Tesla bans Stewart Alsop from buying Model X

[Quant]

Ok, I fully agree Alsop is a douchebag!

I fully agree that Elon does not get much sleep and is a global treasure.

I would also add that Elon will change the world for the better. Already has....

BUT, this is meaningless .....in a free world with a public company and a global brand which you are just building ????

From a business standpoint, from a rational standpoint, it makes no sense and is 100 % illogical. Elon has to know this !

 

[jeffro01]

My take on this is that the entire situation seems to hinge on a phone call that no one here, and it seems no one outside of the two people involved, knows what was said. Without that information it seems to me to be a bit short sighted to draw a conclusion or make a judgement call as to whether canceling the order was right or wrong. Even then, you're still going to have people that firmly believe in the "customer is always right" mantra and chastise Tesla\Elon for canceling the order regardless.

From my experience in life, the people that seem to champion the "customer is always right" mantra, in their approach to these situations, has always been the customer and never the business owner. There have been a number of posts here from business owners who talk about their own decisions to fire customers. It's a natural occurrence in a free market. Whether you agree or disagree with a companies decision to fire a customer requires you to know both sides of the story which is impossible. As the saying goes, there are three sides to every story, person A, person B, and the truth.

Tesla made a decision to terminate it's relationship with a customer, we all know this isn't the first time this has happened, and it won't be the last. Every company out there that I have worked with has also made the same decision at least one time.

In summary, we're making a lot out of nothing from my perspective.

Regarding the wider theme that's surfaced in this thread regarding Tesla's ability to execute and\or negatively affecting a current or future owners perception of Tesla, I see that as being an entirely different thing and wholly separate from this.

Jeff

 

[Adm]

From a business standpoint, from a rational standpoint, it makes no sense and is 100 % illogical. Elon has to know this !

If you do business with enough success, you can afford to decide who to do business with. Life is to short to deal with people like Stewart Alsop.

 

[4SUPER9]

Now that Elon has presented his side of the story, via tweet (the customer was "super rude"), I think Elon looks extremely petty. Perhaps there is more to the story. But now that Elon has decided to respond, it's on him to justify his stance, and he has thus far failed to do so.

I disagree. The beauty of firing someone is that you no longer have to deal with them. In this case, it was not Elon that made a big deal of it, it was us. In fact, that is exactly what he said in his tweet. Simple matter really: Elon felt that Alsop was not worth dealing with and decided not to sell to him. Nothing else to see here. Move on (well, except that we all still have fun speculating).

 

[Quant]

Sorry, I completely disagree. And, you cannot run a public company ( and a global brand ) as though it is your private company. Elon has a fiduciary duty, under US law, to all his public shareholders. One of them is not doing things as though it is his private company.

 

[Tam]

Slow news day: Super Rude Reservation Holder can be cancelled by Tesla

In case you haven't heard: A Model X reservation holder thought that because he's a customer he could post his harsh words to the public without affecting his ability to buy.

He even got to talk on the phone with Elon Musk personally regarding the posting.



You now know the end result for his reservation:

Sources:


An angry blog post cost one man his Tesla Model X reservation - Roadshow

 

[GasKilla]

Events should generally start on time. That said, we don't know why it started late. Was Elon just late arriving and getting prepared? Might have been a good reason for it, and while it might help if they explained it, they aren't really obligated to. Personally, I'm willing to cut him a lot of slack. He works his ass off trying to improve our world for the good of all mankind, while so many others are sitting back complaining to Elon that they didn't get a free drink at the bar.

The right move would have been to politely address the situation and argue why they need to try to get the events started on time, and then he probably would have taken it under advisement. But starting off by saying you are ashamed of someone who probably works 10 times harder than you because they were late to an event...well, you shouldn't be surprised if he doesn't give you the time of day after that.

From what I've read elsewhere Elon was late because he spent too much time doing Q&A with the press before the presentation. Makes total sense, if you ever watch a video of him doing Q&A it usually ends with someone else saying the time is up, not because Elon was watching the clock.

 

[Petra]

Sorry, I completely disagree. And, you cannot run a public company ( and a global brand ) as though it is your private company. Elon has a fiduciary duty, under US law, to all his public shareholders. One of them is not doing things as though it is his private company.

Depending on the circumstances, it could have been determined that this particular individual would be more trouble than he's worth (from the standpoint of internal man hours wasted) and so he was cut off. In a sense, that is acting in the best interests of the company and shareholders. It all depends on the specifics... of which, we likely won't get to know.

*edit* Sure, there are ways to get around having his reservation cancelled but that's not the point. I don't think it's about depriving him of a Model X, it's about not having to deal with him.

