$100 Order fee is a fee, and not a deposit?

[BeeGood]

It sounds to me like Tesla really has not decided whether it’s applied toward the balance or kept as a separate fee.

It eventually gets applied to the balance. Tesla just does the line items in a weird way on the Order Agreement.

Once you finalize your financing, you’ll see it deducted from your final amount owed. So it is essentially a non-refundable $100 deposit.

 

[JCtx]

I mocked an order, just to see the process, and it appears the $100 is back to being a fee. I also didn't like the additional $1,200 'fee' wasn't disclosed. Are there any other surprises? I live in TX, so have to obviously pay TTL here, but are there any other hidden fees? My wife was bummed no more life connectivity as of 1/8/2020. Tesla should have left it for original owners, at least, especially now that there's zero incentives this year. She doesn't want me to buy her the car now. I wanted to surprise her for her birthday in 27 days, but no way I could do that. No unsold inventory anywhere. She wants a gray long range with white interior. So it seems like it'll be like $54K before taxes. Need to inquire tomorrow about a trade, to save in taxes, but salesman never mentioned that. Is it worth it with them? Thx.

 

[anon125110]

I mocked an order, just to see the process, and it appears the $100 is back to being a fee. I also didn't like the additional $1,200 'fee' wasn't disclosed. Are there any other surprises? I live in TX, so have to obviously pay TTL here, but are there any other hidden fees? My wife was bummed no more life connectivity as of 1/8/2020. Tesla should have left it for original owners, at least, especially now that there's zero incentives this year. She doesn't want me to buy her the car now. I wanted to surprise her for her birthday in 27 days, but no way I could do that. No unsold inventory anywhere. She wants a gray long range with white interior. So it seems like it'll be like $54K before taxes. Need to inquire tomorrow about a trade, to save in taxes, but salesman never mentioned that. Is it worth it with them? Thx.

What was the $1200 fee? Destination charges?

Ive been told that with Tesla purchases always add $5k to $7k to whatever the sticker price is, thats how much taxes, destination fees, registration, insurance premiums etc all will cost extra to you. So the $49k LR AWD is more like $54k to $56k

 

[specialgreen]

I'm OK with Tesla wanting customers to have $100 of skin in the game before hitting Submit. However, unless Tesla actually intended to make the car $100 more expensive, the Destination Fee should have been lowered from $1200 to $1100 to compensate.

 

[dmurphy]

What was the $1200 fee? Destination charges?

Ive been told that with Tesla purchases always add $5k to $7k to whatever the sticker price is, thats how much taxes, destination fees, registration, insurance premiums etc all will cost extra to you. So the $49k LR AWD is more like $54k to $56k

What?

Here is my purchase agreement.

The vehicle was $56,000.
The destination fee was $1,200.
= $57,200.

Then, I had to pay NJ Title Fee of $85, and Registration Fee of $311 (4 year registration).
NJ does not charge sales tax on electric vehicles, so my complete, total, out the door price was $57,596.00

All of that other "stuff" you've heard about - sales tax, registration and title fees - are what your state charges. Those fees are not in Tesla's control, and they do not mark them up at all.

Tesla is - by far - the easiest to understand pricing I've ever had on a vehicle purchase.

Vehicle + $1200 Destination Fee + Whatever your state requires. That's it.

 

[Resist]

I really don't understand why people are not outraged at Tesla over this $100 nonrefundable "Fee". Is $100 going to break me...no, but to pay a fee for no reason except just because, this on an already expensive vehicle, makes it insulting. We already pay an inflated designation fee (even if you picked it up at the factory), and an inflated doc fee (which costs them practically nothing to print up). We're already paying $10 a month plus tax, for their Premium Connectivity. Oh and we're paying more to keep warm or play a game while Supercharging. Not to mention that insurance and repairs are more expensive on a Tesla than most other vehicles. All this stuff starts to add up. Look, I know new technology isn't inexpensive but Tesla has been selling cars for over a decade now and nickel and diming customers sucks.

 

[dmurphy]

I really don't understand why people are not outraged at Tesla over this $100 nonrefundable "Fee". Is $100 going to break me...no, but to pay a fee for no reason except just because, this on an already expensive vehicle, makes it insulting.

Have you ever bought ANY other vehicle before?

One of these is loaded with bogus "fees" and a price that can change. One is clear and concise and shows me exactly what I'm paying.

I can tell you which I prefer.

 

[mattack4000]

Whatever, you will cry about it if the car is $100 more and the fee is gone

 

[JCannonTech]

I'm OK with Tesla wanting customers to have $100 of skin in the game before hitting Submit. However, unless Tesla actually intended to make the car $100 more expensive, the Destination Fee should have been lowered from $1200 to $1100 to compensate.

It is literally illegal for them to lower the destination fee. It is a mandated fee under US law based on an averaging of their shipping costs.

