Starting to Have My Doubts (About Leasing an M3) and We've Not Even Seen the Car Yet

[DigbyChicken]

I've just spoken to a Tesla peep via Chat and I think it's fair to say, if there's an opposite of post-purchase confirmation bias, I'm currently experiencing it.

(I thought I'd start a little thread, partly because what I'm going to say covers a number of topics - ordering, leasing, charger installation, etc. - and partly because I don't necessarily expect a response from anyone. Maybe I just need a space where I can vent safely and then get on with the rest of my life...!)

Key dates:
We pulled the trigger on our NHS salary sacrifice lease on 30th March.
Because of delays beyond our control, the fleet company placed the order on 22nd April.
It appears the lease company finally placed an order on 7th May as the fleet portal listed a provisional/generic delivery date of 30th June.
We had a text from Tesla (containing the RN number) confirming that an order had been received on 11th May.

In the four weeks since then, not a dicky bird. We'd ideally like to explore getting the car a few days before the end of the month if we can (booked holiday), but we've not heard from our previously helpful contact at Tesla Bristol in recent weeks. (Yes, I know, they're only salespeople, so I shouldn't be surprised.) And a number of emails to the Tesla delivery address went unanswered. I thought it was just "the Tesla way", but now I know why: the guy on the chat today said we HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN ASSIGNED A VEHICLE. I was also told to wait until we hear something from the fleet company, as Tesla will liaise with them - which is odd, as the fleet company indicated that Tesla would deal with us directly and we should let them know if we have any updates!

It's all rather frustrating, especially as the delay in getting this sorted (probably at my wife's employers' end) meant that we were clobbered by the effective killing of the grant (thank you, UK government!) and so the amount we'll paying per month has gone up a fair wee bit. (Not Tesla's fault.) And that because of a cock-up with the lease company (the fleet company swear they passed on a referral code), we've lost our free supercharger miles. (Again, not Tesla's fault, though they've ignored all requests to do anything about it.) And that because we already have an EV, we're not entitled to an OLEV grant for a second home charger (our pre-existing tethered type 1 is, obviously, not compatible with the M3) - and that, anyway, we've drawn a blank with *two* local installers, despite a load of phone calls and emails. They're no longer returning my calls or responding to my emails, so it looks like going to be charging the M3 via a granny lead plugged into the garage. (I think that could be described as sub-optimal, though kind souls on this forum have assured me it's safe.)

Again, not Tesla's fault, but none of this is adding to a seamless and positive experience...! I went in knowing that Tesla's customer service operation had all the reassurance and warmth of North Korea's, but even so, I didn't quite expect the wall of silence we've encountered, nor the delay in even assigning us a car. Call me cynical, but when one reads of people ordering their cars and getting information (and sometimes arranging the pickup) within a fortnight - fair play to them and, again, I know this is the exception that proves the rule; don't @ me - you'll understand why I'm starting to wonder if we'll even see the car this month...

Rant over. You may now go about your normal business.

 

[btc1k]

Sorry to hear you have experienced a load of hassle.

When you get the car, and hopefully you will, you will love it.

Sounds like most of your issues are with the lease company, I have read many reports about these fleet companies used by NHS et al being quite terrible.
There are LR's now on inventory, have you had any luck chasing the fleet co?

Finally getting your tesla will be worth it...

 

[DigbyChicken]

Thanks! I'll try dropping them a line.

Re the inventory, I specifically went for a bog-standard LR in white, thinking that it would be an easy match... Might as well have gone nuts!*

* Other than the price. Obviously.

 

[Mrklaw]

I thought you can have two chargers covered by The grant?

and although tesla can be ‘not optimal’ on the comms side, they’re not the only ones. With previous cars I’ll often not hear anything until the dealer wants to tell me. If you have a 12-16 week wait that can be frustrating. Tracking boats on forums isn’t only this place - we all do it because dealers don’t give regular updates on progress

 

[Alic01]

Two things to check straight away:

1. Do the lease company have a delivery hold date on the order, lots of talk about that on here, seems that if the lease company fill up a quarter they put a hold date on stringing you out to the next quarter, when you order they usually have a generic 12-14 week delivery time on their site so they use this to hold out your delivery. Other people have had success on here calling the lease people and saying there are cars available now and i want one, that has almost instantly got the ball rolling and people matched within days if not hours.

