Questions about Home Delivery Experience?

[KenC]

I, like you, live some distance from the closest delivery center, so I took home delivery last summer. I strongly recommend that you pick the car up at the delivery center if at all possible. My car arrived filthy inside and out, and it had to be sent back to the service center where it spent ten days to correct a fault (failure to charge). This turned into a huge hassle that could have been largely avoided if I had had an opportunity to inspect the car at the delivery center and demand that these issues be corrected prior to hand over. BTW, the car cleaned up beautifully and has been completely trouble free since then. It's a great car and I love it, as will you, but Tesla must correct delivery and other after sale issues that are tainting the brand.

Interesting, I'm also in Maine, and my car was dusty on the inside, with lots of shredded plastic on the dash, and dirty on the outside with bird poop, etc. At least mine charged, but it came mid-December with ZERO SOC! I kid you not, the driver told me he put it in the carrier that way, and I was the last delivery of the day! How long was it on zero SOC?!? Who knows, it had been over a month in transit, built in October, and delivered mid-Dec.

Wouldn't have been bad if the driver could have brought it to my home, but I live on a lake with a dirt road, and there's no way a semi is going to get within a ¼ mile of my home, so we agreed to meet at the West Gardiner rest stop. His suggestion. We roll it off, and then he asks me where the chargers are! I told him there are no chargers, that the supercharger is at another mall 10 miles away. Duh! The charge is so low now, I have to literally push the car back into the trailer, and it's heavy! The driver doesn't dare let me off-load it at the end of my ¼ mile dirt road, even if it's all downhill, since he doesn't think it'll make it. We head off to the supercharger where I charge up for an hour.

No way to do any kind of inspection under streetlights at night in December. Just cross my fingers and hope everything's good and the battery isn't damaged, since the driver leaves before I've done 15 mins of charging.

Amazingly, the car is great, and I've had little to no problems. Only the front toe-in needed adjusting as the tires were feathering badly. Still, as ArcticStation mentioned, I would agree, Home Delivery is not ideal, since the delivery is by a 3rd party. I expected the car to be delivered individually, like Caravan, after being detailed at the Boston delivery center. Nope, it's totally random, and your car gets no attention at all.

Pics are of my car after I pushed it back onto the semi, and on the supercharger with zero SOC.

 

[monks]

To be another data point, mine came charged to 80%, nicely detailed and clean, with no problems whatsoever. Delivery was quick and easy with no problems. Everything about the delivery day was great and easy. Now, post-delivery, trying to get the registration packet has been a pain, but that will hopefully be over by the end of this week.

 

[acarney]

To be another data point, mine came charged to 80%, nicely detailed and clean, with no problems whatsoever. Delivery was quick and easy with no problems. Everything about the delivery day was great and easy. Now, post-delivery, trying to get the registration packet has been a pain, but that will hopefully be over by the end of this week.

And this was delivered by a 3rd party transport carrier, right? I’m about 2+ hours from a delivery center and am hoping to do the 3rd party home delivery. (NOT the Tesla hand delivery where they bring it out) My sales rep is saying that isn’t available, but Tesla’s site says anywhere further then 160 miles can opt for this delivery style...

 

[monks]

And this was delivered by a 3rd party transport carrier, right? I’m about 2+ hours from a delivery center and am hoping to do the 3rd party home delivery. (NOT the Tesla hand delivery where they bring it out) My sales rep is saying that isn’t available, but Tesla’s site says anywhere further then 160 miles can opt for this delivery style...

Correct, third party carrier. I actually really liked the delivery service. I think they were called Premier Delivery, or something like that. For a week after I had paid for my car, Tesla could not or would not tell me where the car was or if the delivery estimate was still even close to accurate. One day out of the blue I got a call from New Jersey and it was a rep from the 3rd party carrier. From that moment until delivery I was given at least twice daily updates on where my car was and when I should expect delivery.

Now all 3rd party carriers are different, so your mileage may vary. But for me they were the absolute best part of the delivery experience.

 

[acarney]

Correct, third party carrier. I actually really liked the delivery service. I think they were called Premier Delivery, or something like that. For a week after I had paid for my car, Tesla could not or would not tell me where the car was or if the delivery estimate was still even close to accurate. One day out of the blue I got a call from New Jersey and it was a rep from the 3rd party carrier. From that moment until delivery I was given at least twice daily updates on where my car was and when I should expect delivery.

Now all 3rd party carriers are different, so your mileage may vary. But for me they were the absolute best part of the delivery experience.

I'm in Washington state, so it doesn't have to go as far as yours and hopefully could be a week or less deal once it rolled out of Tesla's factory...

Did it come on a covered transport? I assume Tesla will still fix any big defects or body issues (charge port door not opening or closing all the way, etc) just have to queue those up for a service visit at some point down the road? (I don't mind as much if I'm driving to the service center to make a day/weekend trip out of it and explore downtown, just it's a bit harder when I'm going to pick up a car as it means I need to get someone else to make the drive just to shuffle me up there, etc)

 

[monks]

Mine was a covered transport, and so have others been that I've seen. However that is not a requirement for their carriers. Tesla should still cover anything that is considered warranty work. However, realize that when the carrier takes the car from Tesla, any damage that occurs while in transit will be between you and the 3rd party carrier.

 

[ArcticStation]

Interesting, I'm also in Maine, and my car was dusty on the inside, with lots of shredded plastic on the dash, and dirty on the outside with bird poop, etc. At least mine charged, but it came mid-December with ZERO SOC! I kid you not, the driver told me he put it in the carrier that way, and I was the last delivery of the day! How long was it on zero SOC?!? Who knows, it had been over a month in transit, built in October, and delivered mid-Dec.

Great to hear from another Mainer! It’s a great testament to the overall Tesla experience that many of us are willing to deal with the challenges we face as Tesla owners living in a rural, cold weather state like Maine.

Those of us in Northern New England seem to be the exception rather than the rule IRT home delivery. My delivery van driver explained to me that he had delivered to both New Hampshire and Maine on my run, and since I was the furthest away, I was his last stop. He also explained, and my paperwork reflected, that my car was originally delivered to the Baltimore (!!!) delivery center and then it sat in Baltimore for some time until there were enough cars being sent from Baltimore to Boston to warrant a run. (Why Tesla didn’t send the cars directly from Freemont to Boston is beyond me.) After arrival in Boston, it sat there until enough cars were available to make the run to Maine and New Hampshire. That certainly explained my car’s July 2018 build date and the early October 2018 delivery.

My battery was at 40% upon arrival, but the driver explained that when he went to pick up the car, “the battery was nearly dead” and he insisted that the car receive a charge before he loaded it so that “it wouldn’t die inside his van”. He also noted the battery issue on the delivery paperwork he left with me so that I would have a record if problems arose later on. (He could have also said nothing and I wouldn’t have been the wiser). Finally, he apologized for and was clearly embarrassed by the lack of prep and explained that as a sub to Tesla, he has no control over the lack pre-delivery prep. In my opinion, the delivery driver was the hero in an otherwise botched delivery experience.

I’ve read a lot of very positive posts about home delivery in other areas of the country, so home delivery probably makes sense for most folks. However, if you live in Northern New England, you may want to consider alternatives.

 

[erik_k]

In reply to the OP, as a fellow Mississippian living in Meridian I was happy to see Tesla has now opened a Service Center in Pearl(Jackson), MS. This will be much closer to me (90 miles) as opposed to Nashville!. This will also be a very good thing for travelers along Interstate 20 who might need service.
Tesla is definitely investing in Service.