FEELING SCAMMED BY TESLA

[Msjulie]

Back when I sold my LR to get a Performance, I was told to remove the credit card from my account to prevent the new owner's supercharging to get charged to me - they said the car would still charge and if the new owner didn't put in a card Tesla would bill them (eventually)

Worth trying to remove the card..

 

[focher]

Yeah, if you didn't take the $5k refund then you should still have kept the unlimited Supercharging. But as others have pointed out, the only sound financial decision is to take the $5k refund because it would take you a long long long time to recoup that much in SC fees.

 

[Silicon Desert]

I think Tanya Harding and her boyfriend are still out there somewhere with a baseball bat. Hire them

 

[ibGeek]

Thanks for the reply. I heard it was bad but I didn't think it was this bad.

How bad it is depends on where you are. And it is getting better.
I live about 20 miles from the factory and never have any issues getting service at all. But I know others who live further away that do.
I have a buddy who's a Tesla employee and he says they are putting a substantial amount of effort in to not only staffing support but also training for said staff. Much of the service process has been improved by trial and error which has slowed things down, but I'd say they'll have it all in check by early next year. keep in mind they will have 2 new vehicles coming online, so they are under no illusion that things are leveling off.

 

[azred]

Tesla only scams people who create polls.

PS I'm hiding in my basement from ICE. Please post when it's safe to come out -- and tell them to stop blocking Superchargers.

 

[Ultron]

The OP posts a very legitimate complaint that I myself am concerned about and half the people on here want to post smart azz comments. I agree the poll is a little confusing but his concern is very real. I just bought a new Model 3 in late May and was told by the salesman that I would get 5,000 free SC miles. I was NEVER told they would expire in 6 months. And I still to this day don't know if the SC miles i've already used will be free or billed to me. I'm not going to go as far as say they scammed me but I do feel they misled me. And I'm not even sure it was on purpose, I just think the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing at Tesla.
By the way, the Car is Awesome!!

 

[japhule]

The OP posts a very legitimate complaint that I myself am concerned about and half the people on here want to post smart azz comments. I agree the poll is a little confusing but his concern is very real. I just bought a new Model 3 in late May and was told by the salesman that I would get 5,000 free SC miles. I was NEVER told they would expire in 6 months. And I still to this day don't know if the SC miles i've already used will be free or billed to me. I'm not going to go as far as say they scammed me but I do feel they misled me. And I'm not even sure it was on purpose, I just think the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing at Tesla.
By the way, the Car is Awesome!!

If you log into your tesla.com account, you can see if you've been billed (or not billed) for SuperCharging under History.

 

[Knightshade]

To be fair to Tesla, never blame on malice what can be explained by incompetence.

Tesla is incompetent at billing. Both in their favor and to their detriment.


Consider that since January 2018, every month since, more and more Model S owners have gone past the 4 years of free data they were promised as part of their purchase.

0 of them have ever been billing for continued connectivity, because Tesla apparently can't figure out how to.

Same thing is about to happen to all the Model 3 owners who purchased after lifetime Premium Connectivity was killed off for the 3- nobody is expecting to get a bill this/next month because Tesla still can't figure out how to send them one.


Both of those are sure, steady, revenue streams from increasingly large #s of their customers that they're completely missing out on due to an inability to do something as simple as bill people already in their system for a service they are already providing them

 

[RayK]

So I guess I'm going to violate the first rule of Fight Club...

My problem is that I never know when I'm going to get charged for Supercharging. AFAIK, I'm not qualified for ANY free Supercharging but in the last 10 sessions (covering a round trip from San Jose to Squaw Valley early this month and some in-town charging just to test my luck), I have:

• ...been properly billed
• ...NOT been billed on my account (history shows no evidence I stopped and charged at certain locations)
• ...received electrons, the session HAS been logged in my history, BUT the amount on the receipt is $0.00 (a new summary now shows "credit balance" and "credit remaining" both 0 kWh)

When I've not been billed, the Supercharging cost on the car's display initially shows the proper $ amount but resets to $0.00 when I leave the station. From my experience, Supercharging billing is still a hit-or-miss proposition. When I got my car, the first couple of Supercharge sessions were correctly billed. Then for about 6 months, I got a free pass. This included a round-trip to LA with multiple stops in Kettleman City and Glendale. While I understand that you are not getting what you've been promised, you could keep bugging them at [email protected].

 

[Knightshade]

heh, see above on Tesla being incompetent at billing

I've got an AWD.... no free supercharging of any kind...and I've never been billed for using a supercharger.

Granted I don't use them OFTEN, maybe like 6 or 7 times total? but $0.00 billed for it. Only once did it even display a non-0 amount during the charging (but never billed me).

