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The Curious Case of our Model 3 delayed-delivery

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cpa

Active Member
May 17, 2014
3,802
5,876
Central Valley
A brief chronology:

On Christmas morning, my wife and I configured our Model 3. Gave Tesla the $2,500.

On Tuesday, I promptly submitted all the on-line paperwork (driver licenses, proof of insurance, pictures of the trade in, etc.)

On Friday, December 29, the Las Vegas center contacted me via telephone and said that we could pick our car up Fremont on Friday, January 5. I asked the representative if we could arrange for delivery to our home because we lived ~160 miles away, and fighting Bay Area traffic going to and from late in the day (I had a client meeting scheduled for the morning) was not acceptable. She put me on hold, and a few minutes later told us we would be receiving the car today, Friday, January 12, 2018, at 9:45 AM. This was also confirmed to me via email.

Yesterday afternoon I wired the balance due to Tesla. They have our money. I received a confirmation email.

No car today. No call today. No email today. I called the switchboard to speak to a representative. This situation was clearly beyond her ken. After an interminable hold, she said that she would have to speak to a delivery manager, but they were all busy (really?), so I would be getting a return call. Nearly one hour later, a delivery manager telephoned and said that there was no information about our delivery today. Geez. He also asked why we had not returned the DMV paperwork. (This was news to me.)

He said that there would need to be arrangements made for delivery; he did not know when until he spoke with the delivery company. He thought it would be some time next week, but could not say for sure. He promised to call me back by the end of the day with more information. Meanwhile, he is sending via FedEx the DMV paperwork. I corretly pointed out that Tesla has our money, and therefore given their past history of feckless inaction, Tesla has zero incentive to deliver our vehicle promptly. He had no answer other than Tesla does not refund money unless an order is canceled.

He did send an email to me thanking me for my "patients." A younger version of myself would have replied stating that I am not a doctor.

It appears to me that a lot of Tesla's woes stem from the fact that the company is exceptionally decentralized--too much for my tastes. It also appears to me that Tesla relies almost exclusively on computer programs to transfer information around the various departments.

I submit that Tesla does not have sophisticated systems of internal controls for all non-cash operations. I think that they have internal software that is supposed to do things automatically without any form of human oversight or verification. No testing is done to confirm that these systems are working properly. There is no department that reconciles orders to deliveries. Anywhere along the line there could be a colossal failure if someone makes an error because there are no records that are available for independent review. To compound these situations is the fact that there are no employees with a junior management level status that are visible to us to ride herd over the ineptitude of others.

Tesla must improve their internal controls over production, sales, and delivery. The general public will quickly lose patience and look elsewhere for electric vehicles. That day is arriving quickly.
 
This is great to hear. Hopefully they will deliver mine to my work as I am also busy. I actually have a legit reason for a home/work delivery as I live far enough away that the battery might now make it and they have no superchargers on the way.
 
Update at 4:00 PST:

Arrangements were made to deliver the vehicle Saturday, likely early afternoon.

The delivery driver does not do the walk-through or in-service. He just drops the car off and takes the trade-in away. Those details need to be coordinated with someone who actually hands the cars over in person. The delivery manager said to call him once we receive the car and he will coordinate a time for a phone call to walk us through the features and the touchscreen.

Full marks to Tesla for curing this error. But they still have to work on ironing out all their self-inflicted wounds.
 
@MP3Mike -

Think Mike has a really good point.
Tesla should probably charge extra for home/office delivery in order to discourage home/office delivery.
Tesla can't really afford to give luxury car delivery/service on base $36,000 car.

Anyone asked Chevy for a home delivery? How'd that go?
Anyone ever had ANY car home delivered other than a Tesla - please tell us how it went. Dealer sales person drive the car to your home?
 
@MP3Mike -

Think Mike has a really good point.
Tesla should probably charge extra for home/office delivery in order to discourage home/office delivery.
Tesla can't really afford to give luxury car delivery/service on base $36,000 car.

Anyone asked Chevy for a home delivery? How'd that go?
Anyone ever had ANY car home delivered other than a Tesla - please tell us how it went. Dealer sales person drive the car to your home?


Actually, yes ... Audi. Roughly same $ car as M3LR.
 
@MP3Mike -

Anyone asked Chevy for a home delivery? How'd that go?
Anyone ever had ANY car home delivered other than a Tesla - please tell us how it went. Dealer sales person drive the car to your home?

My new 2008 model year Honda Fit was home delivered from a Honda dealership 2 towns over (sight unseen in 2007). Paperwork completed at home as well. It was a really smooth experience. I was looking for a certain trim and color, found one online, called the dealership who then (salesperson) drove it over.

That said I tried the same thing with Nissan who made me come in and ended up wasting an entire day because they didn't actually have the inventory (Leaf in color/trim) that was on their website and conveniently didn't tell me even though I was clear that I was interested in specific listings. Once I came in they just applied pressure to buy what they did have which was not what I wanted.
 