2. Ask Tesla on the chat if the Lease company has provided authorisation of authority for Tesla to discuss the order and delivery directly with you, if they have then Tesla will quite happily tell you what’s holding the match up, i find the online chat most helpful for this as the people who answer do seem to want to help. If you get an answer along the lines of speak to your lease company they dont have authorisation, even some more subtle responses that sound like stalling or avoiding the question will indicate they dont have authorisation to speak to you, they are just being as polite as possible about it.

If you sort number 1 with the lease company and confirm number 2 with Tesla, if authorisation isnt provided yet then chase your lease company for it and then you should see some pretty quick progress as they will likely match you to an inventory car straight away.

 

[DigbyChicken]

I thought you can have two chargers covered by The grant?

and although tesla can be ‘not optimal’ on the comms side, they’re not the only ones. With previous cars I’ll often not hear anything until the dealer wants to tell me. If you have a 12-16 week wait that can be frustrating. Tracking boats on forums isn’t only this place - we all do it because dealers don’t give regular updates on progress

Apparently - though I'm jiggered if I can find it now (sorry) - you need to have had two EVs at the same address ("concurrently") for six months...

Absolutely fair point about comparing Tesla to other carmakers - the one car we've bought from new in the last couple of decades was already in the showroom ("I want that one...!").

 

[DigbyChicken]

Two things to check straight away:

1. Do the lease company have a delivery hold date on the order, lots of talk about that on here, seems that if the lease company fill up a quarter they put a hold date on stringing you out to the next quarter, when you order they usually have a generic 12-14 week delivery time on their site so they use this to hold out your delivery. Other people have had success on here calling the lease people and saying there are cars available now and i want one, that has almost instantly got the ball rolling and people matched within days if not hours.

2. Ask Tesla on the chat if the Lease company has provided authorisation of authority for Tesla to discuss the order and delivery directly with you, if they have then Tesla will quite happily tell you what’s holding the match up, i find the online chat most helpful for this as the people who answer do seem to want to help. If you get an answer along the lines of speak to your lease company they dont have authorisation, even some more subtle responses that sound like stalling or avoiding the question will indicate they dont have authorisation to speak to you, they are just being as polite as possible about it.

If you sort number 1 with the lease company and confirm number 2 with Tesla, if authorisation isnt provided yet then chase your lease company for it and then you should see some pretty quick progress as they will likely match you to an inventory car straight away.

Thank you kindly! I will message the lease (fleet?) company and see what happens. And you may be onto something with point 2 - apart from repeating that no car has been assigned, the person was very reluctant to say anything and kept referring me back to the lease company...

 

[Somex]

I've just spoken to a Tesla peep via Chat and I think it's fair to say, if there's an opposite of post-purchase confirmation bias, I'm currently experiencing it.

(I thought I'd start a little thread, partly because what I'm going to say covers a number of topics - ordering, leasing, charger installation, etc. - and partly because I don't necessarily expect a response from anyone. Maybe I just need a space where I can vent safely and then get on with the rest of my life...!)

Key dates:
We pulled the trigger on our NHS salary sacrifice lease on 30th March.
Because of delays beyond our control, the fleet company placed the order on 22nd April.
It appears the lease company finally placed an order on 7th May as the fleet portal listed a provisional/generic delivery date of 30th June.
We had a text from Tesla (containing the RN number) confirming that an order had been received on 11th May.

In the four weeks since then, not a dicky bird. We'd ideally like to explore getting the car a few days before the end of the month if we can (booked holiday), but we've not heard from our previously helpful contact at Tesla Bristol in recent weeks. (Yes, I know, they're only salespeople, so I shouldn't be surprised.) And a number of emails to the Tesla delivery address went unanswered. I thought it was just "the Tesla way", but now I know why: the guy on the chat today said we HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN ASSIGNED A VEHICLE. I was also told to wait until we hear something from the fleet company, as Tesla will liaise with them - which is odd, as the fleet company indicated that Tesla would deal with us directly and we should let them know if we have any updates!

It's all rather frustrating, especially as the delay in getting this sorted (probably at my wife's employers' end) meant that we were clobbered by the effective killing of the grant (thank you, UK government!) and so the amount we'll paying per month has gone up a fair wee bit. (Not Tesla's fault.) And that because of a cock-up with the lease company (the fleet company swear they passed on a referral code), we've lost our free supercharger miles. (Again, not Tesla's fault, though they've ignored all requests to do anything about it.) And that because we already have an EV, we're not entitled to an OLEV grant for a second home charger (our pre-existing tethered type 1 is, obviously, not compatible with the M3) - and that, anyway, we've drawn a blank with *two* local installers, despite a load of phone calls and emails. They're no longer returning my calls or responding to my emails, so it looks like going to be charging the M3 via a granny lead plugged into the garage. (I think that could be described as sub-optimal, though kind souls on this forum have assured me it's safe.)

