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Question about UK Model 3 order/pickup/delivery

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Hi,

I have a family member who's been thinking about changing to a fully electric car, so I recommended they check out Tesla (as I would certainly have one myself if I could afford it). We've just been along to the Crawley showroom today, had a test drive drive in a Model 3, and they loved it so much they immediately (and unexpectedly) decided to buy one (luckily I remembered I actually know someone who has one, and that referral codes are a thing, so was able to get their code for the free Supercharger miles). The sales assistant was very nice and helpful, but I've come away quite confused about a couple of things.

He did the first part of the order on the computer there - picked a car from the inventory section matching the specs they wanted (which were relatively standard - a silver Model 3 Long Range) and took the details for the deposit etc. Then the next section we ended up doing on family member's phone, as for some reason it appeared they already had an account so we had to reset the password for it. But on entering their home address for delivery, the website then said they were unable to deliver there (the address is within Greater London), and the only options it gave were to pick it up at either Southampton or another place I didn't recognise. The assistant then told us that the place in the second option didn't actually exist any more (or something like that?) so we couldn't choose it (even though it appeared that the website would have allowed us to). So that left the only option being to pick it up from Southampton, which really isn't what we were expecting or prepared for at all.

He then said that he should be able to arrange to have it picked up from Southampton and delivered to their home anyway, but it would be by some sort of third-party transport company. This worried me, as I was expecting that there would be some sort of handover where we would inspect the car and point out any damage etc, which obviously wouldn't be possible if it's just dropped off by a third party company. And what happens if that company damages it? In response, he admitted that it would make things somewhat more complicated if there were any issue like that.

So I asked if it could be delivered to the showroom/service centre instead and we pick it up from there, as then obviously they would be able to inspect the car and any damage before we even go near it. He said they can't normally do that, but he might be able to arrange it that way in this case. So we ended up proceeding with the option to pick up from Southampton selected, as that's what he said we needed to do (as there was no other option), but it all seems quite odd to me and I'm not really sure what exactly is going to happen now.

I've just been looking into things more online tonight, and I've noticed on the inventory page, most of them seem to be listed as being in London (and a smaller number in Dublin), and there's certainly one matching their spec that says London. I have no idea what the one he clicked on to order said though (I didn't see it that closely and didn't know what to look for at that point). Is it possible that he chose the wrong one, and should have chosen one that was actually in London to avoid all these issues? I see other people here mentioning picking their cars up recently from places like Heathrow and Bluewater, any of which would have been good for us.

Also, the initial part that he did on the computer (including paying the deposit etc) seemed to have some sort of finance option selected (as it was showing monthly payments rather than the actual total price), even though they intend to pay for the car in full with no finance. Could this have made any difference to anything? (we haven't got as far as the actual final payment section yet, as they also want a trade-in valuation which seems to require photos etc to proceed beyond that stage, so waiting for those to be taken before we can proceed and see what happens after that)

I would appreciate it if anyone has any insight into any of this. Thanks :)
 
Inventory models are usually listed as being in London when they are on a boat on its way here. Hence why you've been offered Southhampton as a pickup. Someone from London can chip in about normal delivery locations.

There are many threads on here about home delivery and the process, have a search, but if you can't find any I'll dig one out for you.
 
Thanks - I tried to look for anything relevant on here before deciding to make an account and post myself (in fact the way I found this site was that threads from it kept coming up in various Google searches I was trying), but I couldn't find anything describing this particular situation really, so if you have any links that would be great :)

But you've already answered part of my concern anyway - so in that case, I suppose my question is now, how do people (around London) manage to get pickup options other than Southampton?

(I may not be able to reply any further tonight, going to bed in a minute as I've had an extremely long day, but I definitely appreciate the responses)
 
So, I was told that home delivery is only available to "lease" customers, and that finance customers have to collect themselves. That said, I live in Essex and picked up my M3 from Bluewater, so there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do that as well.

At my original order I was offered Chelmsford or Crawley, I chose Chelmsford but it got deferred to Bluewater as Chelmsford don't do handovers right now.

My advice intially would be go onto the live chat, (go to Tesla website as if you were going to order a car and the icon comes up bottom left) and have a chat with them, with your order number and they are usually quite helpful. Also ask who your ... argh I can't remember the term, its like sales manager, is. As you get assigned someone that deals with your whole thing (which isn't usually the guy at the dealership) - the guy I had was absoloutely fantastic and answered every single question I had, once I found out he even existed.

IF you do end up getting the car delivered to your house, you can check it over there and then and report any issues with the app with no problem. Tesla give you a couple hundred miles or a few days to find initial "issues" - but of course it will mean a SC visit to get it all sorted, or possibly a ranger visit depending on severity.

If the Tesla guy chose finance over cash...that "might" be a commission thing. Although I was told they don't get comission in the traditional way, but I know normal car dealerships always push for finance over cash because of the commission, because they basically get none from cash sales.

Worst case scenario, after speaking to Tesla you might be better off cancelling your original order, but get them to do it so that you can place a new order without losing your deposit - and just do it yourself so you actually KNOW its done right. The whole process is very simple online. But speak to them first.

