I just want to share my experience with Tesla. I ordered the Model Y on 5/6. I got a VIN assigned to me on 5/28. My schedule delivery was today June 6th, 2021. After placing the order, it was very frustrating. The customer support is non-existent. I tried to get in touch with my delivery center in mount kisco NY. They always seemed to be to busy. I did talk to a few people there but it's not like your typical dealership. They really don't do a good job explaining the process. A week before delivery, I wanted to know what my final payment would be without a trade in. My current order had the trade in. I sent an email to my assigned SA and another advisor. My assigned SA never got back to me. He claimed he was to busy. In all the years working at Tesla, he has never been this busy. I don't believe him for a minute. The other advisor gave me the wrong numbers. On Friday, two days ago I told them I really need to know the final payment with out the trade in. They never gave it to me. The only way I found out was after I asked them to remove my trade in. I removed the trade in because I got a better offer via CarMax. Tesla offered me $6900, while CarMax offered $8400. I went to the bank on Saturday to get the cashier's check. On Sunday, I was preparing to go pick up the car. I look at my account. I see that the final payment is different than the cashier check by $60. The loan showed it was $100 more. If I was able to talk with an actual person about the discrepancy I would have been ok. This just added to my frustrations. The lack of customer service was the deal breaker. I canceled my order three hours before pick up. I feel that the customer service will be just as bad at the service center. This is unacceptable to me. I will put my hard earned money elsewhere. Tesla has great cars but the lack of customer service will hurt them at some point.. Right now they have high demand. When more competition enters the EV market, the lack of process and customer service will hurt Tesla.
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My Tesla Experience
- Thread starter Mjrotor
- Start date
Ford and Polestar (Volvo) make a nice EV now. The latter probably has better service as they are trying to compete with Tesla. Similar speed and real world range (within 10%). No stupid long wait times either and can be serviced at any Volvo dealer supposedly.
sucks about your experience. Seems to mirror many of those here. In the end, you’re buying the technology and not the service. If you want service, Lexus dealers are generally exceptional.
sucks about your experience. Seems to mirror many of those here. In the end, you’re buying the technology and not the service. If you want service, Lexus dealers are generally exceptional.
Thanks for the suggestions. I feel there will be a lot more competition in the next year or two. I really looked forward to the car. I felt Tesla was ahead of the game with the battery and tech. I was just turned off by the process and their lack of support. I own a Prius, and the step up to Telsa in terms of efficiency were not much more.
dc5itr888
Member
Sorry for the poor experience you had. From the stories that I hear from diff buyers, it seems like a hit or miss. Its either great communication/ customer service or non existant at all.
I had a similar experience with yours in regards to trying to get last min questions answered from my SA to get things in order prior to the closing delivery date.
I left my SA messages/emails a few days prior to scheduled pickup only to not hear back from them AFTER my delivery date. They were unaware of my delivery when they called to return my messages.
More competition from other brands will def push them to improve. I think they are just trying to pump out as much cars as possible and worry about fixing their service side after since the demand is there for them.
As more and more charging networks get built everywhere, Tesla owners that went Tesla due to the charging network will hoover into the other competitive space.
I had a similar experience with yours in regards to trying to get last min questions answered from my SA to get things in order prior to the closing delivery date.
I left my SA messages/emails a few days prior to scheduled pickup only to not hear back from them AFTER my delivery date. They were unaware of my delivery when they called to return my messages.
More competition from other brands will def push them to improve. I think they are just trying to pump out as much cars as possible and worry about fixing their service side after since the demand is there for them.
As more and more charging networks get built everywhere, Tesla owners that went Tesla due to the charging network will hoover into the other competitive space.
Watts_Up
Well-Known Member
How far from your home was the delivery center? Why don't talk to a real person and decide then about the best action to choose.
- The $60 or $100 difference might had an explanation, like some local tax calculation not included originally as I read something similar in another thread.
If you look at other non EV websites, there are also a lot of good and bad stories with Dealerships.
I just think that ICE car makers selling EV have a conflict of interest, since EV don't need any regular service which is a good revenue stream.
Also ICE car manufacturers share the same platform between EV and ICE cars, which is not optimal.
And instead of spending on TV advertisement, Tesla build new Superchargers which is one of the best word to mouth marketing tool.
I understand your frustration but the most important is the product. You might get more luxury features and complimentary service,
but that something that you pay for it at the detriment of better and more advance technology.
I think buying an EV more closer to buy a phone, for which in general you prefer getting the most advanced product than an outdated one.
