Norbert
TSLA will win
While it may not explain some specific cases, there may also be the problem for them that production rate is perhaps sometimes increasing much faster than the number of newly hired delivery specialists finishing training.
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Model S Delivery Issues and Communication Concerns
- Thread starter brianman
- Start date
While it may not explain some specific cases, there may also be the problem for them that production rate is perhaps sometimes increasing much faster than the number of newly hired delivery specialists finishing training.
I think if people are just e-mailing their delivery specialist and they are either new, overwhelmed by the volume or both then that might explain some of it. The ownership at HQ said to e-mail them directly instead if possible.
I'll try and help by not needing a DS and going to the factory. I doubt there is anything a DS knows that I haven't heard/seen. Anytime I was in Menlo (a couple of years ago) no one could answer any technical question I had. It wasn't till the factory tour that I actually spoke w/ a Kuka engineer and some of the Tesla Engineers that knew some stuff.
Most high-quality companies I've dealt with over the years have had specialist customer service people whose job it is to take extra special care of customers who have gotten shafted in one way or another, to try to rebuild a positive relationship with the customer. It's an oft-repeated maxim in customer service that some of the most passionate recommendations for a company come from people who had some sort of problem, but who received exemplary customer service in resolving that problem.
It seems to me from reading JKam's and kroneal's postings that Tesla really needs to hire such people. Urgently. For sure things will get smoother and more predictable as their processes mature and the teams gain experience, but there will always be little mishaps along the way that need sorting out. Since Tesla is selling directly to customers, it falls on them to make the experience exemplary.
Topic change.
I'm a bit worried by kishdude's report. I'm R129. I have had zero proactive communication from Tesla since I was offered an opportunity to upgrade to Signature some weeks ago. (I passed up this opportunity, and hope I don't regret doing so.) When I have reached out, I've been told that my car should still be delivered in "November/December", and that I should hear something from a delivery specialist "soon". But it's the second half of November, and I've heard nothing. I have holiday travel plans and so forth, and I'm really struggling to try to imagine how Tesla is going to deliver a few thousand cars this quarter if somebody with a sequence number as low as mine has not even gotten a call yet.
It seems to me from reading JKam's and kroneal's postings that Tesla really needs to hire such people. Urgently. For sure things will get smoother and more predictable as their processes mature and the teams gain experience, but there will always be little mishaps along the way that need sorting out. Since Tesla is selling directly to customers, it falls on them to make the experience exemplary.
Topic change.
I'm a bit worried by kishdude's report. I'm R129. I have had zero proactive communication from Tesla since I was offered an opportunity to upgrade to Signature some weeks ago. (I passed up this opportunity, and hope I don't regret doing so.) When I have reached out, I've been told that my car should still be delivered in "November/December", and that I should hear something from a delivery specialist "soon". But it's the second half of November, and I've heard nothing. I have holiday travel plans and so forth, and I'm really struggling to try to imagine how Tesla is going to deliver a few thousand cars this quarter if somebody with a sequence number as low as mine has not even gotten a call yet.
ClearwaterBchSteve
P445 / VIN 1794
Mike, I'm beginning to think my hopes of getting the S by Christmas are dwindling based on the recent posts I'm reading. If you haven't heard anything yet, I probably won't either for quite some time. I still need a VIN and final MVPA. Something tells me they are not close to 400 unit/week production rate yet.
kinddog
Banned
they most likely just don't have the staff to keep constantly communicating with thousands of reservation holders and hold their hand the whole way.
why does everyone think it's some personal vendetta against them? or that Tesla specifically hires *******s who purposely aim to piss customers off?
THEY ARE BUSY.
It doesn't matter how busy they are. There is a set of around 50 people (I'm guessing) out of the "thousands" you mention who have fallen through the cracks. Tesla should have certainly been dealing with them separately. There are 6 on this very message board: v12 to 12v, tezco, dogface, kroneal, pilotSteve, and of course Jkam. Jkam was (according to him) lied to and told that his car was on a boat when it was nowhere near that! These are the people for whom Tesla should be going out of their way and explaining what's going on, while Signature people who put their extra $10k down months after they did have gotten their car a long time ahead of them. Your commentary regarding these people is completely misplaced.
Norbert
TSLA will win
This means you are still in the first half of your window. As far as I can tell from following this thread, the current reality is that this is not in situation in which you would commonly get a pro-active call, so not a reason to be concerned that you are in a special situation.
Also it wouldn't surprise me if delivery specialists are currently being told to *absolutely* focus on the remaining signature deliveries.
ClearwaterBchSteve
P445 / VIN 1794
@kishdude as well: Do either of you have your VIN yet? sublimaze1 is P188 and has a VIN but I think he asked for it (nobody at Tesla contacted him to tell him). Thanks and good luck, you guys are ahead of me. I made my reservation the weekend the Model S was announced back in 2009 and most of us early "P's" probably did the same.
