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.
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.