DarickHemphill
Well-known member
- First Name
- Darick
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2024
- Threads
- 34
- Messages
- 198
- Reaction score
- 395
- Location
- Springfield, MO
- Vehicles
- Cybertruck
- Occupation
- Attorney
- Thread starter
- #1
Tuesday I was able to pick up my pedal delayed Cybertruck from Kansas City. The ordering process was one of the worst experiences I have ever had. I was literally contemplating cancelling the order and going into litigation mode because of the awful communication. A few things abut me. I am a first time Tesla owner. I am a huge fan of Tesla and Elon and have been for many years. My first house cost 30k. I am a business owner, but I am a frugal business owner, so this was a huge purchase for me. I expected a delivery experience commensurate with the price tag. It was not. I recruited my 86 year old mother and my 18 year old son to drive me to Kansas City to pick up the truck. We ate lunch at Jack Stacks and headed over. Within a few minutes they took me out to see the truck. It was mostly clean, but not detailed. Pollen in the truck bed and and under the compartment doors, bad smudges on the rear end and sides, It had been washed, but not hand cleaned... No big deal... just disappointing. The pedal had a rivet in it. I checked the edges of the truck for gap consistency and was pretty pleased except for a front corner edge which was definitely higher on one side than the other. I mentioned it to the lady who was "showing" me the car. Without looking at it she said it was within tolerances. It was then that I realized she was not going to help me, and started taking a lot of pictures to show the service department. I told her I was new to tesla and had test driven one in Florida years ago and asked her to talk to me like I was a two year old. She pushed some buttons on my phone and said "there your phone is linked to the car." She stood beside the driver side door and went over how to shift the car. I mentioned that I was getting ready to drive 3 hours back home and then had a trip to Memphis at 5 am. She showed me how to change the max charging feature from 80 to 100 percent. She seemed to be in a hurry, and at this point I was exhausted and a little peeved that there was no plan to actually drive the truck with me and teach me about it and its functionality. No attempt was made to go over what came with the truck. Memory stick? bottle opener? sun visor? cargo separator? Just not mentioned. Luckily I had you guys and have been reading your articles so I knew a bit about what would be ready today and what would be mailed at a later date. In less than 10 minutes the show was over. I get that they were backed up, I understand the recall probably made things miserable for them, but man I think another few minutes of letting me ask questions would have helped tremendously. I left the parking lot. I was a bag of nerves. My son and mother drove her car. The Navigation system wasn't immediately intuitive to me. In my opinion there is one way to get from Kansas City to Springfield, MO. The route the car chose was different and had me driving through Joplin Missouri and adding an hour to my trip. I was worried about traffic, distracted by people giving me thumbs ups and filming the truck... I ended up having to have my phone find my "better route." I needed to call my "chase car," but was so stressed and distracted I just drove. My plan was to get back to Springfield, drive to my bank that had a charge and sit and read the manual and go through the menus. Eventually I reached the open highway and was able to enjoy the incredibly smooth ride and instantaneous responsiveness that my new Cybertruck provided. The Tesla dealership had told me the Truck would be charged to 80 percent, but when I arrived it was at 70% so I spent a lot of my trip watching the charge get lower and lower. I arrived in Springfield at my bank with less than 8 percent. I figured out the charger on my own and fell back into the seat to read... unfortunately it didn't happen. Vehicles almost instantly started pulling up and started asking questions about the truck. Instead of being a wonderful ambassador of Tesla knowledge I had to let them know I was a total rookie and had not even figured out how to turn the cruise control on.
When the crowd finally died down I took a look at the charging status and realized that at 40/hr I was gonna have to leave the truck unattended all night to get it charged to 100% for my 5 hour trip to Memphis. I had asked the folks on my local tesla owners facebook page about issues getting the truck to Memphis and has sparked a pretty good debate on whether or not it could be done, and what the best route was to get there. Several people suggested routing through Little Rock vs. West plains even though it was an hour longer. The thought was there is only one supercharger location in Jonesboro Arkansas. None of the math made sense. So I made the command decision to drive the truck about 20 miles to a super charger on the north side of town. Again I know almost nothing abut charging, rates of charging, availability of charges etc... so this was a pretty big gamble with not much battery left. Got there. Backed up. Realized the I needed to straddle two spots to make the cable fit my truck. Got it plugged in and watched the magic of a super charger happen. I sat and paged through menus and realized that even with a super charger I was gonna be in for a long coupe of days. At 80 percent charge I disconnected and went in to the gas station to pay. ( Yeah I am that big of a dork.) The guy at the liquor store desk told me he had no idea how I paid, but assumed that the "car" took care of it. I had been told by Tesla that I was going to get 2 months of free Super charging because they could not find an installer in my area to put the charger in my garage. ( Even though I had already found a guy and had begun the deconstruction process in my basement to run the electricity to the garage. ) However for some strange reason the Free charging would not happen for another 30 days...
