Tesla cancelled two consecutive Model 3 delivery appointments

[TheMattHadder]

Let me start by saying I have been a huge Tesla fan and supporter, an early Model 3 reservation holder, and my family owns a Model X P100D. I am as excited as everyone here to get into a Model 3.

3 weeks ago I got the email we have all been waiting for... my Model 3 is ready! A VIN was assigned, appointment made, my wife and I both took the day off of work and got excited to go pick up our new car. (Pearl white, Performance, cash buyer)

With less than 2 days to go I emailed to confirm delivery, and quickly got a call back: my car was not ready. Apparently there was a major issue with the battery, the car would not start, and my delivery adviser would locate a new car. I was very disappointed, but understood that the crew at Tesla is working hard and these things can happen.

Fast forward several days, I received an email from a new Inside Sales rep to reschedule for delivery the next week. No acknowledgement of the previous issue, fine. I was offered a variety of appointment times, and scheduled for the following Friday. Same drill - my wife and I made accommodations to take the day off of work. I was more cautious this time, wanting to confirm with the new Sales Rep when a VIN had not been assigned the week of the delivery. She did not return calls or emails for several days. Finally I was 2 days out again with no email, calls, or VIN - I called the general customer support line. After waiting for 30 minutes, I was told everything was totally fine on Tesla's end. I asked why I couldn't get in contact with the Sales Rep, and received a short email after the call that everything is on track for Friday. Less than 48 hours to go - I was assured Tesla had it under control.

The next evening I received an email that a car has not been assigned, and a delivery tomorrow would not be possible. Less than 24 hours away - Tesla has canceled my appointment again with little explanation. How is this possible? I understand that mistakes happen - but why did Tesla reach out to schedule again if a car was not available? My Sales Rep was unable to provide any escalation point, a concession or compensation of any kind, or a plan of action beyond trying to schedule me again for Tuesday (again with no specific car assigned).

Is there any escalation path, or way to get help from Tesla?

I totally understand there are lots of people in queue to get their cars, but when they schedule you for an appointment it creates a high expectation. Today it really feels like Tesla does not care about me and my family as customers. This is a nightmare that no one wants after eagerly watching the development of the model 3, and waiting for a car for so long.

 

[GeekGirls]

As of today they’ve now cancelled on twice as well. They haven’t reported any issues with the car, which was supposedly about an hour’s drive from our home. Last week they said it just missed being loaded onto the truck for delivery to the service center they handle deliveries out of. This week they said “the truck still hadn’t been repaired in time.” New story and some revisionist history there.

Really? So they haven’t been able to deliver any vehicles in Seattle for more than a week while they wait for truck repairs? I find that less than plausible. Needless to say, my wife is especially ticked off that we paid in full for a vehicle nearly two weeks ago that, based on these events, we have no reasonable expectations of a delivery timetable for.

I feel for Tesla’s growth challenges but they need to be careful about setting expectations and especially about booking a customer’s time away from work when they can’t deliver. Repeatedly.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Ouch.

I'm scheduled to take delivery next Friday, and I have that week off work (just coincidental). So my plan was just to shorten my vacation plans to be back by the scheduled delivery date. But, I think I'll try to play it by ear.

Still waiting for a VIN.

I'm not going to be nearly as patient as the OP or most of the stories I've read with delivery issues.

It's going to be a very binary where it works (with a small allowance for minor things) or it doesn't work kind of thing, and I just flat out walk away. I'm perfectly happy with the Model S I have now, and I'm not really supportive of how Tesla is treating it's customers right now. I know things are crazy busy, but at the same time a lot of it falls on the board for failing to assemble a good upper management team.

 

[FrankieG]

While not the majority, your experience is definitely not uncommon if you just do a simple search or spend more than a few mins on any of the Tesla forums. While nothing is clear, it seems as though at least I high volume areas, they are trying to avoid backlogs so they schedule appointments often times prior to actually having a vehicle in mind for you. Once they have an appointment they try to track down a car for you and if they don’t, they cite “logistics” or something else. My personal assumption is that the delivery advisors don’t truly know what’s going on at the ground level so they are either fed lines or are instructed to use certain stock explanations. Basically I think they are making stuff up. Similar to how during a long wait at a busy restaurant, a server will say “oh they’re still working on your dish” when they have no idea, they just need to say something better than “we’re slammed and I have no idea”.

