from Hacker News

Tesla currently provides Comcast levels of customer support

by econnors on 8/5/22, 3:21 AM with 35 comments

  • by addicted on 8/5/22, 8:18 AM

    My cousin’s Tesla, costing over 100k, is reliably unusable for half the year.

    Everyone I know who owns a Tesla is using other cars a significant amount of time due to the repairs issue (they also break down a lot more).

    However, the cheerleading leading up to the purchase, and the fact that no one else is talking about this publicly, leads many to not talk about it.

    It’s way too much like a cult.

  • by mikeortman on 8/5/22, 4:10 AM

    I sold my Tesla 3 weeks ago, primarily because I couldn't get condensation in my taillight fixed after 4 cancelled appointments and a no-show. I was getting tired of things breaking, and the no-show put me over the edge. I'll let the dealer I sold it to deal with it.

  • by themerone on 8/5/22, 5:36 AM

    I absolutely hate the franchise dealership model, but it does provide some level of checks and balances.

    Dealers can exert far more pressure on a manufacture to fix things than an individual owner.

    Owners with a bad dealership experience can go to a competitor within the same brand.

    Manufacturers hate stepping in between dealer and customer disputes, but it is a possibility.

    I think direct sales can be superior, but Tesla is proof that it is not inherently better.

  • by blagie on 8/5/22, 12:58 PM

    I'd never buy a Tesla.

    I want a car I own.

    A Tesla-style model, I paid for a car which, in any real sense, Tesla owns and lets me use.

  • by meltyness on 8/5/22, 9:48 AM

  • by CamperBob2 on 8/5/22, 4:03 AM

    To be fair, I've always gotten good service out of Comcast. The secret is to sign up for business service, never residential.

    You want to do this even if the installation is for a residence. The guy who hooks up your modem DGAF, and the tech support people are both better informed and more inclined to believe you when you tell them that yes, in fact, you did check to make sure the router was plugged in, and yes, in fact, you did try restarting it after leaving it powered off long enough for the capacitors to discharge.

  • by tzs on 8/5/22, 2:15 PM

    The trick I've found to getting good Comcast customer support is to go to one of their offices. Even before they opened Xfinity retail stores they would have some office where you could go to exchange equipment, pay bills in person, make service changes, and so on.

    The people at those offices seemed to be better informed and more capable and given more power than the people on phone support.

    When I had Comcast for internet, cable TV, and phone I'd go to their nearest office every time my current contract was expiring and my rates were about to go way up. I'd tell them what channels and internet speed I actually wanted/needed, and tell them I didn't really want to pay more than I was currently paying.

    They would always find some new bundle that would cover what I wanted and with the discount for a new one or two year contract be the same or cheaper than what I had. Sometimes the new bundle would have things I didn't need, such as adding their security service. I had that for two years and never once armed it--but it saved my about 20% for that two years. The only thing I actually ever used in the security system was the camera. I'd long wanted some way to remotely check my home temperature from work, and so I pointed the Comcast camera at a thermometer. :-)

  • by nradov on 8/5/22, 1:21 PM

    Comcast customer service doesn't seem so bad? I've been using their cable TV and Internet service for 10+ years and it's been pretty reliable. When I had intermittent Internet connection failures a few months ago they sent a technician out the next day and replaced the faulty gateway.

  • by andsoitis on 8/5/22, 1:33 PM

    > "You can only text them in the app. Nobody will give you a number to call."

    Why does this person not go to one of their service centers and talks to someone in person? I've done it and the staff were super helpful.

  • by bediger4000 on 8/5/22, 3:44 AM

    That's darn good compared to the Industry Incumbents, though. They do CenturyLink levels of service.

  • by katkatkatkatket on 8/5/22, 8:08 AM

    Maybe after enough of these stories become common knowledge, we'll hear less of the "EVs have fewer parts and are therefore more reliable" argument.

    Reliability is largely a function of design and engineering choices.