Bells toll for the death of customer service at online companies both big and small, including Carvana, Raymour & Flanigan

CARVANA DISAPPOINTS: In mid-November 2021, I sold my 2016 Tesla Model S 75D, above, to an electric-car dealer in Nebraska for $10,000 more than I was offered by Carvana, the nation's biggest online used car dealer, which twice cut its offer to me. 

 

Ease of shopping

from your computer

doesn't always bring

special treatment

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- What a difference 2 years can make when you are trying to sell a Tesla to Carvana, said to be the fastest growing online used car dealer in the United States.

In November 2019, I quickly made a deal with Carvana to buy my low-mileage 2015 Tesla Model S 60, and pay off my remaining loan.

Then, on the morning I was going to take delivery of a used 2016 Model S from the Tesla dealer in Paramus, Carvana reps showed up at my home, handed me a check for $39,000 and drove the older electric car away.

Two years later, in November 2021, my original offer of roughly $43,500 for the 2016 Tesla was cut twice -- to $41,500 and then $39,500.

He said, she said

The fly in the ointment was the car's title, which took more than a month to get. I had to take a photo of the title and post it on my Carvana account before the purchase would go through.

The credit union that financed my loan -- which was paid off in October 2020 by my local bank -- said the title was sent to Spencer Savings, but bank officials insisted they didn't have it.

Motor Vehicle Commission offices in New Jersey no longer take walk-in business, and it took two appointments weeks apart, in Wallington and Jersey City, before I got the title and uploaded a photo onto my account -- on the eve of the expiration of my second, lower Carvana offer.

Sour milk

Still, Carvana's original offer of $43,500 expired like the fresh milk you left on the counter overnight, and was cut first to $41,500 and then to roughly $39,500.

I called Carvana headquarters in Tempe, Ariz., many times, but never got to speak to the same person twice. 

Finally, one told me my seeking three offers for my Model S, which had less than 13,500 miles on the odometer, led to two cuts in what Carvana would pay.

I went online and looked for another site that wanted my Tesla, and quickly got an offer I couldn't refuse from FindMyElectric.com -- $10,000 more than Carvana's twice-trimmed bid.

EXPENSIVE TOWEL HOLDER: A $1,900 built-in GE Microwave Oven from AppliancesConnection.com was delivered 2 days after I placed the order online the week of Thanksgiving, but we couldn't use the appliance except to hold dish towels before the free installation was completed nearly 2 weeks later.

Mattress woes

Last week, I placed an online order for a queen size platform bed with storage and a new mattress at Raymour & Flanigan, the furniture retailer, which offers free removal of your old mattress.

My total purchase was $2,680, including about $800 for the mattress, but when the latter was delivered the next day, the men who carried it into the house refused to take the old one away, despite repeated requests.

Finally, the delivery men said there was no room on the truck for the old mattress, a ridiculous claim since the new mattress was delivered in the very same vehicle.

All of this was related to me by my son (I wasn't home).

I called Raymour & Flanigan delivery and the woman I spoke to hung up on me. Calls to customer service haven't been returned.

I'm thinking of cancelling the order for the platform bed, and finding another one elsewhere.

OXO coffee maker refund

In early 2021, I had to pay about $30 in postage to return an expensive, difficult-to-operate 9-cup coffee maker I bought from OXO.com, and I didn't get the refund for about 8 weeks.

The coffee maker looked great on the counter, but the 9-cup capacity was on the low side, and I couldn't even figure out how to set the clock, so I returned it and resumed making coffee in an old 12-cup Farberware electric percolator.

In effect, OXO tells customers, How dare you dislike our coffeemaker?

The company made the return and refund process as difficult as possible. That's terrible customer service.

DAMAGED AND A POOR MATCH: The wood panels for our built-in Monogram refrigerator-freezer I ordered from The Home Depot in Hackensack at a cost of $1,977 were chipped badly and a poor color match for our kitchen cabinets (see photos, above and below).

The Home Depot

I went to The Home Depot in Hackensack to order wood panels for a new Monogram built-in refrigerator installed in our kitchen in July (the panels cost $1,977).

