Is Tesla TOAST ?

[dcarrigg]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

Oh yeah. I have no doubt the $78k version of the Model 3 is a load of fun to drive.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

They don't seem to really care about them as customers any more.

Decisions about the level of customer service and how much to spend on it must be really hard for companies to figure. In Asia if your laptop screws up, any shop in the mall will load a new copy of windows on it for 10 dollars. In the the states, it costs 100-150 dollars as soon as you bring it in.

Apple is taking customer loyalty for granted. Big mistake.

I've been impressed lately by chat room problem solving with Baba, Amazon, and several airlines. Quick response, rarely on hold, people who can quickly solve your problem. Though I have no idea who I'm talking to where.

Leapfroggging trends even...customer service.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...ng-rural-china

[touchring]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

Decisions about the level of customer service and how much to spend on it must be really hard for companies to figure. In Asia if your laptop screws up, any shop in the mall will load a new copy of windows on it for 10 dollars. In the the states, it costs 100-150 dollars as soon as you bring it in.

Apple is taking customer loyalty for granted. Big mistake.

I've been impressed lately by chat room problem solving with Baba, Amazon, and several airlines. Quick response, rarely on hold, people who can quickly solve your problem. Though I have no idea who I'm talking to where.

Leapfroggging trends even...customer service.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...ng-rural-china

This is nothing new, Apple is behaving like a monopoly, Google isn't much better, but at least the search engine and gmail still works. Frankly, I think both companies are only milking their existing customer base, squeezing out as much profit as possible by charging the highest possible price and providing the most minimum level of service.

Google still has a chance to change for the better as the founders are still around. Apple is a dead man walking stock.

[Milton Kuo]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

This is nothing new, Apple is behaving like a monopoly, Google isn't much better, but at least the search engine and gmail still works. Frankly, I think both companies are only milking their existing customer base, squeezing out as much profit as possible by charging the highest possible price and providing the most minimum level of service.

Google still has a chance to change for the better as the founders are still around. Apple is a dead man walking stock.

I don't see too much monopolistic behavior from Apple yet (they're trying to make a bunch of sticky services) and they're far away from Google's rather nasty practices. Instead, Apple is behaving more like what it really is: a company that has lost its visionary founder and is now being run by a bean counter. Since Jobs died, Apple hasn't released anything, successful or unsuccessful, of note other than the Apple Watch. Everything else has stagnated (Mac computers, iPads, iPhones) or actually gotten worse (macOS).

Meanwhile, I supposed in the bean counter's quest to squeeze prices wherever possible, the quality of the Mac notebook computers is poor. For what they're supposed to be, premium notebook computers, they are the least reliable notebook computers I have ever used and reliability does not appear to be improving. Out of all the name brand, enterprise-class computers I have ever used, only the MacBook Pros have ever failed on me. I'm currently on my fourth or fifth AC adapter.

The only notebook computer with more problems than the MacBook Pro I currently use (which, after a rough start, has been highly reliable) was a real POS Toshiba that a cheapskate friend bought in the late 1990s (maybe $300 or $400) that was made in China when the yearly wage of a Chinese worker was $300. That computer, purchased brand-new, could not even last for more than a few days without breaking down.

For my next computer, I don't know what I'm going to do. The IBM ThinkPads are gone, replaced by Lenovo and their idiotic designers who copy a lot of Apple's ideas even if they're not good. Even beyond the hardware, Windows gets crappier and crappier with each release. I had been using Windows exclusively since 1992 but as of 2008 and Windows Vista, started using macOS more and more. In 2013, I stopped using Windows except for my job which required it. I'm not too keen on using Linux since it's still pretty crappy as a desktop operating system.

