Pre-Owned Location

[NCM3]

Anybody else bought a used Tesla that isn't actually located where the website stated at the time of purchase?

I'm trying to buy my wife a pre-owned Model S as a placeholder until her Y is built. We ordered a 2016 MS on 12/31 showing it was 2 hours away in Charlotte, NC. Great, I'll rent a car, grab it and be home with her new (to us) wheels by dinner. Wrong...it took days to get assigned a sales adviser who then informed me the car was actually in Orlando. After laughing at his suggestion that we pay $2K for transport and showing screenshots of the listing before purchase, Tesla management agreed to move it.

Several days later I got another generic email from an inside delivery adviser. No contact phone number or real information, just something like "Welcome to Tesla." After multiple attempts at getting a delivery date from her, with email responses every 24-72 hours, I started looking for a different vehicle. We found another 2016 with AP2, sunroof, less miles, and perfect color combo. I called the sales adviser and asked the process to switch into this vehicle. He said it was no problem, just email him a request to cancel and click the buy button on the replacement.

Car number 2 showed a location of Sanford, FL. Luckily I'm heading down there for work in two weeks so I planned to drive it back to NC. Welp, just received another Welcome to Tesla email sating this car is actually in St Louis and we'll need to pay $2K to move it!?!? The adviser said his manager will not likely bend on the transport fee and admitted the systems aren't updating vehicle location correctly.

This whole experience brought back the nightmares from our Model 3 delivery but I'm shocked how difficult it is to buy an inventory used vehicle. If there is no way to speak with a human, look over the car, or take a test drive prior to purchase, the website should damn well display accurate information. Tesla can ping any vin and see it's location, but clearly has an issue sharing that database with www.tesla.com/inventory/used

By the time we get this sorted, the MY will be in production.

 

[Ostrichsak]

Your story is far from unique. This will make selling my CPO 70D via private party a hot commodity.

 

[Bubbatech]

Look up Rich Rebuilds on Youtube regarding Tesla's used car logistics and delivery system. It appears to be spectacularly bad, as in just on the cusp of completely non-functional. He bought a used model X last year and the issues he had acquiring the car *after* he paid for it were absolutely epic.

 

[Ostrichsak]

Look up Rich Rebuilds on Youtube regarding Tesla's used car logistics and delivery system. It appears to be spectacularly bad, as in just on the cusp of completely non-functional. He bought a used model X last year and the issues he had acquiring the car *after* he paid for it were absolutely epic.

I've actually experienced just about everything he mentioned in that video at least one time plus a lot more even worse. We weren't able to get plates on our first CPO for over 6 months due to them not being able to produce title work. Nothing like your fancy new (to us) car sitting in the garage for months on end since you can't legally drive it on public roadways. My personal favorite was how I could never talk to an actual human being for any of our problems. A real treat!

I wouldn't recommend Tesla's used car sales to my worst enemy. Although new is also going the same way now that their customer service is horrendous & shows no signs of improvement anytime soon either. That's a whole other topic though.

 

[NCM3]

Rich's story is scary. I'm glad they have actual photos online now to view prior to purchase, but not sure the rest of the process has improved. Every used car we've bought has been a disaster but I had high hope going directly through Tesla with 4yr warranty would yield quality control.

Running out of band-aids for our Acadia but may just have to deal with it until Y production. Does $500/share provide enough breathing room to start hiring adults? It's not cool or hip to spend this kind of money and get the run-around from teenagers.

 

[Doc Brown]

So . . . My SA has actually pinged cars I’ve been looking at to see where they’re physically located. Did you ask the SA to do that before clicking to purchase?

 

[NCM3]

So . . . My SA has actually pinged cars I’ve been looking at to see where they’re physically located. Did you ask the SA to do that before clicking to purchase?

Is this SA someone at a physical store, via chat, or over the phone? The local store says they aren't responsible for used. Chat said they would have someone call me, didn't happen. Last call into the 1800 phone tree sent me back to the local store.

The only person I've had meaningful contact with is the gentleman assigned after I click the Buy button. I called him yesterday to discuss switching vehicles, ask him pointed questions about the specific car we were interested in and said it only worked to purchase out if state because of my upcoming trip to Florida. Shame on me for not pushing him further to avoid this issue, but I had been assured the first time it was a end-of-year fluke and the car was accidently relocated. Didn't realize the location data online was completely inaccurate...as in, has absolutely no relevance for any car.

