Jeda Hub for Model Y

[Raiders]

I'm new to Tesla as this is my first car purchased. I don't have a long track record with Jeda or any other vendor. I only know about Jeda's past customer service and products from reading in these forums. Like many others in this thread, I ordered back in May and was willing to remain patient. I remember when I ordered the hub in May that it listed it as "Pre-order", but also listed the estimated shipping time as July 2020. I didn't think waiting a couple of months for a brand new product was that big a deal.

Here's where Jeda lost people like me....

-They charged my credit card in full when I ordered. It's not about the $80, but when a company charges you in full for something, you expect to receive it within a timeframe that they laid out on their website. Once they started to realize that this was going to be a bigger delay than what they originally predicted, they should have given a refund to all pre-orders as a sign of faith. People on here joked that they didn't realize they had signed up for a Kickstarter campaign, but that is precisely what happened in my opinion. All of us suckers who fell for this funded the production of this initial production batch.

-They kept sending out long emails that would claim that the product would arrive soon. They would claim that they were testing real product and delivery was eminent. It felt like they just kept stringing everybody along to give false hope so a bunch of us wouldn't cancel. In October they sent an email claiming that shipping had begun and they were testing, packaging and sending out tracking numbers on products. We now know that this was an absolute lie as the cargo containers were hung up in "quality and customs" delays. They flat out lied to all of us and that only increased our distrust of their company.

-Once I finally threw in the towel and requested a refund through email, they didn't respond for several days. There is no phone number to call, contact information or anything else. It seemed like they were just going to ignore these sorts of requests and hope that you would just go away. The only way I personally got a response from them was to tweet them directly for a refund. How could anyone find this acceptable?

I am sympathetic to an American company like this as I am also the owner on an American manufacturing company. I want my customers to be patient with my company when we experience supply chain delays or manufacturing issues. However, I demand that my people are honest about timetables and never lie to out customers. If we screw up, I issue refunds or credits to make sure the customer knows that we are truly sorry. My customers never have to tweet us to get a refund or threaten to escalate the issue.

 

[Clark_Kent]

Much of what we're seeing could have been avoided by Jeda simply not taking preorders. Once you have a customer's money, they have no merchandise and no realistic timeframe to receive it, the transaction becomes complicated. A simple "coming soon" or "under development" with no preorders would suffice. It's not like a USB hub is a speed to market item.

 

[NJEV-Don]

Much of what we're seeing could have been avoided by Jeda simply not taking preorders. Once you have a customer's money, they have no merchandise and no realistic timeframe to receive it, the transaction becomes complicated. A simple "coming soon" or "under development" with no preorders would suffice. It's not like a USB hub is a speed to market item.

that’s not very realistic either. How would a company know how many unties to build without knowing how many people are ordering it? I’m not defending them. I have one in order from early October. I’m certainly annoyed but being patient. What should have happened is for them to take preorders and not. Harte the credit card in full until they had product to ship.

 

[Clark_Kent]

that’s not very realistic either. How would a company know how many unties to build without knowing how many people are ordering it? I’m not defending them. I have one in order from early October. I’m certainly annoyed but being patient. What should have happened is for them to take preorders and not. Harte the credit card in full until they had product to ship.

It's very realistic for a product at this price point. You order a relatively small run from your supplier. Preorder isn't the only way to prove out demand. There are many new products sold without preorder.

 

[Teefal]

We all have our own personal limits. I choose to not attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by COVID. I'm pretty sure this is a very small company that sent some prototypes to YouTubers so they could finance a manufacturing run at a profit, then they hit a snag.

Should they have been more honest and more quick to refund? Yes. Do people have good reason to complain? Yes.

It's like game companies with their promises of "SoonTM" (which are often pre-orders btw). It's like a famous CEO that people make "Funniest moments" compilations with lines like "I don't particularly have the best record for punctuality", but we all laugh because Musk delivers.

The difference here is that your words will probably put someone out of business. I've been there ... both where I refunded tens of thousands, and where I couldn't afford to. It absolutely sucks whether it's your fault or not.

The letter to the daughter and the BBB stuff just feels personal and unwarranted to me. We all deserve a break this year.

 

[rxlawdude]

The letter to the daughter and the BBB stuff just feels personal and unwarranted to me. We all deserve a break this year.

Not sure whose letter to the daughter you are referring to, but mine was a direct reply to her unsolicited email to me. I do not apologize for providing publicly available information in order to assist the many posters here and on other Tesla owner fora.

Yet you disagreed with the post of my letter to the owner's daughter where I specifically eschew any harassment of her.

Odd.

 

[Teefal]

many complaints of owners relating stories of non-responsiveness, charging for products not shipped for (now) months, and other alleged poor business practices.

my educated guess is any "harassment" received may be related to the frustration of your customers that Jeda has not been honest with about products that have not shipped.

another cycle of boilerplate emails is sent promising another future date and so forth.

