Is Tesla trying to become the absolute worst service organization?

[Ulmo]

Hearing all these poor services, this makes me question whether if I should just cancel my order of Model X Raven.

If good service matters to you, then yes. Otherwise, if you already know about the no-cup-holders-or-pockets and it feels comfortable for you when you drive it and you don't live near situations where the auto emergency systems might try to kill you and you have good electrical supply for it and you can afford the car, then no.

 

[Big Toys]

Hearing all these poor services, this makes me question whether if I should just cancel my order of Model X Raven.

Think of it this way: you don't pay the airline pilot to fly the plane. You pay him to be there when you need him.

 

[ac_power]

Not to mention all my major issues with my trade in that I am still fighting.

It's not exactly about service, but - mind elaborating a bit ?

 

[PhilDavid]

They really need to up their customer support game - probably a revamp of their ticketing system would be a hugely helpful first start. It's awful not being able to get in touch with someone and have no idea how long it'll take.

For service, they need more human beings who care and less software that are incapable of caring

 

[cpa]

People have pointed out in other topics that these days Tesla is focused only on selling cars. They get $$$$ by selling cars. They don't get much $ in servicing cars. Moreover, having real people to do ministerial things like answer phones and provide customer service, costs them $$$.

Ironic that the more cars that Tesla sells requires more service and more customer service, yet Tesla does not reinvest some of their profits to provide better service. Instead, Tesla dedicates their profits from current sales into developing the Y, pickup, and semi, not to mention the roadster.

With all that is on Tesla's plate, there is zero margin for error with this business plan.

We have seen a revolving door among the high-level executives at Tesla over the past 3-4 years. I do not think that it is any coincidence that the customer service side of things has deteriorated. It seems that Elon Musk is a authoritarian chief executive, and if he does not cotton to ideas from his subordinate executives, they leave either under their terms, or Musk's.

Musk may have hit a homerun with his PayPal enterprise. But PayPal is merely a convenience and easily lends itself to automation, as PayPal sells nothing of tangible value. For most of us, automobiles are our second largest capital expenditure, and automobiles are definitely tangible property. One cannot apply the same business model for a purely tech idea that is easily accomplished with software and only a few individuals to research irregularities with a tangible piece of machinery that has a lot of tech that can fail and leave the owner compromised. We expect them to operate as intended, and when they inevitably do not, we expect them to be repaired promptly and with minimal inconvenience.

 

[pdsurgn]

I just have to put my "2 cents" in since most people are much more prone to write a complaint than a praise and we should not scare buyers off needlessly (?). I had service here in Kansas City last week and just wrote on the survey that the service was so good that it had convinced my to trade in my S for a new model. I had a recall repair done at my house a month ago and they tried to fix a sensor that was acting up on the windshield fluid container. They cleaned the contacts and the warning light went off but they ordered a part just in case. The light went back on but I figured it wasn't worth having them out again (even under warranty). Last week, they called me and asked if it was working and that they have the part. They wanted to come to my house to install it at 8 the next morning! I had to delay because of work but they come 2 days later at the exact time they said they would be there. The tech was fantastic and I picked his brain for 1/2 hour about things he knew. Could not have been a better experience.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

Hearing all these poor services, this makes me question whether if I should just cancel my order of Model X Raven.

Start YouTube channel and get a bunch of subscribers. They'll make sure you get taken care of

 

[EVortex]

I believe Elon is attempting to change the culture of the auto industry by operating the entire business, including service, through automation. I don’t have a problem with this approach if the automation exists and works well. You can’t just stop the old service model without a working new automated model without alienating customers. Humans require timely and accurate communication and if they don’t get it then they loose confidence and resort to negative speculation. This is frustrating for all parties and creates distrust. I understand Elon’s desire to do things differently, but he should not loose sight of the fact that car buyers are human beings and will respond accordingly.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

The answer to the question:
'Is Tesla trying to become the absolute worst service organization?' is no, they already achieved that 6 months ago.
My car is out of warranty this month. The dog mode display shows 4 degrees F high, enough to cause a well meaning member of the public to break a window but Tesla refuse to even look at the car and cancelled my appointment made through the app against my express wishes. Of course they never answer the phone or reply to emails. I now want my $1500 AUD 'save a place in the Model 3 queue' refunded, how does one even go about that ? This is sad for Tesla as a company and sad for those that spent more money than they ever would have for any other car. I have come to the conclusion that Musk has zero empathy for customers or employees. The way Tesla just fires people prior to a quarterly report or share holder meeting fits with this, sure get rid of rubbish employees but it goes beyond that. Knowing you could find yourself unemployed at any second won't make folks at the service centers too keen to go the extra mile the way they used to.

