Model S Delivery Issues and Communication Concerns

[tomas]

I watch this thread to try to get handle on my eventual delivery of Model S #P2050. Until recently, I could find useful information on just about each page. Nowadays, I have to go through 5 or 6 pages to find delivery information among the whinging, guessing, backslapping, tesla-slapping, etc. I guess that's what happens when you have a few thousand humans anxiously awaiting something they desire a lot, particularly in this world of "social media" where everybody feels compelled to say their piece and more.

This is my plea - please chill, nobody's going to die from waiting for a car, and no number of posts is going to accelerate your delivery. Please un-clutter this thread and keep to delivery information.

 

[ckessel]

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.

Right, Tesla chose how to prioritize spending and created this problem. For example, rather than staff delivery they spent a bunch on the X.

 

[artsci]

I watch this thread to try to get handle on my eventual delivery of Model S #P2050. Until recently, I could find useful information on just about each page. Nowadays, I have to go through 5 or 6 pages to find delivery information among the whinging, guessing, backslapping, tesla-slapping, etc. I guess that's what happens when you have a few thousand humans anxiously awaiting something they desire a lot, particularly in this world of "social media" where everybody feels compelled to say their piece and more.

This is my plea - please chill, nobody's going to die from waiting for a car, and no number of posts is going to accelerate your delivery. Please un-clutter this thread and keep to delivery information.

Amen. Sometimes we all sound like a bunch of very spoiled folks. If we can afford this car, we're very privileged and we should be grateful for that. Tesla makes mistakes but which one of us is perfect?

 

[walla2]

@DouglasR: I will probably ask for a reduction in my Signature tax if more than zero production cars are delivered before I my Signature. I didn't get Red Paint or White leather so the only advantage of a Sig was the timing and a tiny badge. I upgraded from a fairly low P so that I could get the car earlier and be one of the 1,000. The only 1,000 thing, didn't really pan out for me either but that is a separate topic. If the timing "promise" isn't met, why should I have to pay the full Sig tax? My third window will end soon with no delivery set up and no reply to my request for a delivery window update this week. I configured my S on June 26th, not in September or October. They will probably say tough, but if nothing else I want an official company response telling me what I got for the Sig tax other than a $15.00 plastic Sig label. Perhaps, I can ask for non-sig plastic labels so that the car can be what it really is, a non-Sig performance.

@Jkam: You and I have a similar view of this frustatingly, painful process only I feel even more sadden by the fact that you were Sig 69. I'm S1179, VIN1042, a wait list Sig'er, that has had an equally difficult time getting the company to talk and update me. If I didn't contact Tesla myself, I wouldn't have heard a thing at this point. My last update that I initiated was on 11/12. On 11/13, I was told the car had finished production and was about to enter "burn in." Eight days later and no update and now I suspect I will see the first P's delivered before they even schedule mine. Despair has set in again mostly because of the fact that I am tired of telling people "no, it hasn't come yet."

 

[DouglasR]

@walla2: If it's any consolation, your Signature reservation will probably mean the difference between a 2012 delivery and a 2013 delivery (didn't you upgrade from P24xx?). Hang in there. I'm sure your car will be delivered before mine.

 

[walla2]

@DouglasR: At this point, I just want some honesty for all purchasers, a promise to do better, and a reasonable response to my non-imagined slights. I could handle being told December in February when I upgraded from P2407. But I was sold and upgrade for July/August, then Sept, then Oct, then November, and now no response but my guess is Dec/Jan. Perhaps, I have a dreaded scrapped situation going on. If so, just tell me! I don't want junk. I appreciate the words of support. Really, I do want the P's to go out and hope you get yours soon. Just frustrated beyond belief.

 

[DouglasR]

I'm in Seattle. How about I buy you a beer?:smile:

 

[dsm363]

@DouglasR: At this point, I just want some honesty for all purchasers, a promise to do better, and a reasonable response to my non-imagined slights. I could handle being told December in February when I upgraded from P2407. But I was sold and upgrade for July/August, then Sept, then Oct, then November, and now no response but my guess is Dec/Jan. Perhaps, I have a dreaded scrapped situation going on. If so, just tell me! I don't want junk. I appreciate the words of support. Really, I do want the P's to go out and hope you get yours soon. Just frustrated beyond belief.

