Tesla banned me from purchasing another Tesla after vehicle buyback

[whitex]

I agree, Tesla did the right thing, good for them . He moved on to other cars, hope he’s happy, it all worked out

And it sent a warning to others, how dare you think the company should fix your yellowing screen, or deteriorating battery. Tesla did since "clarify" that the battery warranty only kicks in if its capacity degrades by more than 30%, no charge rate guarantee at all, and the main screen is now officially a consumable, like tires, brake pads, or wiper blades - meaning it wears out and needs periodic replacement. Perhaps eventually all new Teslas will officially be sold "as is", except you have to pay for it before you are allowed to inspect it.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

IMHO I believe this was an overreactions by Tesla.

It smacks of "We can do no wrong" mentality, when, truth be told, Tesla has had plenty of screw ups. Elon strikes me as the sort of guy to say, "We made a mistake here; let's make it right."

I wonder why Elon hasn't fixed this sort of "very corporate" behavior and stopped it cold. The poster appears to be a regular guy who just wanted his yellow screen fixed, and his battery to work; that shouldn't be too much to ask . . . . Yet he's banished from ever buying another Tesla.

Really?

That's just petty.

 

[dub1ous]

man people backing Tesla must be rich enough that they don't care if their 100,000 dollar car does not meet the quality standard. People need to stop worshipping Tesla and Elon. You don't owe them anything, they should stand behind their product and warranty.

 

[TessP100D]

Unfortunately I don't know both sides of this story, because Tesla employees never share their side of it.

I'm not saying that Tesla is right, and not saying that testhrowaway is lying or painting a worse picture on this forum than the reality. But with Tesla's response it's obvious there's a subjective understanding among their employees that testhrowaway is a buyer they can never satisfy.

If they honestly think that they cannot satisfy you, they have the full right to refuse to sell you another vehicle. If they think they are right, it's a good decision for them, to reduce frustration for their employees fighting over the potential flaws on the new vehicle.

Even if you aren't necessarily a bad customer, there are other customers that no matter how hard the company tries will never be satisfied. Yet they always come back to buy new vehicles. Filtering out these customers when you can is a good way to do business, and saves them a lot of frustration.

Well. All Tesla us to do is make cars that actually work and don’t fall apart. Seems easy.

 

[ucmndd]

Elon strikes me as the sort of guy to say, "We made a mistake here; let's make it right."

Lol really? He strikes me as someone with a nearly fatal amount of hubris.

I'll also state, the company did "make it right" in the best way they could - by unwinding the entire transaction and making the customer whole. That said, I see no reason why they should be expected to continue to do business with someone that very obviously was not going to be pleased the second time around.

 

[whitex]

IMHO I believe this was an overreactions by Tesla.

It smacks of "We can do no wrong" mentality, when, truth be told, Tesla has had plenty of screw ups. Elon strikes me as the sort of guy to say, "We made a mistake here; let's make it right."

I wonder why Elon hasn't fixed this sort of "very corporate" behavior and stopped it cold. The poster appears to be a regular guy who just wanted his yellow screen fixed, and his battery to work; that shouldn't be too much to ask . . . . Yet he's banished from ever buying another Tesla.

Really?

That's just petty.

How did you get this unique impression of Elon? Did you not follow the "pedo guy" incidents and lawsuit? Elon's attitude has consistently been "I can do no wrong". Tesla's attitude towards customers is all Elon driven, only occasionally tempered by "corporate attitude" - remember when Jon McNeil was VP of service, then he left and Elon took over his position?

 

[whitex]

I'll also state, the company did "make it right" in the best way they could - by unwinding the entire transaction and making the customer whole. That said, I see no reason why they should be expected to continue to do business with someone that very obviously was not going to be pleased the second time around.

This makes sense if Tesla knew the customer is likely to experience similar issues on any new car they would buy, therefore would likely lemon the next car too. Why sell a product to a customer knowing the product will have the same defects which caused the customer to return it in the first place. Tesla could save themselves a lot of grief if they simply communicated clearly to potential buyers what to expect, like yellowing of the screen, so there would be no surprises. (and yes, I know they now classified the screen as a consumable, but that is hiding it in the fine print rather than clear communication, same for 30% battery degradation being normal).

 

[ucmndd]

This makes sense if Tesla knew the customer is likely to experience similar issues on any new car they would buy, therefore would likely lemon the next car too. Why sell a product to a customer knowing the product will have the same defects which caused the customer to return it in the first place. Tesla could save themselves a lot of grief if they simply communicated clearly to potential buyers what to expect, like yellowing of the screen, so there would be no surprises. (and yes, I know they now classified the screen as a consumable, but that is hiding it in the fine print rather than clear communication).

It's been a while since I've read this guy's whole story, but he was a bit more than your typical disgruntled customer, to the point of having a direct line of contact with one of Tesla's lawyers. The whole yellow screen issue, publicly encouraging countless other owners to fight the company via arbitration, "battery range issues" that couldn't be quantified and furthermore were not covered under any form of warranty when he bought the car, etc etc.

