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Elon Musk Cancels Stewart Alsop's Tesla Order Over Complaints About Launch Event
New submitter umafuckit writes: Blogger Stewart Alsop wrote an open letter to Elon Musk following a supposedly badly run launch event for the Model X. Alsop complained that the event started almost 2 hours late and was unable to test drive the car (for which has put down a deposit). In response, Musk cancelled Alsop's pre-order saying "Must be a slow news day if denying service to a super rude customer gets this much attention." Alsop, who is known not just for his prolific blogging but for his role as a founding partner at VC firm Alsop Louie Partners, compares his treatment by Tesla to that of BMW, about which he's also said some unflattering things as a customer.
Poetic justice.
Surprise, surprise. Being rude to a company results in bad service from that company. Hardly news except that it was Tesla that was the victim. Maybe the blogger has learned his lesson, but probably not.
I think it's good that he got his order canceled. If you are going to complain in an "open letter", you are pretty much just attention seeking. If you wanted to help the company out or support it in a positive light, you would have kept your issues between you and the company. I also agree that it must be a slow news day.
Quick, Elon Musk needs a safe space!
If that's his definition of a rude customer, then... fuck Tesla.
If he can't get satisfaction at Tesla or BMW, I suspect this is an impossible person to deal with. Musk saw the writing on the wall, and cut this guy loose before he bought the car and made claims against the company for all kinds of ridiculous and petty shit.
No coup for you.
You know what; as long as this "critic" was refunded his deposit, then I am all in favour of this.
Ray Crock's principle of "The Customer is always right" is great until the customer comes to believe that this should be the case every time. As soon as that's the case it is an unrealistically high car to set on a customer service experience, because instead of "errors are always in the customers favour" the customer views it as, "if a mistake was made, I am due a large payout or extra swag" leading us to a society of complainers form the start.
If someone has a customer service problem, take it through the right channels, then, if it is unresolved, by all means, take to the twitter with your complaints. Unfortunately, I think a great deal of people skip over the middle step.
These people are the worlds assholes, and unless they are fired as customers, their behavior is only emboldened.
Why am I not surprised that he's also a BMW driver/customer? He might as well get "stuck up, rich douchebag" tattooed on his forehead.
I watched the video of it and Musk may well have held it in a monkey enclosure. I've never seen an audience react like that, hooting and howling over every word he said. The car is nice I guess but the audience reaction was ridiculous.
Waaahhh waaahhhh I spent my money on beer, drugs, cigarettes, lottery tickets, and spinning hubcaps.... Waaaahhhhh waaahhhhh now I'm poor and stupid and whiney and voting for Bernie Sanders waaahhh
...punishing a customer they don't like.
If you wanted to help the company out or support it in a positive light, you would have kept your issues between you and the company.
A-yup. If you actually read his open letter, he comes on like a hard-on right away, telling Musk what he should do and how he should do it, and he ends by telling Musk that he should show some class. I'd tell him to go fuck himself and that I didn't need him as a customer, too.
Lolwaffles. It sure looks like one to me. If he wanted to address Tesla Motors, perhaps he should have done so. One of the costs of celebrity is that people will pay attention to what you say. If Alsop wanted a Model X, he bloody sure well should have watched his words. Now he'll have to watch other people drive his car.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Gee, not one, but two companies with waiting lists to buy their luxury cars declined to go out of their way to pamper your spoiled ass?
Notice a pattern here, Stewart?
Negative feedback is important to understand the areas of opportunity where your business might be improved. I think setting the precedent that you'll be stung by Tesla if you complain isn't sending the right message.
From a marketing perspective, free advertising!
Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.
"I am a princess, and I demand to be treated as such"
- Stewart Alsop
This sort of article deserves a D-
If one person seems like an asshole to you, he's probably an asshole. If lots of people seem like assholes to you, you're the asshole.
Companies generally reserve the right to refuse to serve customers who are causing a disturbance.
This individual caused a disturbance prior to receiving his product. Refund his deposit and have him go elsewhere.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
If you think about it, preordering a product is a financial transaction. You're exchanging money (the $5000 deposit) for a place in line. While the amount the deposit costs doesn't usually change over time, the earlier you preorder, the bigger the risk you are taking because the promised product may never arrive. So in return for this transaction, you get an earlier place in line. Tesla gains money and a large number of preorders has a "signaling" effect to other buyers, increasing interest in the product.
