Dreadful customer service from Tesla

EssexExile

Tesla don't have "dealers" or "dealerships".

AdrianC

EssexExile said:

Tesla don't have "dealers" or "dealerships".

Here's a list of them...
https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/findus/list/stores/United Kingdom

They just call them "stores" not "dealers".

Here's one of them...
https://goo.gl/maps/c3G1JKEJcdwkR5F27
Looks a lot like a car dealership to me.

I don't think anybody would have argued with it being a "car dealership" a few years ago...
https://goo.gl/maps/c2oSSFvXFbHFGuPk6
(I prefer the stock then... Islero and Daytona, or St Elon's milkfloat? Hmmm...)

ontheroad1970

Do Tesla own/lease and operate those stores themselves?  If so then technically they aren't dealers.  

MX5huggy

ontheroad1970 said:

Do Tesla own/lease and operate those stores themselves?  If so then technically they aren't dealers.  

Yes they don’t have dealers, in the states they get into all sorts of knots in some states because of this, strangely in the land of the free you’re not allowed to build a car and sell it direct to a customer. 

OP just buy it you’ve got a 7 day 1000 mile window to return it if you don’t like it.

onlyfoolsandparking

There's one near where I am situated I pass it regularly, If it's not a dealership they're doing a pretty good job of making it look like a dealership.

ontheroad1970

onlyfoolsandparking said:

There's one near where I am situated I pass it regularly, If it's not a dealership they're doing a pretty good job of making it look like a dealership.

It's a technicality.  Because Tesla own and operate the stores themselves, they are like Apple Stores.  There are other stores that sell Apple products and they are Authorised Dealers, hence dealerships.  If as I suspect, Tesla don't strike deals with third parties to sell their products, they aren't dealerships - even though the store looks identical t say a Stratstone.

AdrianC

ontheroad1970 said:

Do Tesla own/lease and operate those stores themselves?  If so then technically they aren't dealers.  

Plenty of other manufacturers work on a part-franchise, part-owned dealer chain model. Zero difference to the customer experience, only to the corporate ownership.

Does it make one a "dealer", one a "store"? Or is that just a bit of hand-wavey marketing nomenclature?

Herzlos

sweetsand said:

I'm not saying the dealer is doing this but in our own experience, a dealer, sales person will cancel your test drive if they have an exisiting customer like us where they know we will almost cert buy.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that no good dealerships do that, it doesn't make any sense.

You're apparently already a sure fire no test drive buyer, so why would they need to abandon a test drive to fit you in?

AdrianC

Herzlos said:

sweetsand said:

I'm not saying the dealer is doing this but in our own experience, a dealer, sales person will cancel your test drive if they have an exisiting customer like us where they know we will almost cert buy.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that no good dealerships do that, it doesn't make any sense.

You're apparently already a sure fire no test drive buyer, so why would they need to abandon a test drive to fit you in?

The chances are about as high as the various cars existing in the first place.

ontheroad1970

Herzlos said:

sweetsand said:

I'm not saying the dealer is doing this but in our own experience, a dealer, sales person will cancel your test drive if they have an exisiting customer like us where they know we will almost cert buy.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that no good dealerships do that, it doesn't make any sense.

You're apparently already a sure fire no test drive buyer, so why would they need to abandon a test drive to fit you in?

She can no longer answer - not on that username, anyway.