Caution charging @ delivery

[Spence]

I picked up my brand new model Y performance last Friday. Love the car of course, but I would like to offer the following cautionary tale:

When I arrived at the Tesla delivery center, my car was sitting out front all brand new, shiny and welcoming, with my name on a piece of paper on the dash. It was hooked up to a supercharger. All the information I had been made aware of was that all I really needed to do finalize my purchase was to click accept delivery in the Tesla app. I gave the car a once over and really couldn’t find any flaws so I hit the accept delivery button. Then I disconnect the supercharger, inspected interior, went inside and briefly spoke to the advisor, then drove off thrilled to finally have gotten my new model Y.

When I got home I was poking around in the app, and found a notice that said supercharging suspended because of no payment method attached. Upon entering my credit card information I realized I was being charged for the supercharging done at the delivery center before I picked up my vehicle. It was only seven dollars and change so not a huge deal but I really didn’t think it was fair to be charging me, I could’ve easily driven the car home and charged it at home far cheaper.

I dropped by the service center the next day and brought this up to the customer rep, he said oh yeah you needed to have unplugged it before you accepted delivery.

Again it’s only seven dollars but I said to him it doesn’t seem fair that I have to pay for the charging you guys did to get it ready for delivery. He was kind of snotty and said “here you want seven dollars?”, pulling his wallet out of his pocket.

Not a big enough deal to argue about, I just left, but I wanted to report it here to let people know that when you pick up your car disconnect the supercharger before you accept delivery or you will have to pay for the charging.

 

[Hodorholddoor]

Man tesla really needs to work on its customer service. Being mocked by a service agent for bringing up a perfectly valid concern is ridiculous. Thanks for letting us know.

 

[Tam]

...being charged for the supercharging done at the delivery center...

Tesla needs to do better. They need to make sure that shouldn't happen in a new delivery. And if it did happen, it should quickly reverse the flaw.

Although it's not the law, the dealership standard has been a dull tank of gas or if they couldn't fill up at the delivery themselves, they would pay for you to fill up the first full tank.

 

[240vPlug]

I would have called his bluff and said yes I would like 7 dollars. I have taken delivery of two and both deliveries neither vehicle was plugged in to a charger. It’s simple really they just need to unplug the cars or charge them earlier. Both deliveries 2/2021 and 6/2022 vehicle had about 60% SOC and was not plugged at time of delivery.

That guy sounds like he has no business dealing with customers. You paid a lot of money for the car Tesla doesn’t need the extra $7. It’s the principle of it.

 

[Spence]

After your commiserating comments here, I dropped by the Service Center again today and spoke to my actual rep (with whom I was communicating through order and delivery). He apologized and said how I was treated was unacceptable. Thanked me for reporting it to him, said he'd relay it up the chain. I'm not expecting Supercharger credits to appear on my account, but that would turn a negative experience into a positive.

My rep is Justin at the Seaside/Monterey, CA center. Don't know the rude guy's name, but he has his hair in a bun.

 

[Tam]

...I dropped by the Service Center again today and spoke to my actual rep...

Thanks for following it up to make Tesla a good brand.

 

[JDEWD250]

After your commiserating comments here, I dropped by the Service Center again today and spoke to my actual rep (with whom I was communicating through order and delivery). He apologized and said how I was treated was unacceptable. Thanked me for reporting it to him, said he'd relay it up the chain. I'm not expecting Supercharger credits to appear on my account, but that would turn a negative experience into a positive.

My rep is Justin at the Seaside/Monterey, CA center. Don't know the rude guy's name, but he has his hair in a bun.

I never trust a "guy" with a man bun, just sayin'

 

[OmegaMan]

Thanks for sharing. I hope to have delivery in the next week.

 

[Smithjohnny]

Oh gosh thats rude of him and an unfortunate thing surrounding an otherwise happy and exciting time - congrats on the car! Btw, just wondering when the cars and batteries are new, will supercharging harm / strain them and should it be avoided until car is more worn in with multiple charge discharge cycles? Also got vehicle recently and the electrician cant come for another couple of weeks

 

[Brianm801]

When i picked up my Model Y earlier this month, The Tesla Rep was like "It's the white one.. " (pointing to a lot full of white model Y's ) "looks like it only has a 49% charge, if you need to charge the superchargers are over there" (waving his hands in the general direction of the chargers)

Honestly.. I was glad. It forced my wife and i to experience SuperCharging early in our ownership.

Btw, just wondering when the cars and batteries are new, will supercharging harm / strain them and should it be avoided until car is more worn in with multiple charge discharge cycles? Also got vehicle recently and the electrician cant come for another couple of weeks

I'm no expert.. but it shouldn't hurt the car (Most dealers do it before delivery )

we had the same problem (got the car, but hadn't received our mobile charging cable yet so we couldn't charge at home). We just drove the car until the battery got down to ~25%, then used the nav to guide us to a SuperCharger. We knew where the SuperCharger was, but navigating to a SuperCharger makes the car 'Precondition the battery' and gets it ready for a charge.

We enjoyed our time without a home charging cable... We got experienced in how the SuperChargers work and removed some charging fears (Its fast, it's easy, we could actually do some long trips!). What we didn't like was the cost of charging

 

[jjrandorin]

I would have called his bluff and said yes I would like 7 dollars.

I probably would have said something like "Yes, thank you, and I would also like to speak to the manager about this situation". This is going off the fact the OP states the response was a snotty one and not a genuine one. If it was actually a genuine one (which it doesnt sound like it was), I would not do that, but I also would have "called the bluff" as it were, and also been a "I would like to speak with the manager" person.

 

[Smithjohnny]

When i picked up my Model Y earlier this month, The Tesla Rep was like "It's the white one.. " (pointing to a lot full of white model Y's ) "looks like it only has a 49% charge, if you need to charge the superchargers are over there" (waving his hands in the general direction of the chargers)

Honestly.. I was glad. It forced my wife and i to experience SuperCharging early in our ownership.


I'm no expert.. but it shouldn't hurt the car (Most dealers do it before delivery )

we had the same problem (got the car, but hadn't received our mobile charging cable yet so we couldn't charge at home). We just drove the car until the battery got down to ~25%, then used the nav to guide us to a SuperCharger. We knew where the SuperCharger was, but navigating to a SuperCharger makes the car 'Precondition the battery' and gets it ready for a charge.

We enjoyed our time without a home charging cable... We got experienced in how the SuperChargers work and removed some charging fears (Its fast, it's easy, we could actually do some long trips!). What we didn't like was the cost of charging

Thanks for the guidance! Will do that too as cant leave the car parked am too restless to use it!