Granted 5,000 supercharging miles from referral - revoked due to "error"

[idealdreams]

I purchased my Model 3 in the beginning of May this year during the 5,000 referral reward program where if you used someone's referral link/code, you'd get 5,000 free supercharging miles for your car. I used the referral link to purchase my car.

After I took delivery, I verified the 5,000 free supercharging miles were added to my account as I could see them in the loot box on my Tesla app on my phone for my car. A few weeks ago I noticed the miles were missing, the app no longer showed I had any free supercharging miles available.

I called Tesla's 800 number and after getting through to a rep, I was told that it's a known issue with the app where it wouldn't display your supercharging miles and that it would be fixed in an update. They said they could see the miles were still on my account.

After an app update I noted the miles still weren't there. I supercharged for the first time on Tuesday and much to my surprise, I received an email from Tesla which included a bill for the supercharging, asking me to provide my credit card number to complete the transaction.

Clearly the miles are not on my account. I called Tesla again and asked about this and they opened a ticket for me with their Referral Department. I received a response two days later, today, and their answer is absolute bullshit.

They said the miles were revoked from my account due to a local regulation in the state of Ohio which states referral rewards may not be given out to customers. The reason I was able to use the referral code and actually see the miles after taking delivery was due to an "error."

Not only did Tesla revoke my miles without any notice whatsoever, they made no attempt to offer anything in exchange equally valued at what the miles were worth. Is it just me or is this absolutely unacceptable? The error is not my fault. I purchased my vehicle when I did so I would get the 5,000 free miles. Why am I the one penalized with the revocation of the miles due to THEIR error which granted me the miles despite "local regulations?"

Has this happened to anyone else? Has anyone else heard of this happening?

 

[CUBldr97]

Virginia owners have faced the same dilemma since inception. Blame Ohio not Tesla.

 

[run-the-joules]

They said the miles were revoked from my account due to a local regulation in the state of Ohio which states referral rewards may not be given out to customers.

Not only did Tesla revoke my miles without any notice whatsoever, they made no attempt to offer anything in exchange equally valued at what the miles were worth.

"Not only did they attempt to make sure they weren't breaking a [stupid] law, they then had the temerity to not break the law to compensate me for not breaking the law!"

 

[idealdreams]

I'm not blaming Tesla for the law that Ohio put into effect. The laws are the laws. However, Tesla was aware of this law and still allowed consumers to purchase vehicles with referral codes, despite it being against the law, and still issued free supercharging miles from the referral reward program, despite it being against the law.

Tesla's violation of the law isn't my problem. If this is against the law I shouldn't have been allowed to use the referral program n the first place, NOR should the miles have been added to my account. I purchased my vehicle under the pretense that I would receive 5,000 free supercharging miles, as was promised to me by Tesla.

I understand that Tesla revoked the miles due to the law, but the reason I purchased my vehicle when I did was to take advantage of that referral reward.

If it's against the law, then I shouldn't have been able to use the code in the first place.

 

[brianman]

Seems like it might be legit...

Supercharging referral program in Virginia, Ohio | Tesla

 

[jdw]

The law is not specific to SuperCharger miles, it covers any compensation, so, yeah this sucks, but I don't see how they could legally compensate you in place of the illegal compensation.

 

[MountainJedi]

I understand that Tesla revoked the miles due to the law, but the reason I purchased my vehicle when I did was to take advantage of that referral reward.

So you bought a $40K-$50K+ car based upon a referral reward worth approximately $330 (based on Tesla's calculation on their website)?

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

This does seem like an annoying situation.

You should send an email (likely would yield no results) to Tesla and ask them to donate your referral dollars (which you can't claim) to a program in Ohio which develops home & apartment EV charging solutions for everyone - since you can't derive any benefit personally. It's arguably a better use of the money anyway. Referrals resulting in free Supercharging miles just result in Superchargers crowded by people trying to use their Supercharger miles, most of whom should be charging at home anyway. And who wants to go to a Supercharger unless you are on a road trip? Encourages bad habits, in general (though not in this specific case quite possibly).

(I do understand that in your situation you may well have been making good use of the Supercharger - since it's the first time you've used it in three months apparently - and it's annoying to not get what you thought you were getting.)

 

[idealdreams]

So you bought a $40K-$50K+ car based upon a referral reward worth approximately $330 (based on Tesla's calculation on their website)?

