Tesla Model 3 delivery is FUBAR

[Jedi2155]

Where are you accepting delivery? You might not feel as relaxed about this bottleneck if your delivery is canceled. As miserable as I've been this week, I don't wish that on anyone!

I've been canceled....twice (look at my signature) at Costa Mesa. In fact, they already took my money, and I'm feeling terrible about this whole thing. I'm going to give them the last benefit of the doubt I have regarding Q3 goals. They've been almost non-responsive regarding any issues over the past 2 weeks. I do have my THIRD delivery date assigned though for next Friday so I'm expecting a near flawless delivery.

I plan to tweet to Elon for resolution on the subject and I already have a contact at the Los Angeles Times if there are further significant issues. I mean, I really believe in the mission and everything, and been willing to put up with a lot of poor experiences but what they're doing right now is simply unacceptable in face of everything else they've said.

 

[tomas]

Just for some levity... I'm setting up new iPhone today, so I've had to do several backups (of old phone), restore to new phone, and then backup of new phone. Each time, it estimates 6 minutes, but takes 15. It says 1 minute remaining for at least 9 minutes. Calling support would take >20, and what are they going to do?

Tesla is not the only company wasting our time and communicating incorrectly! Probably higher on the aggravation index though, since it is days/weeks vs minutes/hours.

In seriousness, I have great sympathy for those who are not getting accurate communications... hope it gets sorted out. I have a delivery scheduled for Oct 1. No VIN yet, but I wouldn't expect one.

 

[beachbum77]

Yeah sadly I can't even figure out who that is... I even reached out to my original contact at the local gallery and while I did get a "let me look into that" response, no actual information has been given to me...

Tesla has no idea how dangerously close it is to losing a customer and the sad part about it is, everyones so obsessed with the Model 3 that it's pretty clear no one at Tesla gives a damn... At all... Who cares about a loyal customer when you've got hundreds of thousands of replacements lined up? This is the first time I've ever truly questioned why I keep giving my business to a company that, at least to me, clearly doesn't want it. Seems like the only people they care about right now are new Model 3 owners...

Jeff

Tesla cares about the low hanging fruit for the next nine days. If they can find your car and get it delivered they care. If not, you will not be on their radar until after 9/30. Entirely predictable.

 

[ceekz]

I've been canceled....twice (look at my signature) at Costa Mesa. In fact, they already took my money...

That's my fear because I'm a cash payer as well. What if I authorize the ACH and then I'm delayed? I just read the Supply Management Boss resigned today. Wonder if it was out of despair or incompetence. From where we sit, it could go either way.

 

[Goatdan]

I'm stunned so many of you are completely okay with being left in the dark on such a large purchase... I don't care how many freaking cars they are delivering, it's still their job to respond to customer inquires... I'm supposed to take delivery today and still can't get basic answers such as where the delivery is taking place, how much money do I need to bring, etc... You all are telling me you're okay with that lack of communication?

Maybe you missed my point. I understand *why* it is happening right now, but it's definitely not good. First and last impressions are hugely important, and they are screwing those up with a lot of people.

Having said that, I believe they desperately want to deliver these vehicles and they are doing everything they can to make that happen. I think a lot of it is just occurring at the last possible moment.

Because of that, my attitude has been just sit back and wait, and for the most part that has worked.

It won't be. This level of clusterfuck can't be solved in 3 weeks.

I think it can and honestly will be. What I think happened, in as much of a nutshell as I can give it is this:

Tesla wanted to finish Q3 super strong, so they hired some scheduling people and said, basically, schedule everyone possible before the end of quarter and we'll figure out how to get thr cars out there. They did, but because none of the locations were staffed to handle this volume, they are finding it impossible to keep up. My guess is they are delivering the same amount of cars as they did last quarter all in this single month.

At the same time, by having these scheduling folk schedule cars that at least for the moment didn't exist, it's created a vacuum where no one knows who should answer what. The local places can't help because they are being directed by corporate that everything will show up, and until it does it is tough to answer questions.

The lack of answers leads to more inquires, a longer wait and more frustration.

To solve it, all they need to do is pause or dramatically slow deliveries for a week. Allow the local employees to catch up, and confirm the cars they intend to deliver will arrive on proper days. If everyone gets their VIN when their delivery date is given, I think we'd see questions cut in half and people would be a lot happier.

