Wiki Model S Delivery Update

[Ribeyesteak]

Y'all ready for another week with the forums and refreshing the order page? Getting closer to June...

 

[aerodyne]

Only 10 days to prepare for a new thread, "problems with new refresh MS"

 

[Hayseed_MS]

Only a week to prepare for a new thread, "problems with new refresh MS"

I thought it would be "How am I to drive this thing with half a wheel and no shifter? (Help I am stuck in the SC parking lot)"

 

[omarsultan]

This is a serious question, not just a rant.. But coming from a first time Tesla-on-order-wanna-be-buyer: Why is the demand so high from such a POS company?? I'm a successful business owner myself (obviously not on Elon's scale) but if I ran my business even partially like Tesla with just a *sugar* load of hype, empty promises, no PR just-take-my-money, ZERO customer service, maybe we'll give you a car one day?... well, myself and anybody else would have been out of business a long time ago.

How is it that so many people are willing to just throw a hundred dollars at Tesla to place an order and then spend months (or years) anticipating getting something one day when you don't even really know what your actually buying? It seems to me to be an amazing business model that goes against all free market competition rules of success.

Honestly after placing my MS Plaid order a month ago and following this board since, and seeing all of your "stories".. I think I would be more than happy to buy (supposedly?) less of a car for more money from a competitor that had even the slightest inkling of what customer service is. Maybe let my dollar count for some real innovation in the EV market!

I mean this whole June /July / August / September / October online flip-flop delivery estimate (with everybody constantly refreshing the page like it means anything) is just absolute BS.. There are no monkeys working behind the scene, nobody has to take the website offline to update a delivery date or supply a VIN. If there are website updates going on it will simply be temporarily unavailable, available, or maybe errors. Anything else (like constantly flip-flopping dates) is most definitely just intentional *sugar* by Tesla to generate more talk and hype.

So seriously.. why support such a POS company with an order or buying a vehicle? It seems to me that at this point in time and with just a little bit of support, many other competitors are ready to step up and deliver more in the EV market?

Elon is like the modern-day soup Nazi cars.

My '13 P85 was an incredible car--best car I have ever owned--looks great, leading-edge tech, fun to drive and also happens to be an EV. Elon and company really hit the suite spot. If someone had offered me a brand new S-class or 5-series I would have stuck with my 8-year old P85. When your product is that good, people are willing to overlook a lot of *sugar*.

Tesla: the car you will love from the company you will not.

 

[Tigers]

Elon is like the modern-day soup Nazi cars.

My '13 P85 was an incredible car--best car I have ever owned--looks great, leading-edge tech, fun to drive and also happens to be an EV. Elon and company really hit the suite spot. If someone had offered me a brand new S-class or 5-series I would have stuck with my 8-year old P85. When your product is that good, people are willing to overlook a lot of *sugar*.

Tesla: the car you will love from the company you will not.

I personally don't hate Tesla. Yeah the communication for new products and stuff could be a lot better, but the buying experience without having to deal with all the sales BS is amazing, plus I've never had an issue with service or with them screwing me around there. So once you get the car, at least in my personal anecdotal experience, most of the pain is over outside of some bugs they introduce here and there.

 

[sflgator]

Unfortunately not journalism. They just looked at a website (that has been that way for a while) and stated the obvious. MY SA and my magic eight ball are more reliable than that blog. Disappointed in them on most of their articles. The comments are really the best part.

At least they are getting the models/variants correct.

Agreed.

 

[omarsultan]

I personally don't hate Tesla. Yeah the communication for new products and stuff could be a lot better, but the buying experience without having to deal with all the sales BS is amazing, plus I've never had an issue with service or with them screwing me around there. So once you get the car, at least in my personal anecdotal experience, most of the pain is over outside of some bugs they introduce here and there.

Oh, I don't hate them either, which is why I worded it that way. But I sure don't love them as much as I used to.

 

[aerodyne]

Oh, I don't hate them either, which is why I worded it that way. But I sure don't love them as much as I used to.

I would LOVE to see a change in top leadership of Tesla. Morale would improve overnight methinks..

 

[JimLL]

Kinda jealous for all of you with dates and "symbols" changing all the time...it is like a new adventure every few days or hours. I was August for a week and then September and there it just sits, day in and day out, hour by hour, like a giant middle finger. And I am apparently so feeble minded, that I think if I stop checking, I will miss something like "Hey your car is in the driveway but we're leaving in 30 min if you don't come out and sign"!