I also can't get a clear explanation why these cars are moving. I pulled Carfax on both before hitting the buy button. The NC one showed its life history in the state of NC. The next showed all records in Florida. Both were leases. Why did Tesla take these cars back locally, advertise them at that site, then move them across the country?

 

[BigNick]

I've actually experienced just about everything he mentioned in that video at least one time plus a lot more even worse. We weren't able to get plates on our first CPO for over 6 months due to them not being able to produce title work. Nothing like your fancy new (to us) car sitting in the garage for months on end since you can't legally drive it on public roadways. My personal favorite was how I could never talk to an actual human being for any of our problems. A real treat!

I wouldn't recommend Tesla's used car sales to my worst enemy. Although new is also going the same way now that their customer service is horrendous & shows no signs of improvement anytime soon either. That's a whole other topic though.

The local SC kept giving me paper tags until the title was delivered to my home state and processed. Took 6 months (April 2019 to October 2019) on my P85D. Back in the real CPO days when I bought my 85 (Nov 2017), my title, tags and everything were at the SC on the day of delivery.

Now that "Tesla’s Market Value Is Now Higher Than GM And Ford Combined" surely Tesla can get back to delivering excellent customer service?

 

[Doc Brown]

Is this SA someone at a physical store, via chat, or over the phone? The local store says they aren't responsible for used. Chat said they would have someone call me, didn't happen. Last call into the 1800 phone tree sent me back to the local store.

It was someone at a physical store - that I deal with via telephone. When I was asking questions about demo cars (not used) - he told me he had access to the cars' GPS location and confirmed physical location for me. I'm not sure if that works for used cars as well . . .

 

[NCM3]

To close the loop on this, we ended up canceling our order(s) for a used Model S.

The vehicle we wanted was advertised in Florida at purchase, Sales Advisor and local Sales Manager later found it in Saint Louis, then it was loaded onto a transport and is now en route to Bellevue Washington. I live in North Carolina. They think someone on the west coast previously ordered and cancelled but the back-end systems just kept moving it around the country.

Apparently Tesla is reorging the used division with a new process to go-live today, so hopefully some of these wrinkles will be ironed out. However, it just became too cumbersome for us. We'll continue to bandaid our ICE until Y goes to production.

 

[Ostrichsak]

To close the loop on this, we ended up canceling our order(s) for a used Model S.

The vehicle we wanted was advertised in Florida at purchase, Sales Advisor and local Sales Manager later found it in Saint Louis, then it was loaded onto a transport and is now en route to Bellevue Washington. I live in North Carolina. They think someone on the west coast previously ordered and cancelled but the back-end systems just kept moving it around the country.

Apparently Tesla is reorging the used division with a new process to go-live today, so hopefully some of these wrinkles will be ironed out. However, it just became too cumbersome for us. We'll continue to bandaid our ICE until Y goes to production.

I wouldn't hold my breath for any change as they've "reorganized" the used division multiple times now and it never gets better. It seems to get just a little worse with each "new" version actually.

 

[AMPd]

To close the loop on this, we ended up canceling our order(s) for a used Model S.

The vehicle we wanted was advertised in Florida at purchase, Sales Advisor and local Sales Manager later found it in Saint Louis, then it was loaded onto a transport and is now en route to Bellevue Washington. I live in North Carolina. They think someone on the west coast previously ordered and cancelled but the back-end systems just kept moving it around the country.

Apparently Tesla is reorging the used division with a new process to go-live today, so hopefully some of these wrinkles will be ironed out. However, it just became too cumbersome for us. We'll continue to bandaid our ICE until Y goes to production.

Shipping vehicles around that don’t need to be shipped... and yet to save money the company lays off personnel.

 

[MichaelP90DL]

To close the loop on this, we ended up canceling our order(s) for a used Model S.

The vehicle we wanted was advertised in Florida at purchase, Sales Advisor and local Sales Manager later found it in Saint Louis, then it was loaded onto a transport and is now en route to Bellevue Washington. I live in North Carolina. They think someone on the west coast previously ordered and cancelled but the back-end systems just kept moving it around the country.

Apparently Tesla is reorging the used division with a new process to go-live today, so hopefully some of these wrinkles will be ironed out. However, it just became too cumbersome for us. We'll continue to bandaid our ICE until Y goes to production.

Nobody needs that insanity. Good move.