Owings Mills, MD - Quality of Service

[SabrToothSqrl]

Got my 3 back after almost 4 weeks, to fix a factory paint defect.
Noticed within 30 seconds of seeing it, another paint defect within 4" of the original.

I let it slide because I don't know how much more hassle I can take.

Walking to my car today from behind... it's MISSING the freaking Tesla badge on the back!

F'n morons. Is this a case of extreme stupidity, not caring, or what's the issue?!

I'm not driving 3+ hours round trip again. I'm not missing my car for weeks. I'm just going to ask for a check then let both issues go.

I missed MANY, many hours of work for my Model S for failing parts.
The 3's been good to my wife and me, but seriously? What... the Hell? If your JOB is to FIX CARS... then you might want to FIX CARS...

I left a voice mail for them approx 8:15 AM today. I guarantee they don't call back by noon.

 

[irev210]

I think Owings Mills ranks down there on the list of good SCs, which is unfortunate because it is only ~15 min away from me.

While i haven’t dealt with the SC, I did deal with the sales team and they were among the most unprofessional people I’ve ever met. They were being absolutely racist to an Asian family making fun of the guys name... then they were actually making fun of my last name all while dropping lots of expletives during the pickup process. They were also making fun of new owners in general. They also wouldn’t let me look at the car until I paid and wouldn’t even pull the car around until after I paid.

While I love my tesla, I truly hope I never need to bring it in for service. It sounds terrifying. The whole service center experience was worse service than I get at a fast food restaurant, or anywhere, really. I couldn’t think of a place that was less professional which is sad because traditional dealerships were actually a more enjoyable buying experience for me.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Yeah, during my delivery no one had ANY idea what was going on. They actually put the WRONG car on my account, and I was seconds from driving away with the literally wrong car. Nearly 3 hours after the scheduled time. So much for pay and go. (Car was fully paid, just needed to get keys/car).

I did actually get a call back, they are going to have a mobile tech install the rear badge. I appreciate the mobile fix.. but should it have even been needed? I'm not allowed to screw up at my job, why is everyone else?
These car's are not chump change, and I love them, but the support teams need to take things seriously.

I'm just aggravated and it's not been a good day, but is there no check list for a car repair... like... badges? working lights? etc?

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Appointment for Mobile is being scheduled... Don't mean to rant, just sometimes it's rough when you feel let down.

 

[irev210]

Appointment for Mobile is being scheduled... Don't mean to rant, just sometimes it's rough when you feel let down.

I hear ya. What makes things worse is the limited service availability on Saturday. Sort of odd that they close at noon.

Like I said, I am hopefull that I don’t have any major issues with my car because it sounds like it would be a major inconvenience to take the car in for service.

So far, knock on wood dash, car has been great.

 

[Drax]

While I love my tesla, I truly hope I never need to bring it in for service. It sounds terrifying.

Now that my NDA is up, I can say that I worked for both Tesla in both sales and service.

I feel similarly, and it’s really unfortunate.

Long story short, they simply don’t have the leadership or the systems in place to ensure a quality experience for owners. What they have (or at least had in my day) is a mess of multiple systems with no integration and no communication. They also have little to no assistance, direction, or communication from leadership, let alone the service techs and service advisors. I can count on one hand how many times my Service Manager interacted with me directly, let alone stepped in to assist with challenges or even day to day activities, and he got a promotion. For what it’s worth, our assistant service manager was a great person and could’ve been a great leader, but he was definitely not appreciated nor was he given the tools needed to really make a difference.

To be frank, Tesla Service (and their customer service in general) is quite the *sugar* show. IMO, they really need to bring in an executive that knows what they’re doing (from say, Disney?) and really rebuild the culture of customer service top to bottom. Until something major like that happens though, I fear things won’t really change. I do empathize with the reps though, because I genuinely know first-hand how difficult their jobs can be, but realistically excuses and apologies aren’t solutions and don’t fix the root cause of problems - they simply highlight underlining issues that need correction.

I really do love the company, but this stuff has driven me up the wall for years. Here’s hoping they’ll make the changes necessary and that their customer service and service teams will end up like fine wine and get better over time.

 

[Tam]

...sales...

2012 Tesla Blog boasted "They are not on commission and they will never pressure you to buy a car...Our stores are designed to be informative and interactive in a delightful way and are simply unlike the traditional dealership with several hundred cars in inventory that a commissioned salesperson is tasked with selling..."

I assume abstaining from sales commission didn't last and sales commission has been back?

 

[Drax]

@Tam Let’s keep things on topic, but yes, commission was a small part of an OA’s compensation. Owner Advisors are(were?) salary + commission & incentive based bonus, and there was *tons* of pressure to sell internally.

