Super Charging Privileges Suspended [purchased a used tesla -not resolved after multiple efforts]

[Sunny5280]

I just received an e-mail stating that I owe Tesla $17.10 for Super Charging. I have not yet used Super Charging services since buying my car so I assume this was a prior balance which is tied to the car itself. Since I did not incur this charge I do not feel that I should have to pay. I will contact Tesla to see about having this charge removed. but wanted to check with the forums to see if anyone has any suggestions on how to approach it. It's not a large amount but since I didn't incur the cost I don't feel obligated to pay it.

Thoughts?

 

[WhiteWi]

Did you buy used Tesla from Tesla if so go where you got it and tell them about it.

 

[Sunny5280]

Did you buy used Tesla from Tesla if so go where you got it and tell them about it.

I purchased it from a non-Tesla dealer. I spoke with Tesla customer service and explained the situation to them. They said it was no problem and that they would waive the fee.

 

[WhiteWi]

Awesome. Glad to hear that they fixed it for you!

 

[Sunny5280]

Update: Well, very disappointed with Tesla on this matter. After waiting two weeks for the fee to be waived I had to call them back and check on the status. Apparently the request has to be sent to their customer satisfaction team (ironically a team which the customer cannot contact directly) and it never was. OK, things happen and the representative told me he would send it over for their review. I said fine and that I would call back on Monday to see what the status was. As I called them late Friday afternoon he said there probably wouldn't be a status on Monday. I informed him that was fine but I had already waited two weeks and no action had been done and therefore I was going to check on Monday to make sure it was progressing.

The agent then offered to speak with the customer satisfaction team if I could hold on. Great! I was put on hold for a few minutes and he returned stating he had to talk the customer satisfaction representative into waiving the charge if I would send them a copy of the date / timestamped receipt for the cash down I put on the car. No problem, sent it over and thought everything was OK.

He then returned and said the customer satisfaction representative wanted some kind of proof that the withdrawal was for the purchase of the car. So I pulled out the sales paperwork and took a picture of it and sent it over to him. He looked at it and told me he needed something that showed the document was tied to the purchase of the car.

Well, here's where I lost it. I was furious. I explained to him that this was a whole lot of effort to waive a $17.10 fee. I felt like they were under the impression I was trying to scam them. This from the Customer Satisfaction. I told them to F-it and that I would just pay the $17.10 charge and promised to tell anyone who would listen how Tesla sucks when it comes to treater their customers well.

So here I am...telling the forum that I love the car but Tesla as a company has treated me like a S***. Not cool.

 

[RayK]

<Sigh>... Sorry you got such a f'ed up response from a team which should be dedicated to making you happy. If, by any tiny miracle, one of those members is reading this thread, I'll say this: A small amount of goodwill returns much more than that investment. You lost the chance to earn an amount of customer praise over a lousy $17.10 and a total runaround. At the very least, what would normally not even engender a social media comment (people tend to not post happy or anticipated outcomes to their problems), now may become a small s-storm.

My own dealings with Supercharger billing is actually in the opposite direction: I have never been billed for several transactions, once on the entire trip from my home in San Jose down to Disneyland and back in 2018. Both Southbound and Northbound stops at Kettleman City did not appear on my credit card. None of my three recharges at the Glendale Galleria also ever posted. But, checking my online account a few minutes ago, I downloaded the old statements and can see that the Southbound stop at Kettleman City and one of the Glendale charges (probably right before checking out of the motel to return home) are listed. But... there's a "CHARGING-NO_CHARGE" explanation in the Description field. Total including VAT is 0, other entries have what appear to be the correct dollar amounts. Status field says "PAID". I've never seen this until now. Earlier version of the online Supercharging record in my Tesla account listed the location, date/time and cost, with a pop-out breakdown of the account credit balance, the energy delivered and the credit remaining, and sometimes it did not even have a record of the session that I knew had occurred. I was not eligible for any free Supercharging. My car was a couple of months old at that time and I never had any referrals. Never had a credit card dispute. Billing never missed a session before, but now has several times after that trip, albeit the latest being in July 2019. Back then I chalked it up to a glitch in the billing system; I don't know what to make of it now.

I guess all I'm saying is: hope you also are the recipient of this type of error and enjoy it (quietly).

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

And Tesla gains in the short term, but loses in the long term. Make sure to tell everyone how much they suck and you'd never buy one again.

 

[WhiteWi]

And Tesla gains in the short term, but loses in the long term. Make sure to tell everyone how much they suck and you'd never buy one again.

Really? I don’t think that what he said.

 

[jjrandorin]

Update: Well, very disappointed with Tesla on this matter. After waiting two weeks for the fee to be waived I had to call them back and check on the status. Apparently the request has to be sent to their customer satisfaction team (ironically a team which the customer cannot contact directly) and it never was. OK, things happen and the representative told me he would send it over for their review. I said fine and that I would call back on Monday to see what the status was. As I called them late Friday afternoon he said there probably wouldn't be a status on Monday. I informed him that was fine but I had already waited two weeks and no action had been done and therefore I was going to check on Monday to make sure it was progressing.

The agent then offered to speak with the customer satisfaction team if I could hold on. Great! I was put on hold for a few minutes and he returned stating he had to talk the customer satisfaction representative into waiving the charge if I would send them a copy of the date / timestamped receipt for the cash down I put on the car. No problem, sent it over and thought everything was OK.

