NigelM
Recovering Member
Arnold is Josh.
(See Eric, Tesla is even more brilliant than you imagined. Not only addressing TMC members but also figuring out their handles! :wink
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Tesla is communicating better.
- Thread starter pilotSteve
- Start date
Arnold is Josh.
(See Eric, Tesla is even more brilliant than you imagined. Not only addressing TMC members but also figuring out their handles! :wink
Arnold Panz
Model Sig 304, VIN 542
Arnold is Josh.
(See Eric, Tesla is even more brilliant than you imagined. Not only addressing TMC members but also figuring out their handles! :wink
I joined TMC long ago and used one of my favorite movie character names when I signed up -- Arnold Panz is the lawyer for the former Mrs. Irwin M. Fletcher (at least, that's what it sounded like to my friends and me). At some point it would have been awkward to try to change it or correct anyone as I got active on TMC. You can call me Josh or Arnold. I'm cool with either one.
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You're right! It does look like Dolphin Grey. That's weird. Maybe it's one of the test cars, although being stored out there with what I assume are other cars waiting to be finalized for customers.
Just another indication that it ain't Detroit we're dealing with here. My Sig S #187 arrived with 132 miles on the odometer: seems the final inspection team are being very thorough with the early VINs. Or maybe it was a Friday afternoon and the team decided to make beer call in my car :biggrin:
From my admittedly small sample size of n=1, I would disagree that communication has gotten better. I would in fact say that it has gotten worse over the past few weeks.
I am not a reservation holder (I don't own a car and don't intend to ever own one), but I did push my parents into putting down a signature reservation about a year and a half ago. They have a reservation sequence number similar to Josh/Arnold and are also on the east coast. The agreement we made when I convinced them to buy an electric car from a start-up American car company rather than their usual German sports cars of choice was that I would help them manage the atypical buying process.
Making the reservation and wiring the $40k deposit was easy. The frustrating things have been as we got closer to delivery.
When the e-mail came to configure the Model S last spring, the on-line system wasn't operation yet, so we did it via e-mail and faxed back the paperwork within a few days. However, no one e-mailed or wrote back to confirm they had received the fax. After a week we called and got confirmation all our paperwork was in. Then a few weeks ago the e-mail came with the delivery questionnaire. Oddly, it was sent from an e-mail address that did not match the contact information in the signature of the delivery specialist. Just to be safe we sent a copy of the questionnaire and drivers licenses for registration to both the e-mail address we received it from and the e-mail address in the contact info of the delivery specialist. Again, no confirmation that the information had been received and was processed until we called a week later.
My parents are now more than 1/2 through their delivery window. They have not received any phone-calls or e-mails to update them on whether their window is still valid other than the generic GeorgeB mass-distributed e-mail (which they oddly received twice two hours apart). Their original soft target delivery was today. If I hadn't come to this website looking for info, read about these issues and subsequently told them it probably wasn't happening, they would be spending all day today sitting patiently in the living room waiting for a car that I'm 99.9% sure isn't coming.
If the Tesla reps are doing a better job for people on these forums, great. But it appears that if you're not making a lot of noise on the forum and disclosing who you are via your sequence number, you aren't getting service equivalent to the more vocal parts of the Tesla community.
I really believe in what Tesla is trying to do, and it looks like they nailed the product part of the equation. But I have serious concerns that most mainstream customers will not be this accommodating. I also recall something on the pre-MVPA which stated that you can get your money back if TSLA misses your MVPA delivery range by more than 30 days. While I think I can persuade my parents not to do that, I'm ready to open up a short position on the stock myself as downside protection against being disinherited after this experience.
I am not a reservation holder (I don't own a car and don't intend to ever own one), but I did push my parents into putting down a signature reservation about a year and a half ago. They have a reservation sequence number similar to Josh/Arnold and are also on the east coast. The agreement we made when I convinced them to buy an electric car from a start-up American car company rather than their usual German sports cars of choice was that I would help them manage the atypical buying process.
Making the reservation and wiring the $40k deposit was easy. The frustrating things have been as we got closer to delivery.
When the e-mail came to configure the Model S last spring, the on-line system wasn't operation yet, so we did it via e-mail and faxed back the paperwork within a few days. However, no one e-mailed or wrote back to confirm they had received the fax. After a week we called and got confirmation all our paperwork was in. Then a few weeks ago the e-mail came with the delivery questionnaire. Oddly, it was sent from an e-mail address that did not match the contact information in the signature of the delivery specialist. Just to be safe we sent a copy of the questionnaire and drivers licenses for registration to both the e-mail address we received it from and the e-mail address in the contact info of the delivery specialist. Again, no confirmation that the information had been received and was processed until we called a week later.
My parents are now more than 1/2 through their delivery window. They have not received any phone-calls or e-mails to update them on whether their window is still valid other than the generic GeorgeB mass-distributed e-mail (which they oddly received twice two hours apart). Their original soft target delivery was today. If I hadn't come to this website looking for info, read about these issues and subsequently told them it probably wasn't happening, they would be spending all day today sitting patiently in the living room waiting for a car that I'm 99.9% sure isn't coming.
