@DrGriz @sids1234
Yup. For anyone who's followed my journey or has any interest: according to my phone logs, I had four phone calls with Tesla on Tuesday (Feb 8), two phone calls with Wednesday (Feb 9), seven (!) phone calls with Tesla Thursday (Feb 10), two phone calls with Tesla Friday (Feb 11). Text and emails back and forth throughout. The final communication was a Friday night text, confirming that my registration, tax exemption, and MVPA is all set and good to go.
I woke up at 4am Saturday morning, dragged my wife up to drive me to the airport, made it onto my 6am flight Boston to Newark. Wife was somewhat happy/excited to get me out the house and pick up the car, since it is going to be primarily her daily driver after all. Only saving grace of the whole day was getting bumped to first class because it was a 80% empty flight. Upon landing in Newark I got texts from a Tesla advisor that I'm missing docs. I kindly remind him to check his emails from the day prior as I signed and sent every form and...silence. I Uber'ed to the Tesla store and checked in around 9am. Front desk clerk said: uh, you are way too early for your 2pm appointment. I said yeah, but I need to make sure you guys get my paperwork right because minutes ago you were still asking for documents. He spoke to my Tesla advisor in the back office (my advisor did not come out to talk to me) and again confirmed yup, good to go. I said my final balance is unpaid because the sales tax line is still incorrect, he said it'll be done by 2pm.
I walk over to the Paramus Park Mall and listen to The Trojan Horse Affair podcast, join the mallwalkers, and twiddle my thumbs to burn time. Then my sister reaches out and we had lunch together and got to play with my little nephew. That was cool. Middle of ordering lunch (1pm), my Tesla advisor texts me and said nope, the car cannot be delivered today because his paperwork is not done. I stuff my face, finish my lunch, apologize to my relatives, and rudely rush away back to the Tesla store. Advisor explains that yup, he JUST submitted my file and the tax exemption but it won't work - it requires a legal and tax supervisor above and beyond what his manager onsite at Paramus is able to do, and therefore we gotta wait. The ticket is submitted, everything is correct based on his and his manager's review but considering it's Saturday afternoon, he expects Monday morning approval at the earliest. He can email that team to request an expedited review, but says he cannot physically call any specific individual to get this done, because it's in a ticket workflow system and it could be assigned to one of many people.
I explain that I've called/emailed/texted throughout the week so that this wouldn't happen. Internally, I think I knew in the back of my head this would happen, because I've heard horror stories of Tesla customer service. He apologized, I remained respectful, but said that while I understand that his power and our options are very limited, he's put me in a very stressful and unsatisfied situation. As a fan of Tesla who's looked forward to the big day, I was just very disappointed. He said his manager can reimburse me to stay in hotel for two nights, another round trip plane ticket, etc. but no loaner car. I will pay, he will submit receipts for reimbursement. We tentatively scheduled my delivery appointment for the upcoming Thursday so we have a few extra days to work out any potential roadblocks. My advisor showed me the car, let me sit/play with it, it was cool but honestly at that point I needed to get home, not play around. I've been up since 4am and I've wasted enough time. I ended up calling my sister who then drove me down the highway to a rental car and then I drove the 4 hours home back to Boston, planning my week/work/leave to drive back next Thursday.
Upon stepping out of the rental car in my driveway back in Boston, Tesla advisor text me saying well, guess what, the team did end up working late Saturday night and got the updated MVPA + tax exemption + vehicle registration paperwork done. On the one hand, great! On the other hand, f**king serious?! Okay, so I could've waited, but whatever. We made the decision based on the based information we had at the time with getting a rental car. It then also occurs to me, that when I first arrived Saturday morning 9am at Tesla, my advisor could have just submitted the paperwork then, and by 2pm the everything would've been done.
That was my day. $75 plane ticket, $56 Uber, and 15 hours of my Saturday down the drain. Yes, I'm also now actively paying insurance on the Model Y. It was exhausting and stressful but somehow I kept it together. At the end of all that, my Tesla account and app now shows the correct final balance for the first time ever. My Tesla advisor confirmed that he's still good with my Thursday appointment if I'm okay, or whatever any other day or time I want. I said Thursday is fine.
TLDR: Tesla procrastinated in doing their paperwork, my delivery appointment was pushed back five days, and caused me to waste some money and a lot of time.
