I Enjoy the Car, I Really Dislike Tesla the Car Company

[Canuck]

These surveys do make you wonder...

Yes, it does me too. I can't believe that 9% of people who own a Tesla won't buy again. Who are those people?

If you asked me, I might stutter step and say, "YES" I might buy a Tesla again..

You use "might" twice. Methinks doth protest too much.

But that doesn't mean I'm clearly happy w/ the car company.

If I only bought products from companies that I'm clearly happy with there's not much I'd own.

 

[MS16]

2. The loaner program, as Elon laid it out, is a total and complete fabrication in every single way...

Jeff

Totally agree! Over promise, under deliver.

Creating the World’s Best Service and Warranty Program

 

[Hank42]

This seems to be location based. Either for training, or density of consumers or I don't know quite what. I took delivery in 2012, and believe me, with a car that "original", I feel I am in a pretty good position to judge the quality of the service I have received. For me, I could not be happier with my local service staff, in fact they have been proactive in many areas regarding retrofits and updates. Calls back to Tesla corporate for approval etc were answered swiftly, and I have never been without my vehicle for more than 2 days - even for some pretty intense work. I will go ahead and say it, this is the best service I have received among any new cars I've owned - and for the record those companies would be BMW and GM.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

Voila Car Brands Ranked by Owner Satisfaction

Thanks! So here is the thing, if every other Tesla owner is treated like a king or queen, and I still have to call 50 times to get a service appointment, my impression is still the same.

I'm at my 2 year mark. Right now, I'll stay until 4, original plan was to stay until 8.
Then lets re-evaluate. If service improves and repair costs come down, I'll consider buying another Tesla.
Otherwise, I'm out. But look at the plus side, people like me won't be voting on that rigged survey.

This seems to be location based. Either for training, or density of consumers or I don't know quite what. I took delivery in 2012, and believe me, with a car that "original", I feel I am in a pretty good position to judge the quality of the service I have received. For me, I could not be happier with my local service staff, in fact they have been proactive in many areas regarding retrofits and updates. Calls back to Tesla corporate for approval etc were answered swiftly, and I have never been without my vehicle for more than 2 days - even for some pretty intense work. I will go ahead and say it, this is the best service I have received among any new cars I've owned - and for the record those companies would be BMW and GM.

You bought your car in 2012 - fewer Tesla's on the road, Tesla had fewer cars to manage, Tesla had a greater reason to keep you smiling. Not the case today.

Here is how I see it - Tesla is having growing pains. As the number of cars are increasing, they are not being able to manage the existing cars on the road. And with a huge emphasis on sales, QC is down, and as a result service centers have more work.

There is a trend amongst the whiners. Where there are more Tesla's is where you hear about poor service experience. LA, SFO, East Coast. And I hate to be right about this, but once there are 400K model 3's on the road, you'd prefer comcast made your car.

 

[SocalMS]

Yes, it does me too. I can't believe that 9% of people who own a Tesla won't buy again. Who are those people?

You use "might" twice. Methinks doth protest too much.

If I only bought products from companies that I'm clearly happy with there's not much I'd own.

.

As you can see... for some ... Tesla can do no wrong...

Any issues w/ the company is apparently "user error".


.

 

[Super_Popular]

.

As you can see... for some ... Tesla can do no wrong...

Any issues w/ the company is apparently "user error".


.

You're funny.

 

[MS16]

.


*Something is obviously broken when:
1. They allow new cars to ship w/ defects.
2. The SC keep the cars for days to weeks
3. Cars come back from SC blemished.
4. Can't get an appointment w/ a SC becaue they don't return calls/emails/texts etc... etc..
5. I share my frustrations on TMC
6. President and Regional Manager has to step in.

.

Some day Tesla will figure out that if they don't ship so many defective cars from the factory, the Service Centers won't be overflowing trying to fix defective cars delivered fresh from the factory.

The "ship now, fix later" mentality of Tesla needs to stop.

 

[NeoDog]

Saying that your Tesla experience has been perfect doesn't negate the fact that many people's experiences have not been perfect.

True, but I guess the meta discussion is if the talk about not perfect deserves multiple threads for the same incident. That seems to inflate the significance/prevalence of it. And I would imagine most people who had a good experience don't bother to post a thread about it, while those that had a bad experience are more likely to post to vent. So naturally in online forums, the complaints tend to get more of a voice anyways.

This I can agree with.

I think it's debatable. Without real data, it's speculation as to whether one or the other of "perfect experiences" vs "bad experiences" are over-represented in forum posts. Negative experiences do tend to be overrepresented in prevalence in many forums, but brand loyalty can have the same effect. It's also arguable whether an imbalance in terms of the prevalence of the issue reflects an equal imbalance on the significance. I actually argue the opposite: if 1 in 20 people have a bad experience with a company, it doesn't matter how good the other 19 have it, the company is not doing a good job. Good service is all about executing well in the cases where things go wrong, not about how often things go wrong (although bad QA can overwhelm otherwise good service... but you generally have to blame the waiter when the cook screws up, since he is the face of the product).

