Service and communication (out of main)

[EVDRVN]

At the SF service center Tesla calls in an independent glass person to come and install the glass. You can get the S glass and have that guy do it at your home. I'm afraid to call and make a service appointment as last time it took more than a month and my car was there for more then 3 weeks.

 

[JRP3]

Missing neroden...

FYI he's sold his shares and thinks the service issues are going to kill the company.

 

[willw64]

I have had nothing but great experiences with service, but at times I do question the soup to nuts vertical integration. I have had bad experiences at our Ford dealership before, and they are relatively speaking a self contained operation.

 

[Cherry Wine]

FYI he's sold his shares and thinks the service issues are going to kill the company.

Well that escalated quickly, sort of.

 

[Tenable]

I have had nothing but great experiences with service, but at times I do question the soup to nuts vertical integration. I have had bad experiences at our Ford dealership before, and they are relatively speaking a self contained operation.

Are you near a service center? I had fantastic experiences while living in Dallas. Now that I'm no longer near a service center, my ranger has given me fantastic service. The issue, is that I've had to spend upwards of 10 hours (mostly on hold) making frustrating calls to get scheduled. That part of the experience I HATED. I can't imagine what this must feel like to a first time Tesla buyer that doesn't know the ropes.

 

[humbaba]

Well that escalated quickly, sort of.

In a way, I suppose so. When I talked to him (which was I guess less than a week before the ban) he told me that was his plan. He doesn't share my optimism with regard to Tesla's resilience. If some customers having bad (if not terrible) customer service experience could kill a company... well, there's a number of tech companies that would be deader than a door nail, but the only issues they've actually faced were keeping margins.

Oh, but Tesla is a car company, right? I've been cheated by far more mechanics and dealers than I've ever had treat me right. And somehow they all managed to stay in business. One commonality is that while they might treat me poorly, they treat others well. I had a mechanic try to pawn off that spark plugs had to be replaced. When I questioned that (I already knew they were fine before he had the car for an unrelated issue) he dipped one in oil and said it was fouled. He didn't think I'd ever seen an actual fouled plug before, but in the end it didn't matter (mechanics lien and all that). But my mother-in-law swears by him.

I could go on and on and on about all of the lying and fraud from dealerships and independent mechanics. And give counterexamples where they don't abuse every one. I know a dealership that lost the service manager and most of the mechanics due to pressure to abuse customers. And yet, the dealership survived.

I'm not trying to suggest Tesla doesn't have a problem with customer service and that they can't or shouldn't do better. But it is quite the reach to believe that the problem represents an existential threat. If no one had a good experience that would be a different matter, but that is just as clearly not the case.

But Neroden's shares are Nerodon's lookout. If he wasn't comfortable in staying invested in Tesla then he did the right thing by getting out.

 

[willw64]

Are you near a service center? I had fantastic experiences while living in Dallas. Now that I'm no longer near a service center, my ranger has given me fantastic service. The issue, is that I've had to spend upwards of 10 hours (mostly on hold) making frustrating calls to get scheduled. That part of the experience I HATED. I can't imagine what this must feel like to a first time Tesla buyer that doesn't know the ropes.

I'm about a 45 minute drive from our main Tesla location, and have had the mobile ranger come out to our house.

 

[Singuy]

Are you near a service center? I had fantastic experiences while living in Dallas. Now that I'm no longer near a service center, my ranger has given me fantastic service. The issue, is that I've had to spend upwards of 10 hours (mostly on hold) making frustrating calls to get scheduled. That part of the experience I HATED. I can't imagine what this must feel like to a first time Tesla buyer that doesn't know the ropes.

There are very few Tesla buyers who doesn't live near a service center. In fact Elon on the latest conference call said how they are going to increase the amount of service center aggressively because it is the #1 correlation in demand for their cars.

Having a service center in another state or 5 hrs away is almost the equivalent of importing exotic cars from out side of the country no one can service here like an Opel or a Tuscan. Some people are willing to deal with the risk.

 

[Tenable]

There are very few Tesla buyers who doesn't live near a service center. In fact Elon on the latest conference call said how they are going to increase the amount of service center aggressively because it is the #1 correlation in demand for their cars.

Having a service center in another state or 5 hrs away is almost the equivalent of importing exotic cars from out side of the country no one can service here like an Opel or a Tuscan. Some people are willing to deal with the risk.

I'm in a large metro. We have a ranger that lives in my city. The issue is that I can't get a hold of anyone without spending 10 hours on the phone. My Tesla app tries to force a schedule with a SC appointment in another state hours away. What I'm citing is a big issue thats easily solved. Its also part of what Neroden was talking about. All they need to is staff up their phone lines, or a far better solution, modify app scheduling appropriately.

 

[EVNow]

FYI he's sold his shares and thinks the service issues are going to kill the company.

Its usually the case that people go by personal experience, rather than collective experience (or "data", which is hard to come by). But it is also difficult to invest in such a way that is against your "instincts". I was sure Trump's election would tank the market given erratic behavior. But it didn't.

In general, I'm optimistic that Musk will get things in order before it gets too late. He has no problems changing course, unlike a lot of other executives with egos bigger than accomplishments.

 

[Bobfitz1]

I'm in a large metro. We have a ranger that lives in my city. The issue is that I can't get a hold of anyone without spending 10 hours on the phone. My Tesla app tries to force a schedule with a SC appointment in another state hours away. What I'm citing is a big issue thats easily solved. Its also part of what Neroden was talking about. All they need to is staff up their phone lines, or a far better solution, modify app scheduling appropriately.