Trade in valuations come via email within 48 hours after you give them the car reg, vin and mileage. Pictures only need to be provided after the initial valuation but prior to actually handing the car over.

Depending on what car your trading in, Tesla are known for lowballing pretty damn hard on trade in's. If they are cash buyers, then maybe they are not that fussed and want to do it for the convenience, but alternatively I'd strongly suggest getting quotes elsewhere. Such as motorway.co.uk (who I used and were great)

Think that's covered everything you said? Just finished a 15 hour shift so I'm half asleep. Apologies if anything I just said was rambling.
 
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Delivery by third party to my home was actually efficient and professionally handled. Even though I'm in Chester it was from West Drayton & the driver was prepared to stay as long as I wanted (nearly 6pm on a Friday night with a return journey to Sussex).

He helped me make my initial inspection, pointed out a tiny dust fleck under the clear coat on a mirror (spotted when he inspected the car pre loading). He also texted me the following morning to check if I had found anything else to add to his own report after a full & thorough check so all in all, a more relaxing experience than any new car collection I have ever had.

It looked like Tesla had even conducted a full PDI & clean before despatching the car as it was basically perfect.
 
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Thanks for the replies everyone.

So, I was told that home delivery is only available to "lease" customers, and that finance customers have to collect themselves. That said, I live in Essex and picked up my M3 from Bluewater, so there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do that as well.
Yeah - when we got to the point where it said delivery wasn't available, the sales assistant said he should be able to arrange it being picked up from Southampton and delivered to us etc *because* we were paying cash, so that's what made me start to suspect that things might have gone differently in the website because some sort of finance option was selected during the previous stage where the deposit was paid etc.

At my original order I was offered Chelmsford or Crawley, I chose Chelmsford but it got deferred to Bluewater as Chelmsford don't do handovers right now.
That seems particularly strange that you were offered Crawley, because we were *in* the Crawley branch and weren't offered it, and he said they don't normally do that there at all (ah so I guess the same thing would have happened if you had chosen Crawley instead of Chelmsford)

My advice intially would be go onto the live chat, (go to Tesla website as if you were going to order a car and the icon comes up bottom left) and have a chat with them, with your order number and they are usually quite helpful. Also ask who your ... argh I can't remember the term, its like sales manager, is. As you get assigned someone that deals with your whole thing (which isn't usually the guy at the dealership) - the guy I had was absoloutely fantastic and answered every single question I had, once I found out he even existed.

IF you do end up getting the car delivered to your house, you can check it over there and then and report any issues with the app with no problem. Tesla give you a couple hundred miles or a few days to find initial "issues" - but of course it will mean a SC visit to get it all sorted, or possibly a ranger visit depending on severity.
Yep the guy did mention that about reporting issues with the app - but we were still slightly worried about who would be liable etc with it being delivered by a third party (especially as he himself said it could make things more complicated if there are any issues). Do you think we don't need to worry about that then, i.e. they definitely wouldn't try to blame us for any issues reported via the app in the first few days like that?

If the Tesla guy chose finance over cash...that "might" be a commission thing. Although I was told they don't get comission in the traditional way, but I know normal car dealerships always push for finance over cash because of the commission, because they basically get none from cash sales.
Hmmm interesting. I did wonder whether they would get some sort of commission/credit for the sale (I mean I hope they do, as they were helpful), and that's why I wasn't sure whether we'd be able to use a referral code (but he said that was no problem and was actually going to find us a "random" code to use to get the free miles until I remembered my friend had one). He definitely knew we were paying cash though, so unless the commission is counted at that first "deposit" stage regardless of cash being selected later at the final "payment" stage... I dunno. It was more like he sort of just quickly skipped over that part without really looking or selecting anything (and it had defaulted to some sort of finance), as he said it didn't make any difference at that point.

Worst case scenario, after speaking to Tesla you might be better off cancelling your original order, but get them to do it so that you can place a new order without losing your deposit - and just do it yourself so you actually KNOW its done right. The whole process is very simple online. But speak to them first.

Trade in valuations come via email within 48 hours after you give them the car reg, vin and mileage. Pictures only need to be provided after the initial valuation but prior to actually handing the car over.

Depending on what car your trading in, Tesla are known for lowballing pretty damn hard on trade in's. If they are cash buyers, then maybe they are not that fussed and want to do it for the convenience, but alternatively I'd strongly suggest getting quotes elsewhere. Such as motorway.co.uk (who I used and were great)
Oh after we submitted the reg/mileage etc details (I don't think it asked for VIN?), the next stage asked for photos and didn't seem like it was going to proceed with the valuation until we'd submitted those. That was where we left it anyway, so if what you're saying is correct then I guess we'll get the valuation through soon. We were told by the assistant that the offer was likely to be low and we'd probably be better off selling it separately anyway, but we still wanted to see what they quoted (the owner has already got a valuation from webuyanycar, so he was curious as to how it compared to that - but yeah, I've already told him that probably isn't the best one to go with either). I didn't know about motorway.co.uk though, so I will suggest also trying that :)

Think that's covered everything you said? Just finished a 15 hour shift so I'm half asleep. Apologies if anything I just said was rambling.
No that was great, I'd rather have too much detail than not enough. Thanks :)

I'm going to see my family member again shortly so we might end up contacting Tesla via live chat as you suggested, although I don't want to mess up anything that the dealer/sales assistant might already be doing to try to sort it out.
 
