My Ongoing Purchase Experience

[Phlier]

So on July 30th (my 25th Wedding Anniversary), my wife and I drove 130 miles to Las Vegas to visit the Tesla store. I have been a huge Tesla fan for years, particularly during the last two years. I've devoured every YouTube video, and spent hours reading here, the Tesla sub-reddit, and every other place I could find that had Tesla information.

But July 30th was the day I *finally* visited a Tesla Store. Here's my experience so far...

On July 31st, I called my sales rep and said that I'd take a rather unusual Model 3 Performance vehicle. It has all the speed of a "normal" Performance Model 3, but it doesn't have the suspension, Brembo brakes, or spoiler of the standard Model 3 Performance package. They offered a discount on this special Model 3 Performance, and I couldn't say no. I'm 52 years old, and have had five spine surgeries. The fact that this vehicle was discounted, had the acceleration of the Performance, but did *not* have the Performance suspension was a huge plus for me; I'm too old to feel every bump in the road of the regular Performance suspension. I have zero plans of "tracking" or racing, so this car was *made* for me. : )

Up until I called the sales rep and told him that I'd take the car, I had received multiple telephone calls from him, text messages, and emails.

Now that we're actually in the purchasing process, he won't respond to emails, texts, or phone calls. The Purchase Order that he sent me is completely wrong. The Trade-In section of my Tesla account says that someone will be contacting me within 24 hours to complete the Trade-In allowance, and has sat at that status since July 31st.

I have received no information back from the sales rep regarding my trade in status, no acknowledgement of the fact that the Purchase Order is wrong... nothing.

Up until you tell them that you will be buying the car, they'll hound you to death.

Once you start the purchase process, you get nothing.

I have financing all secured through my credit union. I'm completely ready to take delivery of the car, but I can't until they fix this stuff, and I can't even get them to acknowledge that stuff *needs* to be fixed!

IMO, Tesla is way, way, way understaffed. Not only do they not have an adequate number of sales reps, the sales reps they *do* have are so over burdened, they can't provide any level of customer service at all. It also appears that most of their sales reps were hired in a desperate rush, and weren't given the training needed to actually do their jobs.

I'm not posting this experience in any sort of rage or anger. I'm not trying to disparage the company; I absolutely love Elon's vision, as well as his cars. O M G, I love his cars so very much. At 52 years old, I feel like I'm 16 again, and getting my very first car. I have *never* been so excited about purchasing anything in my entire life.

But Tesla needs to be called out on their shortcomings... they need to know about them, and they need to fix them. The entire purpose of this soap box I'm standing on is simply to let them know what a typical customer experience is in purchasing one of their vehicles. And my situation is very simple... I'm trading in a vehicle (2016 Honda Accord) that is currently financed, and buying one of their cars. I have paid my $2,500 deposit, and I have my credit union ready to cut a check to Tesla for the car. Very simple and typical transaction. But I can't until their sales rep does his job.

I know that I'll be thrilled to death when I finally take delivery. But getting to that point is an unnecessarily cumbersome journey.

To Be Continued...

 

[Phlier]

Apparently you only have a few minutes to edit a post, so I'll just add this thought here...

At any other car dealership, this would have been a two to three hour transaction.... you walk in, you pick the vehicle, you do the paperwork, and you drive the new car home. The fact this this takes not hours, but *days* needs to be fixed. The fact that their sales people (while very friendly and very hard working) are over burdened needs to be fixed. The fact that a simple used car trade in valuation takes days instead of minutes needs to be fixed.

Take my money, and let me drive away. : )

 

[OCR1]

Unfortunately the experience you describe is more the norm than the exception. Yes, it’s just plain awful. And they get plenty of bad press about it so I’m sure they are aware of it, although they seem helpless to do anything to fix it. I think Elon is a genius in most respects but he is completely blind in his ability to do anything to positively impact the customer service experience at Tesla. He talks about it but never really does much of anything to change it. The reps are pretty much fresh out of high school with little to no training and no guidance from anyone on how to do their job.

What’s funny is their job description states they are required to respond to emails and phone calls within five minutes. We all know what a joke that is.