That is the problem, talking to a real person, during the whole process. The communication is lacking. I sent two advisor's an email on Tuesday. One advisor sent me a response on wed. My other advisor never got back to me. He was supposedly my assigned advisor. All I wanted to know was the difference for the final payment with a trade in and without. The advisor gave me the wrong information on wed. By now it is Friday, since we were going back and forth in email. I talk to the advisor on the phone Friday morning. He claims he does not have access to the information about what it would be without the trade in. Don't you think you should have told me that on wed, and directed me to the appropriate department. He said I will have a delivery person call you in 10 minutes. I waited 4 hours, gave them the benefit of the doubt. I texted the advisor after 4 hrs, and said no one has gotten back to me. Ten minutes after the text, a delivery person called me. He said I have to talk with someone on the finance department. I will get back to you in 30 minutes. That never happened on Friday. I found out the difference by removing my trade in. All of this could have been handled earlier in the week. It shows their disorganization. I was unable to talk with a person on the morning of my delivery day. You call the Telsa number at the delivery center and no one answers. By this time, I had lost my patience with their lack of organization. I knew exactly what happened with the discrepancy in the final amount. That is besides the point. I should be able to talk with someone before driving an hour away about the discrepancy. The fact that there is not a live person to communicate with made the problem worse. All week I gave Tesla the benefit of the doubt. I was patient with them. The discrepancy on the final payment on the delivery date drew the line for me. This could have been easily resolved if someone answered the phone or earlier in the week. If I was able to talk to someone that morning, I would have been fine. it shows that there are issues within the organization and any future dealings with the service center would be problematic. I have seen many claims in this forum that there service centers can be bad too. It all depends on which one. Tesla needs more consistency. They claim they are super busy. If that's the case hire more people. At least that's my opinion
SabrToothSqrl
Active Member
This 100%. It won't improve until people just stop buying them. This isn't like buying an iPad. Customer needs are not being met. You made the right call. I don't suggest anyone buy these anymore. Since 2019 service has gone to 0%. Shame. Used to be my fav thing to tell people. Now when they ask, I just say "yep" and keep walking.
While the efficiency numbers are absolutely horrifying, the XC40 Recharge is a fun EV. I took one for a test drive last week and despite being almost 5,000#, it was a pretty solid drive (having 402 HP definitely helps!). $55k MSRP, but with the fed tax credit and eventual discounts, I can see being able to pick one up for a little over $40k. I definitely see decent discounting on 2021 XC40s later this year.
Needsdecaf
Active Member
That's a poor excuse.
There is no excuse for Tesla's level of "service". None. I'm not expecting Lexus level of service. But this poster's experienced mirrored mine for my 2018 and 2020 purchases pretty well. Complete and utter lack of giving a crap.
Just because the product is industry leading (on some, but not all, metrics) doesn't give them a pass.
And I really liked Tesla and the car. I felt they are so far ahead of other EV companies. I am very bummed about this whole ordeal. I was looking forward to driving home with a new model Y
I find this story improbable…. Cancelled at last moment over $60 discrepancy?
And then a follow up suggestion for a Volvo? More probable this is a fake story from a Volvo dealer.
This is not fake. There were two discrepancies. One was the loan payment doc showed the final payment was $100 more. The Tesla doc showed the final payment was $60 less. My cashier's check had the original final payment from what Tesla's site showed on Saturday. the trade in was removed on Fri night. The amount on sat should have been correct. If you read my post, you would have seen that I said I believe Tesla is way ahead of the competition in battery and tech. Its just the lack of communication and disorganization that took it's toll on me. I was ready to pick up the car on Sunday. The payment discrepancy and not being able to speak with someone about it was the last straw for me. I live an hour away and I needed assurance of the correct amount. I could not get in touch with a real person that morning.
When there are three different final amounts floating around, you question the integrity. I gave them the benefit of the doubt through out the whole process. Last week was ridiculous how they handled the situation with the trade in and no trade in. I let that slide. I did not push Volvo either. That was someone else.
Needsdecaf
Active Member
As the OP said, it's a combination of frustrations. The small amount was the tipping point.
I can easily believe this having made two purchases from Tesla. The level of simply not caring is outstanding. "Voice mail full". No return emails, phone calls or texts. Being asked "this is too hard, do you simply want to cancel your trade in?" Or being told "I don't have time to do (my job) isn't there some way you can do that?" when literally I had already tried to do that out of frustration but was told by the third party "Tesla needs to call us directly" is COMPLETELY inexcusable.
Yes, both of the above were told to me, live, in person. Ridiculous.
Peelz
Budding EV fanatic.
I agree frustrating, I too was met with a ghost SA lol But i kept calling and got someone. eventually got good help going to tesla account requesting a call...I had issue with them not putting my cred union down as a lienholder. ANd the type of check it required....As far as the full amount...you could get that any time from your account page. Now, the SA telling me "im too busy" I would have been P****ED and escalated that somehow. That's pretty dicky.
But see bold. I expected a little of this, being "not typical" and I found that liberating, all said and done-and with a good car. Im completely past the dealership experience where youre sitting there while they size you up to see how much they can rake you for, only to get a car you didnt REALLY want.. (this is done, Ive been in the room)
I didnt trade something though. That would add to the frustration.
maybe not be the right buyer/right time for that car?
Its clear to me the Tesla order/queuing/delivering system needs updated to appease the massive amount of customers.
SabrToothSqrl
Active Member
From my experiences, seems legit to me. Service sends my blood pressure sky high any more. If anyone else had AP and a charging network... I'd be looking at options. They won't change until they have to, and no idea when that will occur. I hope it does, I want Tesla to succeed. But to do that, and to get my money, they need customer service equal to competing services. Got my inspection at Audi last week. Car wash, loaner car, human on the phone, very nice. And obviously I didn't even buy my Tesla from them.
EA is a poor substitute for the time being.
4 years ago, the customer service was amazing. Today, it's below par. Then again, I'd rather deal with Tesla customer service than dealing with stealerships. To each his own.
I think Tesla is going to be in deep trouble when the competition starts offering EVs with 300 mile plus range. They need to stop being so cheap. The problem is cheap service and cheap product is what is driving the stock price.
I agree. Once their is more competition with 300+ miles they will be in trouble. It may take a few more years for that to happen. The demand for Tesla is high. No other company offers the same battery and efficiency as them. The supercharger networks help them a lot too. Ford is the closest with the mach e. However they have issues with chargers.
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