just paid what for the car? #FirstWorldProblems

 

[Ookami]

Just do a one way car rental from ECP to JAX? A quick look online shows Alamo for $50 total on December 11th to 12th?

 

[Kyleresq]

Did you really? So few true locals here. It's a great town, other than the occasional lack of services. Lol! I offered to have them meet me in the middle. We'll see.

 

[jjrandorin]

Just do a one way car rental from ECP to JAX? A quick look online shows Alamo for $50 total on December 11th to 12th?

just posting to say I love your profile pic, mr. wolf

 

[Ookami]

Did you really? So few true locals here. It's a great town, other than the occasional lack of services. Lol! I offered to have them meet me in the middle. We'll see.

Yes, I grew up next to Eglin AFB until graduating high school. It'll be good to see more Teslas when I visit the area. Good luck on your delivery. I'm patiently waiting on a 2021 Model 3 Performance Blue on Black.

 

[Ookami]

just posting to say I love your profile pic, mr. wolf

Thank you!

 

[Kyleresq]

Yes, I grew up next to Eglin AFB until graduating high school. It'll be good to see more Teslas when I visit the area. Good luck on your delivery. I'm patiently waiting on a 2021 Model 3 Performance Blue on Black.

There's not a ton in the area but I'm super excited. Headed to Ft Walton tomorrow. Great to meet you! Hope yours shows up soon

 

[OCR1]

OP,

Welcome to the Tesla family. You are now getting your first experience of what it's like to ask a question to a Tesla employee. My experience is that if I ask the same question to three different Tesla reps I get four different answers. So I try to average them out and figure where the correct answer lies.

I would have been very skeptical to place an order knowing that the nearest delivery center is five hours away and some woman on the phone says don't worry we will work something out without giving you a clear explanation of what they are planning to do. In her mind working something out may have meant delivering it to you for a fee, when you were expecting it to be included in the price. Vague answers from Tesla usually lead to disappointing results.

So the next time you have a question about your Tesla, post the question here. You will get far more useful information than from any Tesla employee.

 

[JCtx]

I also live about 5 hours from the nearest Tesla delivery center (Scottsdale, AZ). I called not long ago, and they told me if I ordered the car immediately, it'd get delivered to my house for the same price. But they said no more CarMax trade-in prices, and also learned of the 2021 improvements, so didn't follow up. It's very disappointing to get the lowest trade-in from Tesla than anybody else, since selling privately wouldn't get me the tax differential. So not only we get zero EV rebate with Tesla, but now they rape you with your trade worse than anybody else. That's not helping make that decision. We were going to go with the Kona electric (much nicer deal), but it's not available where we live, and it'd be like a year wait anyway, so the option is another gas car, or the LR M3. Need to find out if the included delivery is still a deal, to lessen the sting of the trade loss.

 

[OCR1]

Prices have come down on Model 3’s since the tax rebate expired to offset the loss of the rebate. As for the sales tax credit, we don’t get any benefit of the trade in offset to the sales tax in California so consider yourself lucky that your state allows for that. You will have to decide if the savings justifies a lower trade in value. Tesla just wholesales the cars so they don’t have much involvement in determining the prices. And the new 2021 Model 3 is in such high demand that there is no reason for them to take a loss on a trade in to sell their cars.

 

[Kyleresq]

It's 100% my fault for not getting her name and phone number when I called the first time. She was so confident that it didn't even cross my mind that there would be an issue later down the road. So, lesson learned for me. So now I'm planning a not very relaxing 10 hour round trip next weekend instead.

 

[JCtx]

And the new 2021 Model 3 is in such high demand that there is no reason for them to take a loss on a trade in to sell their cars.

They never took a loss on trade-ins when using CarMax; they simply didn't make any money. Now they decided to make even more money than other dealers. They can do whatever they want as a business, which apparently they can get away with based on demand. So the question now is if we want a Tesla bad enough to bend over like that, and at least from my wife the answer is no. She wants another car cycle with a gas car, which would be cheaper, but I'll continue to consider the LR M3 until I have the gas finalist numbers. Probably an MB250 (4 banger).

 

[OCR1]

They never took a loss on trade-ins when using CarMax; they simply didn't make any money. Now they decided to make even more money than other dealers. They can do whatever they want as a business, which apparently they can get away with based on demand. So the question now is if we want a Tesla bad enough to bend over like that, and at least from my wife the answer is no. She wants another car cycle with a gas car, which would be cheaper, but I'll continue to consider the LR M3 until I have the gas finalist numbers. Probably an MB250 (4 banger).

I wouldn’t look at that way. Apple charges a premium for their products and they rarely go on sale. They cost more than Android based products but people are willing to pay more for them because they work well.

Tesla is far ahead of any other EV you can buy in the Model 3 price range. You can always sell your car privately even if you lose the sales tax offset benefit. You will save money in the long run by not having to pay for gas, oil, and regularly scheduled maintenance. And you will have a very enjoyable car to drive. Tesla has never made a substantial amount of profit as a corporation. They need to maintain certain margins to stay alive and stay ahead of the eventual competition coming their way. Don’t take it personally. They are just trying to run a business.

 

[Fizzyo]

Hey fellow Teslanians (is that a word?) I’m waiting impatiently for me VIN...ordered Nov 23...and have been buying accessories for a car I don’t yet possess and been reading this great forum for tips and tricks.
Just want to thank you guys for posting.

