Ethics of placing orders on hold [moved out of Gigafactory Texas]

[advocate8]

I haven’t had a single hold and I have been impatiently waiting, but to say to a customer who has waited 4-5 months for the car you only have 72 hours to pick it up, with no leeway, is utterly ridiculous. It sounds like you are saying after waiting as long as some of us have, if my delivery date coincides with my kids’ spring break and I’m out of town for the week, oh well get back in line…it’s my fault?!? You can miss me with that.

Yeah exactly. Anger or animosity over this is a sad joke. This is a completely imaginary problem. It’s not like they’re jumping line, in fact they are literally delaying their orders....Not even faintly a real world issue...a few dozen cases with no real effect on the hundreds of thousand orders in the pipeline. Some posting stories about holds clearly had real conflicts with holidays or vacations and you could tell because many of them were fine with getting the car before Jan. 1.
And there’s no question Tesla has to have some method for people to put orders on hold for legit reasons, there is no other way to do this.

 

[tangible1]

Yeah exactly. Anger or animosity over this is a sad joke. This is a completely imaginary problem. It’s not like they’re jumping line, in fact they are literally delaying their orders....Not even faintly a real world issue...a few dozen cases with no real effect on the hundreds of thousand orders in the pipeline. Some posting stories about holds clearly had real conflicts with holidays or vacations and you could tell because many of them were fine with getting the car before Jan. 1.
And there’s no question Tesla has to have some method for people to put orders on hold for legit reasons, there is no other way to do this.

to be fair, there ARE orders that have been on Hold for over 2 years. But they're very rare.
Tesla is trying to clear those with 'Demand Letter' emails to those holders. 'Take it or We Will Cancel Your Order'.
But Tesla is like any manufacturer - they want your order. Not many cancels have occurred. 30 Days became 30 Weeks.

Order Holds are a legacy from the day, not so long ago, that Tesla felt the need to bend over backwards to encourage people to take the EV plunge.
We forget the tidal wave of overs that began with the M3, then exploded with the MY just last summer.
Order Holds do attempt to accommodate circumstances. It won't always seem 'fair', especially to a person waiting for months and unfamiliar with the 'Tesla Queue'.

 

[advocate8]

to be fair, there ARE orders that have been on Hold for over 2 years. But they're very rare.
Tesla is trying to clear those with 'Demand Letter' emails to those holders. 'Take it or We Will Cancel Your Order'.
But Tesla is like any manufacturer - they want your order. Not many cancels have occurred. 30 Days became 30 Weeks.

Order Holds are a legacy from the day, not so long ago, that Tesla felt the need to bend over backwards to encourage people to take the EV plunge.
We forget the tidal wave of overs that began with the M3, then exploded with the MY just last summer.
Order Holds do attempt to accommodate circumstances. It won't always seem 'fair', especially to a person waiting for months and unfamiliar with the 'Tesla Queue'.

sure. but getting angry over any of this? which is mainly a figment of this forum? life is way too short. Plenty of much more important stuff out in the world to put mental energy into.

 

[goin2drt]

Yeah exactly. Anger or animosity over this is a sad joke. This is a completely imaginary problem. It’s not like they’re jumping line, in fact they are literally delaying their orders....Not even faintly a real world issue...a few dozen cases with no real effect on the hundreds of thousand orders in the pipeline. Some posting stories about holds clearly had real conflicts with holidays or vacations and you could tell because many of them were fine with getting the car before Jan. 1.
And there’s no question Tesla has to have some method for people to put orders on hold for legit reasons, there is no other way to do this.

I guess then every one of those examples are here on this forum because there have been that many just on here. I think they should give one hold. After that you lose the deposit, order again and pay the new price. I bet all of a sudden you have far less vacations and "emergency's"

Just my opinion of course as someone who has an order in and would take it any time, any day with whatever components it has as I knew what it had when I ordered it.

 

[tangible1]

sure. but getting angry over any of this? which is mainly a figment of this forum? life is way too short. Plenty of much more important stuff out in the world to put mental energy into.

not excusing the keyboard animosity.
just trying to calm the waters

 

[advocate8]

I guess then every one of those examples are here on this forum because there have been that many just on here. I think they should give one hold. After that you lose the deposit, order again and pay the new price. I bet all of a sudden you have far less vacations and "emergency's"

Just my opinion of course as someone who has an order in and would take it any time, any day with whatever components it has as I knew what it had when I ordered it.

The majority of people who even know holds are possible are on this forum. And the likelihood that your delivery date will be affected by some subset of this one tenth of one percent of buyers is unlikely. Speaking as someone who is taking whatever they send me, whenever they send it, unless they downgrade the specs below what I ordered.