@MP3Mike -

Think Mike has a really good point.
Tesla should probably charge extra for home/office delivery in order to discourage home/office delivery.
Tesla can't really afford to give luxury car delivery/service on base $36,000 car.

Anyone asked Chevy for a home delivery? How'd that go?
Anyone ever had ANY car home delivered other than a Tesla - please tell us how it went. Dealer sales person drive the car to your home?

I leased a Cmax energi over phone/email. The dealership had 2 guys deliver the car to my driveway, which was a 45 mile drive. I signed all the docs in my driveway and they left in a service car back to the dealer. Easiest car transaction ever.

Then Overall bought my Bolt via email/sms and had it shipped from CA to MD. That was fairly painless too. All I had to do was arrange my own shipper. Cost $800 extra.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: IdaX and Brando
Details? Salesman drove your car and you took them back to the dealer? 3 miles from dealership?
@MP3Mike -

Think Mike has a really good point.
Tesla should probably charge extra for home/office delivery in order to discourage home/office delivery.
Tesla can't really afford to give luxury car delivery/service on base $36,000 car.

Anyone asked Chevy for a home delivery? How'd that go?
Anyone ever had ANY car home delivered other than a Tesla - please tell us how it went. Dealer sales person drive the car to your home?

It’s all about the level of service they provide. If the local SC can’t support home delivery, they shouldn’t offer. It would be acceptable if they need to charge to cover all/some costs. Charging an amount to ‘discourage’ the practice would not be prudent.
In Dec-2016 we purchased a used ‘16 CX-5 from a Mazda dealership. Saw the car online on a Saturday morning, called and let them know I couldn’t arrive there until 5pm (they have 6pm closing). Car was great, salesman was fantastic. They needed Service Department to check car (recall item) on Monday so they delivered (1 hour/50 miles) to our house Monday afternoon. This was one of the best buying experiences, and didn’t require it to be a luxury brand, or even new. Worst purchase experience was last years new Q7 purchase at an out-of-state (Long Island, NY) Audi dealer - came so close to getting an Uber back to the airport and walking away from the deal. They had absolutely they worst customer service imaginable, aside from the airport pickup in the morning.
 
We bought our Mustang in 1995 from a dealer in Petaluma. I was staying at my aunt's house in San Jose for a few days. The dealer needed two days to get the car ready for delivery. The Mustang was delivered to me at my aunt's house in San Jose with a full tank of gas by a retired gentleman. At the time he said that he typically delivers 2-3 new cars per week from that dealership. He drove off in our trade in Dodge Shadow.

So, yes, I think that auto dealers will do anything reasonable to make a sale if the downside in cost is not prohibitive. Since every vehicle is assessed a destination/delivery fee ($925 for the Model 3,) it merely reduces the "profit" from that particular cost center.

The delivery driver called earlier this morning and asked if we would mind if the car arrived Sunday. He said that he had already made plans for today. This was not a problem, and I thanked him for calling as early as he did.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Brando
As long as the delivery driver's plan doesn't involve test driving Model 3 on a Saturday :p:p
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We received our car on schedule this morning at 11. The car had nine miles on the odometer, so I seriously doubt that the driver tooled around with the car on Saturday. The battery was charged to 80%.

However, the car was not detailed as is customary. The Tesla representative said to get it detailed locally and submit to him the fee for reimbursement.

The delivery driver drives all over to deliver cars for Tesla. He has driven to Sta. Barbara, Bakersfield, and points north from the Lathrop facility. He was here in town on Friday to deliver a Model 3 to someone else. So, it appears to me that this service is standard for Tesla to hand over their cars to buyers who are not proximate to a sales center, or who are having their cars delivered to a sales center for pick up.

So far, my wife loves the car in the short distance she drove around town this afternoon. She loves the steering wheel and the steering itself. I like it too.

We have not had any detailed instruction about the car as yet. I tooled around with the touchscreen for about 15 minutes. Most of the features are laid out quite well, and are easy to view. The following is what is different between the Model 3 and the Model S, as far as I can tell:

--24-hour clock not available
--detailed data for miles since last charge, miles/time driven since last stop, wh/mile, and the odometer are at the bottom of the car picture that must be swiped to the third stop. This information cannot be displayed on the screen.
--Climate control is a little different.
--There is no energy graph or trip tab to see real time results of a journey or to compare the estimated battery upon arrival to the actual reserve en route.
--I plugged in our UMC from the Model S into the Model 3 to charge a little bit. The knob on the plug would not activate the charging flap. I opened the charge port from the charging screen. The Model S UMC was a much tighter fit into the charge receptacle that is on the Model S. The miniature "T" logo that flashes is cool!