 

[Thursdayyy]

Ive had the same experience, ordered in 7/27, I have a vin, never been contacted by anyone since day of order, ive sent emails, called, no avail. I feel like I ordered the car and got amazing service up till that point, now that the deposit has been made and im waiting, ive got nearly 0 correspondence or help. My purchase order is also incorrect. From what i understand, we can work all that out the day of delivery, but i'd rest a little easier if it were all laid out for me. To me, getting a contract as simple as theyve made it, right, shouldnt be a problem. They need an employee or 2 between Sales person and delivery specialist. Call them a contract agent, and they can answer your questions between sale and delivery.

 

[aasandsas]

The sales guy called and texted non stop to me before my purchase. Once ordered he disappeared and now my DA is totally incompetent. Had to rematch my VIN for delivery a week later whereas Tesla says you can schedule up to a week. Totally incompetent and lack of basic knowledge.

 

[Octo]

FWIW, I was never able to get ahold of the person who handled my order. Incommunicado via email and she never called back.

But.

I simply called Tesla (not the person handling my order) and the three times I called, I never waited longer than 3 minutes and I got everything answered/resolved immediately. For example, I switched from a custom ordered car to an inventory car and was waiting for the MVPA. When that didn’t get updated after 2 days, I called and a few minutes later my account showed the new MVPA.

That was during the last week of June 2019.

 

[Cultgti]

What kind of deal did you get on an AWD LR "stealth" speed performance car? What is the color and interior option?

 

[SMAlset]

As I understand from reading a number of owner posts, when trade-ins are involved they won’t place a value on it until very close to when your car can be delivered. They immediately turn the trade-in over to a wholesaler for auction so Tesla will want to get that price. The value of auctioned cars will vary week by week depending on how many of that car and model are available at that time.

So maybe if a revision to the contract needs to be made, Tesla will wait to do so at time of placing a value on the trade-in so the contract department doesn’t need to be making multiple revisions. No point in making changes that a lending institution will rely upon to draw up your financing contract and cut a check if in a few days/weeks later they have to make another change. Sometimes cars that are going to be delivered can’t reach the purchaser at the anticipated time, so he won’t be able to trade his vehicle until the delivery can happen.

Keep in mind most of the time Teslas aren’t sitting in a big lot where the buyer is located, unlike traditional dealerships where you go to pick out a car on the lot, do the paperwork there in their office and drive away. The models need to be transported, paperwork prepared a head of time and coordinated with a delivery center. Much of the anxiety buyers feel is the result of not being told what to expect and having their calls/emails not answered timely. It’s a big purchase and that makes it more stressful too. Hang in there.

BTW excited for you on your P3-. Hope your wait isn’t much longer. Congrats on the 25th too.

 

[KenC]

You shouldn't be surprised. The store salesperson wants to make a sale. Once that's done, his job is done. Now, you're in the hands of your Delivery Agent. Since I don't live near a store, I never dealt with a salesperson. I ordered online, and only had 8 emails from my IDA before I got the car 4 months later, and I didn't get the first one until well after 2 months had passed from my order. That was typical last year. I've never talked to anyone from Tesla. My IDA never called nor would he give me a number to call, nor did he answer my questions. Yes, lots of stuff isn't clear, and the paperwork looks all wrong, but they eventually get it done, even the trade-in. Maddening. That's Tesla. It only makes sense after you come here or to some other Tesla forum and find out your experience is the "norm". Sure, they need to fix it if they ever want to be a grown-up company, but it's a mirror of Elon.

So on July 30th (my 25th Wedding Anniversary), my wife and I drove 130 miles to Las Vegas to visit the Tesla store. I have been a huge Tesla fan for years, particularly during the last two years. I've devoured every YouTube video, and spent hours reading here, the Tesla sub-reddit, and every other place I could find that had Tesla information.

But July 30th was the day I *finally* visited a Tesla Store. Here's my experience so far...

On July 31st, I called my sales rep and said that I'd take a rather unusual Model 3 Performance vehicle. It has all the speed of a "normal" Performance Model 3, but it doesn't have the suspension, Brembo brakes, or spoiler of the standard Model 3 Performance package. They offered a discount on this special Model 3 Performance, and I couldn't say no. I'm 52 years old, and have had five spine surgeries. The fact that this vehicle was discounted, had the acceleration of the Performance, but did *not* have the Performance suspension was a huge plus for me; I'm too old to feel every bump in the road of the regular Performance suspension. I have zero plans of "tracking" or racing, so this car was *made* for me. : )

Up until I called the sales rep and told him that I'd take the car, I had received multiple telephone calls from him, text messages, and emails.

