Customers should "Figure things out" prior to placing their order. People have complicated lives, but Tesla has simple marching orders. Build the car...Deliver the car.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Tesla threatening to cancel order before 30 days of first attempt
- Thread starter Nerd
- Start date
I'm with you there... we've been raised with a "customer is always right" mentality, and while I do agree with that sentiment, I think businesses are starting to turn away from that (sadly).
In Tesla's situation, I think it's a little different. I don't mean to sound like a sympathizer for Elon ("aww, poor billionaire")... but I also don't think it's as simple as "They could sell the car and move the order to a different car in a month".
The economics of being an auto manufacturer is *far* over my head - 99% of them having gone out of business. At a glance though, carrying past orders at historic prices into a future with unknown costs is a major liability.
If we apply the argument of "they could give you a different car in a month" at scale, perhaps that too could be enough to put Tesla out of business... or at least at enough of a competitive disadvantage that coupled with another issue (e.g. buying Twitter) and they begin to fall apart.
So... of course we wouldn't expect Tesla to hold an order for 10 years, right? Would we expect them to hold it for 2 years? 1 year? 6 months? How long is reasonable? It's subjective. In their situation, they decided that 2 weeks is the max.
As others have stated, if a person is not ready to buy, they shouldn't place an order. There are many things in life where being punctual is important, and this is one of them. Don't buy a plane ticket and expect the airline to keep opening up new seats on future planes. Don't order a package signature required and expect the delivery company to keep making delivery attempts. Don't order a Tesla and then try to delay, delay your order.
None of this impacts you any longer anyway, since you mentioned you are buying a different electric car (not a tesla), beside being out your $250 because you processed your order for the wrong car:
Evpowerdan
Member
Agree. Build, delivery and keep the process going to maintain the software and R&D for Tesla and owners.
Ideally they should make sure they can afford the vehicle before placing the order in the first place. However, things do change over 6-9+ month of the past wait time - financial positions change, job status or state of residence changes, family size or etc.
IMO - Tesla is NOT in the business to hold ordered vehicles longer than a few days. They're like every other business need to capture the revenue, make room for the next customers order. I believe a lot of people these days are putting their cars on hold as they can't afford the payment with interest rates climbing and/or to see if they can still flip them for more than their contracted price. The latter, those days have almost vanished, similar to real estate prices falling off a cliff.
Last edited:
BigNick
Infamous Fat Sweaty Guy
King? The customer has been a Joker since at least 2000 or so.
It's not just Tesla. Companies that once took pride in their levels of customer service now see it as a cash sink, and want to minimize costs or eliminate it entirely, and let the customer fend for themselves to the extent the law will allow.
So true. I've had to deal with TMobile recently and their sales phone number goes to competent, US-based reps... but service goes overseas.
I understand that everyone needs to work and provide for their families regardless of geographic location, but the support reps are still trying to find my account after 20 minutes. I spent 2 hours on the phone last week with non-native English speakers, ultimately to be transferred back to sales who solved my support call in 6 minutes. 😟
Tesla isn't doing anything wrong by not holding cars for people.
Evpowerdan
Member
Totally agree. The last two years companies didn't need much customer service, as shortages, easy and free money just increased demand artificailly. Thus Customer service for most organizations are not a "profit center:, since they do not booking revenue directly.
However, now that we are in a "r", customer service will become essential for retaining existing customers and aiding potential customers in consideration. The 1st bleeds over to getting new sales without a lot of marketing expense.
Evpowerdan
Member
That would be a good strategy to offer a delay for an upfront non-refundable fee. Call it a storage fee, have the customer pay for it in full and store it off-site. Tesla is not in the vehicle storage or lay-away business, they are in the business to book revenue and make more vehicles.
Wait time are 1-3 months for most models, so long wait times are no longer here. MORE TIME is essentially saying you are not ready - reason doesn't matter. If you are on the fence, your situation changed or etc - just cancel your order and wait for a time that works best for your purchase situation - IMO.
Similar threads
