UPDATE:
[I don't know if this will get his attention but I'm mentioning
@JonMc here in case that works,]
I got my S back last night. Here's a summary of the experience:
• Dropped off car on Aug 11 for emergency service in San Diego (supercharging failed). They couldn't quickly diagnose; we waited all day at the service center and they still were stumped; so they gave us an X to drive home to New Mexico in.
• At some point in late Aug I try to call the service center but of course get the "call center" who do a bang-up job trying to prevent you from actually talking to people at the service center. I tell them since my car is stuck out there in San Diego, I would like to talk to the service manager about POSSIBLY doing the annual service. They tell me they'll pass the message on. Few days later I found out they just went ahead and DID the annual service without discussing with me first! I had told them I only had QUESTIONS for the service manager about annual service, I did not give them permission to go ahead and do it. What a mess. The service manager finds out about this and is clearly frustrated and comps me the annual service. (He's a good guy. Always does the right thing. It's Tesla corporate that is f'd up.)
• On Sep 12th I get an excited text messaging saying they've secured transport for my S back to NM. They say to stay tuned for details the next day.
• Next day comes and goes. Day after that comes and goes. No truck appears. No word from anyone.
• Seems like every time I call the local service center (waiting for 10, 20+ minutes on hold and finally getting intercepted by the call center who patch me into the service center if I seem to pass their test) I get connected to a different person, who I have to explain the whole story to again.
• On Sep 22 I decide enough's enough, I use the "Escalate" in MyTesla to get exec attention, to try to get a truck allocated.
• Within 2 hours I get an email reply from Nolan on the Escalate team, saying he's opened a case, etc.
• That is the last I hear from Nolan. Ever.
• A week goes by. Nolan's email signature had the roadside assistance 877 number as his phone number. I call it the following week.
• They have no idea what the executive care team is for escalations. They don't know any Nolan.
• So I call Tesla Fremont directly, ask for Nolan.
They say he has no extension. Receptionist puts me through to someone else, named Mark.
• I give Mark the story. He says he'll look into it. Later he calls and says he's got a truck, stay tuned. Okay, that is helpful!
• BUT... that's the last I hear from Mark.
• I call the San Diego service center. This is on Wednesday of this past week. They tell me the truck left with my S yesterday!
• I ask if truck driver was given instructions about dropping the S off not at house but at local supercharger. Nobody has any idea.
• 900 mile journey from San Diego to northern New Mexico, but nobody knows where truck is or how long it'll take.
• Fri morning, day four of the journey, I get a call from the truck driver, He's somewhere in AZ. He's only halfway to me. Four days.
• Driver had none of the directions or maps I'd given Tesla weeks earlier. I text him directions.
• Oh, and I ask him, you ARE planning to take this Model X loaner back to San Diego, right?
Nope, knows nothing about it, he says -- he's continuing east into TX after me. Which means I'd have to hold on to the loaner AND my own car for a further indefinite period.
• I call Tesla in a panic. They patch me through to the San Diego service center. I warn them they gotta fix this, this is "fire" level emergency, the truck isn't planning to return the X. Manager agrees, total cluster$&@^, starts making calls.
• Truck driver gets told by Logistics team to take X back to San Diego
. Truck driver calls me to let me know he'll take the X.
• Truck arrives at Supercharger at 730pm last night.
• My car comes off the 18-wheeler truck trailer:
it's filthy. I mean, covered in dirt, like it's been pulled from a swamp. Fingerprints everywhere. Bird poop on the windows.
• Truck driver says of the dirty car, "It's dirty alright. I'd complain..."
• But at least I have the car back. Eight weeks it took. Now I have to wash it.
Bottom line: communications at Tesla are still utter chaos and one train-wreck after another. Nobody knows anything. No-one takes ownership of the problem. The Escalate / Executive Care Team turned out to be a disorganized non-responsive mess though they did help get a truck (I think... I have no idea).
The reality is, the Tesla customer has all the responsibility. The Tesla customer has to take the bull by the horns and push, push, push or nothing gets done. Tesla's bureaucracy is as bad as the Social Security Admin or a health insurance company. Plus, the layer of "call center" people they've inserted when you try to call a Tesla service center direct is unhelpful. It's classic Silicon Valley customer-avoidance, and it might look to Elon that everything has been made more efficient since the arrival of
@JonMc but from the CUSTOMER'S perspective, it's more work, more delays, more expectations mismanaged, more repeating of long stories to get the latest call center stranger up to speed on this very unusual situation, etc. ALL of this is avoidable, all of it is fixable. Tesla's executive management basically does not care. If they cared they would fix this. It's gone on WAY too long: years and years. As a shareholder I have been concerned about this train-wreck of communications for years, and have said so in TMC repeatedly. Particularly concerned because of the imminent arrival of hundreds of thousands of Model 3 customers, who will NOT be anywhere near as "early adopter" as S and X folks, who are not gonna be anywhere near as forgiving at all the BS the Tesla bureaucracy forces you to endure.
