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Reservation Numbers: How to read where you are in the queue.

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Without going into details, that's technically very easy to do on websites.

While true, Tesla doesn't need to know. It has a timestamp of when you reserved the vehicle. It uses that, in combination with your address, to determine when you get to configure. It doesn't need to know whether you reserved at SpaceX, the store, or on a web browser.

I was thinking about this last night, and technically, I think it means a Californian temporarily in Australia would have been able to reserve in Sydney and be one of the very first to get the car in their section of the priority sequence. Not sure anyone was that clever, but it likely would have worked. Or perhaps the east coast.

Geography comes first anyway, and taking delivery in California means you're forced to pay California's high sales tax. So unless you're there already and willing to pay the sales tax, it doesn't do you much good to fly to sneak ahead.
 
I'm a Californian and reserved in Italy at local time as I'm on a trip this week, so I got mine in 9 hours before the California stores opened... Hoping that combination helps. Ended up with RN1077 so it doesn't seem to correlate with much...
 
How does Tesla know if you reserved online or at the store? seems like it was the same portal.
They have a lot of metadata about the reservation (date, time, ip address, OS, etc.) but when it comes to production, they have said they will give priority to current owners and geography (West coast first). They will probably have other considerations such as availability of parts for options and in the past they have seemed to favor production of more profitable models. The date and time of your reservation is probably the most important other factor in determining your production order (beyond the above factors). I don't think it makes a difference whether you ordered online or at a store. However, the early store reservations did allow you to get an earlier date/time stamp than the online folks.
 
The date and time of your reservation is probably the most important other factor in determining your production order (beyond the above factors).

The date and time of your reservation is the most important factor in determining when you are allowed to CONFIGURE your vehicle. What you choose and how quickly you can complete configuration will determine your eventual production order.

Don't think that just because someone stood in line at the store they can spend several days choosing options before finalizing. You will lose your place in line.
 
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If I use monkey math I can come up with a basic position in the queue relative to the global pre-order process. Lets assume 100 of the 215 locations were taking pre-orders for the first 10 hours, time zone adjusted. In my location the booking rate was 150 per hour, lets average at 100 per hour globally. That gives us a basic run rate of 10,000 orders per hour for the first 10 hours. I got my order in almost exactly at the 1 hour mark in my local time zone. So I should be somewhere around 10,000 in the global queue and maybe as low as 2000-3000 in the western region of the US.

From that point it gets pretty difficult to predict as multiple variables play a role as spec of the car, existing owners, employees and such. For me getting a 8-10k Vin/build car would be perfect as most of the bugs would have been worked out of the system and it should align to spring 2018 availability. Spring time is a happy time in Seattle after a long, cold and rainy winter. Today's weather is beautiful for example, sunny 70's and clear skies. Fast forward 2 years the timing should be great to receive my new baby.

I know how my wife felt when we had our first real baby. I'm in nesting mode already thinking of all the things I need to get ready in the garage. Put in a new epoxy floor, get the electrical ready and organize my cleaning supplies.
 
So it looks like most are under the assumption that you get no priority for waiting in line vs purchasing online besides the actual time difference between stores opening and the online site opening. So someone who waited in line in my city, St. Louis, and deposited at say 10:10am would have priority over someone who put there deposit down online in California at 8pm local time?
 
So it looks like most are under the assumption that you get no priority for waiting in line vs purchasing online besides the actual time difference between stores opening and the online site opening. So someone who waited in line in my city, St. Louis, and deposited at say 10:10am would have priority over someone who put there deposit down online in California at 8pm local time?

Elon said that they are going to look at it because of the demand. Right now an Owner in New York might be #400,000 in line if they go by regions. I would guess they would do Employees, Owners (West to East), Non-Owner PreOrders Time/Price combination and then Online orders.

I would think reward someone that waited in line for a base model before someone that ordered that night. I think the original plan would be good for 50,000 reservations but 200,000+ is going to require some change.
 
what appear to be random numbers.
And you thought "RN" stood for reservation number? (Do you think that is air you're breathing?) It makes sense though, someone could more conceivably do something nefarious by knowing their number is 10775551212 and wanting to target a person reserving next to them at the same store & time. Chances are the apparent massive reservation rate would squash that plan rather quickly anyhow.
 
hmmm...

My number: RN10870xxxx

The guy next to me in line gets:
RN10776xxxx
RN10742xxxx

I have sold my Model S (miss it terribly, btw), but he is brand new to Tesla (no cars yet). We both were among the first 15 to register here in Portland. Don't think they're fully randomized. Don't think they're time stamped either.
 
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A thought just occurred to me (going to go find a bat and chase it off before more join)... with you being a former owner, both of you being out West, and then comparing to mine... maybe we are looking at it all wrong, and the higher numbers indicate the better priority.
 
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For what it's worth, I put in 2 simultaneous reservations yesterday, and got RN1075XXXXX and RN1074XXXXX (differ by over 70,000) - I doubt you can read anything into what appear to be random numbers.

If it helps,

2 simultaneous reservations at the Vegas store RN10878XXXX & RN10872XXXX (60k difference), my wife placed an order for her parents who are not owners next & we are still waiting for that RN#.