Starting the "Used" Process - Shipping from CA to East Coast

[Nufci]

Wow, thats pretty crazy. Now I'm scared - I take delivery on Wednesday, and I'm already all kinds of freaked out because I'm usually fiscally conservative, and although I can pay for the car outright in cash, I'm financing it and have butterflies in my stomach. Apart from my house, this will be the most expensive purchase I've ever made.
Although they shipped the car cross country WAY faster than I expected them to, I will be very disappointed if I get a car that needs to be fixed immediately. Guess I need to work on a robust checklist.

 

[jeonunh]

2/18 - So I called the service number to see if they could improve my mobile service date. I was basically told that it was my only option. I was also told that I can bring my car to any wheel/tire center to get it looked at. I told the person that I want Tesla to fix the problem since I'm not entirely sure if it's the wheel, tire, or something entirely different. Also - Why should I deal with the issue on my own dime when they assured me that it would be fixed ASAP? The person wasn't terribly friendly or helpful and ultimately said he would kick the concern up to his adviser to see if there is anything they can do. I think it was just a way to get me off the phone and I doubt I'll get any response. I also sent an email to my delivery adviser to ask how they would make this right since it was him that assured me they could fix everything right away.

Lastly - While on the phone with service he also informed me that Paramus never ordered the front license plate hold like they said they would.... I still don't think it's ordered based on how helpful the guy on the phone was. I'm probably going to order one on my own... TESLA SERVICE IS HORRIBLE!! They really need to certify 3rd party repair centers if they can't handle the volume of repairs on their own. I expect this to only get worse now that there are so many new Model 3's hitting the roads.

 

[Willjou]

Hey bud, wondered how things went for you. With regards to the thrumming sound and steering wheel vibration, you might want to check if lane departure warning is turned on. This is in your autopilot settings. When you near a solid line or lane marking it goes off. It is really sensitive and most people I know have it turned off.

The first time I experienced it,I was also caught off guard since I was used to audible beeps in our other car and not a vibration.

Hope this is the case and not something more serious! Enjoy the car!

 

[Uncle Paul]

Buyers should realize that people with delivery issues tend to vent their anger here and on other forums, while those with excellent deliveries tend to just go on their very satisfied way.

With thousands of cars bening delivered it is only natural that some would have issues.

 

[dzmconstr]

Buyers should realize that people with delivery issues tend to vent their anger here and on other forums, while those with excellent deliveries tend to just go on their very satisfied way.

With thousands of cars bening delivered it is only natural that some would have issues.

Dude they aren't delivering thousands of CPOs.....and no it's not natural...it's just status quo. EV-CPO could tell on any given day how many CPOs are sold, but I'm betting across the country it's about 60.....wow thousands.
Dzm

 

[dzmconstr]

2/7 - I flew down from Boston to Newark and grabbed an Uber to the dealership. I arrived on time and was led out to my car. Condition was mostly better than I expected. A few stone chips on the hood, and a 1cm scratch that is slightly indented on the rear quarter panel. No curb damage on the wheels. Tires looked good.... with one exception... There was a giant, and I mean much larger than average, nail in the rear passenger tire. I pointed this out and said that there is no way I'm driving 400 miles on a tire with nail in it. (It was holding air) They immediately agreed to replace the tire and I asked if they had to replace all the tires as I have done for past AWD cars. They said I only needed the one tire. I wish I had been more insistent.... more on that later. I also noticed what appeared to be a spilled chocolate milk shake in the gap between the center console and the passenger seat. The charger was missing completely, and there is no front license plate mount. While I was sitting in the car I was alerted that the battery in the remote needed to be replaced. I asked if they had the batteries available and I was initially told that they could send out a mobile team to replace the battery. I said that sounded ridiculous and I was told that they don't usually have the batteries in stock since they have to replace them so often. I told him I would just go to the nearest store and buy one myself and it guilted him enough to go ask someone. Sure enough they had the batteries and replaced both.

Waited over an hour while the tire was being replaced, and signed the paperwork while I waited. They pulled the car out front again and I started getting the introduction to the features of the car. That's when I noticed that the left scroll wheel on the steering wheel was hanging out of the groove. (Broken) I was informed that this wasn't going to be able to be fixed today. Ugh. Next he started to show me how autopilot worked, but then said that since my car doesn't have autopilot he can't show me. I told him that my car was supposed to have AP enabled, so they took the car back into the shop again to get it activated. Finally left the dealership about 2.5 hours later than planned to start the long journey home.

So guess checking tires and function of switches is NOT part of the 70 point Tesla inspection? No wonder nobody can get a copy of their car's inspection results....it probably starts with point 1: Did the customer pay? if so move to inspection point 2: Does the car have four wheels? if so move to inspection point 3: Does the car have all windows as specified? If so move to inspection point 4...we;; you get it.