[jk]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

Meanwhile, I supposed in the bean counter's quest to squeeze prices wherever possible, the quality of the Mac notebook computers is poor. For what they're supposed to be, premium notebook computers, they are the least reliable notebook computers I have ever used and reliability does not appear to be improving. Out of all the name brand, enterprise-class computers I have ever used, only the MacBook Pros have ever failed on me. I'm currently on my fourth or fifth AC adapter.

some years ago i had to replace my thinkpad 301x because it was literally falling apart. [the carbon fiber body cracked at one corner and so on.] i had clung to windows xp as long as i could- it worked and it suited my needs. if i were to buy another wintel machine it would have had to run windows 8, and the more i read about, the less enthused i was.

i finally decided to get a 13" macbook pro retina and was quite happy with it. i got the "applecare" extended warranty and in the 2nd year of ownership had some battery problem that caused the machine to turn off when the battery got to something like 36%. the machine also crashed occasionally when i was typing and my hand brushed the trackpad. i got an appointment online, was seen within minutes of the appointed time [this is a largish store in a university town in 2015] and the guy who looked it over noticed a dead pixel in the screen, of which i was not even aware. he decided i would get a new battery, and new touchpad and a new screen, all covered by the warranty. this was a late 2012 model i bought new in late 2013 when they were about to upgrade the line.

the major point of failure, or at least the most common failure, of the macbook laptops is the ac adapter, which is apparently designed to require replacement about once a year because the wire frays at a point of connection. this is an annuity that apple apparently built into its design. it can be avoided by purchasing a "frayfix" and a "frayfix mini", which works well for a magsafe machine. the air is still magsafe design - i got one for my secretary last year and installed the frayfix combo immediately.

i don't know if there is a solution for a usb c machine. also the macbook pro keyboard got crappier with the last revision. i actually bought an early 2015 macbook pro, with its decent keyboard and magsafe power supply, to have as a backup [i can't function in my work without a functioning laptop], and i hope i will never have to buy another machine.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

...i had clung to windows xp as long as i could- it worked and it suited my needs....

I still have a working XP box at home. It is running my SolidWorks 3D CAD software that I still use monthly for personal projects.
Old obsolete hardware, running an old obsolete OS, for an old obsolete version of an application.
Years ago I unplugged it from the internet and it just keeps chugging along. Fast and clean, works very nicely.

We have newer machines we use daily in the modern connected world but that old Dell XP box is my CAD workstation and I like it.

[jk]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?



PAULA FERNANDEA tweeted,
So frustrating when @Tesla takes full payment for a car and then fails to deliver.


HOARY MARMOT, STOCK TRADER EXTRAORDINAIRE Retweeted Paula Fernandes with comment:
So frustrating when a Nigerian Prince takes your money, and then fails to send you the millions of dollars he promised you. $tsla

[dcarrigg]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

PAULA FERNANDEA tweeted,
So frustrating when @Tesla takes full payment for a car and then fails to deliver.


HOARY MARMOT, STOCK TRADER EXTRAORDINAIRE Retweeted Paula Fernandes with comment:
So frustrating when a Nigerian Prince takes your money, and then fails to send you the millions of dollars he promised you. $tsla

Ruh ro

Telsa took another financial hit on Monday, with shares in the company dropping almost 5% after the electric automaker was reported to have asked some US suppliers to return payments to the money-losing company. The disclosure was contained in a memo sent last week by a global supply manger and obtained by the Wall Street Journal. In it, the manager described the payments as essential to Tesla’s operation.

Tesla Asks Suppliers for Cash Back to Help Turn a Profit

Electric-car company, in memo, asks supplier to return a meaningful portion of money spent since 2016

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

Musk is always an innovator, pushing the boundaries.
Traditionally, companies have coerced their suppliers into some reluctant vendor financing by slow paying them or short paying them.
Not Elon.
Now he has invented the new "...just ask for a check..." method. Brilliant.

[touchring]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

Tesla is starting to look interesting to me, but I thought it's far too expensive even 2 years ago.

[GRG55]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

Tesla is starting to look interesting to me, but I thought it's far too expensive even 2 years ago.

It's looked interesting to me for some time too. In a HBS case study sort of way.

[touchring]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

It's looked interesting to me for some time too. In a HBS case study sort of way.

Actually, Tesla is just a company, without Elon Musk, it's not worth anything. What is worth a lot of money is Elon Musk. This guy is a genius and his tenacity is only paralleled by Steve Jobs. He breaks all the rules. Imagining building a mini-submarine out of a rocket part.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

Hopefully, he doesn't stress himself too much like Steve Jobs did.

Tesla might potentially be a >10x bagger if we enter at the right time.