 

[mattack4000]

It is also illegal for them in CA to collect a deposit on a new vehicle, that's why they have to call it a fee

 

[BeeGood]

I mocked an order, just to see the process, and it appears the $100 is back to being a fee. I also didn't like the additional $1,200 'fee' wasn't disclosed.

Are there any other surprises?

Unless something has changed since Thursday night, the $100 gets credited back to your TTL when you pay your final amount due. You won’t see that in the order agreement that you got from your mock order.

Also, as others have said, the $1200 is a destination fee. Everyone pays that. Some dealerships will “discount” it for you but rest assured that they’re getting that money out of you some other way.

As for surprises, I dunno man. I took delivery of my Model 3 Friday. The whole process was 6 days from order to delivery. The process wasn’t perfect but it was BY FAR the most pleasant, hassle-free and transparent car purchases I have ever made. The communication could have been better (particularly with Tesla financing), but I know where every penny I paid went, as opposed to going to a dealership and being arbitrarily placed in some grey area between invoice And MSRP and having no clue if I’m getting screwed or not.

 

[Resist]

Unless something has changed since Thursday night, the $100 gets credited back to your TTL when you pay your final amount due. You won’t see that in the order agreement that you got from your mock order.

Well, according to many others, the $100 is not credited back.

 

[Resist]

Have you ever bought ANY other vehicle before?

One of these is loaded with bogus "fees" and a price that can change. One is clear and concise and shows me exactly what I'm paying.

I've purchase many new vehicles over the decades, so yeah I know there are bogus fees added in the auto industry. But Tesla is supposed to be different and not like them. You clearly missed the point of my post.

 

[mattack4000]

Ummm what

 

[BeeGood]

Well, according to many others, the $100 is not credited back.

It seems like the issue is that not everyone’s final paperwork looks the same, but if you add up the purchase price and TTL, then subtract your financing, down payment made or any trade in value, you’ll end up with an amount owed, and your number should be $100 higher than what Tesla is asking.

If it’s not, I would definitely talk to my advisor.

 

[buttermilktoas]

Finally got in touch with the sales manager who looked over my order. She told me basically any order after Oct 24, 2019, it turned into a fee. So it's an additional $100 on top of the car total price. My order was on Oct 26, missed it by 2 days. I said that's a little ridiculous that we have to pay extra just to be able to buy the car. And she explained it as the cost of the logistics of shipping, housing, detailing the cars since a lot of people just cancel their orders. But that's what the non refundable part is for...

Anyway, that's what I was told when I said that multiple people on forums did not have this fee and she basically said it's the order date that determines it. Not sure if it's by market or what. This is in Hawaii, so maybe it varies by state.

Asked if this is the process going forward, she said yes. Any new order will have the extra $100 fee.

 

[Resist]

And she explained it as the cost of the logistics of shipping, housing, detailing the cars since a lot of people just cancel their orders. But that's what the non refundable part is for...

This is ridiculous, Tesla is nickel and diming us now! It would have been better to just increase the price of the cars, because that's going to happen anyway. If they are worried people will cancel their orders, then don't make it refundable. I won't buy another Tesla until they get rid of this stupid fee.

 

[OCR1]

I always suspected they were trying to add an extra $100 in margin by sneaking this fee into the process. I guess it took them a while to communicate internally whether it is a fee or a deposit. I won’t be surprised if they reverse their decision and go in a different direction with it next month though. They change these things up frequently.

There were a lot of cars in inventory yesterday and today they are all gone. And lead times are still 4-6 weeks for California deliveries. So at the moment it does not appear that Tesla has a demand problem. Until that changes prices are not going to be going down any time soon.

 

[skgolf91]

*update* I was told that I would be getting a refund check on Dec 12 and nothing happened. I inquired about it on 1/21 & 27 and finally I got the $100 credit back on my credit card..

It sucks that Tesla is adding this "fee" to the total price but I'm not gonna lose sleep over it and just enjoy the car..

 

[Gasaraki]

I really don't understand why people are not outraged at Tesla over this $100 nonrefundable "Fee". Is $100 going to break me...no, but to pay a fee for no reason except just because, this on an already expensive vehicle, makes it insulting. We already pay an inflated designation fee (even if you picked it up at the factory), and an inflated doc fee (which costs them practically nothing to print up). We're already paying $10 a month plus tax, for their Premium Connectivity. Oh and we're paying more to keep warm or play a game while Supercharging. Not to mention that insurance and repairs are more expensive on a Tesla than most other vehicles. All this stuff starts to add up. Look, I know new technology isn't inexpensive but Tesla has been selling cars for over a decade now and nickel and diming customers sucks.

It is NOT A FEE because they deduct it back when you actually purchase the car. It's more like a deposit but they stopped calling it a deposit because people complained this is a nonrefundable deposit.

EDIT: Just read the last few posts. Really? They no longer deduct the $100 from your purchase price? That sucks if that's the case.