Solar Roof, big price increase

[jerin2k87]

I am building a house in, NY. On March 9, 2021, I signed a contract with TESLA for a solar roof. My Tesla representative is Miguel Martinez. On March 23, 2021, I received an email from Tesla stating the price for my project will be increased by $17,253.48. After reaching out to Miguel, he said the management team confirmed that my price would not increase and that it was an automated email that was sent to me in error. I spoke with supervisor Amanda Henderson on a recorded line, who assured me that I would be charged the price I signed the contract for, $40,998.20. I received a second email on Saturday, April 10, 2021 stating they are no longer able to keep the price that is stated on the contract. After reaching out to Miguel yet again, he replied saying that Tesla would not be able to keep the previous agreement.

I have a signed contract for the stated price of $40,998.20 and I made a $100 downpayment. The only way Tesla can increase the price under Terms & Conditions paragraph 2 is if Telsa encounters unforeseen circumstances at the installation location or causes a change to the solar portion of the solar roof. The reason that was provided to me for increasing pricing does not meet the condition precedent to increase the price.

I am building a modular home and I opted out of the roof system because I got confirmation to use the TESLA roof. At this point, my house is being shipped from the manufacturing plant without a roof and this is not acceptable. We have paid a non-refundable deposit on the home, and no changes can be made at this point.
I am looking to see if there is a class-action lawsuit against Tesla for this matter. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[VaBob]

Keep me posted. Looks like you’re the one before me. Booked for the 17th of May. Fingers crossed.

Will do VaNick. If anyone has a scheduled install date before May 11 (my install date) and has not cancelled the order or accepted the new agreement, let us know what happens. I don't think Tesla can cancel the order, so I'm guessing they will try to reschedule my install and put me in the back of the line since I did not accept the new agreement.

 

[jerin2k87]

Just cancelled my 22.2kw solar roof with 4 power walls. I originally (early this week) accepted the $50k increase, but can no longer justify it... I was lying to myself. I'm retired, and of all the things I could want or have, this solar roof was No 1 on the list. Guess, I'll start looking at number 3 (number 2 was a beach front condo... I close next week) - No 3 is a sailing cat...
But please count me in on a class action... a lot anticipation and heart ache went into the plans for this roof. Current roof should be good for another 5 years, so I have time. Now I need to deal with my HOA... again.

I am so in for a class action. Tesla screwed my entire house project.

 

[RainMeister]

I am building a house in, NY. On March 9, 2021, I signed a contract with TESLA for a solar roof. My Tesla representative is Miguel Martinez. On March 23, 2021, I received an email from Tesla stating the price for my project will be increased by $17,253.48. After reaching out to Miguel, he said the management team confirmed that my price would not increase and that it was an automated email that was sent to me in error. I spoke with supervisor Amanda Henderson on a recorded line, who assured me that I would be charged the price I signed the contract for, $40,998.20. I received a second email on Saturday, April 10, 2021 stating they are no longer able to keep the price that is stated on the contract. After reaching out to Miguel yet again, he replied saying that Tesla would not be able to keep the previous agreement.

I have a signed contract for the stated price of $40,998.20 and I made a $100 downpayment. The only way Tesla can increase the price under Terms & Conditions paragraph 2 is if Telsa encounters unforeseen circumstances at the installation location or causes a change to the solar portion of the solar roof. The reason that was provided to me for increasing pricing does not meet the condition precedent to increase the price.

I am building a modular home and I opted out of the roof system because I got confirmation to use the TESLA roof. At this point, my house is being shipped from the manufacturing plant without a roof and this is not acceptable. We have paid a non-refundable deposit on the home, and no changes can be made at this point.
I am looking to see if there is a class-action lawsuit against Tesla for this matter. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This is NOT intended to be legal advice, but in your circumstance, you may be better off pursuing an individual legal remedy. The problem with getting lumped into a class-action lawsuit is that you end up with the same award as everyone else. Most will not have suffered the degree of damages as you may experience because you've already acted in reliance. PLUS the law firm handling the class-action will take a significant cut of any award. And even before we get there, there's that arbitration clause to overcome.

In your shoes, I would write to Tesla that I acted in reliance of their representations, and that I stand to suffer significant damages if they don't honor the original contract. Give them a deadline, and see if they deliver. If they don't, it's time to lawyer up.

 

[marissalerer]

I too had an almost 50% increase $42,056.43 to $78,944.30. I had a signed contract and permits were already pulled.

Absolutely absurd.

When I contacted my project manager this was her response:

Hi Marissa,

I can confirm that the price increase is based on roof complexity and is a new change within Tesla. As Tesla is growing in the roofing industry and ramping up Solar Roof, they have determined that homes should be evaluated on difficulty of installation. You project was re-evaluated and priced accordingly classified with high complexity. This is based on - stories of the house, number of valleys and ridges, existing roof material, dormers, and size. As well as the man-hours we have to account for this project.

