Help! Unannounced (and early) Tesla Delivery - I don't know what to do

[GeneParmesean]

Quick backstory here -- I put down a deposit for a model y soon after it was announced, and after I drove a friends' Model 3. I've been incredibly excited, well up until today...

My family is moving to Maine on the 2nd of July. I told our Delivery Support Specialist that fact a couple of times, and they even said that they made a note back on June 6th so that the car would not be delivered before then.

Well, fast-forward to this morning and I get a random call from a guy saying he is outside my future home in Maine. WTF! I haven't received any communication from Tesla about a delivery today. The first time I called Tesla they said there really wasn't anything they could do until our Delivery Support Specialist came in (which was two hours later). Meanwhile, the driver is asking me what I want to do, and just waiting outside the house. the driver eventually called back and said his boss said just to drop it off outside... WTF! we haven't even moved in yet - i said unfortunately it can't be dropped off; plus, i want to check the vehicle out a little bit before accepting delivery.

So anyway, I ended up calling Tesla back, and I asked if someone else could look into this since the driver is just waiting around, and we probably shouldn't wait until our Delivery Support Specialist gets in. They said they'd look into delaying the delivery, or bringing it the 4 hours out of the way to our current residence.

Regardless, this has me a little put off of the whole experience. I was getting excited about "delivery day" and now I just feel nervous about putting my trust into this company and their car. I plan to check out some of the common problems I've heard about, and at this point if there are a lot of issues I might just consider not accepting delivery. Would that be a mistake?

 

[GeneParmesean]

Welp, they just called me and it sounds like they are going to keep my car on the truck today, and "delay" my delivery. The tesla rep said that my Delivery Support Specialist in Vegas will give me an updated expected delivery date - meanwhile I never even received an expected delivery date...

At this point though I am a little concerned about what i'm getting myself into -- this delivery seems incredibly poorly managed, and i've heard the stories about people refusing delivery. I think I need someone to talk me off of the ledge!

 

[endizguyz]

Welp, they just called me and it sounds like they are going to keep my car on the truck today, and "delay" my delivery. The tesla rep said that my Delivery Support Specialist in Vegas will give me an updated expected delivery date - meanwhile I never even received an expected delivery date...

At this point though I am a little concerned about what i'm getting myself into -- this delivery seems incredibly poorly managed, and i've heard the stories about people refusing delivery. I think I need someone to talk me off of the ledge!

I feel like Tesla is all over the place with delivery...nothing is uniform. I'm sure its even more mismanaged with the end of the quarter hustle. That said, I think you just have to follow through with seeing the vehicle they will deliver. There are many that are being delivered and buyers are happy....those that aren't make the loudest noise. You are walking into with open eyes (bad deliveries, etc) and you have the value of other's hindsight and can learn from it. Only you can make the right choice for your situation. That said, when I bought my last Toyota (new 2017 4runner) it has also had a few fit and finish issues.... delivery was less than perfect.....waiting hours in the lobby with a hangry 2 year old for the F&I guy to finish up with his current customer despite having an appointment time.

 

[glide]

End of the quarter delivery push.

They are trying to unload everything/anything they have in stock today.

 

[GeneParmesean]

Fair enough. That makes me feel a little better about it.

But I also have a lot of other questions, like, when will the car be re-delivered? It was originally going to be on the 2nd or 3rd, but now that they just did a delivery to the area am I going to have to wait another month? And will multiple trips on the back of a third-party carrier truck have any impact to the fit/finish of the car?

They said they'd reach out to me this afternoon with details on my actual delivery date. Nothing yet, but I'll update as soon as I hear back.

 

[endizguyz]

Fair enough. That makes me feel a little better about it.

But I also have a lot of other questions, like, when will the car be re-delivered? It was originally going to be on the 2nd or 3rd, but now that they just did a delivery to the area am I going to have to wait another month? And will multiple trips on the back of a third-party carrier truck have any impact to the fit/finish of the car?

They said they'd reach out to me this afternoon with details on my actual delivery date. Nothing yet, but I'll update as soon as I hear back.

I wish I knew....I'm a 9/2019 order still waiting on delivery... I'm not happy either. Definitely let us know. Hopefully the next delivery will be smooth!

 

[Monkey]

End of quarter push may have a bit to do with it. But this really comes down to your delivery advisor. They totally dropped the ball. Sadly, some of them are just not good at their job. They should never have set up a delivery, let alone a home delivery, without confirming an appointment with the buyer. I'm not even sure how that works.

 

[GeneParmesean]

Yeah, i'm really disappointed in the experience so far. The latest is that i'm still waiting on a call from the delivery advisor to set a date. However, I did get two emails and one text message from Tesla asking me mark my vehicle as "delivered"

 

[scissorfighter]

Hang in there Gene! Maybe when I get my MY we can arrange a ME tesla team meetup in Augusta!

