Downgrade SR+ and get $2000 back?

[Reeler]

They keep making dumb choices [chapter 11] won’t be far off

Hopefully, not before they return the ACH down-payment I gave them before my failed Model 3 delivery. We are at 4 weeks now and they are saying now it is 10-13 business days before I will see my $7K. Six weeks of free float. The cynic in me wonders if their cash crunch prevents them from returning my funds.

#TeslaDumpsterFire

 

[MP3Mike]

The cynic in me wonders if their cash crunch prevents them from returning my funds.

Yeah, because with only $2,200,000,000 in the bank they can't afford to refund you your $7,000.

 

[Reeler]

Yeah, because with only $2,200,000,000 in the bank they can't afford to refund you your $7,000.

Everyone talks about their cash crunch. Maybe it is offering leases, building a factory in China, undelivered inventory . . . I don't really know, but how can it take 6 weeks to do an ACH transfer? Do you have $7K I can borrow and maybe I will pay you back. When you inquire about it, I will ghost you. I will take down the customer service numbers so you can only e-mail or chat with me. When you complain, I won't even apologize. I wouldn't be defending the #TeslaDumpsterFire especially in a thread like this where they won't even honor something mentioned in their blog.

 

[Matt L]

Everyone talks about their cash crunch. Maybe it is offering leases, building a factory in China, undelivered inventory . . . I don't really know, but how can it take 6 weeks to do an ACH transfer? Do you have $7K I can borrow and maybe I will pay you back. When you inquire about it, I will ghost you. I will take down the customer service numbers so you can only e-mail or chat with me. When you complain, I won't even apologize. I wouldn't be defending the #TeslaDumpsterFire especially in a thread like this where they won't even honor something mentioned in their blog.

I’m ok with them not honoring something so ridiculous as this thread. They shouldn’t have said they would and they shouldn’t do it...makes zero business sense

 

[Reeler]

I’m ok with them not honoring something so ridiculous as this thread. They shouldn’t have said they would and they shouldn’t do it...makes zero business sense

Lying to your customers (many new to the brand) makes business sense how?

 

[B_Paratrooper]

I've seen a lot of reasons why SR plus owners shouldn't get the downgrade they were promised etc. What you all fail to understand is that 2k difference wasn't paid only for a few more features, but also wait time. For me my old car was totaled a few days before the announcement when i ordered the SR thats right SR I was projected to have a rental car for roughly a month at the insurance rate of 29 dollars a day. Ok thats all fine and dandy let me budget for that, as I only got the car for 1 week for free. When my SR was ordered I was projected in the 2-4 week category as i had ordered it on the 1st of March. Fast forward almost 4 weeks I am starting to see tons of SR plus deliveries people saying they ordered Well into March getting deliveries way ahead of mine. So of course I called my delivery specialist everyday seeing if I had a VIN assigned anything I hadn't and this was close to April at this time so I caved said fine let me have the SR plus which btw I need none of the features and actually preferred cloth seats to leather due to the South Florida sun, but i digress. Within a few hours of witching boom a VIN pops up and i took delivery within a week.

So for me if I can get my 2k back that'd be great as I was misled or misquoted or whatever with the original delivery window which surely had an impact on my final decision. i would actually be ok with not getting the money back and the option to downgrade outside of the 7 day period, but the fact that it was promised and even thrown in there is what gets me. Why even say it?

if i can't oh well charge it to the game, I have a great car from a not so great company it seems. Ill still support and hype them up, but its just a bitter taste in my mouth is all.

 

[Talax74]

I’m ok with them not honoring something so ridiculous as this thread. They shouldn’t have said they would and they shouldn’t do it...makes zero business sense

Allow me to disagree.
If the target is being in business and ensuring future business it makes actually sense they said what they said. Now from a business point of view they can still say how the refund will be, some example
1) Credits for supercharging up to the price difference
2) Credit for buying in Tesla (Accessorize or siftware or else)
This will allow Tesla not to lose money and save their face.

Say something and not do it it’s a bad business decision since people will start not beleive in you and try to treat you as an “enemy” more than as a partner.

 

[Matt L]

Allow me to disagree.
If the target is being in business and ensuring future business it makes actually sense they said what they said. Now from a business point of view they can still say how the refund will be, some example
1) Credits for supercharging up to the price difference
2) Credit for buying in Tesla (Accessorize or siftware or else)
This will allow Tesla not to lose money and save their face.

Say something and not do it it’s a bad business decision since people will start not beleive in you and try to treat you as an “enemy” more than as a partner.

I don’t disagree with your last...bad decision for sure. Selling cars at a loss...is worse. Worse yet...is continuing to feed this mentality in their customer base. It is getting noticeably worse. Something has to give.

 

[Matt L]

Imagine paying extra for seats at a concert, pretty common thing. Now imagine that the people coming and sitting around you are all general admission. You were told you would have better seats than them, but that clearly isn't the case. You are still in a decent section, but so are they. It's not a matter of getting what you paid for, it's a matter of being misled to a (nearly) identical product.

And then imagine going to Ticketmaster and demanding a refund because the guy next to you paid less...now you are starting to get it.

You got what you paid for...stop worrying about what others got.

 

[Retaw]

And then imagine going to Ticketmaster and demanding a refund because the guy next to you paid less...now you are starting to get it.

You got what you paid for...stop worrying about what others got.

If Ticketmaster specifically said that guy's cheaper ticket is not for that area... And later changed mind and agreed to refund mine... Not sure if you are starting to get it.
Anyway, there is absolutely no "demanding" a refund. That what Tesla offered for their change of plan.