About a week ago, I got a call to pick them up, but when 2 of the 7 cartons were too big for my car, I was told I could pay $80 to have all of them delivered to my home less than 3 miles away or rent a truck.

I rented a small truck (final cost was under $30), but when I returned to the store to get a refund because two of the main panels were damaged and the color match was completely off, I was again told I would have to pay $80 to have them picked up or rent a truck to bring them back.

Finally, after the employee who rents truck called a supervisor, the store agreed to send a truck and pick up the panels from my home on Saturday.

We waited all day, but then got a call that the truck wouldn't get here and that the pickup was rescheduled for Monday.

READ: As Tesla's value soars, 

buyers of EV complain

 about poor customer service

A winding 2-lane road, a beautiful fall day and a stroll through a large, lush garden

A WARM WELCOME: You can find the New Jersey State Botanical Garden, above and below, on the grounds of a once-grand estate, the 1,119-acre Skylands, now a part of Ringwood State Park.

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- We went exploring on Columbus Day.

For some reason, I woke up last Monday, a national holiday, thinking of upper Passaic County, where my first beat as a reporter at The Record in 1980 was covering Ringwood and West Milford. 

My wife had the day off, and the weather turned out to be perfect for shorts, with a temperature of around 72 degrees.

I planned to drive north on Route 208 and take Skyline Drive to Ringwood, and I'm glad I did.

The twisting, 2-lane road was smooth and fast, perfect for my Tesla Model S, and a reminder of how much fun driving can be.

Also known as County Road 692, Skyline Drive is a 5.84-mile asphalt ribbon between Route 287 in Oakland -- an interstate favored by fast-moving tractor-trailers -- and Route 511 in Ringwood.

Skyline Drive passes through Ringwood State Park, home to the New Jersey State Botanical Garden, Skylands Manor and Ringwood Manor (see photos below).

             AN 'ALLEE' OF CRABAPPLE TREES

NOT THAT DIANA: A statue of Diana, the Roman goddess, above, and the imposing stone manor house, below, now a popular wedding venue and hotel, which has gotten some terrible reviews.

RINGWOOD MANOR: Our first stop last Monday was Ringwood Manor, which was closed for renovations, but we took this path to a series of small cemeteries. The Ringwood Manor web site says iron mine partners Peter Cooper and Abram S. Hewitt turned the home into a summer estate (see cemetery photos below).

SOHO NEW JERSEY: The tombstone for John Hewitt, who was born in England and arrived in America in 1796, refers to "Soho New Jersey" and the construction of the first steam engine built in the United States.

THE FORGOTTEN GENERAL: Robert Erskine, a geographer and surveyor general for the American army during the Revolutionary War, died in 1780 in Ringwood. The plaque calls him a "friend in need for [George] Washington."

Most autos in Consumer Reports' Top 10 emit deadly tailpipe emissions, kill people

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: Although the Tesla Model 3 is shown leading the pack on the cover of Consumer Reports' annual Auto Issue, the editors don't pick the upscale all-electric sedan or any other vehicle as the best of the best. 

Editors again ignore impact on climate,

pollution, 58,000 premature deaths a year

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- To Beth Gardiner, an environmental journalist writing in The New York Times, "the acceleration of climate change" is "frightening."

But in this year's Auto Issue from Consumer Reports, the only concern is how fast cars, SUVs and pickup trucks accelerate.

As a longtime subscriber, I'm shocked by how the editors of the leading consumer publication in America continue to ignore the impact of Big Oil and millions of gas-engine vehicles on the environment.

Nor do they ever acknowledge that tailpipe emissions cause 58,000 premature deaths annually in the United States alone.

This year's Top 10 picks include only one zero-emissions vehicle -- Tesla's Model 3 -- and no preference is expressed for gas-electric versions of two others on the coveted list, Toyota's  Camry and Avalon, over the conventional gas versions.

First EV in 2018

The first all-electric car that made the magazine's Top 10 list was the Chevy Bolt in the 2018 Auto Issue.

