Employee who sent $30,000 off email was FIRED!

[AmpedRealtor]

Hello everyone,

Last week I received an email from Tesla advertising "showroom discounts" up to $30,000 off P100D models, which I posted here. TMC put an article on the front page based on my post, which got picked up by Elektrek in this article: Tesla offers ‘up to $30,000 showroom discounts’ and lowers interest rates to boost sales before end of the quarter. Tesla has since terminated the sales advisor, Aaron Schenck. Some of us local owners are really shocked by this, especially since many of us received the email and told people we knew to help Tesla sell more cars. Aaron Schenck is a great guy with a family, doesn't deserve this. I was told by another local owner that Aaron had the approval of his manager to send out that email because end-of-quarter incentives were coming.

The TMC article that likely prompted the Elektrek article is here: Tesla Offering ‘Showroom Discounts’ Up To $30K

The thread I started when I shared the email is here: Tesla Email: $30,000 Off P100D!!!!

Hoping there is something we can do for him, he was just doing his job.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

why?

 

[outie]

Probably because Tesla/EM always wanted people to believe if you want a Tesla you need to pay MSRP and only those have miles on them get discounted. Even if they discount them they don't want the public to know (online). The Elektrek article probably prompted them to take action.

 

[Matias]

Sad. Guy was doing what he was told to do.

 

[azred]

Hello everyone,

Last week I received an email from Tesla advertising "showroom discounts" up to $30,000 off P100D models, which I posted here. TMC put an article on the front page based on my post, which got picked up by Elektrek in this article: Tesla offers ‘up to $30,000 showroom discounts’ and lowers interest rates to boost sales before end of the quarter. Tesla has since terminated the sales advisor, Aaron Schenck. Some of us local owners are really shocked by this, especially since many of us received the email and told people we knew to help Tesla sell more cars. Aaron Schenck is a great guy with a family, doesn't deserve this. I was told by another local owner that Aaron had the approval of his manager to send out that email because end-of-quarter incentives were coming.

The TMC article that likely prompted the Elektrek article is here: Tesla Offering ‘Showroom Discounts’ Up To $30K

The thread I started when I shared the email is here: Tesla Email: $30,000 Off P100D!!!!

Hoping there is something we can do for him, he was just doing his job.

I can understand why you might feel some responsibility, but you also may not know all of the facts. This matter is between Aaron and Tesla. It's none of our business.

 

[Rahul]

That's terrible to hear. I've purchased both my S's through Aaron and he's been a straight shooter with me. I haven't been able to get so much as a free baseball cap from him. It's not like these inventory model incentives are news. They just cleared through the 90Ds and I think there are a couple other threads discussing the P100D incentives beyond the OPs thread.

Maybe it's a culture thing, I just read they're getting hit with a labor suit:

US labor board files complaint against Tesla over worker rights

Being the company that is making big changes in the world, I hope they treat their workforce better....

 

[Tesmotorfaqcom]

I believe the end of quarter push is kind of an unspoken rule for Tesla and to have an OA send out email to customers probably break this rule and having it publish will definitely get someone fire due to violation of no discount rules. It's similar to Well Fargo, those millions of fraudulent accounts, it's hard to believe the upper management is unaware of what's going on but until it get out of hand, the company will always blame the employees to show it's a problem with individual employees and not systematic.

 

[ahkahn]

...Or maybe he didn't have permission to send it out afterall...

I don't know him at all, but my feeling is that if he was that great of an employee, they wouldn't have fired him if he was doing something he had permission for. That is, unless his boss didn't want to take responsibility for it and threw him under the bus.

 

[FlatSix911]

Hello everyone, Last week I received an email from Tesla advertising "showroom discounts" up to $30,000 off P100D models, which I posted here. TMC put an article on the front page based on my post, which got picked up by Elektrek in this article: Tesla offers ‘up to $30,000 showroom discounts’ and lowers interest rates to boost sales before end of the quarter. Tesla has since terminated the sales advisor, Aaron Schenck. Some of us local owners are really shocked by this, especially since many of us received the email and told people we knew to help Tesla sell more cars. Aaron Schenck is a great guy with a family, doesn't deserve this. I was told by another local owner that Aaron had the approval of his manager to send out that email because end-of-quarter incentives were coming.
The TMC article that likely prompted the Elektrek article is here: Tesla Offering ‘Showroom Discounts’ Up To $30K The thread I started when I shared the email is here: Tesla Email: $30,000 Off P100D!!!! Hoping there is something we can do for him, he was just doing his job.

I would recommend bringing this to the attention of Jon McNeill, the sales/service VP to review the case

 

[dennis]

I would recommend bringing this to the attention of Jon McNeill, the sales/service VP to review the case

Given the publicity associated with Schenk's email, I suspect McNeil already knows about the firing and agreed with it.

 

[azred]

Given the publicity associated with Schenk's email, I suspect McNeil already knows about the firing and agreed with it.