What should the people who put their deposit down a few years ahead of you get for a single production car being delivered before yours? I would think this reduction in the Sig tax must be pro-rated in that case on how long the deposit was with Tesla. You're getting your car probably 3 months earlier with the upgrade and you're at the end of the Sig list so I doubt your car was one of the scrapped ones. The contacted you last week and probably won't again until they move into the delivery phase. You're welcome to call the ownership team phone number. People say they can't get a response so I called myself this morning about this and got someone on the phone within 30 seconds. I asked them about one of the posts on here with someone saying they hadn't heard about an update recently and they looked into it and contacted them. It's a manual process for them it sounds like so if they aren't contacting you to your desired frequency, go ahead and contact them and ask for an update.

jkam was not on the Roadster owner's Sig Special list so that Sig 69 was actually about 300ish in line so a big delay but not as bad as it seems.

 

[walla2]

What should the people who put their deposit down a few years ahead of you get for a single production car being delivered before yours?

There is almost no one that put a deposit down a "few years" ahead of me. I placed my original deposit in April 2010 before the Sig list had closed and at P2407. Reservations started in March 2009. Again, I actually do want the P's delivered. Just want to know what is really going on that it takes 8 days to burn in and why 3 delivery windows have vanished without one word from the company. They don't call or email and say "you have been delayed." They put headphones on and turn the volume up to 11.

The[y] contacted you last week and probably won't again until they move into the delivery phase.

Let's be careful about saying they contacted me. I contacted them.

jkam was not on the Roadster owner's Sig Special list so that Sig 69 was actually about 300ish in line so a big delay but not as bad as it seems.

His car was delivered at about the same time as Sig 1203. That is a pretty big delay that does seem bad. Now look at that same car in relation to mine. Sig 1203 has the same exact configuration as my car and yet that owner has VIN 826. I am Sig 1179 and have VIN 1042. Sig 1203's car is in Chicago for Delivery. I live in Washington State and my car isn't finished and isn't ready for delivery. Is it a big delay that seems bad, no. Does it make sense at all, I'm certain you can't find a way to answer yes to that.

dsm363, I know you have your cars, and you've been a great Tesla cheerleader on the forum for over 5000 posts. I can say that not everyone has had the rosy experience that you are painting. People should know about jkam's issue, scrapped cars, long delays, and radio silence. I've been in contact with GeorgeB. I know the core of the company is right. They need to be better with details and how they handle them in my opinion.

 

[teslasguy]

What should the people who put their deposit down a few years ahead of you get for a single production car being delivered before yours? I would think this reduction in the Sig tax must be pro-rated in that case on how long the deposit was with Tesla. You're getting your car probably 3 months earlier with the upgrade and you're at the end of the Sig list so I doubt your car was one of the scrapped ones. The contacted you last week and probably won't again until they move into the delivery phase. You're welcome to call the ownership team phone number. People say they can't get a response so I called myself this morning about this and got someone on the phone within 30 seconds. I asked them about one of the posts on here with someone saying they hadn't heard about an update recently and they looked into it and contacted them. It's a manual process for them it sounds like so if they aren't contacting you to your desired frequency, go ahead and contact them and ask for an update.

jkam was not on the Roadster owner's Sig Special list so that Sig 69 was actually about 300ish in line so a big delay but not as bad as it seems.

I'm sure your heart is in the right place, and no doubt you love your new S, but honestly your continual ragging on people with legitimate issues/complaints is wearing a bit thin with me.
I'm also a big Tesla supporter and I've no doubt that the folks that are voicing their frustrations are as well and IMHO they should feel completely free to voice their frustrations in this forum and in the long run we will all (including Tesla) be better off for it. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

[dsm363]

There is almost no one that put a deposit down a "few years" ahead of me. I placed my original deposit in April 2010 before the Sig list had closed and at P2407. Reservations started in March 2009. Again, I actually do want the P's delivered. Just want to know what is really going on that it takes 8 days to burn in and why 3 delivery windows have vanished without one word from the company. They don't call or email and say "you have been delayed." They put headphones on and turn the volume up to 11.



Let's be careful about saying they contacted me. I contacted them.



His car was delivered at about the same time as Sig 1203. That is a pretty big delay that does seem bad. Now look at that same car in relation to mine. Sig 1203 has the same exact configuration as my car and yet that owner has VIN 826. I am Sig 1179 and have VIN 1042. Sig 1203's car is in Chicago for Delivery. I live in Washington State and my car isn't finished and isn't ready for delivery. Is it a big delay that seems bad, no. Does it make sense at all, I'm certain you can't find a way to answer yes to that.

dsm363, I know you have your cars, and you've been a great Tesla cheerleader on the forum for over 5000 posts. I can say that not everyone has had the rosy experience that you are painting. People should know about jkam's issue, scrapped cars, long delays, and radio silence. I've been in contact with GeorgeB. I know the core of the company is right. They need to be better with details and how they handle them in my opinion.

I understand, by years I was referring to the Signature deposit since you have one of the last Signature spots and figured it would have been in 2011 sometime but you are saying you placed your Signature reservation in April 2010.