In actual monetary value, Stewart's preorder slot is now worth more than $5000. If he could auction the slot off, people would be willing to pay a premium so they can have their Model X sooner.
Anyways, by canceling the order, Tesla has deprived Stewart of his property, and he might be forced to turn to the courts to be made whole. I'm not a lawyer, I know the property loss is true in real economic terms but no doubt the actual interpretation of the law is a different story.
It is interesting to me that I cannot tell if you are a Republican or a supporter of Hillary Clinton. I suppose that speaks volumes about the Clinton campaign.
Thats an insane price for that car. Its all just a marketing fad.
Personally I think musk did him a favour and he's better off without it.
One of the things about harassment is that you as an employer are liable for 3rd parties harassing your employees because you have a duty towards your employees.
So if Musk has any reason to believe based on this guy's behavior that this guy will be harassing his employees, he actually has a legal obligation to kick this guy to the curb.
I blog, therefore I demand. When I don't get, I blog even more.
Honestly all he has ever been is a spoiled brat that has temper tantrums. He tries to stir up crap like this to try desperately to keep his name relevant.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Exactly. This Muskie moron is so typical. He hates us and u just know he's a racist since he from south africua
This is just getting blown up into a bigger deal than it should be because one crowd is eager to defend Tesla Motors against any negative press, while the other is eager to make Musk look like an arrogant jerk (a la the late Steve Jobs).
The way I see it though, Stewart Alsop didn't really bring up any complaints that weren't valid. He's right... Who starts a product launch event over an hour late and doesn't even acknowledge they ran behind? And really, it's poor planning at best to promise participants a test drive when you clearly have too many people signed up for one than you can accommodate. (He said he had number 1,344? Come on! You might not get through that many people in an entire day at an auto show -- much less an event at night that already started an hour late!)
If Tesla wants to cancel his pre-order, fine. Maybe that helps send a message that they won't be pushed around by people making a lot of demands, and that will help them eliminate some problem customers. But I think it also shows some of us that their leader isn't very good at taking criticism. That's unfortunate because the ability to do so helps make a better product and improve customer service.
Allsuck is a well know complainer so he must be one of their kind.
Wasn't this guy the editor of Infoworld during the heyday of Bob Cringley? I remember reading his columns, and he seemed to be a reasonable person then. I wonder what happened?
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Musk has done some amazing things, but he and his associated companies need to learn to take a little criticism as well. Just look at the Top Gear debacle, all that headache over a show that goes out of its way to make sure the audience knows they and their "reviews" shouldn't be taken seriously.
If Alsop is going to brag about his press credentials ("It’s funny because I wasn’t acting in my old role as a press pundit") maybe he shouldn't misspell "misled" ("I feel like I was mislead and mistreated.").
Corporations are not people and should not ever be offended
Corporations are staffed by people who routinely are (and often should be) offended by rude and self important customers. There is no such thing as being rude to a corporation because corporations as you rightly point out are not people and you can only be rude to people. If you interact with a corporation you are interacting with the people who work there and it is quite possible to offend those people with your behavior. If you think it is acceptable to be rude to someone merely because they are a representative of that company then you are a jerk.
Being rude to a company should not affect the way the company does business or whom it does business with.
Clearly you have never had a business relationship. Most people are fine and when they have issues they can be reasoned with. Some small percentage customers cannot be pleased no matter what you do. Sometimes the right thing to do is to (figuratively) fire the customer. I've had customers of my company that were excessively difficult, demanding, expensive and sometimes extremely rude. I once fired a customer for making lewd remarks to one of my female employees. One of the dumbest things ever said in the business world is that "the customer is always right". Believing that is a great way to go out of business.
And in this case, negative feedback is perhaps providing an important feedback to the customer: If you're being difficult and attention-seeking, perhaps it won't work out how you had planned.
Of course since the response seems to be more attention-seeking, I suppose the lesson was NOT learned.
Join the prosperous work camps of Mars, just don't be rude about the long hours and lack of food or Musk will shut off your air supply.
