Tesla has totally mishandled the Model 3 allocation process and abandoned their most enthusiastic, patient, and loyal customers, many of whom had waited over two years! The way they have suddenly abandoned their waiting list and prioritized based on when someone put in their configuration order while ignoring other buyers who had been on the list longer but may have been traveling and didn’t happen to click quickly with their additional $2,500 payments is egregious.
With only a few choices available to order, it seems to me they could have run their new configuration list against their prior deposit list and at least attempt to give priority to buyers who had waited longer as they had previously committed to do! Some day, this may become a business school case on how “not to deal with customers and run a business!” Moreover, some people are speculating in the Tesla Model 3 Forum that their “opening the floodgates” suddenly in late June had to do with the company knowing they were delivering U.S. order #200,000 in Q-2 , so people with Q-4 deliveries would lose half of their $7,500 federal tax credits, so they wanted to commit as many people as possible to $3,500 non-refundable before they disclose this next week. These actions appear to be a breach of trust on the part of Tesla, so they have alienated thousands of their most loyal customers!
