Picking up car issues?

[OCR1]

Mike,

I’m skeptical of what Tesla is telling you. If it were me i would have still returned the car today. It will take them 60 days to issue you a refund. If you get into an accident or even put a minor dent in it from a parking lot incident they may refuse to let you return it. And they are so disorganized that as soon as you leave the delivery center they will likely forget about you and move on to the next transaction.

Do you have another car you can drive until you get this sorted out?

 

[MikeR55]

This reject/accept process may be worse than negotiating with a car salesman. Pick your poison.

Yep! "Just sign, and then talk to service" Totally WRONG thing to do. Uggg.

 

[MikeR55]

Mike,

I’m skeptical of what Tesla is telling you. If it were me i would have still returned the car today. It will take them 60 days to issue you a refund. If you get into an accident or even put a minor dent in it from a parking lot incident they may refuse to let you return it. And they are so disorganized that as soon as you leave the delivery center they will likely forget about you and move on to the next transaction.

Do you have another car you can drive until you get this sorted out?

Yes - I have another car, I will not be driving this car. I just wanted to get loan sorted out/talk to them before just dropping off the car and walking away. Fun day!

 

[MikeR55]

My sales guy had me sign in under a different email and order a new car that he saw coming from the factory. now just need to hear back from my loan to let them know what's going on. What fun this has been!

 

[dmurphy]

New bumper new paint on a 2 hour old car? Seems a little odd and may not match or am I being too anal?

You’re not being too anal, but overthinking it. Believe me, every other car make (save Rolls Royce) does touch up work after the car gets to the dealership. You’d never know it. The difference is that Tesla doesn’t. What leaves the factory is what you get - no PDI person straightening things out.

neither of these are a big deal for them to fix ...

Nevermind! I saw where the service center said it’s not fixable. Return it, then. Sorry. Hopefully they throw in a wall connector or something for your trouble.

 

[OCR1]

My sales guy had me sign in under a different email and order a new car that he saw coming from the factory. now just need to hear back from my loan to let them know what's going on. What fun this has been!

Glad to hear they are working with you.

How do you plan on dealing with the fact that you will need to fund the purchase of the second car while waiting up to 60 days for Tesla to refund your first purchase?

 

[MikeR55]

Luckily I have enough in the bank to cover another down payment. More importantly I'm waiting to see what the loan bank wants to do about this. I'm not sure if they get their refund back and will give me a second loan while they wait for it. So that becomes an issue

 

[OCR1]

Luckily I have enough in the bank to cover another down payment. More importantly I'm waiting to see what the loan bank wants to do about this. I'm not sure if they get their refund back and will give me a second loan while they wait for it. So that becomes an issue

The bank will require you to make loan payments on the returned car until Tesla issues the refund check, so you could be looking at potentially 2 car payments on a car you returned. And then they will need to qualify you for a second loan. If it’s a small bank that has some flexibility and they can confirm that you returned the first car they may do something custom for you. If it’s a big bank you will probably have to follow the rules for getting a second loan.

 

[MikeR55]

The bank will require you to make loan payments on the returned car until Tesla issues the refund check, so you could be looking at potentially 2 car payments on a car you returned. And then they will need to qualify you for a second loan. If it’s a small bank that has some flexibility and they can confirm that you returned the first car they may do something custom for you. If it’s a big bank you will probably have to follow the rules for getting a second loan.

The good news is it is my credit union. And I don't have to pay the loan for the first three months as part of the special they're running. So hopefully it all takes care of itself. But yeah it could get a little ugly quickly. Hopefully not, waiting to hear back from them.

 

[MSP2023]

History has a way of repeating itself over and over again.

New buyer comes along, tries to prepare for delivery of a new Tesla. Posts on the forum, gets some comments on what to look for and what to avoid. Buyer is told not to accept delivery of a car with issues. Rejecting a car is no big deal. They will just find you another one. Accepting delivery and then trying to go through the return process is a huge deal. They will hold on to your money for 60 days, and they will prevent you from reordering the same trim. And in states where you can trade in your old vehicle and only pay the sales tax on the net amount (not including California) you lose that benefit too.

Buyer gets anxious at the delivery center and accepts delivery even though there are issues. Tesla rep tells them not to worry about it. Tesla rep doesn’t know what they are talking about. Buyer listens to rep and ignores advice from the forum. Buyer takes the car home and discovers even more issues. Rethinks their decision to accept the car. Begins thinking about the return process. Discovers the return process is very complicated. Gets very frustrated with Tesla.

This will keep happening over and over again unfortunately. We read about these posts now on almost a daily basis.

If Tesla can reverse this transaction that’s the way to go. If they can’t or won’t do it, just get the repairs over with. You don’t want them hanging on to your money for 60 days and preventing you from ordering another car.