As for the contention about multiple threads being created for the same issues: I agree that this should be avoided, but I don't think that's what happened here. In general, a new thesis should get a new thread. From what I can see in the history, this is the first thread where SocialMS compiled all of his prior observations into a formal (personal) conclusion about Tesla's service performance. I'm glad he put that in a new thread. But I can see why it would get wearisome to people who don't relate.

For the record, my experiences have been stunningly similar to those of @SocialMS. I'm still a fan, but some tough love is in order.

 

[Canuck]

As you can see... for some ... Tesla can do no wrong...

Any issues w/ the company is apparently "user error".

I made jokes about the 9% who won't buy a Tesla again, and about you using the word "might" twice (but like many jokes there's some truth to both of those) and how I found it odd that you expect to be "clearly happy" with a company you buy products from -- and to you that means I think Tesla can do no wrong? That's some strange logic there.

Unlike you, I don't lock out my profile since I have nothing to hide if someone wants to see what I post. If you take a look at my posts, you will see I have criticized Tesla many, many times. I even said to you earlier in this thread:

there is merit in what you say

My issue with you is not your criticism of Tesla -- that's fine by me. Holding Tesla's feet to the flame is a good thing to do. It will only make Tesla better. But when I criticize Tesla, I don't do it repeatedly over the same issues, in multiple threads, so people have to read my concerns over and over and over. You can say:

Nobody is speaking into your ear. You have the choice to NOT READ.

But I like to click on threads here and read what people have to say and once I do that and realize it's you again, complaining about the same things again, it's too late -- the reading has been done.

Of course, you can post what you want, over and over if you want, but you might just want to consider taking to heart the people here like me who are telling you that it may be just a little excessive. I know you really want to balance out the fact that a lot us really do like our vehicles, and have no problems with service (not to downplay your concerns -- I am not in California) but please believe me when I say we hear you the first time.

 

[SocalMS]

I made jokes about the 9% who won't buy a Tesla again, and about you using the word "might" twice (but like many jokes there's some truth to both of those) and how I found it odd that you expect to be "clearly happy" with a company you buy products from -- and to you that means I think Tesla can do no wrong? That's some strange logic there.

Unlike you, I don't lock out my profile since I have nothing to hide if someone wants to see what I post. If you take a look at my posts, you will see I have criticized Tesla many, many times. I even said to you earlier in this thread:

My issue with you is not your criticism of Tesla -- that's fine by me. Holding Tesla's feet to the flame is a good thing to do. It will only make Tesla better. But when I criticize Tesla, I don't do it repeatedly over the same issues, in multiple threads, so people have to read my concerns over and over and over. You can say:

But I like to click on threads here and read what people have to say and once I do that and realize it's you again, complaining about the same things again, it's too late -- the reading has been done.

Of course, you can post what you want, over and over if you want, but you might just want to consider taking to heart the people here like me who are telling you that it may be just a little excessive. I know you really want to balance out the fact that a lot us really do like our vehicles, and have no problems with service (not to downplay your concerns -- I am not in California) but please believe me when I say we hear you the first time.

Unlike you, I don't lock out my profile since I have nothing to hide if someone wants to see what I post. If you take a look at my posts, you will see I have criticized Tesla many, many times. I even said to you earlier in this thread:
** So my profile settings is directly indicative of my (lack of) credibility?


I don't do it repeatedly over the same issues, in multiple threads, so people have to read my concerns over and over and over.
** I respectfully disagree w/ you... I may repeat things.. but each thread, each post.. has a NEW focus. (think layers of an onion)


Of course, you can post what you want, over and over if you want, but you might just want to consider taking to heart the people here like me who are telling you that it may be just a little excessive.
** I apologize for bumming some people out... I will turn up the party music and bring back the punch bowl...


I know you really want to balance out the fact that a lot us really do like our vehicles, and have no problems with service (not to downplay your concerns -- I am not in California) but please believe me when I say we hear you the first time
** I like my vehicle too. I'm just unhappy with the company.. Now that you've heard me.. Hopefully my message will echo to the remaining who have yet to hear...



I think we all want the same thing..

We want Tesla to succeed.

Think NCAA tournament...

Tesla just made it to the Sweet 16.

I'm voicing to the players about where we need to improve, how we need to get better in order to make it to the Final 4.
If not, there's a good chance we'll get bounced.

For some, they think everything is fine the way it is....
........ I FOR ONE DO NOT.

 

[Super_Popular]

Blazers are going to win

 

[Canuck]

For some, they think everything is fine the way it is....
........ I FOR ONE DO NOT.

For some, perspective is important. Without Tesla, I'd be driving an ICE. That would reduce my quality of life. Every day I look forward to driving my vehicle. So I do like to give credit where credit is due. That doesn't excuse Tesla for their faults, but you go overboard to me and lose perspective.

But we will agree to disagree and enjoy that punch together. I hope it's not non-alcoholic...