From someone who is having a similar experience, it is definitely pretty annoying. We can complain about customer service or a terrible delivery design all we want but it is what it is. I think the best you can do is be nice but persistent. The good news is that eventually people seem to eventually leave this purgatory (2-6wks seems to be the avg) and once they get the car they’ve forgotten all the previous troubles. (At least I hope since I’m ongoing through 3 failed appts over 4 weeks now.) Godspeed.

 

[jprac80]

Welcome to the club. There are quite a few of us in your exact situation. One of the threads is the "Texas Hold Up" thread in the North America/Texas forum here. There are delays happening everywhere with the Model 3. The main thing I'm seeing is that they are just not doing a very good job of communicating. Calling a loyal customer moments before their delivery time is definitely suboptimal to say the least.

It is extremely disruptive to our lives, and I think they are becoming aware of this with all of the angry calls, emails, social media. They are just now recognizing the major delivery bottlenecks and are trying to deal with them, but really do have their hands tied in a lot of different ways. I have no idea what their actual numbers are, but If there are 500-1000 cars arriving at a service center in a short timespan that can only service 10-20 cars per day then things like this will happen. Again, communication could be better and advanced notice would be great. It is also disheartening to see people order and receive their car and not have to wait at all because someone cancelled and a car becomes available suddenly. Why not give that car to the person that was waiting the longest? Maybe they can't because of contracts require matching VINs? What they are doing isn't easy.

 

[Tocunvt]

Same boat. Waiting on my RWD Model 3 for delivery at Tysons in VA. About a month ago, got a call from my ISA with a VIN and delivery date of Aug 26. About 48 hours prior to the 26th, he changed it to the 27th. Then a rep from the Tysons location called me and said the 29th, no real explanation. Then the day before, they changed it to Sept 4th.

Also worth mentioning that somewhere in this mess, a different rep called from Tysons on the 29th to see if I was available “later that day” for delivery. He apparently didn’t get the memo that my new date was Sept 4th. Talk about frustrating. At this point I’m convinced my car is sitting at the Tysons center but they are just so backed up that I have to wait another week. A part of me wants to just show up and see what happens. Trying to revolve my work schedule around all these last minute changes is ridiculous.

 

[Blu Angel]

@TheMattHadder,
Wow...that's really bad customer service!
Tesla Inc is acutely aware of their delivery schedule fiasco and is now addressing it
with the formulation of 3 distribution head chiefs
Brett Zriny will be looking after the west coast

I would suggest an email to Brett.
Try [email protected] or
[email protected]
Could someone chime in with Brett's email?

Tesla Inc. has now appointed 4 new General Delivery Managers for North America.
Tesla also hired Kate Pearson, from Best Buy, as Director of Field Delivery Operations

• West: Brett Zriny – previously District General Manager for Tesla
• Central: Rodney Broyles – former Sr. Director Field Sales & Operations, Strategic Growth Office at Best Buy
• East: Bridget Teeter – previously General Manager for West US and Texas for Tesla.

Tesla is building a new delivery organization to support insane workload of Model 3 deliveries

 

[circleo12]

Add me to the 2 cancelled delivery date club, as well.

8/23 - Delivery #1 - Cancelled due to 'askew roof glass'
9/2 - Delivery #2 - Cancelled due to 'metal under glass needs fixing'.

Now, I've been told that the repair time is going to be "weeks, instead of days".


I'm ready to start with a fresh VIN, as the car has now spent more time being repaired, than being driven. And I STILL haven't even seen it, yet.


P.S. - I DO however, get to make payment #1 on my Model 3 that I don't have possession of, in 15 days...

 

[willa1975]

At least my loan hasn’t been funded, so I won’t be making payments for nothing.

I damn sure won’t be taking off work to get this car since I obviously can’t expect them to hold up their end of the bargain.

 

[C141medic]

I’m really sorry to hear about all these issues considering I’m “scheduled” for delivery 9/26. I also took that day off as well and would definitely be upset, pissed off, frustrated as well if it didn’t happen. At the least they should be able to provide us sufficient notice that a delivery may not occur. It’s the right thing to do. If Dominos can have a pizza tracker that’s fairly accurate why can’t Tesla provide a delivery tracker?

 

[SMAlset]

2 time contacted and still waiting as well. I knew delivery at volume production for them was likely expected to be a problem if they hadn't already set up systems and had people in place to streamline it, so in some ways this is not a surprise. Our Model S delivery last year was great so know it can be. And I get that handling this volume is all new for them so am understanding.