Nowhere in any of my posts did I say I justified the cost of a $51,000 car because I would get a supercharger credit which wouldn't even cover half of a single month's car payment. I said I purchased my vehicle WHEN I did to take advantage of the ADDITIONAL supercharging miles Tesla was offering in the referral reward program, which was 5,000 at the time vs. 1,000 normally.

This does seem like an annoying situation.

You should send an email (likely would yield no results) to Tesla and ask them to donate your referral dollars (which you can't claim) to a program in Ohio which develops home & apartment EV charging solutions for everyone - since you can't derive any benefit personally. It's arguably a better use of the money anyway. Referrals resulting in free Supercharging miles just result in Superchargers crowded by people trying to use their Supercharger miles, most of whom should be charging at home anyway. And who wants to go to a Supercharger unless you are on a road trip? Encourages bad habits, in general (though not in this specific case quite possibly).

(I do understand that in your situation you may well have been making good use of the Supercharger - since it's the first time you've used it in three months apparently - and it's annoying to not get what you thought you were getting.)

I am letting it go. I learned that this law is not new (was last revised in 2011) and that despite this, Tesla either failed to understand the law in their offering of free miles to Ohio residents, or blatantly disregarded it anyways. That sounds like another issue to me.

It's disappointing because they let it get so far as to reward Ohio customers who used referrals and because they didn't even have the courtesy to notify those affected explaining the reason why they can't see their supercharging miles anymore.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

So you bought a $40K-$50K+ car based upon a referral reward worth approximately $330 (based on Tesla's calculation on their website)?

My take was that the OP was planning on buying the vehicle regardless, and it simply impacted the timing.

It does help explain some of the disappearing miles people have reported.

 

[MountainJedi]

Nowhere in any of my posts did I say I justified the cost of a $51,000 car because I would get a supercharger credit which wouldn't even cover half of a single month's car payment. I said I purchased my vehicle WHEN I did to take advantage of the ADDITIONAL supercharging miles Tesla was offering in the referral reward program, which was 5,000 at the time vs. 1,000 normally.

OK, so a potential referral of ~$265 drove your decision on timing. Got it. And you didn't use any of that potential referral for 3 months, when it expires after 6 months? Were you planning on taking a bunch road trips in the next 3 months that would have used up the 5,000 miles?

I'm just trying to understand why this is so upsetting to you. As you said, it's less than 1/2 of one of your monthly payments and it's due to where you live, not Tesla.

 

[pcgqr1]

Had balance of over 4000 miles now gone all the sudden with no announcement. Contacted Tesla by email and phone many times = got ignored, no reply.

 

[jdw]

My take was that the OP was planning on buying the vehicle regardless, and it simply impacted the timing.

It does help explain some of the disappearing miles people have reported.

Four days after purchase, my loot box, referral miles & code and my entire car disappeared from Tesla's site. Four emails and two chat sessions over four weeks got nothing except a helpful reminder that " you can't use a referral code after you place an order" in response to me sending a screen grab of my former loot box. Finally went back to the store and found a helpful employee who knew who to reach out to and within 12 hours everything was fixed.

I'm pretty sure that dealing with Tesla's online support is pointless and would suggest making a friend or two at the store or service center. Also recommend taking a screen shot of your loot box and account while you have it.

 

[OCR1]

I’ve never heard of this restriction. Does Tesla disclose this limitation anywhere on their website? While I agree that I would not expect Tesla to break the law I do think it is their responsibility to inform customers who use a referral code to place an order in one of those states that the bonus is not available to them. Tesla knows the delivery zip code when the order is placed so it does not seem like it would be difficult to disclose this during the ordering process.

 

[MountainJedi]

I’ve never heard of this restriction. Does Tesla disclose this limitation anywhere on their website? While I agree that I would not expect Tesla to break the law I do think it is their responsibility to inform customers who use a referral code to place an order in one of those states that the bonus is not available to them. Tesla knows the delivery zip code when the order is placed so it does not seem like it would be difficult to disclose this during the ordering process.

Yep, it's right in the referral program information along with all the other disclaimers.
Referral Program

Program and awards are conditional on and subject to local laws and regulations. Unfortunately, Ohio and Virginia residents are not eligible for referral program awards.

 

[OCR1]

Yep, it's right in the referral program information along with all the other disclaimers.
Referral Program

Fair enough. It's in there. That's why you always have to read the fine print, even though most people don't bother.

