Letter to Mr. Musk from a 1-day old outdated Model S owner

[bak_phy]

It is no so much about a free lotto ticket. This is about Tesla providing the upgrade standards we have come to expect in technology products. Tesla clearly claims to be selling a technology product.

For the OP it was very much about the free lottery ticket. He felt that he deserved the upgrade because it came out so close after his delivery.

The other point about being told that everything is upgrade-able when clearly it isn't and never was is a different point with som e standing.

And even more so is whether we have actually gotten what we were told we paid for with AP1. I think a case can be made that we probably didn't because then there wouldn't have been as much need to AP2.

 

[rocketdallas]

I understand the temporary anxiety of deciding when to purchase a car, for fear of possibly missing out on something new, not yet released, etc. But ultimately, I think the best advice was given by another forum member in another thread: be happy you received exactly what you ordered and just enjoy the car. In fact, I received my car literally a week or so before the original autopilot was included with the Model S. Just missed it. But the last couple of years have been awesome and I've loved driving my car every day.

 

[FlatSix911]

Yes, but with less rainbows and more cowbell.

 

[Sohailhassan]

Not happy, dont plan to drive an obselete model s car , delivered yesterday to my door way, 90k spend losing sleep on this crap

This is wrong way of announcing car upgrades, mr musk i hope u can undertamd the pain

 

[CarlitoDoc]

Queue in the Violins !!!

 

[Shumdit]

Great post. Agree completely. I am a happy yet sad owner of both a model s and model x bought in the second and third quarter of this year. If I would have known I would have waited on both. Agree if tesla wants to keep fans loyal should find a way to retrofit at least the same year models.

And then when the next improvement comes? You will Still be unhappy. I am stunned how people have this sense of entitlement. It seems to be the solution for you would have just been to call these newap2.0 models 2017 year model cars and then you would have no complaints correct? I mean pretty much everyone else making a car right now if it is Toyota or Ford, etc. is calling them a 2017 model and under your proposal you would have no complaints yet somehow because tesla still calls these a 2016 you feel entitled to the updates? Sorry, but that is some odd logic you have IMO.

 

[Shumdit]

Not happy, dont plan to drive an obselete model s car , delivered yesterday to my door way, 90k spend losing sleep on this crap

This is wrong way of announcing car upgrades, mr musk i hope u can undertamd the pain

The way I see it the only way to keep all of you people unhappy that are upset about a improvement you did not get would be for Tesla to stop putting any improvements into their cars. Whether or not Elon understands your feelings about it is irrelevant. The truth is that at some point they will continue to announce improvements or changes and there will always be a group of people who just missed the cut off and will be unhappy. The ironic thing is in this particular case we have all known it was coming very soon. This is not like some of the improvements that popped up with little to no forewarning ( example: dual motor S was sort of a mystery until it was launched even though there was the discussion of it being developed for the X and the S seemed a logical offering). If you were really gung ho about getting this new technology and are a tech geek as you described yourself in another post you should have held off ordering until it was available. Don't blame Tesla. Go look in the mirror and Yell at that guy. Anyone who googles Tesla , follows Elon on twitter, or reads the forums would know that new hardware was being developed.

 

[Petra]

To me, this thread is no different than when people complain about something going on sale after they've made a purchase. You agreed to the price, feature set, functionality, and delivery window when you placed your order--it doesn't matter if it's a $400 video card, a $600 smartphone, or a $90k Tesla. People get all emotional over something that's really straightforward.

 

[Shumdit]

You asked a good question. What would I do?

One possibility is to equate a million dollars or 2 towards rebates for those who got duped in the last 30 days.
A cheaper possibility is a swap out for those who received their vehicles in the last 30 days.
Maybe even cheaper is an $8000 voucher for each delivery in the last 30 days.
An even cheaper thing would be a statement of sympathy to those who received their vehicles in the last 30 days.

Neither of these would tank Tesla. Any gesture would be great. That's just off the cuff.