Now that we're actually in the purchasing process, he won't respond to emails, texts, or phone calls. The Purchase Order that he sent me is completely wrong. The Trade-In section of my Tesla account says that someone will be contacting me within 24 hours to complete the Trade-In allowance, and has sat at that status since July 31st.

I have received no information back from the sales rep regarding my trade in status, no acknowledgement of the fact that the Purchase Order is wrong... nothing.

Up until you tell them that you will be buying the car, they'll hound you to death.

Once you start the purchase process, you get nothing.

I have financing all secured through my credit union. I'm completely ready to take delivery of the car, but I can't until they fix this stuff, and I can't even get them to acknowledge that stuff *needs* to be fixed!

IMO, Tesla is way, way, way understaffed. Not only do they not have an adequate number of sales reps, the sales reps they *do* have are so over burdened, they can't provide any level of customer service at all. It also appears that most of their sales reps were hired in a desperate rush, and weren't given the training needed to actually do their jobs.

I'm not posting this experience in any sort of rage or anger. I'm not trying to disparage the company; I absolutely love Elon's vision, as well as his cars. O M G, I love his cars so very much. At 52 years old, I feel like I'm 16 again, and getting my very first car. I have *never* been so excited about purchasing anything in my entire life.

But Tesla needs to be called out on their shortcomings... they need to know about them, and they need to fix them. The entire purpose of this soap box I'm standing on is simply to let them know what a typical customer experience is in purchasing one of their vehicles. And my situation is very simple... I'm trading in a vehicle (2016 Honda Accord) that is currently financed, and buying one of their cars. I have paid my $2,500 deposit, and I have my credit union ready to cut a check to Tesla for the car. Very simple and typical transaction. But I can't until their sales rep does his job.

I know that I'll be thrilled to death when I finally take delivery. But getting to that point is an unnecessarily cumbersome journey.

To Be Continued...

 

[Phlier]

Unfortunately the experience you describe is more the norm than the exception. Yes, it’s just plain awful. And they get plenty of bad press about it so I’m sure they are aware of it, although they seem helpless to do anything to fix it. I think Elon is a genius in most respects but he is completely blind in his ability to do anything to positively impact the customer service experience at Tesla. He talks about it but never really does much of anything to change it. The reps are pretty much fresh out of high school with little to no training and no guidance from anyone on how to do their job.

What’s funny is their job description states they are required to respond to emails and phone calls within five minutes. We all know what a joke that is.

I was going to bold the sections of your post that really stood out, when I realized that the entire post was spot on. : )

Ive had the same experience, ordered in 7/27, I have a vin, never been contacted by anyone since day of order, ive sent emails, called, no avail. I feel like I ordered the car and got amazing service up till that point, now that the deposit has been made and im waiting, ive got nearly 0 correspondence or help. My purchase order is also incorrect. From what i understand, we can work all that out the day of delivery, but i'd rest a little easier if it were all laid out for me. To me, getting a contract as simple as theyve made it, right, shouldnt be a problem. They need an employee or 2 between Sales person and delivery specialist. Call them a contract agent, and they can answer your questions between sale and delivery.

Exactly!

The sales guy called and texted non stop to me before my purchase. Once ordered he disappeared and now my DA is totally incompetent. Had to rematch my VIN for delivery a week later whereas Tesla says you can schedule up to a week. Totally incompetent and lack of basic knowledge.

Again, right on with what I've experienced so far.

FWIW, I was never able to get ahold of the person who handled my order. Incommunicado via email and she never called back.

But.

I simply called Tesla (not the person handling my order) and the three times I called, I never waited longer than 3 minutes and I got everything answered/resolved immediately. For example, I switched from a custom ordered car to an inventory car and was waiting for the MVPA. When that didn’t get updated after 2 days, I called and a few minutes later my account showed the new MVPA.

That was during the last week of June 2019.

Thanks for that! I'm going to call Tesla directly on Monday if they don't have everything figured out by then.

What kind of deal did you get on an AWD LR "stealth" speed performance car? What is the color and interior option?