Again, not Tesla's fault, but none of this is adding to a seamless and positive experience...! I went in knowing that Tesla's customer service operation had all the reassurance and warmth of North Korea's, but even so, I didn't quite expect the wall of silence we've encountered, nor the delay in even assigning us a car. Call me cynical, but when one reads of people ordering their cars and getting information (and sometimes arranging the pickup) within a fortnight - fair play to them and, again, I know this is the exception that proves the rule; don't @ me - you'll understand why I'm starting to wonder if we'll even see the car this month...

Rant over. You may now go about your normal business.

Lots of issues, lots of sympathy from me.
My experience is that I have NEVER had a reply to any email I have sent to Tesla, for me, that's the Tesla way.
Sorry you fell foul of the unexpected government changes to EV grants, as you rightly say that's not Tesla fault.
AFA assigning a vehicle goes, Tesla load a boatload of vehicles to ship to destinations, en route/on offloading, vehicles are matched to orders, so thats Probably what was meant, Tesla haven't matched your order to a vehicle (yet) there might be lots of vehicles on the boat that match your spec.
I thought you could you can claim charger grant on a second EV (2 EV's 2 grants, 2 chargers) perhaps I'm mistaken there? OR you can easily change the tethered type 1 cable from your existing charger to a tethered type 2, it's only a matter of 4 wires. If you can wire a plug, you can change the tethered cable.
The people who get cars quickly (I got mine in less than 10 days start to finish) are those who order from inventory towards the end of a quarter.
special orders are not always available this way. Pick a car that's in UK or a few days from being landed in UK and you should be OK (sorry that doesn't help you)
Apart from that, don't expect Tesla to tell you much you don't have to repeatedly pester them for, apart from how much to pay them and when to pay them, for me that's also the Tesla way.
You should really enjoy the car when you finally get it, but for me it's left a very bad taste about how Tesla (mis)treat their customers.
As you can tell, I do NOT like the Tesla way at all.

 

[Dilly]

Can’t help with lease matters, we purchased outright.
wife bought a PHEV in 2017 and for an OLEV grant for her Zappi. I bought an EV in 2018 and got the OLEV grant for my Zappi.
The rules may have changed since then, but there was no issue getting the second grant at that time.
You’ll love the LR!

 

[DigbyChicken]

Lots of issues, lots of sympathy from me.
My experience is that I have NEVER had a reply to any email I have sent to Tesla, for me, that's the Tesla way.
Sorry you fell foul of the unexpected government changes to EV grants, as you rightly say that's not Tesla fault.
AFA assigning a vehicle goes, Tesla load a boatload of vehicles to ship to destinations, en route/on offloading, vehicles are matched to orders, so thats Probably what was meant, Tesla haven't matched your order to a vehicle (yet) there might be lots of vehicles on the boat that match your spec.
I thought you could you can claim charger grant on a second EV (2 EV's 2 grants, 2 chargers) perhaps I'm mistaken there? OR you can easily change the tethered type 1 cable from your existing charger to a tethered type 2, it's only a matter of 4 wires. If you can wire a plug, you can change the tethered cable.
The people who get cars quickly (I got mine in less than 10 days start to finish) are those who order from inventory towards the end of a quarter.
special orders are not always available this way. Pick a car that's in UK or a few days from being landed in UK and you should be OK (sorry that doesn't help you)
Apart from that, don't expect Tesla to tell you much you don't have to repeatedly pester them for, apart from how much to pay them and when to pay them, for me that's also the Tesla way.
You should really enjoy the car when you finally get it, but for me it's left a very bad taste about how Tesla (mis)treat their customers.
As you can tell, I do NOT like the Tesla way at all.

See above for my (cautious? unfounded?) revelation about two chargers at one address.

Yes, I have pondered just replacing the tethered cable - I've built my own PCs and have installed smart heating in our house without destroying anything, so I'm reasonably optimistic... However, it would then mean we couldn't charge the Leaf (not that we'll need to, very often), so I did wonder about swapping out the (Chargemaster/Polar/BP) unit for a socketed/untethered equivalent. But then I thought, well, if I'm going to do that... I'd like to upgrade from 16A/3.7kW to 32A/7kw. And suddenly you're in a whole new world of pain...