Garlan, these "proposals" are not feasible. What if you bought your car 31 days ago? Why are they less entitled then someone who bought the car 30 days ago? Your proposal to swap out cars is also way off base. Do you not understand that once the car has been titled it is then considered used so tesla would take a real beating trying to resell thousands of used cars they had taken back at full value? And again, what about the guy who got his car 31 days ago? I also don't understand where you come up with an $8000 voucher. What do you deserve $8000 for? The new AP2.0 it is $8000 so I'm assuming that is how you arrived at that figure but you miss a number of key points: #1- it is only $5000 more than someone who purchased AP1.0 would have paid before. #2-The AP1.0 cars are not suddenly going to no longer function making your $3000 option worthless. Frankly that proposal is the least logical of them all to me. The only time I can remember a manufacturer offering a voucher like you describe is when Dodge lowered the price of the Viper by $15,000 since it was a sales dud and gave a $15,000 voucher to current owners as a result of It looking like they overcharged them on their cars. And guess what the result of that was? A bunch of whiners that were perfectly happy to have paid the higher price for their car just before the price cut was announced and then did not appreciate getting a voucher when they were owed NOTHING. Is anyone jaded over these Viper only 15k voucher coupons?

It's not just Tesla owners who are unreasonable it seems.

As to your last proposal I am not sure the Tesla will offer it but I will try to offer one for you: " I sympathize that you don't understand how unreasonable your proposals are". Is that helpful?

 

[MXWing]

It kills my faith in mankind that people who can afford $74k cars think if they received their car on 10-18-2016, they were completely screwed compared to people who received cars on 10-19-2016.

This top secret decision was made months ago and they had to come up with a cut off date. A cut off date has to happen, and some date in August was most likely it.

You guys hate that Tesla keeps innovating. You want everyone to have the same car as you and can't stand that your neighbor might have one incrementally better.

I explain it here:

If Tesla would just stop innovating so fast, people would be happier.

 

[MXWing]

I have to disagree with that. Telsa employees can sell and explain the new AP the day after its release. They had to have had "some" kind of training a week or a month ago.

I will have to disagree with your disagreement that the sales and delivery specialists were "IN THE KNOW" a week or a month. All this is confidential stuff that flows down to Director level at best. The Directors KEPT THEIR MOUTH SHUT - assuming they still wanted to keep working for Tesla..

I don't work at Tesla but I guarantee you this is how it went down to the customer facing Tesla employees.

1 - Everyone check in/call in to this conference bridge after Elon makes his speech to the public.
2 - Recap the key points of the presentation.
3 - Gameplan on how to deal with questions from the public. This is what happens if your car was already made. This is what happens if its in production. This is what happens if its been confirmed. This is how much it will cost you if you had no AP. This is what it cost to upgrade now. This is what it cost to upgrade later. This is what happens if you just keep AP1 but not upgrade and this is how it will work on the new hardware.
4 - "Sensitivity" training guidance session on how to deal with whiny babies who wanted more than what they paid for and what they originally agreed to. How to explain the reality of the world to man-boys who have more dollars than sense..

I wonder whom training topic #4 was addressed to?

 

[Garlan Garner]

Oh, yes, the Tesla employees know what the systems do.

Garlan, these "proposals" are not feasible. What if you bought your car 31 days ago? Why are they less entitled then someone who bought the car 30 days ago? Your proposal to swap out cars is also way off base. Do you not understand that once the car has been titled it is then considered used so tesla would take a real beating trying to resell thousands of used cars they had taken back at full value? And again, what about the guy who got his car 31 days ago? I also don't understand where you come up with an $8000 voucher. What do you deserve $8000 for? The new AP2.0 it is $8000 so I'm assuming that is how you arrived at that figure but you miss a number of key points: #1- it is only $5000 more than someone who purchased AP1.0 would have paid before. #2-The AP1.0 cars are not suddenly going to no longer function making your $3000 option worthless. Frankly that proposal is the least logical of them all to me. The only time I can remember a manufacturer offering a voucher like you describe is when Dodge lowered the price of the Viper by $15,000 since it was a sales dud and gave a $15,000 voucher to current owners as a result of It looking like they overcharged them on their cars. And guess what the result of that was? A bunch of whiners that were perfectly happy to have paid the higher price for their car just before the price cut was announced and then did not appreciate getting a voucher when they were owed NOTHING. Is anyone jaded over these Viper only 15k voucher coupons?