Sorry for your pain, my fear is it's only going to get worse.
Dzm:

 

[jeonunh]

2/19 - I received a call back from my delivery specialist after sending him an email with my concerns with not being able to get my issues fixed. He apologized and said that Tesla service is completely separate from sales, so he can't do anything to improve my service date. He is going to try calling my local service center to make a plea with them to take me in earlier and call me back today with the results. I also asked if Tesla would pay to have my wheels/tires looked at by a different company and his answer didn't leave me very convinced.

Ultimately I want to swap out the 21" wheels with 19" wheels since I'm afraid the road conditions around where I work in MA are going to damage the tires anyway. I might just go ahead and do that to see if it solves the problem. I'd just hate to find out later there is something more wrong with the car after dumping money into new wheels and tires.

Anyone interested in buying a set of dark gray 21" Turbines or should I just keep them?

 

[Nufci]

I've had an overall positive experience, but I haven't picked my car up yet. Here's a quick summary.

I had my eye on a 70D located in the midwest (I'm in WA state) and finally decided to pull the trigger when the price had fallen to something I could stomach. I wasn't expecting delivery until mid-March since it was being shipped a long way. I was in touch with a "remarketing" sales person while I was looking for the perfect car, and she was pretty responsive (replied within 2 days) to any questions I had.

2/3 - Hit the purchase button
2/4 - First contact by the same remarketing sales person, answering a few questions, email congratulating me on the purchase containing some documents
2/5 - Introduction to delivery advisor. Not the most helpful but was VERY responsive
2/8 - Figured out financing, confirmed the bank and the amount being financed, requested the final purchase agreement. I did not want to go through approval just yet, since I had no idea when I would get the car.
2/12 - DA encouraged me to sort out financing and confirmed that the vehicle was in transit.
2/14 - DA confirmed that the vehicle had arrived. This was surprising, and at this point I began scrambling to sort out financing. Got approved, worked with the bank on getting a check for the amount financed. Got a final purchase agreement. Set up an appointment on the phone for delivery on what I thought would have been 2/20 (DA said earliest appointment was Wednesday, and the next Wednesday was 2/20).
2/18 - Got the check from the bank, preparing for delivery
2/20 - Wanted to get the phone number for the delivery center to call and confirm delivery, but realized that my appointment was actually for next week. Called DA and rescheduled to 2/23.

 

[jeonunh]

I hope everything stays smooth for you. I too was surprised with how quickly my car made it all the way across the country.

 

[jeonunh]

Quick update - I was finally able to bring my car in to the local service center. I was given a 75D as a loaner. (Through Enterprise) They quickly fixed the scroll wheel and mounted my front license plate. Later in the day they diagnosed the thrumbing/buffeting noise that I was experiencing around 50-55mph. It turns out both rear wheels were out of round. They replaced both wheels and also a tire that had developed grooves from the vibration.

I didn't realize how much the wheels were affecting the car, but after being replaced the car is absolutely silky smooth at all speeds. What a huge difference. I think this ends all the issues I had up to this point, so the story is over! Best of luck to everyone else!

 

[Pismo]

Glad to hear it finally all came together.
It certainly is interesting reading about peoples experiences, to be well informed when others come to experience the used tesla option.

 

[Nufci]

I've had an overall positive experience, but I haven't picked my car up yet. Here's a quick summary.

I had my eye on a 70D located in the midwest (I'm in WA state) and finally decided to pull the trigger when the price had fallen to something I could stomach. I wasn't expecting delivery until mid-March since it was being shipped a long way. I was in touch with a "remarketing" sales person while I was looking for the perfect car, and she was pretty responsive (replied within 2 days) to any questions I had.

2/3 - Hit the purchase button
2/4 - First contact by the same remarketing sales person, answering a few questions, email congratulating me on the purchase containing some documents
2/5 - Introduction to delivery advisor. Not the most helpful but was VERY responsive
2/8 - Figured out financing, confirmed the bank and the amount being financed, requested the final purchase agreement. I did not want to go through approval just yet, since I had no idea when I would get the car.
2/12 - DA encouraged me to sort out financing and confirmed that the vehicle was in transit.
2/14 - DA confirmed that the vehicle had arrived. This was surprising, and at this point I began scrambling to sort out financing. Got approved, worked with the bank on getting a check for the amount financed. Got a final purchase agreement. Set up an appointment on the phone for delivery on what I thought would have been 2/20 (DA said earliest appointment was Wednesday, and the next Wednesday was 2/20).
2/18 - Got the check from the bank, preparing for delivery
2/20 - Wanted to get the phone number for the delivery center to call and confirm delivery, but realized that my appointment was actually for next week. Called DA and rescheduled to 2/23.