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Delivery by third party to my home was actually efficient and professionally handled. Even though I'm in Chester it was from West Drayton & the driver was prepared to stay as long as I wanted (nearly 6pm on a Friday night with a return journey to Sussex).

He helped me make my initial inspection, pointed out a tiny dust fleck under the clear coat on a mirror (spotted when he inspected the car pre loading). He also texted me the following morning to check if I had found anything else to add to his own report after a full & thorough check so all in all, a more relaxing experience than any new car collection I have ever had.

It looked like Tesla had even conducted a full PDI & clean before despatching the car as it was basically perfect.
That's very good to know. Was yours definitely a "third party" delivery though, i.e. arranged by a dealership while the actual option selected in the order on the Tesla site was pick up from somewhere rather than delivery? (I suppose I don't know for sure that there's actually a difference in who does the delivery... but it was the Tesla sales assistant in the dealership who said it would be a "third party company" if they arrange it, and from what he said it sounded like it would literally be someone dropping it off a recovery truck type thing who has no idea about the car or anything to do with Tesla etc)
 
This was a third party subcontracted by Tesla during the first Lockdown & he had already delivered several other model 3s locally to Heathrow prior to mine in Cheshire. Stockport SC had co ordinated with West Drayton to arrange everything & it ran like clockwork.
 
Delivery by third party to my home was actually efficient and professionally handled. Even though I'm in Chester it was from West Drayton & the driver was prepared to stay as long as I wanted (nearly 6pm on a Friday night with a return journey to Sussex).

He helped me make my initial inspection, pointed out a tiny dust fleck under the clear coat on a mirror (spotted when he inspected the car pre loading). He also texted me the following morning to check if I had found anything else to add to his own report after a full & thorough check so all in all, a more relaxing experience than any new car collection I have ever had.

It looked like Tesla had even conducted a full PDI & clean before despatching the car as it was basically perfect.
Out of interest was this a business lease purchase? If so which company was it via (and did the driver work for them?)

just trying to work out how much of a fight I’ll have if/when I place an order and there’s issues on delivery...
 
This was a third party subcontracted by Tesla during the first Lockdown & he had already delivered several other model 3s locally to Heathrow prior to mine in Cheshire. Stockport SC had co ordinated with West Drayton to arrange everything & it ran like clockwork.
Thanks. Family member has had an email from the dealership saying they will take full responsibility for any issues, so they are now happy to go with that (i.e. delivery to their home, arranged by the dealer in some way). I just hope it goes as well as yours :)
 
Mine was ordered and shown as available in London. Found out it is not in London but currently on a ship from shaghai. Due in 5th May and have collection option from Bluewater on 12th even after paying a £900 delivery charge. All rather confusing.
 
Mine was ordered and shown as available in London. Found out it is not in London but currently on a ship from shaghai. Due in 5th May and have collection option from Bluewater on 12th even after paying a £900 delivery charge. All rather confusing.
I agree it does all seem rather confusing. I don't know why people seem to be offered such different pickup options. Is that a £900 delivery charge on top of the listed price for the car, or do you mean the £935 "destination and documentation fee" that's included in the list price?
 
Just thought I'd mention in case it helps anyone in future - the trade-in price for family member's other car (a 2011 Porsche 911 GTS) from Tesla was a couple of thousand less than webuyanycar, but motorway.co.uk was quite a few thousand higher. They also tried another company/website called Premium Car Buying Service, who initially offered just slightly more than webuyanycar I think, but after being told about the offer from motorway.co.uk they decided to increase their offer to beat them by a couple of hundred quid (so that was a very useful tip, thanks). A couple of people from there came out to inspect the car (and I'm told they were both very nice, friendly and professional). They noticed and pointed out that that one of the rear lights was actually physically damaged and would need to be replaced (family member hadn't noticed), but in the end this resulted in the offer only being reduced by £200, so they were happy with the outcome and sold it then and there (and received the money in their bank account immediately)
 
Just thought I'd mention in case it helps anyone in future - the trade-in price for family member's other car (a 2011 Porsche 911 GTS) from Tesla was a couple of thousand less than webuyanycar, but motorway.co.uk was quite a few thousand higher.
note that motorway will not accept high mileage cars. I have a BMW 3 series diesel on 154k and Tesla are offering 1100. And webuyanycar are offering 1257. Not much in it and part of me is considering Tesla purely based on convienience but and extra £157 will buy some mats or other.
 
note that motorway will not accept high mileage cars. I have a BMW 3 series diesel on 154k and Tesla are offering 1100. And webuyanycar are offering 1257. Not much in it and part of me is considering Tesla purely based on convienience but and extra £157 will buy some mats or other.
Ah that's good to know (the Porsche was a verrrry low mileage considering its age lol)
 
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