... But let’s try keep things on topic here, okay? I hate hijacking threads.... unless they’re really annoying

 

[Tam]

I guess Tesla needs to beef up Quality Control department because, in many instances, customers are the ones finding out for themselves the inefficiencies. In this case, another paint defect, missing badge...

There should be a boss at a Service Center and that's what a boss is supposed to do: to make sure everyone behaves well, work well and make sure the work acceptable.

I think part of the problem is the rush to focus on profit.

It was great in the early days with the idealism of educating the public with no sale commission and treated the public with respect.

It's a contrast now for pushing a sale with a commission at all cost (including acting out based on customers' appearance for the likelihood of sales.)

If the focus is profit then layoffs are expected, short staffing expected, and eventually, it's customers who have to pay the consequences.

Don't get me wrong. We all need to live so profit is very important.

However, by focusing on values and quality first, customers would respond and profit would come.

 

[ckoval7]

I got my car back from service today. At the end of the day, they actually exceeded my expectation as far as service goes. They replaced my battery as expected, then also took care of two recall items and the liftgate drain plug retrofit, then made sure my car was charged up before sending me out. Communication could definitely be improved with this shop for sure, but aside from that I didn't have any real problems with them. I will be making a more detailed write up in a thread I started when my car first went into the shop.

 

[Ciditad]

I got my car there, and I can tell you the sales staff at that location (last November) was the worst I have ever seen, and this includes the worst of the independent car dealers that advertises “100% loan approvals guarantee”. I won’t go into the details of what happened to me but thank goodness my car has been relatively issue free and I will live with the door gaps and minor alignment issues until that place sorts itself out.

 

[irev210]

I got my car there, and I can tell you the sales staff at that location (last November) was the worst I have ever seen, and this includes the worst of the independent car dealers that advertises “100% loan approvals guarantee”. I won’t go into the details of what happened to me but thank goodness my car has been relatively issue free and I will live with the door gaps and minor alignment issues until that place sorts itself out.

Please do share. I picked up my car there in November as well.

 

[VT_EE]

This thread is why I go to the Rockville SC.

 

[frank69]

How do you know if someone just didn't steal the badge

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

found out over the weekend they never closed the windshield wiper cap... #awesome.

 

[Trevor B]

And yet ... people act surprised when CR doesn't recommend the car

Consumer Reports reverses itself again, no longer recommends Tesla Model 3

 

[voip-ninja]

Now that my NDA is up, I can say that I worked for both Tesla in both sales and service.

I feel similarly, and it’s really unfortunate.

Long story short, they simply don’t have the leadership or the systems in place to ensure a quality experience for owners. What they have (or at least had in my day) is a mess of multiple systems with no integration and no communication. They also have little to no assistance, direction, or communication from leadership, let alone the service techs and service advisors. I can count on one hand how many times my Service Manager interacted with me directly, let alone stepped in to assist with challenges or even day to day activities, and he got a promotion. For what it’s worth, our assistant service manager was a great person and could’ve been a great leader, but he was definitely not appreciated nor was he given the tools needed to really make a difference.

To be frank, Tesla Service (and their customer service in general) is quite the *sugar* show. IMO, they really need to bring in an executive that knows what they’re doing (from say, Disney?) and really rebuild the culture of customer service top to bottom. Until something major like that happens though, I fear things won’t really change. I do empathize with the reps though, because I genuinely know first-hand how difficult their jobs can be, but realistically excuses and apologies aren’t solutions and don’t fix the root cause of problems - they simply highlight underlining issues that need correction.

I really do love the company, but this stuff has driven me up the wall for years. Here’s hoping they’ll make the changes necessary and that their customer service and service teams will end up like fine wine and get better over time.

Maybe it's just my observation but I've only one time run into anyone over the age of perhaps 40 years old working in any service/sales function at Tesla.

I have to chalk up some of the problems I see with Tesla service as due to their immaturity and lack of experience.

When I was a lot younger I worked in a sales/service function while I was in college. The younger guys/gals looked up to the older sales & service veterans for guidance and those vets are showing them the proper way to act, how to defuse an upset customer and what customer expectations mean to someone who maybe doesn't understand why someone would be so upset over 'just a car'.

I don't know if Tesla is just going after younger talent to try to keep costs down (lower experience people == less $$) or if there is some ageism going on. I do know that there are some nationally recognized service centers from other brands in my area that have service that should make Tesla blush. There is nothing to stop them from hiring some of those people away and giving them free reign to implement a top notch service experience other than Tesla being freaking cheapskates.