Quick update to this - picked up my car on the 23rd, it was in great condition and looked like new, although there is a small but pretty deep scratch that wasn't visible in the pictures. It isn't apparent, and I could live with it, so I accepted delivery. The delivery specialist said I would need to connect with the agent that set up my appointment to see if Tesla can fix it since the pictures did not show the scratch, but he's been AWOL, and I'm not bothered enough to chase them down for this.

Driving it has been amazing, although I'm not getting anywhere close to the rated miles. I guess I will wait for the summer before panicking, but energy consumption per mile is pretty high, often 380 to 420 wh/mi. I charge it up to 90% regularly, and extrapolating the rated miles to 100% puts me at 236 mi, which means battery degradation was negligible.

I'm slightly annoyed that I can't figure out a good way to check my blind spots, my last car had an indicator and beeped. Another slight annoyance is that there is a squeaky noise, probably because of friction between the driver's seat and the center console.

Overall, the process was good, the car got to me a lot faster than I expected, was in great condition and very clean.

 

[vpblur]

This is an awesome thread guys. So much good information.

I am new here and pulled the trigger on a 12/14 P85D with the + suspension last Friday (1st March). The car is in Freemont and I am near Boulder, CO so getting it shipped over. Thought about flying out to get it but those Pilot Sports would kill me by the time I got home given the snow we have...

Photos are here if anyone has time to look them over and point anything out. The rims are pretty trashed so I have myself a project there to refurb them. Will put some 19" Rials with Michelin X-Ice tires for the rest of winter so will have the 21s off the car to work on.

One other question. Does anyone have a good checklist prepared to go through when looking the car over at the delivery? I was about to start making one but it seemed like a great way to get on the forum.

Nice to meet you all and super stoked to be (almost) in the Tesla family!

 

[MDinFL]

Put down my money yesterday to trade my 2013 P85 for a 2016 90D. I have low expectations since I bought my current car through the old CPO program, which was great as far as the car's condition went, but terrible in terms of communication. After making the deposit, I got a congratulations email from the Used Car Advisor. He said I would hear from the Delivery Advisor, who called me at 7 pm. He said that delivery could take a while because they had to move the car "from West Palm Beach to West Palm Beach." A real confidence builder. Later last night I received a text telling me that my delivery date is 3/14. About 45 minutes later I received a text advising that I should ignore the prior text and apologizing.

This morning I called WPB and they said they have the car and don't know why it should take so long. I have tried to get in touch the Used Car guy, but that has not proven fruitful in the past, so I won't hold my breath. I then wrote to the DA and said the WPB has the car and thinks they can deliver it quickly. I received an email a few hours later saying that my delivery would be 3/10, which is a Sunday. I wrote back and asked if he really meant Sunday? Waiting on the Answer.

 

[Cheburashka]

lmao, seems like they are trying their hardest to make the process as painful as possible for you

 

[vpblur]

Here is my checklist so far:

2x key fobs
Supercharging enabled
Autopilot enabled
All tires good and clear of issues
Charging kit with all adapters (including J1722)
All lights work
Wipers work
Speakers work
Parcel shelf present
Rear window glass pitting
Sunroof opens/closes
Power lift gate function
Frunk function
Steering wheel controls
Both seats function
All seat heaters work
Wiper blade condition
Previous user settings/details wiped
Miles match what I thought
No paint/panel issues beyond what was in photos
No rim issues beyond what was in photos

 

[Videofrank]

Here is my checklist so far:

2x key fobs
Supercharging enabled
Autopilot enabled
All tires good and clear of issues
Charging kit with all adapters (including J1722)
All lights work
Wipers work
Speakers work
Parcel shelf present
Rear window glass pitting
Sunroof opens/closes
Power lift gate function
Frunk function
Steering wheel controls
Both seats function
All seat heaters work
Wiper blade condition
Previous user settings/details wiped
Miles match what I thought
No paint/panel issues beyond what was in photos
No rim issues beyond what was in photos

Ensure VIN matches paperwork

Front and rear floor mats

Temporary Tags

Parcel Shelf

Check for condensation in rear lights/reflectors

charge Port cover opens consistently

Check that UMC works

Mirrors are operable and will fold

Rear seats fold up and down and latch

Free supercharging

Make sure you can access car through Tesla app

Not sure what the law in your state is but I needed them to add a front license plate bracket. I ended up installing it myself with zipties since I didn't want to drill into my front bumper.


Then drive it like you stole it!

 

[vpblur]

Thanks for the additions. What does UMC stand for?

 

[vpblur]

Universal Mobile Connector....sorry, figured it out.

 

[Rogue Synapse]

One other question. Does anyone have a good checklist prepared to go through when looking the car over at the delivery? I was about to start making one but it seemed like a great way to get on the forum.

I’m collecting my Tesla: Full Model S delivery checklist – Tesla Checklists