But in 2019, Consumer Reports editors reversed course, trashing Tesla and listing only three gas-electric hybrids in the Top 10 list.

Two years earlier, a 20-plus-year subscriber took the editors to task for ignoring the environment:

"I am writing ... about something troubling that I just realized," Charles Dunn of Fairfield, Conn., said in a 2017 letter.
"Nowhere in the past 10 years have I read anything in CR about climate change and the effects that the products reviewed ..., namely automobiles, among others, have on the environment.
"This bothers me even more because while mileage ratings have gone up in some classes of vehicles, they are still very poor for SUVs and pickups, which a majority of consumer are buying.
"If CR cares about our global climate future, it's imperative that CR hold manufacturers accountable for improving mileage standards and offering more hybrid-electric vehicles."

Climate deniers

Today -- three Auto Issues later -- the editors are campaigning for better gas mileage, but don't mention the environment, the climate crisis or air pollution as their chief concerns.

"A Trump administration plan to lower automotive mileage targets for future model years ... would result in hundreds of dollars in added costs for consumers, according to a new U.S. Senate analysis," CR's Jeff Plungis wrote in January.

On the welcome page of the April 2020 Auto Issue, the editors cite only their "preoccupation with safety and quality," not the environment.

Of course, when you ignore a vehicle's impact on climate, any warmed-over crap with a smelly internal-combustion engine can shine.

OVERALL SCORES: The Tesla Model 3 gets an overall score of 80, but Consumer Reports gives higher marks to other Top 10 picks, notably the Toyota Avalon, a large sedan (93); Kia Telluride, a 3-row SUV (92) that gets only 21 mpg; the Subaru Legacy, a midsize sedan (87); and the Subaru Forester, a small SUV (84).

'Safety and quality' 

The editors call their Top 10 Picks "the most exceptional new cars on the road today," but one look at the gas- mileage figures will have a Prius owner or a EV enthusiast like me howling with laughter at the suckers who fall for CR's hype.

Only 2 out of 10 gas-engine cars get more than 30 mpg: The Toyota Corolla (33 mpg) and Toyota Prius, a hybrid (52 mpg).

Toyota's Avalon, a large sedan, is listed at 42 mpg, but that's for the hybrid version mentioned in the text. 

The editors don't even urge readers to buy the Avalon hybrid over the gas-engine version.

Subaru obsession

Long-time readers of Consumer Reports know how obsessed the editors are with all-wheel-drive Subarus, despite noisy engines, poor gas mileage and the lack of a gas-electric hybrid in the model lineup until recently.

The 2020 Top 10 list includes the Subaru Forester, a small SUV; and the Subaru Legacy, a midsize sedan, both of which get a pathetic 28 mpg.

On the editors' Best + Worst Lists, the best 3 are Porsche, a small manufacturer of very expensive, gas-guzzling sports cars, sports sedans and SUVs; Genesis, a luxury model from Hyundai; and Subaru.

Tesla is listed in 11th place, an 8-place improvement from the 2019 Best + Worst Lists.

The bottom 8 of 33 brands listed are: GMC, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Cadillac, Land Rover, Jeep, Mitsubishi and Fiat.

Under Best Owner Satisfaction, Tesla's Model 3 leads all sedans for $45,000 to $55,000. 

The Tesla Model S leads sedans over $55,000, and the Tesla Model X is 5th on the list of SUVs over $55,000. 

Marketing and hype

In the editors' welcome to the 99-page issue, they write:

"Marketing claims abound, but CR is uniquely qualified to advise you because we never accept advertising, and we anonymously buy every vehicle we test, to the tune of $2 million each year.

"We've also made changes to address the fact that the world is in the midst of an automotive safety revolution," a reference to advance driver-assistance systems that can "automatically brake to avoid hitting another car or a pedestrian."

But when Consumer Reports ignores the tremendous impact of cars, SUVs and pickup trucks on the environment, air pollution and premature deaths, the nonprofit fails readers and makes a mockery of its investigative tradition.

CR is no different than Motor Trend, Car & Driver and other fan-boy magazines or YouTube channels like Redline Reviews, all influenced by free car loans, junkets to exotic locations to see new models and other forms of bribery.