 

[Tigers]

I would LOVE to see a change in top leadership of Tesla. Morale would improve overnight methinks..

Tesla needs Elon - but I would love to see a really strong COO. That would make a huge difference.

@JimLL -Bro, you ordered in May?! LOL Come on! Just enjoy the fun for a few months! We all have to pay our dues.

 

[omarsultan]

There seem to be more and more Model S vehicles spotted during the drone flyovers. It was my understanding a VIN is issued prior to vehicle being manufactured. If correct, as no one has posted a VIN this would indicate none of the vehicles seen to date are for customers. Update. Just found this.

I saw this earlier and the info is somewhat incorrect, so either something was misinterpreted or this is more made up SA-rumor BS. VINs are assigned to a chassis when it enters manufacturing. Beyond the VIN plate everyone sees through the windshield, it is also stamped onto the frame somewhere--for example, on the X it is under the sill plate on one of the rear doors (forget which one)--it is an integral part of manufacturing for a number of reasons.

What the poster may be saying is those VINs have not been matched with orders yet, which is not really any different than the info we already know--Tesla has built a bunch of refresh Ses but they are all sitting around in Fremont and no one we know of has gotten a VIN yet. Maybe they are starting to stage those cars at delivery hubs, but I wold expect the Twitter crew to be posting pics of carriers full of refresh Ses heading up and down I-880 and I-5 and see have not seen that so far.

 

[AnselmDante]

I thought it would be "How am I to drive this thing with half a wheel and no shifter? (Help I am stuck in the SC parking lot)"

Solve this one auto gear selector.

 

[foos]

Oh, I don't hate them either, which is why I worded it that way. But I sure don't love them as much as I used to.

I guess I don't hate them either, but things have changed dramatically for the worst when you've been around Tesla for a while. Tesla used to be so good at customer service, car service, education, just about anything, they would go above and beyond for anyone. Things like loaners during service. It was almost guaranteed before and usually it was a brand new performance model. Then it went to really beat up older Tesla models, then to ICE rentals, then to Uber gift card???

Since the addition of the 3's and Y's there has been a remarkable downslide, I don't blame that car, but believe that increased volume has impacted Tesla more then they expected. The frustrating part seems that so many good intentioned people still work at Tesla. The SA's want to be able to tell you your car is coming, but they have no idea. The service centers want to help, but there is no way to get an appointment in the next month.

It also just feels that someone at the top has changed the message and the tone. I felt like before it was "whatever to get a sustainable future", now it seems to be "what can we cut out to make us more money/efficient". Yeah, I still think the cars are great, but I don't see how this company continues long term if it can't correct some of these glaring issues (like delivery estimates). I don't mean to say that they owe us delivery updates and because they don't update delivery dates they are going to die off. I just see delivery date communication as one of the many changes they've gone through in the last few years that does not look good and I'm not sure how much longer than can ride on the lead they have.

 

[omarsultan]

Interesting change on the Model 3 page - mention of radar is gone. The S page still talks about radar--which maybe means they have not gotten around to updating the page yet

 

[Tigers]

I guess I don't hate them either, but things have changed dramatically for the worst when you've been around Tesla for a while. Tesla used to be so good at customer service, car service, education, just about anything, they would go above and beyond for anyone. Things like loaners during service. It was almost guaranteed before and usually it was a brand new performance model. Then it went to really beat up older Tesla models, then to ICE rentals, then to Uber gift card???

Since the addition of the 3's and Y's there has been a remarkable downslide, I don't blame that car, but believe that increased volume has impacted Tesla more then they expected. The frustrating part seems that so many good intentioned people still work at Tesla. The SA's want to be able to tell you your car is coming, but they have no idea. The service centers want to help, but there is no way to get an appointment in the next month.

It also just feels that someone at the top has changed the message and the tone. I felt like before it was "whatever to get a sustainable future", now it seems to be "what can we cut out to make us more money/efficient". Yeah, I still think the cars are great, but I don't see how this company continues long term if it can't correct some of these glaring issues (like delivery estimates). I don't mean to say that they owe us delivery updates and because they don't update delivery dates they are going to die off. I just see delivery date communication as one of the many changes they've gone through in the last few years that does not look good and I'm not sure how much longer than can ride on the lead they have.

Its just growing pains. They went from, what? 50,000 cars a year to 250,000 to 500,000? Not even the brightest people on the planet are going to be able to handle that kind of growth in volume with a product as complex and new as an EV without some issues. It needs to get better, but Im going to give them some more time to make it better.