Unfortunately, they already made this problem by scheduling so many for delivery. Pushing everyone back a week to fix the issue would probably be 3000+ cars not delivered. That's $180 million in revenue, and imagine the disappointment that would cause.

The vast majority of people I know have had great delivery experiences, including in the last few days. It sucks that not everyone does.

You might not feel as relaxed about this bottleneck if your delivery is canceled. As miserable as I've been this week, I don't wish that on anyone!

Meh, mine was today after a while bunch of movement on it last night. They pushed me back to the 30th. I might be busy that day.

Does it suck? Sure.

Can I do anything about it? Nope.

So for me, it's not worth getting stressed about. As I pointed out, I'm lucky that I'm not financing, and the insurance can be figured out in a grave period afterward.

 

[ceekz]

My advice is for Tesla to hire a dozen or so thick-skinned people who send a simple email out to all the scheduled-then unscheduled people to thank them for their patience and assure them that their delivery is still in queue and expect a call/email/text soon. Just something to keep the line of communication open. Priceless.

 

[TesFanboy]

My advice is for Tesla to hire a dozen or so thick-skinned people who send a simple email out to all the scheduled-then unscheduled people to thank them for their patience and assure them that their delivery is still in queue and expect a call/email/text soon. Just something to keep the line of communication open. Priceless.

Please.. don't talk common sense approach or "Mgmt 101"..these things don't apply for Tesla Tesla leaders are so busy charting out the next set of cluster $#$# idea that they think going to make miracles in the next 10 days.. crazy. High school drop out should be able to think thru this ahead that train wreak is coming. Their website and their operations is totally out of wack as they are not using their systems to plan/operate anymore. CSR's has no f.. clue on whats going on.. if we see what folks are reporting, it is totally out of control which is only going to get worse.

 

[TesFanboy]

That's my fear because I'm a cash payer as well. What if I authorize the ACH and then I'm delayed? I just read the Supply Management Boss resigned today. Wonder if it was out of despair or incompetence. From where we sit, it could go either way.

I don't think there is multiple ways possible here.. there is only one way which is DOWN.. all the mid-level leaders are walking out one after other week after week.. writing is on the wall.. hope board does something to do the damage control. sad to see the company with such a great blockbuster product going down this path due to poor or incapable leadership

they solved the difficult problems and the easy ones are the one going to screw them hard as now Tesla started to play with 1000's of loyal customers emotions. hope it get addressed quick before sharks (shorts) are back at it.

 

[hqubic]

I had 9/19 delivery too which was cancelled on 9/17 because "car won't arrive in time". No follow up since then, in the dark, not sure if that's better than being scheduled / cancelled again.

The sheer number of Model 3s I see on the street / in parking lots isn't helping.

 

[oakdalean]

For those who suggest that we wait, don't you think scheduling and then canceling it without communicating to the customer is cheating? Yes, we have waited for years. But, is this the reward? I am supposed to pick it up tomorrow in MA. But only today I learnt that my car is still in transit and will only be delivered in NY, but not in MA. That too when I called. Also, my car is in Baltimore and on it's way to Mt.Kisco, NY. And my delivery date is approximately Oct 2nd. Its really a clusterfuck.

 

[TesFanboy]

Maybe you missed my point. I understand *why* it is happening right now, but it's definitely not good. First and last impressions are hugely important, and they are screwing those up with a lot of people.

Having said that, I believe they desperately want to deliver these vehicles and they are doing everything they can to make that happen. I think a lot of it is just occurring at the last possible moment.

Because of that, my attitude has been just sit back and wait, and for the most part that has worked.



I think it can and honestly will be. What I think happened, in as much of a nutshell as I can give it is this:

Tesla wanted to finish Q3 super strong, so they hired some scheduling people and said, basically, schedule everyone possible before the end of quarter and we'll figure out how to get thr cars out there. They did, but because none of the locations were staffed to handle this volume, they are finding it impossible to keep up. My guess is they are delivering the same amount of cars as they did last quarter all in this single month.

At the same time, by having these scheduling folk schedule cars that at least for the moment didn't exist, it's created a vacuum where no one knows who should answer what. The local places can't help because they are being directed by corporate that everything will show up, and until it does it is tough to answer questions.

The lack of answers leads to more inquires, a longer wait and more frustration.

To solve it, all they need to do is pause or dramatically slow deliveries for a week. Allow the local employees to catch up, and confirm the cars they intend to deliver will arrive on proper days. If everyone gets their VIN when their delivery date is given, I think we'd see questions cut in half and people would be a lot happier.