America is blessed to have Trump and Elon. If Trump is smart, he will support Elon.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

Actually, Tesla is just a company, without Elon Musk, it's not worth anything. What is worth a lot of money is Elon Musk. This guy is a genius and his tenacity is only paralleled by Steve Jobs. He breaks all the rules. Imagining building a mini-submarine out of a rocket part.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

Hopefully, he doesn't stress himself too much like Steve Jobs did.

Tesla might potentially be a >10x bagger if we enter at the right time.

America is blessed to have Trump and Elon. If Trump is smart, he will support Elon.

The thing I'll never understand about this mentality is how easily people fall for the idea that a great businessman is also a great scientist and a great engineer and a great politician and a great designer etc. etc.

No man can be all these things. Especially in large capital endeavors. Long gone are the days of Da Vinci. But still his myth persists.

I've even known engineers, who, despite the fact they have respect for their own field and education, simply insist that Musk is an engineer, despite the fact the man has taken zero engineering classes. Funner still, ask what kind. He's a software engineer and a mechanical engineer. Also electrical. Just pure genius. Probably biomedical too. The man does it all. He's magic!

Malarkey. Nobody is all that. This is just another rich boy whose daddy owned a colonial African emerald mine and shunted him cash for a world-class education and a startup in the dotcom boom. Very slick at business and PR, his actual fields of study, he got Paypal to buy up his stuff. Then he bought, not founded, Tesla. Not a calling. Not a maniacal genius engineer. Just a businessman. A very successful one who has done very well for himself. But nothing more.

Probably he should leave the submarines to General Dynamics next time. Or not use a tragedy to buy himself PR then call the actual heroes pedophiles when they call him out on it. But propaganda is powerful and he's spending god knows what making sure he shows up at the top of every social media feed and google search result and news item. "No money on advertising" my ass. The man has literally spent so much he has convinced millions of people he's a god. And he's not the only one.

[bpr]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

The thing I'll never understand about this mentality is how easily people fall for the idea that a great businessman is also a great scientist and a great engineer and a great politician and a great designer etc. etc.

No man can be all these things. Especially in large capital endeavors. Long gone are the days of Da Vinci. But still his myth persists.

I've even known engineers, who, despite the fact they have respect for their own field and education, simply insist that Musk is an engineer, despite the fact the man has taken zero engineering classes. Funner still, ask what kind. He's a software engineer and a mechanical engineer. Also electrical. Just pure genius. Probably biomedical too. The man does it all. He's magic!

Malarkey. Nobody is all that. This is just another rich boy whose daddy owned a colonial African emerald mine and shunted him cash for a world-class education and a startup in the dotcom boom. Very slick at business and PR, his actual fields of study, he got Paypal to buy up his stuff. Then he bought, not founded, Tesla. Not a calling. Not a maniacal genius engineer. Just a businessman. A very successful one who has done very well for himself. But nothing more.

Probably he should leave the submarines to General Dynamics next time. Or not use a tragedy to buy himself PR then call the actual heroes pedophiles when they call him out on it. But propaganda is powerful and he's spending god knows what making sure he shows up at the top of every social media feed and google search result and news item. "No money on advertising" my ass. The man has literally spent so much he has convinced millions of people he's a god. And he's not the only one.

We haven't yet reached peak entrepreneur, unfortunately.

[DSpencer]

Re: Is Tesla TOAST ?

Actually, Tesla is just a company, without Elon Musk, it's not worth anything. What is worth a lot of money is Elon Musk. This guy is a genius and his tenacity is only paralleled by Steve Jobs. He breaks all the rules. Imagining building a mini-submarine out of a rocket part.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

Hopefully, he doesn't stress himself too much like Steve Jobs did.

Tesla might potentially be a >10x bagger if we enter at the right time.

America is blessed to have Trump and Elon. If Trump is smart, he will support Elon.

Is this a serious post or intended to be funny? I don't know that I've met a person that loves both Trump and Musk. Maybe it shouldn't be surprising, but it seems like they have totally separate fan bases.

As an aside, in what way is that a "mini-submarine"? Does it have capabilities that aren't readily apparent? It appears to be just a watertight tube with handles and a tube for air supply.

It's better than any submarine I could build in that time-frame, so maybe I shouldn't criticize. But still, it has no propulsion, steering, viewing capabilities.