 

[Talax74]

I don’t disagree with your last...bad decision for sure. Selling cars at a loss...is worse. Worse yet...is continuing to feed this mentality in their customer base. It is getting noticeably worse. Something has to give.

Not necessarily has to either sell at loss or look as a liar. As said there are ways to allow the downgrade and provide refunds in form of credits or sw etc... This is what differentiate businesses that will survive in the long run or those that will disappear because the customer won’t believe in the company anymore. BTW if Tesla is losing money on the SR why do you think they still sell it and they just didn’t kill the model when they announced the line-up change? For sure they see a value on it that maybe we can’t see.

 

[latimerluis]

I think this whole argument Matt is trying to make is about whether we should be considering Tesla’s financial health when making a decision to ask for a refund despite being happy with a SR+.

The answer to me is “hell no!” I do not feel like I’m taking advantage of Tesla or demanding anything of them. They offered me a choice (and did it very publicly) and it’s now my right to consider it if it should appeal to me. If they don’t honor it, boo hoo, I wont be losing sleep. Im not a bad person for thinking this and shame on anyone for trying to imply this.

I can show them support them in other ways (I am a shareholder) and if my $2,500 is going to put them out of business, then there’s obviously bigger problems to fix.

 

[Retaw]

no, SR+ owners got what they paid for but now see someone else getting something and now want what they got.

Let’s not act like this is some noble movement

It is a noble movement because it discourages Tesla's ig-noble movement. Tesla could have concealed SR until it is production ready. Instead, they put up a random "SR" option out of nowhere to bait customers, upsell them into SR+ bacause it is "better", and ultimately failed to even deliver on the "better" part. Customers deserve an explanation.

 

[sabsetez]

Amen. I bought SR+ and spent hours debating/talking/discussing this decision with my wife. The decision would have been much easier if I knew how close the specs were going to be in the end.

Due to my role, I deal with having to reset customer expectation all of the time, including blog posts that share incorrect product information. I think the right thing for their service leaders to do is to go to bat for the SR+ customers who ask for a discount. Not all SR+ customers will be asking for the discount, so they should just try to analyze what makes sense to do from a financial standpoint. I would probably offer $500 to any SR+ owner who placed their order after the SR was added to the online configurator, without actually downgrading them.

At the very least, Tesla should go in there and edit their blog post and include some sort of apology. Leaving it up there in its current form is a mistake. Tesla has grown it's business purely on word of mouth and referrals. Now that the car can be afforded by the masses, they're going to have typical consumer-related gripes and need to be prepared to get railed in forums and in social media. Not good, as I hope the company does survive past this year.

Amen to this! I had a similar experience placing the model 3 just before the supposed 3/18 price increase. My wife and I discussed hard and long, and upgraded to the SR+ just for the interior (seats). It has been about 3 weeks since ours was delivered and resulting in us losing a few grand. I sent an email to my delivery advisor if I could downgrade, but she hasn't responded in over a week.

Beyond everything the timing of the price decrease leaves a sour taste - especially after Elon's tweet about vehicle prices increasing in March. The sales person we interacted with at Fremont over the course of 3 separate visits reiterated that prices were going up and even mentioned it in a follow up email!

And the blog post, less said the better. There was no need to hint that an SR+ to SR downgrade was possible, and now refuse to acknowledge even. For anybody saying that this is only for folks within the 7 day window, I call BS on it - within that window forget the downgrade we can even return it for any odd reason.

 

[Matt L]

It is a noble movement because it discourages Tesla's ig-noble movement. Tesla could have concealed SR until it is production ready. Instead, they put up a random "SR" option out of nowhere to bait customers, upsell them into SR+ bacause it is "better", and ultimately failed to even deliver on the "better" part. Customers deserve an explanation.

No they delivered the better part. They didn’t deliver the not better part. But people not think they can get the better part for the not better price.

 

[Matt L]

Amen to this! I had a similar experience placing the model 3 just before the supposed 3/18 price increase. My wife and I discussed hard and long, and upgraded to the SR+ just for the interior (seats). It has been about 3 weeks since ours was delivered and resulting in us losing a few grand. I sent an email to my delivery advisor if I could downgrade, but she hasn't responded in over a week.

Beyond everything the timing of the price decrease leaves a sour taste - especially after Elon's tweet about vehicle prices increasing in March. The sales person we interacted with at Fremont over the course of 3 separate visits reiterated that prices were going up and even mentioned it in a follow up email!

And the blog post, less said the better. There was no need to hint that an SR+ to SR downgrade was possible, and now refuse to acknowledge even. For anybody saying that this is only for folks within the 7 day window, I call BS on it - within that window forget the downgrade we can even return it for any odd reason.

So after all that internal debating and settling on the SR+, what changed your mind?

I suspect it’s the idea that you will get something for nothing.

 

[Matt L]

Not necessarily has to either sell at loss or look as a liar. As said there are ways to allow the downgrade and provide refunds in form of credits or sw etc... This is what differentiate businesses that will survive in the long run or those that will disappear because the customer won’t believe in the company anymore. BTW if Tesla is losing money on the SR why do you think they still sell it and they just didn’t kill the model when they announced the line-up change? For sure they see a value on it that maybe we can’t see.

Elon’s pride. Plain and simple.

 

[Talax74]

Elon’s pride. Plain and simple.

Thank you for your inside information

 

[Retaw]

No they delivered the better part. They didn’t deliver the not better part. But people not think they can get the better part for the not better price.

"Better" means strictly the difference. They tried to upsell SR into SR+. You can't upsell, no matter how good SR+ is, unless there is a significant difference. Tesla knew at that time the difference is purely made up as well. That is the ignoble part.

 

[Matt L]

Thank you for your inside information

Do you have an opposing theory?