Honesty matters, and I don't believe you could, with a straight face, suggest Jeda's updates have been completely honest. I also believe taking payment for products you don't even have to ship is borderline unethical.

my opinion that your business ethics are poor will stand.

Your Model Y product may indeed be awesome, but the perception of your business practices seems to be anything but.​

Pretty sure you can't see it, but I'll say it anyway. This is cruel and unnecessary. Quit coming to our rescue and worry about your own $80.

 

[Stuart1714]

Much of what we're seeing could have been avoided by Jeda simply not taking preorders. Once you have a customer's money, they have no merchandise and no realistic timeframe to receive it, the transaction becomes complicated. A simple "coming soon" or "under development" with no preorders would suffice. It's not like a USB hub is a speed to market item.

In a previous post it was mentioned that it feels like a Kickstarter project.

Quite a few companies, even established ones, are now using crowd funding as a way to get the income in to allow them to develop or finish a product. Maybe they could have gone down this route so it was clearer what was going on and it also gives them a platform for keeping people up to date. I’ve invested in a few products on crowd funding, and so far only one or two have delivered on time so I realise how estimates can slip in creating a product. I’ve even had one whose delays were measured in years although I managed to get a refund on that when a key feature was removed.

I ordered my hub in the middle of September prior to getting my Tesla fully aware of the delays, but did expect to have received it by now based on the details on the website at the time of ordering. It’s not a big issue for me as I’m not really using my car due to the pandemic. My attitude may have been different if it weren’t for the current situation, but who knows, it might have shipped by now in that case.

 

[yaya33]

We can try to blame this on Covid19.... But what explains them "testing each unit individually and sending two shipments a week" when they don't even have any products to test? It's been straight lies the whole time. I got an email saying "Your order is set to ship next week!" when they damn sure knew they didn't even have any products to ship, let alone had already tested.

There are ways to manage customer expectations and LYING is the absolute worst way to do it. Please try to defend them lying to me.

They literally emailed me this on OCTOBER 14th:
"Without further ado, shipments have begun! Production has finished. Over the past week we have been individually testing each USB Hub, and packaging them with the accessories that accompany them. We are going to be working on shrink-wrapping them up and sending them in weekly batches."

And then emailed this on NOVEMBER 17th:
"Recently, we were hit by another delay: customs and quality checks. Due to COVID, the recent presidential elections, and two federal holidays, the customs process delayed our cargo by about three weeks, which put a massive dent into our promised timeframe for deliveries.
One of the containers has been released, and our team will be getting to work on it right after it delivers to begin quality checks, and labelling the orders."

So they lied about individually testing each unit (because they actually didn't have any units to test), they lied about the timeline (shipments have begun!), and they've lied about product delivery dates multiple times a month for over 7 months. GTFO here with defending them. One solution that they could have done is used their twitter account to write details about the delays and provide up-to-the minute timelines. INSTEAD, they used their twitter feed to ignore customer complaints and advertise the products that they haven't shipped to any customers that have already paid and were waiting for 6 months.

So they've outsourced the designs of this product, outsourced the manufacturing, outsourced basically everything. What are they so busy with that a two-person company can't provide timely updates AS REQUIRED UNDER LAW BY THE FTC?

Being Lazy. that's what

 

[Badger1]

Ordered in June, lost patience, asked for refund last week, got a refund within days. A very creditable response.

 

[laservet]

Pretty sure you can't see it, but I'll say it anyway. This is cruel and unnecessary. Quit coming to our rescue and worry about your own $80.

Yeah, that was a really prickish thing to do, especially to do it publicly.

 

[laservet]

Not sure whose letter to the daughter you are referring to, but mine was a direct reply to her unsolicited email to me. I do not apologize for providing publicly available information in order to assist the many posters here and on other Tesla owner fora.

Yet you disagreed with the post of my letter to the owner's daughter where I specifically eschew any harassment of her.

Odd.

Being a bully under the guise of helping us all out? You’re just screwing us all.

 

[rxlawdude]

Being a bully under the guise of helping us all out? You’re just screwing us all.

Wow, it's clear social media brings out the worst in people.

You're entitled to your opinion, but not your own reality. The law, business ethics and veracity are on my side.

 

[Teefal]

Oct 15 .. "shipments have begun! Production has finished. Over the past week we have been individually testing each USB Hub, and packaging them with the accessories that accompany them."

Nov 17 .. "Recently, we were hit by another delay: customs and quality checks ... delayed our cargo by about three weeks ... One of the containers has been released, and our team will be getting to work on it right after it delivers to begin quality checks, and labelling the orders."

I wrote software for supply chain management last year for a client that works with UPS, etc. It's an ongoing pipeline.

Seems some are assuming this is a two phase process ... first they get all the containers, then they test and ship. More likely, it's:

1. Get a container
2. Test & assemble
3. Ship those to customers

What makes you think they didn't get some containers in Oct and shipped some, then had delays on later containers?

We jumped straight to "filthy liars".

