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This is the first thing I've seen Tesla do that was shitty with regard to customers. Tarnishes their image. Something about selling someone a car with all of t

This is the first thing I've seen Tesla do that was shitty with regard to customers. Tarnishes their image. Something about selling someone a car with all of the physical hardware required for something and then locking it out sometime after the sale using software seriously bothers me. Who owns the car, really? Is it Tesla or is it me? Stupid move. They stand to gain almost no money from this. I may be ignorant about Tesla's business practices if there's worse. I also own a Model S not a 3.

sudhirj 7y ago
It's unfair not to do it - there are customers who paid extra for the upgrade, it's not fair to give it to everyone for free, but a trial period seems reasonable.
- CriticalCathed 7y ago
  The thing is it was not a trial period. There already exists trial periods in Tesla vehicles. They're explicit and give you time remaining. You know exactly what is happening. Instead, what happened is Tesla couldn't provide the configuration of cars that people wanted because it wasn't economical for them to do so. So instead they sent them another model of the vehicle with different hardware. It was a stop gap solution. It appears that many people were unaware either by their own lack of attention, or because they were mislead, or because Tesla didn't make it clear enough what was happening. So: 1. Tesla offered to sell a product. 2. People bought the product. 3. Tesla realized it was not economical to sell the product. 4. Tesla decided not to manufacture the product that they offered. 5. Tesla gave the customers a different product in order to retain the sale rather than cancel the orders. (Even to the degree that the sales documentation refers to the product as SR+ and not SR.) 6. Months pass. 7. Tesla develops software that will after-the-fact modify the product that customers were provided. Tesla is part and parcel of the problem here. This "it's not fair" rings hollow to me.
  - sliken 7y ago
    Tesla could have made customers wait, cancel the product, and upsell them.... which would be quite unpopular. Instead they told users, we can sell you a better car today, but then at some point it will behave just like the car you ordered. Seems less than idea, but seems like Tesla made the best of the situation. The problem is they brought out two cars at $35k and $40k and tried to predict how many people would take both options. Turns out way more people took the nav, traffic, streaming audio, better range/battery etc. So much so that it wasn't worth making a custom car for the few people that bought the $35k model. So instead of cancelling orders they decided to software limit the $35k car, and people got what they ordered with a bonus till the software got updated.
- LocalH 7y ago
  A lot of things in this world aren't fair. And I'm not convinced that everything should be.

sudhirj 7y ago

It's unfair not to do it - there are customers who paid extra for the upgrade, it's not fair to give it to everyone for free, but a trial period seems reasonable.

CriticalCathed 7y ago
The thing is it was not a trial period. There already exists trial periods in Tesla vehicles. They're explicit and give you time remaining. You know exactly what is happening. Instead, what happened is Tesla couldn't provide the configuration of cars that people wanted because it wasn't economical for them to do so. So instead they sent them another model of the vehicle with different hardware. It was a stop gap solution. It appears that many people were unaware either by their own lack of attention, or because they were mislead, or because Tesla didn't make it clear enough what was happening. So: 1. Tesla offered to sell a product. 2. People bought the product. 3. Tesla realized it was not economical to sell the product. 4. Tesla decided not to manufacture the product that they offered. 5. Tesla gave the customers a different product in order to retain the sale rather than cancel the orders. (Even to the degree that the sales documentation refers to the product as SR+ and not SR.) 6. Months pass. 7. Tesla develops software that will after-the-fact modify the product that customers were provided. Tesla is part and parcel of the problem here. This "it's not fair" rings hollow to me.
- sliken 7y ago
  Tesla could have made customers wait, cancel the product, and upsell them.... which would be quite unpopular. Instead they told users, we can sell you a better car today, but then at some point it will behave just like the car you ordered. Seems less than idea, but seems like Tesla made the best of the situation. The problem is they brought out two cars at $35k and $40k and tried to predict how many people would take both options. Turns out way more people took the nav, traffic, streaming audio, better range/battery etc. So much so that it wasn't worth making a custom car for the few people that bought the $35k model. So instead of cancelling orders they decided to software limit the $35k car, and people got what they ordered with a bonus till the software got updated.
LocalH 7y ago
A lot of things in this world aren't fair. And I'm not convinced that everything should be.