 

[Quagmire2]

Yeah exactly. Anger or animosity over this is a sad joke. This is a completely imaginary problem. It’s not like they’re jumping line, in fact they are literally delaying their orders....Not even faintly a real world issue...a few dozen cases with no real effect on the hundreds of thousand orders in the pipeline. Some posting stories about holds clearly had real conflicts with holidays or vacations and you could tell because many of them were fine with getting the car before Jan. 1.
And there’s no question Tesla has to have some method for people to put orders on hold for legit reasons, there is no other way to do this.

I get annoyed at the abusers. I recognize there are legit reasons for orders to be put on hold. Also recognize forums do represent the minority. But in November/December you had TMC and Reddit filled with people going, " How do I push delivery into 2022" for the simple reason of the BBB possibly passing and then asking what to do when it was killed. Now we have people doing the same with the AMD chip. Then it will be the same for people who want an Austin Y. It all may be a minority of people, but it is a "vocal minority" as that is all what the forums and reddit is filled by when it comes to order and delivery questions.

And I also agree the whole, " You have 3 days to take delivery or lose the car" policy is also BS.

 

[advocate8]

I get annoyed at the abusers. I recognize there are legit reasons for orders to be put on hold. Also recognize forums do represent the minority. But in November/December you had TMC and Reddit filled with people going, " How do I push delivery into 2022" for the simple reason of the BBB possibly passing and then asking what to do when it was killed. Now we have people doing the same with the AMD chip. Then it will be the same for people who want an Austin Y. It all may be a minority of people, but it is a "vocal minority" as that is all what the forums and reddit is filled by when it comes to order and delivery questions.

And I also agree the whole, " You have 3 days to take delivery or lose the car" policy is also BS.

Why does it matter? Beyond the basic fact that a tiny fraction of buyers did this (and ended up waiting longer for nothing), it consisted of someone put theirs on hold, so someone else who didn’t care about the tax credit got a car earlier. If it were a crime, it would lack victims.

 

[Stook02ss]

I get annoyed at the abusers. I recognize there are legit reasons for orders to be put on hold. Also recognize forums do represent the minority. But in November/December you had TMC and Reddit filled with people going, " How do I push delivery into 2022" for the simple reason of the BBB possibly passing and then asking what to do when it was killed. Now we have people doing the same with the AMD chip. Then it will be the same for people who want an Austin Y. It all may be a minority of people, but it is a "vocal minority" as that is all what the forums and reddit is filled by when it comes to order and delivery questions.

And I also agree the whole, " You have 3 days to take delivery or lose the car" policy is also BS.

I'm not sure how people are abusing the hold process. As a consumer, you want to lock in the lowest price possible and get the best car possible for what you are paying - you know that, I know that, and Tesla knows that. At this point, anyone that does research on the hold process knows how long Tesla will usually grant holds and what happens if you get 'overly greedy'.

Another way to look at it imo is this - knowing you want as many features as possible for as cheap as possible (and you expect prices and features to only increase), it makes sense to order as early as possible prior to the time you actually want to take delivery. I want to take delivery in April/May. I ordered in November, put it on hold and they granted it til February 27th. I knew I might not get that hold when I ordered..... if so, I'd take delivery. BUT, I got it with hopes of taking delivery in April/May. Why wouldn't I order earlier....?

 

[Michael Y 2020]

I haven’t had a single hold and I have been impatiently waiting, but to say to a customer who has waited 4-5 months for the car you only have 72 hours to pick it up, with no leeway, is utterly ridiculous. It sounds like you are saying after waiting as long as some of us have, if my delivery date coincides with my kids’ spring break and I’m out of town for the week, oh well get back in line…it’s my fault?!? You can miss me with that.

So you wait the normal 'standard' Tesla time for a car and you schedule your 'appointment' for out of town during your EDD? I guess I don't understand. What gets me really crazy is waiting for a doctor's appointment, having them call/email/text a few dozen times & say please arrive 15-30 minutes prior. Then I sit and wait until it's 15-20 minutes AFTER my appointment time and I see the doc for like maybe 10 minutes.

 

[LibertyEV]

If you hold an order do you lock in that price? And can you hold an order through the app or do you have to go through your SA? My sales associate is ghosting me after mentioned I’m considering holding until the 4680’s come out.

 

[nomorefuel]

I think for the hold you have to go through the SA, you can't do it yourself as they are the ones that decide. Maybe someone else with more experience can chime in.