Price increase is also based on price per sq ft which is now been increased to $14 per sq ft. The price of supplies have increased and we had to increase our prices with the supply and demand. This is applied to all orders (including signed contracts) and both complexity and price per sq ft are set terms. This change of matter is beyond us Project Advisors or our Management as it is a direct company decision.

At this time, your options are to sign the new contract and keep moving forward, or cancel and get a full refund. I understand this can be frustrating and I apologize, but I cannot honor your original cost nor escalate your project for this matter.

I wanted to provide you this email as reference but we can still schedule a call if you’d like to.

Thank you.

Best,
Isha Mody
Project Advisor – Solar Roof

Has anyone put together a class action suit yet? I would like to join.

 

[VaNick]

I too had an almost 50% increase $42,056.43 to $78,944.30. I had a signed contract and permits were already pulled.

Absolutely absurd.

When I contacted my project manager this was her response:



Has anyone put together a class action suit yet? I would like to join.

Similar language, but impressed they actually gave reasoning as to why...

Holding out and telling them I expect them to honor the contract...

 

[WaitingForRoof]

I too had an almost 50% increase $42,056.43 to $78,944.30. I had a signed contract and permits were already pulled.

Absolutely absurd.

When I contacted my project manager this was her response:



Has anyone put together a class action suit yet? I would like to join.

Copy Pasta email which everyone else received.. Did they offer you a free powerwall at least when you didn’t cancel?

File a complaint with SEIA on business codes they’ve broken, state AG and contracters state license board like the rest of us. Class action lawsuit would require proving personal damages (mostly wasted time) unless construction started.

Not legal advice, just going off this thread.

 

[Skotty]

Maybe Tesla is big enough now that they have some grifters in the management chain. If Tesla needs to make the costs 50% higher, so be it, but they should either honor existing contracts as is or commit to no more than a modest increase of maybe 5% and eat any losses and own their mistake.

They did this once before with the original Roadster, but I kind of gave them a pass on that because they needed to price increase to continue existing. I don't think Tesla has that problem now. Could shortfall on existing solar roof contracts bankrupt Tesla? I highly doubt it.

 

[marissalerer]

Copy Pasta email which everyone else received.. Did they offer you a free powerwall at least when you didn’t cancel?

File a complaint with SEIA on business codes they’ve broken, state AG and contracters state license board like the rest of us. Class action lawsuit would require proving personal damages (mostly wasted time) unless construction started.

Not legal advice, just going off this thread.

no I did not get offered a free powerwall. It wouldn't matter. The original quote was the top of our budget anyway.

I will look into the actions people have taken. Thanks.

 

[holeydonut]

Maybe Tesla is big enough now that they have some grifters in the management chain. If Tesla needs to make the costs 50% higher, so be it, but they should either honor existing contracts as is or commit to no more than a modest increase of maybe 5% and eat any losses and own their mistake.

They did this once before with the original Roadster, but I kind of gave them a pass on that because they needed to price increase to continue existing. I don't think Tesla has that problem now. Could shortfall on existing solar roof contracts bankrupt Tesla? I highly doubt it.

Yeah, I think it's interesting to see how new "disruptive" companies want to say they're different, but they end up being the same as the old guard they attempted to up-end after they grow larger.

For example, Musk has said repeatedly he dislikes regulations and government intervention. But he was more than happy to take all the government tax breaks, clean-energy-credits, and various incentives to set up his supply chain. Plus he was more than happy that his customers received huge incentives to purchase his products.

When companies get large with a bunch of stakeholders and a profit motive, they typically start behaving in a similar manner. I wouldn't expect Tesla to operate a business at a loss today; and I wouldn't expect anyone at TMC to freely give up their own money to help Tesla. But the public perception in general persists with the belief that Tesla is the plucky startup making the world a better place. Until that at-large mindset evolves, Tesla can operate with profit maximizing "poor form" decisions while also reaping the benefit of being considered the underdog.

 

[jjrandorin]

(moderator note: Stickied thread so that this discussion would continue to be highlighted for as long as people want to have this active discussion)

 

[cn256]

This is my first post to this forum. We had a $24k increase between original signed agreement of the design and their recent update. We signed up back in Sept. We received our design details three days before their price hike (accepting it only the day before the price hike), which felt ironic after waiting so long.

 

[FurryOne]

Has anyone put together a class action suit yet? I would like to join.

You didn't happen to notice that little "arbitration" clause in the contract did you. By signing, you agreed to it.

 

[h2ofun]

You didn't happen to notice that little "arbitration" clause in the contract did you. By signing, you agreed to it.

Lets not let a little issue of a contract signed get in the way of emotion.

