Random unauthorized Full self driving capability upgrade

[hoeschjp]

Even Tesla support will tell you, charge back..

They never suggested that to me, but that was a while back (a few dozen contacts / attempts Feb to May 2019). I suppose its good that they're at least suggesting that lately...

FYI: I only didn't file a charge back because they promised a $1k refund that first day ($4k match to align with the post-delivery price on my order form, which was why I was on the site in the first place ... told earlier by CS that my account should be updated eventually to reflect that price), and then an Early Access Program invite after the price dropped to $2k in March. After months of being told to wait for the refund, well out of the charge back period, I was finally told I wouldn't be getting it -_-

 

[hoeschjp]

Can you give it a test for us and see if you get a prompt? It's still unbelievable there's no prompt or confirmation.

Is the theory that there is no confirmation at all from the App? Or might it be possible that just some people are running into some sort of glitch (even if a lag, multiple registered clicks, thing)?

When I unintentionally ordered on the website, it was a single click from the main store/upgrade page (a "$5,000" button under a sentence or two of text) that lead to a congratulations page (never saw the final price with tax, never had the option to select the payment method, etc). I ran into multiple others that swore they saw the same behavior, and were quite surprised that they purchased FSD, but it was also clear that most people did see a confirmation/order page.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Is the theory that there is no confirmation at all from the App? Or might it be possible that just some people are running into some sort of glitch (even if a lag, multiple registered clicks, thing)?

When I unintentionally ordered on the website, it was a single click from the main store/upgrade page (a "$5,000" button under a sentence or two of text) that lead to a congratulations page (never saw the final price with tax, never had the option to select the payment method, etc). I ran into multiple others that swore they saw the same behavior, and were quite surprised that they purchased FSD, but it was also clear that most people did see a confirmation/order page.

I've seen people reporting similar issues on both the website and in the app. There was no confirmation before finalizing the purchase.

We still have the issue where the Upgrades section shows up on shared cars and people that we share the car with could accidentally (or intentionally) purchase the upgrade and charge it to our account.

 

[Nick2020]

its not a scam. they are not evil. just incompetent. there's a difference even though the end effect seems about the same.

Yeah scam is a strong word. Hovewer “incompetent” doesn’t deceive the issue fully. Tesla app randomly brings up Upgrade screen even when not pressed which is probably a prime reason for accidental buying. What do you call a company who know they have known issue but refuse to do anything about it?

 

[Extra330Lover]

Today, Tesla support agent called and indicated to me that I would get FSD refund by the end of next week. She also indicated that FSD feature will be removed from Model X. It looks like only Elon Musk can make this kind of decision.

 

[TradingInvest]

If in real life a friend believes Tesla intentionally forced these purchases to customers, try stay away from that friend. Because his/her brain doesn't work right.

We are talking about thousands of dollars. People will find out on their credit card bills. There is zero chance Tesla can secretly do this and get away, they know it.

Most likely this is a glitch somewhere in the system, just like a college sent a batch admission letters to students, the next day they found letters were sent to wrong group of people.

 

[linux-works]

I don't call 'unconfirmed large-value payments' to be a glitch. its a DESIGN FAULT.

all it would take is a popup of 'are you sure? enter your pin or CCV number or even a click-back on an email sent. something to truly confirm it was not a butt-dial (etc).

better would be to have a 'permissions' page on the main website and that would control how much trouble you could get yourself into, on the mobile app. that's asking a bit much, but then again, a novel-thinking company like tesla could be expected to do that kind of forward thinking work. (I used to expect a lot from google, back when they had some cred; of course no one respects google now. hope that does not happen to tesla for a very long time).

short term fix, remove the 'buy' button from the the phone apps and tell the servers to ignore all button presses that are 'buys'. that's not hard, and yet they are not even doing that..

 

[Az_Rael]

It looks like only Elon Musk can make this kind of decision.

Which is the most ridiculous part of this story. He needs to hire better people to run this stuff.

 

[hoeschjp]

I wonder if this sudden change in policy applies to those that tried to get a refund a longer time ago and failed (was trying myself Feb-May 2019). It's only $1k cheaper now instead of $3k off, and I did want FSD eventually I suppose, so I'm probably not going to try and do anything about it ... but I'm still curious if anyone has luck! I'm probably way too invested in this saga. Haha

 

[MorrisonHiker]

To those of you who received the unauthorized charges, have you ever set up a secondary contact to share your car with someone else? When Tesla recently added Upgrades to the app, I read that several people accidentally purchased an upgrade and were never prompted to confirm the purchase or enter a password. Could the secondary contact have made the purchase accidentally when poking around in the app? If you don't have secondary contacts, are you the original owner of the car or did you buy it used?

