Tesla Admits to More Customer Problems

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 5:50PM EST · Published Sep 17, 6:25AM EDT

Tesla Admits to More Customer Problems — © tesla.com

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) has admitted it has more problems that will affect its car buyers and owners. One is the logistics of car delivery and service. The other is the slowness of repairs. It is another set of issues that will raise skepticism about whether Tesla can handle customers as sales rise toward the company’s goal of 500,000 in annual sales.

CEO Elon Musk tweeted:

Sorry, we’ve gone from production hell to delivery logistics hell, but this problem is far more tractable. We’re making rapid progress. Should be solved shortly.

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He also tweeted:

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If these problems continue to plague customers as it rolls out tens of thousands of its new Model 3 this year, and hundreds of thousands in 2019, people will lose faith in Tesla’s post-purchase treatment. As word of this gets out, buyers may opt for another luxury car, including luxury electric cars made by other manufacturers.

For Musk, this is another chink in Tesla’s armor with both consumers and investors: that production of the Model 3 has been late. Musk also has roiled investors with rumors he would take the company private. There has been speculation for some time that he will need to raise more money this year, which could reduce the value of Tesla’s stock.

Musk has a short time to fix the problems he has admitted to in public. If that period passes, Tesla will have another black eye it can ill afford.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.