No kidding. I can see why the OP feels bad as his publicity re the private note sent to him by the fired employee may have caused the firing. But the operative word is "may." This is a personnel, personal matter between the salesman and his employer. No one here has any business poking their noses into the matter. MYOB.

 

[Rahul]

One way or another something isn't right about the way TSLA is playing this game. As other's have mentioned they claim there are no discounts. But you can go right on ev-cpo.com and see inventory sorted by discount. It might not be the complete list but it's a farce that there are no discounts.

Then one of their sales guys tries to sell and he gets fired? It's not like he even made up the pricing! We can stick our head in the sand and say it's between employer and employee but a whole lot of innocent folks at Wells Fargo got screwed just trying to meet upper management's goals.

Doesn't seem right...

 

[Ski_]

Given the publicity associated with Schenk's email, I suspect McNeil already knows about the firing and agreed with it.

Given the publicity of this whole thing and if he was really fired over this-- Tesla should make a PR statement... else, it is definitely sounding like poor form on Tesla's part. As mentioned in an earlier comment-- they already have a major labor issue that is negative in press...

 

[TaoJones]

No kidding. I can see why the OP feels bad as his publicity re the private note sent to him by the fired employee may have caused the firing. But the operative word is "may." This is a personnel, personal matter between the salesman and his employer. No one here has any business poking their noses into the matter. MYOB.

Extra sand, stage left.

That position, if ever valid, ended and became irrevocably altered when the matter became public, and when relationships with existing customers and potential customers became affected.

Remember - it's rarely the crime but the cover up that ends up being the problem.

Now it would be appropriate for the matter to play out in an transparent a manner as possible.

Edit: Which also gives both sides the opportunity to apply some positive spin.

 

[1MoreUsername]

Given the publicity of this whole thing and if he was really fired over this-- Tesla should make a PR statement... else, it is definitely sounding like poor form on Tesla's part. As mentioned in an earlier comment-- they already have a major labor issue that is negative in press...

Speaking of a statement....looks like a statement from Tesla has been added to this article: $30,000 Off Price Of Tesla Model S P100D Or Model X P100D Showroom Cars This Month

 

[dennis]

One way or another something isn't right about the way TSLA is playing this game. As other's have mentioned they claim there are no discounts. But you can go right on ev-cpo.com and see inventory sorted by discount. It might not be the complete list but it's a farce that there are no discounts.

Then one of their sales guys tries to sell and he gets fired? It's not like he even made up the pricing! We can stick our head in the sand and say it's between employer and employee but a whole lot of innocent folks at Wells Fargo got screwed just trying to meet upper management's goals.

Doesn't seem right...

Elon never claimed there were no discounts. What he specifically said was that a Tesla buyer should never get a better price for the same car because s/he was a better negotiator than someone else buying the same car. That was what was occurring a year or so ago and that is what he put a stop to with his memo to employees. The shorts, the press, and many others never took the time to understand his words and instead created the sound bite that Tesla doesn't discount.

Tesla discounts inventory cars based on how many miles they have on the odo, how long it has been since they were produced, whether a newer version of some portion of the car has been or is about to be introduced, and whether a price reduction or option bundling has been announced since the inventory car was first priced. That said, once they establish the discounted price, it is not negotiable. You pay the same price as me if you buy the car. You can't negotiate a bigger discount that gets approved by "the manager". Nor will they "throw in" some options for free.

The current discounts are occurring because there have been price reductions and most likely because there is an impending upgrade that means that all of the cars currently in inventory will have to be discounted anyway when that upgrade occurs, most likely in early October.

Edit: I see my statements above about the discount policy were echoed by Tesla:
$30,000 Off Price Of Tesla Model S P100D Or Model X P100D Showroom Cars This Month

 

[Spidy]

 

[schonelucht]

Speaking of a statement....looks like a statement from Tesla has been added to this article: $30,000 Off Price Of Tesla Model S P100D Or Model X P100D Showroom Cars This Month

It seems like they are firing them for calling it a showroom discount, except that is what Tesla themselves call it when they send you the price offer?

 

[K-MTG]

I think firing is a little harsh because of that one email....I am sure a lot of us on the forum dealt with something a lot worse! We just didn't mention the name of our rep and elecrek didn't publish an article about it.

 

[KarenRei]

Agreed. I see both sides on this. I understand why Tesla is upset, because it led to the impression that you can negotiate with Tesla about discounts on new cars, which Tesla sees as contrary to the image that they want to build of a no-hassle no-negotiation car buying experience. Even though the email wasn't about new cars, and was never meant to be about new cars - CleanTechnica correctly "guessed" this, writing about "the assumption" and "presumably". But there was some ambiguity and this ambiguity had gotten press about Tesla that they didn't want.

I agree with others that firing was probably too harsh. But I guess it shows how seriously they take the image of "no negotiation or discounts on new cars". It's not the first time the company has cracked down on overly aggressive attempts to meet quarterly sales figures, and they've issued pretty harsh warnings about it in the past.