The Ridiculous Service Process that Is Tesla Motors

[Ostrichsak]

It’s odd to me that so many have “problems” with the app-based service and text messages. I’ve found it to be incredibly convenient and effective. I gather it has a lot to do with the variability in the individual service centers, but the two I’ve primarily interacted with (Monterey and Fresno CA) have been quite good and responsive.

Just a couple days ago I scheduled an appointment for the MCU upgrade. Purposely made it a month out due to my availability and the knowledge that they were going to have to order parts. I immediately got an automated text confirming the appointment. Less than 24 hours later I got a text from a human saying they ordered the parts and were looking forward to serving me, followed later that day by an email detailing what they ordered.

Easy peasy.

Of course I’m quite comfortable with this mode of communication, so it’s no big deal. This is how they want to interact, so I work the system that I’m given to good result.

Not to pigeonhole too much, but the people that seem to have constant problems with this appear to be a good 10-30 years older than me and simply refuse to break free from their expectations and privileged insistence on being able pick up their rotary phone and have the operator connect the party line to Tesla so they can adequately inform Todd the receptionist of their Super Important Needs and Concerns. They have their system, and that’s all they’re willing entertain.

Tesla’s system is not that system, and it doesn’t appear it’s ever going to be. By design. Tesla’s system can certainly get better, and certainly needs to get more consistent, but I don’t get the impression that staffing a call center to enable the way the luddites prefer to interact is going to be a priority. For better or worse, their approach is run lean, mean, and minimize the need for the service center visit in the first place.

For my money, I’ll take the availability of capable and timely mobile service over the ability to talk to Todd every time.

Not to pigeonhole... but I'm going to pigeonhole in an effort to white knight for Tesla.

You should probably know that I abhor phone conversations. I really do. You can ask anyone who knows me in RL and they'll tell you that unless there's a life or death emergency, don't call me. You can probably even text if someone is bleeding out to get a quicker response from me. I live and love tech in every facet of my life and leverage it to better my life. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I probably use tech in far more segments of my life than the average techy. I go out of my way to add tech before the majority even consider tech benefiting their life in this aspect.

So no, that's not the problem. The problem is that Tesla's desired method of contact doesn't work. Simple as that. If it worked, I wouldn't hate their method of contact as it would actually be the preferred method of contact for me personally.

Not sure why some are so insistent to blame the customer as being the problem here.

 

[ucmndd]

Ok, say I want to replace the 12V battery. I would like to decide if I want to let Tesla do it, or buy one from another source.I got prices from all the other places, now, how do YOU use the app to figure out how much Tesla charges for a 12V battery replacement? Booking an appointment a month later, going there to find out how much and finding out it's more expensive than other alternatives sounds like such very inefficient way, doesn't it? I agree that when money is no object, you just get a spare Tesla to drive while one is waiting for service, then I can totally see the app model being great. One of my Tesla dies, I go to the app, book an appointment, then start driving the spare Tesla until the appointment, then pay someone to drop it off and Uber it back (cover the difference if it costs more than the $100 Uber credit from Tesla), then few days later when done, pay someone to go get it, pay whatever Tesla bills. So yes, it is a great user experience for people like Elon. It doesn't sounds that great for the non-billionaires though.

So come on, educate the boomers how to find out prices of parts and services using the app. The old way was to pick up a phone to ask, what's your new age, more efficient way via the app? Oh, you don't have one? I guess you'll just tell me that the ability find out how much a part and/or service costs before ordering it is just an unreasonable request - a "privilege" as you'd call it?

I see and accept your point, but if I was in this situation I’d probably just google “Tesla model S 12v battery replacement cost” and click the first result which takes me to a thread on the official Tesla forum where someone reported in May of this year they paid $272.50. Then I’d decide how I wanted to proceed based on that.

No need to make things more complicated than they need to be.

As I said originally. Tesla’s system definitely needs to continue to improve and be more consistent (success still seems to be tied to the service center and their highly variable response). But let’s be honest with ourselves at this point - they’ve made it pretty clear how they feel about hiring a bunch of people to answer phones. It’s unlikely to change any time soon.

 

[kavyboy]

I sent my first SMS at 40, so yeah I did not grow up with texting as a primary way to communicate.

You young whippersnappers, with all your clicking and thumbs twiddling!
At 54 years old, I have never sent an actual text message in my life. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that I'm very satisfied with my Tesla service experiences. Maybe at least a little.

Gotta go get a fresh onion for my belt, now.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

You young whippersnappers, with all your clicking and thumbs twiddling!
At 54 years old, I have never sent an actual text message in my life. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that I'm very satisfied with my Tesla service experiences. Maybe at least a little.