 

[yellow05gt]

There's not a ton in the area but I'm super excited. Headed to Ft Walton tomorrow. Great to meet you! Hope yours shows up soon

Nice to see another local. I live in Fort Walton. I ordered my M3P on Oct 31st and I am also picking up in Jacksonville. But my SA, Keith, told me that they would deliver the car to me and pick mine up for trade. On a side note, what did you order? I still don't have a VIN yet.

 

[InternetDude]

I encourage you to cancel the order. If you think your experience so far is bad just wait until you need service.

 

[OCR1]

I encourage you to cancel the order. If you think your experience so far is bad just wait until you need service.

Cancel the order and do what? Buy a car from a car dealership? It’s not like the car dealership industry is known for their high levels of integrity and customer care either.

If I stopped buying products from companies that did not offer exemplary customer service...I would have a really empty house. So I focus on buying the products that best meet my needs and provide the highest level of performance and value, and I accept that if I have issues needing service I may have some temporary heartburn to deal with.

 

[jjrandorin]

Cancel the order and do what? Buy a car from a car dealership? It’s not like the car dealership industry is known for their high levels of integrity and customer care either.

If I stopped buying products from companies that did not offer exemplary customer service...I would have a really empty house. So I focus on buying the products that best meet my needs and provide the highest level of performance and value, and I accept that if I have issues needing service I may have some temporary heartburn to deal with.

I agree with this sentiment for the most part, but there are definitely products I have decided not to buy because I was uncomfortable with the purchasing experience. Forums like this one amplify the negative, and my own personal tesla ownership experience (service center and all) has been good to very good.

On the "customer service, in todays age" thing, we could have a whole thread (with pages and pages of discussion) on that topic. In general though, my personal feeling is, the "younger generations" (millenial, Z) simply dont care as much about it as older generations, and more importantly are not willing to PAY for it.

We are in an "app" society, where people would rather go to some website, or twitter, or open some app, rather than talk to a human about stuff. My own child is 27, and is not an anti social person, but, for example, when she was moving recently, rather than calling a couple of moving companies to get quotes, she wanted to do "web based" quotes.

I am in IT, so not technology averse, but I still want to talk to a person when I am doing something "important". I purchased my tesla in a tesla sales center in 2018. I had called ahead and asked for an experienced person for my test drive.

I had a sales experience very much like any of the BMWs I have leased over the years. I had a (very good) point of contact in the store, who answered (correctly) all my questions etc. I happened to make friends with the sales manager at that location as well. When I had a delivery issue after, I sent an email to this sales manager, who "sent some emails" on my behalf and got me squared away.

Tesla wants to cater to "order in the app, no human contact" because its cheaper for them, and no one wants to pay more to have good customer service. Tesla has to survive first, and can work on customer service second. Its a really good thing for them the product is SO good, that its worth toughing it through these mishaps for most.

Teslas customer service is basically, if you fall into the pre defined easy to deal with buckets, they are great. If you need (or want) something different that requires higher human touch, they typically dont do very well with that. I have a Model 3, Tesla solar panels (installed by solar city in 2016), and tesla powerwalls installed this year, so I have purchased both from the auto division and tesla energy. The experience is fairly similar.

With that being said, most people you deal with want to help you, once you get past the point of sounding like every other human being they talk to, who is complaining to them about something. Once you cross that barrier, I find them to be very helpful, if overworked.

So, if someone is expecting a purchasing experience like Lexus, you need to cancel your order and go get one of those. Tesla will never provide that high a level of customer service (lexus is one of the best, but I dont like their cars.. the service is great though). People dont want to pay for great customer service, so we wont ever see that from tesla. I just hope we get to "good enough". The product is so good though, its worth dealing with the marginal service.

 

[jpfive]

So I'm about to be a new Tesla owner and I am not getting off to a great start.

I live in Santa Rosa Beach Florida. I placed an order for my Tesla Model 3 about 10 days ago online. While I was placing the order I saw that my options for pickup were either in Jacksonville Florida or Atlanta Georgia, both a little bit over 5 hours away. I called the 1-800 number and got a very nice lady who told me that I would absolutely not have to drive 5 hours to pick up my car and that I should go ahead and place my order and then call them back when we were getting close to delivery and we would figure out a better location.

My order was placed. I got my VIN yesterday, I got a text about delivery today. I called back to the 1-800 number this afternoon to ask them what my options were for delivery since Jacksonville is the only option that's popping up in the app and that is not feasible. The woman I talked to said she was going to call the Jacksonville location and see what their options were in terms of getting the car closer to me and that she would call me back. She did not call me back but a man from Decatur Georgia called me he said that he is my sales rep (even though he's not in my state) and he told me that my only two options are to drive to Jacksonville or to pay $750 to have it delivered to my house.

I told him that's not what I was told when I placed my order, I have now sold my car in preparation for my Tesla delivery, and I am unclear how I'm supposed to get five hours away to pick a car up because that would be the most expensive Uber ride in the history of the world.

He claims to have talked to a couple of managers and called me back and stood firm that I have to pay that $750 bucks or drive 5 hours. Anyone else have a situation like this and any guidance for where to go from here? I requested to have a manager call me back but I'm not sure where that's going to get me.

Thank you!

Hello from Escambia County, just north of Pensacola. I have taken delivery of two Teslas here. Both were treated as home deliveries from the time I placed the order. I'm curious why FWB would be different. There was no additional charge for that. I have no delivery centers closer than you do. Decatur, GA probably the closest to me. Both my Model 3 and Model Y were trucked down from there. We do have a Service Center (Light) here, btw. I have run into FWB owners there. Hope you hang in with Tesla and get the car. You will enjoy it.