 

[GeneParmesean]

Ha, that sounds good @scissorfighter. I haven't even checked to see where the superchargers are up there yet... probably what i'll do first when I (hopefully) receive delivery.

One (maybe unrelated) update on my issue: I received a phone call from a VOIP number in california. I picked up, and then heard a disconnection. It doesn't show on any spam checks, so maybe someone at Tesla thought they'd reach out and then second-guessed themselves? idk.. It wasn't any of the numbers my delivery advisor has used in the past.

 

[dandrewk]

Just wondering, was your contact number a land line? Tesla communicates almost exclusively via texts.

 

[GeneParmesean]

I've been getting texts from (510) 399-XXXX (looks like Tesla uses Twilio). Most recently, that number asked me to confirm delivery. When I replied back saying it wasn't delivered, that's when I got the call from the number i mentioned above (909-521-XXXX) and they hung up after I answered. I don't think it was my delivery advisor in LV, her number is (725) 205 - XXXX.

 

[raggedy]

Isn't that odd that they'd ask you to "confirm delivery" on a car that was not actually delivered? Or, does hitting "confirm delivery" give them another car sold for their EOQ numbers?

Unless you're really in desperate need for a car, I wouldn't fret over waiting for the next Y to be prepped for delivery for you. The cars aren't rare or limited, so all of us wanting to buy one will get one eventually. I've put delivery off already for mine. If Tesla suddenly showed up at my door saying they want to drop the car off, I'd tell them to go away, just based off principle! hahaha

I saw an acquaintance's white/black/Induction Y today. It was very early evening so the sun was still up, but it wasn't bright out. I looked at his driver side doors, and it looked to me like the paint was blotchy, with some spots looking like the paint was thinner than other areas. The type of pattern I would get if I took a can of Krylon spray paint and tried to paint a large panel. I didn't point it out to the guy since I wasn't sure what I was seeing, but I will definitely take another look next time I see him. I asked him what he thought of the car (this is his first Tesla), and he said it all seems ok to him, but he did admit, "I'm not very picky about things."

 

[GeneParmesean]

So, here's an update... Spoiler alert: Tesla failed miserably with their communication and things are feeling sketchy.

We drove 4.5 hours last night to our new address in Portland, Maine. I called Tesla on the way hoping to speak to our delivery advisor (I still hadn't heard anything from them since the day before). Eventually we got a call back (not from the delivery advisor), and the rep said that the car was at our future house in Portland... WTF? Both the driver and the person at Tesla that I talked to the day before said that they were bringing the car back to NJ. So it wasn't possible that the car was in Portland. But just to be safe, I asked the Tesla rep if he could verify the location of the car. At first he thought he could, but for some reason he failed... Meanwhile I'm thinking about the liability of a company just dropping a $60k car off at an address where nobody even lives. At any rate, he said he would look into it and he'd call us back.

At around midnight we get to Maine. Still no call back. We go to drive into our new driveway and..... holy *sugar* it's THERE!!! Yep, they dropped a Tesla Model Y off at an unoccupied address (and also blocked the parking for the house). So at midnight my wife and I are trying to figure out how to unlock the car (we ended up using the app) just to move it so that we could back our car in and get all of our stuff out. Not exactly what we were expecting.

So now it's the day after. The movers came and we spent most of the day moving and unboxing. I had a missed call from tesla and am going to call them back soon.

I did have a chance to walk around the car. There are a couple of issues -- misalignment of the back right passenger door, and the charge-port cover is misaligned. So now I'm not sure what we do -- I assume I have to say that I accept delivery? WTF... this is kind of nuts. Honestly we don't have a lot of time to be getting our new call settled but I guess they had to hit their quarterly numbers so YOLO

 

[jsargevt]

So, here's an update... Spoiler alert: Tesla failed miserably with their communication and things are feeling sketchy.

I did have a chance to walk around the car. There are a couple of issues -- misalignment of the back right passenger door, and the charge-port cover is misaligned. So now I'm not sure what we do -- I assume I have to say that I accept delivery? WTF... this is kind of nuts. Honestly we don't have a lot of time to be getting our new call settled but I guess they had to hit their quarterly numbers so YOLO

Tesla really does need to address their poor communications channels. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any incentive to do so.

A passenger door and charge port cover....eh those are things that can be fixed, right? Sure it's a hassle to have to visit the Service Center but I am pretty sure they'll make it right. I don't think that I'd reject a delivery over those flaws, but I don't know how badly it's misaligned and your tolerance for imperfection might be lower than mine.

Hopefully everything else is spot on for your vehicle. Keep us posted on what happens next!

 

[GeneParmesean]

I started a new thread with the updates here: Unannounced (surprise!) Tesla Delivery - Part 2: How to Deal w/ Delivery Issues?