For those that had to make arrangements with a lending institution I can really understand the frustration. Ours is a cash deal to make things smoother we thought but it still required us moving things around to make it happen and apparently we didn't need to. For us this is a Factory delivery and there's no transportation of the cars to reach us. Knowing that makes it kind of more frustrating. Like the OP, don't understand setting up a second delivery for someone that's going to be a fail too. I know they have pulled people from theirs Store locations to help with delivery so imagine they are trying hard to make things a better experience. I read and don't have the link to post right now that they have hired several new people to head delivery operations around the country. Hope these guys are good at logistics and can hit the ground running because they really need it. Also have read that many of the cars being rejected are the multi-paint ones (we ordered pearl white) and they know they need to address the issues in Paint. Still doesn't in my mind explain why contact someone again and not make it happen. Well hope 3rd time is a charm for us and all of you second timers.

Found the article: Tesla Makes New Hires To Improve Delivery Experience
and there's this one too: Elon Musk Admits Paint Is The Current Tesla Model 3 Bottleneck

So curious is 2nds timers here are the majority of the MultiCoat order delays.

 

[neroden]

Let me start by saying I have been a huge Tesla fan and supporter, an early Model 3 reservation holder, and my family owns a Model X P100D. I am as excited as everyone here to get into a Model 3.

3 weeks ago I got the email we have all been waiting for... my Model 3 is ready! A VIN was assigned, appointment made, my wife and I both took the day off of work and got excited to go pick up our new car. (Pearl white, Performance, cash buyer)

With less than 2 days to go I emailed to confirm delivery, and quickly got a call back: my car was not ready. Apparently there was a major issue with the battery, the car would not start, and my delivery adviser would locate a new car. I was very disappointed, but understood that the crew at Tesla is working hard and these things can happen.

Fast forward several days, I received an email from a new Inside Sales rep to reschedule for delivery the next week. No acknowledgement of the previous issue, fine. I was offered a variety of appointment times, and scheduled for the following Friday. Same drill - my wife and I made accommodations to take the day off of work. I was more cautious this time, wanting to confirm with the new Sales Rep when a VIN had not been assigned the week of the delivery. She did not return calls or emails for several days. Finally I was 2 days out again with no email, calls, or VIN - I called the general customer support line. After waiting for 30 minutes, I was told everything was totally fine on Tesla's end. I asked why I couldn't get in contact with the Sales Rep, and received a short email after the call that everything is on track for Friday. Less than 48 hours to go - I was assured Tesla had it under control.

The next evening I received an email that a car has not been assigned, and a delivery tomorrow would not be possible. Less than 24 hours away - Tesla has canceled my appointment again with little explanation. How is this possible? I understand that mistakes happen - but why did Tesla reach out to schedule again if a car was not available? My Sales Rep was unable to provide any escalation point, a concession or compensation of any kind, or a plan of action beyond trying to schedule me again for Tuesday (again with no specific car assigned).

Is there any escalation path, or way to get help from Tesla?

If you spend long enough on the phone, you will eventually be able to reach a manager. Document everyone you talk to on a notepad. Keep track of their names; keep track of who lies to you and who hangs up on you and who doesn't call you back so you can report them and get them fired. I would expect it would take a couple of days to reach a manager.

If your sales rep claimed to be unable to provide an escalation point, the correct thing to do was to get her name, and then demand to speak to her boss. If she refused, you go back, you call in again, reach someone else, and you ask to speak to her boss directly, explaining that she is stonewalling you and you want her fired.

This is pretty standard procedure when you need to get someone fired.

It's much quicker to get to a manager if you show up at a store, service center, or delivery center in person, but it can still take a long time.

Tesla's behavior is a shitshow of incompetence. There are no two ways about it.

I totally understand there are lots of people in queue to get their cars, but when they schedule you for an appointment it creates a high expectation. Today it really feels like Tesla does not care about me and my family as customers. This is a nightmare that no one wants after eagerly watching the development of the model 3, and waiting for a car for so long.

Refuse to schedule an appointment until you have a car lined up. Explain that you cannot afford to keep taking days off of work. Demand "home delivery" in the evening or "home delivery" at your workplace.

 

[neroden]

Add me to the 2 cancelled delivery date club, as well.

8/23 - Delivery #1 - Cancelled due to 'askew roof glass'
9/2 - Delivery #2 - Cancelled due to 'metal under glass needs fixing'.

Now, I've been told that the repair time is going to be "weeks, instead of days".

At least you were given legitimate reasons. Unlike some people here.

I'm ready to start with a fresh VIN, as the car has now spent more time being repaired, than being driven.

I probably would.

And I STILL haven't even seen it, yet.


