Service Center Interactions
This post started out as part of the response to
another thread. As I kept writing I realized it had less to do with that particular topic, and was more a topic of it's own, so I split it out.
I hope you don't get too frustrated with the service center guys. They are good guys, perhaps working with a rapidly changing set of rules and data, but usually for the better I hope and think. Respectfully encourage them to find the solid answers and commit.
If there's anything that really leaves you less than happy with their actions and you think there is something for them to improve (vs they did everything right, but it's still a crappy situation), then definitely talk to the manager at the service center, then go from there. They are approachable and really want you to have a great experience. These guys as a team really are different than just another car dealer's service center. They are there to prove it can be different.
I've certainly always found that dealing with Tesla at every level and multiple service centers has been far different than dealing with other auto industry folks. It's usually been a positive experience, but even their negative experience were different than most of the negative experiences I've had at auto dealers/service depts. With few exceptions (that tend not to stick around that long) they are protective towards Tesla as a whole as well as towards the owners. So long as one doesn't flip them into a mode of being in a defend the mothership from the hostile invader/customer, there's a great opportunity to interact with them in a mutually positive and trust building manner I don't often see in such industries. There's an opportunity to give feedback that'll actually effect change, and an opportunity to have a long term experience with them that approaches friendship rather than the wary, at times adversarial encounters many of us are more used to.
I just want people to see the difference and the potential that Tesla and the service center guys themselves are trying to accomplish, and help them get there through the challenges that come up, rather than write them off when something negative happens based on our past experiences with others auto industry interactions. Keep at it, expect different, and gently but firmly encourage it, and I think you'll be pleased to actually see it happen.
People have often said here that they think roadster owners get special or different treatment at tesla. Some roadster owners have said this isn't true, and some non-roadster owners have said that the get the same supposedly preferential treatment as the roadster owners. Isn't it possible that what's really happening is that the owners themselves are treating the service center people different? Expecting better and treating them better, not automatically assuming a "out to get me" type response from either side? It becomes mutual. I've always felt like I was part of the Tesla family. It's not a perfect family, but a good one, trying to do great things. Family is of course not exactly the right word. Substitute team for it, or effort for it. The feeling remains though, even when disappointments happen. Some have been just plain things I think they messed up (and of those, they often but not always agree). Some have been when I thought they should be able to do something that realistically wouldn't work out for them. Regardless though, we move forward by dealing with it as people with common goals and a tendency to expect the best from each other rather then the worst (or merely the satisfactory), built upon history and trust gained.
Don't take any of this as apologist talk, or anything of the sort. Trust is earned, not given, and all that. And certainly as Tesla gets into more and more markets and quantity, they are going to have to scale and change to deal with it. But do recognize it is a two way street and that many of us come to the table with our own past bad experiences affecting what level of friendliness, initial trust, etc. we offer. And do recognize that they are trying to do things different and work with them to encourage and accomplish that, providing constructive feedback both positive and negative. Try to keep stuff that can be dealt with at the local level local, but also do carefully share with higher levels too, in a way that doesn't throw the local folks under the bus. We can effect change and help them scale while still staying uniquely Tesla rather than slowly morphing into the beast that is largely the rest of the industry.
