How to get Tesla to reply

[gottlie]

So, i have a quote for a ~$100K system (17.3KW solar roof & 3PW) and i have a couple questions for them (making sure this is sized correctly trying to understand timeline etc), but my calls all go to their voice mail, and they *never* return my calls. They had assigned someone to my case, but he doesn't even acknowledge my e-mails.

I think it's crazy that they won't communicate for a $100K job.

Any recommendations on how to open communication?

thanks,

-bobg

 

[holeydonut]

That sounds like what happened to me ... i just got ghosted during my purchase a few months ago. I just called their customer support line and they put me through to the sales team directly where someone else picked up the order.

1 800 646 952

The weirdest part of that was how the new salesperson said "oh yeah so and so left the team," but it seems Tesla's CRM doesn't push the lead/prospect over to someone else.

 

[SaveOurPlanet]

I think they either have more business than they can handle or they don’t care, I don’t think any of them work on commission or being rated on performance. Instead of an open-ended question on their design you may want to do some homework on how much energy you need and how much their design would yield, then ask to have a proper sizing of your energy need in kWh. I did Google Project Sunroof and PVWatts, then checked my last 3 years actual energy consumption and told them their initial sizing seems low. The roof tiles produce quite a bit less than panels. I managed to get a response from the EA ONCE asking how many kWh I want, I responded and got a revised design 2 days later but nothing more from the EA. I signed everything but changed my mind and ask for a little bump on the kWh but never heard from the EA again. Try emailing them every other day and see. So far my EA responded to 1 out of 4 emails but ignore all voice mails. They don’t really care as I don’t think they have enough solar tiles, PW or installers.

 

[Southpasfan]

The extent to which we are early adopters cannot be emphasized enough. Tesla is attempting to lower the cost in the exact same conceptual way that they did with cars to the extent there are no "dealerships."

I have found that none of the waiting is down to malice, in my case I could easily say they are not moving very fast on a $57K system, but considering it involves plans and permits from utilities and the city it seems understandable.

Just got off the phone with my Advisor and he said he is simply on the phone all day, and calling right at the end of the day is best.

 

[holeydonut]

I don’t think any of them work on commission or being rated on performance.

I think their sales team is definitely driven by commission or quota. Once I was able to get through to Tesla to continue discussing a possible order, I was on a phone call with a rep trying to figure out why their description of expectations under "self powered mode" in a partial backup setup sounded so much different than what I was being told by a Tesla Certified Partner.

After a many references to the Appendix pages of the Tesla Energy Gateway 2 installation manual, he just cut in and said "I've spent 30 minutes on the phone with you; if you're not sure about the tech then I need to move on." And he terminated the call.

 

[njhtran]

The extent to which we are early adopters cannot be emphasized enough. Tesla is attempting to lower the cost in the exact same conceptual way that they did with cars to the extent there are no "dealerships."

I have found that none of the waiting is down to malice, in my case I could easily say they are not moving very fast on a $57K system, but considering it involves plans and permits from utilities and the city it seems understandable.

Just got off the phone with my Advisor and he said he is simply on the phone all day, and calling right at the end of the day is best.

I can speak from my personal experience that after investigating a timeline going on 5 months that every step that took longer than expected was due to the Tesla project specialist team dragging their feet. They’re a team of 3 people handling all of the bureaucracy of working with inspections permits and app submissions. They’ve off put Completing scheduling and submission applications and or “lost” my documents such as permits. I know this because I live in a small town and personally spoke directly with the inspection and permit team and they gave me detailed timelines of their correspondence each step of the way with Tesla. Between Every step there was a 1-3 week dragging feet period. When I got smart to their game and called them out on it is when they switched to the “fedex lost your permit” play. The only one they didn’t use was the “dog ate your paperwork right when we were about to submit it “ tactic.

I placed my order in May and we are now going into sept. That’s about 5 months and still no pto. Absolutely ridiculous. I have stopped referring anyone to go with Tesla solar after this.


I know of a few others who have ordered solar not from Tesla after I did and was finished start to end within 30 days ! So if you don’t want to deal with feet dragging and unresponsive service headache , I’d suggest trying a different company

 

[jboy210]

I think part of it is they get a lot of "tire-kickers". So a lot of people ask a lot of questions and then never pull the commit trigger. FWIW, I had similar experience with Petersendean a large roof and solar installer. Luckily for me they were so slow and inefficient we did not go with them and got a SolarRoof plus PWs instead!

 

[jboy210]

I think part of it is they get a lot of "tire-kickers". So a lot of people ask a lot of questions and then never pull the commit trigger. FWIW, I had similar experience with Petersendean a large roof and solar installer. Luckily for me they were so slow and inefficient we did not go with them and got a SolarRoof plus PWs instead!

