For a CEO that can put men safely on a space station and will eventually get them to Mars and for a CEO who can get a car to drive itself on curved roads, how in the world can he not get the customer service piece right. My Tesla 3 did not start (apparently the 12V battery was dead without any warning). That's not even my problem. Things break down- no big deal, and the car has been excellent and trouble-free for 33,000 miles.
My real problems were about to begin. I called Tesla and waited for 43 minutes before I got to speak to a human being. (You may want to ask why they have such crazy wait times in the middle of a pandemic when most of their customer base in CA are not even on the road?) I knew I was low on the phone battery and gave the individual another number to call, in case we got cut off. He did try to help me for 15 minutes, and the car could not be started remotely. I was actually ok with all that, but since my app was not working (circle of death), once the call did cut off (and no he never called back), I could not get a hold of Tesla and actually had to call their towing service myself and pay to tow it to the local dealership in Tampa.
Now the story gets worse. I have called the Tampa (N. Florida location) two times today and e-mailed them to ask about the status of my car. I could not use the app until about an hour ago and used that to ping them further. Still no return call. Don't even know if they know my car is there. I guess the only way in the modern age to get hold of Tesla is for me to ride my bike over there to talk to a human being. Elon, this is the easiest part to get right. You've built a wonderful vehicle with world class technology, yet the customer service technology that has been available to the human race since the 1990's is nowhere to be found on your platform. Talk to your customers when they are having problems. It's generally the best way to keep them happy.
My real problems were about to begin. I called Tesla and waited for 43 minutes before I got to speak to a human being. (You may want to ask why they have such crazy wait times in the middle of a pandemic when most of their customer base in CA are not even on the road?) I knew I was low on the phone battery and gave the individual another number to call, in case we got cut off. He did try to help me for 15 minutes, and the car could not be started remotely. I was actually ok with all that, but since my app was not working (circle of death), once the call did cut off (and no he never called back), I could not get a hold of Tesla and actually had to call their towing service myself and pay to tow it to the local dealership in Tampa.
Now the story gets worse. I have called the Tampa (N. Florida location) two times today and e-mailed them to ask about the status of my car. I could not use the app until about an hour ago and used that to ping them further. Still no return call. Don't even know if they know my car is there. I guess the only way in the modern age to get hold of Tesla is for me to ride my bike over there to talk to a human being. Elon, this is the easiest part to get right. You've built a wonderful vehicle with world class technology, yet the customer service technology that has been available to the human race since the 1990's is nowhere to be found on your platform. Talk to your customers when they are having problems. It's generally the best way to keep them happy.