Last year we reserved a M3 Performance to be delivered to Portugal. This was a company decision based on several key factor like running costs, taxes and, this might seem atypical in some places, but we also factored in employee happiness in our decision process. The idea was to start with one and in the coming years, slowly extend to the rest of the company.
With all the rumble on the news about production, quality and “tweets”, we also discussed the risk of this purchase. Our conclusion, from talking with owners, Reddit, Clubs, forums, etc, was that there were recurring issues in the car (paint, gaps, etc) and in the delivery process, but none of them were functional and the most important message from everyone was that Tesla always took responsibility to make everything right and the customer happy.
I have to say that Tesla return policy also gave our management the peace of mind to invest the more than $80.000 the car costs around here, but the true risk mitigation was owner feedback on Tesla customer care and service. Where I work for more than 13 years, a big part of our success is the same service strategy: everyone knows that problems and incidents happen, what is important is how the company deals with them.
In late December we were finally able to make the configuration and place the order, arrival was estimated for the end of February/beginning of March. Between SMS, mails and phone calls, the delivery was scheduled and postponed more than 12 times, but we took delivery in the Prior Velho Delivery Center, Monday, 9th of April.
As expected, several issues were reported on delivery, ranging from lack of Type 2 cable, no spoiler, paint problems, gaps. Coming from other car brands, where much of this would be unacceptable, it’s strange to write that we all felt that the delivery chaos and reported car issues were perceived as “normal”. But nothing had prepared us for what we would discover in the next few days.
The first time we drove the car, from the Delivery Center to our HQ, the driver reported that he felt a bit nauseated. For those who wear prescription glasses, he explained it like the felling we get for a few days when we change prescriptions. We dismissed it as the excitement and maybe the effect of the usual acceleration runs everyone does when they get a new Tesla .
The problem persisted during the next few days, with 3 different people reporting the problem. The weekend came and I took the car for a longer trip on Sunday, decided to find out what was going on. Everything seemed normal in our underground parking but after a few moments outside, I started getting the same feeling, like motion sickness. After an hour driving, I had an headache. I stopped the car and while looking to the same outside objects, I tried changing my point of view from the driver seat. I was amazed to see that as I changed my point of view, the outside objects got slightly deformed: the problem had been discovered, the windshield was deformed right in front of the driver seat, causing the nausea and headaches.
After careful inspection, the ceiling glass was also bent out on the sides and the rear glass also had shape sifting problems on some areas. As Monday came, I immediately called Tesla to talk about the problem. I have never seen this kind of situation in my 20 years as a driver and because this was the last day of the return policy window, the operator asked me to immediately go to the Delivery Center.
The customer care on the Prior Velho Delivery Center was surreal, to say the least. There were no managers or coordinator available, one of the few people on site, a rookie delivery specialist tried reaching out to someone, but it seemed that no one was available or replied to his several phone calls. He then decided to inspect the car himself and after confirming the problem asked me not to return the car until someone from management reached us out and tried to find a solution together.
We were very uncomfortable with the total lack of management, on site or even on call, and the nervousness and disorientation of the few employees around was odd. Because of that, we only agreed to delay the return after the delivery specialist sent us an official email to prove we were on the Delivery Center, on that Monday afternoon.
The rest of Monday went by without any callback from the Delivery Center management, as did Tuesday. On Wednesday we insisted by mail and later that day we received a call from a private number, from the same specialist that inspected the car, saying that he still hadn’t be able to reach anyone. Late Thursday he called again, also from a private number, with a cryptic message: the answer was negative and that we should return the car on Monday because Easter holiday Friday.
We are completely stunned, is this Tesla customer care? We have a car that literally makes people sick and no one seems to bother. We will be returning an 80k product and management is no where to be seen. Throughout this week, no one except the rookie specialist tried to find a solution, and even him had difficulty reaching anyone for days. We didn’t receive any contacts from anyone with any kind of authority or responsibility in Tesla, if not to solve the problem, at least to apologize.
Let’s be clear, the car is superb, as an engineering company we understand and have the utmost respect for the complexity of the product Tesla created in such a short time and with such an impact on everyone’s life. In the end, we will return the car because we can’t be dependent on a company where management disappears and deals with problems in a completely irresponsible way. The trust relationship is broken and there is no product on earth that can survive that.
How is your experience with Tesla Delivery Centers management when problems happen? Is our situation specific to Portugal? Is this the fall-out from the sales reorganization/firings? How do you scale these issues when the management layer is MIA and even the few employees seem afraid to do or say anything?
