It really amazes me some of the responses here. This is supposed to be a community for us owners where we can support each other. Not just tear each other apart. So let's start trying to work towards that goal shall we?
I realize not all of you feel the same way as I do on how we've been treated. That's fine you don't have to. But we should all at least respect that there are a large number of us who genuinely feel misled and cheated. The reality is there was no way to make an accurate, informed, and reasonable buying decision when each of us made the purchase because Tesla did not give us all the information, they misled the public and let us think what we wanted to. They allowed us to speculate instead of clarifying. This is a major problem to me. Regardless of legality this is about Tesla being a good corporate citizen and I do not feel they were being that throughout this process. My experience with them personally has so far been extremely poor customer service.
Some of you have mentioned that we have no right to bitch because a deal is a deal and companies change prices all the time. I like the Apple analogy because it actually proves an interesting point. When Apple releases a new version of a product, its a full year later and as such has had a full year of market opportunity. If they drop the price, add new features, etc. they aren't under obligation to the first purchasers.
However, virtually every business that sells products to consumers whether that be Apple, Amazon, Target, etc. all have a price match gaurantee. This guarantee entitles a purchaser to a partial or full refund of a product within a certain time period (typically 30 days, 90 days if it's Costco). They often also offer the ability to swap a product for the newer counterpart within the same time period. This includes Apple. If Apple drops a new iPad and you just bought last year's model at full price a week ago, they will give you a partial refund or an upgrade. Why? Because that's what being a good corporate citizen is about. It's how you keep customers loyal. It's how you build good consumer relationships. That is the standard and it is not unreasonable as a consumer to expect companies to follow these examples.
So Tesla releases a brand new car less than two months ago. Then they suddenly drop the price, including a dubious $5k upgrade package, at base price. I say dubious because there was little solid information about the package until the car's hit the streets. Tesla misled their customers during pre-order with what was included. They let us think what we wanted, they never clarified, they never provided additional information in order to give customers a fighting chance at making a well informed decision. So all of us, P3D- and P3D+, made purchasing decisions based on that mis-information one way or another and we've all suffered from that failure.
There's yet another lens with which to view this problem. Anyone who opted not to buy the PUP did so because they felt it wasn't a real $5K value. They made a purchase decision based on a lack of information. Now that Tesla has dropped the price and included it they have essentially proven those people correct. If PUP truly has a $5K value then Tesla would not be so quick to get rid of it. Further, if PUP was of real value, they would have been much more clear in their prior messaging about what it is and what it isn't. But they didn't and they dropped the price. This tells me that PUP isn't a real value afterall, that I was right, and that they were probably planning on dropping the price all along. Again, this is bad corporate citizenship.
Therefore when you take these facts into account then I don't think it's unreasonable for many of us to be upset and for us to have a reasonable expectation of compensation for our trouble. While they may or may not be legally bound to a compensation offer to us, there is a very real and genuine market expectation that we will be provided one. As that is what most businesses do for their customers.
