CPO Process Anxiety/Vent

[gsymington]

Hi all. After a few years or admiring the Model S from afar, I pulled the trigger and put a deposit on a 2013 85 with 32K!
I'm excited to take delivery but have become increasingly frustrated with the lack of communication from Tesla during this process. I'll list some details below.

• 1/2 Deposit.
• 1/3 Emailed the used car sales advisor about the order. Get a friendly "Hello" email back.
• 1/9 Received a few photos of the car once it arrived at the refurbishment center. I'm told it needs a touch of paint and it will be getting new wheels and tires. No other details of refurbishment list.
• Silence...
• 1/22 I emailed my delivery specialist and used car sales advisor for an update. Got a standard "Not ready yet" reply, no delivery date estimate. Advisor states he has sent a message to service team but no reply yet
• Silence....

I'm trying not to be "that guy" with my two representatives at Tesla. I'm giving plenty of time for replies and only email every other week. I fear my anxiety has gotten the better of me in during this 4 week wait...

Should I expect more contact?
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
What is the average deposit to delivery time?
Am I just crazy?

Thanks guys, I love the Forum!!

 

[chargeshare]

You are not crazy. I've found you have to be very proactive when communicating with Tesla. One of our CPO cars took 11 weeks (guidance was 4-6) and the second took less than 3 weeks (4-6 week guidance).

 

[Ketchups]

wow they actually went thru the trouble to send you pictures? lucky you.

FYI, they all have 'before' pictures of the cars prior to reconditioning. It's just the matter of actually getting your hands on the pictures that's tricky.

 

[king_rubin]

Yeah you’re lucky to get pics. I asked twice and got nada. Just know that you’re not alone with your cpo anxiety/ frustration. There’s a bunch of us waiting.

 

[wildag]

I looked into their CPO options with one of their reps a while back. Told them that being required to put down money before I could see the vehicle was a non-starter. Rep said that they would spend “over 1k making improvements to the vehicle”. Told him I’d prefer to keep my $1k and choose what improvements I want made. They had no accommodation for even seeing pictures or choosing what I preferred be done. So instead I bought an equivalent 2013 Model S from the local GMC dealer for $15k less.

I wish there was some way to convey how awful the CPO experience is to Tesla execs.

 

[kragma]

I found if you email talk to them every day or every other day and upload all of the documents in advance they are more responsive. My delivery for a CPO took 11 days (November 2017).

Also be lucky you got pics, I got nothing from them. I was in your shoes I would ask your advisor for swag for the inconvenience. Don't be afraid to call and email if you need to, it might sound rude but it gets their attention.

 

[Xbell]

Second everyone here. Its a crapshoot. Mine took six weeks but I was able to have them let me drive for a bit while they were waiting for other parts of the body to come in. It took me constantly bugging the sales rep to get any info.

 

[aromasca]

I and many others have put down our deposits for MS on the same day when they dumped hundreds of cars to their inventory. I was able to get some pictures of the car, and the inspection form of what they thought needs replacing. The last update this Friday, car is out of reconditioning and will be transported with an eta of 2 weeks.

To be clear, I had to email and call them every other week for an update so far.

 

[trm2]

Tesla sucks at communication - even with the custom order process.

 

[No ICE]

I also have purchased a cpo this past summer, and all the you describe is the way it is for buying a CPO.( it is identical to if you had purchased a new car as well) I have a lot of friends ask and some soon are going to also purchase a CPO. I heavily advised them to be prepared for a completely different car buying Experiance. All I can compare it to is we also purchased first a new model S, it was the exact same experience from the standpoint of we never got to test drive the vechile we purchased, we never received any pics of it ever, and we had to put down a $2500 deposit. The paper work was exactly the same, and the delivery process was the same. We recieved the exact same warranty on the cpo that we have on our brand new mode S, 4 years/50k miles. I understand how you feel, but in the end you will basically be delivered as close to brand new 2013 model S. My friends couldnt even believe my car was not new, the vehicle condition will blow you away! Have faith you will be very happy!

 

[gsymington]

At least I'm in good company! Thanks for the support, guys. I'm going to step up my contact to at least once a week.

I was surprised to read that some seem to get a default 3-6 week delivery window immediately while others (me) ask for a delivery window and our delivery specialist acts like they don't know what a calendar is.

I have heard great things about the cars that come from the CPO program, so I'm trying to stay positive!

 

[RichardD]

I was the odd one out.. my CPO rep was in Chicago, I was in Houston and I took delivery in Denver. I had daily communication from both the delivery specialist and CPO advisor, had pictures as well as an idea of what to expect. It took 1 week from my deposit to pick my car up. I was lucky to get a $25.00 last minute flight exactly 1 year ago today. It was a mad dash to trade my car in, secure transportation but Tesla uber'd me from the shop to the airport and from my hotel in Denver to their store front.
Overall a great experience.

 

[Hornedfrog1]

At least I'm in good company! Thanks for the support, guys. I'm going to step up my contact to at least once a week.

I was surprised to read that some seem to get a default 3-6 week delivery window immediately while others (me) ask for a delivery window and our delivery specialist acts like they don't know what a calendar is.

I have heard great things about the cars that come from the CPO program, so I'm trying to stay positive!