That.
The tesla x is pretty ugly., For that kind of money, there's a lot better choices.
Not necessarily yelling, which is always counterproductive, but certainly being rude. Wait, did I just defend this guy? Fuck no. What I am saying is just because a person is being rude, doesn't mean he or she is the devil or wrong or undeserving of attention. Companies have a lot of shitty, truly unjustifiable policies; and their employees do a lot of shit. You need to take some responsibility for the behavior of the customer in the face of some shitty event. They bear some, but cannot bear all. Further a lot of people consider being told their wrong to be "rude" - and that's all they report to anyone. Be wary of these people. Try not to hire them.
Alsop's "open letter" is from Sep 30, 2015. The order cancellation happened now?
He sounds like the typical asshole customer that loves to invoke the threat of lawyers on the smallest of whims every time something does not go their way.
People like that and the lawyers that take their money deserve exactly what's coming to them. Don't like the service that you're getting: do it your own damn self.
If your outlook and ability to run a company is so much better build your own damn car, fix your own electronics, do your own work.
No amount of money is worth a shitty customer.
"If it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet"
i would suggest Hillary supporter since there was no mention of walls... :)
however also no mention of guns or religion so could be republican...
a troll well done either way
I thought to do business in a society (I mean developed/modern one) you can't discriminate a customer. Just because someone's behavior is not agreeable to you, how can you deny him the right to purchase your product?
Could it be? The ever pandering slashdot crowd's savior/messiah isn't perfect? It IS true!
Corporations are not people and should not ever be offended. Being rude to a company should not affect the way the company does business or whom it does business with. It is just Musk being a douche, because he's becoming arrogant.
First, I would never put a deposit down on anything without knowing exactly what I am getting - that includes getting a test drive. No test drive, no money.
Secondly, I read this guys open letter, I didn't think is was rude at all. But that's become the excuse for poor customer service these days; label the customer as "rude" and dismiss them.
Lastly, I see a lot of comments about "rude" customers should be just dismissed. Well, when I PAY money and do not get the service I PAID FOR, I try to work it out - I ask ever so nicely that butter doesn't melt on my mouth if there's something that can be done.
Unfortunately in our society, the customer is to be exploited and abused. We're replaceable. Musk has got customers coming out of his ears.
Putting my MBA hat on, Musk is brilliant. He should be awarded an MBA by Harvard for his business prowess and ethics.
While companies may have the right to do this, this is troubling regardless of how "rude" the future critic might have been. I do want to hear from such people and not just the fan boys. This guy was not disruptive, he just complained about a badly manged event. I am more surprised that others did not complaint. May be they are all scared of not getting a Tesla.
Surprise, surprise. Being rude to a company results in bad service from that company. Hardly news except that it was [AT&T / Comcast / insert any company] that was the victim. Maybe the entitled customer has learned his lesson, but probably not.
Wrong message to send to corporations.
Reading these posts, I can't help wondering how the geek would respond if someone at Microsoft were to cancel an order for a Surface laptop because its CEO thought a blogger was too persistent, too visible and too annoying a critic.
It'd be interesting to know how many people here who are flaming Tesla actually know Stewart Alsop from his heyday in the '90s. Likely not many. The guy was used to throwing his (considerable) weight around the tech industry for a long time, expecting his every whim and complaint to be kowtowed to by the industry because he controlled a powerful industry trade rag. Now, as a print media has-been, he is frustrated because he can't snap is fingers and have a company leap into action. So, he pitches a petulant rant online and expects Elon (who was surely on the short end of Alsop's rants in his PayPal days) to leap up and do his bidding. Screw that! I applaud Musk heartily for shutting down the troll. As a happy Tesla owner, I sure wouldn't want to see an unending stream of attitude spewing forth into the Tesla forms from this guy.
Shut up and eat your vegetables!!!
It speaks volumes about what a partisan dipshit you are, not so much about anybody else.
Corporations are not people and should not ever be offended. Being rude to a company should not affect the way the company does business or whom it does business with. It is just Musk being a douche, because he's becoming arrogant.
When you are rude to a company, you are rude to the employees. Good managers and owners cut off shitty customers from the start to avoid that kind of shit from happening (which can have terrible consequences down the road - I have witnessed this. The customer is not always right.).