If the Tesla reps are doing a better job for people on these forums, great. But it appears that if you're not making a lot of noise on the forum and disclosing who you are via your sequence number, you aren't getting service equivalent to the more vocal parts of the Tesla community.
I really believe in what Tesla is trying to do, and it looks like they nailed the product part of the equation. But I have serious concerns that most mainstream customers will not be this accommodating. I also recall something on the pre-MVPA which stated that you can get your money back if TSLA misses your MVPA delivery range by more than 30 days. While I think I can persuade my parents not to do that, I'm ready to open up a short position on the stock myself as downside protection against being disinherited after this experience.
Other people have noted similar numbers for their cars. Someone else asked about it and a number of people chimed in with their starting odometer mileage and it was on par with yours.
While I understand your frustration, my dad had the opposite experience. He never posts on here (doesn't even have a username) and he got his call to schedule a specific delivery day this afternoon.
I really hope that your parents get their car soon; actually, I'm pretty certain that they'll have it in the next couple of weeks.
teslasguy
MSP P#1117
I just read my MVPA again and I see nothing in it that provides for a refund of the $5k deposit if they miss the delivery date in the MVPA by more than 30 days.
I realize it is frustrating but if you got the e-mail then it looks like things are delayed a little as it has been with others. They are working around the clock to try and get cars out so hopefully the delay isn't too bad. They probably shouldn't have given out such exact delivery ranges in the first place but they did and that's caused a lot of frustration which is understandable.
SCW-Greg
Active Member
Right on Lyon! First Model S in Track Town about to hit the streets! Look forward to seeing pics. Yours won't be long behind. ETA for your Dad?
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Welcome to the forum....nice first post. I find it rather curious though you would use this as a way to suggest shorting the stock.
Would you care to identify your parents car delivery # so others can know you are not actually j Peterson or another short trying to foment doubt in this company?
from my Samsung galaxy s3
Arnold Panz
Model Sig 304, VIN 542
As if we needed further proof that TM employees read these forums, I got confirmation from the picture-taker late last night that this is indeed a grey car intended for marketing to join the demo car fleet.
Welcome to the forum.
In answer to your concerns I think it is useful to reinterate what Josh has already posted.
Quoting his Tesla email:
Likewise it is also useful to revisit Josh's remarks on this subject.
I have confidence that Tesla is refocusing their efforts on the delivery process and I am sure that by the time they get to the mainstream customers this process will be all nailed down. Admittedly I know very little about investing, but rather than taking the extreme position of shorting Tesla stock, perhaps it would be more prudent if you merely sent an email inquiry to Tesla on behalf of your parents.
Communication is a two-way process.
Larry
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Hi Josh,
Congratulations!! Getting a photo of your car with VIN# should lift your spirits. :biggrin:
Regards,
Larry
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I am Sig1199. Maybe Tesla is not sending proactive emails to everybody but this was my experience. I also continue to be proactive: talking with my store rep every week or two (she has twice retrieved useful status info for me from company databases) and I've exchanged some emails with Matt.
Bottom line: the more we communicate, the more Tesla communicates. None the less, this was an unexpected and welcome update that indicates to me Tesla really is taking action to be more proactive.
Bottom line: the more we communicate, the more Tesla communicates. None the less, this was an unexpected and welcome update that indicates to me Tesla really is taking action to be more proactive.
I'd rather not provide their sequence number, as I don't want to get any specific representative from Tesla in trouble or "out" my parents so they start getting special treatment or flagged as unusually demanding customers. As I said in my original post, it's not too far +/- from Josh/Arnold's. I just had to vent my frustrations at what has been (and at least for us, continues to be) an amateur communication effort for signature reservation holders. Every other part of the Tesla experience has been great. The test drive in New York/New Jersey was well executed, the stores are beautiful, and the factory visit and ride-along last October was also impressive (I'm told).
I assure you I'm not a dissent-fomenter trying to drive the stock down. The shorting comment was a joke, since it's very hard for me to trade stocks in my personal account anyway due to my job. Consequently, I just own indexed funds. If you want further proof of my non-nefarious intentions, I can tell you the comment a man I now believe was Cinergi made during the pre-drive education lecture at the New York/New Jersey test drive event:
While the Tesla guy with disheveled hair was saying how he had once had to drive a roadster from the Florida keys to another event in Florida at a very low speed because his charging had somehow been cutoff over night, the person who drove an orange roadster from Massachusetts to the event opined that electric cars' efficiency is more affected by speed than gasoline-powered cars. He also interjected with a comment about regenerative breaking, but I can't remember the exact nature of that comment.
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Perhaps we have different pre-MVPAs?
From the counter-signed MVPA, page 2:
"No Cancellation. If you are not taking delivery of the Vehicle at the time of signing this Agreement, if the vehicle is not delivered in accordance with the Agreement within 30 days following the estimated delivery date, you hae teh right to cancel the agreement and receive a full refund, unless the delay in delivery is attributable to you."
