Sold my car - new owner can't add car to their account w/o new docs

[PDXScott]

Sold my Model 3 June 6, we completed bill of sale and submitted state dmv docs. When I sold the car, the support page said they needed proof of sale, which included the buyer and seller's info. If I look now, it just says title or registration. I could be mis-remembering this, but I tried to be thorough in the documents to be sure I had a bill of sale that had all the info required by Tesla. I removed the car from my account and did a factory reset of the car.

New owner sent pictures of the documents to Tesla, but now they are saying they will only assign the car to her with state registration in her name. Our DMV was closed through June 15, and is now open via mail only, and told her to expect 4-6 weeks minimum for any response (which would include requests for additional documentation - which is possible since I signed the title in the wrong place, so annoying!)

I dug through the Tesla website and support options, I was not able to find anyone to call, just the "add a vehicle" submission e-mail that she had been using already to no success.

It's been almost a month since the sale already, and now she's looking at another long stretch without being able to use the app, open her car with her phone, request roadside assistance or schedule service.

Any advice on how to get this resolved? I love Tesla, but customer service is an issue here, and the new owner is off to a bad start. She thinks it's intentional poor service to discourage private sales, and has regrets about making the purchase.
I'd like to turn this around so she can go back to being a Tesla fan - she had the Tesla grin after the first drive, but reality of fighting with customer service, lack of roadside assistance, and not being the owner in Tesla's view has taken the sheen off off her purchase.

Any help greatly appreciated!

 

[AmokTime]

These measures are in place to combat social engineering where someone calls in and tricks a Tesla person into assigning a car to them so they can set up the app on their phone and steal it. Convenience and security are infrequent bedfellows. Your buyer will just have to use the key cards until they can get the documentation. When they do get it straightened out it will be like Christmas morning. Kind of like when a new OTA update comes out with a cool, new feature.

 

[Ostrichsak]

The new buyer needs to take the bill of sale to their local DMV and get a temp tag which also generates a temp registration. The last few we bought private part I've made it a point to get that done STAT due to how long Tesla can and will drag their feet on this. As an example, I bought another used P85DL last week and submitted the temp registration and DL photos front and back as requested. It said it could take "up to 72hrs to process" and as of tomorrow it will be a full week.

 

[DanDi58]

The new buyer needs to take the bill of sale to their local DMV and get a temp tag which also generates a temp registration. The last few we bought private part I've made it a point to get that done STAT due to how long Tesla can and will drag their feet on this. As an example, I bought another used P85DL last week and submitted the temp registration and DL photos front and back as requested. It said it could take "up to 72hrs to process" and as of tomorrow it will be a full week.

That works if your DMV is open! OP said that theirs had been closed through June 15, and is only doing mail requests, so they are probably backed up. In NJ, ours just opened this past Monday and the lines are horrendous.

 

[Uncle Paul]

In many States there are private DMV shops or AAA members can get these transfers done without a visit to the State DMV office.

 

[PDXScott]

The new buyer needs to take the bill of sale to their local DMV and get a temp tag which also generates a temp registration. The last few we bought private part I've made it a point to get that done STAT due to how long Tesla can and will drag their feet on this. As an example, I bought another used P85DL last week and submitted the temp registration and DL photos front and back as requested. It said it could take "up to 72hrs to process" and as of tomorrow it will be a full week.

This is a great idea, not sure Oregon has this, but something actionable I can look into - thank you!

From what I can tell, their customer service teams are understaffed, overwhelmed, or both. Hopefully this is a short term situation, but with the Model 3 owners trading out for a Model Y (like me) and lots of new owners, I think this is a new baseline of activity they will need to figure out how to support.

 

[Ostrichsak]

That works if your DMV is open! OP said that theirs had been closed through June 15, and is only doing mail requests, so they are probably backed up. In NJ, ours just opened this past Monday and the lines are horrendous.

That's actually a great point that I didn't really consider too much. We got lucky in that our DMV was weeks out the first time we checked for appointments. We checked again later that day and somebody must have canceled because an appointment right at the end of the day opened up. We booked it immediately and went right over with all of our documentation to get our tags which I submitted right away.