I am not saying this is exactly what happened in the story. I'm simply giving you a counter-argument to the above statement of yours.
To hell with this other asshole, but Musk isn't exactly innocent in this exchange. It's a fucking awful precedent to set after he (Musk) was the first to screw up.
So we are really going with, corps have the right to refuse service to individuals for being a blogger. I suppose they de facto do, but... this is a good thing?
Sure he is a jerk, maybe. But do we really want to say sit down shut up if you don't want to be on the corporate shit list.
And soon people will really need to not piss off supermarkets, or companies with ties to supermarkets.
Not that I was very likely to buy a Tesla, but I never would now. Between the CEO with his nickers in a twist over a blog entry and their ability to remote-control their cars, I've completely lost interest in owning one.
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
Is this a follow-on to the John Cleese/Political Correctness article? It does provide examples of hyper-sensitive arseholes...
Also, is this supposed to change anybody's buying habits or , well, anything?
His Tesla post was clearly a personal attack on Elon. Run the numbers and it's obvious. His BMW post used about fifty I statements (as in "I noticed..., "I feel...", etc.). It used about only eight BMW statements (as in "BMW insisted...", "BMW tried...", etc.)
His Tesla post used about twenty five Elon statements (as in "Dear Elon, you should be ashamed...", "You should have...", etc.). But it used about only twenty two I statements ("I was excited...", "I was angry...", etc.)
In other words, his Tesla post singled Elon out three times more than BMW in the BMW post. At the same time, he used "I feel" and similar statements only half as much. As you can see, Stewart's post was clearly much more about Elon the person ("You screwed up") than about Stewart the customer ("I drove...", "I feel...").
The next time you are wronged, you should get such treatment.
First world problems
Me thinks Elon Musk doesn't understand that the customer is always correct. He may be mentally ill believing he can close shop and the remaining assets belong to him. Some other retailers may also be similarly mentally ill. Hey mentally ill, how's that gun to protect your supposed assets? Shot yourself in the foot yet?
If someone works to earn a certain amount of money, they are legally allowed to purchase anything being sold for less than or equal to that amount of money. Otherwise the person who earned the money could have put the same amount of effort earning the money into building a weapon, which is a no no.
Has anyone seen his form - An utter idiotic, moaning moron.
You might think Musk is a jerk, and I'm sure he can be, but at least he is a jerk that does constructive things in our society. Stewart Alsop is just a child with money and a mouth.
That is a very good thing!
Fuck Musk!
He has a 350 billion strong army of Vergoons ready to destroy Earth, if his penis twitches to the East, and all inhabitants including bacteria.
Z
A deal is made when each person receives something that they think is worth more than what they give in return. (Adam Smith)
Just because we label one 'customer' and one 'supplier' doesn't mean either of them has a right to be openly rude, unreasonably critical or disparaging about the other.
How the hell is that insightful. Musk eliminated a threat to his perfectly crafted PR posture. Nothing at all with doing anything except making himself look perfect. It's a blog post, not yelling at customer service.
It's not a government service paid for by the community so Elon can deal or not deal with people as he wishes. Consumer protection laws only come into force when the deal is done. Cancellation and refund is fair even for the most petty of reasons.
This is about the 10th time that I have heard of Elon Musk being a jerk or asshole in one way or another. At this point I will never consider buying a Tesla, nor will I ever suggest it to anyone else.
I love it when these self infatuated jerks get handed the wrong end of the stick.
So money can't buy everything after all.
Someone who has been treated badly and been metaphorically kicked out the door does not write a follow up like this, which sounds more like a marketing blurb:
"I had outlined in the original post how excited I was at the prospect of owning a Tesla, especially the Model X and especially the configuration I ultimately ordered-the P90D in red with black leather seats and the Ludicrous Speed option."
Raises doubts for me for the whole story.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
If you walk down the street and bump into one as shore, it's probably him. If you walk down the street and bump into them constantly, it's probably you.
So a somewhat-famous rich dude whines about not being pampered at an event. Internets pick it up and Elon Musk gets hurt and angry. What is missing is the answer to "What exactly got him angry enough?". We know he can take criticism but what is special about this one?