 

[jboy210]

I think part of it is they get a lot of "tire-kickers". So a lot of people ask a lot of questions and then never pull the commit trigger. FWIW, I had similar experience with Petersendean a large roof and solar installer. Luckily for me they were so slow and inefficient we did not go with them and got a SolarRoof plus PWs instead!

 

[GreenT]

Simple solution. Shop with someone else?

 

[SoCal Dave]

My install finished as they added the dedicated advisors, but I would just call the main Tesla number. Sometimes it would be a long hold, but working from home I'd just work on something until someone answered. Usually the person who would finally pickup would be helpful.

For saving $6K+ and knowing in advance what I was getting into, I was fine waiting on hold a bit.

 

[mnsweeps]

OP, not sure if your have a Twitter account but I maintain one just for complaints and negative issues with companies I deal with like Delta, TMobile, HomeDepot etc. I have found over 90% of them respond immediately when I post a horrible experience on a public forum. In over 80% of my cases, I have found satisfying resolution. Do the same with Tesla. Directly tweet @tesla and @elonmusk. You never know they may even reply and take immediate action. I had an issue with my new 2019 Model 3 last year and someone from Tesla privately responsed and fixed my issue.

 

[mnsweeps]

@nhtran - You mentioned your permits is mailed/couriered? I see you are in Temecula... don't Riverside county(?) have an electronic permitting process? Luckily in L.A county we have online system for submitting and reviewing.

 

[charlesj]

OP, not sure if your have a Twitter account but I maintain one just for complaints and negative issues with companies I deal with like Delta, TMobile, HomeDepot etc. I have found over 90% of them respond immediately when I post a horrible experience on a public forum. In over 80% of my cases, I have found satisfying resolution. Do the same with Tesla. Directly tweet @tesla and @elonmusk. You never know they may even reply and take immediate action. I had an issue with my new 2019 Model 3 last year and someone from Tesla privately responsed and fixed my issue.

Is that the "squeaky wheel get the grease."

 

[njhtran]

I

@nhtran - You mentioned your permits is mailed/couriered? I see you are in Temecula... don't Riverside county(?) have an electronic permitting process? Luckily in L.A county we have online system for submitting and reviewing.

That’s the funny part. It wasn’t lost from city to Tesla. It was supposedly lost between one Tesla employee to another sent via FedEx. Supposedly. I don’t believe it for a second.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

you don't send them money!

 

[Uncle Paul]

After Tesla processes your order, they will not generally communicate with you until it is time to schedule an inspection and installation date.

During that time the do not want to deal with constant consumer questions, specifications, justifying panel placements, playing the "what if" game, discussing wiring, panel capacity. There are usually lots of things customers want to get a handle on, well in advance of installation, and this just chews up lots of customer service back and forths.

They will reach out to you to get the pictures and details THEY need to arrange installation and pricing. Other that that it is pretty quiet. Same proceedure they use for buying a car.

Tesla has an optimized (for them) system to get the panels on your roof and paid for. Do not want to spend any more resourses than necessary to get them installed.

 

[SoCal Dave]

you don't send them money!

Unfortunately, njhtran is at the PTO stage. He had to pay Tesla to start the PTO process.

 

[trautmane2]

After Tesla processes your order, they will not generally communicate with you until it is time to schedule an inspection and installation date.

This has been my experience so far with the solar glass process. I guess it makes some sense - especially if they have more interest/orders than they can manage - but it has frustrated me. This is a big purchase for me and I naively wanted a little hand-holding. My emails and texts seemed to go into a void. The only thing that worked for me was ...

just call the main Tesla number

... during office hours and wait on hold for a long time. Actually the time this "worked", an advisor called me while I was on hold. He opened with: "I see you called a week ago" (I had called outside normal hours the week before and had left a message). He was very helpful on that call, but it still seemed like I was being ignored.

 

[GreenT]

After Tesla processes your order, they will not generally communicate with you until it is time to schedule an inspection and installation date.

During that time the do not want to deal with constant consumer questions, specifications, justifying panel placements, playing the "what if" game, discussing wiring, panel capacity. There are usually lots of things customers want to get a handle on, well in advance of installation, and this just chews up lots of customer service back and forths.

They will reach out to you to get the pictures and details THEY need to arrange installation and pricing. Other that that it is pretty quiet. Same proceedure they use for buying a car.

Tesla has an optimized (for them) system to get the panels on your roof and paid for. Do not want to spend any more resourses than necessary to get them installed.

Sounds like you're condoning this?