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Service and communication (out of main)
- Thread starter neroden
- Start date
N5329K
Active Member
One week ago my wife took out a Ferrari Scaglietti in town for the Pebble Beach Concours (he pulled out into the road without looking and she struck him amidships). The 612 went home on a flatbed. Her Prius V needed a nose, a hood, right headlamp assembly, fender repair and paint. We're picking up the repaired V tomorrow.
Just a data point.
Robin
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
cpa
Active Member
It has been proven that Musk can turn on a dime.
What baffles me is that he has to make these sorts of decisions. I do not recall his life story, but I do not believe that he has ever worked in a service-related business that deals with customers on a daily basis. He is clearly bright and innovative with things. But he has never shown himself bright and innovative with people. Unlike working with things, people possess that human element that cannot be predicted or fixed with software or physics.
bhtooefr
Active Member
Honestly, the real risk to Tesla isn't service, although service is a symptom of it.
I suspect the real risk is that Tesla's scaling past the point at which Musk can run the whole company, yet there's signs of a culture that is utterly dependent on Musk's focus - things break until he comes in and fixes them - and not running truly independently.
(There's parallels to Apple's long-running inability to focus on more than a couple things at once as a company, that dates back to after Steve Jobs returned - I distinctly recall cases of Mac OS X being neglected in favor of iOS, and vice versa, even before his death. So, there's an example of a company not getting past that stage and being the highest-valued company in the world. But, it's still not healthy.)
I suspect the real risk is that Tesla's scaling past the point at which Musk can run the whole company, yet there's signs of a culture that is utterly dependent on Musk's focus - things break until he comes in and fixes them - and not running truly independently.
(There's parallels to Apple's long-running inability to focus on more than a couple things at once as a company, that dates back to after Steve Jobs returned - I distinctly recall cases of Mac OS X being neglected in favor of iOS, and vice versa, even before his death. So, there's an example of a company not getting past that stage and being the highest-valued company in the world. But, it's still not healthy.)
STARR X
Member
Something I have just been thinking about.....
- Tesla cannot sell in all 50 states in the USA
- Service has been bad for some people
- There is a court case about direct sales/service winding through the courts in Michigan that, I believe, is going to be heard in March 2020.
- How much can the perception bad service help to influence this case?
- Tesla cannot sell in all 50 states in the USA
- Service has been bad for some people
- There is a court case about direct sales/service winding through the courts in Michigan that, I believe, is going to be heard in March 2020.
- How much can the perception bad service help to influence this case?
That is an interesting point and I have been contemplating something similar. I was originally steadfast that the dealership law existence and public policy reasoning was bologna. But I've always dreaded dealerships and dealing with them. Lately, I have been a bit shaken by my own tesla service experience and wondering have I been completely wrong? Here is why: normally, if i have a "regular" car that requires warranty work I bring it to the dealer who does the work and charges the mfr for the repair work, correct? With Tesla the service center does not have this incentive and I'm wondering if that is causing some of them to deny things that would normally be covered and utilize the "within spec" excuse as much as possible to avoid using time and cut costs. If so, that is certainly a reason to argue that direct sales and service are not in the best interest of the consumer. I hope I'm wrong here but I have been looking at this a little different as of late and it concerns me as an investor.
STARR X
Member
I certainly don't have the information to make any kind of factual statement about my last comment, "How much can the perception of bad service help to influence this case?". But it can be taken two ways. The way you noted and the other by Tesla that they are being hamstrung by the states so they can't offer quality service.
The dealer still has to get the warranty work pre-approved before they start the repair.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Dealers are a profit taking middleman between the consumer and the manufacturer.
This is certainly true. Without a doubt I would have better service if my state allowed, at the minimum, service centers only. Travel time would be less and Tesla would have an additional service facility to take the burden off the one covering multiple states.
The problem is it is hard make the dealership model work for EVs...
For example a $40,000 ICE may easily have $10,000 worth of servicing work over a 10 year period, a lot of that is parts a labour...
The car makers has good margins on parts, and the dealer has good margins on labour.
In turn this means the dealer makes less margin, on selling cars and a bit less on warranty work.
A $40,000 EV may only have $2,000 worth of servicing work over a 10 year period.
Warranty cost are higher for new models and that affects all EVs...
Parts are typically only need for smash repairs or warranty repairs.... there are no parts in a EV that need replacing on a regular schedule, except tires...
Take that $8,000 of extra servicing out of the equation, the dealer has to make it up somewhere...
For Tesla at present the bulk of the work is warranty repairs, the best solution is to improve build quality and lower the rate of warranty repairs.. If they can nail that, all aspects will improve... the best service is no service.
So, I have a service issue. So far so good. I scheduled an appointment a few weeks out. It looks like I had September 4th for the service center and September 12th for mobile service. I chose mobile service and they texted me back the next day (today) to confirm they remotely diagnosed the possible issues and are ordering the parts that may be needed to fix these. I'm not sure if I can text that number back though. So I have no way of knowing if the issue of getting a hold of someone is still there or not, since everything is sorted. Either way just an anecdote, but it my case this is so far better than a dealer just because I can get mobile service. That being said I am definitely very satisfied with our Lexus dealer as well.
Anyway we should remember no one else can remotely diagnose the issue. So there is that.
Anyway we should remember no one else can remotely diagnose the issue. So there is that.
You can text back, the text is routed even though it is coming from the same number
In my case they even had an autodial number for me to call back because they wanted a bit more information. Only thing is they forgot to put the final # after the number, so I had to type that in manually (just the #).
RobStark
Well-Known Member
10 Minute Story about Service for Tesla Roadsters(Gen1)
Tesla sent him a cease and desist letter. He wrote "Go F$#K Yourselves" on it and sent it back.
"Elon can be jackass sometimes but I still support the guy"
Tesla sent him a cease and desist letter. He wrote "Go F$#K Yourselves" on it and sent it back.
"Elon can be jackass sometimes but I still support the guy"
I am having another one of those now, too. Driver seat in Model 3 took damage from entry mode backing it up against folded down rear seat before I could stop it. No automatic stopping against resistance, no warning on screen about not folding down back seats when having entry mode in default nor in custom settings. And service center says: User error, pay $3k out of pocket to fix it. After several appointments with varying responses about this and me protesting they are now going to escalate and investigate fiurther, but that middle finger in your face response does not sit well with me.
The sad thing is that this just again confirms my wifes expectation of service nightmares that we had over the last 3 years and that have prevented two of our friends from following through with their initial plans to buy a model x and a model 3. I could have four referrals by now instead of two if that wasnt the case. @neroden was right about this being an adoption
inhibitor.
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