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Radio silence after putting deposit for Inventory car

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I wondering if my experience with purchasing an inventory car from Tesla is normal. For buying a $90K car, I really feel like I'm being kept in the dark/ignored.

I secured a reservation on a Model X from a really proactive Sales/Owner Advisor on Sept 14th. After putting down my deposit, I have not heard back from anyone for 10 days. I periodically(about once every 2-3 days) asked for updates on the car delivery, but never got a reply.

I finally got a call from another person than my OA (perhaps the delivery specialist) on Sept 24th after texting my OA asking what's going on. I get a vague update that the car is being prepped, but no firm delivery date. Now, 4 days later, I call back and still, I get a general 2-4 weeks in mid-october without exactly knowing the status of the car and where it is (it's located 2 states away from my location). So, 2 weeks after putting down my deposit, I still have no idea what my delivery date is.

This is definitely a bad user experience and I am actually considering just cancelling the order.

Is this normal for purchasing an Inventory Model X?
 
I wondering if my experience with purchasing an inventory car from Tesla is normal. For buying a $90K car, I really feel like I'm being kept in the dark/ignored.

I secured a reservation on a Model X from a really proactive Sales/Owner Advisor on Sept 14th. After putting down my deposit, I have not heard back from anyone for 10 days. I periodically(about once every 2-3 days) asked for updates on the car delivery, but never got a reply.

I finally got a call from another person than my OA (perhaps the delivery specialist) on Sept 24th after texting my OA asking what's going on. I get a vague update that the car is being prepped, but no firm delivery date. Now, 4 days later, I call back and still, I get a general 2-4 weeks in mid-october without exactly knowing the status of the car and where it is (it's located 2 states away from my location). So, 2 weeks after putting down my deposit, I still have no idea what my delivery date is.

This is definitely a bad user experience and I am actually considering just cancelling the order.

Is this normal for purchasing an Inventory Model X?

My experience was awful. Embarrassing actually.

I could write a book about it, but will try to summarize in bullet points:
1) terrible communication from my sales person the second I put a deposit on the car
2) found out my inventory car was loaned out to someone AFTER I put a deposit down on the car which delayed my delivery 2+ weeks and an extra 2000 miles were put on the car
3) was planning on trading my existing car in and after literally 2 weeks of me asking 5 times to have someone from Tesla look at for a quote, I never got a response and ended up just selling the car myself
4) everytime I get the lease numbers, something is different or wrong from the previous time

I threatened to cancel the deal and was given some extra money off the car to compensate for the miles and also was given a free service. I am scheduled to pick up my car on Monday and I am sure there is going to be some more issues. This whole experience has me baffled and really questioning Tesla's overall business model.
 
Ha! I got all of you beat.

I walked into Centiry City tesla mall location in LA on 12/23/16 with full intention of purchasing an inventory MX. I wanted to do it before years end because “free lifetime supercharging was ending”. OA and I spent some time looking at options as I knew exactly what I wanted. We found an acceptable car with low miles. He tells me if I wanted the car in 2 weeks I needed to pay for the whole car on the spot (I didn’t know you could just do a deposit and he did t explain that). With some hesitation I wrote a check for over 100k.

Next day, I was leaving on a cruise and my OA assured me that I will have the car the following week after I come back. While on a cruise I received an email from him saying that “they are having an issue with shipment of this particular car”. He goes on to offer me another car “priced similarly”. Only trouble is it was a 75D and I not the 90D I paid for. I politely decline and he says he will continue working on the original car I purchased.

This is where things got nuts. No returned phone calls, emails, etc etc. Escalation after escalation after escalation. Tweeted Elon. Reached out to head of NA sales. Long painful story short I received my car THREE months later. And yeah they didn’t give me any additional discounts or free stuff.
 
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rjdoc74 gets the award for worst experience

I have found the OAs are there just to get your deposit and slightly nudge you afterwards to ensure delivery. But the communications drops off precipitously and is a little upsetting given the amount of money you end up putting down. Then again, my experience with other luxury brands isn't that much different except they don't try to portray to be different.
 
Ha! I got all of you beat.

I walked into Centiry City tesla mall location in LA on 12/23/16 with full intention of purchasing an inventory MX. I wanted to do it before years end because “free lifetime supercharging was ending”. OA and I spent some time looking at options as I knew exactly what I wanted. We found an acceptable car with low miles. He tells me if I wanted the car in 2 weeks I needed to pay for the whole car on the spot (I didn’t know you could just do a deposit and he did t explain that). With some hesitation I wrote a check for over 100k.

Next day, I was leaving on a cruise and my OA assured me that I will have the car the following week after I come back. While on a cruise I received an email from him saying that “they are having an issue with shipment of this particular car”. He goes on to offer me another car “priced similarly”. Only trouble is it was a 75D and I not the 90D I paid for. I politely decline and he says he will continue working on the original car I purchased.

This is where things got nuts. No returned phone calls, emails, etc etc. Escalation after escalation after escalation. Tweeted Elon. Reached out to head of NA sales. Long painful story short I received my car THREE months later. And yeah they didn’t give me any additional discounts or free stuff.