(Plus, our charger is at the front of the house, and in an ideal world, I'd like to charge the Tesla at the garage round the back - we live on a busy road directly between two Comprehensive schools and, let's just say, I'm wary of what might happen to a brand new Tesla only a few feet away from the pavement! But there's no direct feed to the garage - though we have a newish consumer unit and a 100amp fuse, the garage lights and sockets are actually part of (or even a spur off?!?) the ground floor socket ring main. And we have most of the (large, Victorian) house, and a concrete patio, between the CU and the garage...)

So, rather than buying a dry box, I've bought an "EV granny charger 13A weatherproof extension lead" from a certain supplier (not sure if I'm allowed to put a direct link into my post). I'll plug it into the garage, and I'm sure it will be fine until we work out if we need something else... (And I guess, if I *were* to change the cable on the charger at the front of the house, the Leaf could get juiced-up around the back...)

Anyway, thanks for all your comments, esp. on the Tesla way. I can (sometimes) see why they do what they do, but I think we can agree, it often makes for bitter customers (especially ironic as Tesla sees itself as a technology company rather than a car manufacturer).

 

[DigbyChicken]

Oh, and thanks for all the "You'll love the car!" comments. That is helpful!

I prodded the lease company and the next thing I know they're ringing the good lady doctor at work to say that a car has been allocated and that she/we will get a text shortly. I don't think these two events are directly linked as the timing would indicate everything was in hand anyway. (Also, I hope I'm not in the dog house as I didn't want anyone to disturb my wife at work...!) Apparently the lease company sounded quite miffed that I'd messaged them! Not quite sure why, as the last time we spoke to someone there we were told we'd hear from Tesla ourselves, and that we should keep *them* in the loop...

 

[Somex]

See above for my (cautious? unfounded?) revelation about two chargers at one address.

Yes, I have pondered just replacing the tethered cable - I've built my own PCs and have installed smart heating in our house without destroying anything, so I'm reasonably optimistic... However, it would then mean we couldn't charge the Leaf (not that we'll need to, very often), so I did wonder about swapping out the (Chargemaster/Polar/BP) unit for a socketed/untethered equivalent. But then I thought, well, if I'm going to do that... I'd like to upgrade from 16A/3.7kW to 32A/7kw. And suddenly you're in a whole new world of pain...

(Plus, our charger is at the front of the house, and in an ideal world, I'd like to charge the Tesla at the garage round the back - we live on a busy road directly between two Comprehensive schools and, let's just say, I'm wary of what might happen to a brand new Tesla only a few feet away from the pavement! But there's no direct feed to the garage - though we have a newish consumer unit and a 100amp fuse, the garage lights and sockets are actually part of (or even a spur off?!?) the ground floor socket ring main. And we have most of the (large, Victorian) house, and a concrete patio, between the CU and the garage...)

So, rather than buying a dry box, I've bought an "EV granny charger 13A weatherproof extension lead" from a certain supplier (not sure if I'm allowed to put a direct link into my post). I'll plug it into the garage, and I'm sure it will be fine until we work out if we need something else... (And I guess, if I *were* to change the cable on the charger at the front of the house, the Leaf could get juiced-up around the back...)

Anyway, thanks for all your comments, esp. on the Tesla way. I can (sometimes) see why they do what they do, but I think we can agree, it often makes for bitter customers (especially ironic as Tesla sees itself as a technology company rather than a car manufacturer).

Just as you can change lead from type 1 to type 2, you can often change tethered to untethered just as easily.
FWIW I did my last EVSE outside the grant system, I find a lot of grant installs work out far more expensive than buying your own charger and then getting a qualified installer to connect and certify

 

[Somex]

Oh, and thanks for all the "You'll love the car!" comments. That is helpful!

I prodded the lease company and the next thing I know they're ringing the good lady doctor at work to say that a car has been allocated and that she/we will get a text shortly. I don't think these two events are directly linked as the timing would indicate everything was in hand anyway. (Also, I hope I'm not in the dog house as I didn't want anyone to disturb my wife at work...!) Apparently the lease company sounded quite miffed that I'd messaged them! Not quite sure why, as the last time we spoke to someone there we were told we'd hear from Tesla ourselves, and that we should keep *them* in the loop...

At least you can see things appear to be progressing. Hang in there, the cars well worth the wait

 

[Dilly]

My Zappi’s are type 1 & 2. I bought adaptors for both should the cars be shifted round for any reason. They’ve come in handy a few times, especially when I painted the garage floor over three days!

 

[DigbyChicken]

See above for my (cautious? unfounded?) revelation about two chargers at one address.