Read: The coziness of auto writers,

 manufacturers and car dealers

Read: Can writers be objective

 when they get a free ride?

LONGEST EV RANGE: Teslas top the list of 2019 and 2020 models.

$5,000 rebate for buying or leasing an EV in N.J. is in effect now, official announces

SOLAR CHARGING: I often draw the energy to charge my Tesla Model S from the 60-plus solar panels on the roof of my home. I bought a used 2016 Model S 75D (all-wheel drive) from Tesla last November, below, to replace my first Tesla, a Model S 60, above.

FIRST WASH: My Tesla Model S 75D at Always Clean Detailing Services in Fair Lawn, N.J.

All-electric cars, plug-in hybrids must have MSRP below $55,000

Editor's note: The first rebate program ended in December 2020, but a new program is set to launch on July 1, 2021. See the news release in the Comments section below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Governor Murphy made it official today, announcing that the electric-vehicle incentive law he signed on Jan. 17 became effective that day.

There was lots of confusion about the vehicles covered and whether the rebates would go to buyers as well as those who lease, thanks to sloppy news media coverage.

Some reports suggested the law wouldn't go into effect for 3 months.

Today, the governor announced that plug-in gas-electric hybrids, as well as all-electric cars, are covered, whether you buy or lease.

The MSRP must be below $55,000, and the rebate is figured based on the EPA-rated electric-only range -- $25 per mile -- up to a maximum of $5,000 per vehicle.

Electric cars from Tesla, Chevrolet, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia and other manufacturers cost less than $55,000 and qualify. 

"A fully electric car with 200 miles of range will qualify for a $5,000 rebate," Murphy said. "A hybrid electric car with 20 miles of electric range will qualify for a $500 rebate."

The New Jersey incentive is especially welcome after the expiration of the $7,500 federal tax credit when a company has sold more than 200,000 of a certain model.

In December, Tesla's website listed EV incentives in other states, and all of them are lower than New Jersey's rebate:

• California offers a $2,500 state rebate, and PG&E offers an additional $800 rebate for applications submitted on or after January 1, 2019.
• Connecticut customers are eligible for a $2,000 rebate for new Model 3 RWD vehicles, as well as exemption from state emissions testing and a reduced vehicle registration fee.
• Massachusetts offers rebates up to $2,500 for new EV purchases.
• New York offers rebates up to $2,000.
• Colorado offers tax credits up to $5,000.
• Pennsylvania offers rebates up to $1,750.

Read: Governor's statement
 on electric vehicle rebates

A glimpse at the short-lived victory of EVs a century before debut of first Tesla sedan

EARLY ELECTRIC CARS: About a century before the debut of the all-electric Tesla Model S, the 1914 Detroit Electric Model 47, above, and the 1911 Detroit Electric Model L-1, below, were popular. They are on display at Glenmont, inventor Thomas A. Edison's West Orange estate. The Model 47 had a range of 80 miles between charges at the station visible behind the 4-passenger vehicle, which was driven by Edison's wife.

NO NEED TO CRANK START: Electric cars such as the 2-passenger 1911 Detroit Electric Model L-1, above, were popular with women and physicians, because they were easy to start: Just turn on the batteries. Until, the development of the electric starter, "early gasoline cars had to be started by cranking the engine with a handle in the front of the car," according to the National Park Service. "This took a certain amount of strength and could take some time."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

WEST ORANGE, N.J. -- I got a good laugh when a park ranger opened the doors to the garage where inventor Thomas A. Edison kept his electric cars.

As the owner of a 2015 Tesla Model S, I have heard the company drum into the head of devotees to charge their EVs overnight in their garages just as they do their smartphones, so they'll reduce the chance of running out of range.

And now, inside the poured-concrete garage at Glenmont, the Edison estate, the park ranger pointed out the charging station the staff used to give Mrs. Edison's 1914 electric car its top range of 80 miles.

"During development testing, one vehicle ran 211 miles on a single charge," according to the National Park Service.

