

Partial Tesla Model S recall - psychotik
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/partial-recall

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cloudwalking

      The Model S does not need to be brought to our  
      service center by the owner. Tesla will pick up  
      the car at a location of the owner’s convenience,  
      provide a Model S loaner if needed, perform the  
      work and bring the car back to the owner a few  
      hours later.
    

Does anybody else offer service like this?

~~~
fragmede
High-end luxury car dealerships frequently offer loaner cars, often times
nicer than the car that needed servicing, and some of them definitely do pick-
ups.

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Already__Taken
It makes people buy new cars. Exact thing just happened to my boss. Chucked in
his workhorse of 13 years to buy the new model he got loaned.

~~~
3825
Now that is smart business.

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MichaelApproved
A bit OT financial advice: it's almost never worth it to buy a single share.
The reason is the commission will eat you up. Assume a low $7/trade
commission. That could possibly cost you $14 round trip (purchase/exit).

With Tesla ~$100/share, It'll have to go up 14% just to break even on the
trade. Even if you just buy in single shares but exit in multiple shares to
spread the commission, you still have to fade 7% commission. Not worth it.

If you're investing in the hundreds of dollars, you should look for low
commission options such as CDs.

Edit: I accidentally replied to the post. My comment was meant in response to
this comment.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5904397](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5904397)

~~~
JackWebbHeller
(Assuming this was meant as a reply to my comment) - I do understand that, I
pretty much just bought a single share to say I had one, and see how it would
perform, more as an experiment and out of curiosity than an actual business
interest.

~~~
VLM
"I pretty much just bought a single share to say I had one"

Depending on your social circle, this gets done with kids a lot, especially
with an old fashioned issued paper share instead of electronic. Decades ago
Disney used to have quite an elaborate paper stock certificate for this
purpose and they obviously used their professional artists and graphics
designers. My local electric company in comparison looked little better than a
secretary hand typed it, which might be how they made it... Perhaps they still
do this. Its hard to find a corporation worth endorsing to my kids like this.

Also during the first dotcom boom there were at least a couple people
collecting paper certificates from dotcoms and they still trade among
themselves to this day as collectibles.

Just some interesting ideas to think about / google about.

~~~
njharman
> Depending on your social circle, this gets done with kids a lot

Ha! At first I thought you meant "done with kids" as some people make'm so
they can say they have one.

~~~
VLM
LOL more like my hippy anti-capitalist protestor friends probably would not
find it funny to give their kid a share of GM or BRK.B, or give a share of BP
to tree hugger's kids. If I had any friends who were hard core anti-gun, then
a share of Ruger for their kid would go over about as well.

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JackWebbHeller
I bought my first ever share - a single share in Tesla - two weeks ago. I saw
the headline and my heart sank.

But if you have to deliver bad news, _that_ is how you do it - proactively and
efficiently. It answers every question a Model S owner will have whilst
providing solutions to every problem. Brilliant.

~~~
mseebach
> I saw the headline and my heart sank.

You should consider getting out of the stock market until you have better
nerves, or you're gonna have a bad time.

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etjossem
Reading this actually made me feel better about Tesla as a company. For every
new vehicle concept, I expect the manufacturer to find at least one safety-
related design flaw after production begins.

If you are that manufacturer, you can save a little money by quietly telling
your service centers how to fix it without informing the public. Auto
manufacturers do this on a regular basis, even with serious powertrain safety
issues like the ones found in Ford's 2009+ Ecoboost engine and Audi's 2002-6
CVT. Like Ford and Audi, you will probably get away with it. Your customers
won't notice the pattern until their cars are well out of warranty, and then
they'll blame it on age. If anyone dies as a result (and their family connects
it to you) you'll just settle confidentially out of court.

As far as I can tell, that is not what Musk chose to do. Tesla will be fixing
the issue at no expense to the customer, before the NHTSA or the class action
lawyers force their hand. I truly respect that decision.

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toddmorey
This is a beautifully crafted announcement. Very clear, matter-of-fact, and
without that all too common feeling of spin. It certainly helps that they are
doing right by their customers in fulfilling this recall, but as someone who
has had to deliver bad news myself, I think they nailed the messaging and
crafted a case study in how to communicate with customers.

Also, I love that it's attributed to Elon and signed with his first name.

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codebeaker
Tesla deserves to be the leader in the future of car manufacturing, they're a
company that understands what it is to create a great product, execute well,
and to care about their customers. It's almost impossible to believe it's from
the same background as PayPal who have one of the worst (anecdotal) customer
satisfaction records I have ever seen. But, great news for Tesla.

~~~
bmj
(This isn't meant to ding Tesla)

They _have to_ offer this level of customer service because other luxury
makers do. I don't have a luxury vehicle (I own a 2001 VW Eurovan), but my
mechanic, who services European cars, offers rides and loaner cars to his
customers because that's what someone who owns an Audi or a BMW expects.
Anything less than this would have meant lost sales.

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MarkMc
It's not a big deal, unless there's another recall in quick succession. One
vehicle recall may be regarded as a misfortune; two looks like carelessness.
(With apologies to Oscar Wilde)

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angersock
Very impressive service for what sounds like a blown weld.

I wonder if this will result in a robot getting reprogrammed or welder getting
retrained (or fired).

~~~
Cthulhu_
I for one don't think an employee should get the blame or punishment for a
production error like this; after all, he was taught by someone, was
instructed by someone, was overseen by a foreman / manager, and his work was
checked (possibly numerous times) by QC and seen by other employees.

~~~
mseebach
Yes, absolutely. This is at the heart of The Toyota Way (aka lean). Failure
(and, on the corollary, success) is always cultural.

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MaxScheiber
This could easily be a solid example in years to come of how a business should
handle a negative event such as a recall.

For another really great example of this sort of thing, watch the Domino's
pizza prank response
([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dem6eA7-A2I](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dem6eA7-A2I)).

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nickmccann
"We do not wish to cause undue alarm, so it is perhaps worth clarifying that:

The weld has not actually detached on any car There have been no customer
complaints"

Hmmm, I know someone who had this fail and brought it back to Tesla with a
complaint. She was told this would be the beginning of the first Tesla recall.

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joshdance
Very effective recall. Almost an advertisement for Teslas service and quality.

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teawrecks
Something tells me a*b<c and yet they're still recalling. Bravo!

~~~
etjossem
Well played. An explanation for others:
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus_of_negligence](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus_of_negligence))

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magoon
If it's a PR stunt then I love this even more.

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loceng
They should loan out a higher end version of a Tesla to tease them with it.

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wbrinkley
They do: see [http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/creating-
world%E2%80%99s-bes...](http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/creating-
world%E2%80%99s-best-service-and-warranty-program-0)

"Tesla is building a fleet of top of the line Model S loaners. These will not
be our basic model – they will be state of the art with all the best features
and options." And it's available for immediate purchase, of course.

And, "customers in most markets will have the choice of taking home one of our
Tesla Roadster sports cars when their car is in for service."

~~~
loceng
Thanks

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teeja
Classy operation.

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conformal
i can't tell if this partial recall is a Total Recall joke or not.

quaid, start the reactor... FREE MARS!