 

[Tampaukfan]

I agree with some of your points and the overall dislike of Tesla the car company.
However I think your service dept issues may just be in your area. The Tampa team is great, they bust their butt to make the customers happy and the service manager is top notch, always on top of problems. I feel sorry for the service centers, Telsa dumps all the crap on them to deal with.
As a whole Tesla does suck as a automaker... poor quality, under staffed service centers, over promises and under deliver..
Instead of focusing on the core products quality they send out tweets and press releases for new vehicles to raise the stock price.

Fanboys will chime in about other automakers that have recalls or failures but always fail to mention those other automakers make a profit... Tesla does not make money, they burn through cash at an alarming rate. When your company makes money you can afford a screw up, recall or a bad model. Tesla cant afford all of the quality issues, bad service, bad sales experiences etc..
You think getting a loaner or repair takes a long time now, what do you think would happen if the Model S had a recall that effected 20,000 cars for a high labor hour part?

I get why fanboys are mesmerized by Tesla and will walk the plank for them. Tesla offers a car that no other automaker has an answer for yet. First time I drove an S I knew I had to get one and I did just that. Do I want to buy another YES, will I ? NO.. Seeing the repeated quality issues has turned me off. I dont have time to run my car back and forth to get fixed and I sure hell would not accept a car in the conditions many people have. Its shameful as business to delivery a poor quality product and expect the consumer to just "deal" with it and people that defend this sort of behavior are just as bad as the business.

If they model 3 does ever hit the pavement and it has QC issues like the S does then you can forget it, game over.. cheaper customers are always a pain in the butt. You have make little profit on them and repairs will eat it up in an instant.

 

[ohmman]

I may repeat things.. but each thread, each post.. has a NEW focus. (think layers of an onion)

I knew there was a valid explanation for these tears.

 

[bob_p]

It's easy to forget that Tesla is still an early stage "startup" company (even though it is now valued more than Ford and General Motors).

As startup companies mature, the number of customers rapidly increases putting strains on their resources as they have to continue expanding capabilities to support the increasing number of customers.

When our S P85 arrived in early 2013, the nearest service center was over 1000 miles away. For quite a while after they opened the first service center here, the service was quick and fantastic. Then we went through a period when the service center became overloaded and appointments took over a month for even simple work. And, now that the second service center opened, we're back to where we were 4 years ago.

Areas in California, with the highest concentration of Tesla cars will likely go through this under/over utilization cycle more frequently, though at least they have alternative nearby service centers that can help out.

In the last few months, Tesla announced plans to reinstitute the ranger program with mobile service vans that can handle most of the service performed at the service centers - and that could be a game changer. Compared to ICEs, a Model S/3/X is a relatively simple vehicle - with fewer moving parts. And if most of the service can be performed by a ranger van, that puts Tesla into a better position to rapidly increase capacity - constrained by how quickly they can equip the ranger vans and hire rangers.

While we had some short periods when service delays were a source of frustration, overall, we've had outstanding support from Tesla - from the local service centers and also the phone support (are there any other vehicles when you can call the manufacturer while you are driving and have them look at a potential problem with your car remotely?).

Overall, our major concern with Tesla hasn't been the quality or responsiveness of Tesla's service - it continues to be with Tesla's software. They continue to be overly optimistic in how long it takes to deliver new software capabilities. The core apps are missing obvious features and rarely get updated (really - still no waypoints or playlists???). Major releases can have obvious design flaws or bugs (like the non-random "random" USB playback or the inability of the XM radio player to display station lists).

But despite that, we still purchased our second Tesla last month (one of the first to pick up an S 100D), and hope to purchase two Model 3's in the next year.

At least for us, we're willing to accept Tesla's near term flaws - because we've had a great experience with our S P85 and look forward to our S 100D only getting better over the next few years...

 

[Sawyer8888]

Tesla needs more service centers, especially in saturated markets such as CA but there are others as well.
Jeff

Tesla will apply 'brute force' to fix service delays, add 300 approved body shops

 

[stefan.bc]

Something similar was said in 2013?

 

[Jashev]

That was 2 years ago. Do that survey today, and let a third party do it.

This was three months ago, same result. Consumer Reports is the most independent organization out there.

Tesla dominates owner satisfaction survey, Consumer Reports says

 

[stefan.bc]

Let's play!
Consumer Reports trashes Tesla's 'flawed' Model X

 

[Jashev]

I would also observe, that like most forums, this is an extremely small subset of the Tesla community. They have sold about 200,000 cars and there are about 1,000 members on this forum. Even if half of the people on this forum were "unhappy" (which isn't even close I believe), that would represent .0025% of Tesla owners.

Let's play!
Consumer Reports trashes Tesla's 'flawed' Model X

This supports what I said about CR before. They are an independent organization that doesn't play favorites. If you screw up, they let you have it. They won't even take free vehicles for testing from manufacturers. So when they say that Model S owners have the highest satisfaction of any other car owners, I believe them.