Wow.... You seem to have the patience of a saint!
 
Ha! I got all of you beat.

I walked into Centiry City tesla mall location in LA on 12/23/16 with full intention of purchasing an inventory MX. I wanted to do it before years end because “free lifetime supercharging was ending”. OA and I spent some time looking at options as I knew exactly what I wanted. We found an acceptable car with low miles. He tells me if I wanted the car in 2 weeks I needed to pay for the whole car on the spot (I didn’t know you could just do a deposit and he did t explain that). With some hesitation I wrote a check for over 100k.

Next day, I was leaving on a cruise and my OA assured me that I will have the car the following week after I come back. While on a cruise I received an email from him saying that “they are having an issue with shipment of this particular car”. He goes on to offer me another car “priced similarly”. Only trouble is it was a 75D and I not the 90D I paid for. I politely decline and he says he will continue working on the original car I purchased.

This is where things got nuts. No returned phone calls, emails, etc etc. Escalation after escalation after escalation. Tweeted Elon. Reached out to head of NA sales. Long painful story short I received my car THREE months later. And yeah they didn’t give me any additional discounts or free stuff.

Was it the same Vin # you started with or did they just build another to match?
These are very good deals for Tesla - your full payment goes into the Customer Deposits line of the financials making it look like 100 Model 3 were reserved.
 
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I have a mixed experience so far..got a inventory model X 75 D with 5 k adjustment, put my deposit 2,500 over the phone. wanted to get the paper work signed prior to delivery before September but did not hear from the OA or DS for about a week or 10 days. was panicking on Sep 29th and called OA multiple times, at the end he drove 2 and half hours with paper work ( was impressed ) , so I can sign and close the deal.. they now say delivery will be 4 weeks..atleast he waived me transportation fee and is getting the vehicle delivered to my home ( tax rate is less by 2 k) .. will see how the delivery holds up.. I am getting skeptical after reading all the stories here...
 
Imho getting your MX delivered to your house is a bad idea. Especially inventory vehicle. Invariably you will find some scratches, misalignments, missing accessories, etc and it’s prudent of you to have them put all this on a due bill before you pick up the car. Don’t try to talk about any of these issues to tow truck guy, he will just shrug his shoulders. Hope your SC is close by.
 
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Terrible that they did not even offer you a loaner given that they cashed your check 3 months before delivery.

My OA was absolutely terrible. Had me write a check and completely disappeared. Oh well. What’s done is done. I love the car and I know have a great SA at a service Center less than a mile away from my house who doesn’t mind fixing various things on frequently come in for. He even offered to replace my ghosting windshield with no questions asked (I declined for a few reasons).
 
Since Tesla is pretty tech driven, I imagine that the personnel are prompted to carry out the steps and communication to get the order.
After the deposit is taken, and the vehicle ordered, there is probably little an advisor can do to push it along, until they get a prompt that the vehicle has been produced and is in line for delivery.
I was notified via computer, when my X went into production, and when it came off the line and was being scheduled for delivery. Did not hear via phone from Delivery Specialist until he had some real action items that needed addressing.

The lack of communication did not slow down the delivery one bit, but of course I wanted to be treated to constant updates on every little thing about my pending delivery.

Tesla is all business, and little babysitting. Waiting is tough on all of us.
 
Because Tesla.

Word of mouth is going to wreck this company. Especially once the service centers become overloaded with Model 3s.

I've had nothing but piss poor communication with this company from A to Z. It's ridiculous you have to escalate to executive level for responses at times. Absolutely ridiculous. And yes my OA ghosted me the second my deposit went through, but that is just a small part of a growing list.

The X is my last Tesla even though I love their mission.
 
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Following Tesla for so many years now, I had the impression that Tesla wanted to try to do more with less. It would seem their intention was to have very little staff to support people and have the cars support themselves via automation, OTA, etc. I think they have been realizing they need more support staff than they had anticipated and now they seem to have gone crazy in the opposite direction with Owner Associates, Sales Associates, Delivery Specialists, Support Specialists, etc.

It seems like their original goal was to have an automated system update customers when the vehicle got to certain stages, but either they had difficulty getting it to work or they haven't provided sufficient resources to get it to work reliably. I don't know if they've given up on it, but it seems that people have lost all confidence with the MyTesla status updates, which is a shame because there was huge potential to provide customers with an incredible service.

Imagine getting photos of your vehicle progressing through the production line and having GPS location of the vehicle throughout the process. That would be a gimmick, but that level of sophistication would truly set this car company apart from the rest.
 
Ordered an inventory X on Aug 26th, didn't get delivered until 9/27... not too bad of a wait, but they had promised me 2 weeks, then 3 weeks, then 4 weeks before it actually happened. I expected, the wait, it was the stringing along of my expectations that wasn't managed correctly.
Not to mention after I wired a substantial sum as down payment, I also was treated to some radio silence for an entire week, despite reaching out for updates.
To make matters worse, my Delivery specialist called me two times, asking for the wrong name and gave me status updates on other people's cars.
So yes, now I have the car and its great.... but there is definitely room for improvement on Tesla's end.
 
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