I have no interest in defending Tesla's abhorrent communications practices, but I think the final statement from the lawyer is quite clear and defensible:

"We aren’t obligated to sell you a car and we don’t believe selling you another car is in either of our interests. You’ve been repeatedly frustrated despite our best efforts and we are not inclined to continue doing business with someone we don’t believe we can satisfy such that they resort to threats repeatedly and/or disparaging us publicly. You ought to consider another EV or other vehicle and perhaps you’ll have a better relationship with their service team. "

I might say this is the clearest communication I've ever seen from the company.

Some customers are not worth the effort and need to be fired.

 

[whitex]

It's been a while since I've read this guy's whole story, but he was a bit more than your typical disgruntled customer, to the point of having a direct line of contact with one of Tesla's lawyers. The whole yellow screen issue, publicly encouraging countless other owners to fight the company via arbitration, "battery range issues" that couldn't be quantified and furthermore were not covered under any form of warranty when he bought the car, etc etc.

I have no interest in defending Tesla's abhorrent communications practices, but I think the final statement from the lawyer is quite clear and defensible:

"We aren’t obligated to sell you a car and we don’t believe selling you another car is in either of our interests. You’ve been repeatedly frustrated despite our best efforts and we are not inclined to continue doing business with someone we don’t believe we can satisfy such that they resort to threats repeatedly and/or disparaging us publicly. You ought to consider another EV or other vehicle and perhaps you’ll have a better relationship with their service team. "

I might say this is the clearest communication I've ever seen from the company.

Some customers are not worth the effort and need to be fired.

I agree with you on this being the clearest communication I've seen from Tesla.
I also agree that some customers are not worth the effort. If Tesla has plenty of customer base who wouldn't fight them on the yellow screen, having one which will fight and educate others on what their rights are is a giant fly in the ointment. I was not surprised they banned him. I also still think they counted on him sharing that he was banned publicly as a warning sign to others. "No soup for you!"

 

[Merrill]

I was in the dealership service business and there where around 5% of our customers I had to divorce. Sometime you can never satisfy these people no matter what you do, many of which I sat down with and reviewed there file and asked them to find another dealership to service their vehicle.

 

[mspohr]

I was in the dealership service business and there where around 5% of our customers I had to divorce. Sometime you can never satisfy these people no matter what you do, many of which I sat down with and reviewed there file and asked them to find another dealership to service their vehicle.

I used to have a small software business. I did fire a few clients who were much more trouble than they were worth. I really felt better after firing them.

 

[Merrill]

I used to have a small software business. I did fire a few clients who were much more trouble than they were worth. I really felt better after firing them.

I always found it interesting because sometimes after I had this conversation the customer would say “I don’t understand” and I would say I know because if you understood we would not be having this conversation.

 

[SageBrush]

Disgruntled Customer: I don't want the car I have. Give me a new one
Tesla: No, but we will make you whole.

As for Tesla refusing to sell him another car -- good move, Tesla.

 

[BigNick]

No reasonable person would think that the MCU screen is a consumable item that belongs in the same class as brake pads, tires, filters, fluids, etc.

However, replacing the screen (at no cost to the customer) is a valid remedy for the issue. You don't replace an entire car because you get a flat tire if the remainder of the car remains intact.

Tesla used screens not designed for temperature extremes in cars, knowing the interior of a car can exceed 150F. Redefining the screen as a "consumable" is bad on top of bad. Maybe the issue is fixed in the 3/Y and Palladium refresh. Have any older 3's experienced the yellowing now that some are approaching 4 years old?

 

[ucmndd]

Redefining the screen as a "consumable" is bad on top of bad.

I don’t believe this ever happened in any official way beyond a Tesla lawyer throwing *sugar* at the arbitration wall to see what sticks (it didn’t stick).

 

[mspohr]

No reasonable person would think that the MCU screen is a consumable item that belongs in the same class as brake pads, tires, filters, fluids, etc.

However, replacing the screen (at no cost to the customer) is a valid remedy for the issue. You don't replace an entire car because you get a flat tire if the remainder of the car remains intact.

Tesla used screens not designed for temperature extremes in cars, knowing the interior of a car can exceed 150F. Redefining the screen as a "consumable" is bad on top of bad. Maybe the issue is fixed in the 3/Y and Palladium refresh. Have any older 3's experienced the yellowing now that some are approaching 4 years old?

Tesla developed a fix for the problem where they applied UV light to the screen which removed the yellow.

 

[linux-works]

Tesla developed a fix for the problem where they applied UV light to the screen which removed the yellow.

and you know the screen will be corona-free for life, then too!

(no need for bleach. save that for another task)

 

[BigNick]

Tesla developed a fix for the problem where they applied UV light to the screen which removed the yellow.

I've read about the UV fix.

I'm lucky enough to have not needed it. Bubble- and yellow-free. Moderate heat in PA and rarely parked in the sun. Cabin Overheat Protection always on (if any of that matters.)

Condition of my current screen is one of the reasons I am not doing an MCU2 upgrade. The new replacement screen might be quicker to yellow.

 

[SageBrush]

No reasonable person would think that the MCU screen is a consumable item that belongs in the same class as brake pads, tires, filters, fluids, etc.

A more apt comparison would be burn-on computer screens, or UV damage to upholstery. How about yellowing headlights ?

 

[SageBrush]

I'm lucky enough to have not needed it.

Same here. Although I live in a very sunny climate and the car is parked outside, my windows are tinted and I park facing the South and routinely put up a sunshield. The habits developed for cabin heat control but avoiding UV damage is a nice benefit.