So there is a restaurant complex close to my house that has "free" chargers. I drove the truck there plugged it in, played a little more and called my son to give me a ride home. I packed when I got home. My son had cancer 3 years ago and was treated at St. Jude in Memphis. I volunteer on boards there, and was scheduled for an appointment at 11:30. I owe St. Jude millions of dollars for the free health care they provided our family and the life of my now 17 year old healthy son. I take my volunteer roles very seriously. I made the decision to leave at 4 am just in case I needed to slow down to conserve electricity. Around midnight I had my son drive me over to pick up the truck. It was at 97percent (or something like that.) I knew that plugging into a 110 outlet in my garage would generate about 3 miles per hour or range, but I plugged it in and went to bed.
Woke up at 3:30. Was excited to hit the road in my new Cybertruck! Coiled the charger into the storage area of the bed and loaded my suitcase and some care packages for friends at St. Jude and began my journey. It was dark, the roads were empty and the music great. I found a "Tesla Radio" station that was pumping out amazing tunes and smiled ear to ear. Maybe this was not the biggest financial mistake of my life. The truck was perfect! So responsive, the seat just fit nicely... my arms and hands felt very natural on the yolk. I was in heaven, I kept my eye on the percent charge icon and worried that it was dropping way to fast. I slowed down to under 70 miles per hour and instantly my drive profile jumped back into the green. I was so glad I gave myself some extra time on the way down. As i approached the hills near the Arkansas Missouri border, the sun came up and began to melt the fog that had settled on the Ozark mountains. The tenting of the windshield did an excellent job of keeping the glare out of my face. I made it to the Joesboro Super charger station with 21% charge left... EXACTLY what it said I would arrive at at the beginning of the trip. Hooked up, because now I am a professional Tesla charger, and walked into a gas station to stretch my legs and use the bathroom. I didn't need any caffeine I was a Cybertruck owner!
Made it into Memphis like a rock star. People staring, pointing, "thumbs uping" and always smiling. I pulled up to my hotel many hours early. I stay there a lot, so I knew I was probably not going to get a room, but the front desk staff ran out to see the Truck and ask questions and when I told her I may need to drop off my bags and head over to the hospital she told me should thought she could find me a room.... and did! Is this how famous people get treated? Probably just a coincidence. I got cleaned up, and headed to the security booth at St. Jude the guards wanted a picture. Then they called their buddies and got pictures with them! I was tickled to snap the shots and told them while I did how amazing they were and how important they were to us when we stayed there for 6 months straight in 2021. Seeing the smiles on their faces felt so good!
St. Jude is going through a lot of construction now, so I made some wrong turns getting to the Marlow Thomas building. Occasionally there would be a patient walking from housing to their Dr. appointments. One 17 year old girl jumped up and down when she saw it. She had been at St. Jude for several months and her hair was just startting to grow back. Her mom told me she was a huge Tesla fan and that she had pictures of the Roadster and cyber truck on the walls of her room. She asked if she could take a picture of herself standing by the truck. I told I couldn't allow that because she would look so much better sitting in the drivers seat. For a full five minutes we took pictures of her and she sent then to instagram, snap chat, and a myriad of other services I am too dumb to recognize. Seeing those beautiful bald kiddos pointing and smiling... maybe forgetting about their struggles for even a few seconds made every problem I had getting this Truck seem to melt away. I wanted to have the truck wrapped with a fundraiser message for St. Jude when I got there, but the recall got in the way. I will be back in early May and hope show even more kids and families.
Driving home last night I daydreamed of a day when I can push the button and let the truck take me home. The roads in Arkansas are hilly and chocked full of slow moving semis. Every few miles you get a passing lane. Barely touching the accelerator I would blow past other driver like they were standing still... accelerating all the way up the mountains...
If you are like me and wonder if you made the right choice to get this truck.... you did. I have a little more to say and will write when I get some rest, but what an amazing vehicle!