THE EDISONS AT GLENMONT: A 29-room red-brick-and-wood mansion known as Glenmont was the home of Thomas and Mina Edison until the inventor's death in 1931. She remarried and lived there until her death in 1947. Glenmont, part of the oldest gated community in the United States, now is a National Historic Site administered by the National Park Service.

TOGETHER AGAIN: Thomas and Mina Edison are buried side by side in a simple plot behind their home.

Rechargeable batteries

Edison, who personified the age of invention, experimented for 10 long years before he introduced the rechargeable nickel-iron-alkaline storage battery for electric automobiles in 1910.

But "with [the] demise of electric cars, the battery eventually [was] used in other industrial applications," according to the National Park Service.

The invention of an electric starter for gasoline cars likely was one factor in the death of electric vehicles or EVs. 

The first electric starter was installed in a Cadillac in 1912, ending the need to crank start the gas engine, and within 5 years nearly every gas car had such a starter.

Porsche EV in 1898

That's not a typo: 

Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the sports car company that carries his name, developed an electric car called the P1 in 1898.

Around the same time, he created the world's first gas-electric hybrid car, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. (Click on the link to "The History of the Electric Car" below.)

Now, Porsche (the car company) has taken the wraps off of the 2020 Taycan, its first all-electric car, and the sticker shock is reverberating around the world ($150,900 to $241,500).

Remember how many auto writers -- so poorly paid they accept bribes of free travel, lodging and fine dining to see new car models -- smeared the Tesla Model S as too "expensive"?

Rise and fall of EVs

"At the turn of the 20th century, the horse was still the primary mode of transportation," according to 'The History of the Electric Car.'"

"But as Americans became more prosperous, they turned to the newly invented motor vehicle -- available in steam, gasoline or electric versions -- to get around.

 "Electric cars didn't have any of the issues associated with steam or gasoline. They were quiet, easy to drive and didn't emit a smelly pollutant like the other cars of the time."

In what must have been a bitter pill to swallow for Edison and others who championed the electric car, it was Henry Ford -- one of Edison's friend -- whose "Model T made gasoline-powered cars widely available and affordable."

"By 1912, the gasoline car cost only $650, while the electric roadster sold for $1,750," and that same year, Charles Kettering "introduced the electric starter," eliminating the need for the hand crank and spurring gas-vehicle sales.

By the 1920s, better roads, cheaper gas, and more and more filling stations hurt electric car sales, and "electric vehicles all but disappeared by 1935,"

READ: The History of the Electric Car

1,093 PATENTS: Thomas Edison earned 1,093 U.S. patents in his lifetime, most for inventions that came from his industrial and research development laboratory in West Orange, above, preserved as Thomas Edison National Historic Park. A poured-concrete battery factory across a side street has been converted into luxury apartments called Edison Lofts.

EDISON'S OFFICE: The 3-story brick building held a research library, machine shops for building models, space for experiments, various research projects and Edison's office, according to the National Park Service.

CREATIVE CAT NAPS: Although Edison's palatial home was only a short distance from the complex, the inventor is said to have napped in his library, above.

RAISING THE HOOD: Edison showing the rechargeable batteries in an electric car. The photo is on the side of a National Park Service van.

CHARGING STATION: I plugged in my Tesla Model S for a few minutes at one of the National Historical Park's two charging stations. The chargers, paid for by BMW, add only 10 miles of range per hour, showing what other EV owners go through when they don't have Tesla's nationwide network of much faster Superchargers to rely on.

ON THE CLOCK: A Chevrolet Bolt EV also was plugged in nearby, possibly by a National Park Service employee.

INVENTOR OF THE LIGHT BULB: A statue of Edison shows him raising his best-known invention, the lightbulb, but he also perfected the phonograph, developed motion pictures, and invented a stock ticker and a telegraph device that sent 4 message at the same time, among many other inventions. 

Rooftop panels, Tesla Powerwalls, Model S allow me to cut cord to utility, slash bills

STORM SAVIOR: In the event of another big event like Superstorm Sandy, my three Powerwalls -- 40-kWh energy storage batteries -- will provide about 5 days backup power for my New Jersey home, Tesla says.

