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.
/end rant.
- Referred my Sister and the my referral credits went to HER account instead of mine.
- This was so stupid because I just needed her referral points (5,000 pts) to get her a free wall connector (9,000 pts).
- I had already done 2 neighbor referrals for 4,000 pts (on 6/10/23 and 6/14/23).
- After decades of trying to get my family on EV she was finally the first one that bit.
- 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.
- 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)
- Denied my solar referral because my friend "changed his order from a Powerwall 2 to Powerwall 3"
- 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.
- After 7 months he finally got the system installed in March of this year, but it was held up on utility PTO.
- 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.
- 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:
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- Adding insult to injury and kicking me while I'm down.... Exisiting Referral credits EXPIRED EARLY
- 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.
- As I'm about to use my remaining 4,000 referral credits I was credited, that was set to expire on 6/14/2024
- At 4:59 PM I was about to submit my redemption credit for a Model 3/Y pet seat.
- At 5:01 PM I tried to submit the order but it failed....
- 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....
- Screenshot was at 5:12 PM 6/14/2024
/end rant.