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Buyer beware, even for Tesla CPO

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I am normally a huge proponent for Tesla. I was happy to recommend buying certified pre-owned, CPO, from them but am actually in quite a pickle that I have to say now "buyer beware." I bought a Model X certified pre-owned from Tesla (at Paramus NJ) without one issue on the Carfax report. It turns out that after I received a clear title from the DMV a month after the sale, there was an anomalous report of flood damage recorded to the DMV on the vehicle approximately 3 weeks after the issuance of my clean title, and I was not aware of it until recently.

Because of this report, supercharging was turned off. You can imagine my surprise learning this over a hundred miles from home. I was never sent a courtesy call, nor email, nor letter telling me they had this report on my VIN. No attempt was made by Tesla to their paying customer to rectify it. I would not have driven it that far had I known and would have taken another vehicle. They effectively kept me stranded and did not even turn on supercharging even temporarily for me to get home. I called roadside service twice out of desperation and the CSR had to tell me no exceptions because of policy--I could tell they said so reluctantly, but they know they stranded a family of five. They just turned it off without telling me, knowing full well I showed active use of the vehicle on my app and driving it nearly weekly since the day of sale. I was never in a flood or accident. I never went to a shop other than Tesla for anything more than minor repairs or tire change, and my insurance is up to date without any claims.

I wish I could tell you a happy ending to this. Currently I am actually sitting in a hotel, waiting on the trickle charge of 4 miles an hour, to get enough miles to get home. The hotel was nice enough to let me charge. I had a starting charge of 60 miles and need 140 miles to get home safely. You do the math to figure out how long we've been here.

I really am at a loss as to how to prevent this even after sale from Tesla, but aside from periodically screening Carfax, a brand on the title is a scarlet letter that will take serious effort to remedy. I know my experience is a really rare event among the thousands of vehicles they sell, but when it happens to a vehicle that you paid significant up front price to get, it can hit you hard if you cannot weather it. And it's an even harder hit when the company you trusted treats you now like a pariah.
 
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HOLY SH1T. Ya, Tesla has really got to get their service straightened out. This is by far the worst story I've heard and that's saying A LOT.

I'm not a preacher, but this is a helpful tip I've learned through my years of suffering: AAA roadside assistance. The premiere version does up to 250 mile tow up to 2 different times. However, it's moot you had to be a member before. Even though our Tesla's supposedly come with a 500 mile tow policy, that's ONLY if it's mechanical defect. Even if you go with Tesla's insurance, which I have, the tow coverage for it is sparse. So I triple up by keeping around my good ol trusty AAA Premier it's well worth the $150 or whatever per year.

That said, i would cough up the 160 mile tow. Good luck I hope you're able to rectify the matter.
 
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Wow, you're taking this much better than I would. If they sold it with super charging, then removed it, they've mislead you on the status of the vehicle and I would hire a lawyer, now. That's awful, they really screwed you over, and I'd be on the warpath.
 
Thanks for the kind words. Currently what's fixing this is a cheap hotel room, slow trickle charge, and when I get home tomorrow, the thought of a nice cold one to enjoy the rest of 4th weekend is how I'm handling it at the moment.

Also, internet access and a smartphone is helping. I'm learning more about how many title nightmares there are out there. Some like mine and also some rather asinine. For example, did you know that marking "not actual miles" on the title form could actually default the title to salvage status?!? Not saying that it happened here, but this is not self explanatory.
 
How long have you had your Model X?

Is it screwup that DMV branded the wrong VIN?

Bought it April 2019.

I can only surmise that this is a DMV screwup, because I got my title mid May 2019 and no less than 3 weeks later, in June 2019, is the recorded flood event in the title. This is rather atypical and anomalous to file just weeks after a clean title was sent to me. Obviously I don't have a copy of this flood/salvage title because it was never sent to me. Imagine me trying to find out more over the phone, calling the DMV, merely minutes before they close for the holiday weekend to find out more what I need to do.
 
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Wow, you're taking this much better than I would. If they sold it with super charging, then removed it, they've mislead you on the status of the vehicle and I would hire a lawyer, now. That's awful, they really screwed you over, and I'd be on the warpath.

