Yeah, I am the person who rejected my delivery yesterday. I ordered a LR AWD white Model 3 with black interior. I probably should have taken pictures to share, but I want to provide my delivery experience at the Vancouver Powell location.
Arriving at the delivery centre, it was actually less busy than what I expected. It had structure and I felt that people were being processed at a fair speed, given the popularity of the vehicle. They were running a few minutes late and my original intended delivery appointment at 1:00PM was more like 1:30PM. That didn't bother me and they at least had some beverages to tie you over and the weather was great.
Around 1:15PM, the delivery manager wanted to show me my car, but it actually wasn't there. To speed things up, he wanted me to start the paper work before my car was even there. I declined, but I must have been asked to do paper work at least three times. I didn't feel pressure to sign, but it was clear he preferred to do all the paper work upfront before even looking at the car.
When the car arrived, the delivery manager didn't check up on me. I thought this was great because I didn't have pressure and I could spend as much time as I wanted with inspecting the car. The issues that lead to my rejection were:
- Front bumper (The part of the bumper underneath the fog lights). The finish was very rough and ragged. It was very visible upfront. If I were to run my finger fast across it, it would have cut. I was taking delivery with two other SR+ white model 3's beside mine and theirs were smooth.
- Gap between the left front headlight had a paint chip.
- Rear side panel had adhesive leftovers. Very visible and when this was pointed out, they were able to buff it out, but it left scratches on the car.
- Rear passenger door has a portion of the door seals bubbling out.
- Headlights drooped down. It's almost like the headlights wasn't aligned properly. All the white model 3's had this issue. Blue and black model 3's seemed better aligned for some reason.
- The panelling beside the left headlight looked like it was sitting above the panel it was connecting to. All the white model 3's had this issue, but mine was more pronounced. Oddly enough, the black and blue model 3's were not exactly flush, but much better and within reason that it wouldn't have been a problem.
As for inconsistencies with the panel gaps, it didn't bother me and I thought it was reasonable. The chrome trims were leveled correctly as well. I didn't really check the interior as carefully, but it seemed solid. There was a stained thumbprint on my roof headliner which most likely could have been removed, but I imagine someone didn't wash their hands after lunch when they were installing it.
I guess I'm just a bit disappointed because I really love Tesla. I still intend on getting one, but I have to admit it left a bad taste. I think delivery personnel could have done this better. The manager said the paint chip would be taken care of, but he had to ask if smoothing out the front bumper was possible because it could be within spec. Fortunately, he got permission, so they at least could have fixed that. They offered to use double sided tape to fix the door seal bubbling, but all the other issues would not be fixed.
Personally, I didn't really mind the manager. I feel for him. I'm sure he has been working long hours to get through delivery. I feel like they need to step back and address quality. Reasons given to me about quality was that if I was following Tesla for a while, I should expect issues because that's what they are known for. That wasn't his exact words, but this is actually what he meant. All that I hope is that delivery staff are taking notes and at least letting Tesla know. I didn't get any sense of that during my delivery experience. I love Tesla for their iterative design, so I hope the right information is being communicated.
In the end, I rejected delivery because of these issues and my car showed the worst issues compared to the other white models. I'm not sure what about the white models are different in that the build quality seems off compared to the other colours, but when you pay extra for it, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect similar quality. I hope it's a batch issue and probably will try my luck in a few months instead or even delay it for the year. I'm currently going through the refund process, but there doesn't seem to be any issue with that. I'll update if there is an issue with refunding.