We have some shared cars on our account and have used the secondary contact feature to share our cars with others so that they can access and drive cars. In the past, it was isolated so the secondary contact could access the car but would not be able to access the main account or make any purchases on the account. I reported a bug to Tesla (via BugCrowd) where app users now have the Upgrades option available even if they aren't the primary account owner. I received a response that "the web page was working as designed" even though I specified it was the app, not the website that has the issue. Secondary contacts don't have the option to add upgrades via the website, just the app. I added more information and said again that it can't be intentional to allow a secondary contact to make purchases on the account but I never heard back. I changed my Play Store review down to 1 star due to this security feature. We sold a Tesla recently and used the secondary contact feature as usual to allow them app access to the car. Fortunately, the car was officially transferred to the new owner's account the same day the new "Upgrades" functionality was added to the app.

I've seen people reporting similar issues on both the website and in the app. There was no confirmation before finalizing the purchase.

We still have the issue where the Upgrades section shows up on shared cars and people that we share the car with could accidentally (or intentionally) purchase the upgrade and charge it to our account.

I noticed today that the shared cars that we have access to in the app no longer have the Upgrades option available, so they may have finally fixed this security hole. I thought it might've been fixed when they announced one-time refunds but when I checked last week, the Upgrades section was still available.

I still think they should be prompting for password or CVV code but at least this prevents people from upgrading a shared vehicle where they don't know the owner's credentials.

 

[Stel]

We were recently made aware that you have disputed a recent purchase made through our app. As the funds have been returned to you either through the chargeback or a refund, we are notifying you that upgrades associated with the dispute will be removed from your vehicle’s configuration immediately.


Should you have any questions, please contact Tesla’s Customer Support Team by visiting our support site at Tesla SSO – Login.




Thank you,




____________________ | Tesla Support Leadership Team

 

[dmf332]

Hi, I'm a new Tesla owner with a purchase on 12/30/2019. Very happy till I was unknowingly and without authorization, charged $7,577.50 on January 22nd for full self driving. I had no intent to purchase FSD or I would have during sale. Don't have any idea how this happened.
Possibly inadvertently hit the button, doubtful but certainly not consciously.
I did not get any confirmation or verification and just happened to look at my App- Upgrades on 02/7/20 and saw that I purchased FSD.
Tesla representative and supervisor said they could not do anything. Started a case with my credit card company.
I'm hoping that Tesla does the right thing and responds with a credit.

 

[Stel]

Hi, I'm a new Tesla owner with a purchase on 12/30/2019. Very happy till I was unknowingly and without authorization, charged $7,577.50 on January 22nd for full self driving. I had no intent to purchase FSD or I would have during sale. Don't have any idea how this happened.
Possibly inadvertently hit the button, doubtful but certainly not consciously.
I did not get any confirmation or verification and just happened to look at my App- Upgrades on 02/7/20 and saw that I purchased FSD.
Tesla representative and supervisor said they could not do anything. Started a case with my credit card company.
I'm hoping that Tesla does the right thing and responds with a credit.

 

[Stel]

There’s no point wasting your time with Tesla the only retribution you will have is by getting a charge back from your credit card company which should be flawless

At some point Tesla will take the software off of your car. This is your only solution

 

[exxer]

I've been waiting around for Tesla Finance to get back to me back honoring the original lease I agreed to, which they went and increased $12k and then $2k more, all without showing a residual amount (they hid it from the original lease).

So I continue to lurk on these forums, excited about the possibility of driving a Tesla. However, this thread has sealed it: ownership is fine until you have a problem. Thank you all for beta testing the Tesla experience for us all to benefit from in the future

 

[dmf332]

There’s no point wasting your time with Tesla the only retribution you will have is by getting a charge back from your credit card company which should be flawless
At some point Tesla will take the software off of your car. This is your only solution

I persisted to talk to third Tesla agent then a second supervisor. Unlike the first supervisor that blatantly said there is "no refund possible after 48 hours", period, I got a decent human being in the second one up in Montreal Canada.
The supervisor understood the issue and said he would escalate my concerns. He reached out to me a few days later with pointed questions regarding FSD and what I thought transpired. This afternoon he called back as promised and said that Tesla removed the FSD software from my car and that he was working with Tesla financial to get me a refund. He will personally follow up with results next week.
Not over till I get a credit on my card but a step in the right direction to restore my faith in Tesla. Yay