Model S Delivery Issues and Communication Concerns

[donauker]

Geroge B did say the ramp up would be painfully slow! The maximum amount of pain occurs just before you get your car...

Seriously you've waited 3+ years, what is another couple weeks?

After another couple weeks if you see someone posting here that they are Canadian P913 and they are scheduled for deliver in a few weeks but you haven't heard a word from Tesla, let us know how you would feel.

 

[mnx]

After ~4 months maybe...

I haven't had a chance to configure yet. And I've had my reservation a lot longer than many the people who are already locked in. (>3 years) Patience goes a long way...

After another couple weeks if you see someone posting here that they are Canadian P913 and they are scheduled for deliver in a few weeks but you haven't heard a word from Tesla, let us know how you would feel.

 

[Jkam]

Originally Posted by Sparrow
I'm afraid I might say something that I shouldn't when I do speak with another person at Tesla.
Putting customers in this position is always a bad idea.

I found myself in that exact position yesterday. I was talking to the delivery specialist and I was watching every word I said so I didn't sound too angry or negative. It was a tough conversation to get through. And yes I was a fan boy at one time. The good will that I had for Tesla has vanished due to overpromising/underdelivering and lack of communication.

 

[tander]

I found myself in that exact position yesterday. I was talking to the delivery specialist and I was watching every word I said so I didn't sound too angry or negative. It was a tough conversation to get through. And yes I was a fan boy at one time. The good will that I had for Tesla has vanished due to overpromising/underdelivering and lack of communication.

Lately it does seem like they have been doing a lot of overp/underd. On the one hand, the car itself seems like it's pretty much accomplished the task of being on par or better than the competition, but their timing has been consistently delayed. I think I'm going to reserve judgement for a little while longer and see how they handle the next quarter or two, they have a lot of irons in the fire at the moment.

 

[Arnold Panz]

I found myself in that exact position yesterday. I was talking to the delivery specialist and I was watching every word I said so I didn't sound too angry or negative. It was a tough conversation to get through. And yes I was a fan boy at one time. The good will that I had for Tesla has vanished due to overpromising/underdelivering and lack of communication.

From my perspective, I absolutely do not blame any of the rank and file Tesla employees for this. They are, to a person, incredibly nice, dedicated, hard working and as helpful as they can be. To me, this is an issue from the top. If I had to guess, the employees would much rather share more information -- I can sometimes hear in their voices or see in their faces some frustration at having to defer answering certain questions. It's the corporate policy of not sharing more information that to me is illogical and ultimately counter-productive. And this doesn't mean more work for employees -- to the contrary, if more information were shared openly and honestly, there wouldn't be as many phone calls and questions repeatedly coming in for lack of good information.

My point being, please don't take out your frustrations on anyone you speak to, because it's truly not their fault. You can tell them your frustration with Tesla in general and these nonsensical policies about what we can and can't know about the status of our cars, but otherwise whomever you're speaking to is really blameless in all this.

Unless, of course, you get George B or Elon on the phone. In which case, have at it!

 

[donauker]

After ~4 months maybe...

I haven't had a chance to configure yet. And I've had my reservation a lot longer than many the people who are already locked in. (>3 years) Patience goes a long way...

You avoided the question of how you would feel about seeing people 900 cars after you being contacted for delivery when you were never contacted. I don't mind the wait if it is equal or there is a reason given.

And yes, this is my second round of years of patient waiting with Tesla so I do have a few more year then that.

 

[Jrhodesmd]

Just had my service rep not tell me the whole truth again. I'm absolutely fed up with tesla! :cursing: I called to inquire why customers with numbers in the 500's, 600's, and 800's are getting deliveries scheduled and I'm not hearing a thing at sig 371. They said they were waiting on my paperwork. I told her I turned it in the same day it was sent back in June. She at that point had no answer,rotated hopefully a November delivery date (which made me want to scream, as every time I call it gets pushed back another month.). Now, I'm already committed to this, so I'll get my model s eventually, but I'll likely cancel my Model X reservation for my wife. She won't put up with this ****, as she sees it as an SUV first. Being an electric car is just a benefit that will not worth any of this in her mind. Sadly (i say this as a shareholder also) she'll just go back to Lexus where I have to admit while their cars are unexciting, they have fantastic customer service. Getting tired of my friends saying "weren't you suppose to get that thing in August?"

 

[KBF]

Just had my service rep not tell me the whole truth again. I'm absolutely fed up with tesla! I called to inquire why guys with numbers in the 500's, 600's, and 800's are getting deliveries scheduled and I'm not hearing a thing at sig 371. They said they were waiting on my paperwork. I told her I turned it in the same day it was sent back in June. She basically had no answer, reiterated a November delivery date (which made me want to scream' as every time I call it gets pushed back another month.). Now I'm already committed to this so I'll get my model s eventually, but I'll likely cancel my Model X reservation for my wife. She won't put up with this **** as a she sees it as an SUV first. Electric car is just a benefit that will not worth any of this in her mind, she'll just go back to Lexus where they have fantastic customer service

Perhaps your rim change actually changed your date, if the paperwork had to be re-processed. I assume some of that is done automatically, and all paperwork needed to be done within 30 days to keep your original spot. I hope you get your delivery notice soon; I would be upset too.

