Model 3 Scheduled for Delivery. Tesla Account Prompting for Payment..

[landmissle]

Hi all,

Like many of you, I'm a first time buyer of a Tesla. My Model 3 Performance is ready for delivery and I'm scheduled for pick up, tomorrow, Oct 13th. I'm very excited and I'm not sure how much sleep I'll get tonight.

In my Tesla account, it's prompting me to sign/approve the Tesla finance paperwork and to remit my final payment. With a traditional car purchase, I would not hand over any payment (short of a deposit) nor sign any paperwork until I've see and inspected the car. I'm assuming I should do the same here, but since this is a new buying experience I thought I'd check in to see what others have done.

So far the buying experience has been very easy (and fast), but I'm definitely reluctant to finalize the sale until I've actually seen and inspected the car.

 

[jonquiljo]

When did U order the car?

 

[landmissle]

When did U order the car?

I ordered the vehicle last Saturday. Sunday morning a I received notification that it was ready for delivery and I choose an appointment time for tomorrow, Saturday, to pick it up.

 

[stevegu]

Call your rep at the delivery center and confirm that you will sign papers and bring payment on delivery. Mine took my personal check, not too risky since Tesla pretty much always knows where your car is and can probably even disable it if necessary.

 

[Phlier]

With a traditional car purchase, I would not hand over any payment (short of a deposit) nor sign any paperwork until I've see and inspected the car. I'm assuming I should do the same here, but since this is a new buying experience I thought I'd check in to see what others have done.

You can deliver the payment at the time of delivery. And I highly recommend not giving them the check, or signing any paperwork, until you have inspected the vehicle.

When I arrived for delivery, they immediately ushered me into a room to sign paperwork. I said that I wanted to inspect the car first. She said, "the procedure is that we sign papers before allowing the customer access to the vehicle." I said, "OK, in that case, the deal is off." She then very politely took me to the vehicle, and patiently awaited until I was done inspecting it (45 minutes). At that point, we signed papers, and I handed her the check from the credit union.

Don't let them push you around. YOU are the customer, and YOU handle the transaction.

 

[dchobo]

my advice:
- do not submit payment in account.
- inspect the car first. do not sign even they say sign first and you can inspect.
- ask them to fix anything you don't like first even if they say you can bring it back anytime or can call for mobile payment
- they did not let me test drive it before delivery, but you can try to ask.
- only when you are happy then you can hand over your personal check and sign
- personal check is OK. No need cashier's check even though they obviously prefer the latter.
- personal check will be processed as soon as the next business day, so make sure you have money in the bank to avoid bouncing the check
- be prepared to walk away without the car if you are not happy with it

good luck!

 

[vickh]

You can deliver the payment at the time of delivery. And I highly recommend not giving them the check, or signing any paperwork, until you have inspected the vehicle.

When I arrived for delivery, they immediately ushered me into a room to sign paperwork. I said that I wanted to inspect the car first. She said, "the procedure is that we sign papers before allowing the customer access to the vehicle." I said, "OK, in that case, the deal is off." She then very politely took me to the vehicle, and patiently awaited until I was done inspecting it (45 minutes). At that point, we signed papers, and I handed her the check from the credit union.

Don't let them push you around. YOU are the customer, and YOU handle the transaction.

Similar experience don't let them bully you. They're more laid back in AZ when I asked them to inspect my new 3 first.

They didn't want to with the CPO process which is why I refused delivery on a S.

 

[jonquiljo]

Hi all,

Like many of you, I'm a first time buyer of a Tesla. My Model 3 Performance is ready for delivery and I'm scheduled for pick up, tomorrow, Oct 13th. I'm very excited and I'm not sure how much sleep I'll get tonight.

In my Tesla account, it's prompting me to sign/approve the Tesla finance paperwork and to remit my final payment. With a traditional car purchase, I would not hand over any payment (short of a deposit) nor sign any paperwork until I've see and inspected the car. I'm assuming I should do the same here, but since this is a new buying experience I thought I'd check in to see what others have done.

So far the buying experience has been very easy (and fast), but I'm definitely reluctant to finalize the sale until I've actually seen and inspected the car.

They did that to me on my (1st) order (that I never ended picking up). They kept telling me to finish the online forms and arrange for ACH payment. I called them when I first got the notice and said. "how about I write a check when I get there?" They said "fine".

Check out the car! If you're in Modesto - they should be a bit laid back about things. It's not like they don't turn around a lot of Teslas at that location. Good luck.

 

[jkoya]

I took delivery in Rocklin, CA and they took my personal check for the final payment. I didn't hand over the check until after I inspected the car. As others have said, don't let them bully or pressure you.