Exactly. Which is why Neroden believing service issues are going to kill the company is wrong if not delusional. Elon could wake up tomorrow and decide solving the worst communications/service problems should be a priority and they will be largely solved in 3 to 6 months. One day in the months and quarters to come, Elon will wake up and assign a team to address them. Ensuring that calls are always returned and hand offs are rarely dropped is not hard to figure out or implement, especially for a SW driven company. Hundreds of less capable companies do these basic things right 99% of the time. Fixing will have some cost, but not anything Tesla can't accommodate going forward once solving is viewed as important to success of the mission.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

FYI he's sold his shares and thinks the service issues are going to kill the company.

Whenever I have thoughts Like that, I think about how much Apple has pissed me off over the years. Sure wish I would have bought more Apple stock.

 

[Opus BC fan]

OT
My touchscreen and MCU1 is starting to fail. I am told the planned factory reset next week, which will happen at the Service Center, has a small chance of fixing it. If not it will be replaced. I am way out of warranty. It will not be inexpensive. (I see it as sort of the modern-day equivalent of an ICE rebuild).

I have had no issues with communication at any point in this process. Actually, quite the opposite -- almost white-glove service.

During my conversation with the technician, he spontaneously offered that they were training 2 new hires to improve the experience for customers calling into that service center. I remain optimistic that the customer service experience will be a positively toned discussion in the future.

My 2 cents & my one OT post for the day.

 

[SpaceCash]

FYI he's sold his shares and thinks the service issues are going to kill the company.

That is HILARIOUS

 

[Tim S]

I'm in a large metro. We have a ranger that lives in my city. The issue is that I can't get a hold of anyone without spending 10 hours on the phone. My Tesla app tries to force a schedule with a SC appointment in another state hours away. What I'm citing is a big issue thats easily solved. Its also part of what Neroden was talking about. All they need to is staff up their phone lines, or a far better solution, modify app scheduling appropriately.

Schedule an appointment with the app at the far away service center but add a comment that you really need a service ranger. That's what I did and heard from a service ranger within a day or two. He came to my work parking lot to rotate the tires.

 

[Unpilot]

That is HILARIOUS

Yeah he got out at a low point.

 

[aubreymcfato]

Neroden told us many times that he's very, very risk-averse. Itrust is opinions, but my personal and possibly uninformed take is that he overreacted.

 

[Sudre]

My ranger arrived today and failed to fix my door opening issue. He was able to get the door to stop opening but now the door can not be opened except from the inside. After that 3 week wait I will never use the ranger service again. I will just take it to the service center which is where the car has to go now for the repair anyway. The guy is knowledgeable and good at what he does, there is only so much they can do in the field. Whatever he did stopped the car from doing all the other oddball things which is very nice.

I asked him about getting parts like a hatch back window. He said the only way to do that is to physically go to the service center and yell at the manager. While I am there might as well have them replace the window.

I am glad all of you find that kind of service excellent.

On the bright side he did say they now have a fix for the screen yellowing issue on the Model 3s. They will start training on it soon and he thinks within the next 6 months (hopefully less) everything might be in place to actually start doing the repairs.

My conclusion after this ordeal is yes I can great great service from Tesla but only at the service center. I can not have anything on my car repaired except at the Tesla service center. Not even a shattered window.

 

[MC3OZ]

I think if you step back and look at the big picture those criticising service, in particular communication around service have an point, but the problem is solvable with more resources.

What has caused the problem is the relatively rapid ramp of Model 3 production and some initial build quality issues with Model 3.
What is different about Model Y is I can see say 50% more service work required, but 2X the revenues, so overall the budget to spend on service is higher and the one time build out of service centres is largely complete, the main requirement is adding more mobile service.. or adding service centres at a slightly slower pace...
I say 50% more service work due to common parts with the Model 3 and more attention to QA issue in the initial ramp, and a slower ramp, Tesla now knowS how important it is to get this issue right.
Due to the capital expended at GF1 and Fremont Tesla had little choice but to rush the Model 3 ramp, that didn't go well and they should have learned valuable lessons. One important lesson being attention to QA on early Model Y production is important.
So if Model Y goes smoothly service hell is largely over, provided Tesla assigns sufficient resources.... and gets a bit more organised...

In the meantime one important step towards Model Y going smoothly is clearing up service issues, as far as possible, before the Model Y ramp....

I don't think the model App+Call Centre+Mobile Service+Service Centre is a bad one, especially when you consider the challenge of building out adequate service everywhere with limited resources and time ..... what it needs is more resources and time.

I agree that fixing service Q3/Q4 is more important than profits..... but both are possible,.

 

[jerry33]

What is different about Model Y is I can see say 50% more service work required, but 2X the revenues, so overall the budget to spend on service is higher and the one time build out of service centres is largely complete, the main requirement is adding more mobile service.. or adding service centres at a slightly slower pace...
I say 50% more service work due to common parts with the Model 3 and more attention to QA issue in the initial ramp, and a slower ramp, Tesla now knowS how important it is to get this issue right.

So using common parts is going to increase the amount of service required? That makes little sense. Parts that have had a time to cook by being already out in the field should have a much lower rate of service required because improvements have already been made to make them more reliable. More attention to QA should also reduce the amount of service required. Or did you mean 50% less service required? I'd agree with that.