My car was delayed as well (promised August delivery and came late September) but understand others have had longer delays and more issues with shipping so I don't doubt that. I'm just saying we know they are working on getting the cars to people and while the communication is nowhere near optimal requiring you to reach out as you did at times, the car will get there. Ideally, there should be perfect communication with up to the minute tracking on your car and its progress but we are obviously not there yet.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm sure your heart is in the right place, and no doubt you love your new S, but honestly your continual ragging on people with legitimate issues/complaints is wearing a bit thin with me.
I'm also a big Tesla supporter and I've no doubt that the folks that are voicing their frustrations are as well and IMHO they should feel completely free to voice their frustrations in this forum and in the long run we will all (including Tesla) be better off for it. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Sorry you feel that way. I wasn't ragging on him. I didn't tell him to not voice his frustrations as he has every right to be frustrated about the delays and lack of communication. I was suggesting that since he wasn't getting the proactive response from Tesla he was looking for that he call himself to try and get answers. As I pointed out, I called yesterday morning and got a human on the phone after a few rings and even asked about someone in the Sig 500 range that wasn't getting any answers. That person received an e-mail later that day but could have had nothing to do with me calling. It is possible to get answers to these delays but it just more time consuming and painful than it should be so trying to point that out to the people really upset by the delays. By contacting Tesla directly, it also reinforces their need for improvement. People here can try and help as much as possible but don't have the inside information Tesla does to provide more substation answers about a particular car and reasons for a delay.

 

[NigelM]

IMHO they should feel completely free to voice their frustrations in this forum and in the long run we will all (including Tesla) be better off for it.

Hopefully people are expressing their frustration honestly to Tesla and not just on TMC.

BTW, I find it ironic that we have P#s complaining that their cars shouldn't be held up waiting for Sigs to take delivery, and Sig's stating that not one single P should be delivered before they have their car.

 

[aviators99]

I'm sure your heart is in the right place, and no doubt you love your new S, but honestly your continual ragging on people with legitimate issues/complaints is wearing a bit thin with me.
I'm also a big Tesla supporter and I've no doubt that the folks that are voicing their frustrations are as well and IMHO they should feel completely free to voice their frustrations in this forum and in the long run we will all (including Tesla) be better off for it. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

If I had paid the Sig tax (around $10,000) I would be pretty upset to see many non-Sigs being delivered before me. But I do feel that the higher the Sig reservation number, the less expectation I would have of a lengthy head start. Clearly, the difference between the very last Sig and the very first R could always have been a matter of minutes, and depending on geography, I would not necessarily have *any* expectation of the very last Sig reservation getting delivered before the first Rs. Walla2's reservation was 1179, and the Sig tax still gained him several months, so although I would be a bit upset, I wouldn't ask for my Sig tax back if I was him. I *would* be upset regarding communications in general, as I still am now, even as a non-Sig. I certainly agree with you that everyone here has a right to voice frustration, and it can only be good for the company. We've certainly learned that Tesla can be a reactive company.

 

[bonnie]

I'm sure your heart is in the right place, and no doubt you love your new S, but honestly your continual ragging on people with legitimate issues/complaints is wearing a bit thin with me.
I'm also a big Tesla supporter and I've no doubt that the folks that are voicing their frustrations are as well and IMHO they should feel completely free to voice their frustrations in this forum and in the long run we will all (including Tesla) be better off for it. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

As many have noticed, I've quit posting as frequently ... because IF (okay, when) I have a positive opinion, I get accused of being a cheerleader, etc. Just as others should have the right to voice their frustrations (hopefully in a constructive way and not the same opinion repeatedly), those with positive experiences should have the right to voice theirs. Neither trumps the others.

But I am a bit tired of having my opinion dismissed 'because you're just a fangirl', when that opinion is based on real-life experience (and many times it is in answer to speculation).

Also keep in mind that not everyone on this forum feels a need to report their experience factually. They may have shorted the stock, they may be hoping for Tesla to give them something extra to quiet them (good luck with that), they may not truly be early adopters and weren't ready for some of the uncertainty, or they may be like my brother-in-law's sister and husband ... people that start with the assumption that they're getting the short end of the stick and work from there. That is NOT to say there are not people with legitimate gripes here. I know of few personally. But perhaps a few of these stories aren't as reported and only serve to get everyone riled up.

 

[aviators99]

Hopefully people are expressing their frustration honestly to Tesla and not just on TMC.

BTW, I find it ironic that we have P#s complaining that their cars shouldn't be held up waiting for Sigs to take delivery, and Sig's stating that not one single P should be delivered before they have their car.

