DS not responding...

[aesculus]

My DS is not responding either. My friend had the same experience at another service center. Not that having to deal with dealers would be more pleasant but it is hard to imagine that a sales person for any other car manufacturer would ignore their customers when buying 100k cars as SOP.

Don't bet on it. I had a big name car dealer once that sold a reserved car out from under me and another one they gave to the wife of the Sales Manager. Since I was a new customer of theirs and they felt I would buy the car anyway, they just stomped all over me. I only found these two factoids out later by accident when talking to various other parties who did not even know they were disclosing the information to me.

 

[CaliX]

Don't bet on it. I had a big name car dealer once that sold a reserved car out from under me and another one they gave to the wife of the Sales Manager. Since I was a new customer of theirs and they felt I would buy the car anyway, they just stomped all over me. I only found these two factoids out later by accident when talking to various other parties who did not even know they were disclosing the information to me.

I know just a little frustrating 800 tesla tells me only DS can give me dates and I can't get them to respond. But you are right I have MB dealership down the road from my house and they stick it to customers.

 

[Mark Z]

My DS was occasionally responsive and answered maybe three emails or phone calls out of at least a dozen over 6 months, but he sure successfully fought behind the scenes to get Model X delivered by the end of the year. Talking to the SC manager and calling Fremont helped give me assurance, even though that information wasn't always correct. One early midyear comment by the area delivery manager was, "by the end of the year". How right he was!

One problem is that the DS can push for results, but doesn't necessarily control the situation. Until the vehicle was released from Fremont, there was no clear indication of when the vehicle would be ready.

I got the call at 7 PM to pick up Model X at 8:30 the following day. Surprise! And to top it off, they provided a "all hands on deck" ceremony during delivery. Impressive.

 

[Darryl]

Depending on where you are they may only have a couple of DSs at a SC with some other (I don't know their titles) workers assisting. Since your DS has to be located where you are taking delivery it is not like there are are a lot of choices. If you are really unhappy you may have to change SCs. Knowing how busy they are I didn't reach out to my DS until My Tesla page indicated my car was about to be transported. Even at that point I was still 4-5 weeks from delivery (ended up being 8 weeks from delivery and I was given four delivery dates after it got to my SC with the last being next Thursday. If you are taking delivery in Freemont at least there are more DSs. My DS said the same people call her every week asking for an update and sometime multible times each week. These people don't even have VINs yet. The DSs have no idea when VINS will be assigned and until you get a VIN your car isn't in the queue to start the pre-production process. They also can't tell you how long it will take to go through production as there are too many variables. During the production process a car may be pulled off the line because of an issue and not put back on the line until the problem is resolved, sometimes weeks. When it clears QA at Freemont is probably the first point they can give you a ball park dates. I am sure once they work out all the issues with production, let say a couple more months, then they will be able to give better timeframes. Remember the DS is not a sales person. The more time they spend giving updates the less time they can work on deliveries.

 

[CaliX]

@Darryl you have several good points. My two closest SC's are staffed with the same DS's they go back and forth. I know because I have bought two S's from them. So I will just sit tight... At some point someone will contact me because they will want money

 

[Tribaltech]

I have to say I am very disappointed in the kind of people running Tesla dealerships or DS as people call them here. Here I am aching to purchase a S90D with most options. I first dealt with the Cincinnati dealership and they started being quick to respond and then completely dropped off the radar. I followed up and then some and never heard back. Frustrated I took my thread of history to the Cleveland dealership. And again, things started out fine but then now again I am seeing my key owner adviser refuses to respond. Is Tesla really that stunted in its operational planning that it is employing these young Apple store kind of hipster kids who don't take business seriously? Like if I were to walk into an Audi or Mercedes dealership wanting to drop $100K on a car they'd be climbing over one another to answer my questions but the buying experience with Tesla has been extremely disappointing so far. Its almost making me not want to support such a company that does not seem to give a flying f about a potential buyer. I wonder if Musk knows about whats going on or if he is oblivious.

 

[Uncle Paul]

One of the reasons that Audi or Mercedes people are climbing all over is that they are out to earn a huge comission on selling you a car. They tend to annoyingly over follow up, and usually have a sales manager all over them to follow up every lead until the potential buyer buys or says no.

Like more and more direct purchases goe, it becomes a shared responsibility between the buyer and seller to be available and communicating to reach a sale. If the company representative drops the ball, then the responsibility falls to the person wanting to purchase the item.

Not all that good or bad, but more the way buying direct is evolving.

 

[nctalkinghead]

may be off topic but I share a humorous real estate story. I walked into an onsite sales office at a gated community on a Saturday to see what inventory they might have for a small vacation home. The female agent was very pleasant but told me up front "I am the only agent here today so I can't leave to show you any property but we can talk about inventory." I told her I only had about $140k to invest, not $500k. She stopped dead in her tracks and said, "If you had $500k I would put a note on the door on the way out!"

 

[woof]

Here I am aching to purchase a S90D with most options.

Welcome...and please note that you don't need anyone at the store to purchase anything. Use the web, that's the way Tesla's are meant to be bought. In Michigan...it's the only way!

 

[FarmerDave]

Welcome...and please note that you don't need anyone at the store to purchase anything. Use the web, that's the way Tesla's are meant to be bought. In Michigan...it's the only way!

And use my link to do it and save $1,000!

 

[Tribaltech]

I would be happy to use your link to save $1000. Slightly off topic but I am still struggling with the trade-in dynamics. Tesla is offering me a rock bottom price and I know I could easily have gotten a couple thousand more if it were another dealership. I don't know what to do, whether to order my Tesla and then take a leap of faith and try selling it on my own or at Carmax once the my Model S is about to get delivered or go the Private Party route? Any ideas? I'll start a new thread soon.

 

[pilotSteve]

I would be happy to use your link to save $1000. Slightly off topic but I am still struggling with the trade-in dynamics. Tesla is offering me a rock bottom price and I know I could easily have gotten a couple thousand more if it were another dealership. I don't know what to do, whether to order my Tesla and then take a leap of faith and try selling it on my own or at Carmax once the my Model S is about to get delivered or go the Private Party route? Any ideas? I'll start a new thread soon.

Do you have state income tax on the purchase? I do in WA state, so it was easy to compute the 'break even' price on a private sell (where I lost the sales tax credit of my trade) vs. Tesla's offer to buy with tax savings by paying only the difference. Plus I don't have the extended warranty on my 2012 S85 (it was not available to purchase in WA until this year) so that would be another $4k I would have to recoup from a private buyer as they would certainly require me to supply the warranty.

For me, Tesla's trade offer was about the same as an expected private sale (net of the extended warranty and sales tax difference).

 

[MaxK]

I would be happy to use your link to save $1000. Slightly off topic but I am still struggling with the trade-in dynamics. Tesla is offering me a rock bottom price and I know I could easily have gotten a couple thousand more if it were another dealership. I don't know what to do, whether to order my Tesla and then take a leap of faith and try selling it on my own or at Carmax once the my Model S is about to get delivered or go the Private Party route? Any ideas? I'll start a new thread soon.

Tesla matched the offer I received from CarMax (was $4,000 higher than Tesla's offer). By trading in, I only paid sales tax on purchase price of the Tesla less the trade-in amount, which saved another $2,500.

 

[bugZPDX]

I second what MaxK said. We were given a trade-in price and then told to go to CarMax. If their offer was higher, Tesla would match it. That's our plan.