Final update on this sorry story just to bring it to a close...
I actually ended up getting a re-scheduled collection for yesterday (was supposed to be today). I arrived on time and was advised by a very helpful Tesla employee who recognised me from the week prior. He advised that the car was just being "prepped" and would go and check on it and bring it around.
Now, before I continue with the outcome, I have to express disappointment in the Sales Guy who I originally had the test drive with, and who was helpful the week prior when I rejected the first car... I won't name him but he told me he'd personally get a new car allocated, stay in touch and also to call him if I had any further questions or concerns. Well, I did call him the week prior... several times! I left a voice message and even txt him (he had provided his mobile number) when I was getting lots of random emails from Tesla and also when they sent me the V5 registration doc for the car I had rejected! Well, he never did call me again but upon arrival yesterday he seemed to be going out of his way to avoid me... even so far as to clearly making eye contact at least twice and then looking the other way or doing an about turn and walking away. I found it all very odd and have just put it down to the fact they are under so much pressure from Tesla to get new cars delivered before the quarter end, he doesn't want to get into a "why didn't you call me back" conversation.
Anyway, I digress...
So, the other helpful chap had been gone for about 15 minutes now, during which time 3 other customers had arrived to collect their cars, and 1 previous customer had brought the car back as it was making a "knocking sound"...
Eventually, the Tesla employee appeared and the look on his face told me everything. He told me that the car I'd been allocated did have 2 "paint issues" which he said was being prepped for repair right now... I was advised they could try and have the work complete in 3 hours if I was able to hang around. Being completely honest, I was just feeling drained at this point... there's only so many times Xmas day can be ruined!
I asked if I could inspect the car and he arranged for it to be driven around to the front. Now, it wasn't as bad as I thought, but there were 2 clear dings on the passenger side and boot lid, the latter being worse. Looking around the car, the panel gaps and window trims were a lot better than the first car I rejected and the boot lid was flush with the window - much better than the previous 1cm+ drop off!
However, when I got inside, the first thing I noticed was how grubby both sun visors where... they had black hand prints all over them where clearly a technician with dirty gloves and quickly checked the car inside but failed to realise he was leaving marks everywhere. The headliner on the rear B-Pillar was also not quite stitched in right and looked to be coming loose, almost separating away from the roof. Oh, and the underside of the trunk was also only part painted, albeit better than the first car.
I think you can tell where this is going, and I know a lot of people will think I'm just being a nit-pick at this point, but in that moment I just kind of fell out of love with the Tesla purchase/ownership experience. All I could hear was the other customer complaining about the knocking sound from the car (also a 70 plate) and I just didn't want to be "that guy" in a week or month from now.
Speaking completely honestly, I could have accepted the car given they were prepared to complete the bodywork on the same day (Although that also raised a few questions) and they likely would have cleaned the interior and arrange to correct the frunk paint/interior at another time... but I just wasn't excited anymore. Interestingly, the sales guy who had been avoiding me was walking past so I stopped him and asked him to inspect the frunk. He told me "this is how they all are" which just didn't sound right to me (I actually asked the question in a separate thread and others have said there frunk underside was painted correctly). At that point he sort of started doing a sales pitch on me to try and take the car, which also rubbed me the wrong way.
Anyway, I had 3 options: Take the car and schedule in the work; Reject the car and ask to be matched with a different one (they actually suggested a different colour so as to avoid the paint issue with black cars); or reject and cancel the order.
I went with the 3rd option.
Again, I know my experience is unique and there are plenty of happy owners, but I'm just documenting my experience in the event it helps anyone else. This hasn't put me off Tesla, it's just made me realise that owning a Tesla isn't right for
me right now. It's still a Gen1 product and has a Gen1 service infrastructure in my opinion, so I'll wait until vehicles start rolling off GigaBerlin and see what improvements (if any) have been made.
Feeling rather sullen yesterday, I was looking at other EVs and still nothing get's me as excited as Tesla. I just need to wait until the fit and finish matches my (perhaps old fashioned?) expectations.