If any new buyers are out there reading this, learn from other people’s mistakes. Never accept a car with issues. There are plenty of vehicles in inventory that are ready to go and need no rework. I’ve purchased three of them this year while rejecting two that did need rework. Rework should be Tesla’s problem, not yours.

Good luck with whatever you decide Mike. I’m sure you will figure out the best course of action now that you know the issues.

===========================================================================

A lot of people read information. But what they do with this information is another story.
I've received a huge amount of support and advice from this site and I believe a good many have too.
Thank you TeslaFans!

We get/seek information but what we do with it is another story.
Good or great information is only good or great if you use the information and benefit from it.

Great words of advice bud!!

I'm scheduled to do a pickup this week, the latest Monday to preserve the 2yr SC.
They said the car should be ready by Saturday I'll tell them ok.
But, I'm not planning to pick it up then.
I'm going to go there on Friday, spend some time and do a visual without the pressure.
Make my notes, then if all's good, sign for the delivery.
Unfortunately I was told I cannot test drive the car. This kinda tick me off, what are they concerned about.
I'm the buyer and I can't take it for a drive before I sign the dotted line????!!!
If the car makes some weird noise after I sign on the dotted line, then I'm left with dealing with a brand new car that has issues from day ONE!! That I now have to be inconvenienced to bring to the SC to fix!!

Fingers & toes Xed.

 

[OCR1]

===========================================================================
I'm scheduled to do a pickup this week, the latest Monday to preserve the 2yr SC.
They said the car should be ready by Saturday I'll tell them ok.
But, I'm not planning to pick it up then.
I'm going to go there on Friday, spend some time and do a visual without the pressure.
Make my notes, then if all's good, sign for the delivery.
Unfortunately I was told I cannot test drive the car. This kinda tick me off, what are they concerned about.
I'm the buyer and I can't take it for a drive before I sign the dotted line????!!!
If the car makes some weird noise after I sign on the dotted line, then I'm left with dealing with a brand new car that has issues from day ONE!! That I now have to be inconvenienced to bring to the SC to fix!!

Fingers & toes Xed.

Perhaps it is different in Florida, but here in Costa Mesa (Orange County) all cars are stored at an offsite lot about 15 minutes away from the delivery center. The cars are not moved to the delivery center until just hours before the scheduled delivery time. So if you tell them you want to pick up the car on Saturday there is a good chance that it is still sitting at an inaccessible offsite lot on Friday evening.

I agree that the no test drive policy is annoying, I don’t know what Tesla is afraid of. But the majority of things that go wrong with the car have to do with cosmetics - dents, scratches, paint imperfections, panel alignments. I’m less concerned about an issue with drivability as they are pretty good at fixing those things when there are issues. If there are immediate system failures the onboard computer should hopefully detect them when it’s powered on.

They will pressure you to sign paperwork prior to inspecting the car. They will also pressure you to pay in full prior to the delivery appointment. On the payment issue just say “sure no problem” but don’t actually send them any money. On the paperwork just say no I’m going to inspect first. Good luck with it.

 

[MSP2023]

Perhaps it is different in Florida, but here in Costa Mesa (Orange County) all cars are stored at an offsite lot about 15 minutes away from the delivery center. The cars are not moved to the delivery center until just hours before the scheduled delivery time. So if you tell them you want to pick up the car on Saturday there is a good chance that it is still sitting at an inaccessible offsite lot on Friday evening.

I agree that the no test drive policy is annoying, I don’t know what Tesla is afraid of. But the majority of things that go wrong with the car have to do with cosmetics - dents, scratches, paint imperfections, panel alignments. I’m less concerned about an issue with drivability as they are pretty good at fixing those things when there are issues. If there are immediate system failures the onboard computer should hopefully detect them when it’s powered on.

They will pressure you to sign paperwork prior to inspecting the car. They will also pressure you to pay in full prior to the delivery appointment. On the payment issue just say “sure no problem” but don’t actually send them any money. On the paperwork just say no I’m going to inspect first. Good luck with it.

You are 100% correct OCR1, the car is stored in an offsite facility and brought out the day of delivery for 'clean up' since the weather may ruin the prep work prior to delivery. I'll try to see the car anyway since it's not too far away, hopefully they won't turn me away. If they do, I'll go there before the time of delivery and see whether I can get some more inspection time without being rushed. I do plan to be quite thorough though, if something doesn't feel right, then I'll just hold off. No new car is worth the aggravation, $ don't grow on trees!! We are buyers, nobody should sell you a car.