Well, I'm still trying to fact find from the DMV and I still optimistic that there's enough there for them to see that this was recorded on the wrong VIN. However, if Tesla knew about this before they sold to me, believe me, they are going to hear from my representatives.

Crossing my fingers, wish me luck. It's going to be slow because of this holiday weekend and this other thing called COVID-19 that's actually more worrisome than this problem of mine.
 
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HOLY SH1T. Ya, Tesla has really got to get their service straightened out. This is by far the worst story I've heard and that's saying A LOT.

I'm not a preacher, but this is a helpful tip I've learned through my years of suffering: AAA roadside assistance. The premiere version does up to 250 mile tow up to 2 different times. However, it's moot you had to be a member before. Even though our Tesla's supposedly come with a 500 mile tow policy, that's ONLY if it's mechanical defect. Even if you go with Tesla's insurance, which I have, the tow coverage for it is sparse. So I triple up by keeping around my good ol trusty AAA Premier it's well worth the $150 or whatever per year.

That said, i would cough up the 160 mile tow. Good luck I hope you're able to rectify the matter.


Good call on getting AAA too. I do actually have them, but didn't consider the tow home. I wanted to salvage what "small" road trip with the family I could, and couldn't imagine getting the tow home and the rest of family needing to wait for me (I think tow companies would only take one other passenger and not a family of 5) until I got back to pick them up in another vehicle.

Tesla's policy is to tow to the nearest supercharger if it is merely stopped due to low/no charge. That's quite a conundrum there if that was to happen. It won't supercharge because they turned it off!
 
Good call on getting AAA too. I do actually have them, but didn't consider the tow home. I wanted to salvage what "small" road trip with the family I could, and couldn't imagine getting the tow home and the rest of family needing to wait for me (I think tow companies would only take one other passenger and not a family of 5) until I got back to pick them up in another vehicle.

Tesla's policy is to tow to the nearest supercharger if it is merely stopped due to low/no charge. That's quite a conundrum there if that was to happen. It won't supercharge because they turned it off!

Aaa will tow to delivered to your destination of choice in lieu of you being there as long as you were at the pickup end with the caveat that someone has to be on the other end to receive the key. Such as a relative or a mechanic . And then rent a car one way for your family to continue your vacation, I believe this may be partially covered by the aaa policy as well.

on the bright side your family might look back and remember it as an adventurous vacation. I think you have a silver lining way out of this
 
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CarFax doesn’t always use VINs to report issues, so perhaps your DMV did something similar?

I had a car for 2 years with only 16k miles but when I went to sell it, CarFax flagged it as odometer rollback and showed entries for mileage in the 80s.

It turned out that the previous owner’s personalized license plate was re-used on another car, completely different year, make, model (and of course VIN), but CarFax linked its mileage reports to my car because they took a license plate shortcut and didn’t bother to match VINs.
 
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Wow, you're taking this much better than I would. If they sold it with super charging, then removed it, they've mislead you on the status of the vehicle and I would hire a lawyer, now. That's awful, they really screwed you over, and I'd be on the warpath.
I second this post as well as MP3 Mike’s. This sounds like another example of Tesla’s right hand not knowing what the left is doing. One part of Tesla sold you the clean title car, another part of Tesla looks for salvage title cars to block and yet a third part couldn’t/wouldn’t see Tesla’s problem and help you.
 
I second this post as well as MP3 Mike’s. This sounds like another example of Tesla’s right hand not knowing what the left is doing. One part of Tesla sold you the clean title car, another part of Tesla looks for salvage title cars to block and yet a third part couldn’t/wouldn’t see Tesla’s problem and help you.

I third this. Call Tesla and let them know you need this fixed immediately. I wouldn't hesitate letting a branch manager know that you are also seeking legal council. Don't wait, do this Monday morning.
 