Yes, I have pondered just replacing the tethered cable - I've built my own PCs and have installed smart heating in our house without destroying anything, so I'm reasonably optimistic... However, it would then mean we couldn't charge the Leaf (not that we'll need to, very often), so I did wonder about swapping out the (Chargemaster/Polar/BP) unit for a socketed/untethered equivalent. But then I thought, well, if I'm going to do that... I'd like to upgrade from 16A/3.7kW to 32A/7kw. And suddenly you're in a whole new world of pain...

(Plus, our charger is at the front of the house, and in an ideal world, I'd like to charge the Tesla at the garage round the back - we live on a busy road directly between two Comprehensive schools and, let's just say, I'm wary of what might happen to a brand new Tesla only a few feet away from the pavement! But there's no direct feed to the garage - though we have a newish consumer unit and a 100amp fuse, the garage lights and sockets are actually part of (or even a spur off?!?) the ground floor socket ring main. And we have most of the (large, Victorian) house, and a concrete patio, between the CU and the garage...)

So, rather than buying a dry box, I've bought an "EV granny charger 13A weatherproof extension lead" from a certain supplier (not sure if I'm allowed to put a direct link into my post). I'll plug it into the garage, and I'm sure it will be fine until we work out if we need something else... (And I guess, if I *were* to change the cable on the charger at the front of the house, the Leaf could get juiced-up around the back...)

Anyway, thanks for all your comments, esp. on the Tesla way. I can (sometimes) see why they do what they do, but I think we can agree, it often makes for bitter customers (especially ironic as Tesla sees itself as a technology company rather than a car manufacturer).

So, the weatherproof extension lead arrived from Toughleads yesterday, and I installed it this afternoon. Looks high quality and it wasn't hard to sort out (in fact, the only problem I had was with the ratty brickwork of the old garage - I had to use a couple of rawlplugs and screws, which is why the cable isn't as straight as I might like, but it is secure). Hopefully it'll do as a temporary fix for the M3 if/when it arrives, and I'm sure would be fine for the Leaf if I/we ever get the charger at the front of the house socketed or upgraded. Failing that, I can always plug the pressure washer in...!

 

[pgkevet]

....But then I thought, well, if I'm going to do that... I'd like to upgrade from 16A/3.7kW to 32A/7kw. And suddenly you're in a whole new world of pain...

... And we have most of the (large, Victorian) house, and a concrete patio, between the CU and the garage...)

Obviously it depends on your routing options but here the armoured cable to my barn (where S is kept) is through the utility room wall, up then under the soffit and round to the gable end top and across to the barn gable; cable-tied to a wire hawser. I needed the extra height clearance for heavy tack.

 

[Alistairuk]

Given that June is the end of one of the Tesla financial quarters, it's probably a safe bet that you'll have a car by the end of June (unless you've picked an odd specification).

As the others stated, you won't necessarily have a car allocated until it's already halfway across the Atlantic - just make sure the lease company hasn't specified a delivery date that falls in the next quarter that would stop you from being allocated.

 

[DigbyChicken]

Given that June is the end of one of the Tesla financial quarters, it's probably a safe bet that you'll have a car by the end of June (unless you've picked an odd specification).

As the others stated, you won't necessarily have a car allocated until it's already halfway across the Atlantic - just make sure the lease company hasn't specified a delivery date that falls in the next quarter that would stop you from being allocated.

I went for the most bog-standard LR I could think of and, because the delivery date the fleet company have been quoting since early May is 30th June, I had assumed the car would be on Hyperion Ray (final MIC UK delivery of Q2?), which docked a few days back. But still no texts or, apparently, assigned car! Still, only 2 1/2 weeks until the end of the month - I guess we'll know by then, one way or another...

 

[Alistairuk]

I went for the most bog-standard LR I could think of and, because the delivery date the fleet company have been quoting since early May is 30th June, I had assumed the car would be on Hyperion Ray (final MIC UK delivery of Q2?), which docked a few days back. But still no texts or, apparently, assigned car! Still, only 2 1/2 weeks until the end of the month - I guess we'll know by then, one way or another...

There’s a whole load showing as available inventory (which basically means it’s either arrived or is on its way to the UK) so pretty certain you’ll be matched soon (as long as lease company hasn’t messed it up)

 

[DigbyChicken]

There’s a whole load showing as available inventory (which basically means it’s either arrived or is on its way to the UK) so pretty certain you’ll be matched soon (as long as lease company hasn’t messed it up)

Yep, that seems to be about the size of it!