Gotta go get a fresh onion for my belt, now.

How do you get service without the passive aggressive time delayed, dragging out a 5 minute call into a week long text process?!

 

[Matias]

For my money, I’ll take the availability of capable and timely mobile service over the ability to talk to Todd every time.

App is good if you have some very explicit problem, but it is difficult to address a more complex situation. An one thing is, free text comments don’t always get passed along. They sometimes vanish somewhere.

One problem is that Tesla closes service event at will and when after couple of hours later I had one question about the recent visit and texted it, I got the message “Your Service appointment has concluded. For further assistance, visit tesla.com/support. Reply 'STOP' to stop updates. Msg & Data rates may apply.”

So in order to get my question answered I apparently would have needed to open a new service event...

Luckily I knew a personal email of one service person and mailed him directly.

Now I have a ranger visit booked for 12 V battery replacement, but today I found a new issue, which will need a service center visit. It would be so easy to call and explain the situation. If I try to explain this new problem by editing existing service appointment, I’m afraid it won’t go smoothly. So I wait first till the battery is replaced and only after that I book a new appointment.

 

[whitex]

.

I see and accept your point, but if I was in this situation I’d probably just google “Tesla model S 12v battery replacement cost” and click the first result which takes me to a thread on the official Tesla forum where someone reported in May of this year they paid $272.50. Then I’d decide how I wanted to proceed based on that.

The problem with this solution is that Tesla does not have any written guarantee that they will match any price you google, so while google might give you an idea, making a decision to wait a month to see if the information you found is up to date is just not very practical (or maybe it just seems impractical to boomers, but to you it seems quiet normal?). I'm also not sure what happens if the ranger shows up, quotes you a price, and you tell him "that's higher the price I googled, so no thank you, I'll do it myself", so there may be a charge to find out the real price in a form of canceling the appointment after the ranger already drove to your house. Even if it's free to refuse the service after the ranger has shown up, what a waste of resources - no wonder Tesla has a hard time making money.

But let’s be honest with ourselves at this point - they’ve made it pretty clear how they feel about hiring a bunch of people to answer phones. It’s unlikely to change any time soon.

Exactly. I am not trying to change Tesla's mind by posting here. Posting here is to warn others of the fact that, as you said, Tesla is not interested in providing a better service if it means hiring more people. Describing what customer service as envisioned by Elon looks like is just fair warning.

 

[ucmndd]

making a decision to wait a month to see if the information you found is up to date is just not very practical

This is what I mean about the inconsistency - I’ve scheduled three appointments in the last several months and each time I’ve had a parts/labor estimate provided via email within 24 hours.

 

[whitex]

This is what I mean about the inconsistency - I’ve scheduled three appointments in the last several months and each time I’ve had a parts/labor estimate provided via email within 24 hours.

The shortest I was ever able to make an appointment was a week out, but I was able to push it to 3 days by calling and actually getting someone on the phone as I was worried the car won't restart. The longest was over a month out (first available appointment was 29 days out, I took the one 31 days later IIRC because the first one was a very inconvenient time requiring me to fight rush traffic). Oh, and for that last one, I only found out once I got there that they will only be able to fix one of the 2 issues.

Inconsistent, though I will say all the staff were always very consistently professional and pleasant, even when having to sell ridiculous Tesla policies. For example when my trunk would not latch, took 2 weeks for tech to come out to confirm, only then was he allowed to order a part, which took another 2 weeks - not his fault, he told me they are not allowed to carry many parts or pre-order based on app submitted problem description. Another example was when Tesla refused to cover the yellow screen under warranty, even the advisor, who was new, but following process he punched my request to some chat app, and few minutes later got a response back, at which point he made a comment "Tesla sure handles things differently than any other dealer I've ever worked with".

So yes, I think the term "inconsistent" applies perfectly to Tesla design, manufacturing, parts, and service.

 

[Big Toys]

Not to pigeonhole too much, but the people that seem to have constant problems with this appear to be a good 10-30 years older than me and simply refuse to break free from their expectations and privileged insistence on being able pick up their rotary phone and have the operator connect the party line to Tesla so they can adequately inform Todd the receptionist of their Super Important Needs and Concerns. They have their system, and that’s all they’re willing entertain.

How condescending. I want to pick up my android and explain a complex problem to a person who can decide now, faster than a computer, and with fewer words. It's a lot faster than typing in proper grammar. Hehe, I can't wait for the app to call the cops. Try typing while running away.