Not defending Tesla's inability to correct a mistake.... but .... sounds like the majority of the issue lies with the DMV. If they've - after the fact - branded the title as a flood/salvage vehicle, sounds like the mistake is on them. Tesla's policy is to disable supercharging on salvage vehicles, so I can understand how that happened. It's likely automated, so calling and explaining "It's a mistake!" probably won't take you too far until you can find the one person in that special department that has the ability to turn it back on. That's almost certainly not something any normal customer service rep can do, unfortunately.

Unfortunately dealing with the DMV in any state is a nightmare. Adding Covid-19 shutdowns and backlogs on top of that? I can only imagine the special kind of hell you're going through. Convincing them that they made a mistake is hard during good times.

Now, for immediate needs -- do you have the PlugShare application? If so - check for Destination, home or J1772 chargers in the area. They'd be a lot lot lot faster than the wall outlet at the hotel. For example - I have my home 48amp charger listed on PlugShare with a note - if anyone needs to use it, they can text me. Plenty of that on PlugShare - so worth checking out and see if you can find a generous soul nearby, or some place close with a faster charger than your hotel.

Good luck - you have all my sympathy here but paperwork nightmares are exactly that... nightmares.

Now, if Tesla unknowingly (there's no way they'd do it if they knew - too much risk) sold you an actual salvage vehicle - suggest you retain an attorney. Post-haste.
 
Not defending Tesla's inability to correct a mistake.... but .... sounds like the majority of the issue lies with the DMV. If they've - after the fact - branded the title as a flood/salvage vehicle, sounds like the mistake is on them. Tesla's policy is to disable supercharging on salvage vehicles, so I can understand how that happened. It's likely automated, so calling and explaining "It's a mistake!" probably won't take you too far until you can find the one person in that special department that has the ability to turn it back on. That's almost certainly not something any normal customer service rep can do, unfortunately.

Unfortunately dealing with the DMV in any state is a nightmare. Adding Covid-19 shutdowns and backlogs on top of that? I can only imagine the special kind of hell you're going through. Convincing them that they made a mistake is hard during good times.

Now, for immediate needs -- do you have the PlugShare application? If so - check for Destination, home or J1772 chargers in the area. They'd be a lot lot lot faster than the wall outlet at the hotel. For example - I have my home 48amp charger listed on PlugShare with a note - if anyone needs to use it, they can text me. Plenty of that on PlugShare - so worth checking out and see if you can find a generous soul nearby, or some place close with a faster charger than your hotel.

Good luck - you have all my sympathy here but paperwork nightmares are exactly that... nightmares.

Now, if Tesla unknowingly (there's no way they'd do it if they knew - too much risk) sold you an actual salvage vehicle - suggest you retain an attorney. Post-haste.
I agree that DMV probably made an error. However, ALL fault for OP being stranded lies at Tesla’s feet: Tesla sold OP the car and has those records. Tesla scraped DMV records to block Supercharging but FAILED to even look at their own records for any discrepancies. Tesla then blocked OP’s DC charging access and stranded his family. When he called Tesla for help, again Tesla had access to all of its original sales records and the DMV scrape file, yet Tesla REFUSED to help him, perhaps because Tesla fails to empower its customer service to correct Tesla’s mistakes.

NONE of that is OP’s fault. This is a Tesla dumpster fire all the way around and yet another example of Tesla’s revolutionary good product being dragged down by Tesla’s equally “revolutionary” terrible management. Tesla is over a decade old and a hugely valuable company — it is maddening when they can’t seem to get basic management right that “old school” product companies from tires to toasters to toothpicks have down pat. It’s way past time to grow up and take care of customers.
 
I agree that DMV probably made an error. However, ALL fault for OP being stranded lies at Tesla’s feet: Tesla sold OP the car and has those records. Tesla scraped DMV records to block Supercharging but FAILED to even look at their own records for any discrepancies.

What relevance do their own records have? If DMV reports that the vehicle was flood damaged after it was sold Tesla is just taking the newer information made available to them.
 
What relevance do their own records have? If DMV reports that the vehicle was flood damaged after it was sold Tesla is just taking the newer information made available to them.

Exactly. There’s nothing Tesla can - or, really, should - do until the DMV records are cleaned up.