Unfortunately, they already made this problem by scheduling so many for delivery. Pushing everyone back a week to fix the issue would probably be 3000+ cars not delivered. That's $180 million in revenue, and imagine the disappointment that would cause.

The vast majority of people I know have had great delivery experiences, including in the last few days. It sucks that not everyone does.



Meh, mine was today after a while bunch of movement on it last night. They pushed me back to the 30th. I might be busy that day.ghtful..

Does it suck? Sure.

Can I do anything about it? Nope.

So for me, it's not worth getting stressed about. As I pointed out, I'm lucky that I'm not financing, and the insurance can be figured out in a grave period afterward.

thoughtful , balanced and great attitude. 100% agree with you but the current situation really pisses us off.

Used to be under "Meet the dates..meet the numbers" type leaders who don't care about anything who got canned finally and "doing the right thing, the right way" makes life so better for everyone. Tesla was very smart to create a futuristic car but couldnt chart out a process to sell that in a way that provides the best customer satisfaction/experience from the get go. Elon need to be put on seat belt so other leaders can execute. No company in the world is really successful because of one individual. Tesla desperately need a COO and SHOULDN'T be reporting to Elon as he will kick that person out in 4 weeks or less. Who will work in an environment like this... if what we are seeing as customer is true, inside the company it will 100X worse.

 

[Goatdan]

thoughtful , balanced and great attitude. 100% agree with you but the current situation really pisses us off.

First, I never said it shouldn't piss you off, but my attitude about this stuff is always if I can't control it, why get ultra pissed about it?

My wife and I recently flew back on a plane with a connecting flight. The first plane was delayed long enough that there was a real question on if we'd make our connection. My wife was extremely irratated and wanted to go yell at some people about it. Our kids needed to be picked up, and this could set our delay back by a day.

I on the other hand just had the attitude of "what can I do" and told her we'd work it out when we knew. To me, you can yell at all the people you want, but that won't help the plane take off.

Eventually we got on the plane and it turned out the second flight was also delayed, so it was no problem.

I look at this the same way. I can get all hot about it, but will that really do anything? Doubtful. The company wants to get these things out as bad as I want to get into mine.

Tesla was very smart to create a futuristic car but couldnt chart out a process to sell that in a way that provides the best

Wait now, let's be fair. Tesla wasn't expecting the demand they received for it, and has basically been playing catch up ever since.

It's like if you threw a party and expected 20 people to show up and 500 did. How can you really plan for that? I guarantee that party will probably suck.

Tesla desperately need a COO and SHOULDN'T be reporting to Elon as he will kick that person out in 4 weeks or less. Who will work in an environment like this... if what we are seeing as customer is true, inside the company it will 100X worse.

First, on the turn over Tesla is burning through people because of their explosive growth. That happens. It's not great, but I worked in a few similar environments of companies struggling to get through crazy changes, and having tons of upheaval is what it is.

I think when they set everyone up for delivery, they did so because they figured it would be a great way to ensure a big last few weeks push and a huge final two week number to give to Wall Street. I'm also positive they thought they could do it when it started.

Now they found out for whatever reason, it won't be that easy, and they are scrambling to make as best of the situation as they can.

They are in a period of explosive growth. When that happens, it requires a bunch of experimentation and sometimes things don't work right. It's better to take a risk though to improve it and learn from it than not.

The volume that Tesla is delivering through any one delivery center is pretty unprecedented.

 

[neroden]

That's my fear because I'm a cash payer as well. What if I authorize the ACH and then I'm delayed?

Don't make the payment until you see the car in person. You can do an ACH on-site at most of the delivery centers, or you can bring a cashier's check. Some will simply take personal checks (probably depends on your credit rating).

 

[MacGreiner]

If Tesla went private, I wonder if this EOFY/EOQ madness would be this bad?
PS - It's a rhetorical question.

 

[tomas]

The volume that Tesla is delivering through any one delivery center is pretty unprecedented.

This is not true. MANY auto dealerships deliver this many cars.

HOWEVER, what is unprecedented: delivering this many cars by RESERVATION (vs. from inventory). Traditional dealers carry large inventories. As a second line of defense, they have procedures for "swapping" cars with other dealers in region in order to match customer configurations. As a third line of defense, they "special order" configuration, or try to convince buyer to tweak their their configuration to match inventory. If you have ever done a dealer "special order", you will know that delivery times are highly unpredictable.