It's not just Tesla owners who are unreasonable it seems.

As to your last proposal I am not sure the Tesla will offer it but I will try to offer one for you: " I sympathize that you don't understand how unreasonable your proposals are". Is that helpful?

keep - em comin.

 

[Garlan Garner]

I will have to disagree with your disagreement that the sales and delivery specialists were "IN THE KNOW" a week or a month. All this is confidential stuff that flows down to Director level at best. The Directors KEPT THEIR MOUTH SHUT - assuming they still wanted to keep working for Tesla..

I don't work at Tesla but I guarantee you this is how it went down to the customer facing Tesla employees.

1 - Everyone check in/call in to this conference bridge after Elon makes his speech to the public.
2 - Recap the key points of the presentation.
3 - Gameplan on how to deal with questions from the public. This is what happens if your car was already made. This is what happens if its in production. This is what happens if its been confirmed. This is how much it will cost you if you had no AP. This is what it cost to upgrade now. This is what it cost to upgrade later. This is what happens if you just keep AP1 but not upgrade and this is how it will work on the new hardware.
4 - "Sensitivity" training guidance session on how to deal with whiny babies who wanted more than what they paid for and what they originally agreed to. How to explain the reality of the world to man-boys who have more dollars than sense..

I wonder whom training topic #4 was addressed to?

Keep-em-comin

 

[Garlan Garner]

I wonder if the now "outdated" MS's and MX's have reached their upgrade limit. I wonder how many of those cars can reach any more levels of autonomy than they currently have.
I wonder how much more focus Elon/Tesla is going devote to the "outdated" week old - $100K+ cars.

Anyone have any links to actual quotes?


I was even thinking about following Tesla's advice at one point to get another MS to hold me over till my M3 arrives. Hmmmm... I wonder if I would have been able to sell my outdated MS to cover the cost of my M3 now. I don't know.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Has anyone seen any official values of the old $100K+ MS as opposed to what it is this week?

Official values?

 

[Johan]

Has anyone seen any official values of the old $100K+ MS as opposed to what it is this week?

Official values?

I heard they're basically worthless.

 

[Shumdit]

Has anyone seen any official values of the old $100K+ MS as opposed to what it is this week?

Official values?

Are you asking what the value of a AP1.0 vehicle on 10/22 vs. the same vehicle was on 10/19? Not sure I understand the question.

 

[number12]

Are you asking what the value of a AP1.0 vehicle on 10/22 vs. the same vehicle was on 10/19? Not sure I understand the question.

Let me help you understand.

What depreciation hit did everyone really take on their ap1.0 cars from last week to this. What is the fuss really all about.

I can go slower if you need.

 

[Ciaopec]

I ordered a car in April of this year expecting a nose cone and black piano interior. Deal finalized the day the refresh was announced. I didn't get a nose cone but I did get the black piano interior at the same price. Forum members seem knowledgable and helpful so can anyone help me get rid of the worthless piece of crap that didn't come with everything I expected and is now essentially worthless ? Or send me the "Voucher" customer service address.

 

[Shumdit]

Let me help you understand.

What depreciation hit did everyone really take on their ap1.0 cars from last week to this. What is the fuss really all about.

I can go slower if you need.

First of all, why are YOU explaining someone else's question when I asked THEM for clarification? Secondly, it's such a ridiculous question I wanted to make sure I did not misunderstand since there is no "official value" change that would be known in the 3 days since ap2.0 was announced. I don't need you to go slower. I just need you to butt out.