When I ordered my CPO 16 Model S 70D it took about six weeks in the process. I never got pics and received the same type of “It’s still not here” emails. I hope you did your due diligence and checked out the history of the car first. I took delivery of mine about 15 months ago. I loved it at first but here’s a list of why I’m totally fed up with this car. It only has 47,000 miles on it, 32,000 when I got it. The previous owner only had it in the shop for standard maintenance. During my time with this car I have been in the shop about 8 times. I’ve had three door handles snap and stop presenting (When asked if tesla fixed the door handle reliability issue, the tech told me that they made them stronger. However....the replacements for broken paddle rollers were the older version because tesla will not allow them to put the stronger ones into used cars...only the new.) I had to go in for the Takata exploding passenger side air bag recall replacement and I even found an article that talked about how several manufacturers, including Tesla, continued to put Takata airbags into their new vehicles even though they were under recall. We chased a connectivity issue for nine months and they finally upgraded and replaced the connectivity board for both the phone and radio. Seemed better at first but now I’m having more issues. A week ago I broke down 260 miles from home with a warning of “car requires service. Car may not restart.” I was towed to a service center and given a Kia minivan to drive home. They found my high voltage battery coolant heater started to go out before I started my trip and using the super chargers twice killed the unit (there was no warning prior to the trip that the unit was failing.) they also found that my 12 V battery was bad and needed replacing. The service center folks have been great but I now hate my car because the reliability is mediocre at best and I refuse to take it on any trips because I do not want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere with my young family. Just my experience. Hope yours is better.

 

[NateGordonJr]

I was the odd one out.. my CPO rep was in Chicago, I was in Houston and I took delivery in Denver. I had daily communication from both the delivery specialist and CPO advisor, had pictures as well as an idea of what to expect. It took 1 week from my deposit to pick my car up. I was lucky to get a $25.00 last minute flight exactly 1 year ago today. It was a mad dash to trade my car in, secure transportation but Tesla uber'd me from the shop to the airport and from my hotel in Denver to their store front.
Overall a great experience.

That is definitely an ideal experience! I too, am in Texas and currently in the market for a CPO. The issue is that I (like others in Texas have described) is that it seems as though most of the cars are 'out of region' and they want $2k to ship to our local SC (I'm assuming that's why you took delivery in Denver). That said, you mind sharing the website you used for that cheap one-way flight?

 

[Greengolfer]

I put my $1000 deposit on a CPO car on Sept. 10th. I picked up the car at my chosen delivery center on Oct. 5th, just less than the 4-6 weeks stated. That being said, I did initiate most of the correspondence. Overall I was happy with the experience.

 

[RichardD]

That is definitely an ideal experience! I too, am in Texas and currently in the market for a CPO. The issue is that I (like others in Texas have described) is that it seems as though most of the cars are 'out of region' and they want $2k to ship to our local SC (I'm assuming that's why you took delivery in Denver). That said, you mind sharing the website you used for that cheap one-way flight?

It was frontier airlines it was just luck on the flight, i was going to use southwest points....
Good luck with your purchase!

 

[Don TLR]

I asked for pictures but they never came and in the end I had to look underneath the car to tell it was a used car, otherwise it was immaculate. Get some paint protection film on the front as soon as you can to keep it looking pristine. It still looks brand new after a wash..

 

[jmitchell]

I bought my car as a CPO and also hated the buying process until the final few days. Since I've taken delivery (6 months ago) I've been very happy with the car and service. I've taken my car in to have several nitpicking things that existed when I picked up the car, and they've just taken care of it for me.

Hopefully you find the same thing to be true for your car.

 

[gsymington]

Hi all. After a few years or admiring the Model S from afar, I pulled the trigger and put a deposit on a 2013 85 with 32K!
I'm excited to take delivery but have become increasingly frustrated with the lack of communication from Tesla during this process. I'll list some details below.

• 1/2 Deposit.
• 1/3 Emailed the used car sales advisor about the order. Get a friendly "Hello" email back.
• 1/9 Received a few photos of the car once it arrived at the refurbishment center. I'm told it needs a touch of paint and it will be getting new wheels and tires. No other details of refurbishment list.
• Silence...
• 1/22 I emailed my delivery specialist and used car sales advisor for an update. Got a standard "Not ready yet" reply, no delivery date estimate. Advisor states he has sent a message to service team but no reply yet
• Silence....

I'm trying not to be "that guy" with my two representatives at Tesla. I'm giving plenty of time for replies and only email every other week. I fear my anxiety has gotten the better of me in during this 4 week wait...

Should I expect more contact?
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
What is the average deposit to delivery time?
Am I just crazy?

Thanks guys, I love the Forum!!

UPDATE 2/13:
Six weeks today... Still no concrete delivery date. The only sliver of info I was able to pry from the Used Vehicle Sales Advisor was all the parts ordered for the refurbishment SHOULD have been received on Monday 2/5. He would not elaborate what was being repaired. He assured me that I would be given an inspection report at delivery that should include all refurbished items.

I did receive an offer though the website for my trade, so I guess they expect delivery in the next two weeks since the trade offers expire.

I've also had to re-apply for the loan with Alliant now that my pre-approval has expired. This has made me the most irritated.
Old rate 1.49%. New rate 3.24%!! It looks like all of their rates jumped mid January.
This excessive delay has now cost me ~$2000 over the life of the loan.

I know I'm going to love my MS, but this process makes me wary of recommending the CPO process to anyone. My parents are looking to pull the trigger on a CPO MX but I've suggested they hold off for now.
A normal car buyer will be turned off by the simple lack of communication. Nevermind putting a deposit on a car they haven't seen and may wait 6-8 to do so.

 

[Ketchups]

I've also had to re-apply for the loan with Alliant now that my pre-approval has expired. This has made me the most irritated.
Old rate 1.49%. New rate 3.24%!! It looks like all of their rates jumped mid January.
This excessive delay has now cost me ~$2000 over the life of the loan.

That was my concern as well and I did end up going over the 30 days, had to re-apply and my rate appears to be the same. If it increased, I would definitely make a very big deal about it, demanding some sort of compensation on Tesla's end (part$$$/upgrade$$$). Maybe @Upscaleman has some thoughts/strategies