Just look at the filings of former employees that tried to report internal issues like FRAUD. They were ignored, and the ones that really cared tried to do the right thing by bringing the stuff they saw directly to Elon. Their reward? Pink slip. I love the cars but this company is NOT going to last much longer. I give them 10yrs at best. I have been saying this on this forum now for several years and have been shouted down by most until just recently. Just look at their books??? And here come the "Amazon didn't make a profit for their first x years... so Tesla is fine." Look, it was a different time then and Amazon was in a totally different sector of the economy. It's apples and oranges. Tesla is bleeding out in front of our eyes... and it is very sad because I don't want to drive anything else but will be forced to by the time I get my next vehicle.

 

[whitex]

I'm probably in the minority here, but being a millennial I prefer doing everything via an app instead of email or talking to some middleman secretary that doesn't know how a computer works to schedule my appointment. "Let me check the schedule" while you hear papers rustle and an "ummm" is now replaced with "first available appointment" button. So Much easier in my opinion. I click a button and go on my way and text my issues later, if needed.

Coming from GM and Kia cars, spending time in those service centers was a time suck and waste of my life and talking with those people hurt my brain. The way Tesla does it helps me focus on things other than my car and what's wrong with it except for when I really need to with someone who knows what they're talking about and can do something about it.

Hmm, so you say millennials prefer to setup an diagnostic appointment 1-2 months away via a phone, after which car manufacturer will order parts and schedule another appointment in another 1-2 months to fix, then even if the fix is a 1 hour fix, they will need the car for up to 4 days "while it waits to get into the shop for 1 hr", while the owner has $100 a day worth of Uber credits?

Personally I prefer the old style, call the shop, have a preliminary diagnostic over the phone so they can have parts ready, schedule an appointment within a week, maybe 2 during busy times, show up for an appointment and leave 1-2hrs later with a fixed car.

Wow, I have so much to learn about millennials.

 

[AMPd]

People have pointed out in other topics that these days Tesla is focused only on selling cars. They get $$$$ by selling cars. They don't get much $ in servicing cars. Moreover, having real people to do ministerial things like answer phones and provide customer service, costs them $$$.

Ironic that the more cars that Tesla sells requires more service and more customer service, yet Tesla does not reinvest some of their profits to provide better service. Instead, Tesla dedicates their profits from current sales into developing the Y, pickup, and semi, not to mention the roadster.

With all that is on Tesla's plate, there is zero margin for error with this business plan.

We have seen a revolving door among the high-level executives at Tesla over the past 3-4 years. I do not think that it is any coincidence that the customer service side of things has deteriorated. It seems that Elon Musk is a authoritarian chief executive, and if he does not cotton to ideas from his subordinate executives, they leave either under their terms, or Musk's.

Musk may have hit a homerun with his PayPal enterprise. But PayPal is merely a convenience and easily lends itself to automation, as PayPal sells nothing of tangible value. For most of us, automobiles are our second largest capital expenditure, and automobiles are definitely tangible property. One cannot apply the same business model for a purely tech idea that is easily accomplished with software and only a few individuals to research irregularities with a tangible piece of machinery that has a lot of tech that can fail and leave the owner compromised. We expect them to operate as intended, and when they inevitably do not, we expect them to be repaired promptly and with minimal inconvenience.

The tesla semi is looking more and more like a pipe dream.
No business will accept this kind of service.
When a truck goes down not only are you losing a lot of money but the driver of that truck is not making money.

 

[AMPd]

Hmm, so you say millennials prefer to setup an diagnostic appointment 1-2 months away via a phone, after which car manufacturer will order parts and schedule another appointment in another 1-2 months to fix, then even if the fix is a 1 hour fix, they will need the car for up to 4 days "while it waits to get into the shop for 1 hr", while the owner has $100 a day worth of Uber credits?

Personally I prefer the old style, call the shop, have a preliminary diagnostic over the phone so they can have parts ready, schedule an appointment within a week, maybe 2 during busy times, show up for an appointment and leave 1-2hrs later with a fixed car.

Wow, I have so much to learn about millennials.

I’m a millennial and I completely disagree with the, liking an app over a real life person part.
I very much prefer to call in and speak to someone, someone who takes on the responsibility of following through and setting everything up in a timely manner.

 

[DanCar]

The tesla semi is looking more and more like a pipe dream.
No business will accept this kind of service.
When a truck goes down not only are you losing a lot of money but the driver of that truck is not making money.

Elon said it was a high priority to improve service. Elon Musk on Twitter
I've heard him say this before, so I'm not overly confident the issue will be sufficiently addressed.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

Elon said it was a high priority to improve service. Elon Musk on Twitter
I've heard him say this before, so I'm not overly confident the issue will be sufficiently addressed.

He also said we'd get a Tesla nicer than then one we were in (implying all S/X P100D's) for folks when their cars were being serviced. That, and many other tweets have not aged well.