That said, I bitched about not getting the car transferred to our account on this thread and it was less than an hour later that I got a notification email stating that the car was added to our account finally. I think you just need to find threads on this form to complain about and maybe the Tesla gods will answer your requests.

 

[Ostrichsak]

This is a great idea, not sure Oregon has this, but something actionable I can look into - thank you!

From what I can tell, their customer service teams are understaffed, overwhelmed, or both. Hopefully this is a short term situation, but with the Model 3 owners trading out for a Model Y (like me) and lots of new owners, I think this is a new baseline of activity they will need to figure out how to support.

Before we bought our first Tesla I would have thought that a proper bill of sale would be good enough to show transfer of ownership for Tesla. Basically what they've done is to offload the burden of verifying documents to the county DMV who has to verify all of your paperwork in order to give you a proper registration. It kind of makes sense and protects them from future litigation if somebody tries to bamboozle a current owner's car. I guess as an owner of several I would rather have them too strict than not strict enough in the situation where cars could be easily stolen with some forged documents.

 

[HankLloydRight]

What about trying to add it back to your account with your old registration, and then adding her as an additional user to access the car via the app until she gets her official paperwork?

 

[Ostrichsak]

What about trying to add it back to your account with your old registration, and then adding her as an additional user to access the car via the app until she gets her official paperwork?

Now that Tesla has added the ability to add users at the user level this has been a great tool to use if you just bought a used Tesla. The current owner can add you as a user so that you can access almost everything from your Tesla app until the finalization occurs. We've done this and it's been fairly seamless. When the final transfer happens we didn't even have to sign out of the app and back in to see the new car was added. It's still in the same spot within the app and now has the option to request service and roadside assistance now. Of course, this only works if the previous owner doesn't use the "Remove car from account" option within their account. The previous owner technically wouldn't have a way to re-add it since they no longer own the vehicle. This could also create some delay due to the potential confusion being added to the process.

As the options exist today, it's best to NOT click "remove car" as the current owner and simply add the buyer to the car to be able to access most features. The downside, of course, is that the seller can still access the car and control it but that's still the best option. The seller can then factory reset the car so that their personal information and what not is removed before letting the buyer take possession of the car. The new owner can get a blank slate to start with as well. This way, no matter how long Tesla takes to process the transfer, at least the new owner can access the car which is the most commonly used piece of account access. If you need roadside you can call the 800# and Tesla will still talk to you as the new owner even though you can't do it from the app.

If the previous owner clicks "remove car" and it's actually processed then I don't have a work-around solution and I think the new owner is stuck going through the process to add a car to their account, unfortunately.

 

[Michee22]

My husband and I purchased a used Model Y from a dealership. We both have the app and are NOT able to upload anything. When we type in the VIN we receive an error: Unable to claim ownership. We entered the correct VIN. WE purchased the car it is not leased. WE have NO idea who the previous owners were. The dealership we purchased from will NOT help us. Tesla does not have a phone number for assistance, no email, no chat, NOTHING. We purchased our Model Y back on 6/10/22 and still cannot find anyone to assist. I love our car but am beyond frustrated and ready to sell it all due to TESLA telling customers to rely on an app that doesn't do what they say it should. We have issues with the vehicle and need this taken care of.

 

[Michee22]

The new buyer needs to take the bill of sale to their local DMV and get a temp tag which also generates a temp registration. The last few we bought private part I've made it a point to get that done STAT due to how long Tesla can and will drag their feet on this. As an example, I bought another used P85DL last week and submitted the temp registration and DL photos front and back as requested. It said it could take "up to 72hrs to process" and as of tomorrow it will be a full week.

and where do you send the registration? That is my problem. I have a registration and cannot upload through the app. It doesn't have anywhere to upload and we only receive an error that we are unable to claim ownership to contact the previous owners which we CAN'T. We purchased from a dealership. They will not help.

