I've been told in the past that if an existing inventory order pops up, I can contact a Tesla advisor to assign my order VIN to the existing inventory order. But I just asked, and they specifically said they can't do that, and that I would need to order the vehicle from the inventory list online. Is this accurate or do I need to talk to another advisor? If I order from the inventory list online, I don't want to have to pay the deposit again.
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Can't change my order to an existing inventory car?
- Thread starter maxiedaniels
- Start date
refusedmd
Member
as i understand, if you have an existing order and you want to purchase something that has popped into inventory, you will have to pay the deposit again.
pilotSteve
Active Member
Tesla doesnt consider that $250 a "deposit". Its specifically called out that it isnt a deposit, actually, and that its an "order fee" that is earned by them for processing an order. I am not a lawyer (not even close), but I seem to remember the verbiage spelling that out, and that it wasnt refundible.
I also remember people posting here that they had issues trying to get tesla to move (for example) an order for an inventory car to one for a new one, as well.
I have a model Y on order for my wife, and looked up the order fee language. Here it is, directly screenshotted from my current existing order for a model Y:
So, I read that to say that tesla says "we are not refunding that order fee, we earned it after you placed your order"
Okay but I’m still confused because I know someone who had a model 3 with delivery estimate a few months away, and they called and Tesla assigned an existing inventory VIN to them without issue. So I’m just wondering why they are saying it’s an issue
I have heard both. Probably depends on how "senior" the SA you are calling is, or said another way, access they may or may not have in Tesla's system to "do stuff". I dont work for tesla (never have), but I do work in IT, and the longer a support person works in a place, they not only gain knowledge of "how the company works" but many times they gain "permissions" (IT based) in whatever system the company uses to "do stuff".
Just from the outside looking in, a lot of teslas ambiguity on stuff like this likely stems from the fact that tesla will have a policy "not to do X" (in this case, "not to move orders to existing stock inventory" but its technically "possible" if one has the permissions to do it, and some do, so.. do.
Sort of like this rash of "I got my SA to re assign reservation to someone else" stuff that absolutely should not be going on, but is.
So, try calling back? Shrug, you may find someone who can do it and is willing, or, you may not.
Tesla's policies are an opaque fluid. It's always been common with Tesla to get different answers from different places. They're still very much a startup in a lot of ways. This is the company that accepted Bitcoin for like two weeks. At the same time Tesla's policies are often very intelligent and focused on maximizing their revenue even if it means looking inconsistent from the outside. If you're in place with a lot of inventory, they may happily get rid of some, but if you're in a low inventory place, why give that up? Being closer/farther from the end of quarter also makes HUGE differences in Tesla policies. Maybe they can't get you that inventory car by end of month, so what's the point? Or maybe they just have a lot of <insert color here> cars in inventory and are happy to clear those out.
The idea of inventory for Tesla right now is kind of wild given the order backlog.
Your best chance is to talk to the actual person your friend did and see if they can do the same for you.
Some SAs will do it but it also depends where the inventory car is actually located. If it is already at a different location across the country then assigning the VIN means Tesla is paying for cross country transport. Normally with inventory orders you pay the extra transport fee (i.e $2000) to your delivery location. That’s cost is already built into the non inventory order.
I've been around the loop with Tesla trying to move this forward without any luck. I have a custom order which had a Sep/Oct delivery date but now showing Nov/Jan in the app so I decided to look at existing inventory and found an exact match in my local sales center. Tesla refuses to add the VIN to my existing custom order saying I have to create a new order, seems completely nuts. Also, I can't go look at the existing inventory until I place the order, my concern is that the existing car may have issues so I will have to reject and end up with 2 orders!
@PatriotOne If the car is truly at the deliver center, most likely you can just show up, find it on the lot, and take a look from outside the car with nobody stopping you. I haven't done that myself but I've seen MANY reports here of people doing that, complete with photos. Of course maybe some delivery locations have secured parking, but for sure many don't.
For what it's worth, I think that's a valid concern and I had the same concern about our inventory car.
Now as for getting an inventory car assigned to an existing order, our local Sales Center staff did exactly that for us last year. When we placed our order they actually suggested it as a way to get our car sooner. They said the config doesn't even have to be an exact match, e.g. the paint or interior colors can be different at least, maybe more.
Sure enough, when I looked online a few days later I spotted a config we wanted (exactly matching our order, as it were, though we were flexible on the interior color), I called them up (local Sales Center), and the Sales Advisor who answered immediately understood what I was asking and jumped on assigning the inventory car right away. She wasn't even the one who had suggested this to us. I believe all the Sales Advisors at that Sales Center were aware of this possibility.
The inventory car was listed with FSD enabled but that was no problem, the Sales Advisor removed FSD as part of assigning it to our order. It never even showed FSD once assigned to us. (At that time they seemed to be listing every inventory car with FSD enabled.)
We definitely never paid a second Order Fee. I checked all of the numbers and line items carefully on the MVPA, everything was exactly as I expected, and we paid via Cashier's Check for the expected amount, no more.
However, that was almost a year ago! Policies can change. Maybe this truly isn't allowed anymore. Also, the Sales Advisor who assigned our inventory car gave a strong hint that if there had been a price increase after our order, then assigning an inventory car might give us the higher pricing. In our case there hadn't been any price increase so that wasn't a concern.
Thanks for sharing your experience tm1v2.
I contacted the center that was holding the inventory car and they explained that it's Tesla company policy not to assign existing inventory to a custom order; something about them incurring additional shipping costs if the buyer refuses delivery. Strangely, the car didn't need to be shipped as it was at my second nearest center only 20 miles away.
Anyway, after all that messaging and phoning I was so frustrated that I ended up paying a visit to my local Tesla center and the guy who greeted me, assigned the VIN to my custom order on the spot! He also checked the car history and it only had 15 miles on the clock and had only been manufactured on Aug 17! I'm picking up the car tomorrow. I can't believe the service team made such a fuss about being unable to undertake such a simple task.
Lesson, don't waste your time with the online/phone agents, they havve no clue.
I contacted the center that was holding the inventory car and they explained that it's Tesla company policy not to assign existing inventory to a custom order; something about them incurring additional shipping costs if the buyer refuses delivery. Strangely, the car didn't need to be shipped as it was at my second nearest center only 20 miles away.
Anyway, after all that messaging and phoning I was so frustrated that I ended up paying a visit to my local Tesla center and the guy who greeted me, assigned the VIN to my custom order on the spot! He also checked the car history and it only had 15 miles on the clock and had only been manufactured on Aug 17! I'm picking up the car tomorrow. I can't believe the service team made such a fuss about being unable to undertake such a simple task.
Lesson, don't waste your time with the online/phone agents, they havve no clue.
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