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Subpar Model 3 Delivery Experience in DFW

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carlosnunezhtx

Member
Jun 27, 2020
64
72
Houston, TX
#1
Hey, y'all! Here's another delivery experience post.

I decided to order a Model 3 last Friday after a very positive Model 3 rental on Turo. My experience has been...turbulent, to say the least. Here's a list describing what I've encountered so far. (I don't have the car yet.) Buying cars at dealerships have been significantly easier than this.
  • Thursday 6/18: Submitted a trade-in estimate for my 2016 RAM 1500 to determine financial feasibility. Negative equity was within my budget, decided to continue with the order.
  • Friday 6/19: Placed order for a Model 3 LR with 18" Aero wheels. Paid the $100 upfront. Applied for financing from Alliant Credit Union.
    Mistake #1: Didn't ask for enough money despite getting approved instantly for the MSRP of the car at 2.99%.
    Inconvenience #1: Tried to submit photos of my truck per the trade-in instructions. Was able to submit all photos except the rear of the truck. I thought the file was too big, so I uploaded a test photo instead. Accidentally submitted upon trying to replace it. There was no way to re-upload this photo. This bit me hard later.
  • Saturday 6/20: Assigned a VIN and a delivery date of Wednesday, 6/24.
    Inconvenience #2: No trade-in estimate provided yet. I found this odd given how the first estimate came back so quickly, but I shrugged it off.
  • Sunday 6/21: I'm assigned a Gallery Advisor (who's been nothing but awesome throughout all of this).
  • Monday 6/22: Asked for proof of insurance from an Operations Advisor. Added the car to my insurance policy (holy hell, this car is expensive to insure!) about 20 minutes later. Sent proof. Didn't hear from her for several days.
    My insurance policy renews at the end of July. Since Tesla needed proof at least 60 days of coverage, I had GEICO generate ID cards for the rest of my policy and for after my policy renewed. This, too, bit me later.
  • Monday 6/22: Called Alliant to update the amount requested. Approved same-day at 4.99%
    Inconvenience #3: Still don't have a trade-in estimate. No idea why. I could not get a MVPA without this, so I had to guess at the amount of financing I needed so that I wasn't held up by my credit union.
  • Tuesday 6/23: Called my Gallery Advisor. This is where Inconvenience #1 bit me. It turns out that they were missing a picture of the rear of the truck (expected). I resent it to him. Got a valuation within a few hours and a MVPA shortly thereafter. I'm sweating now since delivery day was supposed to be tomorrow (and I organized my calendar around this event).
  • Inconvenience #4: I found out from Alliant that the loan amount I requested exceeded 110% of the car's LTV. I had to get the loan amount and MVPA updated and pay the rest in cash.
  • Wednedsday 6/24: I meet my Delivery Specialist. This is where I learned that they needed to FedEx me a trade-in packet before we could proceed. Delivery specialist confirms that photos of the signed trade-in packet are sufficient. My frustration increases, since this could've been handled Tuesday had they told me about the missing photo then. Asked for an MVPA with the updated amount I requested. No response. Delivery date changed to Sunday 6/28 4PM. Frustration increases. Lots of back and forth with my Gallery Advisor; super helpful throughout.

    Called GEICO to extend my RAM's end date on my policy.
  • Thursday 6/25: Received the trade-in packet. Signed the document. Asked Delivery Specialist for confirmation that the signatures are correct before shipping. No repsonse at all. Landed up shipping the documents at around 6:30pm.
    Got the updated MVPA. Shipped it over to Alliant. Paid the remaining balance on MyTesla. I start receiving text messages from Texas Inside Delivery that they still needed the car to be paid. Learned that Tesla ran into trouble registering the car because they only gave TX DMV the first ID card. They asked for the second ID card again. Told them that I already gave it to them, but I gave it to them again.

    Lots of back and forth with my Gallery Advisor; super helpful throughout. He confirmed that the ID card was there the whole time. Frustration increases.
  • Friday 6/26: Trade-in packet received by Remarketing. Delivery Specialist tells me that she needed to wait 24 hours before clearing the packet. (The photos were a waste of time. Frustration increases.) Alliant confirmed that the funding was secured and wired over to Tesla. Asked my Gallery Advisor and my Delivery Specliast for a confirmation. Didn't get one.
    Inconvenience #5: Got a scary text from Texas Inside Delivery that my VIN would get reassigned if they didn't their payment...even though they did? Emailed Gallery Advisor, Delivery Specialist, and the email in the text ([email protected])
  • (today) Saturday 6/27: Got an email in the morning from another Delivery Specialist that they've received the financing and can continue with delivery. Got a call from my local Delivery Center that the car needs to be delivered, detailed, washed, etc. Delivery date moved to Monday 6/29 4PM. Frustration increases.

