Tesla service is changing. It used to be great in the traditional way: they talked to you in a helpful and competent manner; they provided loaners which were often better than your car; if the service took longer than expected it didn't matter because you were putting miles on their loaner; they (usually) fixed things right and for free.
They added mobile service, which is even more awesome. No travel needed, no loaner needed, no inconvenience of any kind. Simply better (when it worked).
Now they're trying to take it to the next level, making it cheaper, simpler, faster, and more efficient. But they're screwing it up. What they're trying to do is make it all based on the Tesla app -- if you want anything, just request it though the app. This can work very well if they set customer expectations correctly, if the app is really good, and if they nail the communications aspect. That last means soliciting the right information from the customer, storing it in such a way that all relevant service people can find it, and never leaving the customer hanging. Those are all things that Tesla absolutely sucks at, and they don't seem to be getting better. Plus they aren't clearly setting customer expectations.
But, once they do get better at communications and set customer expectations properly, then this new approach will be awesome.
Customers won't get frustrated if they don't expect to be able to call and talk to a person. If all they have to do is tell the app "I want an extended service warranty" and it can respond instantly "your VIN isn't eligible" or "it will cost $x if you do option 1 or $y if you do option 2" and you never need to talk to a person at all, then that's a huge win. It sends you the contract along with instructions for how to pay for and activate it. And there's an option to have somebody call you because there's more you need to know. That's where they're heading.
Customers won't be frustrated in general if one of their options after entering a description of their issue is "have somebody call me after reading the description of my problem because there are complicating circumstances". And the ensuing call will be faster and simpler because the Tesla person will already know about the problem to the extent it was described. Customers won't be frustrated if they know in advance that the policy is Uber credits or nothing, and if you need a loaner rent a car. The problem is a mismatch in expectations.
In any case, the transition to different and better is often bumpy. And in this case it's especially bad because communications is a special incompetence of Tesla. It might help if we all stop complaining about service and clearly complain about communications.
And no doubt if you refuse to deal with anything but cold calling a Tesla person to make whatever request you want, then you will be disappointed. Sorry, the times are changing. Perhaps you'll be able to spend arbitrary amounts of time talking to an AI when they get good enough, and then it will put the request in the app for you. Or something like that.