P.S. - I DO however, get to make payment #1 on my Model 3 that I don't have possession of, in 15 days...

Can you cancel the loan before that? Was it conditional on actually getting a car, which you did not do, or was it just a generic loan?

 

[neroden]

While not the majority, your experience is definitely not uncommon if you just do a simple search or spend more than a few mins on any of the Tesla forums. While nothing is clear, it seems as though at least I high volume areas, they are trying to avoid backlogs so they schedule appointments often times prior to actually having a vehicle in mind for you.

Wildly unacceptable! Perhaps the best thing to do is to refuse appointments where there's no VIN? They may still get your car and discover that it's defective, but at least they wouldn't just be making up delivery dates without anything.

Once they have an appointment they try to track down a car for you and if they don’t, they cite “logistics” or something else. My personal assumption is that the delivery advisors don’t truly know what’s going on at the ground level so they are either fed lines or are instructed to use certain stock explanations. Basically I think they are making stuff up. Similar to how during a long wait at a busy restaurant, a server will say “oh they’re still working on your dish” when they have no idea, they just need to say something better than “we’re slammed and I have no idea”.

I don't tolerate that at restaurants. I have been known to walk into the kitchen to find out what's happening.

From someone who is having a similar experience, it is definitely pretty annoying. We can complain about customer service or a terrible delivery design all we want but it is what it is. I think the best you can do is be nice but persistent. The good news is that eventually people seem to eventually leave this purgatory (2-6wks seems to be the avg) and once they get the car they’ve forgotten all the previous troubles. (At least I hope since I’m ongoing through 3 failed appts over 4 weeks now.) Godspeed.

 

[neroden]

As of today they’ve now cancelled on twice as well. They haven’t reported any issues with the car, which was supposedly about an hour’s drive from our home. Last week they said it just missed being loaded onto the truck for delivery to the service center they handle deliveries out of. This week they said “the truck still hadn’t been repaired in time.” New story and some revisionist history there.

Really? So they haven’t been able to deliver any vehicles in Seattle for more than a week while they wait for truck repairs? I find that less than plausible. Needless to say, my wife is especially ticked off that we paid in full for a vehicle nearly two weeks ago that, based on these events, we have no reasonable expectations of a delivery timetable for.

Never, ever, ever pay before delivery. NEVER.

I know Tesla wants to sucker people into doing that. Don't take the bait. Tell 'em you'll have a cashier's check at delivery. Period.

 

[JAUSA]

You can add me to the queue,

Ordered 4/28 - Red RWD
Still waiting after 4 delivery delays/cancellations, last one was supposed to happen tomorrow but they emailed me this afternoon to tell me I had no VIN assigned and they could not deliver.

I'm going to start paying the loan this month and I may not have the car :-(
I would like to escalate but I have no faith.

 

[willa1975]

You can add me to the queue,

Ordered 4/28 - Red RWD
Still waiting after 4 delivery delays/cancellations, last one was supposed to happen tomorrow but they emailed me this afternoon to tell me I had no VIN assigned and they could not deliver.

I'm going to start paying the loan this month and I may not have the car :-(
I would like to escalate but I have no faith.

Four?

That’s awful.

Why are you paying on the loan if you don’t have the car? I called my lender after my delivery was cancelled and they just voided the cashier’s check.

 

[Jedi2155]

I'm at 2....

 

[Steve_T]

Four?

That’s awful.

Why are you paying on the loan if you don’t have the car? I called my lender after my delivery was cancelled and they just voided the cashier’s check.

Not speaking for the OP, but I know in my case the rates have gone up by 0.5%, so if I cancel it then I'm going to get a higher rate. At that new rate it's worth it to pay for a month or less without having the car then get that new rate.

 

[TerpMed]

My experience so far...

VIN assigned: 7/31
First delivery appt 8/18: Cancelled < 24 hours beforehand, "delivery truck got a flat" and car would not arrive to Owings Mills in time. Re-scheduled for 8/27.
Email from IDA 8/20: 8/27 delivery cancelled, "little damage on front bumper" found during inspection and will not be ready in time.
Email from IDA 8/25: "Minor paint correction was needed to front bumper... should be ready by end of next week."

I tried to contact them end of last week to get an update, since that was when they suggested the car should be ready: No response. Disheartening since I seem to have had much more responsive IDAs than others in this forum.

I still haven't even seen the car yet. I'm sure it's sitting in a lot somewhere with nothing being done to it. At this point, I don't want a delivery date unless the car is absolutely 100% ready for delivery.