$58,490 without the fees. My car doesn't have the Performance suspension, brakes, spoiler. It does have FSD, though. : )

As I understand from reading a number of owner posts, when trade-ins are involved they won’t place a value on it until very close to when your car can be delivered. They immediately turn the trade-in over to a wholesaler for auction so Tesla will want to get that price. The value of auctioned cars will vary week by week depending on how many of that car and model are available at that time.

So maybe if a revision to the contract needs to be made, Tesla will wait to do so at time of placing a value on the trade-in so the contract department doesn’t need to be making multiple revisions. No point in making changes that a lending institution will rely upon to draw up your financing contract and cut a check if in a few days/weeks later they have to make another change. Sometimes cars that are going to be delivered can’t reach the purchaser at the anticipated time, so he won’t be able to trade his vehicle until the delivery can happen.

Keep in mind most of the time Teslas aren’t sitting in a big lot where the buyer is located, unlike traditional dealerships where you go to pick out a car on the lot, do the paperwork there in their office and drive away. The models need to be transported, paperwork prepared a head of time and coordinated with a delivery center. Much of the anxiety buyers feel is the result of not being told what to expect and having their calls/emails not answered timely. It’s a big purchase and that makes it more stressful too. Hang in there.

BTW excited for you on your P3-. Hope your wait isn’t much longer. Congrats on the 25th too.

Well that explains a lot. They really shouldn't say "This will be complete in 24 hours". Very misleading. And thanks! I can't believe she's put up with me for 25 years. : )

You shouldn't be surprised. The store salesperson wants to make a sale. Once that's done, his job is done. Now, you're in the hands of your Delivery Agent. Since I don't live near a store, I never dealt with a salesperson. I ordered online, and only had 8 emails from my IDA before I got the car 4 months later, and I didn't get the first one until well after 2 months had passed from my order. That was typical last year. I've never talked to anyone from Tesla. My IDA never called nor would he give me a number to call, nor did he answer my questions. Yes, lots of stuff isn't clear, and the paperwork looks all wrong, but they eventually get it done, even the trade-in. Maddening. That's Tesla. It only makes sense after you come here or to some other Tesla forum and find out your experience is the "norm". Sure, they need to fix it if they ever want to be a grown-up company, but it's a mirror of Elon.

I didn't realize that I would get handed off to another person. I need to get in touch with them, it looks like.


Update: I failed to mention that this whole ordeal is regarding an in stock, inventory vehicle, not a special order.

Just a few minutes ago, I got an email from my sales rep stating that the trade-in status and corrected Purchase Agreement will be available tomorrow. All I can think about that is "mmmhmmm". I'll believe it when I see it. Hope I'm eating my hat on this one, 'cause I'll eat my hat if they're able to pull off a complete and correct Purchase Order tomorrow.

I did get a text message from Tesla stating that I needed to schedule a delivery date. I got on their web site and confirmed a delivery date of Friday, August 9th at 11:30 a.m. So they have until that time to get a complete and correct Purchase Agreement to my credit union.

Just kills me that my car is just sitting down there...

To Be Continued!

 

[mmiketa]

Just a few minutes ago, I got an email from my sales rep stating that the trade-in status and corrected Purchase Agreement will be available tomorrow. All I can think about that is "mmmhmmm". I'll believe it when I see it. Hope I'm eating my hat on this one, 'cause I'll eat my hat if they're able to pull off a complete and correct Purchase Order tomorrow.

I did get a text message from Tesla stating that I needed to schedule a delivery date. I got on their web site and confirmed a delivery date of Friday, August 9th at 11:30 a.m. So they have until that time to get a complete and correct Purchase Agreement to my credit union.

Just kills me that my car is just sitting down there...

To Be Continued!

Or they'll have issues and push your delivery date back.

 

[Phlier]

What kind of deal did you get on an AWD LR "stealth" speed performance car? What is the color and interior option?

Whoops, I told you the price, but failed to answer the rest. It's blue with the standard black interior. If any of their in-stock "stealth" performance cars had had a white interior, we would've gotten it instead.

It's really too bad that you can't order up a "stealth" Model 3 Performance. I had to go with exterior and interior colors that weren't our favorite(s), but to us it was worth it to not get the performance suspension.

Or they'll have issues and push your delivery date back.

Yup. I'm doing my best to head off any problems. At least the ones that I can find.