What Tesla is trying to do that is unprecedented is large scale "just in time" deliveries to customers who have pre-ordered car. They have to optimize manufacturing, shipping, and at the same time predictably deliver cars to reservation holders. The process they use for this is "matching", where cars in final stage of production are planned for shipping and matched to buyers. This should theoretically be predictable. However, Tesla is learning for the umpteenth time that "theoretically" doesn't always work. I suspect that defects in manufacturing, cancellations or order changes, damage during shipping, and pressure to deliver volume (vs. to schedule) derails the matching process. As well as trying to accommodate "squeaky wheel" customers. Even if only 1 in 10 cars has an issue (defect, shipping damage, logistics change, customer cancellation or reschedule), this can have a huge effect on the "flow". Just as weather at ORD can crater air traffic throughout the country.

SO, things will improve as their processes improve (I'm sure they are working on it), as quality improves, and as they work through the backlog and maybe establish some form of regional inventory (a couple of years??).

The price of doing something differently.

 

[ceekz]

text message this morning that my Tesla will be delivered to my home or office "in the next few days!" Guess that is why they have been so elusive to schedule a delivery at the local SC... This bi-polar delivery experience is making a old woman out of me. Any one else in purgatory get one yet???

 

[strago13]

I wanted to follow up on this thread and comment that we have our car!

Owings Mills went above and beyond to get us a new VIN and get us in a car. It took a bit longer than a normal delivery, but it was worth waiting every minute for the car. Its amazing.

 

[jcasetnl]

That's my fear because I'm a cash payer as well. What if I authorize the ACH and then I'm delayed? I just read the Supply Management Boss resigned today. Wonder if it was out of despair or incompetence. From where we sit, it could go either way.

I would strongly recommend not making any sort of payments until you have seen your car and inspected it thoroughly. Don't sign any paperwork until you've inspected the car. Don't agree to any sort of rushed inspection. This is one of the most important financial transactions of your life. If you don't feel 100% comfortable, be willing to walk away. They OWE you a quality delivery experience, noble EV goals regardless.

I've read literally dozens of accounts of people who are in paid-in-full and then suddenly their delivery is rescheduled or the car going straight from the lot to the shop to fix issues. There are some making lease and insurance payments for two months and forced to drive a loaner.

Speak with your wallet that this anti-consumer practice is not okay.

 

[mike123abc]

Well on Thursday my delivery date came true. It was only 20 days past my original delivery date (three dates total). Car was fantastic for fit and finish. We went all over it, then drove immediately to an xPel dealer for a clear bra. They managed to find 3 tiny nicks on the car when detailing it. They are pretty small specs, but when you are using a magnifying glass and super bright lighting to detail the car you will find every flaw. It was a 200 mile drive from DFW to OKC where the dealer was, and the small nicks could have just as easily been sand or grit off the road of the drive (likely was). The color is red, so despite the red horror stories out there Tesla can paint them with reasonable quality. Car was 8/2018 manufacturing.

 

[artsci]

I repeat FUBAR, and I'm the perfect example. My delivery has been postponed a 2nd time. Originally was supposed to be 9/19, was delayed to 9/24, and now my service center calls (Owings Mills) and tells me the car has not arrived yet and they have no idea where it is. It's especially alarming that they have no idea where the car is. Who's the senior Tesla executive for logistics? Whoever it is he or she should have his or her ass fired. Note: it's Ganesh Srivats and he left the company 2 months ago, so he can't be fired. As far as I can tell they've not hired a replacement.

It's not like Tesla is inventing how to transport and deliver cars. Manufacturers having been doing it for a century. Tesla may be the future of transportation when it comes to technology, but when it comes to delivery they're very much living in the past.

I'm headed to Europe on Wednesday and won't be back until October 8, so no delivery can occur before then. I told Tesla that about 6 weeks ago and they said they would accommodate me. More Tesla B.S.

Pissed at the incredibly poor delivery service. Maybe the the fact that Ganesh Srivats left the company in July (he was the senior exec for delivery) and the fact that most of the logistics staff are under 35, some a year or two out of college, and have an average salary of $45,000 (try living on that crappy pay on Northern California).

Elon Musk said that Tesla is living in delivery hell. The hell he's talking about is of his own making. Maybe he could spend a little less time tweeting.