 

[Ostrichsak]

and where do you send the registration? That is my problem. I have a registration and cannot upload through the app. It doesn't have anywhere to upload and we only receive an error that we are unable to claim ownership to contact the previous owners which we CAN'T. We purchased from a dealership. They will not help.

No idea on what the process is now since it's been a couple of years since I outlined the process. We all know how Tesla is with changing their contact processes... usually for the worserer. I know that previously you added a car via the website (not sure on the app) and it requested the necessary files which you attach in that moment and then they process them over time. Last I heard they made that portion a little bit more quick and may have even automated some of the document verification stuff that previously took weeks.

I would start with logging into your Tesla account from a full blown computer browser to see what the options are as they may differ from the app or even the mobile browser experience.

 

[Michee22]

I have tried that a hundred times already. Same error and it doesn't allow for an upload. I can't send an email or anything from my app. We cannot use Tesla chargers or do very much of anything w/out having access to the app. This is beyond frustrating. We have tried so many avenues since we purchased the vehicle on 6/10/2022. We feel the finance guy at the dealership has the access however he was really rude and told us... Oh WELL....

 

[DanDi58]

and where do you send the registration? That is my problem. I have a registration and cannot upload through the app. It doesn't have anywhere to upload and we only receive an error that we are unable to claim ownership to contact the previous owners which we CAN'T. We purchased from a dealership. They will not help.

You purchased the car used through a non-Tesla dealership, I assume? If that's the case, I think I would drive to the nearest Tesla store and see if a Sales Advisor could help me out. Bring all of your sales docs with you. There is a process to go through when you sell a Tesla, that the previous owner would have needed to do. Unfortunately, since he apparently sold it to a non-Tesla store, they probably had no clue about all of this.

 

[dduffey]

Hmmm ... I just did this this weekend, from our phones on the website. I removed the car from my account and the new owner added it by VIN to their account. It only took a couple minutes.

 

[Michee22]

You purchased the car used through a non-Tesla dealership, I assume? If that's the case, I think I would drive to the nearest Tesla store and see if a Sales Advisor could help me out. Bring all of your sales docs with you. There is a process to go through when you sell a Tesla, that the previous owner would have needed to do. Unfortunately, since he apparently sold it to a non-Tesla store, they probably had no clue about all of this.

Thank you. We actually feel that the dealership put it in their name for a short time and the finance guy who already owns a Tesla Model 3 has it on his app and will NOT remove it. He originally told us he would send over our information to Tesla, when we went back to follow up he replied, "OH, we were suppose to send your information over to Tesla... It didn't happen did it?" We were able to use a Tesla Supercharger which I have the app and my wallet set up but of course because it is in another persons name still it charged to their card. Someone got the bill! We feel it is the dealership. They are very sketchy. We will never use them again.

 

[Michee22]

Hmmm ... I just did this this weekend, from our phones on the website. I removed the car from my account and the new owner added it by VIN to their account. It only took a couple minutes.

Right, but when the previous owner doesn't reset and clear it from their app it wont work. We cannot upload anything. We get an error: Unable to claim ownership. Check the VIN, which we did, call previous owner...we do not know who that is. We are stuck.

 

[Michee22]

You purchased the car used through a non-Tesla dealership, I assume? If that's the case, I think I would drive to the nearest Tesla store and see if a Sales Advisor could help me out. Bring all of your sales docs with you. There is a process to go through when you sell a Tesla, that the previous owner would have needed to do. Unfortunately, since he apparently sold it to a non-Tesla store, they probably had no clue about all of this.

This may be the only answer. I will try it. Thank you.

 

[Michee22]

Hmmm ... I just did this this weekend, from our phones on the website. I removed the car from my account and the new owner added it by VIN to their account. It only took a couple minutes.

You were lucky and the previous owner removed their information and reset everything. In our situation we purchased from a dealership. We have no idea who owned the car prior. There is no number you can call for assistance. We tried calling as if you are ordering a car and they tell you to do it through the app. We told them we cannot. They hang up.