I ordered a in-stock 85D and I was super-excited. But the whole purchase experience has been soured by the delays, poor communication, and misinformation of the delivery. Is this a normal buying experience for cars already on the dealer lot?
I ordered a new 85D that is on the lot at the Toronto dealership on August 29th. When I asked the salesman when I should expect it here in Calgary. He said it would take about 1.5 to 2 weeks. That worked for me so I went ahead.
The "delivery experience specialist" emails me 5 days later saying that he's waiting to hear from his "logistics guy." I thought ok, that should only take a couple days.
At the 12th day of waiting to hear back from the delivery specialist, I wrote an email explaining my frustration about why is it taking this long to move a car sitting on a lot for delivery. He said he's still waiting to hear back.
At day 17, I finally get an email saying that my car will ship in one or two days. He said I could track it by the app on my phone. Lo and behold, the tracking doesn't work because of an error saying that the mobile app needs to be enabled within the car. I thought, fine, someone forgot to do that. But I kept checking the app everyday out of curiosity.
On the morning of day 23, I ask the delivery specialist if he has any update (I'm running blind). He responds at the end of day 24 saying that it had been shipped the week before, and that I could track it by the app. I try the app again just to see.... and it works. Great... where is my car 5 days after leaving the dealership? It's sitting at a train yard 20 minutes away from the dealership.
As the app only began working after my request for an update, the only logical conclusion is that the car's mobile app was turned on when it was moved to the train yard. 24 days after the purchase started. I complained the delivery specialist again that this delay ridiculous. The delivery specialist responds with back-handed apologies about "I'm sorry your experience hasn't been going well" with "the salesman said it would take 3 weeks to ship. But you'll love the car when it gets there." Yeah, no he didn't.
The problem is that I paid for the car, the car is coming here in 10-20 days (35-45 days after beginning the purchase)... and now my blood boils every time I think about the purchase of the most expensive car I've ever bought. If there is any lesson I've learned, it’s that Tesla doesn’t have a capable team to handle doing things even slightly out of the norm. It definitely feels to me that their staff don’t really care to reach the buying experience of BMW/Mercedes/Lexus (forget about elevating beyond them). All I can think of now is that if this is how they handle a simple shipment, what BS will have I have wade through if I have an issue with the car.
On a side note: I asked Hansens Forwarding (not the company Tesla used) how long it would take time to get a car to Calgary from Toronto. They said that it is max two days, and they ship so many cars the west, it would ship in two days. It could have been here in nearly the original quoted two-week time frame if they had done the transportation.