 

[mnx]

Of course I'd be disappointed... But you knew they'd be batching cars right? By the time they get to me, production batching won't have as large an effect.

Sig reservation holders get screwed a lot, that is why I downgraded...

You avoided the question of how you would feel about seeing people 900 cars after you being contacted for delivery when you were never contacted. I don't mind the wait if it is equal or there is a reason given.

And yes, this is my second round of years of patient waiting with Tesla so I do have a few more year then that.

 

[qwk]

Model S Delivery Issues and Concerns

Just had my service rep not tell me the whole truth again. I'm absolutely fed up with tesla! I called to inquire why guys with numbers in the 500's, 600's, and 800's are getting deliveries scheduled and I'm not hearing a thing at sig 371. They said they were waiting on my paperwork. I told her I turned it in the same day it was sent back in June. She basically had no answer, reiterated a November delivery date (which made me want to scream' as every time I call it gets pushed back another month.). Now I'm already committed to this so I'll get my model s eventually, but I'll likely cancel my Model X reservation for my wife. She won't put up with this **** as a she sees it as an SUV first. Electric car is just a benefit that will not worth any of this in her mind, she'll just go back to Lexus where they have fantastic customer service

Not that I'm defending Tesla on this, but it seems like every Tesla employee I speak to is on a different page. Some tell you one thing, others completely contradict that info. It sucks, but thats what happens when most of the money is used on vehicle engineering with little left over for customer service. Its definately frustrating and if the Model S wasnt such a great car, most people would not walk, they would RUN. Its going to be interesting to see how many of the reservations get turned into sales. If Tesla keeps at it like they have, the conversion ratio will be like the Leaf, not good.

 

[Sparrow]

I'm going to look at this in a little more positive light at least from my position as S105. Given that the highest VIN number reported so far is 211, I'm thinking we are seeing a very high percentage of people telling their delivery dates. I was thinking it was something like only 1 person in 10 reporting, but with VIN211 being the highest we might be looking at 1 in 2 or maybe 3. That means there really are only a lucky maybe 50 people so far getting their cars out of order and earlier than to be expected rather than the 200 or 300 hundred I was thinking. Tesla may really just be filling up trucks that are already going to SSL sequence owners and that those 50 people are just lucky bastards. At some point when they get to my S105 some lucky guy in the 1200s might be getting his early too. On the negative side of this comment, that means Tesla isn't building the cars as fast as I was thinking and that I may have an even longer wait than I was thinking when I thought every other Signature owner was going to get their car before me. Kind of a positive negative thought here. We need more VIN information from people scheduled to get deliveries.

 

[spatterso911]

Of course... agreed. I think the divide here comes from the fact that most of us live in two camps: we're fans of Tesla and we're also customers of Tesla. Tesla is not a religion, it just sometimes feels like one. The fact is that this is a business proposition, "I'll build a car for you and you give me $100,000". As customers, none of us owe them ANY "slack". They should do what they say, when they say they will. Nothing else is acceptable in any business transaction. Now if one chooses to be fan and root for the company beyond the business arrangement, that's great. And you can voice your fandom. But don't lose sight of the fact that none of us owes Tesla anything other than money and once we hand over that money, Tesla owes us a quality car and ownership experience. I will give them some slack (although I'm starting to lose some patience) because I choose to support the company beyond my purchase. But I don't owe them that and they shouldn't expect it.

That's pretty much the kind of relationship we have "enjoyed" with every other manufacturer of vehicles. I thought we were looking for a different kind of experience, one where we were given carte blanche access to the development and delivery of a vehicle and then a unique ownership experience unlike anything we've experienced. I guess we really crave the norm after all.

 

[ckessel]

I'm assuming the variance is just high noise due to low volume and batch sizes. If you're batching 500 cars at a run rate of 500 a week then being in the next batch (say a batch of 85s vs 60s) might cost you a week. If you're batching 50 at a run rate of 10 a week (thus 5 weeks to complete the batch), then you can get significant delays particularly if there are multiple batch types and there's batching on the shipping end too.

I have no idea how Tesla is actually running the lines, but I can see why the first couple thousand folks will probably have huge variances in delivery times for what seem arbitrary reasons.

The alternative is Tesla doesn't ramp up the line and builds very tiny batches to keep things in tight reservation order, in which case they're in a world of hurt because they're shipping even more slowly and they're not working out the bugs on fully batched runs of the line.