While it is true that my car did miss the boat it was originally scheduled to be on, and I was led to believe that it was on the boat only to find out later that it wasn't, I think Tesla got bad information or no information from its logistics partner and passed it on to me. I think it was more laziness in not following up and being persistent more than anything. Also it was not being familiar with the vagaries of shipping via boat. In the end the information was false.
To me the most disappointing thing was what happened, or actually didn't happen after that. If I had made that mistake of communicating bad information, then I would feel responsible to make up for that mistake. So when the Tesla rep volunteered that he would keep me informed every step of the way, I thought I would get updates when the car got on a boat, when it arrived in port and when it would be ready for delivery without me chasing it down. I don't think that would be an unreasonable expectation. But instead I got silence for two weeks. That to me was the major contention point.
Norbert
TSLA will win
Without knowing the details, it appears probable that the car should have been on the boat according to the information available, and that info was passed on in a simplified way. EDIT: I wrote this before reading JKam's comment just above.
I disagree. We already know for a long time that things aren't happening the way many feel they have right to expect, and kinddog's explanation is a quite good one: "THEY ARE BUSY". You can disagree by saying that they should have been prepared by hiring more people earlier, or handling things in some better way. But that's just that: a disagreement.
That ended being the case but do you know how Tesla could have verified it otherwise? If the shipping company told them it was on the second boat and they passed that along, I'm not sure what they could have done other than I guess having someone to escort the car onto the actual boat for confirmation. It sounds like Tesla was given bad information and passed that along to you.
Anyway, I bet you are enjoying the new ride. Have fun.
See my edited post #2643.
I can't really enjoy the new ride yet because I still don't have temporary registration.
Undoubtedly true, but the end result is Telsa has done a poor job of managing their customers. It's commendable individual interactions are good since it generally means the people are good, but as an organization Tesla has failed pretty significantly so far in the execution of the customer experience. Someone earlier said that if there were an alternative performance sedan EV they'd have dropped Tesla and gone with someone else. That's not the reputation a company wants to create because when alternatives are available those same people won't be coming back nor will they be directing their friends towards Tesla.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure how Tesla digs out of this other than over time. The damage was done by mismanaged hiring timelines. Hiring and training is a slow and labor intensive process. Tesla has done a great job creating the car, but a less than admirable job in most of the other aspects of getting it to customers.
strider
Active Member
Weren't there supposed to be a bunch of "delivery parties" today? Any news?
And for napabill's comment, if I were Tesla I'd offer those last few sigs free service for 4 years if they'll agree not to squawk about GP's going out before their car is delivered. I'd take that deal if I were a Sig. A month from now no one will care that you got your Sig after some GP's but the free service will keep on giving. I'm sure Tesla could bury the costs somewhere.
And for napabill's comment, if I were Tesla I'd offer those last few sigs free service for 4 years if they'll agree not to squawk about GP's going out before their car is delivered. I'd take that deal if I were a Sig. A month from now no one will care that you got your Sig after some GP's but the free service will keep on giving. I'm sure Tesla could bury the costs somewhere.
That deal I'm sure would leak out and then you'd have people like me who had the Sig deposit down for well over 3 years not getting the deal that people with a Sig deposit down for maybe much less than a year getting upset. I'd say either offer it to all Sigs or find some other compensation. I think a phone call to the 50-100 people whose deliveries may get jumped by the production deliveries for whatever reason would go a long way. They could say they are getting their car on a truck but there is the chance a few early production cars might beat them by a week or so and wanted to make sure they were ok with that.
teslasguy
MSP P#1117
Or even better, move the east
Coast cars up a week or two and the west coast cars out a week or two. That way it will provide the most cars delivered this year in a balanced way. We'll all still get our cars by year end that way. Referring to cars produced last two weeks of this year.
P1117 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Coast cars up a week or two and the west coast cars out a week or two. That way it will provide the most cars delivered this year in a balanced way. We'll all still get our cars by year end that way. Referring to cars produced last two weeks of this year.
P1117 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Norbert
TSLA will win
Not sure about that at all. At that time the company's survival was anything else than guaranteed, and may simply not have had the financial resources available (I suppose you can't in all situations just simply raise capital for purposes such as this), or even there may not have been enough qualified job applicants willing to work for a company in that situation at that time.
Tesla spent money on the X and still said repeatedly they had enough money to get the S out the door without more money. The recent offering was stated to be cushion.
Tesla had more than enough money to hire these folks and plenty of forewarning on the timelines. They hired hundreds of people for manufacturing in the same time period. The under staffing on delivery was purely Tesla's choice of where to prioritize.
Norbert
TSLA will win
It wasn't clear they would make an offering. That was my point. So they may have needed the money as a cushion, even if they had the money. The reason Tesla's survival wasn't guaranteed was exactly for financial reasons. Which means they didn't know whether they were going to have enough money to survive until becoming profitable.
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