Rejected Delivery

[af88]

Was eager to finally get this new car. Refused to pay in advance until I saw the car, and glad I did, showed up with a cashier check and began to inspect.

Found paint blemishes all around the car. Over spray run off, dust under the clear, dirt under the clear on a white car which is very visible, bumps over the paint, touch up which was very obvious after they scratched the paint during assembly. Miss-alignment of the bumper, fender and doors, scratched sills, window seals not aligned and other issues to name a few. Didn't even bother with the interior inspection. Had I not notified them requesting an itemized list of missing items I would have seen a car with the 3 covers in the trunk and floor mats missing. I know they threw some used ones as it was clear they were not new.

The service rep was very cool about it, he admit you will not get quality with Tesla sadly, he has been working there for a few years and said the next one could be worse, hopefully better. With all the issues found it would be in the body shop for at least a month or two, so it only made sense to wait for the next one and hope it is better than this one.

It really is a shame and disappointing, the quality control is downright dreadful, when you spend this kind of money you expect higher quality control. I don't frankly care about the excuses, every dealership is facing the same problems, Tesla needs to do better, period.

 

[AMPd]

At this point it’s the workmanship that needs to be addressed, if they had strict quality controls they’d be rejecting cars left and right. What they need to do is address the root cause of the issue and that’s poor assembly

 

[Spuzzz]

“The service rep was very cool about it, he admit you will not get quality with Tesla sadly, he has been working there for a few years and said the next one could be worse...”

sounds suspect. Any employee of any company that says this should be fired. I have a hard time buying this story.

 

[af88]

@AMPd - When you rush to get a product out the door this is what happens. A clean paint room and time would solve a lot of those quality issues.

@Spuzzzz You don't have to buy jack, i didn't ask for your approval, you are likely a tesla sympathizer and have a hard time believing they do anything wrong.

Believe it or not there are honest people out there including people who work at Tesla dealers who see this stuff everyday.

 

[swiftd03]

sounds suspect. Any employee of any company that says this should be fired. I have a hard time buying this story.

They should ignore or deny things that are common knowledge? That just makes them look stupid and the company remains the same. Tesla makes amazing products but that doesn't in any way excuse their huge and blatant shortcomings. Quality control, fit and finish and customer service being at the top of a VERY long list.

 

[Spuzzz]

They should ignore or deny things that are common knowledge? That just makes them look stupid and the company remains the same. Tesla makes amazing products but that doesn't in any way excuse their huge and blatant shortcomings. Quality control, fit and finish and customer service being at the top of a VERY long list.

A good employee - No check that, an adequate employee could figure out a way to make things right without saying “you will not get quality with tesla”. Even if it’s true (which it is not) that is an incredibly unprofessional thing to say.

im not saying no tesla cars have issue, and not saying op didn’t reject car I’m saying I know for a fact as a 2 time owner and friends with several others that there are many many quality cars delivered. So if that makes me a “sympathizer” (sounds like I’m supporting some evil cause here)….so be it.

 

[swiftd03]

A good employee - No check that, an adequate employee could figure out a way to make things right without saying “you will not get quality with tesla”. Even if it’s true (which it is not) that is an incredibly unprofessional thing to say.

im not saying no tesla cars have issue, and not saying op didn’t reject car I’m saying I know for a fact as a 2 time owner and friends with several others that there are many many quality cars delivered. So if that makes me a “sympathizer” (sounds like I’m supporting some evil cause here)….so be it.

That is a fair statement but at the same time that employee gets beaten up every day about all of those things so if they've been around a while it can take its toll.

At my last job I had a large team reporting up to me and a customer contacted me because one of my employees said some disparaging things regarding how we were running the location. Expected me to discipline him for it and I wanted to but before I did I called him in for a meeting and asked him to tell me everything we were doing wrong and what we could do better. I took notes for at least half an hour without saying almost anything, it was a lot and substantive. Then I asked him if he had ever called this out before and he wiped out e-mails going back 4-5 years showing that he had called out a bunch of those issues and made some solid recommendations on how to improve. Most of those messages were ignored by people in position to make improvements, some even responded and told him to not waste his time, they didn't care, stay in your lane, etc. He did everything right for 5 or more years for the company and one slip up with a customer on an issue that the customer should have never experienced in the first place and everyone thought he was getting fired.

I promoted him the next day.

Tesla is making these same mistakes again and again and again and again and everyone knows it but the people who can actually make it better are ignoring the feedback and continuing down the same old path. I've personally seen a car with really bad finish issues get rejected while I was at a Tesla store and asked the SA how they were still trying to deliver the car like that since the issues were so clear and extensive. He told me that that customer was the 4th to decline the same car but that Tesla doesn't allow the location to do anything about it until someone accepts it and then they can send it to service to get fixed (only if it is reported in the app within 24 hours). That car went right back to existing inventory for the next person to purchase.

 

[af88]

They should ignore or deny things that are common knowledge? That just makes them look stupid and the company remains the same. Tesla makes amazing products but that doesn't in any way excuse their huge and blatant shortcomings. Quality control, fit and finish and customer service being at the top of a VERY long list.

Ignore the troll. Apparently he was there and heard the conversation which is why he is so confident those words wore never spoken by the honest service rep. Amazing people like that have such strong convictions who are completely clueless and just talk out their ass. Too bad there isn't an ignore or block button.

