Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Model S Premium Center Console - Only in Black

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I'm sorry but something just doesn't jibe here. I email Tesla on 5-15 about my order and this is the response I received:

Thank you for contacting Tesla Motors. We apologize for the delay in getting back to you. We hope to be able to provide you with a Carbon Fiber console shortly, however, they have not yet been released. While we still do not have a firm release date, our best guess would be that we will contact you towards the end of this month. You are approximately 45 on the list of customers waiting for the Carbon Fiber console.

If there is anything else we may assist you with, please do not hesitate to contact us.

I received almost exactly the same email on 5/13.

I received similar messages, and on May 18 received this, in response to my request for clarification on the email that told me I was about 4465 on the list:

--
You are approximately 4465 on the entire Premium Front Console waitlist. If we are only looking at customers waiting for the Obeche Wood Matte console, you are approximately 1240 on the list.

Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.
--

I think the answer with respect to what doesn't jibe is that either Tesla management keeps the front-line people that send these e-mail messages in the dark on these things until the very last minute, or, the other, much darker possibility, is that lying to customers is just understood to be part of their job description. I'll give the rep that's been writing me all along (it's only been one, so it wouldn't surprise me if she were the only one) the benefit of the doubt, and assume she was kept in the dark. That doesn't really make the situation any better, though.
 
If they threw in the towel in the last day or two, how do you explain the trim levels other than piano black disappearing from the online store at least two weeks ago:

(I made the following post at 12:00 AM eastern time on May 7. Bold just added.)

Who knows? Maybe they hadn't yet made the decision to give up on the design but didn't want to make a bad problem worse by taking more orders.

- - - Updated - - -

the other, much darker possibility, is that lying to customers is just understood to be part of their job description. I'll give the rep that's been writing me all along (it's only been one, so it wouldn't surprise me if she were the only one) the benefit of the doubt, and assume she was kept in the dark. That doesn't really make the situation any better, though.

Seriously?
 
Not possible, they stopped taking orders for other finishes a little while ago. They knew this was coming.

Well.. I've been trying to inject a bit of perspective into this and to try to open up the possibility that the company is not evil, but rather they made some errors that snowballed.

Apparently I've failed. I give up.

Personally, I would have liked a console but really like the car anyway and will happily trade up in 2-3 years!
 
Well.. I've been trying to inject a bit of perspective into this and to try to open up the possibility that the company is not evil, but rather they made some errors that snowballed.

Apparently I've failed. I give up.

Personally, I would have liked a console but really like the car anyway and will happily trade up in 2-3 years!

No don't give up! I appreciate your points.
 
Seriously?

Yes, seriously.

"Part of the job description" is obviously an exaggeration, but it wouldn't surprise me that much if it was just understood that there were times when the reps were going to be expected to send email responses that they knew were not truthful. Would that really shock you, in a company that makes it clear that new products are never announced ahead of time, etc.?
 
Yes, seriously.

"Part of the job description" is obviously an exaggeration, but it wouldn't surprise me that much if it was just understood that there were times when the reps were going to be expected to send email responses that they knew were not truthful. Would that really shock you, in a company that makes it clear that new products are never announced ahead of time, etc.?

It would shock me, yes, since I know a number of Tesla employees & know how hard they work to 'do the right thing'. If they didn't believe in the mission statement of Tesla Motors, they wouldn't work the hours they do to make it happen. "Lying" is not part of the expectation.
 
It would shock me, yes, since I know a number of Tesla employees & know how hard they work to 'do the right thing'. If they didn't believe in the mission statement of Tesla Motors, they wouldn't work the hours they do to make it happen. "Lying" is not part of the expectation.

Earlier today I ran into a Tesla engineer in one of the Facebook groups - I think it was the worldwide group and his name is Raul. I mentioned the console fiasco of the last two days, not expecting much in the way of a response, but he messaged me to let me know that he forwarded my comment to the sales & marketing team. Tesla cares and has no ulterior motives, I just think that the way they make decisions and communicate those decisions needs some work.
 
I think the answer with respect to what doesn't jibe is that either Tesla management keeps the front-line people that send these e-mail messages in the dark on these things until the very last minute, or, the other, much darker possibility, is that lying to customers is just understood to be part of their job description. I'll give the rep that's been writing me all along (it's only been one, so it wouldn't surprise me if she were the only one) the benefit of the doubt, and assume she was kept in the dark. That doesn't really make the situation any better, though.

I don't subscribe for a minute to this conspiracy theory school of thought that staff are encourage to deliberately lie. That's never been my experience.

Yes, there are many times that staff don't have up-to-date facts but when in any large corporation do they? But a lying culture? No way in this company.
 
I think we all agree - customer service agents aren't lying. But, in effect, they're being instructed to lie to customers unknowingly. They told people that parking sensors/AWD/new colors weren't imminent, and they told people that their console backorder was in effect. Someone knows what changes are coming and they don't seem to take any steps to aid/assist/protect/comfort customers already in the pipeline. That's the disappointing part.
 
Last edited:
Someone in another thread posted that he had a CF center consoles installed. Unfortunately, he did not post any pictures to confirm.

My carbon fiber console was installed tonight! Only took 1.5 years after ordering!!! :tongue:

MD

Still doesn't make any sense to me that not everyone received the same email. The whole process has been frustrating to say the least for most of us.
 
Just got this email from Tesla:

-----------


Q: If Tesla will have a next generation of newly designed Center Console in the future, can I swap out the Piano Black Console to the new one?
A: Regrettably, we cannot comment on future products. The offer to purchase is for the exact product being offered currently. Each Tesla Sales location has a marketing vehicle with an installed Piano Black Front Center Console. We encourage you to visit the showroom to review the physical product if you are unsure about your purchase.