I assure you I'm not a dissent-fomenter trying to drive the stock down. The shorting comment was a joke, since it's very hard for me to trade stocks in my personal account anyway due to my job. Consequently, I just own indexed funds. If you want further proof of my non-nefarious intentions, I can tell you the comment a man I now believe was Cinergi made during the pre-drive education lecture at the New York/New Jersey test drive event:
While the Tesla guy with disheveled hair was saying how he had once had to drive a roadster from the Florida keys to another event in Florida at a very low speed because his charging had somehow been cutoff over night, the person who drove an orange roadster from Massachusetts to the event opined that electric cars' efficiency is more affected by speed than gasoline-powered cars. He also interjected with a comment about regenerative breaking, but I can't remember the exact nature of that comment.
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Perhaps we have different pre-MVPAs?
From the counter-signed MVPA, page 2:
"No Cancellation. If you are not taking delivery of the Vehicle at the time of signing this Agreement, if the vehicle is not delivered in accordance with the Agreement within 30 days following the estimated delivery date, you hae teh right to cancel the agreement and receive a full refund, unless the delay in delivery is attributable to you."
Arnold Panz
Model Sig 304, VIN 542
Smallfootprint,
I would strongly suggest you contact someone (preferably your delivery specialist, but anyone you have an email for at Tesla) and ask them, in light of George B's email, when your parents should expect delivery of their car. They should be able to provide you a new two week window. This won't result in "special treatment" or communication, just a reasonable inquiry based on the email George sent.
Then, just ask them to tell you (or your parents) if there are any further delays from that date, otherwise they will expect delivery within that new two week window.
I would strongly suggest you contact someone (preferably your delivery specialist, but anyone you have an email for at Tesla) and ask them, in light of George B's email, when your parents should expect delivery of their car. They should be able to provide you a new two week window. This won't result in "special treatment" or communication, just a reasonable inquiry based on the email George sent.
Then, just ask them to tell you (or your parents) if there are any further delays from that date, otherwise they will expect delivery within that new two week window.
teslasguy
MSP P#1117
We must have different MVPAs. Interesting. Here is that Paragraph from my MVPA...
"No Cancellation. Once you execute this Agreement, the deposit in item 4.D above (if any) becomes nonrefundable (not to exceed
$10,000), and this Agreement is binding and you may not cancel (except as provided in the paragraph “Trade-In Vehicle” below). We
do not offer installment financing. This Agreement is not conditioned upon your obtaining financing from other sources. If you fail or
refuse to accept delivery of the Vehicle, we may retain as liquidated damages any cash downpayment or deposit made by you, to the
extent not prohibited by law. We may reimburse ourselves for any expenses and losses we incur or suffer as a result of your failure or
refusal. Such expenses may include our reasonable attorneys’ fees, reasonable collection fees, and court costs. "
Indeed that was me you heard. Hello! :smile: I just swapped the Roadster for my Model S (received about a week ago).
Communication has been and still continues to be a challenge for sure. I've been in direct contact with folks who are responsible for the process and I've given them a lot of direct feedback. They know it needs to be improved -- and what better way to help them than continue to give them feedback? The forums serve as a nice indirect way to do it -- but I do encourage letting Tesla know about your experiences. They won't know unless we speak up. You don't have to ask or demand anything -- just tell them you wanted to share your experience so they have another data point for the delivery process.
I agree. I was able to share both my experience and that of my parents directly with someone in charge of a section of the delivery area in the US and hope that helps. They really seem to be working hard but appear to be understaffed at the moment and don't seem to have communication systems and protocols needed at this point. It seems more of a manual process which may lead to things getting missed. From GerogeB's email it seems they are aware and working on it.
Just a quick update: since posting on this forum a Tesla representative did reach out to me confirming that the my guess was correct: the squeaky wheels are getting the grease first due to resource (read: staffing) constraints. I guess I now fit that description as he also repeated the mea culpas from GeorgeB's e-mail.
Despite being a New Yorker, I very much don't like to push to the front of the line, but given the prospect of canceling the reservation had been raised (and luckily shot down) several times, I guess it was necessary in this circumstance.
And to teslasguy, maybe only the signature Pre-MVPAs contained the ability to get a full refund if you don't get your car within 30 days of the range on your paperwork? Maybe we can add the option to cancel if your car is significantly delayed to the list of benefits offered to signature holders in exchange for their additional cash commitment?
Despite being a New Yorker, I very much don't like to push to the front of the line, but given the prospect of canceling the reservation had been raised (and luckily shot down) several times, I guess it was necessary in this circumstance.
And to teslasguy, maybe only the signature Pre-MVPAs contained the ability to get a full refund if you don't get your car within 30 days of the range on your paperwork? Maybe we can add the option to cancel if your car is significantly delayed to the list of benefits offered to signature holders in exchange for their additional cash commitment?
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