You are right about their customer service or lack there of, I specifically mentioned this in person and he apologized. I know a dozen tesla owners who love their cars, but not a single one of them had a quality trouble free car. Most of them have Model 3 and Y which are known to have quality issues. Perhaps I had higher expectations when you pay 100k+ for a car. I'm curious how the model x will pan out, the date in the app is a few weeks out, at least that is black and most of the paint issues wont show. I'm beginning to wonder if i should just wait for the BMW or get a Porsche at this point.

 

[af88]

Tesla is making these same mistakes again and again and again and again and everyone knows it but the people who can actually make it better are ignoring the feedback and continuing down the same old path. I've personally seen a car with really bad finish issues get rejected while I was at a Tesla store and asked the SA how they were still trying to deliver the car like that since the issues were so clear and extensive. He told me that that customer was the 4th to decline the same car but that Tesla doesn't allow the location to do anything about it until someone accepts it and then they can send it to service to get fixed (only if it is reported in the app within 24 hours). That car went right back to existing inventory for the next person to purchase.

The rep told me if multiple customers reject the vehicle it goes to service, he did not mention they would be stuck with the vehicle but I didn't ask either. There is a high likelihood a lot of these cars will be picked up with the defects by eager buyers who don't care. Which makes me wonder if tesla uses any metrics even after an initial rejection to improve their process at all. At this point getting a car with no problems is improbable, and getting one with a few problems is a crap shoot.

 

[[email protected]]

Am picking up my 5th Tesla since 2014 next Tuesday (if the crick don't rise). Over the previous 4, noticed a couple of paint issues, and trim issues. All issues were handled by Tesla, and the cars performed well (and perform well) with a couple of maintenance issues over 200k miles in gross since 2014. Could aesthetics be better? Well, always room for improvement. Here, everything worked fine: buyer did not accept the product, seller did not insist on payment. Ho hum, no problem. From an investor perspective, all that matters is enough buyers do whatever due diligence, and buy enough cars. From that perspective, the cars are good enough. Can we find some buyer who demands perfection? Always and I assume there is some manufacturer who can make that car. From an investor perspective, we just need enough buyers (like me) who are satisfied with what Tesla makes which admittedly is definitely not perfection...thank goodness!

 

[father_of_6]

Mine was perfect.

 

[patgilm]

Mine had a handful of issues upon delivery and I honestly appreciate an honest employee who said some similar things about some of my paint issues. He even pointed out a pretty long and deep scratch on the edge of my rear door and jokingly said he should not be pointing this out but look here.

It doesn’t surprise me that an employee said something to af88 about the quality because when I brought my car back the next day for another flaw that I missed upon delivery the guy I was dealing with said he can walk through the parking lot and point out all the flaws because he’s seen so many.

 

[af88]

Mine had a handful of issues upon delivery and I honestly appreciate an honest employee who said some similar things about some of my paint issues. He even pointed out a pretty long and deep scratch on the edge of my rear door and jokingly said he should not be pointing this out but look here.

It doesn’t surprise me that an employee said something similar to the OP because when I brought my car back the next day for another flaw that I missed upon delivery the guy I was dealing with said he can walk through the parking lot and point out all the flaws because he’s seen so many.

It's always nice dealing with honest people, it puts things in perspective. Like your rep mine has been around and seen it all. I don't think Tesla cares to fix the problems, from their perspective there is always the next buyer waiting who will accept these cars and their flaws. Overtime when other car MFG catch up in tech and range I'm sure the paradigm in which Tesla operates will change their perspective, but for now I would not expect any changes.

 

[dipper]

With so many known complaints from customers, and Elon Musk has not done a thing. Doubt these experiences will get any better until sales numbers reflect problems. The sales numbers right now shows Tesla is doing great.

So business as usual.... Sounds like GM from the 80s.

I picked up a Prius Prime for my daughter. Damn, the QC is so much better than my Model S. And yes, it was made in Japan. Quality stands out even more. Tech sucks, but QC the best.

 

[af88]

Many share your sentiment like myself.

 

[Spuzzz]

Mine was perfect.

You must be a sympathizer /s

 

[oktane]

sounds suspect. Any employee of any company that says this should be fired. I have a hard time buying this story.

Not suspect at all, the SA is entirely correct. The next one could be better, worse, or the same.

 

[oktane]

Mine was perfect.

You didn't look hard enough. With 6 kids, you probably have other things to worry about.

 

[father_of_6]

Truly,

You didn't look hard enough. With 6 kids, you probably have other things to worry about.

Truly, I didn't really look that hard. Reading up beforehand, I thought I'd bring one of those "checklists" that people post for buying a Tesla... but I've never done that before with any other car. So I didn't. No doubt, Tesla has pushed some shoddy vehicles out of the factories, but that's growing pains. I think once people got word that "the panel gaps might not be perfect, bring your micrometer!" many people became *very* picky.

I've had the car for 13 months. I'm unable to find any issues with the build quality... but v11 sucks!

 

[oktane]

Truly,


Truly, I didn't really look that hard. Reading up beforehand, I thought I'd bring one of those "checklists" that people post for buying a Tesla... but I've never done that before with any other car. So I didn't. No doubt, Tesla has pushed some shoddy vehicles out of the factories, but that's growing pains. I think once people got word that "the panel gaps might not be perfect, bring your micrometer!" many people became *very* picky.

I've had the car for 13 months. I'm unable to find any issues with the build quality... but v11 sucks!

Probably a wise move. It's just a car, enjoy it and other more important things in life. Obsessing over panel gaps and paint defects can drive anyone crazy.