Update:

The "My Account" part of my Tesla online account now shows most of the trade-in stuff, but they show that there isn't a current loan on the car. : / Sent the sales rep an email stating that rather important piece of information still needs to get filled in.

I'm betting that the PA I'm supposed to get today (you know, the "correct" one) will be missing this vital part.

 

[Phlier]

I'm just... I mean... I can't even...*sigh*

Update:

OK, so this is gonna be a long one. It's both hilarious and sad.

Some background for those that aren't familiar with the purchase process, and also for those that are familiar with it, but not when a trade in is involved and the trade-in is currently financed:

When you are going to trade-in a vehicle, you're directed to a special page on the Tesla site where you fill in all the information on your trade-in vehicle, including the financing. They want all the details... bank, account number, etc. etc. Let's call the fields that you, the Tesla buyer, enter that information in "Consumer Fields." As a buyer, you only have access to (and can only look at) consumer fields. On Tesla's side of things, they can see the consumer fields, and then they also have fields that they (Tesla employees) are supposed to fill out. Let's call those fields "Tesla Fields."

Of particular note, is one Tesla Field that I can look at, but can't modify. It's the "Payoff Balance" field. The Payoff Balance field has been blank since day one. I have been repeatedly telling my Sales Rep (gonna abbreviate that as "SR" from now on), that this needs to be fixed. As I said, this is a Tesla Field, and not one that the consumer can touch... only look at. I have sent the SR numerous emails about this, but let's just cut to the latest:

Email paste (email I sent to my SR):

Hey XXXXX,

While it looks like they're getting closer to getting the trade in figured out, they're still having problems. Here's what the Trade In section of my Tesla account looks like:

Note the "Lien Payoff Amount" of $0. That's not correct. There is a current balance of about $22,300 on the loan for the car to be traded in. This needs to be taken into consideration in the Purchase Agreement, as the difference between the trade in value and loan payoff amount will need to be rolled into the new loan.
Just trying to be pro-active here, and get good documents to start with, so we don't have to just go back and correct them at a later time.
Thanks,
XXXX

End paste.

The "Lien Payoff Amount" in the above email is the same as what we have been referring to as the "Payoff Balance" field up til this point. You'll see why I call it "Payoff Balance" here in a sec.

Now you'll notice that the paste of the email is very specific; anyone could look at this and immediately understand what the situation is, right? The reason it is so highly specific is that this is around the fourth email I sent him trying to get him to understand the problem. Unable to get him to grip what is going on, I used Windows 10's Snipping Tool to take a little picture of my Tesla Account page, figuring *anyone* should be able to understand what's needed. Right? Right??? *sigh*

His response, received this morning:

Email from my SR Begin Paste:

Hi XXXXX,


This is what I can see on my end:

Is this not reflected in your customer portal? I’m not able to access that from home, but let me know if it’s not as I’ll send that to our inside team today.



Thanks!

End Email Paste

I'm sorry if the picture isn't very clear, but here I'd like you to note two things. Notice the "Payoff Balance" field? That's a Tesla Field. That's the field that Tesla is supposed to fill in once they've contacted the financing institution and gotten an actual payoff amount for the loan. Also take note of the "Estimated Lien Payoff Amount" field toward the top of the page. The one that says $22,500. That's a Consumer Field, filled in by yours truly. Why am I pointing out these two fields? You'll see in a sec.... O M G will you see in a sec, LOL.

This post is getting really long.. I'll continue it in the next one. Not sure if I'm getting close to the max post size.

 

[Phlier]

So here's my response to the email I received from the last post:

My Email Response Begin Paste:

My Account page isn't as detailed as what you show there, but yes, for the most part that's what mine shows, too. And it's wrong. See the "Payoff Balance"? That should not be blank. It is financed through the credit union information shown .

End Email Paste

This is where it gets silly. His response:

Paste of my SR's Response Email Begin Paste:

XXXXXXXX,

The payoff balance does not show blank in what I sent you. It shows 22,500. If that’s not correct, that’s an entirely different issue that I’ll work to address for you.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a way to make that reflect on your end, that’s why I’ve been emailing my inside team to update it accordingly.

I’ll be back in the office when we open (we’re closed today), and figuring this out is at the top of my list of things to do. Don’t hesitate to send anything my way should something else come up.

