It's nice to be able to say that I think my Model S order has finally gone through.
Not without a few moments of angst earlier today, when I got a call that my originally specced seats (the 'basic' leather i.e. non-next-gen ones) were being discontinued. This led to a hiatus, and to a whole bunch of miscommunication between Tesla UK Sales, the lease company and me that was almost fatal for getting this order through with the pre-price-hike pricing. That in turn would have been fatal for my relationship with Tesla.
I would hate anyone else to be in the same boat, so if you are in the process of ordering through the corporate lease route:
- be very very careful before accepting what the Tesla people and/or lease company people tell you about when the order is actually 'placed' - it's a complex process, not everyone involved has all the info, and it's possible to be told 'everything is OK' when in fact everything is not OK.
- if you are currently hoping to finalise an order that involves the 'basic' leather seats, you should check that out - you may well be forced to either upgrade to Next Gen leather or downgrade to cloth. As of today, if you go online to configure a car, the basic leather seats are no longer available.
- in theory it's possible to order a car via the lease route without parting with the £2k deposit. That's the route I took, having got advice from Tesla and from the lease company (or so I thought). If you want to know for sure what car you're getting, pay the £2k and get it refunded when the lease order is completed. Specs and options available can change with just a few days notice.
Hope that's of help to someone. If everything falls into place tomorrow morning, I'll be able to report that the Tesla sales team have salvaged my faith in them...
Not without a few moments of angst earlier today, when I got a call that my originally specced seats (the 'basic' leather i.e. non-next-gen ones) were being discontinued. This led to a hiatus, and to a whole bunch of miscommunication between Tesla UK Sales, the lease company and me that was almost fatal for getting this order through with the pre-price-hike pricing. That in turn would have been fatal for my relationship with Tesla.
I would hate anyone else to be in the same boat, so if you are in the process of ordering through the corporate lease route:
- be very very careful before accepting what the Tesla people and/or lease company people tell you about when the order is actually 'placed' - it's a complex process, not everyone involved has all the info, and it's possible to be told 'everything is OK' when in fact everything is not OK.
- if you are currently hoping to finalise an order that involves the 'basic' leather seats, you should check that out - you may well be forced to either upgrade to Next Gen leather or downgrade to cloth. As of today, if you go online to configure a car, the basic leather seats are no longer available.
- in theory it's possible to order a car via the lease route without parting with the £2k deposit. That's the route I took, having got advice from Tesla and from the lease company (or so I thought). If you want to know for sure what car you're getting, pay the £2k and get it refunded when the lease order is completed. Specs and options available can change with just a few days notice.
Hope that's of help to someone. If everything falls into place tomorrow morning, I'll be able to report that the Tesla sales team have salvaged my faith in them...
