<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/04/07/tesla-lemon-law/7439547/" rel="nofollow">http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/04/07/tesla-le...</a>
<i>Milwaukee attorney Vince Megna also says that Tesla's policy of selling cars directly to consumers -- rather than having franchised dealers -- is another reason that it is tougher for customers to take action if they are dissatisified with their car.</i><p>Ladies and Gentlemen, i give you the real reason for the lawsuit.
I really tend to struggle with Tesla whenever I read these kinds of things. On the one hand, I generally feel like they tend to shed light on areas where customers, the media, politicians, etc. are messing with them. On the other, something about the tactics they use seem...off. It's almost like they're bullying people who they don't like or disagree with. In this case, it <i>seems</i> like the guy and his lawyer are really just messing around and being dishonest, and it's a situation that Tesla can gain the upper hand on.<p>But.<p>What happens in 5 years when Tesla is 10x bigger than it is now, and doesn't do things so perfectly or well at scale? I really wonder if this type of almost-militant napalm style PR will be handled so deftly. What happens when they get it wrong? I think there's sufficient evidence that they already kind of blew it with the journalist they went after previously, and it just seems like no good will come from this culture over time.<p>So I'm conflicted. I love their products. I'm rooting for the company, but I do hate these kinds of whiny posts. Tesla is better than this, I hope.
I always try and remove my preconceptions from a story when I'm reading it (I tend to be a fan of tesla and musk) and took care to read both the linked to article as well as tesla's version, but lots of things about this scream bullshit.<p>I especially dislike the youtube video created by the lawyer[1], reminds me of the american political smear campaigns that are run.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/04/07/tesla-lemon-law/7439547/" rel="nofollow">http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/04/07/tesla-le...</a>
The only thing I can figure is that the customer is trying to drive a car around for a while, file a Lemon Law complaint, then get a buy-back? I say this because it appears that the fuse had been tampered with, and the same person filed a complaint against Volvo last year.
While this certainly reads like illicit usage, this blog entry leaves a sour taste with me.<p>1) Why even blogging about this? Is Tesla that insecure about its PR that they think they need to take the wind out of any possible negative news story, even if it will be easily defused?<p>2) Why start with their high grades in consumer reports? This is not a statistical sample, it's an individual case. Reads very defensive even though it clearly wouldn't be needed.<p>After so many success stories I hope they become more confident in their public communications.
As of starting to write this comment, there are more comments on this submission bickering about Tesla's PR than there are about the actual merit of the matter:<p><pre><code> * "Aren't people starting to get tired of Tesla's constant defensiveness?"
* "something about the tactics they use seem... off."
* "It's almost like they're bullying people they don't like..."
* "But. What happens in 5 years when Tesla is 10x bigger than it is now..."
* "this blog entry leaves a sour taste with me."
* "Yeah, this does not feel good to me. I get the PR angle but this feels not right to me."
* "Thank you HN for hosting another Tesla public service announcement."
</code></pre>
I think the amount of flak Tesla gets on a constant basis from numerous entities that want to see Tesla dead more than justifies their aggressive public stance on these kinds of matters. The lawyer involved is apparently a self-proclaimed "Lemon Law King," which should raise a red flag all by itself. Litigious opportunism isn't usually celebrated by the HN crowd and I don't see why an exception should be made here. HN user yock has also pointed out that the lawyer involved in this suit is making a claim that the lack of franchised dealerships strengthens his justifications for opening a case, in that a lack of a dealerships for Tesla vehicles makes invoking Lemon Laws harder for consumers. Given Tesla's recent battles with states over having to sell their vehicles through middle men, I agree with yock's assessment that this is the real motivation for the suit --to add ammo to the case that Tesla must submit to the dealership franchise model-- rather than a genuine concern for a customer's rights under Lemon Laws to reverse a purchase of a vehicle.<p>But if none of that is enough, there's these gems:<p>><i>Ultimately, Tesla service applied non-tamper tape to the fuse switch. From that point on, the fuse performed flawlessly.</i><p>><i>After investigating, they determined that the car's front trunk had been opened immediately before the fuse failure on each of the three occasions.</i><p>I'm all for stomping on double-speaking weasel-wording bullshit. It's not OK when the NSA does it, or the State Department does it, or anyone else does it. That goes for Tesla too. But for some reason it seems a good chunk of the readers here are stomping on what is absolutely the wrong target. Tesla is speaking truth to power and attempting to disrupt a dinosaur of a market that is pulling out all of the stops in a truly glorious effort to kill Tesla off. Could we all drop the pseudo-skepticism act and take note of the plain truth as it is?
I'll step back and venture that Tesla customers are so happy with the customer service, that Tesla is able to call out bad actors. As a Tesla owner, I'll say that their customer service has gone way above and beyond any car company I've ever worked with. It's been a delightful experience.
A couple of things:<p>* A lot of people say that Tesla is having a hard time because they aren't doing the whole dealership/franchise thing & wanting to sell to people directly. I feel like this is the fallout of something like that, the ease of someone going after them directly.<p>* If you watch this 'lawyer' & his YouTube videos you can tell that he's going after these companies merely because of the "days" it's been in the shop/getting fixed & nitpicking about some issues that in all fairness, are probably fabricated.<p>* Watched the video about the door handles, I find it hard to believe those don't work as designed but it is a possibility.
I think that while polarizing this is a smart move. This day in age the high road can get you screwed as public opinion can be swayed irreversibly in a matter of days. You have to take these sort of steps because 140 characters can cast you as evil before you realize it.
this reminds me of the patent trolls, there's gold in dem damn litigations no matter how absurd, it's like searching for a loophole and exploiting.
Given just how bloody rich Elon Musk is, he should take the lemons, give them to his engineers to make combustable lemons AND BURN THEIR HOUSES DOWN.<p>(or something.)
The cars these guys make are truly magnificent engineering pieces. Fairly sure the tooling is exceptional, so much so that the log files for the front hood told them all they needed to know :) bet that ambulance chaser didn't expect that. ROFLCOPTER.
If I were Tesla I would probably hire Buzzfeed or some other marketing channel to do a viral story highlighting how schmucky this lawyer and his client are. It would serve the brand better if they weren't seen giving these guys the time of day, let alone real estate on their corporate site.
Aren't people starting to get tired of Tesla's constant defensiveness? I feel like we have one of those blog posts every week. Frankly Tesla has great products and doesn't need to act so defensive. Thoughts?
Yeah, this does not feel good to me. I get the PR angle but this feels not right to me.<p>Wait until the trial is over and then give your side of things to handle the "court of public opinion" but this has potential legal ramifications and I don't think this is the right way to handle it.<p>Maybe I am wrong but it doesn't look like the right way to me.