For the record, I've been a longtime supporter of Tesla, a TSLA stockholder and someone with a credit score above 800. I went in to pick up my vehicle with my wife and what followed was an absolute nightmare and another Lyft ride home as Tesla prevented me from taking home my vehicle because of their unprofessionalism and slavish desire to have me take delivery before the end of the quarter so the company can make their numbers. Oddly this had nothing to do with the quality of the vehicle which turned out to be have no major flaws and looked to be very well assembled.
I received my VIN on 3/29 this week and was given only two options for delivery here in McLean, VA - either 3/30 and 3/31. I was approved for my bank loan through my credit union and had my down payment ready to go and all relevant information filled out in the Tesla app. My deep blue metallic model Y with white seats looked great and I was glad to see that it had been built in giga-Texas. Despite my fears about inconsistent build quality, the car checked out great and I was about to accept delivery (other than a small paint chip which the technician fixed with touchup paint and readjusted some rubber molding on the front passenger side). We thought we were good to go as we went to accept the vehicle. Then the administrative nightmare began.
Tesla asked us to present an image or copy of an image of my financing check from Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Unfortunately, the check had been mailed to me and I didn't have it in hand yet but Tesla never told me to bring the check with me. They already had Pentagon Federal's information inside the app, the approval amount but again, they rushed me to take delivery and had they given me the option to pickup 3 or 4 days from now with the check in hand, I would have been able to accept the vehicle. Again, Pentagon Federal is a major lender in the DMV / DC area and they could have preempted this with a reminder to me knowing full well that PenFed doesn't provide these images of checks and only provides promissory notes / truth in lending statements. Instead, I wasted my time showing up for delivery and was denied the chance to take the vehicle home for something they could have prevented. I head home in another Lyft, with my wife assuming once the check arrives we'll head right back in and take delivery.
Like the Trump indictment - things really took a turn for the worse!
I get a call, a few minutes after getting in a Lyft and heading home from another woman at the same dealership who says that if I don't take delivery by tomorrow, I will lose the vehicle and it will go to another customer. She says they are unable to hold the vehicle for me at all beyond today 3/31 unless I can get a physical check from the credit union by Friday. Then she says the only way to take delivery of the vehicle is to finance with Tesla financing - (which links to other banks) and the lowest rate I would get would be 5.5% which is much higher than the 5% rate I qualified for through my credit Union. I told her to f#$## off literally. I was livid and blown away by their inability to put my needs before their needs and give me a few days to get the check. I still don't have the vehicle and now they're looking at a workaround for me but this has truly been one of the worst customer services experiences in my life with no remorse from their side, no apologies. I even had them speak to customer service over the phone at the credit union but to no avail.
The current situation, is that they're looking at a workaround for me to take delivery today but I don't have my hopes up. If I don't take delivery today with the workaround I will have to choose another vehicle that will come in in another batch. Quick public service announcement here for the uninitiated but Tesla doesn't care about you - their goal is take the vehicle that was assigned to me and make sure any other customer can take delivery of it today in order to make their numbers and mark it as delivered. If the workaround doesn't work I'm going to speak to an attorney ( though I don't have much of a case, have them send they Tyco road delivery center a letter detailing what happened). I worked so hard and hoped that all the negative things about Tesla wouldn't impact me or I would somehow be exempt from their unprofessionalism. Instead, I am a direct recipient of their sloppy approach, their awful culture and the lack of training of their staff.