For all they know, they sold the car, the OP got it stuck in a flood the next day, insurance totaled it and he bought it back as salvage. Not likely, but 100% possible.
All Tesla knows is that the state branded the title. And branded titles don’t get Supercharging. Not something a customer service agent can override.

DMV needs to issue the correction, or, OP needs a policy exception from someone with that authority inside Tesla.

Far from a Tesla dumpster fire, this is (hopefully) a clerical error on DMVs part. The hard part is going to be getting that cleared.
 
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Exactly. There’s nothing Tesla can - or, really, should - do until the DMV records are cleaned up.

For all they know, they sold the car, the OP got it stuck in a flood the next day, insurance totaled it and he bought it back as salvage. Not likely, but 100% possible.
All Tesla knows is that the state branded the title. And branded titles don’t get Supercharging. Not something a customer service agent can override.

DMV needs to issue the correction, or, OP needs a policy exception from someone with that authority inside Tesla.

Far from a Tesla dumpster fire, this is (hopefully) a clerical error on DMVs part. The hard part is going to be getting that cleared.
“All Tesla knows is that the state branded the title.” No, let’s not cherry pick a single data point and ignore many others:

Tesla sold OP the car in April 2019. It took DMV a month to process Tesla’s paperwork to issue OP a clean title. Just 3 weeks later DMV recorded a flood brand on the title. So does it sound remotely possible that OP flooded the car, his insurance company inspected the damage, obtained repair estimates, declared it totaled, appraised it, offered it back to OP at a certain price, he agreed, paid the insurance company, they processed both titles (first them paying him off and branding it salvage in their name and then the second title transfer from the insurance company back to OP) and DMV issued a new branded title ... ALL within 3 weeks?!? That’s just absurd.

Moreover, Tesla has all his (and our) car’s reports back to the mothership — from OP’s description anyone want to bet against Tesla’s own records on OP’s car showing no errors in those 3 weeks? No inquiries from a Tesla-approved repair shop for parts estimate for OP’s VIN?!?

Finally, there’s the other issues of (1) Tesla waiting over a year from the flood brand to disable his DC charging - Tesla again has records of his Supercharging history without issue for that whole time so clearly it was not an emergency that required remotely disabling his DC charging without any notice to him; and (2) remotely accessing OP’s computer system without permission and disabling a key function, hallmarks of the federal felony of computer intrusion as has been discussed at length in other posts.

C’mon, MP3Mike & dmurphy, ignoring Tesla’s customer service failures or making excuses for them does NOT help Tesla. Enabling bad behavior merely encourages more (and worse) problems in the future. No one and no company is perfect but pretending that the emperor is wearing only the finest clothes helps no one, least of all Tesla or OP.
 
“All Tesla knows is that the state branded the title.” No, let’s not cherry pick a single data point and ignore many others:

Tesla sold OP the car in April 2019. It took DMV a month to process Tesla’s paperwork to issue OP a clean title. Just 3 weeks later DMV recorded a flood brand on the title. So does it sound remotely possible that OP flooded the car, his insurance company inspected the damage, obtained repair estimates, declared it totaled, appraised it, offered it back to OP at a certain price, he agreed, paid the insurance company, they processed both titles (first them paying him off and branding it salvage in their name and then the second title transfer from the insurance company back to OP) and DMV issued a new branded title ... ALL within 3 weeks?!? That’s just absurd.

More than likely Tesla has recently setup an automated interface to a salvage title information service, if the VIN comes across Supercharging is disabled automatically. There is no person reviewing each transaction to see if it seems reasonable. But for your example the flood damage wouldn't have had to happen after he got his clean title, it literally could have happened the day he drove the car off the lot. So yes, it is reasonably possible that that could have happened.

But the real issue is that besides Supercharging the OP needs DMV to fix the issue as his car has been greatly devalued, and that has nothing to do with Tesla. Once he gets DMV to fix the issue then he has to show Tesla that DMV made a mistake and undo their flagging of his VIN. (Hopefully DMV will give him a letter stating that they screwed up and have now rectified the issue.) This probably isn't a common occurrence so Tesla probably doesn't have a process for this yet. (Yeah, it appears they don't plan ahead for things like this.)