Yes, I find this interesting. As I mentioned above, if I was a Sig I would be upset to see a P get delivered before me. But being upset is different from demanding that Ps sit and wait, even if they are ready to go! It's sort of like this constant dispute I have with my wife: If we can't all have first class seats on the plane, none of us can!

 

[Shorty]

Very well said Bonnie.

I reserved my car the very first day that you could in 2009 so I am quite familiar with every promise, commitment and forecast that Tesla made throughout the process. Quite frankly many of the people complaining simply don't have their facts straight. Whether people have selective memories, are predisposed to complain, or are simply trolls out to annoy others I don't know, but I don't see how a reasonable person would think that writing anonymous diatribes on a message board gets them anywhere or solves any problems.

If you are so upset then either complain to Tesla directly or cancel your order and buy something else. If you are so unhappy about your purchase before you even receive the car then it isn't going to get any better.

 

[walla2]

Hopefully people are expressing their frustration honestly to Tesla and not just on TMC. BTW, I find it ironic that we have P#s complaining that their cars shouldn't be held up waiting for Sigs to take delivery, and Sig's stating that not one single P should be delivered before they have their car.

I have contacted Tesla and GeorgeB. I promised GeorgeB I wouldn't post anything or share anything he emailed. I can't violate that trust and post what was said in response. I also never said that P's shouldn't be delivered. They should be. I just wanted to know what my own Sig tax was for if it wasn't for early delivery. I don't want a single car held up because I want other people to get their cars. I want Tesla to succeed.

Also keep in mind that not everyone on this forum feels a need to report their experience factually. They may have shorted the stock, they may be hoping for Tesla to give them something extra to quiet them (good luck with that), they may not truly be early adopters and weren't ready for some of the uncertainty, or they may be like my brother-in-law's sister and husband ... people that start with the assumption that they're getting the short end of the stick and work from there.

Keep in mind that I am a stockholder and want the stock to do well. I would also like to know why Sig 1203 with the exact same configuration can get their car before me. I completed my paperwork in under 2 days. I upgraded before 1203. I live closer. I've been a reservation holder since 2010. Tesla and people here can't always use the early adopter argument if they want to become a legitimate car company.

 

[Shorty]

If I had paid the Sig tax (around $10,000) I would be pretty upset to see many non-Sigs being delivered before me. But I do feel that the higher the Sig reservation number, the less expectation I would have of a lengthy head start. Clearly, the difference between the very last Sig and the very first R could always have been a matter of minutes, and depending on geography, I would not necessarily have *any* expectation of the very last Sig reservation getting delivered before the first Rs. Walla2's reservation was 1179, and the Sig tax still gained him several months, so although I would be a bit upset, I wouldn't ask for my Sig tax back if I was him. I *would* be upset regarding communications in general, as I still am now, even as a non-Sig. I certainly agree with you that everyone here has a right to voice frustration, and it can only be good for the company. We've certainly learned that Tesla can be a reactive company.

In fact is very possible that the R holder reserved long before the S. The Sgs were not introduced until well after Tesla started taking reservations.

Every manufacturer that I know of has special or limited edition vehicles from time to time. If you want, you can purchase a regular series car and then option it up but nobody is going to claim it is the same thing. People may not think that the Sigs have enough extra value to warrant the additional $10K but that is different than claiming a $10K tax for faster delivery.

 

[NigelM]

I don't want a single car held up because I want other people to get their cars. I want Tesla to succeed.

I wasn't referring solely to you and maybe I misunderstood this post:

I will probably ask for a reduction in my Signature tax if more than zero production cars are delivered before I my Signature.

 

[dsm363]

I have contacted Tesla and GeorgeB. I promised GeorgeB I wouldn't post anything or share anything he emailed. I can't violate that trust and post what was said in response. I also never said that P's shouldn't be delivered. They should be. I just wanted to know what my own Sig tax was for if it wasn't for early delivery. I don't want a single car held up because I want other people to get their cars. I want Tesla to succeed.



Keep in mind that I am a stockholder and want the stock to do well. I would also like to know why Sig 1203 with the exact same configuration can get their car before me. I completed my paperwork in under 2 days. I upgraded before 1203. I live closer. I've been a reservation holder since 2010. Tesla and people here can't always use the early adopter argument if they want to become a legitimate car company.

I'm glad you've been in contact with them so hopefully they can work on things for you. I don't know if we will ever no the exact reasons why one car gets delivered before another but the reservation agreement said the reservation number wouldn't correspond directly with the VIN. Maybe your car had some minor issues and got pulled off the line for a week while they addressed something or there was some other reason for a delay. The Sig tax is a totally different topic on its worth but it did allow you to jump 2,500 spots and the other very small Sig benefits that we know about so far (which aren't much).