contaygious
Active Member
I think the solution should be a web page you can check and automatic emails with updates and pics. The fact that its real people chasing down everyone's questions seems inefficient and my mini experience was a lot better.
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Model S Delivery Issues and Communication Concerns
- Thread starter brianman
- Start date
Arnold Panz
Model Sig 304, VIN 542
AO, I'm really sorry you keep getting bad news. I feel like you and I have been on the same wavelength all along -- huge fans, slowly disillusioned to the point of pretty bitter disappointment. I still want Tesla to succeed and hope that the "green shoots" we've seen of late will sustain, and Tesla will at the least learn from its mistakes with us and improve their communications and processes going forward. I almost sent my new contact a specific note about you to make sure you got taken care of. I'd really love for Tesla to get you your car before Thanksgiving. Hopefully a few months from now you and I will be able to laugh a bit about our pre-delivery concerns.
I appreciate that Arnold. I think they reached out because of the email I sent. Communication is a positive though, even if it's bad news. I'd actually already told my family not to expect the car for thanksgiving (they all wanted to see it), so managing expectations (my own and theirs) like that helped soften the blow, but it's definitely frustrating. Especially since I feel like a horse chasing a carrot: get a date, date draws nigh, date moves. I guess it's just frustrating because I still don't feel like I have real, solid information to believe in.
Arnold Panz
Model Sig 304, VIN 542
I totally understand. Seeing actual pictures of my car was surprisingly cathartic and for the first time in a long time I didn't feel like Charlie Brown hoping that Lucy wouldn't pull the ball away again. I hope you get a picture of yours soon!
I have been a member of this forum for three days and I can already confirm that there is at least one Tesla rep who is a member of this forum and personally responding to complaints posted here. For better or worse, you will get a more rapid and thorough response if you post your complaint publicly than if you e-mail or leave a voicemail for your delivery specialist, possibly due to the logistical reasons cited by a prior poster that specialists are on the road most days.
I agree with this sentiment completely. It seems that some Sig holders are getting great proactive notification and information (pics from the assembly line ?!?!) that I would kill for. My delivery "specialist" has NEVER reached out to me proactively to give me any sort of information ever. When I email them, I have NEVER gotten an email back. When I call, and leave a message I never get a call back. If I happen to get him on the phone, he's pleasant, but totally uniformed. I'm a big supporter, but this is communication/customer service 101. Get it together.
-A
-A
Let me clarify my suggestion. Each of 10 staff members is responsible to communicate with 100 reservation holders.
I'm Sig Performance #904. My window of delivery was October 27 through November 9 but got the news last week that my car will be delayed 2 weeks. Seeing that Sig #700 is just rolling off the assembly line it appears I'm in the first phases of the "string a long" I've heard of. Two weeks longer I can wait but any longer and I'll just be another increasingly bitter customer. I hate that and hope it won't come to pass because I love being a member of those first purchasing this amazing car. Since signing up and plunking down my $50K I have only received a handful of unsolicited communications giving me updates. However when I have had questions I would get a response in a day or so from a very helpful knowledgable young man. Calls have been helpful as well. The point is that we all can't wait for an email from Tesla; any email. We want better personalized service!
It's not the waiting, no, it is the waiting but most of the issues have to do with the fact that no one is proactively communicating with each customer. This is purely a customer service/communication problem. We are all loyal, first adopters and there should be a system in place that assigns a person responsible for communicating proactively with each and every of the first 1000 signature holders. 10 staff members is responsible for communicating with 100 customers. Pretty simple. Mostly, we are starving for information and a "little touch and feel" would be helpful.
I would make it a very high priority to make and keep these first customers happy and informed on a regular basis. Then, incorporate that successful system to later reservation holders and keep the communications rolling. We all feel as though we are on a "need to know" basis, not a valued "in the know" member of the first 1000 Teslas S owners. This is not rocket science Mr. Musk.
It's not the waiting, no, it is the waiting but most of the issues have to do with the fact that no one is proactively communicating with each customer. This is purely a customer service/communication problem. We are all loyal, first adopters and there should be a system in place that assigns a person responsible for communicating proactively with each and every of the first 1000 signature holders. 10 staff members is responsible for communicating with 100 customers. Pretty simple. Mostly, we are starving for information and a "little touch and feel" would be helpful.
I would make it a very high priority to make and keep these first customers happy and informed on a regular basis. Then, incorporate that successful system to later reservation holders and keep the communications rolling. We all feel as though we are on a "need to know" basis, not a valued "in the know" member of the first 1000 Teslas S owners. This is not rocket science Mr. Musk.
I would cry tears of joy to get ONE proactive personal communication from Tesla on any part of my delivery (Sig 654). Every interaction I've had with them has either been me calling and getting someone live on the phone (VM and emails NEVER responded to) or a generic email. I'm not asking to be coddled -- I am an early adopter after all. I just want to feel like there is someone there who cares, and who knows that my $108K car is somewhere, and might be delivered in some two week window. I don't even care what window... just let me plan my life. AND, I'm even fine if the window shifts... but reach out and tell me proactively, rather than making me call and ask questions.
Very few people, outside this rarified air of early adopters, will put up with anything close to this pathetic display of customer indifference for a $108K car. I'm comfortable, because I'm an early adopter... I'm just suggesting that Tesla get their act together ASAP if they would like to sell more than the first 1000.
Very few people, outside this rarified air of early adopters, will put up with anything close to this pathetic display of customer indifference for a $108K car. I'm comfortable, because I'm an early adopter... I'm just suggesting that Tesla get their act together ASAP if they would like to sell more than the first 1000.
