Hey guys
I guess this post will be a half rant, half counseling session.
A little backstory: I purchased my first Tesla back when Tesla only made one car. The "sales" staff made a huge point at the time not to sell cars, but to act more like museum curators, explaining the technology and showing people around which made for the best car purchase experience I had ever been a part of. And while the car had flaws Tesla service would always go out of their way to pick up and drop off your car to you, give you a loaner, and ensure the process was as customer friendly as possible. Elon Musk was a humble visionary at the time, and it was easy to root for the company amidst the immense misinformation and naivety surrounding electric cars.
Fast forward to today and Tesla to me stands for everything antithetical to what I mentioned above. Good luck getting in contact with service. Tesla will screw over customers as much and as often as they can get away with it and I feel people are passionate about the company because they haven't had to experience this themselves. My 2015 car, despite only being supercharged on longer trips has been horribly throttled. FSD has been over promised time and time again. Tesla's recent successes and outrageously loyal fanbase seems to only reinforce the idea that Tesla can keep screwing customers over and keep getting away with it. Their CEO is childish and yet seems to be 100% supported in every dumb thing he says or does.
The only strong positive are the cars. I guess I am secretly waiting for another company to come with an electric car with the range, UI, and charging infrastructure Tesla has at a comparable price. Maybe I'll be waiting a long time but until then I don't see myself upgrading to the latest and greatest Tesla as I had envisioned. I would never believe I would be saying this 3 years ago when I was a strong advocate for the company and willing to wait in line for the model 3 (only to pay a higher price and have horrible quality control issues and UI bugs for a year). At this point, I wish the company would change its culture but I am not holding my breath. Until then, I am no longer passionate about the brand and have more disdain than admiration.
I miss the Tesla of past...
Understand your need to rant. My Tesla experience over past year with Tesla has not been great either, though I do continue to love the cars, the “Tesla Experience” has definitely caused me to sour on the company Tesla. I purchased a 14 Model S through a wholesale auction a few years ago. Being a dealer you do not get a title right away, which really confuses the SC/Tech Support.
Took me 2weeks and several lockouts to convince Tesla I was the owner of the car. Fast forward to beginning of 2020. I had been looking Used Model X through Tesla. Being a dealer I knew where several hundred traded in Teslas were located, but because of Tesla lack of experience in the used car markets they dinnot allow them be inspected before purchase. If you put a non refundable $100 deposit down they would bring the vehicle to a DC to see. If you rejected the vehicle you were out your $100. Once you took delivery no returns were allowed. One bright spot is Tesla does give a 2/4 50k mile warranty that is the best in the business .
My Model Y story.
I ended ordering What I thought was Model Y over the phone . Right after I agreed to the order I noticed it was for a Model 3. I questioned the Tesla rep. He said he thought I wanted a Model 3 even though I specifically told him numerous times I was only interested in a Model Y. Ended up canceling the Model 3 order and Tesla refused to return my $100 deposit.
. my experience only got worse. A few days later I got a call from Tesla and wanted to know if I wanted to test dive a Model Y. At that time, there were no Model Y’s available for test drives so I jumped at the chance to be the first to do so. Next day got to drive the Model Y, which of course I loved it and place an order. About 6 weeks later the Y arrived and went to take delivery. Much to my dismay the Y had so many issues, like paint, interior damages, misaligned seats, damaged seals and so on. The DC guy said I should reject and they would get me another Y within 7 days. Sure enough I received a call 4 days later saying they had another car. 3 days later I went to look at the car. This Y seemed better so I did take delivery. What happen next was pretty embarrassing for me, having 25 years in the car business. At my DC you inspect the cars inside a warehouse that not well lit, so you are not really getting a chance to see the paint on the car as well as in the natural light, especially a white car. The next day at home I looking over the car throughly and the right side doors and fenders paint looked off. Thought maybe I was being overly critical so I took the car to Tesla ‘s certified body shop to ask their opinion. Manager came out to look at the car and right away he agreed the panels did not match and the paint was blotchy.
Much to my embarrassment, he pointed out several other paint and body issues that I missed including areas that had repaired as well has bent door and hood hinges. he said he had another Model Y In the shop just like mine that was being completely repainted.
Immediately drove the car to the SC , they wouldn’t even look at the car and they called the manager at DC and directed me back to them. When I got to DC, the car had less 100 miles on it. The Manager of the DC said he was busy and pawned me off to the service manager there. The SC manager wouldn’t even take the time to look at the car or provide any solutions to the problems. He just wanted to know if I wanted to return the car. I asked him if he had any other ways to resolve the problems and he simply asked for my key cards and told me to wait for him to get the paperwork to return the car. He also told my deposit would not be returned and I would not be able to another Model Y in the same trim level. 15 minutes later I was waiting for a ride home without my Model Y.
Moral of the story. Tesla does not seem to care about it’s customers, only numbers of sales that will get them to the S&P 500 and raise the price of Tesla’s stock so Musk can get his billions in incentives. I think the technologies that Tesla, Space X are great but I am wondering where Musk’s heart really is... and even though I am really bummed I am not owning and driving a Tesla right now, I really hope that other EVs will come to market and make Tesla be forced to treat their loyal customers better if they want to retain them. Thanks for allowing me to rant too.