    Called Delivery Center later to ask them about the vehicle tags. Apparently they are still in request. Learned that this might further delay delivery due to a mistake on their part.     Frustration increases again. Confirmed that I can register a 72-hour temp tag online day of delivery if they're unable to secure the tags by then.

    Called GEICO again to change the end date again.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: KenC
#5
I think a lot of this has to do with the way Tesla needs to operate in Texas. I know I had a lot of back-and-forth with Tesla HQ, and my insurance agent, and Tesla local. Many times things I uploaded through the website were requested again via e-mail. And FedExing things back and forth. It was inconvenient, but ultimately if you stay on top of things it works out.
 
#6
Didn’t do a trade in as I didn’t want that to slow the process down. Weird, Alliant funded 100% at 4 years (paying off faster), maybe during this covid crisis, lenders are more weary of lending. Anyway, not sure if anything has changed since December but be prepared to get your license plates and registration in 3 months. They provided two paper temp plates (the second one is to extend it in case you haven’t received the permanent plates yet). Also be aware, at least in Plano, I was pulled over 3 times for having the paper plates in the rear view window. Apparently they have to be laminated and put in the plate location but Tesla taped it in my rear window.
 
#7
ouch, that is what I was worried about private lending. I did not trade in, got financed through tesla, waited 6 weeks until I saw the hidden vin online. Within 24 hours, they updated my account with a delivery days, following day they called and said it had to be the following day so they could detail it and set it up. Delivery day, walked into parking lot, accepted delivery on the phone, it unlocked car, signed papers and drove away. Painless.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: alloverx
#8
I can't edit my post, so I'll post my update here instead.

I picked up my Model 3 today! While the delivery center was still waiting on a temp plate and tags, I learned (thanks to TMC!) that I could buy and print a (non-reimburseable) 72-hour temp tag which would be enough to take delivery of the car. I had to speak to a Gallery Manager to clear this since no-one else would (delayed delivery by a day because of this).

Ironically, doing the swap was the easiest part of the entire process. It took 15 minutes.
 
#11
Roadrash said:
ouch, that is what I was worried about private lending. I did not trade in, got financed through tesla, waited 6 weeks until I saw the hidden vin online. Within 24 hours, they updated my account with a delivery days, following day they called and said it had to be the following day so they could detail it and set it up. Delivery day, walked into parking lot, accepted delivery on the phone, it unlocked car, signed papers and drove away. Painless.
Click to expand...
I think this is less about Private lending than it is about Texas's rules and how they have to deliver there. They need full payment upfront before doing anything else.

Private lending for me was
Getting MVPA
Providing it to my Credit Union
They paid off my trade in that was financed through them
Wrote me a check to give to Tesla
Deposited the extra amount for taxes and such in my checking (Delivery center is in a different state so they don't collect taxes there)
I drive up to the delivery center in my trade in, 30 min later after inspecting the car, I hand them a check, sign and drive home in my new car.

Was extremely painless. It pays to keep all your accounts at a good Credit Union. They always are competitive on rates also.
 
#13
Hello all...I just took delivery this past weekend (M3/LR/FSD), and I can say that my experience with tesla has been horrifying as well. Unlike some of the comments above, I feel a lot of it was Tesla's Nevada's way of handling issues, not the state laws... For the most part the ordering process would be quiet, then the inside specialist would drop these wacky email Bombs like what the op got...it was very jarring at times. I do not recommend buying a tesla.
 
  • Helpful
Reactions: cucubits
#14
Yup. The auto industry has a massive stranglehold on Texas, which sucks. It is definitely easier to buy a car from a dealership here where they take care of EVERYTHING (registration, financing, even plates at some) all in one place. Of course, that also means that you have to work with salespeople on commissions who might or might not do whatever it takes to get you to buy. (Tesla salespeople don't make commissions; they are given stock options instead.)
 
#15
Stickboy46 said:
I think this is less about Private lending than it is about Texas's rules and how they have to deliver there. They need full payment upfront before doing anything else.

Private lending for me was
Getting MVPA
Providing it to my Credit Union
They paid off my trade in that was financed through them
Wrote me a check to give to Tesla
Deposited the extra amount for taxes and such in my checking (Delivery center is in a different state so they don't collect taxes there)
I drive up to the delivery center in my trade in, 30 min later after inspecting the car, I hand them a check, sign and drive home in my new car.

Was extremely painless. It pays to keep all your accounts at a good Credit Union. They always are competitive on rates also.
Click to expand...

I originally wanted to use DATCU for my auto loan but Tesla doesn't support DATCU's loan structure. I might refinance with them since I really liked working with them.
 
#16
I'm picking up my M3 hopefully tomorrow and I'll say it's been pretty easy so far. I worked with UFCU here in Austin for financing (48 mos 2.15%) and it's been super easy. Yes, Texas has some weird laws to protect the dealers, but it is what it is. It's certainly not stopping Tesla buyers. Hopefully delivery goes smoothly as well.
 
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