 

[Teefal]

And while we're on the subject, these aren't boilerplate emails.

 

[rxlawdude]

Oct 15 .. "shipments have begun! Production has finished. Over the past week we have been individually testing each USB Hub, and packaging them with the accessories that accompany them."

Nov 17 .. "Recently, we were hit by another delay: customs and quality checks ... delayed our cargo by about three weeks ... One of the containers has been released, and our team will be getting to work on it right after it delivers to begin quality checks, and labelling the orders."

I wrote software for supply chain management last year for a client that works with UPS, etc. It's an ongoing pipeline.

Seems some are assuming this is a two phase process ... first they get all the containers, then they test and ship. More likely, it's:

1. Get a container
2. Test & assemble
3. Ship those to customers

What makes you think they didn't get some containers in Oct and shipped some, then had delays on later containers?

We jumped straight to "filthy liars".

You forgot steps 0a and 0b:
Advertise a product as "pre-order", then "order" (with disclaimer it will ship 2 weeks after order).
Charge credit and debt cards upon order, having no clue when you'd deliver a product. (If this is crowdfunding, it needs to be done on a crowdfunding website, or disclosed on the page advertising the product.)

I'm not sure of teefal's motivations, but he sure seems invested in jeda as their apologist-in-chief. Sorry, but facts, business ethics, and legal remedies for consumers wins.

And when and if the product appears and is shipping as promised over a period of months, I'm sure jeda's reputation will be redeemed. But till then...

 

[Yelobird]

And when and if the product appears and is shipping as promised over a period of months, I'm sure jeda's reputation will be redeemed. But till then...

And until that time let’s burn this little company to the ground in typical Internet forum fashion since this created such an incredible amount of sadness, anguish, and loss of confidence in life. Who cares if we are in the greatest pandemic situation no accuse we need our USB box no matter what so our cars will work! Lol

 

[spokey]

I originally watched this thread as I was interested in a hub. Having seen the delays and frankly not seeing a great advantage to it, I decided to just buy an unpowered hub for about $10. It's plugged in to the 'A' port and is just hanging in the storage area with a cam drive (probably should upgrade as that's only 32G) and a drive with all my home music ripped form CDs and Vinyl. It works fine for me. And I'm happy with the Tesla charger.

Maybe that solution won't work for whatever else people want like game controllers. Not interested in those things in the least. But that's me.

A long winded way of getting to, I've just unwatched this thread. The discourse has become decided uncivil. I figure I don't have enough life left as it is. Hope you all get your refunds and/or hubs. And have a good one.

Oh, and for our US friends, have a happy Thanksgiving. Sorry but a belated one for our northern buddies.

 

[Teefal]

Timeline (using wayback) ...

May 3rd .. page first appears ... "Ships May 2020"
May 4th .. Tech of Tech video ...

"after going through 5 prototypes .... what jeda did on the inside is where the real cost is ... it's in the design, the testing, and the production of the jeda hub's printed circuit board. Jeda is an American company where the employees live and work in the us. While their products are made in China, it's done with companies jeda specifically chose based upon environmental impact and fair labor."

Aug 4 ... "Pre-order item. Ships in 2-3 weeks." [Which is Aug 25th]

Web Sep 21 ... "Pre-order item. Ships in October."

Email Sep 22 ..

• Production will be wrapping up in about a week and a half. Shipments will begin in two weeks.
• Since we are a bit backlogged, these will be going out in batches on a weekly basis.

Email Oct 14 .. "shipments have begun! Production has finished. Over the past week we have been individually testing each USB Hub, and packaging them with the accessories that accompany them. We are going to be working on shrink-wrapping them up and sending them in weekly batches."

Web Nov 2 ... "Pre-order item. Ships in November."

Email Nov 17 .. "Frankly we don't know how to start this, as there's been so many cataclysmic delays in processing these hubs. To add insult to injury, we've been unable to accurately foresight the challenges and delays which can and may happen when it comes to supply chains, and logistics, and having enough support to get everything shipped in a coordinated time frame. While COVID has played a massive part in all of our delays and challenges, we failed in not being able to keep up with our previously promised timeframes, and for being overly optimistic we could accomplish quite a lot, in little time.

One of the containers has been released, and our team will be getting to work on it right after it delivers to begin quality checks, and labelling the orders.

The other container will likely not release for another week, based on how things are moving.

We know many of you have been utterly frustrated at this process. It has absolutely been the most trying for us as well. Both the development aspect, and the supply-aspect was impacted directly by COVID."

Web Now ... "Ships Mid December

 

[Teefal]

So, if you ordered in May, the delay was 6 months (so far).

Watching that video again, it seems like a superior product.

Also a company that is trying to do the right thing who got in too deep.

I agree they should have said pre-order with a less firm date in May. When I bought it in August, it said pre-order.

As for their emails, I think they sound authentic and transparent, if overly optimistic, as they said. That last one is a mea culpa.