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Tesla Names Robyn Denholm as Chairman to Replace Elon Musk

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Re: Tesla Names Robyn Denholm as Chairman to Replace Elon Musk

#61
post #49
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people are in the store I’m responsible for and they blackmail me I would call security or the police, too. That‘s unacceptable behavior. I understand your frustration, and it really sucks that Telstra put you into that situation, but that doesn’t make your behavior ok and excuse abuse of employees.

Who said anything about blackmail or abuse of employees? The GP said he asked to speak to a manager and, I quote, " wasn't being threatening at all ." I don't see an issue with refusing to leave a store when you're denied a refund you're legally owed. That's literally the least threatening form of protest one can make.

Except that for many companies e.g. Apple, Telstra the retail stores are not the same legal entity as the company who owes you the money. Telstra's retail structure for example is mostly franchise.

So you may as well just go to McDonalds and ask them for a refund.

Re: Tesla Names Robyn Denholm as Chairman to Replace Elon Musk

#62
post #32
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how you can like this interview. It's extremely combative and the questions from the interviewer seem childish like she is deliberately not listening to Elon's answers. I'm no Elon fan but this is impossible to listen to.

I really liked how Musk handled himself. Combative and stern at times, especially when Kara Swisher said she doesn’t own an electric car :). Overall not a great interview. She kept harping on Model 3 production. I hate it when interviewers try to dissect the past. It’s more exciting to talk about the future, get Musk thinking.. but no let’s just dig about the past.

Or ask questions that have already been asked asked multiple times in other interviews. Even worse, asking questions that Musk has addressed in his Public Releases. You are interviewing one of the top CEO's of the current times who has little time as it, please stop having him repeat himself. I get that maybe your audience hasn't watched hours of his interviews/public releases but it still irks me so much

Re: Tesla Names Robyn Denholm as Chairman to Replace Elon Musk

#63
post #49
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people are in the store I’m responsible for and they blackmail me I would call security or the police, too. That‘s unacceptable behavior. I understand your frustration, and it really sucks that Telstra put you into that situation, but that doesn’t make your behavior ok and excuse abuse of employees.

Who said anything about blackmail or abuse of employees? The GP said he asked to speak to a manager and, I quote, " wasn't being threatening at all ." I don't see an issue with refusing to leave a store when you're denied a refund you're legally owed. That's literally the least threatening form of protest one can make.

>I don't see an issue with refusing to leave a store when you're denied a refund you're legally owed.

The issue is you are literally trespassing at that point. It is illegal, you are committing a crime.

You can't take the law into your own hands. If you are "legally owed" a refund, you can take that to court, prove it, and receive judgment for your refund.

What you cannot do is judge for yourself that you are legally owed a refund and therefore entitled to stay in a retail store regardless of whether or not you are wanted there. That is not a protest, it is just exhibiting a shocking lack of self-awareness and -- trespassing.

Re: Tesla Names Robyn Denholm as Chairman to Replace Elon Musk

#64

I posted this as a response to another comment, but I think it deserves a top level comment: I just want to chime in here to say: when I recently tried to purchase an iPhone SE from Telstra's online store, the device was out of stock. They couldn't tell me when they expected to have it back in stock, or it was being end-of-lifed. No straight answers. I spent 15 hours, over two weeks, on the phone to Telstra trying to…

I've worked at Telstra so can shed some light on this. 1. Harassing retail staff for what is a corporate process problem is really inappropriate and pointless. I'm not surprised they called the police. Instead you should have called the TIO, ACCC or escalated via email. 2. The customer service issues at Telstra are incredibly deep and complex. It's a 40+ year old company where some of the processes still rely on dot…

> Harassing retail staff for what is a corporate process problem is really inappropriate and pointless

It's a natural human reaction. If you build a system that treats customers like shit, they will take it out on your front line staff. It's not because they're bad people, it's because you designed a business that treats customers like shit. It is not exactly surprising that a customer will not be polite to front line staff after wasting 4+ hours getting bounced around various useless departments on the phone beforehand. The blame lies on management, not on customers.

Re: Tesla Names Robyn Denholm as Chairman to Replace Elon Musk

#65

Another Australian here, surprised to hear Tesla selecting someone with a background in such a reviled (in Australia) company, Telstra. It's like if Microsoft had picked a former Oracle exec to replace Balmer, except in a world where Oracle was also hated by the average Joe Blo, not just techies.

My thoughts exactly. Telstra is a step below what even Comcast is in the USA. Unless their plan is to ruthlessly extract capitol at the expense of the customer, this is bad signalling at best, and more likely a shift to profit over vision. I'm honestly hoping they fold soon so someone can use the momentum they created as they seem intent on squandering it and their tech. Still waiting for the right to reapir your own…

> I'm honestly hoping they fold soon so someone can use the momentum they created as they seem intent on squandering it and their tech.

Tesla folding would be the worse thing that could possible happen for EV adoption. No other successful car company is fully committed or deeply invested in EVs. GM and Nissan are making compliance cars that permit them to continue to make the same shitty ICE cars while still meeting fleet emissions standards.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that if the Trump administration keeps it's momentum then those compliance rules would vanish and GM would just fold up shop on the Bolt and possibly even the Volt.