Best,

XXXXXXXXX

End Email Paste

Now at first, I'm really scratching my head. How could he say that the "Payoff Balance" field does not show blank in what he sent me? It absolutely shows blank in what he sent me. Then it dawns on me. Remember how I pointed out the "Estimated Lien Payoff Amount" field earlier? He has the two fields confused. OMG, can he really be that thick?? Yes. Yes he can.

My response:

Begin Paste of Email I Sent to SR:

The field that you said is filled out is the "Estimated Lien Payoff Amount" that I myself entered. I'm talking about the section that's below that... the part highlighted in red in the picture above. This should be the actual payoff information that someone at Tesla fills out once they have verified the loan payoff information. The field that you're looking at (the one that shows $22,500) is what *I* entered.

End Email Paste:

His response:

Begin Paste of Email I Received from SR:

The 22,500 from the “estimated payoff” is the payoff that you entered, correct?

If that’s incorrect, let me know and I’ll see if I can’t update the actual payoff information for you.

XXXXX

End Email Paste

I think the light came on at this point, as I received another email from him about two minutes later:

Begin Paste of Email I Received from SR:

What is the actual payoff? I’m not near my computer now, but when I get back to it, I’m happy to enter that in for you.

XXXXXXX

End Email Paste

So now instead of actually going through the correct channels, and having whatever dept at Tesla that is responsible for verifying loan payoff amounts do their job, he just wants me to go right ahead and send him the payoff information so that he can put it in. If they were going to allow buyers to do this, it should have just been a field I could fill out on the original trade-in page! I may be mistaken here, but isn't it some sort of law that the dealer has to verify loan balances on trade-in vehicles that are financed? Regardless, I went ahead and sent him the correct 15-day payoff figure. I just don't have any fight left in me, so I'm hoping that, by some kind act of God, he's able to go ahead and put the round peg in the round hole.

The sad part is that I'm giving you the short version of the story. There are a lot of additional emails where I painstakingly spell out every last detail of what the problems were and how they needed to be corrected. You guys are getting the Readers Digest Condensed version, for those old enough to remember what that is. ; )

Honestly, I'm not sure if I should laugh or punch the wall. Maybe punch the wall while laughing?

*sigh*

To Be Continued...

 

[Phlier]

Here's a TL;DR summary of what I consider to be the major failure of the above story... There's someone (maybe even two people?) at Tesla that are responsible for calling the financing institution of trade-in vehicles that have a loan, and verifying the payoff amounts.

This person (people? I have a hard time believing it's more than one at this point) had a *week* (the page actually says it'll be done "within 24 hours" ) to call and verify the correct payoff amount on this loan, and enter that number into the Payoff Balance field. It was never done. Not only that, but trying to get a SR to even identify the correct field in question was an effort involving no less than ten emails.

I'm really trying to keep my sense of humor about this, but just WOW! Actually, I'm more concerned than I am angry. I'm concerned for Elon's company... our company. If they can't even reliably call and get payoff balances on loans, what deeper, more worrisome issues exist behind closed doors?

I want Tesla to succeed so badly; more than any company I've ever known. But problems like this should be a ten minute fix. Not ten emails spread over the course of a week! And even then, the resolution wasn't/isn't being done correctly. Having the consumer provide them with the payoff balance? Talk about opening the door to a potential fraud issue. I'm not even gonna spell it out, as I don't want to plant any seeds. Let's just say there's a huge fraud risk by handling this transaction this way.

I don't have enough hands to facepalm appropriately.

 

[sleevin]

Absolutely call the Tesla’s toll free number to get your needs addressed. The same thing happened to me for my trade in (they never called Audi to get the payoff quote) and now that my car is ready for pickup is affecting delivery. My experience contacting the central phone number was a much better one.

 

[KenC]

Don't overthink it. The paperwork will get done. They are happy to FedEx papers back and forth to you, if it's not right.

 

[NickFie]

Keep on slogging. Sometimes I've just had to take vendors by the hand and lead them through every mis-step of a process. Our car was easier to buy. No trade-in. Also, we were heading towards the end of a quarter, everyone at Tesla wanted to get the cars out the door.

Customer experience - sales and service - is the area where Tesla has the best chance to ruin their future.

There is a big pot of "go" at the end of the process. We've had my wife's P3D- for nearly a year now. Astounding acceleration from a plain-looking mid-size car.

