Refused delivery Fri 4/20 :/

[geometro]

Here's a piece on the Kelly Blue Book site that explains the fee and its history. Interestingly, it's federally mandated to be "equalized" regardless of whether you pick the car up at the factory or ship it across the country.

Very helpful. I was unaware of this.... was just going off the line item.
They should relabel it to “Delivery Socialization Fee”

 

[geometro]

Back to the OP, based on what was described, I would have done the same thing. This is not a trivial purchase for me and I believe your best point of leverage is before you sign the final docs.... and, this isn’t a used car, it should be as close to perfect as possible.

For those that are saying, “well, we are beta testers”... keep in mind the first ones came out of the factory last July(!). That’s nine months ago.

 

[ls7corvete]

Back to the OP, based on what was described, I would have done the same thing. This is not a trivial purchase for me and I believe your best point of leverage is before you sign the final docs.... and, this isn’t a used car, it should be as close to perfect as possible.

For those that are saying, “well, we are beta testers”... keep in mind the first ones came out of the factory last July(!). That’s nine months ago.

Well this has nothing to do with "Beta testers". Any car can be scratched during delivery. Who knows when this happened, though I highly dought this was done at the factory.

 

[geometro]

Well this has nothing to do with "Beta testers". Any car can be scratched during delivery. Who knows when this happened, though I highly dought this was done at the factory.

Why do you highly doubt it? I guess it doesn’t matter where it was done (though he did pick it up in Fremont); just that he told it was ready and took time out of his day to see a car that wasn’t ready is not great.

 

[geometro]

Bummed to report that I ended up refusing delivery of our white M3 at the Fremont delivery center on Friday because of a deep scratch on the front quarter panel just ahead of the passenger side door, behind the passenger front wheel well, about 12-18 inches from the ground. The scratch was very significant, about 6 inches long, down to the aluminum body of the car--not as if someone might have just brushed against it and didn’t notice. More like a piece of equipment hit and dragged along the car. It’s hard to imagine not being aware of it at the time that it occurred.

I was not going over the car with a fine-tooth comb—spotted the scratch on a casual walkaround, like you’d do when looking for pre-existing damage on a rental car. So we're disappointed and concerned for several reasons:

-The scratch was not subtle at all, and should have easily been picked up during a walkaround of the car as part of quality control prior to delivery.

-If it was missed by Tesla quality control but picked up by me, I'm concerned about the QC on components of the car we can't see.

-If it was seen but not pointed out to me, I'm disappointed that Tesla would consider delivering it to us as a new car without at least acknowledging it. I understand that things happen, but I would have much preferred to have been called and notified of the problem and the steps needed to fix it prior to driving over to Fremont on Friday afternoon.

-When the person helping with my paperwork suggested that it was good news that I could take delivery and arrange for a service center to fix the car, I decided to refuse delivery because having to immediately bring in a new car for service made no sense to me. Again, seems like I could have been given some options over the phone prior to the delivery appointment.

Just filled our DS in this morning, so waiting to hear back about what needs to be done to fix the scratch (e.g. repaint vs replace the panel) and how long I should expect to be waiting. Honestly, this has me wondering whether 1) I should request a different VIN (e.g. one later in production, presumably as the production process gets more reliable), and 2) whether I want to proceed with the purchase at all. Figure I’ll give Tesla the chance to make it right, but given our experience so far, I’ll be reviewing things much more closely when the car is ready to be delivered.

Jopa— any update?

 

[jopa180]

Got an email from our TS on Tuesday. It was understanding, apologetic, and informational. He let us know that the car was back at the factory being repainted, would go through end of line inspection again, and that he expected it to be ready for delivery by end of week. He suspected that the car was damaged at some point following end of line inspection (which makes sense), but also acknowledged that regardless, he was surprised that it went unnoticed. He also directly addressed my question about assigning a different VIN—said he would be happy to do that, but not sure of what the delivery timeline would be.

I asked for a little more clarification on what repairs had to be done (eg extent of repainting—spot, panel, entire car; and whether the body panel needed any work) since that could help inform whether I’d like to request a new VIN. And we reiterated that if anything comes up along the way, we’d appreciate having communication before we arrive to our delivery appt, including what the issue is, and options for repair (before vs after taking delivery).

Actually going out of town (getting married!!) this weekend, so will not be able to take delivery for another week or so, but will certainly get pics and share updates! Hoping the process is much smoother from this point forward.

 

[walt2810]

Congrats on your big week end & enjoy. The car will be ready for you & your significant other when you're back!!!!

 

[Henchman]

This is more common than people think. The only Model 3 I've seen up close was a white car in Dedham, MA and it had a horizontal scratch on the passenger rear quarterpanel. I think the handling of these cars from the factory to its final destination is seriously sloppy.

More anti Tesla nonsense from anti Tesla shorter FUD-ster Mos6507.

Our delivery experience was fantastic, our Model 3 is flawless.
You only hear about the small percentage of negative stories, or issues. That are easily remedied
In the sbti-teska world, this only happens with Tesla cars.

 

[Electroman]

[Copied over from another thread that I posted]

Well.. I picked my 3 two days ago. Believe me, I looked hard. I even had a magnifying glass with me. I ran my fingers through. Didn't see any scratches or paint blemishes. No panel gaps that stood out. The fact that I didn't find any only means I am not good at it. A bit disappointing after reading pages and pages of poor quality build. I understand I need to work harder.