I find this section of the limitations to be very interesting:

Good Faith
We introduce programs such as these in good faith and expect the same good faith in return. Please note that we may withhold awards where we believe customers are acting in bad faith or otherwise acting contrary to the intent of this program. To be clear, commercializing, advertising, publishing, mass distributing, selling or paying for use of referral codes is not appropriate, and we will not honor such codes. We cannot cover every nefarious scenario, nor will we attempt to, but we do promise to be fair and reasonable.

Not OK:

• Advertising
• Spam
• Anything misleading or annoying
• Social media bios
• Paying or offering incentives for use of your code

OK:

• YouTube channels
• Informational & fan websites
• Social media sharing

My favorite one is "Anything misleading or annoying". So if you annoy Tesla they take your miles away.

No soup for you!

 

[idealdreams]

OK, so a potential referral of ~$265 drove your decision on timing. Got it. And you didn't use any of that potential referral for 3 months, when it expires after 6 months? Were you planning on taking a bunch road trips in the next 3 months that would have used up the 5,000 miles?

I'm just trying to understand why this is so upsetting to you. As you said, it's less than 1/2 of one of your monthly payments and it's due to where you live, not Tesla.

You’re right, Tesla should continue to promise things they can’t legally fulfill. It’s not that the $300 worth of charging is hurting the wallet by any means. It’s the principle of the issue that they made the offer without doing their due diligence to ensure what they’re offering is even legal in my state.

There was no disclaimer to me when using the code and the miles were even granted to me. Furthermore, Tesla couldn’t even spare the courtesy to notify those impacted why their miles are missing.

They make great cars but some people need to pull their head out of Elon’s ass and admit that Tesla screwed up here, regardless of the cash value that the screw up holds. If you make an offer to someone, you uphold it and ensure you’re within your legal rights to do so. You don’t go back and disappear miles and leave people to guess why they’re gone.

 

[OCR1]

You’re right, Tesla should continue to promise things they can’t legally fulfill. It’s not that the $300 worth of charging is hurting the wallet by any means. It’s the principle of the issue that they made the offer without doing their due diligence to ensure what they’re offering is even legal in my state.

There was no disclaimer to me when using the code and the miles were even granted to me. Furthermore, Tesla couldn’t even spare the courtesy to notify those impacted why their miles are missing.

They make great cars but some people need to pull their head out of Elon’s ass and admit that Tesla screwed up here, regardless of the cash value that the screw up holds. If you make an offer to someone, you uphold it and ensure you’re within your legal rights to do so. You don’t go back and disappear miles and leave people to guess why they’re gone.

I completely agree with you, and I think most of the TMC forum members do too. As I’ve stated many times, I love the car...I tolerate the company. And if I could buy a comparable car to the Model 3 from Toyota or Honda, or any well established brand, Tesla wouldn’t have even had a chance to get my business.

But it’s a choice between a great car or a great company. Most of us don’t want to drive ICE vehicles, and we don’t want a Chevy Bolt. Eventually something better will come along and Tesla will either be forced to fix their issues or they will just go away.

 

[MountainJedi]

You’re right, Tesla should continue to promise things they can’t legally fulfill. It’s not that the $300 worth of charging is hurting the wallet by any means. It’s the principle of the issue that they made the offer without doing their due diligence to ensure what they’re offering is even legal in my state.

There was no disclaimer to me when using the code and the miles were even granted to me. Furthermore, Tesla couldn’t even spare the courtesy to notify those impacted why their miles are missing.

They make great cars but some people need to pull their head out of Elon’s ass and admit that Tesla screwed up here, regardless of the cash value that the screw up holds. If you make an offer to someone, you uphold it and ensure you’re within your legal rights to do so. You don’t go back and disappear miles and leave people to guess why they’re gone.

Again, it’s very clearly stated in the disclaimers that Ohio is not eligible. Yeah, it sucks they showed up in your loot box then disappeared, but if you had looked into it before your purchase you would have known you weren’t eligible.

You also didn’t answer if you had planned to use the miles in the next 3 months. I’m genuinely curious because then I can understand your frustration a bit better. Otherwise you’re complaining about losing something you were never going to use anyway, so I don’t understand how you’re in a worse position.

 

[jb007gd]

I'm in Ohio and used the referral code of a friend also in Ohio. He got the 1000 miles added to his account and I did not. Wouldn't be surprised if they yanked his from his account some day too. What are you gonna do... ‍ I won't sweat the small stuff. The car is awesome!