How Long is Too Long to Wait?

[cardriver]

Wrong. A lost customer went somewhere else, and you might never get them back.

When demand exceeds supply, it's easy to say well who needs them. When demand levels off you're stuck wondering, hey where'd everyone go?

The business world is littered with the carcasses of companies who thought they were indispensable to their customers. Just a fair warning.

As a potential buyer - I'd add to this...

Our car buying experience was good at the beginning (separate thread A sad tale of how not to sell cars (???)...), but got worse...

We then got the opportunity to get a test drive (after that post). Wife has a high visibility position - and we had to cancel 3 hours before the 'short' drive (we explained - just give us 10 minutes behind the wheel). When I called to cancel, I was told point blank(!!!!!!!) - if you do this again, you won't get another chance(!!!!!)!) - it was the store manager!!!

For my wife to get out at a specific moment in time - can be crazy. Working with multi multi million companies means your time can get pulled in any random direction at any given moment. We have a household income close to 7 figures.

We are now back to square one - meaning - maybe at some point, we'll commit - but likely now - we'll wait and see.

Point to Tesla - how many people are even willing to wait and see? In general, we save $1200+ every month we wait. In forethought - it now makes more sense for us - Tesla will sell out of their first early adopter push. We get higher reliability - and possibly a lower price at some point...

It is a very weird sales strategy - it's not working for us...

We did get kind invites from local people saying - drive our car - but she thinks this is just way to weird - I do too...

If I were Tesla, I'd make sure anyone with some kind of real background got behind the wheel ASAP - that means orders - and that means revenue.

I honestly consider shorting the stock based on my experience - and based on the fact that they have to keep selling xxx many cars at a very high cost - every year to stay in business...

How can you keep that interest afloat??

Suggestions:
Stores must change:
Be the same in each location (McDonald's approach)
If you have a 'live' customer, get them signed - do whatever you have to...
Get people behind the wheel
STOP the ARROGANCE! I called you a few hours before the test drive - she is BUSY and gets GOBS of last minute things happening! WT* (star on my own accord) - how the heck can a company treat $90+K sales like an iPod(???)! This is the sole reason I suggest a short on the stock - how can they keep selling "iPods" at a price VERY few can afford? The market will fill, the demand will drop below factory capacity - then what?

We were set on the car, and now have too much bad taste... We will now wait months - see how things are going - then will look at it again. For now, case closed.

Personally, I'm happy, due to the savings/month (though she doesn't care about that).

 

[lolachampcar]

Before anyone flames Cardriver, go back and read his initial thread. He really is trying to move his wife into a Model S and is having a hard time doing so. I too used the word arrogant in describing A SMALL PORTION of Tesla's current functional sales model and was chastised for it. Take Cardriver at his word and believe him when he says he is a normal type customer trying to buy a car without a/the year(s) worth of experience with Tesla most of us have.

We all know Cardriver's experience is NOT Tesla and not what Tesla wants to be. I view these posts and discussions as a chance for all Tesla fans to thoughtfully attempt to understand where Tesla's processes are weak, identify them for Tesla and current/future customers and suggest possible solutions for working around the weakness in the short term until Tesla gets it sorted. I've tried to do this here as well dealing with the sales manager function and not so much product lead time -

Tesla Wheel and Hub Sales Model - Can it be made to work?

 

[Cattledog]

cardriver - I agree, Tesla needs come off the 'reservation holders only' paradigm. Worked for all us fanboys, others want a more familiar experience.

 

[Al Sherman]

cardriver - I agree, Tesla needs come off the 'reservation holders only' paradigm. Worked for all us fanboys, others want a more familiar experience.

I agree. However, I don't get the weird thing. I've already finalized and Tesla has never contacted me about a test drive. I hooked up with DSM363 and his mom near Indy. They were gracious and delightful. Meeting such nice people was as good or better than driving the car. If someone on this forum is willing to give you a drive I say take it. They would have to be extremely nice folks. I'm guessing there are a lot that would b proud to give you and your wife an extended test drive. All of the Tesla (res holder only) problems aside. I strongly urge CarDriver to do this.

 

[Cattledog]

I agree, we'd do the same. We're sort of all employees, right? Just w/o salary and benefits (well the car's a hell of a benefit). We'll give you a ride if your in town and a sip of fine California wine from some Tesla glasses!

 

[neroden]

They have to rethink production - With global deliveries in 2013, I wouldn't be surprised if they need to smash through 20,000/yr. Double it. Seriously. Worldwide orders are exceeding 400/week right now. They need to exceed it just to catch up.