Long road to self-powered home

pays off with tax credits, solar cash

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I stared at my April utility bill in disbelief.

With 68 solar panels on the roof  charging three newly installed Tesla Powerwalls -- energy storage batteries that run my home overnight -- I had finally zeroed out my electric bill.

"Power from the sun day and night" is how Tesla describes the pairing of panels and Powerwalls.

But Public Service Electric & Gas Co. insisted on billing me $4.95 as a "monthly service charge."

What "service"?

Solar dates to 2009

After installing my first set of 60 solar panels in 2009, I was enrolled in the utility's net-metering program that banked electricity, as measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh), when my generating system produced more than our needs.

PSE&G lists them on the monthly bill: 

As of May 7, 308 kWh were delivered to me, but we generated a total of 484 kWh sent to the utility for a difference of -176 kWh.

That includes the electricity needed to charge my 2015 Tesla Model S overnight in my garage every few days.

Those kilowatt-hours are available to me, if my solar panels and storage batteries don't generate enough electricity to run my 3,300-square-foot home with central air conditioning and a heat pump that drove up my electricity bill in December, January and February.

$3.44 for electricity

In the previous billing period (ending on April 5), I paid $3.44 for my net usage -- 86 kilowatt-hours of electricity delivered to me -- plus the $4.95 monthly service charge, for a total of $8.39.

Tesla techs were delayed by March weather and didn't complete the wiring until three days into the billing period.

Before my Powerwalls were installed, my solar panels generated more than enough electricity to run my home during 5 months of the year, roughly April through August.

Now, that should be the case year-round. 

Before Powerwalls

My electric bill for Jan. 8 to Feb. 5 was $366, including the cost of "delivering electricity to you;" and for Feb. 6 to March 7, I paid $221.05 for electricity.

For the billing period of Dec. 5, 2018, to Jan. 7, total electric charges were $323.29.

I blame an electricity sucking heat pump I had installed to supplement an inadequate radiant-heating system the previous owner, a Realtor,  saddled me with.

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE: One of the deciding factors in the purchase of my home was a southern exposure ideal for the installation of solar panels.

Cutting the cord

The process of cutting the electrical cord to my utility has been long, but there was a time in New Jersey when there were limits on how many solar panels you could install (lest everyone decided to go solar and put the utility out of the electricity business). 

And when the grid goes down, as happened during Superstorm Sandy in October 2012, my solar panels were "knocked out," so to speak, and didn't generate electricity to keep my home running in the 5 days before power was restored. 

Storage batteries were forbidden.

The inspector sent to look at my Powerwall installation in April said they were the first such energy storage batteries in Hackensack, a small city of about 45,000 people.

I paid for the 3 Powerwalls with a fixed-rate home equity loan of about $20,000, repayable over 5 years.

Each Powerwall 2 cost $5,500, and the rest of the cost -- a total of $20,739 -- was for installation and permits.

Rebate, loan

First Light Energy installed my first set of 50 200-watt panels in 2009 -- when the maximum allowed was 10,000 watts -- under a New Jersey rebate program. (The state paid $35,000 and I paid $45,500.)

In the years since, I've earned federal tax credits and sold tax-free solar renewable energy credits (SRECs) to the utility that have more than reimbursed my investment, not to mention the savings from lower utility bills.

You get one SREC for every 1,000 watts your system generates, so I can sell about a dozen to my utility every year.

In 2012, First Light Energy installed 18 more solar panels, these rated at 240 watts each, after I got a solar loan from my utility that required me to put up about half of the cost.

That loan of roughly $11,000 is being repaid with more solar renewable energy credits, which PSE&G values at $400 each, even though their worth on the open market has fallen to almost half of that. 

SELF-POWERED HOME: My Tesla App allows me use my smartphone to monitor my 3 Powerwalls as well as my 2015 Model S. Selecting "Power Flow" shows me when my solar panels are charging the Powerwalls, running the house or sending energy to the grid. My neighborhood experienced two 5-minute outages on May 12, but I never lost power.