At least in some areas of the country.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/27/tesla-model-3-model-y-elon-musk-layoffs/
A Vermont Tesla customer went through a painful experience when swapping their model 3 for a model Y.
My husband and I wanted to work with Tesla’s new South Burlington, Vermont, Tesla Center because it’s an easy 1 hour 20 minutes drive away. However, it’s not handling lease returns or new car deliveries yet.
Anyway, we had to do the thing that Vermonters have had to do for years, which is drive five hours south to the Tesla Center in Paramus, New Jersey. That’s because New Hampshire doesn’t have a Tesla Center, and Massachusetts doesn’t allow out-of-state car pickups.
The travel distance was just one aspect of their poor experience.
Tesla leasing app wasn’t a good experience either.
I restarted the leasing process and filled out the finance application on the app. It sat unapproved for days.
Gasp! hm I had a similar experience getting a Tesla post approved. But my delay was a mere few hours.
But the pickup did go well. But revealed some info on worker morale.
The customer service rep pushed my lease terms acceptance through, with my permission, and then I finally – finally! – finished the leasing process on the app. A snippet of a convo the rep and I had:
Me: Have layoffs left you all short-staffed? Has it affected morale?
Tesla customer service rep: [silence] Um… this is a recorded line.
Me: So I’m just going to take that as a yes.
Rep: [nervous giggle]
We arrived for our 3 pm appointment. The Tesla Center reps were completely open about how layoffs have affected them and wanted me to share what they said:
We were left alone here [no layoffs] because we’re a major distribution center. But Springfield [NJ] got wiped out. Sometimes some of us go down there to help them.
We want you to share that everyone’s morale is low. We are overworked and understaffed, and we feel sad for our friends who were our colleagues who lost their jobs. This has been really, really bad.
The in-person Model 3/Model Y swap was seamless and the person who helped us do that was great. In fact, every person – once I could get them on the phone – was helpful and knowledgeable. There just aren’t enough of them.
Here is a map of estimated sales by state-2021-2022.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/tesla-sales-by-state
One can see that Vermont is a lower sales state.
I image customer service is better in high volume states. In fact this customer praised the Tesla New Jersey personnel and experience there. New Jersey is a high volume state.
My take is that if you are in a lower volume state your customer service could be negatively impacted. And Tesla likely cut some muscle along with the fat in the lay-offs resulting in poor worker morale.
Will that be corrected once Elon receives approval for his $55.8 billion payout?