 

[VaBob]

Will do VaNick. If anyone has a scheduled install date before May 11 (my install date) and has not cancelled the order or accepted the new agreement, let us know what happens. I don't think Tesla can cancel the order, so I'm guessing they will try to reschedule my install and put me in the back of the line since I did not accept the new agreement.

Interesting ... I just logged into my Tesla account. I'm no longer scheduled for installation on May 11. Instead, it has a May 17 install date, but it requires me to accept the new agreement for that to happen. I'm not going to cancel order or accept new agreement. Going to keep holding and see what happens.

 

[wwu123]

You didn't happen to notice that little "arbitration" clause in the contract did you. By signing, you agreed to it.

So I don't have a direct stake in this whole issue, but it's been sad following along. I'm curious that if the contract is signed and valid, why is the "arbitration" clause valid, but the clause with the agreed-upon price is not? And if Tesla is invoking the clause about "unforeseen" conditions, which most here feel the conditions are not, why would a price change not be be applied as part of the original contract that contain these "arbitration" and "unforeseen" clauses - why are they sending out new contracts, which is trying to void the existing contracts?

 

[FurryOne]

At one time I had a dog in this show, but I cancelled after Tesla had no installers in my area, so now I'm in for panels. And while I can understand the anger people feel about the increases, I can also see Tesla's side of the equation. Like I've said before, Tesla jumped into the Solar Roof market with software that didn't take into account the high cost of labor, and they've been getting their rear ends handed to them by their subcontractors. That's the unseen circumstances that justify the price changes. They just couldn't continue to bleed money based on their previous software driven contracts, so they adjusted their software to better compensate for real costs, of labor & materials, and presto - higher, more rational prices.

Now the prices reflect the actual square footage of your roof, and you get to pay for all those cute peaks & valleys that seem to be the norm these days, where they will have to cut and fit (Just like you'd have to pay a roofer extra.), and you get to pay for all those extra glass blanks to fill-in the size of your roof instead of Tesla's faulty previous guess.

So who's fault is it? Well, Tesla shares the majority of the blame for being too eager to jump into the market with poorly designed software, BUT look at your contract - is the listed size of your roof correct or undersized?... Most likely it was undersized, and anyone entering into a multi-thousand dollar contract should have checked ahead to know what size they were contracting (get an estimate from a roofer) and thus should have seen that Tesla's figures were too low. (I measured my roof, and knew that Tesla's estimated 1589 Sqft was far short of my actual 2250 Sqft roof.)

 

[FurryOne]

So I don't have a direct stake in this whole issue, but it's been sad following along. I'm curious that if the contract is signed and valid, why is the "arbitration" clause valid, but the clause with the agreed-upon price is not?

Huh? Because the "unforeseen" part overrides the original price. Arbitration is a separate part of the contract.

And if Tesla is invoking the clause about "unforeseen" conditions, which most here feel the conditions are not, why would a price change not be be applied as part of the original contract that contain these "arbitration" and "unforeseen" clauses - why are they sending out new contracts, which is trying to void the existing contracts?

Because that "unforeseen" part allows them to dissolve the original contract obligations. It's far easier to simply send a new contract than to annotate changes in the original - it's a new "clean" contract.

 

[cn256]

So who's fault is it? Well, Tesla shares the majority of the blame for being too eager to jump into the market with poorly designed software, BUT look at your contract - is the listed size of your roof correct or undersized?... Most likely it was undersized, and anyone entering into a multi-thousand dollar contract should have checked ahead to know what size they were contracting (get an estimate from a roofer) and thus should have seen that Tesla's figures were too low. (I measured my roof, and knew that Tesla's estimated 1589 Sqft was far short of my actual 2250 Sqft roof.)

No, I think you are mistaken.
In my case the price hike is for the identical design, in other words the roof size/area did not increase and it was not undersized. If you are paying attention throughout this thread, most everyone is talking about getting a price hike in all stages of the projects (not due to area being underestimated). In my case, there are no apparent design changes in the updated version with price hike.

 

[rspray2000]

Huh? Because the "unforeseen" part overrides the original price. Arbitration is a separate part of the contract.


Because that "unforeseen" part allows them to dissolve the original contract obligations. It's far easier to simply send a new contract than to annotate changes in the original - it's a new "clean" contract.

Let's be clear about the language: it's "unforeseen conditions at the installation location". Not just 'something changed in the world that we didn't expect to happen over a year after we signed this agreement with you.' Nothing has changed at my, or many other peoples' location since the agreements were signed. I've talked to several local contractors that admitted to have taken losses on lumber-intensive projects lately because they believe in truth in agreements between people. Also, they don't have a $650B market cap. I'm with cn256 above, too, my roof size is accurate and nothing about the design has changed. On my simple colonial with attached garage, I have 5 rectangles and 3 vents (no valleys) - pretty simple.