So much $ wasted on Tesla solar roofs, charging snakes, a Tesla Semi that won't work in reality without a separate supercharger network, and who knows what else there's no $ left to take care of service lol

 

[AMPd]

So much $ wasted on Tesla solar roofs, charging snakes, a Tesla Semi that won't work in reality without a separate supercharger network, and who knows what else there's no $ left to take care of service lol

Couldn’t agree more, thanks to Elon, tesla is biting off way more than they can chew.

The car business is not even fully established, not really making a profit unless major cuts are made and yet they still venture off into a completely different product with a different customer base.

 

[whitex]

The tesla semi is looking more and more like a pipe dream.
No business will accept this kind of service.
When a truck goes down not only are you losing a lot of money but the driver of that truck is not making money.

They expect to sell semis to fleets. Fleets have their own maintenance shops. Tesla has already been training some customer mechanics. If you think about it, that's ideal for Tesla, unless of course it turns out the quality of Semi's is the same as Tesla other cars, where most cars need service centers to fix something when new. With the fleet model, those will get fixed by fleet shops and billed to Tesla under warranty - no hiding things under "good will" - warranty claims will be a clearly line item on Tesla books.

Another big challenge for Tesla semis will be parts supply chain - while the fleet shops store some parts, they do expect to be able to rush order any part, so months of wait time is not going to cut it. Fleets will likely negotiate parts availability contracts with financial penalties associated with long delays, which could become a much bigger problem than just dissatisfied customers (like with cars) if Tesla doesn't get the parts logistics working smoothly.

 

[whitex]

Elon said it was a high priority to improve service. Elon Musk on Twitter
I've heard him say this before, so I'm not overly confident the issue will be sufficiently addressed.

Someone should start an "ElonSaid.com" site listing everything that Elon said he'll deliver, vs. what he actually delivered, to whom, and by when.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

Someone should start an "ElonSaid.com" site listing everything that Elon said he'll deliver, vs. what he actually delivered, to whom, and by when.

I think that's already happening in the diver defamation case. Yikes...

 

[Matthew Hill]

So, I've had my Model S for just shy of 7 years now and I've seen quite a change in Tesla service. When I first got my car, they where top notch. Over the years however, I've noticed the service level go down, down, down to the point where it's just crap. Today, my onboard chargers suddenly stopped working and the car won't charge on ac. I can still charge at a supercharger, but not at home. I tried calling Tesla service but they want you to schedule using the phone app (does everything nowadays have to be done with a phone app?). The best I could do with the phone app was a mobile visit in a week. I also tried leaving a help email at their website and voice mail message at the local service center (they don't answer the phone), but after 3 hours I still haven't heard any response to either. I used to be very proud of my Tesla and wanted to show it off to everyone. Now I'm not so sure.

I agree completely. When I first bought my S, I had numerous small problems with it, and in more than one case I was able to respond to the "call service ctr" message on the dash by ... actually calling the service center, and someone on the phone would look at my logs in real-time, and either fix the problem remotely or walk me through a solution.

In one case (a braking issue) they sent a flatbed truck to pick me up, where I was, and take me to the center for a warranty repair, gratis, because the technician didn't feel it was safe for me to operate the vehicle.

Now, I can't even get a person on the phone, let alone by e-mail or any other method. I got the notice that it was my turn for the airbag recall recently, and I had some questions -- like, how long is it going to take? Can I do this is a walk-in or do I need to schedule an appointment? Will I be able to wait for the car or do I have to take a loaner? Can I use mobile service for this? etc. I'll be damned if I could find a way through their phone system to reach ANY human, anywhere. Not acceptable.

So, I opened the app, scheduled a "mobile service" for "other" and put "airbag replacement" in the comments. I figure, when the guy shows up I'll ask him my questions then. I'll already be home so I don't care how long it takes. And if this can't be done by mobile service, I'm sure someone will tell me this.

That will be the day after tomorrow.

 

[JohnEC]

Does the app also send a loaner Tesla car to you within 2 hours while you wait for repair? You left that part out. Because if not, I'm with you: they are drasted dumbies doing bad and deserve to be called out and this should be said loud and clear!!! If it did send that loaner to you, then you're just complaining excessively and basically a liar for leaving that part out.

For the record, I think it was implicit in what you said and left out that they did not send you a Tesla loaner car within 2 hours via the app, and therefore, if so, Tesla should do better. I agree.

But I look at it from the other side: now that I have this situation (if I'm in that situation, and I have been), I can virtually make my life good by going to rent some nicer car while I wait for repair. I would also log the bad service online with us so we know, but I'd be healthy and happy while doing it.

Loaner - Ha! Never got any response to e-mail or voicemail msgs so I called roadside assistance (based on recommendation from here) who got me thru to phone remote support (after 1/2 hr wait). They told me to take it to SC w/o appointment. I did so and now it will sit there for an estimated 3 days til they can get to it to diagnose the problem. In the mean time I have Uber credits.