Tesla kicking competitors in the nuts on performance while showing everyone that EVs are viable business model is the only thing pushing the rest of the automotive industry forward.

If Tesla went under then we'd see GM saying "See, EVs just aren't viable with the technology we have today."

Re: Tesla Names Robyn Denholm as Chairman to Replace Elon Musk

#66
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said anything about blackmail or abuse of employees? The GP said he asked to speak to a manager and, I quote, " wasn't being threatening at all ." I don't see an issue with refusing to leave a store when you're denied a refund you're legally owed. That's literally the least threatening form of protest one can make.

Except that for many companies e.g. Apple, Telstra the retail stores are not the same legal entity as the company who owes you the money. Telstra's retail structure for example is mostly franchise. So you may as well just go to McDonalds and ask them for a refund.

I understand your point however the GP did say he went to a Telstra owned store.

Re: Tesla Names Robyn Denholm as Chairman to Replace Elon Musk

#67

I posted this as a response to another comment, but I think it deserves a top level comment: I just want to chime in here to say: when I recently tried to purchase an iPhone SE from Telstra's online store, the device was out of stock. They couldn't tell me when they expected to have it back in stock, or it was being end-of-lifed. No straight answers. I spent 15 hours, over two weeks, on the phone to Telstra trying to…

I've worked at Telstra so can shed some light on this. 1. Harassing retail staff for what is a corporate process problem is really inappropriate and pointless. I'm not surprised they called the police. Instead you should have called the TIO, ACCC or escalated via email. 2. The customer service issues at Telstra are incredibly deep and complex. It's a 40+ year old company where some of the processes still rely on dot…

In what sense is asking someone to call their manager "harassment"?

If I call a customer service line and ask to escalate (because the bottom tier staff are useless and can only click the same buttons in a UI as I can anyway) is that harassment?

Why is it harassment for a customer to use the time of a company's employees (whilst they're on the clock), but not for a company to use the time of a customer for no reason at all, as a dark pattern to prevent customers from obtaining recourse?

A refund should be a simple matter. Cancel order, send payment, done. Without 50,000 levels of bureaucracy involved, in the UK it could be done via Faster Payments in one second.

Re: Tesla Names Robyn Denholm as Chairman to Replace Elon Musk

#68
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said anything about blackmail or abuse of employees? The GP said he asked to speak to a manager and, I quote, " wasn't being threatening at all ." I don't see an issue with refusing to leave a store when you're denied a refund you're legally owed. That's literally the least threatening form of protest one can make.

>I don't see an issue with refusing to leave a store when you're denied a refund you're legally owed. The issue is you are literally trespassing at that point. It is illegal, you are committing a crime. You can't take the law into your own hands. If you are "legally owed" a refund, you can take that to court, prove it, and receive judgment for your refund. What you cannot do is judge for yourself that you are legally…

> The issue is you are literally trespassing at that point. It is illegal, you are committing a crime.

Australian law might differ significantly to what I'm familiar with but my understanding is your two points here might not be true for someone who simply refuses to leave when asked:

I don't think a regular sales person has the authority to declare a customer as a trespasser. Wouldn't that have to come from the land owner - ie someone senior within the organisation? (assuming Telstra own the land - which isn't usually the case with shops anyway). There typically requires some formal warning too (I don't think a verbal "I'll call the police" counts, but I might be wrong). Plus if Telstra do own the land and then call someone senior then you've still won because the whole point of the sit in was to speak to a manager.

Also trespassing isn't automatically a crime. Not all offences are criminal offences thus you can be breaking the law without committing a crime. Trespassing is one of those laws that can be a criminal offence but it's not automatically one. I very much doubt someone politely refusing to leave is automatically a criminal offence.

> That is not a protest, it is just exhibiting a shocking lack of self-awareness and -- trespassing.

The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Re: Tesla Names Robyn Denholm as Chairman to Replace Elon Musk

#69
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said anything about blackmail or abuse of employees? The GP said he asked to speak to a manager and, I quote, " wasn't being threatening at all ." I don't see an issue with refusing to leave a store when you're denied a refund you're legally owed. That's literally the least threatening form of protest one can make.

>I don't see an issue with refusing to leave a store when you're denied a refund you're legally owed. The issue is you are literally trespassing at that point. It is illegal, you are committing a crime. You can't take the law into your own hands. If you are "legally owed" a refund, you can take that to court, prove it, and receive judgment for your refund. What you cannot do is judge for yourself that you are legally…

So nothing illegal (however technically) can be a protest? Rosa Parks might have something to say about that.

Re: Tesla Names Robyn Denholm as Chairman to Replace Elon Musk

#70

I call John Sculley.

He was CEO; she's chair of the board. No valid comparison.

I just meant as a general trajectory. The board is losing faith in the founder. Not a good sign. Rarely ever is.

Side note: I'm pretty sure we've interacted somewhere else online. Either on HN or reddit.

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