 

[SMAlset]

OMG you are going to give yourself a heart attack. After reading the latest, it seems like you are trying to micromanage their delivery/document section. Likely your DA isn’t involved at all in that area and is trying to calm your nerves as much as he can by intervening. New owners read about people’s issues here which are a very small subset of the cars sold and then spend this time between ordering and delivery getting worked up over how Tesla handles it and berating them over it adding to their own stress.

I don’t think you will get payoff numbers until closer to August 9th which you selected For delivery. Has that been confirmed by them yet? They’ll let you know on the app or in an email. If you were on this forum reading about deliveries long enough you’d see it’s typical to get your MVP a few days before delivery date.

 

[Phlier]

Absolutely call the Tesla’s toll free number to get your needs addressed. The same thing happened to me for my trade in (they never called Audi to get the payoff quote) and now that my car is ready for pickup is affecting delivery. My experience contacting the central phone number was a much better one.

Initially, I was going to put off calling the main Tesla line to give the gears and wheels in Tesla's purchase process to turn, as they had/have until this Friday to get it all correct. But for a reason that I'll cover here in a sec, I think I'll just go ahead and call them this morning.

Don't overthink it. The paperwork will get done. They are happy to FedEx papers back and forth to you, if it's not right.

Hopefully it won't come down to that, but it's good to know that option is there should it be needed.

Keep on slogging. Sometimes I've just had to take vendors by the hand and lead them through every mis-step of a process. Our car was easier to buy. No trade-in. Also, we were heading towards the end of a quarter, everyone at Tesla wanted to get the cars out the door.

Customer experience - sales and service - is the area where Tesla has the best chance to ruin their future.

There is a big pot of "go" at the end of the process. We've had my wife's P3D- for nearly a year now. Astounding acceleration from a plain-looking mid-size car.

That's a perfect summary of my concerns, right there. They need to get the process as streamlined as other car dealers... two to three hour visit to the dealership, and you're out the door.

Just for clarification, the P3D- is what people are calling the "Performance Model 3 without the performance upgrades" package, then? The quotes in the last sentence is how the SR refers to this particular Model 3 Performance.

OMG you are going to give yourself a heart attack. After reading the latest, it seems like you are trying to micromanage their delivery/document section. Likely your DA isn’t involved at all in that area and is trying to calm your nerves as much as he can by intervening. New owners read about people’s issues here which are a very small subset of the cars sold and then spend this time between ordering and delivery getting worked up over how Tesla handles it and berating them over it adding to their own stress.

I don’t think you will get payoff numbers until closer to August 9th which you selected For delivery. Has that been confirmed by them yet? They’ll let you know on the app or in an email. If you were on this forum reading about deliveries long enough you’d see it’s typical to get your MVP a few days before delivery date.

My intent on getting them to line up the correct shapes with the correct holes was initially focused on hitting a delivery date of today (August 5). I now have a confirmed delivery date of this coming Friday, but I received an email from my DR stating that they had delivery slots available on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. With how this has progressed so far, I really don't see an accurate PA coming my way any earlier than Friday, if even then. So while an earlier delivery date would be nice, I'll honestly be surprised if they're able to pull off a Friday (as currently scheduled and confirmed) delivery.

And I think you have the wrong idea regarding the micro managing statement you made. I'm not trying to micro manage it, I'm trying to get it done. The field in question says that it will be done "within 24 hours". When a week goes by and that still isn't done, and they give you two different completely incorrect Purchase Agreements that are incorrect because their "within 24 hour" field isn't done, it became obvious over time that it simply *wasn't* going to get done if I didn't take the bull by the horns and try and get them the help they needed to fill out their own field. I started out by saying, "this PA isn't done. You guys need to finish the trade-in section." They then gave me a new PA that had the trade-in credit, but no trade-in loan payoff. To which I responded, "This PA isn't right, either. There's no loan payoff for the trade in." At which point, he couldn't understand what was left undone. That's when I had to take him by the hand and start drawing red lines around boxes. The next PA I receive will be attempt number 4 at getting a correct PA.

For brevity, a lot of what has transpired has been left out. Otherwise this would be a novel, not a forum thread. I think if you had been witness to all of the events that have taken place, you'd come to the conclusion that your micro management statement is more than just a little out of line.