Darick
When the crowd finally died down I took a look at the charging status and realized that at 40/hr I was gonna have to leave the truck unattended all night to get it charged to 100% for my 5 hour trip to Memphis. I had asked the folks on my local tesla owners facebook page about issues getting the truck to Memphis and has sparked a pretty good debate on whether or not it could be done, and what the best route was to get there. Several people suggested routing through Little Rock vs. West plains even though it was an hour longer. The thought was there is only one supercharger location in Jonesboro Arkansas. None of the math made sense. So I made the command decision to drive the truck about 20 miles to a super charger on the north side of town. Again I know almost nothing abut charging, rates of charging, availability of charges etc... so this was a pretty big gamble with not much battery left. Got there. Backed up. Realized the I needed to straddle two spots to make the cable fit my truck. Got it plugged in and watched the magic of a super charger happen. I sat and paged through menus and realized that even with a super charger I was gonna be in for a long coupe of days. At 80 percent charge I disconnected and went in to the gas station to pay. ( Yeah I am that big of a dork.) The guy at the liquor store desk told me he had no idea how I paid, but assumed that the "car" took care of it. I had been told by Tesla that I was going to get 2 months of free Super charging because they could not find an installer in my area to put the charger in my garage. ( Even though I had already found a guy and had begun the deconstruction process in my basement to run the electricity to the garage. ) However for some strange reason the Free charging would not happen for another 30 days...
So there is a restaurant complex close to my house that has "free" chargers. I drove the truck there plugged it in, played a little more and called my son to give me a ride home. I packed when I got home. My son had cancer 3 years ago and was treated at St. Jude in Memphis. I volunteer on boards there, and was scheduled for an appointment at 11:30. I owe St. Jude millions of dollars for the free health care they provided our family and the life of my now 17 year old healthy son. I take my volunteer roles very seriously. I made the decision to leave at 4 am just in case I needed to slow down to conserve electricity. Around midnight I had my son drive me over to pick up the truck. It was at 97percent (or something like that.) I knew that plugging into a 110 outlet in my garage would generate about 3 miles per hour or range, but I plugged it in and went to bed.
Woke up at 3:30. Was excited to hit the road in my new Cybertruck! Coiled the charger into the storage area of the bed and loaded my suitcase and some care packages for friends at St. Jude and began my journey. It was dark, the roads were empty and the music great. I found a "Tesla Radio" station that was pumping out amazing tunes and smiled ear to ear. Maybe this was not the biggest financial mistake of my life. The truck was perfect! So responsive, the seat just fit nicely... my arms and hands felt very natural on the yolk. I was in heaven, I kept my eye on the percent charge icon and worried that it was dropping way to fast. I slowed down to under 70 miles per hour and instantly my drive profile jumped back into the green. I was so glad I gave myself some extra time on the way down. As i approached the hills near the Arkansas Missouri border, the sun came up and began to melt the fog that had settled on the Ozark mountains. The tenting of the windshield did an excellent job of keeping the glare out of my face. I made it to the Joesboro Super charger station with 21% charge left... EXACTLY what it said I would arrive at at the beginning of the trip. Hooked up, because now I am a professional Tesla charger, and walked into a gas station to stretch my legs and use the bathroom. I didn't need any caffeine I was a Cybertruck owner!
Made it into Memphis like a rock star. People staring, pointing, "thumbs uping" and always smiling. I pulled up to my hotel many hours early. I stay there a lot, so I knew I was probably not going to get a room, but the front desk staff ran out to see the Truck and ask questions and when I told her I may need to drop off my bags and head over to the hospital she told me should thought she could find me a room.... and did! Is this how famous people get treated? Probably just a coincidence. I got cleaned up, and headed to the security booth at St. Jude the guards wanted a picture. Then they called their buddies and got pictures with them! I was tickled to snap the shots and told them while I did how amazing they were and how important they were to us when we stayed there for 6 months straight in 2021. Seeing the smiles on their faces felt so good!
St. Jude is going through a lot of construction now, so I made some wrong turns getting to the Marlow Thomas building. Occasionally there would be a patient walking from housing to their Dr. appointments. One 17 year old girl jumped up and down when she saw it. She had been at St. Jude for several months and her hair was just startting to grow back. Her mom told me she was a huge Tesla fan and that she had pictures of the Roadster and cyber truck on the walls of her room. She asked if she could take a picture of herself standing by the truck. I told I couldn't allow that because she would look so much better sitting in the drivers seat. For a full five minutes we took pictures of her and she sent then to instagram, snap chat, and a myriad of other services I am too dumb to recognize. Seeing those beautiful bald kiddos pointing and smiling... maybe forgetting about their struggles for even a few seconds made every problem I had getting this Truck seem to melt away. I wanted to have the truck wrapped with a fundraiser message for St. Jude when I got there, but the recall got in the way. I will be back in early May and hope show even more kids and families.
Driving home last night I daydreamed of a day when I can push the button and let the truck take me home. The roads in Arkansas are hilly and chocked full of slow moving semis. Every few miles you get a passing lane. Barely touching the accelerator I would blow past other driver like they were standing still... accelerating all the way up the mountains...
If you are like me and wonder if you made the right choice to get this truck.... you did. I have a little more to say and will write when I get some rest, but what an amazing vehicle!
Darick
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