They already went to two shifts. If they can get them both up to their target speed (which might never happen, of course) that would be 800/week.

I think they need to have a process where they are connecting monthly to reservation holders. Each contact needs to meaningful and different, headed toward the end game.

Yeah. Staffing up at the necessary rate on customer service is bound to be a complete administrative nightmare, of course. They're going from 2400 customers to >20,000 in less than a year.

That requires multiplying the number of service employees by 10, until the factory defect and "retrofit issue" rate drops.
It requires having more than 50 delivery specialists just to keep the rate of deliveries up.
And then there's the showroom folks.
And the salespeople on the phone.

With such a short time to staff up, it's hard to train people fast enough, and it's hard to identify and stop "bad apples" and incompetents. I expect such things will get straightened out eventually, but it's a huge management problem. Staffing up customer-facing service that fast is really *really* hard. In the meantime, it's worth reporting people like the rude store manager to his boss (who would that be?) before he gets entrenched.

 

[lolachampcar]

The SE regional sales manager I spoke with yesterday said (if I remember correctly) he had 34 DS' working for him. This manager was switched on and would have been able to address all three of my concerns in under five minutes had we not discussed just about every detail of the previous (Roadster) and current sales cycles for a half hour. This quality of manager could easily handle 34 active DS' with customer business issues if the interactions were filtered by the DS and the DS - manager interaction was concise. I'm not sure where the process broke down with my inquiries but this guy was more than smart enough to want to find out. He understood at the most basic level that nailing the issues as they pop up is much more efficient then waiting until they fester into an unhappy customer.

 

[bonnie]

Though we know Tesla doesn't have a demand problem, I think if there was a way to encourage (probably not promote, I'm sure legal issues) these house parties, they'd have an avenue to exposure. It's not just the 25 people - given everyone's 'blownawayedness', they'll be babbling about it today at church and Monday at work and the number who will have been exposed will be 10 times that. Guaranteed.

Last night I was arranging for Model S flyers for a TMC member generous enough to spend this Friday at a youth event with his car & thinking that we better get all the new Model S owners ready for what's going to hit in April. You're going to find that the house party is a month-long event, with all the Earth Day festivities that you've been invited to (okay, that your car has been invited to, you're just along for the ride).

 

[bonnie]

I started an Earth Day 2013 thread over in EVents - Earth Day 2013 . Please feel free to share any tips about showing off (and protecting) your car.

 

[Cattledog]

I started an Earth Day 2013 thread over in EVents - Earth Day 2013 . Please feel free to share any tips about showing off (and protecting) your car.

Looking forward to Earth Day!

And it seems like Tesla is getting their timing down better. Seems...

 

[Cattledog]

Sounds like reservations are in the 18,700s and Tesla is asking folks in the 17,000s to finalize. People reserving now are hearing (guess) an average of 6 month wait. Seems right. Seems logical. Still a little long, there' a fine line between exclusivity and hassle.

 

[ClearwaterBchSteve]

If you sign up now and 6 months is the wait, what's the problem? The car is proven, thousands of us have received our Model S"s and the majority are thrilled. I ordered mine the day after it was announced nearly 4 years ago when the iPhone was still first generation. Yes, I ordered one of those on day one too. :tongue:

 

[Cattledog]

I am going anecdotally from two data points. When I ordered my BMW 5 Series, the wait was 3 months. At the time that felt like my outside willingness. Recently, a friend who reserved a Model S around 10/1 said to me around 1/10 that he was sitting on his finalize button. Had waited 3 months to get that, was now going to wait 4 more, and asked, "was it worth it." A quick test drive in my car cured him, however I got me thinking about wait time.

I would like to think Tesla's done some research to help them find the sweet spot for wait time. If they are after selling more cars, not just to fanatics who will wait, they need a game plan. I don't know how long is too long, but my gut tells me they should want it down to 3 months.

For everyone that reserved years ago, wear that badge proudly. When Tesla nails production and delivery, our stories will be part of Tesla folklore.

in Teslaride, CO right now, hoping to get some logo comparison photos up tomorrow on my blog.

 

[ClearwaterBchSteve]

For everyone that reserved years ago, wear that badge proudly. When Tesla nails production and delivery, our stories will be part of Tesla folklore.

Here! Here! Oh, and Teslaride, CO is a great town. I grew up in Aspen and have been to Teslaride a few times. Do you live on Electric street?

 

[Cattledog]

I wish! 5-day getaway from San Antonio. 9" new snow last night, no posting for a few hours!