Sparrow
S105/ Roadster 189
I found out yesterday that my S105 VIN 510 was delayed again for some unknown reason and while other much higher VINs are done mine is still stuck in the "final audit" process which is before rectifying and burn in. If I am lucky my car is finished and ready for shipping in a week, so with delivery to Atlanta, I have about 3 more weeks of waiting. Since I have no reason to feel lucky, I am bracing myself for a post Thanksgiving delivery. Maybe I will be surprised with "early" delivery.
NigelM
Recovering Member
BTDT. I sympathize, but explained it to myself that if my car failed QC it was actually better to wait.
Sparrow
S105/ Roadster 189
Nigel, considering the timing of your car, based on its VIN, and it being shipped out, I am sure yours got stuck like mine somewhere. I just don't have the temperment to let it roll off my back any longer. If it weren't for the 10K I would lose and the fact there just isn't anything even close to an S in the EV market, I would have walked away about a month ago. Anyways now I hope mine doesn't get stuck as long as yours apparently did or I'll be waiting into December. My problem with Tesla communication so far is it has been sporatic and when I finally do get information it does not yet come true. That starts with my original reservation when I was told even as a used Roadster owner that I would be treated just like any other Roadster owner. That didn't happen. My MVPA said August, whereas it appeared at best it should have said late September. Of couse you have the deletion of the Aero wheels after that. Then the batching issues. Now the movement of my window for the second time. Hopefully I will cool down soon or Brandon won't be happy meeting me to deliver my car sometime in the unknown future. Maybe he will luck out and there will be another delivery specialist to make the delivery to me. They should probably just drop the car in a parking lot and tell me where to pick it up. That would probably work best for all concerned.
NigelM
Recovering Member
Mine was definitely in QC and then rectification. The problem with rectifying an issue is that, unless it's something simple like replacing a light bulb, it can take a long time to disassemble the car, fix it and reassemble it. In extreme cases it may even be faster to run a new car through production.
I agree with you on the communication issues, we all do, and GB agrees. I went through the same on/off thing as you but along the way I also understood that the Delivery Specialists here have a hard time getting exact information from the west coast. Brandon, Ben & co here in FL can't run down to the line in Fremont and physically see where things stand; as much as well all want to vent, try not to blame them personally. I hear that Tesla is finally moving away from whiteboards and spreadsheets into actual systems so things will get better but that might not help in our personal time-frame.
Fingers crossed that your problems get sorted soon.
Norbert
TSLA will win
That sounds like a good estimate to me, I have no idea but it would maybe require $1million in the first year, with training and everything. For a company not having to worry about its survival, it would probably be a no-brainer.
In this case, much more than the company itself depends on it getting through the 2nd half of 2012 and first half of 2013. Not only many industry experts, but also Elon himself said a few months ago that survival is anything else than guaranteed, as he spoke about the possibility that they might not make it. So with a waiting list of more than 10k, they may have to make tough choices. Any resource allocated, time, money, work-force, may cause a reduction elsewhere. More people in HQ might mean fewer people in stores, service, QA, or delivery. Yes, with the recent raise in investment they have more money, but they said they need it to reduce the risk in case of issues, and it turns out they had additional (supplier-)issues. They can't just spend all the money, and cash flow is not positive yet.
So without knowing the real details, I wouldn't jump to conclusions.
kinddog
Banned
there is the option of "being patient".
being a newcomer to these boards, please put some stock into my initial impression - that you all sound a little bit insane and very much like spoiled children. I can see being excited to get the car, but "bitter disappointment", calling the company a failure, and letting delays ruin the entire experience for you are a little extreme, don't you think?
ask yourself, is anything really wrong in your life right now? good lord...
perspective, people. perspective.
being a newcomer to these boards, please put some stock into my initial impression - that you all sound a little bit insane and very much like spoiled children. I can see being excited to get the car, but "bitter disappointment", calling the company a failure, and letting delays ruin the entire experience for you are a little extreme, don't you think?
ask yourself, is anything really wrong in your life right now? good lord...
perspective, people. perspective.
Krugerrand
Meow
Do you currently have a reservation that you are waiting on? Please don't discount our experiences unless you've actually experienced them. As you say, you're a newcomer (I don't know if you're new to Tesla). Many of us have been waiting years, and since around the summer, we've had a carrot dangled in front of us and then repeatedly pulled away as soon as we're about to take a bite. We've a lot of money invested in a product and the company that's delivering it, has historically been very weak on communicating that.
I think we all have every right to be frustrated. Sounds like you've just begun your journey. Hopefully our tribulations pave the way for a smoother ride for folks like you when you're up at bat. However, in the meantime. If our petulance becomes a bit much, you should probably skip the thread whose title indicates it's pretty much full of complaints.
NigelM
Recovering Member
Krugerrand
Meow
That's irrelevant, nevermind that you knew what you were getting into as an early adopter. If you didn't know, that's your fault for not having researched enough prior to becoming an early adopter and understanding how the process can go, good and/or bad.
I don't have a reservation. What I do have, though, is a whole lot more at stake than some paper money.
That bit was actually to Krugerrand, though the double-quote didn't stick, but the jist of the post still stands regardless of the party:
I stand behind my statements. If you're not currently in our position, then it's easy to be laid back and tell everyone to chill.
Correct. I'm usually an early adopter. I back things on kickstarter and NONE of them have ever gone right. But guess what? They update us. There are a few bad apples, but those usually don't even come to fruition anyway.
So you have an armchair quarterback position, in which it's in your best interest to see happy customers instead of disappointed customers rightfully criticizing the company? Again. My point stands. Please don't put us in our places until you've walked in our shoes.
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