Well I had the 2nd poor experience with a Tesla store and this one was quite a bit worse than the first, so I feel I need to vent my spleen a bit.
I get that it's just the actions of one employee, but having been in customer service myself for a very long time in a previous life I find this kind of thing inexcusable.
My wife and preschool aged son and I thought it would be fun to drive by the Tesla delivery/service center on Broadway in Littleton CO on the off chance a Model 3 was there, such as a customer car awaiting delivery, a car charging, etc.
We drove around the lot kind of disappointed and then spotted a single Model 3 charging.... so we got out to very briefly look at it. The car was filthy, but my wife got a bit excited since it's the first time she's gotten to see the version I've had on pre-order since day one.
My son was cold and wanted to "look at more cars" so we decided to step into the showroom. As we walked in a young sales person asks what brings us in and I mention that we just stopped in to see if there was a Model 3 awaiting delivery just so we could see what it looked like.
At this point he rolls his eyes and in a huff says "we don't have any demonstrator cars you can look at and we don't expect we will have any until 2019".
Wow, okay there bud. I know thousands of people have had the nerve to ask you about the most popular pre-ordered car in automotive history but you could take the chip off of your shoulder and understand that I'm your customer, and I have given Tesla an interest free loan for nearly two years on this car and can be just a little excited about it. What's more, I already told you I know you don't have demonstrators but maybe we would get lucky and see one.
Sheesh.
It gets better though. He comes back over a few minutes later while we are looking at the design area and my wife is asking what colors I like... He asks when I am supposed to get my car. I comment that I pre-ordered on day 1 so should get invited to configure soon, my delivery estimate for first production is April-June 2018, but I'll probably hold off for AWD or at least give them more time to work the early gremlins out.
He then comments "well you won't get the tax credit then".
"what?, the tax credit just starts to phase out when the 200K car is delivered and that hasn't even happened yet, and even then you get the full credit for that entire quarter, and then it phases out gradulaly over the next several quarters, you will get some part of the credit, no matter what, into 2019 unless tax law gets changed!!".
"well, you've got bad info, and if we build these cars as fast as we are going to build them you won't get a tax credit if you wait".... or something more or less along those lines.
He had a real smug look on his face and after trying to explain for another few minutes how he was completely WRONG about all of this and maybe do some goddamn research like I have on the tax credit, my wife, seeing I was losing my cool finally pulled me away.
As I mentioned, this is the 2nd time I've been treated this way in a Tesla store. Tesla, you need to treat your customers better. I get it that people are wildly excited about your new car and that for the first time ever you've got to deal with lowly people like me buying a $50,000 car instead of a $100,000 Model S or X but come on! Since this keeps happening either I am the biggest jerk on the planet (wife says no) or this kind of attitude is coming from management of these stores, and trickling down to rank and file employees which is horrible.
I've bought Audi, BMW, Infiniti, Acura, and I have never been treated like this by a sales person from any of those companies.
While the "customer is always right" is a terrible expression (because it's mostly false), you can't have sales people or customer advisors or whatever you want to call them getting their rocks off by arguing with your customers, especially when they are wrong and giving out bad info!
I don't even know if I want a damn Tesla know if this is how they operate.
I get that it's just the actions of one employee, but having been in customer service myself for a very long time in a previous life I find this kind of thing inexcusable.
My wife and preschool aged son and I thought it would be fun to drive by the Tesla delivery/service center on Broadway in Littleton CO on the off chance a Model 3 was there, such as a customer car awaiting delivery, a car charging, etc.
We drove around the lot kind of disappointed and then spotted a single Model 3 charging.... so we got out to very briefly look at it. The car was filthy, but my wife got a bit excited since it's the first time she's gotten to see the version I've had on pre-order since day one.
My son was cold and wanted to "look at more cars" so we decided to step into the showroom. As we walked in a young sales person asks what brings us in and I mention that we just stopped in to see if there was a Model 3 awaiting delivery just so we could see what it looked like.
At this point he rolls his eyes and in a huff says "we don't have any demonstrator cars you can look at and we don't expect we will have any until 2019".
Wow, okay there bud. I know thousands of people have had the nerve to ask you about the most popular pre-ordered car in automotive history but you could take the chip off of your shoulder and understand that I'm your customer, and I have given Tesla an interest free loan for nearly two years on this car and can be just a little excited about it. What's more, I already told you I know you don't have demonstrators but maybe we would get lucky and see one.
Sheesh.
It gets better though. He comes back over a few minutes later while we are looking at the design area and my wife is asking what colors I like... He asks when I am supposed to get my car. I comment that I pre-ordered on day 1 so should get invited to configure soon, my delivery estimate for first production is April-June 2018, but I'll probably hold off for AWD or at least give them more time to work the early gremlins out.
He then comments "well you won't get the tax credit then".
"what?, the tax credit just starts to phase out when the 200K car is delivered and that hasn't even happened yet, and even then you get the full credit for that entire quarter, and then it phases out gradulaly over the next several quarters, you will get some part of the credit, no matter what, into 2019 unless tax law gets changed!!".
"well, you've got bad info, and if we build these cars as fast as we are going to build them you won't get a tax credit if you wait".... or something more or less along those lines.
He had a real smug look on his face and after trying to explain for another few minutes how he was completely WRONG about all of this and maybe do some goddamn research like I have on the tax credit, my wife, seeing I was losing my cool finally pulled me away.
As I mentioned, this is the 2nd time I've been treated this way in a Tesla store. Tesla, you need to treat your customers better. I get it that people are wildly excited about your new car and that for the first time ever you've got to deal with lowly people like me buying a $50,000 car instead of a $100,000 Model S or X but come on! Since this keeps happening either I am the biggest jerk on the planet (wife says no) or this kind of attitude is coming from management of these stores, and trickling down to rank and file employees which is horrible.
I've bought Audi, BMW, Infiniti, Acura, and I have never been treated like this by a sales person from any of those companies.
While the "customer is always right" is a terrible expression (because it's mostly false), you can't have sales people or customer advisors or whatever you want to call them getting their rocks off by arguing with your customers, especially when they are wrong and giving out bad info!
I don't even know if I want a damn Tesla know if this is how they operate.
