So I took delivery this afternoon! For those still waiting, keep the faith, it will happen. I know, that's kind of obnoxious coming from someone who placed their order on 3/12 and took delivery on 3/25 of a freshly made (3/21 according to vin plate) M3. When I placed my order it was '4 - 14 weeks', and then suddenly a week later it was 'here is your VIN, can you pick it up on 3/25?'....
I can only assume I somehow managed to squeak my order in right before they ran off a batch of LR AWDs in Blue with White interiors.
Now, the "express contact-less delivery experience" at my local service center left some... room for improvement.
(For reference, I am not someone who wants to be handheld thru the car buying process. My preferred new car buying method is to negotiate via web/email, and have things lined up so I can show up, sign on the line, and bounce out. My record for this, was 20 minutes on the dealer lot, I literally was in and out so fast they barely had time to transfer the tags from my trade in and never diod manage to stick the dealer nameplate on the back of the car. Point being, an "express contact-less delivery" is something that should be my DREAM... but this.. was not quite.
- I had my appointment scheduled for 2pm today.
- Last night I got a call from a delivery tech. Reminded me 2pm, told me the following was the process when I got onsite:
- Find your car.
- Accept delivery in your account on the website
- Use app to unlock car.
- Hop In
- Sign the documents
- Keycards are on the center console
- Drop the documents in the box we have for them
- All done, enjoy your day.
- (The astute will notice that this contact-less process leaves you in a weird place where you have 'accept delivery' to gain access to the inside of the car. That said, in my state right now places are open, and I was at the SC a few weeks ago test driving, so I know they have people there, I figure if I have to get 'contact', I can).
- Noon, I get an email saying "Your car is ready for pickup". I still delay before going over, not wanting to arrive before the last 'known' appointment time of 2pm.
- Arrive 1:45, scour the lot, no car with my name on it. Hmm.
- Check app. I have a car listed! It matches my specs! I do not touch /anything/ however, as it says "Parked", the address of the dealer, and shows a door open. I figure it's still in the back being finished. (Good thing I didn't come over at noon, huh?)
- Around 2:00ish on the dot, a gentleman drives out with a car matching mine. I see the name sign. It is mine. I stalk him to a parking space and as soon as he departs, I'm scoping the outside paint, making sure there's no obvious thing that's going to make me go "no, will not take!".
- Deciding the outside looks good, I go into the Tesla website, click the 'accept delivery' button so I can go on and get inside.
- Flip back over to the app, try to unlock doors.
- "This feature will be enabled once you accept delivery".
- Decide maybe it needs a few moments to sync up. Wait. Try again. Repeat for a solid 15 minutes.
- Stand around the lot, listening to the Pedestrian Warning Sounds going off around me, debating if I'll be unplugging that speaker or not.
- Maybe I need to sign out of the app entirely? Do that. Log back in. No love.
- Check the website, maybe I missed a step? No. The "Accept delivery" button is gone, and the app still will not unlock doors.
- It's now about 2:30 - 2:45ish, I appear to own a car I can't get into.
- Sales / floor staff are non-existent. The showroom is empty aside from one other customer just standing there, I assume also looking for some help. The service lounge is empty aside from one customer sitting there waiting for... something.
- There are PDI and service folks back in the shop area, behind the 'Tesla Staff Only' signs, but I don't want to be 'that' guy, clearly they are trying to get more cars prepped and out on the lot.
- I call the local contact number on the door. I press # for "Sales" figuring usually that phone option gets more love than 'Service'. I get a message telling me to visit the website, or call back during normal business hours. (It's... 3pm, on a Thursday, and the location is clearly open, if deserted in the front of the house)..
- Eventually I happen to spy my Sales Advisor as he's (apparently) coming back with his lunch and a co-worker. I tell him what's going on, he says he'll go "un drop and re-drop the car" and to give it 5 minutes, it'll work then. He departed inside, I never saw him again.
- I wait 5 minutes. Nothing. I wait 10 minutes. Still nothing.
- The car beeps out of nowhere. I notice the mirrors have popped out! I quickly open the door, grab the key cards, and start inspecting the inside.
- Find one interior trim defect, more importantly, the wife spots it, I can't take it home like this no matter how much I want to get on the road, she'll never let me hear the end of it ("All that money and the dash is falling apart")...
- Still no app access. And I have a weird orange notification on my screen (blocking the pretty blue car) that there's a scheduled pickup at 2pm (lols)
- I sign the papers and go back inside, determined to find someone who can tell me how we get the dash fixed, even if I have to back back beyond the 'staff only' signs to do so, after all, I have the guise of "hey, I needed to turn in my papers!"...
- Find a very helpful gentleman sitting alone in the sales area. I explain the app issue and the dash issue. He says he has something else he needs to finish, but he'll find someone who can help and be right out. He does take my paperwork to go 'get it in the right place'...
- Back outside, I'm confident that I can always just use the keycard to get it moving if nothing else, so I convince the wife to head on home, I'll wait here and see how it goes.
- Eventually the very helpful gentlemen from inside comes out, and tells me that they need to 'close the service ticket', and that /then/ the app will start working, but it could take a couple hours, just use the card until then. I ask about the dash trim, I show it to him, he says that happens, but they'll need to take it back to the shop real quick, just a minute, someone will come out.
- He departs, a few moments later a service guy comes, I hand him one of the two cards, and he drives it into the shop, comes back 5 minutes later good as (ha) new.
- When he drops it back off, I ask him (out of morbid curiosity at this point) about the notification and the app. He tells me that once I take the car out of the "dealer geofence" it'll realize it's been delivered and those things will clear up on their own.
- I hop in and drive myself off the lot, 2 hours and 15 minutes after my scheduled 'express' delivery appointment began.
While on the drive home, I got a text from Tesla saying to go to the website, and to 'Reaccept' the loan documents and "Accept delivery" again and then the app would start to work. When I got it home, I did, and it did.
I know that's a long wall of text, but hopefully it'll give some insight to a process that seemed a bit haphazard and not real clear to me myself until I was living it.
Of course, as tech companies just love to 'move fast and break things', expect this process to be completely different in a couple of weeks no doubt.
All said and done, I love the car so far (obviously, we're still in the honeymoon period, less than 30 miles on the clock), but the "Tesla experience", is, honestly, kinda what I feared/expected in dealing with a tech company (disclaimer: I work in tech, so I get it) As long as you are 'within the program' so to speak, things are great, but the minute things require a human intervention because something went off the rails, actually finding and getting a person can be a challenge. (To be far, once I found someone who could help, they tended to be awesome).
I have no clue how this delivery system works
