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Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

dmitryzavyalov.livejournal.com

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Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#41

Post by ocdtrekkie »

libeclipse wrote: post #8
jasonmp85 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: why root for Tesla? Great EVs are starting to appear from other manufacturers, so why cheer for one company in particular?

I guess everyone just really, really loves Elon Musk.

I am impressed with Elon Musk and his accomplishments, no doubt. But this is not even close to the worst Tesla customer service story I've heard. The company is a nightmare. The only state you can even SEE a service manual for these cars is in Massachusetts where they mandate it by law, and you have to pay by the hour to see it! There's huge issues that haven't been tested in court with how Tesla treats these cars as "their cars" even after you buy them. Refused to activate salvaged and repaired vehicles that you have the title for, calling and threatening you because they detected you dared tinker with your own car, etc.

I really want to like Tesla, but as long as they treat their cars like a service rather than a product, I'd be terrified to invest my money in one of their vehicles.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#42

Post by FireBeyond »

gtvwill wrote: post #31

Wow that's sounds like a crappy experience all-round given the avg customer service response! A few things regarding the towing situation tho... Do tesla's honestly not have any form of rear tow hitch/chassis/axle? The bit where the tow truck driver had to push the vehicle out of a park because it was nose-in boggles my mind. Like,why didn't he just strap on to a rear axle/chassis point and pull it out with his truck…

https://forums.tesla.com/fr_CA/forum/forums/what-happens-if-...

Issues with needing to be in the vehicle, "warranty voiding", manual stating "do not tow"...

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#43

Post by kylec »

In my opinion the most damning sentence in the article is this:

    This was the day of first bitter truth of Tesla: even you have a new car covered
    by warranty, you will need to wait in line for a few days to get it checked up.
This says one of two things to me, both of them bad. Either there are so many Teslas with issues that the technicians are constantly booked up days in advance, or Tesla doesn't care about providing even adequate customer service for customers with serious issues like this. In reality, I'll bet that both are at least somewhat true.

I get that not every car that rolls off the production line can be perfect (though I suspect that Tesla's defect/lemon rate is a lot higher than most other manufacturers), but at least the other established manufacturers have a network in place to remedy issues like this when they arrive, and to minimize the negative impact to the customer.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#44

Post by sk5t »

OliverJones wrote: post #19

Thanks for telling this story. The car business is HARD. I, for one, hope Tesla makes it across the chasm from early adopters like me to the mainstream. There's a reason for the existence of dealerships: they are local businesses that local jurisdictions can hold accountable for such things as lemon law refunds. If Tesla wants out from under the dealership laws, they better handle this kind of problem more profession…

> There's a reason for the existence of dealerships: they are local businesses that local jurisdictions can hold accountable for such things as lemon law refunds.

I'm not sure this argument holds water. Civil and criminal law hold all sorts of corporate entities accountable without forcing them to franchise out the business of sales and service. We have a sort of "protected status" for car dealers now in order to prevent the manufacturers from squashing them unfairly after setting up local markets and goodwill.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#45

Post by georgemcbay »

NotSammyHagar wrote: post #3

Sorry, you had trouble with your new car. It happens sometimes that cars have problems. Tesla is a physical thing and it can have problems. I would be frustrated that my new toy had problems, but I don't see why this couldn't happen with a porsche or bmw. In fact, they do sometimes have problems.

The problem isn't that the car had an issue, it was that Tesla's customer service operation is apparently Google-esque in the way that it is over-automated to the point where it is difficult to reach a human, and when you do they are apparently script-reading cogs in a wheel that change every time you contact the company.

I'm willing to deal with that when it comes to buying a $300 cellphone, but for a $100,000 car it is inexcusable.

(The primary reason I haven't gone to a Pixel from a Nexus 5X is that even $650 crosses over my threshold of dealing with Googley-service).

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#46

Post by throwaway91111 »

chc wrote: post #40
mcguire wrote: post #39

" In couple weeks I got notified that my refund was approved, and I got contacted by another guy, who suddenly suggested me to get vehicle rebuilt. Of course I agreed to that generous offer saying I’d love to have the same vehicle. " What?

What are you saying "What?" to? It seems pretty clear to me.

Why would you opt for a rebuild (with lots of risk) when you have a refund offer?

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#47

Post by arjunnarayan »

throwaway91111 wrote: post #46
chc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you saying "What?" to? It seems pretty clear to me.

Why would you opt for a rebuild (with lots of risk) when you have a refund offer?

He wanted a Tesla!

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#48

Post by greglindahl »

georgemcbay wrote: post #45
NotSammyHagar wrote: post #3

Sorry, you had trouble with your new car. It happens sometimes that cars have problems. Tesla is a physical thing and it can have problems. I would be frustrated that my new toy had problems, but I don't see why this couldn't happen with a porsche or bmw. In fact, they do sometimes have problems.

The problem isn't that the car had an issue, it was that Tesla's customer service operation is apparently Google-esque in the way that it is over-automated to the point where it is difficult to reach a human, and when you do they are apparently script-reading cogs in a wheel that change every time you contact the company. I'm willing to deal with that when it comes to buying a $300 cellphone, but for a $100,000 car i…

Huh, every time I've called the Tesla support line, a human has answered. Sometimes it's a real engineer. Tesla is #1 in customer loyalty among car brands, so it appears that my experience isn't unusual.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#49

Post by taneq »

kylec wrote: post #43

In my opinion the most damning sentence in the article is this: This was the day of first bitter truth of Tesla: even you have a new car covered by warranty, you will need to wait in line for a few days to get it checked up. This says one of two things to me, both of them bad. Either there are so many Teslas with issues that the technicians are constantly booked up days in advance, or Tesla doesn't care about providi…

The overall picture I'm getting of Tesla is that they have great tech, are very innovative, but they have a hell of an attitude problem. It's not like the guy was making it up, they had clearly-detailed logs of the problems and the car was provably misbehaving.

Even though in the end they did do the right thing, it would have been far better handled if they'd simply offered a replacement the moment the (just freshly checked and declared good) car refused to start.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#50

Post by keehun »

throwaway91111 wrote: post #46
chc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you saying "What?" to? It seems pretty clear to me.

Why would you opt for a rebuild (with lots of risk) when you have a refund offer?

The offer implied was that he'd get a brand-new Tesla with the exact same specifications as the one he had. Only, later, he found out he'd have to pay the full retail-price, which did not include the 16k "Showroom Discount."

tldr: The author was excited about getting a brand-new Tesla, but a lot cheaper than a brand-new Tesla, which turned out to be false.

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