 

[efusco]

Duplicate: Tesla bans Stewart Alsop from buying Model X

 

[MsElectric]

It is better to ban/fire obnoxious customers full of themselves than to deal with them. More businesses should adopt this policy.

I also have a feeling there is more to this story than what has come out of mostly one side. If Musk banned a customer he must have a good reason.

We run a small business and decided a while ago the toll it takes on our employees to try and satisfy the .0001% of obnoxiously rude customers is just not worth it. We have served many tens of thousands of customers but have banned a handful of customers from ever doing business with us again.

 

[taurusking]

It is better to ban/fire obnoxious customers full of themselves than to deal with them. More businesses should adopt this policy.

I also have a feeling there is more to this story than what has come out of mostly one side. If Musk banned a customer he must have a good reason.

We run a small business and decided a while ago the toll it takes on our employees to try and satisfy the .0001% of obnoxiously rude customers is just not worth it. We have served many tens of thousands of customers but have banned a handful of customers from ever doing business with us again.

Very true...

 

[notAmeenPerson]

I can't attest for the accuracy but perhaps these Reddit comments are relevant? (Regarding Paypal)
First Comment
Second Comment

 

[AudubonB]

As with MsElectric, any guest of ours who tells us that the customer is always right.....

gets to stay somewhere else. And when they then post on TripAdvisor.....oh boy. That's when the TA cognoscenti get excited, 'cuz they all know the very best part of TA are Management Responses to the Alsops of the world.

 

[MsElectric]

I am willing to bet most who can't understand how a customer can be fired has not owned a small business.

And no, the customer is not always right and few people have any desire to deal with unreasonable or disrespectful people and at some point such people are not worth the hassle.

I guess Alsop was taught a lesson his parents failed to teach him.

 

[ohmman]

And when they then post on TripAdvisor.....oh boy. That's when the TA cognoscenti get excited, 'cuz they all know the very best part of TA are Management Responses to the Alsops of the world.

That's when they take it underground to flyertalk, where the real discussions get going!

Um, Alsop!

 

[SW2Fiddler]

Probably can merge this with the other "No X For You!" threads...

 

[Tam]

can't stop from buying second hand...

You can by second hand Tesla but you can't buy Extended Service Agreement.

- - - Updated - - -

Duplicate

Sorry for coming into the discussion late.

 

[pvogel]

It comes down to this -- it's taught in business school, I think as a case study of ING Direct or Orange Bank -- there are certain customers for whom the costs of having them as a customer far outweigh the value of having them as a customer. These are the customers you want to "fire".

It's often believed (erroneously) that a business ought to be happy to take my money, no matter how rude or damaging I am to their business model. That's simply not the case. Elon takes that to heart.

This is the second case of a Tesla-cancelled order/banned customer I've seen reported -- the first was some Dr who filed a lemon law suit regarding his Model S. Tesla gave him his money back for the Model S but banned him from buying a Tesla in the future.

There are two sides to every story, but I read Stewart's article "the you should be ashamed one" and I agree with the majority of comments there essentially describing it as "entitlement whining". He complained that he had to wait, there was no food, and there were too many people.

I agree Elon should have opened with "Sorry for the late start folks, but we've got some exciting stuff to show you tonight" or words to that effect. Beyond that, the blog was really going way too far, kind of like the reports I see of traveler complaints, like the ones who go on a tourist trip to India and complain that all they could get to eat was curries or go to spain and complain that everyone speaks spanish all the time... Why did he expect food to be served? With a 7:30 scheduled start, why didn't he eat dinner before the event started?

I'm glad Elon canceled his order, otherwise I can only imagine the whinging that would have ensued about every jot and tittle that wasn't perfect about the car.

Peter+

 

[nienco2]

This whole thread is the saddest thing I've read on this forum. So much defense of a CEO who didn't know enough to apologize at the event for being late, no matter the excuse, can't honestly communicate to loyal deposit paying customers why their cars are years and months late, yet takes time to "reach out" to someone because he felt insulted by a customer who criticized him? And then broadcast a tweet about it? Just sad :frown: Hopefully none of the analysts hurt his feelings next week.

 

[markb1]

Err, I don't think Elon has to justify anything. He's not going to explain exactly what caused the cancellation, or the exact words this schmuck used on the phone with him.

How is deciding not to do business with someone that is "super rude" need a justification, outside of the obvious?

Assuming that the tweet is Elon's best attempt at trying to justify his stance, he didn't do a good job. The original post my Alsop made valid points. You can take issue with his tone, but so what? Elon is known for being abrasive, too. Alsop's post just doesn't rise to the level that would justify cancelling his order.

While I think there could be more to the story that would justify Elon's stance, Elon isn't saying anything else, so I must assume he is referring to Alsop's public post. If he posted something like "there's more to the store than I can't share", that would move me back in the neutral category.