Where is your delivery going to be at ?

 

[landmissle]

[QUOTE="jonquiljo, post: 4102345, member: 116051
Check out the car! If you're in Modesto - they should be a bit laid back about things. It's not like they don't turn around a lot of Teslas at that location. Good luck.[/QUOTE]

Ha! Yeah, that would probably be true, but they don't have a delivery hub in Modesto. I have to go to Fremont. That said, there's hope here in Methesto in that I'm seeing more and more Teslas even here.

 

[landmissle]

Hi everyone. Thank you for the feedback and I certainly will treat this like a "normal" car purchase in the sense of no cash or signature until I've inspected and happy with the car.

The car is in Fremont and I'll be driving over there tomorrow with my wife to pick it up. Trading in my 2017 VW GTI also as part of the arrangement. Since I've made that car a trade-in, I'm getting paranoid driving it, as it's literally, cash on wheels now.

Can't wait for tomorrow, it's like being seven years old, believing in Santa Claus, and it's Christmas Eve.

 

[vickh]

Hi everyone. Thank you for the feedback and I certainly will treat this like a "normal" car purchase in the sense of no cash or signature until I've inspected and happy with the car.

The car is in Fremont and I'll be driving over there tomorrow with my wife to pick it up. Trading in my 2017 VW GTI also as part of the arrangement. Since I've made that car a trade-in, I'm getting paranoid driving it, as it's literally, cash on wheels now.
.

the good thing is Tesla won't take away your keys for the VW, You can walk away if you need to

 

[jkoya]

Can't wait for tomorrow, it's like being seven years old, believing in Santa Claus, and it's Christmas Eve.

Have fun with your delivery !!! Your wife will be a great second set of eyes to check the car over.

My delivery took over 2.5 hours because they unsuccessfully tried to "buff" some scratches out of the paint. Mine had to eventually go to a Tesla approved body shop to fix all the paint and alignment issues. It was hard to catch them all, as I had to inspect the car outside in the wind and rain.

 

[robski]

Just ignore the message to pay prior to arrival. The idea is to get you in and out as quickly as possible by doing the finances up front, but you don't have to do it if you're not comfortable.

I've bought 4 Tesla's (3 new, 1used) and always paid at the time of delivery. I can't say that I've been pressured to sign anything as the first step upon arrival. It's always been "let's go check out your new car." Even for the used car, the guy said "let's go check it out to see if it's something you want." He even tried to send me on my way until I reminded him that I didn't wire the money yet! To top it all off I've never had a due bill on any of the 4 cars aside from a Performance spoiler (maybe I'm lucky or maybe I just don't care enough).

My first delivery was in Dublin, CA before there ever was a delivery center. The other 3 were at the Fremont, CA delivery center.

I do believe the horror stories are real, so I'd still advise to keep your expectations low. Hopefully it's more hit and less miss for ya.

 

[drtimhill]

+1 to all the sensible advice here. But most important, assuming all goes according to plan you are going to LOVE the car! Enjoy

 

[LOL@GAS]

I ordered the vehicle last Saturday. Sunday morning a I received notification that it was ready for delivery and I choose an appointment time for tomorrow, Saturday, to pick it up.

How did you get it so fast? Where are you located? I placed my order on Oct. 1st and still waiting for a VIN to be assigned to me!

 

[jkoya]

OP - How did your delivery go ?

 

[landmissle]

Again, thank you everyone for the advice and the well wishes.

Once we arrived and our delivery associate met us, he suggested we go over the paper work while they were doing some final prepping on the car. I informed him that while we could review the paperwork and order, I was not signing or approving anything until we inspected the car. He said, "Of course." and we simply waited for the car to be ready while we browsed the shop.

The car looked good, but they informed me that had replaced the driver side window as it had a scratch in it and that was the reason for the delay. They gave us plenty of time to inspect the car and other than some very minor chrome trim alignment issues ( which I'm not concerned about), I was pleased with the car.

So, in the end, the car delivery experience went well with no undue pressure. I lasted it bit longer than I had envisioned (window replacement), but otherwise was better than other car purchasing experiences.

Did I mention this car rocks?! Wow.

 

[jkoya]

The car looked good, but they informed me that had replaced the driver side window as it had a scratch in it and that was the reason for the delay. They gave us plenty of time to inspect the car and other than some very minor chrome trim alignment issues ( which I'm not concerned about), I was pleased with the car.

Glad to hear you had a great delivery experience and a customer service oriented Delivery Advisor. Also great to hear they had the replacement window in stock.

Congrats on the car !!! Planning on any mods in the near future ?