 

[MikeR55]

You are 100% correct OCR1, the car is stored in an offsite facility and brought out the day of delivery for 'clean up' since the weather may ruin the prep work prior to delivery. I'll try to see the car anyway since it's not too far away, hopefully they won't turn me away. If they do, I'll go there before the time of delivery and see whether I can get some more inspection time without being rushed. I do plan to be quite thorough though, if something doesn't feel right, then I'll just hold off. No new car is worth the aggravation, $ don't grow on trees!! We are buyers, nobody should sell you a car.

The biggest lesson is if they tell you to go to service to get something fixed, don't take the car. There's no reason to have to get a brand new car serviced. They told me I could go to service then decide, and that was not the truth. Shorter unlike other cars you do have seven days to return it but that is very different from taking delivery. She kept insisting I sign the take for delivery as I was going through the car, and then told me it didn't matter if I signed it or not because it's not official till it is put in at the end of the day, that was actually not true. It was official as soon as I left a lot. So don't let them convince you otherwise

 

[OCR1]

I went with a friend to take delivery of an SR+ a few months ago. There were numerous issues with it needing service. They told me that service could take care of it no problem. I said great, go do that and let us know when it’s fixed and we’ll come back and decide if we want it. The guy then tells me that they can’t schedule service to fix anything unless we pay for it.

We rejected the car and I sent a very strongly worded email to the manager of the delivery center that evening. We then waited three weeks for another car to be ready. Fortunately that car was flawless so we took delivery and all has been well since.

But what really amazed me is that they had no interest in fixing the issues with the car until after it was sold. Any respectable dealer would want to fix the issues prior to selling it but Tesla just does everything backwards. I still love our Model 3’s, but I feel like if I recommend Tesla to any of my friends it must come with the caveat that they can not take delivery or have any conversations with Tesla reps unless I’m present with them. Kind of ridiculous but it is what it is.

 

[MikeR55]

I went with a friend to take delivery of an SR+ a few months ago. There were numerous issues with it needing service. They told me that service could take care of it no problem. I said great, go do that and let us know when it’s fixed and we’ll come back and decide if we want it. The guy then tells me that they can’t schedule service to fix anything unless we pay for it.

We rejected the car and I sent a very strongly worded email to the manager of the delivery center that evening. We then waited three weeks for another car to be ready. Fortunately that car was flawless so we took delivery and all has been well since.

But what really amazed me is that they had no interest in fixing the issues with the car until after it was sold. Any respectable dealer would want to fix the issues prior to selling it but Tesla just does everything backwards. I still love our Model 3’s, but I feel like if I recommend Tesla to any of my friends it must come with the caveat that they can not take delivery or have any conversations with Tesla reps unless I’m present with them. Kind of ridiculous but it is what it is.

You absolutely nailed it. They want to fix the car after you pay for it, instead of fixing the car before they even give it to you. I was not prepared for that, I've never seen business done like that so it didn't even occur to me that's what they were doing until they did it.

 

[OCR1]

You absolutely nailed it. They want to fix the car after you pay for it, instead of fixing the car before they even give it to you. I was not prepared for that, I've never seen business done like that so it didn't even occur to me that's what they were doing until they did it.

Correct, because they know that if they don’t sell it to you it is very likely that another buyer will come along and take the car as is without requesting any repairs and they prefer to do as little work as possible to close the deal. The service centers are overwhelmed. They are not looking to create any extra work for themselves.

 

[MikeR55]

Correct, because they know that if they don’t sell it to you it is very likely that another buyer will come along and take the car as is without requesting any repairs and they prefer to do as little work as possible to close the deal. The service centers are overwhelmed. They are not looking to create any extra work for themselves.

But then why the sales pressure to close the deal, even lying and telling me I can drive it off the lot and it's still not a closed deal? If they can sell it to anybody else, then don't worry about me just let me get a new VIN number. Instead they made it seem like I could bring it back, and now they have to sell this car as used. So they're going to land up losing money. Doesn't make sense. I guess they make a little bit of money off my money down? Or at least it helps their coffers going into the quarter?

 

[OCR1]

But then why the sales pressure to close the deal, even lying and telling me I can drive it off the lot and it's still not a closed deal? If they can sell it to anybody else, then don't worry about me just let me get a new VIN number. Instead they made it seem like I could bring it back, and now they have to sell this car as used. So they're going to land up losing money. Doesn't make sense. I guess they make a little bit of money off my money down? Or at least it helps their coffers going into the quarter?

Simple. They are idiots...

Actually, they have a brilliant engineering team but the entire service organization is run by incompetent leadership reporting to an intelligent but dysfunctional CEO.

 

[MikeR55]

Simple. They are idiots...

Actually, they have a brilliant engineering team but the entire service organization is run by incompetent leadership reporting to an intelligent but dysfunctional CEO.

How long before Ford buys them out?

 

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