Referral Program needs to NEVER be brought back - Multiple Denials

[Jedi2155]

Tesla should NEVER bring back the referral program because it has been run so incompetently and terribly the last few years that it is a stain on the customer experience. I use to do a lot of referrals for Tesla prior to 2020 (had over 10+ referrals and many within my company and friend circle new me as the Tesla guy). They brought the program back last year and after a few neighbor referrals (I'm also the HOA president so I'm well known as helpful within the community), they started to make really annoying/stupid mistakes.

1. Referred my Sister and the my referral credits went to HER account instead of mine.
   1. This was so stupid because I just needed her referral points (5,000 pts) to get her a free wall connector (9,000 pts).
   2. I had already done 2 neighbor referrals for 4,000 pts (on 6/10/23 and 6/14/23).
   3. After decades of trying to get my family on EV she was finally the first one that bit.
   4. I was previously able to convince her to get Tesla solar which was installed just a few months prior to that making her an existing "customer" and her points were self applied.
   5. Of course this detail was clarified AFTER we made the associated referrals and purchases (6/30/2023) approximately 1 month after the reintroduction of the referral program (5/22/2023)
2. Denied my solar referral because my friend "changed his order from a Powerwall 2 to Powerwall 3"
   
   1. After that first fiasco, I still wanted to get my sister to a free wall connector, and was able to convince an old friend to get a Solar + PW install for 9000 referral credits on 9/14/2023.
   2. After 7 months he finally got the system installed in March of this year, but it was held up on utility PTO.
   3. As my 1st set of referral awards was expiring (6/10/23) I accelerated the utility PTO by helping him contact the utility, I was able to finally get his interconnection approved on June 1st paving the way for the referral credits.
   4. Now after all that, Tesla comes back to me saying the referral doesn't qualify since they canceled the order and placed a new on for a Powerwall 3 and Tesla is refusing to honor the 9,000 referral credit even though it shows in their record that my referral code was used in the first order:
      1. 
         
         
      2. 
3. Adding insult to injury and kicking me while I'm down.... Exisiting Referral credits EXPIRED EARLY
   1. After both of the above situations occurred, I finally accepted that I can't get my sister her free wall connector (she's been charging on 120v for 12 months now) with a spare mobile connector I had.
   2. As I'm about to use my remaining 4,000 referral credits I was credited, that was set to expire on 6/14/2024
      1. At 4:59 PM I was about to submit my redemption credit for a Model 3/Y pet seat.
      2. At 5:01 PM I tried to submit the order but it failed....
      3. At 5:04 PM I realized they my credits expired at 5 PM because they use UTC Time (I'm in California) for the expiration date so it expired 7 hours early....
      4. Screenshot was at 5:12 PM 6/14/2024
      5. 

Of course contacting Tesla referral program was essentially sorry for your inconvenience, you're not getting any help.


/end rant.

 

[ewoodrick]

Sure, if you don't follow instructions or wait for the last minute.

 

[Jedi2155]

Sure, if you don't follow instructions or wait for the last minute.

The instructions on the first set wasn't provided at the time of the first referral for my sister (the guidelines was provided much later), and I had the option to buy the car with my sister on my account where it could have been a self referral but there was no rules/guidelines at the time saying the referral points would go there.

As for the last minute, it was still on the same day, and I was waiting because I was trying to get the Tesla Solar referral which I had several attempts to communicate to Tesla for months trying to get help from the Solar Install, and after visiting Tesla several times in person, and even reaching out to the engineers at my referral's utility to get his solar system approved in time, I get a denial from the referral program on a detail my friend didn't tell me that occurred (it still shows my friend solar system referral as "pending") and not cancelled.

 

[ewoodrick]

The instructions on the first set wasn't provided at the time of the first referral for my sister (the guidelines was provided much later), and I had the option to buy the car with my sister on my account where it could have been a self referral but there was no rules/guidelines at the time saying the referral points would go there.

As for the last minute, it was still on the same day, and I was waiting because I was trying to get the Tesla Solar referral which I had several attempts to communicate to Tesla for months trying to get help from the Solar Install, and after visiting Tesla several times in person, and even reaching out to the engineers at my referral's utility to get his solar system approved in time, I get a denial from the referral program on a detail my friend didn't tell me that occurred (it still shows my friend solar system referral as "pending") and not cancelled.

May not have been obvious to you, but the requirements to ALWAYS ONLY ORDER off the link had been around since 2018. Look at the threads in this forum. Lots of people posted "I got a referral and didn't get the points" messages.

But it seems as if you may be leaving out the fact that you did use a lot of referrals to get a lot of stuff.

 

[Jedi2155]

May not have been obvious to you, but the requirements to ALWAYS ONLY ORDER off the link had been around since 2018. Look at the threads in this forum. Lots of people posted "I got a referral and didn't get the points" messages.

But it seems as if you may be leaving out the fact that you did use a lot of referrals to get a lot of stuff.

I did a lot of referrals back in the 2018-2020 time frame (~10-12 or so). A free supercharging miles for a few in-between then. When they brought back the referral program in the refer-a-friend in the 2023 program is when I felt a lot of things felt off. Every single one of my referrals used my link and it showed up on my account except for my sister's situation. I didn't get that many referral points this time around because it was my 3rd referral (my sister) that it occurred and it just put me off doing the program entirely in providing my time to help Tesla sell cars and owners have a good experience that Tesla customer service is sorely lacking.

Keep in mind, I'm not even trying to get these referral awards much for myself, but I was going to give away the referral awards. Its a lot easier for me to just tell people make your own decision, but the presence of the referral program put an additional incentive on me to try to sell the Tesla brand/car. I just felt the way it was managed this time around made it really difficult to utilize and in general Tesla is better off using the money spent for the referral program towards general advertising to increase sales than owner recommended referrals (where I usually spend 2-4 hours with the person to walk them through the car) and only to be denied the referral effort is quite annoying.