store accident, Tesla fixed it but neglected to respond

[Ocelot]

I figure I will post this here. Below is a PM i initially sent to George on this forum, and subsequently with minor changes to Tesla themsleves. While I acknowledge this forum is not "official" and maybe a PM was uncalled for, it was sent with the best of intentions. I find it unfortunate that no one at Tesla over the last six weeks or so took the time to respond. A "thanks for the information, we will look into things" would of sufficed, from a parental, shareholder, and reservation holder perspective.



Hey George,

Sorry to bother you, but figured you probably would want to know about this, to try and prevent future incidents.

I finally had a chance to go to a Tesla store in the Yorkdale Mall in Toronto last Friday, with my wife and at the time near two year old son (he just had his birthday). Anyhow while we were paying for a t-shirt for the little guy at the back of the store, he backed into/sat (not sure which as was handing over credit card) on the very low glass shelf beside the cash. The shelf crashed down and landed on the back of his achilles on both his legs, kinda trapping him. The employee and my wife quickly picked up the glass shelf as I was grasping it to relieve the pressure off his legs. He was left with two bruises over his achilles tendon, one on each side, and minor lacerations on both sides.

Now, my kid is one tuff cookie!... and only cried for maybe ten seconds, and fortunately the glass did not shatter, or severely hurt him. If both his legs were not caught and the glass hit the ground instead (resulting in shattering) , easily he could of wound up with more severe lacerations.

I am not sure if you have kids, but accidents do happen no matter how good a parent you are. I just thought I would let you know as there might be a quick cheap fix to secure those glass shelves a bit more, as prevention is always the best medicine.

Great store, beautiful car by the way.

Signed, model x reservation holder, and pediatrician,

ocelot

 

[gaswalla]

Lots of parents and doctors here, so you get all the empathy and sympathy regarding your little one's mishap.

As for going to the forums and posting: really.. lets move this to "off topic"

 

[ModelS1079]

Think it is good to post - hope the little guy is aokay. All things tesla welcome here.

 

[Ocelot]

Lots of parents and doctors here, so you get all the empathy and sympathy regarding your little one's mishap.

As for going to the forums and posting: really.. lets move this to "off topic"

it might fit better in another category, stores? investors relations? re:customer care and feedback and am completely ok if the thread is moved.

Anyhow quick update. The regional sales manager of the store emailed me after coming across my post to note the initial PM was forwarded and dealt with previously, ensuring all the glass shelves are properly secured, and the staff was instructed to be vigilant in the future. It also notes, this was done immediately after getting my email.

That is perfect. I much rather they have looked into it, and not gotten back to me than the reverse.

Once again, showing this is a company that i hope and believe is 'different'. One that cares about the 'bigger picture', and one I want to support in all ways possible.

 

[MarkR]

Nice outcome, but they should have gotten back with you a lot sooner.

 

[Cattledog]

Perhaps modify the thread title then as it implies a more negative outcome than what was realized. Glad all are OK, congrats on X reservation.

 

[Doug_G]

Perhaps modify the thread title then as it implies a more negative outcome than what was realized.

Yes, I thought the same thing. I have modified the thread title. If the OP would like to change the wording to something else, please let me know.

 

[JohnQ]

All good outcomes here:

1. Your son was unhurt
2. Your response was appropriate (email/PM to Tesla with constructive suggestion)
3. Issue resolved on their end even if they didn't communicate the final action

Glad that there are still people who take the time to communicate problems and solutions without blowing them out of proportion.

 

[twinklejet]

I think the reason why you never got a response was because of the way the system works. Tesla (like many organisations) has a hierarchy. With emails though, anyone within the organisation can be contacted directly with a simply email address. Likewise, these folks down the line are also able to contact customers and other stakeholders - as long as they have an email address. This is a given.

However, when you sent a PM to him, he sits near the top of the hierarchy and has to deal with A LOT of things under him (Think of a pyramid where the top is small but below each level it gets larger and larger and the guy at the very top Elon Musk must handle every single thing below him) so he sent your concerns down to the appropriate staff down the line. The guys down the line resolved it but hey, how are they gonna tell you? Do you think it'll be prudent for say, the salesperson at the store who reports to a supervisor who reports to the store manager who reports to a regional manager who reports to a country manager who reports to etc. etc. to escalate your case in reverse back to george to get back to u via TMC?

Perhaps send an email next time, it makes life easier for everyone :smile:

 

[dsm363]

Glad everyone is ok but as you said, TMC is not an official way to communicate with George or anyone at Tesla for that matter. An e-mail or letter to Tesla followed up by a phone call would have been better I think.

 

[Ocelot]

I think the reason why you never got a response was because of the way the system works. Tesla (like many organisations) has a hierarchy. With emails though, anyone within the organisation can be contacted directly with a simply email address. Likewise, these folks down the line are also able to contact customers and other stakeholders - as long as they have an email address. This is a given.

However, when you sent a PM to him, he sits near the top of the hierarchy and has to deal with A LOT of things under him (Think of a pyramid where the top is small but below each level it gets larger and larger and the guy at the very top Elon Musk must handle every single thing below him) so he sent your concerns down to the appropriate staff down the line. The guys down the line resolved it but hey, how are they gonna tell you? Do you think it'll be prudent for say, the salesperson at the store who reports to a supervisor who reports to the store manager who reports to a regional manager who reports to a country manager who reports to etc. etc. to escalate your case in reverse back to george to get back to u via TMC?

Perhaps send an email next time, it makes life easier for everyone :smile:

Glad everyone is ok but as you said, TMC is not an official way to communicate with George or anyone at Tesla for that matter. An e-mail or letter to Tesla followed up by a phone call would have been better I think.

thanks for the advice As noted i did send an email.

Twinklejet, i do feel it is appropriate SOMEONE gets back to me. Do not care who. A positive outcome (for my son) , does not ameliorate the need to respond, when the potential was there for a serious injury.

On a side note the reverse is usually what I deal with. No one has the power to make decisions anymore, and usually whoever you are dealing with has to 'move things up the chain' to get a decision made. As an employer myself I try to empower people to make their own decisions, which in turn I feel leads to better job satisfaction, and better service for the person they are dealing with.

Doug, as for the change in thread title, I am ok with it, but I did not know Tesla had fixed it when starting this thread, and personally did not see the need to change or "fix" my titile. Was there not an incident? did I not give nearly two months for someone to respond? would "accident" be better wording? I find the title like a lot of things on this board for better or worse, always tries to paint Tesla in the most positive light possible, and sometimes lacks objectivity in bias for subjectivity.

 

[Doug_G]

Doug, as for the change in thread title, I am ok with it, but I did not know Tesla had fixed it when starting this thread, and personally did not see the need to change or "fix" my titile. Was there not an incident? did I not give nearly two months for someone to respond? would "accident" be better wording? I find the title like a lot of things on this board for better or worse, always tries to paint Tesla in the most positive light possible, and sometimes lacks objectivity in bias for subjectivity.

I understand your concerns. Unfortunately there is a tendency for everyone from blogs to mainstream press to pick up stories from these forums, usually in the form of anti-Tesla propaganda or faux controversies. So we prefer that thread titles not be too, uh, salacious.

Despite how we are sometimes depicted, we're not all fanboys here. I've personally called out Tesla on a few things over the years (and to their credit, in the end they corrected those things).

The current title describes what actually happened. I will however change "incident" to "accident" per your preference.

 

[Ocelot]

thanks for taking the time to explain doug. completely understand. as i said for better or worse, and most of the time its probably for the better for the reason you state. thanks for all the work the mods do. it is appreciated.