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

How does one go from a "free supercharging for life" category to "bill for supercharging" category?

What mechanism would cause a supercharger user to be shifted from said categories every two months?

It sure looks to me that Tesla, a company with 30,000+ employees and valued higher than GM or Ford, is attempting to scam customers out of their legally entitled purchase benefits.

View attachment 430055

Tesla likes to get creative with their SW bugs.

They even have issues with free supercharging credits expiring earlier than expected.

A couple years ago I completely blacklisted the Tesla store because they repeatedly showed things in stock that weren't in stock.

Tesla needs to hire some extremely boring bean counter that will go on the hunt for inefficiencies, and bad practices. They'll probably get million dollar bonuses with all the crap they'll find.

As to scamming? Tesla doesn't have the right resources in place to scam.

They don't even have maintenance service intervals, and that's like scamming 101.

 

[Nate977p]

Yeah, if you didn't take the $5k refund then you should still have kept the unlimited Supercharging. But as others have pointed out, the only sound financial decision is to take the $5k refund because it would take you a long long long time to recoup that much in SC fees.

Not true (earning, fringe case here) The majority sound financial decision is to take the 5k, but not true for everyone. There are intangibles, but from a straight cost perspective, I am either 41% (compare to SC rates) or 33% (compared to household rates) towards paying off the $5k, in less than 10 months of ownership. I am at just about 27k miles and 82% of my charging has been on SC .

 

[OCR1]

Most people never realize that the credit card they used for their initial $2,500 deposit remains on their account until they remove it. Tesla uses this card for supercharger billing. If you have free supercharging, either lifetime or through referral bonuses, you are just asking for trouble by not removing your credit card from your account profile. If the OP had removed the card from the beginning I bet there never would have been a problem.

 

[N5329K]

As to scamming? Tesla doesn't have the right resources in place to scam.

This.
Robin

 

[AKinDC]

"This time totally impossible to talk to someone about the problem, no phone, email or chat"

What does that mean exactly? What did the people you talked to/chatted with actually say?

 

[jebinc]

White a bit off topic, the M3 forum is lighting up with members who felt "scammed" by yesterday's price reductions - especially folks who took delivery very recently and paid more than $5000 more (e.g., P3D customers). For me, it was a $2,200 hit, after three weeks.

 

[Nate977p]

White a bit off topic, the M3 forum is lighting up with members who felt "scammed" by yesterday's price reductions - especially folks who took delivery very recently and paid more than $5000 more (e.g., P3D customers). For me, it was a $2,200 hit, after three weeks.

I got you beat... $16,310 hit for me as of today wowzerr! But just remember, Tesla doesn't discount or play those shady dealership games

 

[jebinc]

But just remember, Tesla doesn't discount or play those shady dealership games

Actually, I prefer the traditional ICE "negotiated settlement" approach to pricing, as I always end up on the far left of the "Average prices paid" bell curve - the tail, actually. My last Subaru 3.6 R Limited Outback (2018 bought in early 2018) was had for $4000 under invoice (not MRSP). Since 2016, I've purchased seven Subaru's for family members. The worse deal (due to supply and demand at the time of purchase) was $2000 under invoice. Yes, I work with the same person at the same dealer for all purchases - quick, painless, profitable and easy.

 

[caskater47]

I got you beat... $16,310 hit for me as of today wowzerr! But just remember, Tesla doesn't discount or play those shady dealership games

Yea. My car is $11,000 cheaper today than when I took delivery last September. For the exact same car. I did take the 5k refund offered but that still leaves $6k additional in lost value.

 

[Nate977p]

Actually, I prefer the traditional ICE "negotiated settlement" approach to pricing, as I always end up on the far left of the "Average prices paid" bell curve - the tail, actually. My last Subaru 3.6 R Limited Outback (2018 bought in early 2018) was had for $4000 under invoice (not MRSP). Since 2016, I've purchased seven Subaru's for family members. The worse deal (due to supply and demand at the time of purchase) was $2000 under invoice. Yes, I work with the same person at the same dealer for all purchases - quick, painless, profitable and easy.

Yup I am the same way. I prefer the negotiations, but understand the masses don't. We actually bought a Prius Prime in March and sold in in December for the GFs Model 3, and were pretty much break even on that after almost a year of ownership due to how cheap we got it up front.

I really wish Tesla would settle on an MSRP and offer deals. Still not shady dealer tactics, they will just run a deal when they need to pump up demand.

The biggest thing that people I think miss is when Tesla lowers MSRP, the are making a huge dent in resale value. When manufacturers offer discounts, that does not have an impact on resale (if they always run them it may have a bit of impact, but no where near a MSRP change).