Well not exactly... Here's how it went for me.

Sunnyvale - a demo car with one will be available tomorrow. Please come back Friday, Saturday or Sunday
calls Santana Row - we had one in a demo car but we just sold it yesterday
calls Fremont - phone is not answered
calls Palo Alto - we are installing one in a demo car today and it should be available tomorrow. But Fremont has one.

So I drive from Sunnyvale to Fremont fully expecting to be disappointed again. But they do have one. I don't like the black lid, but I know I will keep it open for my phone so it doesn't matter. And I like the configurable cup holders.

My advice is to call ahead to make sure that the demo car with the console is physically there.
 
I don't subscribe for a minute to this conspiracy theory school of thought that staff are encourage to deliberately lie. That's never been my experience.

Yes, there are many times that staff don't have up-to-date facts but when in any large corporation do they? But a lying culture? No way in this company.
I agree. My sense is that they really thought that the console would be imminently available, then they discovered something that really just frustrated the **** out of them and they said, "screw it, we give up".

I still need a console though, and the CCI is not acceptable for me.
 
It would shock me, yes, since I know a number of Tesla employees & know how hard they work to 'do the right thing'. If they didn't believe in the mission statement of Tesla Motors, they wouldn't work the hours they do to make it happen. "Lying" is not part of the expectation.

I don't subscribe for a minute to this conspiracy theory school of thought that staff are encourage to deliberately lie. That's never been my experience.

Yes, there are many times that staff don't have up-to-date facts but when in any large corporation do they? But a lying culture? No way in this company.


I did say in my initial post that drew the "really?" response (see below) that I would give the rep the benefit of the doubt.

I'll give the rep that's been writing me all along (it's only been one, so it wouldn't surprise me if she were the only one) the benefit of the doubt, and assume she was kept in the dark. That doesn't really make the situation any better, though.

And I'm certainly willing to believe, as Bonnie put it, that lying is not part of the expectation.

But are you two really suggesting that if someone's job is to answer incoming e-mail about people's position on the waiting list, when they can expect to receive their console, etc., and they are told by their immediate supervisor to continue doing that, even though they know that a change is coming, that they would actually risk losing their jobs and stop sending the "misleading" emails?

We know Tesla wouldn't allow the information out before they were ready to release it. Again, I'm willing to assume the front-line person really had no knowledge of the change. But I just don't think it is THAT far-fetched, in a company that we know is tight-lipped about changes to the product line, etc., to think that occasionally we are knowingly being given incorrect information.

I'm willing to believe that if and when it does happen, Tesla tries to minimize the impact of it, and that they try to have it happen as infrequently as possible. I just think that the view that it could never happen may be a bit naieve.
 
Last edited:
I thought the email was curiously worded and it made no sense to me that they just couldn't manage a quality rendition of Obeche or CF. Especially curious was the comment that rear seat console design took advantage of the discovered problems with the front console. Now I think I have a couple of ideas about what happened.

Front console design features an iPhone compartment door that rotates open for phone caddy. That door is a molded plastic part that must fit fairly closely to the edges of the compartment. Concept was ok, but took too much time to get it right and simply painting the door Piano Black (or is that simply polished plastic?) was easy to do. Applying wood veneer is a different matter. I think that they discovered that finishing the edges was a problem without there being some other trim to overlap, as on the dashboard and arm rest cup holders.

That, I think, was the lesson taken from the front console that made Obeche rear seat console an easy matter. They simply built in the same cup holder part from the front mid armrest into the front of the rear armrest bin cover. Easy solution.

Finally, I think that with Model X ramping up to production and pressure to get a prototype E built, they may have decided to re-assign their design people to X or E projects instead.
 
But are you two really suggesting that if someone's job is to answer incoming e-mail about people's position on the waiting list, when they can expect to receive their console, etc., and they are told by their immediate supervisor to continue doing that, even though they know that a change is coming, that they would actually risk losing their jobs and stop sending the "misleading" emails?

Yes, I am really suggesting that a Tesla employee would not be told to deliberately lie or mislead.

You know how upset we are over communication? Why do you think it's miraculously better internally? Do I think *someone* knew there was a problem? Yes. Do I think they deliberately withheld that information from the people communicating with you? No, not deliberately. They were probably more focused on solving the problem than thinking about the downstream impact. And then, of course, there came a point of no return.

It's not right, they do need to fix the communication issue (both internal and external). But I don't believe that any employee was instructed to continue to mislead people. For what possible reason would they do that? What did they gain from that other than some very angry customers?
 
I am with Artsci on this, something just doesn't add up here. We had one post of someone receiving a CF console (but no pics), and I was at the Cleveland SC yesterday, and was told they had just seen a CF console also. I would take a CF over Piano black, even though my trim is Obeche, and I actually asked to be on the waitlist for either of those trims. But my gut tells me they are about to release a next gen console that is generic for all trims...hence all the future product disclaimers.

Either way, looks like I will enjoy my perfectly matched tan leather and Obeche gloss CCI for another year while we wait. And I will win my own bet that my Model X will arrive before my Premium Center Console!
 
But, in effect, they're being instructed to lie to customers unknowingly. They told people that parking sensors/AWD/new colors weren't imminent, and they told people that their console backorder was in effect.
Completely disagree. Are you going to have a fever tomorrow? Most of the time I'd say "no", but that doesn't mean I'm lying if it actually happens.

Even the phrasing "lie unknowingly" doesn't make sense.

Choose your words more carefully, IMO.

- - - Updated - - -

But my gut tells me they are about to release __...hence all the future product disclaimers.
It's usually a bad idea to try to infer much from "no comment."