 

[AnOutsider]

I'm assuming the variance is just high noise due to low volume and batch sizes. If you're batching 500 cars at a run rate of 500 a week then being in the next batch (say a batch of 85s vs 60s) might cost you a week. If you're batching 50 at a run rate of 10 a week (thus 5 weeks to complete the batch), then you can get significant delays particularly if there are multiple batch types and there's batching on the shipping end too.

I have no idea how Tesla is actually running the lines, but I can see why the first couple thousand folks will probably have huge variances in delivery times for what seem arbitrary reasons.

The alternative is Tesla doesn't ramp up the line and builds very tiny batches to keep things in tight reservation order, in which case they're in a world of hurt because they're shipping even more slowly and they're not working out the bugs on fully batched runs of the line.

Ok Chris works for Tesla.

I literally just got an email back from Tesla (finally) that basically says exactly that.

 

[Krugerrand]

Just had my service rep not tell me the whole truth again. I'm absolutely fed up with tesla! I called to inquire why guys with numbers in the 500's, 600's, and 800's are getting deliveries scheduled and I'm not hearing a thing at sig 371. They said they were waiting on my paperwork. I told her I turned it in the same day it was sent back in June. She basically had no answer, reiterated a November delivery date (which made me want to scream' as every time I call it gets pushed back another month.). Now I'm already committed to this so I'll get my model s eventually, but I'll likely cancel my Model X reservation for my wife. She won't put up with this **** as a she sees it as an SUV first. Electric car is just a benefit that will not worth any of this in her mind, she'll just go back to Lexus where they have fantastic customer service

*sigh*

The way to handle this is to ask your representative to put you through to her boss. "Rosanna, you've not answered my questions to my satisfaction. Please put me through to your supervisor."

Then you explain the situation to Rosanna's supervisor and ask your questions. If they can not answer your questions satisfactorily, you ask to speak to their boss and so on, until you find the person who can answer your questions to your satisfaction.

Somebody has the answer. The first line of people, the ones doing the 'customer service' aren't always the people in the know. Their job is to be polite to the customer and do their best to appease the customer. While you may think she wasn't 'telling you the whole truth', it's much more likely she has nothing else to tell you. Therefore, she's not the person you want to be talking to.

It is perfectly acceptable to take the name of your customer service rep and report them to their direct supervisor if you don't feel they are doing their job, thus moving them one step closer to the out door so that someone who is effective at customer service can be hired to replace them.

On a side note: As a wife, I generally don't like my husband making decisions for me based on what he thinks I'm going to do, even on the off chance he's right this one time. A lot of wives like to make their own decisions. We're funny that way. :wink:

P.S. I'm far more successful getting issues resolved with companies...even those big, powerful, omnipotent ones, than my husband.

 

[dsm363]

Model S Delivery Issues and Concerns

This was AnOutsider's idea but since there are a lot of posts in the main delivery update thread
Model S Delivery Update
dealing with out of order deliveries, concerns about batching production, delays...etc it was thought a separate thread for those issues would be best.

We'll try and keep the Model S Delivery Update thread for updates, scheduled and actual deliveries.

 

[joefee]

Good idea !

 

[NigelM]

This came to me while I was sitting on a boat today with nothing to do but meditate:

The whole delivery thing is analogous to luggage and flying. I've checked in early and I've checked in late, but somehow I never can tell when my bag is going to come out the luggage belt. If I paid more to fly first class, it's going to come out with the first batch of suitcases but I still have no way of even understanding why my bag comes out first or last. All the suitcases come out in batches, but the process is indiscernible to me, even though I can theorize how it should work (check-in, staging, onto a cart/container, loaded onto the plane, off the plane, cart/container to terminal, bags onto belt).

Tesla are batching production and that's more complicated than we think. Factor in time for service inspection, corrections as necessary, shipping to a given locale, scheduling by Delivery Specialist (makes sense that States/Regions would be assigned local Specialists some of whom will be busier than others on any given day) and I can imagine how reservation numbers may become spaced further and further apart. Do I wish that Tesla had the means and wherewithal to track every movement and notify each and every reservation holder? - Yes, but it's like asking them to hit a moving target hundreds of times a day. Imagine getting daily calls telling you you car had moved up one space or back one space! Not to say that Tesla has been perfect but if they did that we'd all be going nuts!

Pretty soon we'll all know when our cars will be with us and I'm sure we'd all rather Tesla focuses on getting them finished right now.

 

[richkae]

Suppose someone locks in Signature # < 200 and the car gets built and ready and then they refuse delivery and get their money back ( whether they forfeit the $10000 doesn't matter in the outcome of this ).
That car could reasonably go to the lowest Sig number that matches those exact specs. If it was an uncommon spec, then it might end up going to a high numbered sig like 6XX - even though nobody 2XX through 5XX has received their car.
If that was the case, there is no reason to be upset - somebody got lucky.

 

[brianman]

Testing page 9.

Edit: Interesting. My post is #120, while the previous post is #80.