No other automaker has anything close to this type of growth. They are dinosaurs (both for the good and the bad) and have had the infrastructure in place for decades. Most of them are just lucky sales don't decline y/y.

 

[foos]

Its just growing pains. They went from, what? 50,000 cars a year to 250,000 to 500,000? Not even the brightest people on the planet are going to be able to handle that kind of growth in volume with a product as complex and new as an EV without some issues. It needs to get better, but Im going to give them some more time to make it better.

No other automaker has anything close to this type of growth. They are dinosaurs (both for the good and the bad) and have had the infrastructure in places for decades. Most of them are just lucky sales don't decline y/y.


View attachment 665575

I hope you are right. That was my thought at first when I couldn't find a single parking spot in my local service centers because there were too many cars. I guess I'm just salty that it doesn't seem to be getting any better, and in fact, seems to be getting worse.

 

[omarsultan]

I guess I don't hate them either, but things have changed dramatically for the worst when you've been around Tesla for a while. Tesla used to be so good at customer service, car service, education, just about anything, they would go above and beyond for anyone. Things like loaners during service. It was almost guaranteed before and usually it was a brand new performance model. Then it went to really beat up older Tesla models, then to ICE rentals, then to Uber gift card???

Since the addition of the 3's and Y's there has been a remarkable downslide, I don't blame that car, but believe that increased volume has impacted Tesla more then they expected. The frustrating part seems that so many good intentioned people still work at Tesla. The SA's want to be able to tell you your car is coming, but they have no idea. The service centers want to help, but there is no way to get an appointment in the next month.

It also just feels that someone at the top has changed the message and the tone. I felt like before it was "whatever to get a sustainable future", now it seems to be "what can we cut out to make us more money/efficient". Yeah, I still think the cars are great, but I don't see how this company continues long term if it can't correct some of these glaring issues (like delivery estimates). I don't mean to say that they owe us delivery updates and because they don't update delivery dates they are going to die off. I just see delivery date communication as one of the many changes they've gone through in the last few years that does not look good and I'm not sure how much longer than can ride on the lead they have.

For a while now, I have argued that Tesla has an identity crisis post 3/Y. They cannot decide if they want to be Nordstrom or Walmart. Both are very well-run, profitable companies, but deliver very different customer experiences. They are both successful because they deliver what their customers expect.

Tesla is delivering the worst-case scenario by setting Nordstom expectations and delivering a Walmart experience.

This is one of the reasons companies have sub-brands (i.e. Lexus and Toyota) so they can tailor experience and cost structure to different price points and customer expectations.

 

[Honcho7]

I hear you Hayseed_MS. At least the website reflects the June delivery but as we all know, that could change in minutes. Time will tell...

Yeah, website said "March" when I ordered mine in February...so not a whole lot of value in that data field

 

[aerodyne]

For a while now, I have argued that Tesla has an identity crisis post 3/Y. They cannot decide if they want to be Nordstrom or Walmart. Both are very well-run, profitable companies, but delivered very different customer experiences. They are both successful because they deliver what their customers expect.

Tesla is delivering the worst-case scenario by setting Nordstom expectations and delivering a Walmart experience.

This is one of the reasons companies have sub-brands (i.e. Lexus and Toyota) so they can tailor experience and cost structure to different price points and customer expectations.

I vote for a new Tesla Brand! Could be called palladium or Mars or...

Buy out Lucid factory and build them there...

 

[Hayseed_MS]

Its just growing pains. They went from, what? 50,000 cars a year to 250,000 to 500,000? Not even the brightest people on the planet are going to be able to handle that kind of growth in volume with a product as complex and new as an EV without some issues. It needs to get better, but Im going to give them some more time to make it better.

No other automaker has anything close to this type of growth. They are dinosaurs (both for the good and the bad) and have had the infrastructure in place for decades. Most of them are just lucky sales don't decline y/y.


View attachment 665575

What Tesla has done (and much thanks to Elon) is phenomenal. That is great growth but they need to keep it under control and growing too fast can just be as bad as no growth. My guess is that if it were not for the covid mess on the supply chain, they would have come through this latest growth spurt just fine. However, as they grow, they may need to look at things like customer service to sustain that growth. We are a fickle public so the great mission and product will only carry them until a better widget comes out if they do not take care of those that got them to that position.

With all that being said, I am excited to be part of Tesla and look forward to years of owning the vehicles.