He then returned and said the customer satisfaction representative wanted some kind of proof that the withdrawal was for the purchase of the car. So I pulled out the sales paperwork and took a picture of it and sent it over to him. He looked at it and told me he needed something that showed the document was tied to the purchase of the car.

Well, here's where I lost it. I was furious. I explained to him that this was a whole lot of effort to waive a $17.10 fee. I felt like they were under the impression I was trying to scam them. This from the Customer Satisfaction. I told them to F-it and that I would just pay the $17.10 charge and promised to tell anyone who would listen how Tesla sucks when it comes to treater their customers well.

So here I am...telling the forum that I love the car but Tesla as a company has treated me like a S***. Not cool.

I originally thought this was resolved, so added that to the thread title. After seeing this update, I see that its not actually resolved, so I removed that text from the thread title.

 

[Sunny5280]

<Sigh>... Sorry you got such a f'ed up response from a team which should be dedicated to making you happy. If, by any tiny miracle, one of those members is reading this thread, I'll say this: A small amount of goodwill returns much more than that investment. You lost the chance to earn an amount of customer praise over a lousy $17.10 and a total runaround. At the very least, what would normally not even engender a social media comment (people tend to not post happy or anticipated outcomes to their problems), now may become a small s-storm.

This is my thought. Even more so because I didn't incur this charge, someone else did without my knowledge and prior to my having purchased the car. I've always thought companies should shift a portion of their marketing dollars and make them available to cover goodwill expenses. Companies will spend millions, tens or hundreds of millions on advertising in an effort to gain new customers but then treat their existing customers with disdain.

What I found more problematic is the resistance was being driven by the Customer Satisfaction team. I assume, by their name, their job is to ensure customers are satisfied. In this case they did just the opposite. They made me feel like I was trying to pull a fast one on them. In fact I wasn't even asking for goodwill. I was expecting them to remove a charge someone else had incurred prior to my acquiring the car.

 

[Sunny5280]

I originally thought this was resolved, so added that to the thread title. After seeing this update, I see that its not actually resolved, so I removed that text from the thread title.

I noticed that. In a way it has been resolved. The difference is that Tesla didn't make it right, I just threw in the towel and paid the charge. I spent almost 90 minutes on the phone on this matter and to me $17.10 was no longer worth my time. I'm sure the pay rate of the Tesla people involved added up to more than the $17.10.

The lemonade out of this is that, despite my not having incurred the cost, I did benefit from the charge.

 

[WhiteWi]

I noticed that. In a way it has been resolved. The difference is that Tesla didn't make it right, I just threw in the towel and paid the charge. I spent almost 90 minutes on the phone on this matter and to me $17.10 was no longer worth my time. I'm sure the pay rate of the Tesla people involved added up to more than the $17.10.

The lemonade out of this is that, despite my not having incurred the cost, I did benefit from the charge.

Try to write a letter to one of the managers with your experience. They should know about it.

 

[jjrandorin]

I noticed that. In a way it has been resolved. The difference is that Tesla didn't make it right, I just threw in the towel and paid the charge. I spent almost 90 minutes on the phone on this matter and to me $17.10 was no longer worth my time. I'm sure the pay rate of the Tesla people involved added up to more than the $17.10.

The lemonade out of this is that, despite my not having incurred the cost, I did benefit from the charge.

I was actually "ok" with teslas actions in your story, up until they required more than one piece of proof a new car purchase by you. Like you, I think that asking for some kind of proof that you bought a new car was "ok" in this situation, but for the dollar amount in question, shouldnt have been necessary. After the multiple requests from them to you, however, that was totally out of bounds.

There obviously is a higher level of approval needed for even "mundane" good will type actions. in your case you didnt actually perform the charging, but most businesses have a sort of "good will" limit that an employee can approve, to stop exactly this kind of interaction from wasting a bunch of peoples time.

Its pretty sad that this $17.10 not only cost you that in money, but if you spent 90 minutes on it, I am going to go out on a limb and say you likely make more than $17.10 an hour, so at least 1.5 times that cost in your time (probably considerably more, because I doubt you actually only make $17.10 an hour).

In addition to your costs, it cost at least 2 different reps 15-20 minutes of time each while on the phone with you, and requesting all this information.

This is the proverbial "penny wise, pound foolish" type situation, because "saving" this $17.10 just cost them the good will of a new owner who should be excited about their new (to them) car purchase, yet now is sour on the experience, over a very small amount of money but "the principle of the matter" which is actually a LOT harder to fix, once damaged.

 

[WhiteWi]

Unfortunately to many employees don’t understand that their actions and interactions with customers effect Tesla as whole organization. Maybe batter training needed for workers who engage with public especially paying customers. To counter balance a little all my interactions with Tesla employees were positive and handled in professional manner.

 

[Sunny5280]

Try to write a letter to one of the managers with your experience. They should know about it.

I completed the after call survey stating my dissatisfaction. If anyone reads them then they'll know.

 

[Sunny5280]

Unfortunately to many employees don’t understand that their actions and interactions with customers effect Tesla as whole organization. Maybe batter training needed for workers who engage with public especially paying customers. To counter balance a little all my interactions with Tesla employees were positive and handled in professional manner.

My experience with the customer service representative I spoke with was very positive. It was the Customer Satisfaction team that was the problem. The individual I spoke with was very helpful, within his ability. He was friendly and helpful (he offered to "walk" the request through with the Customer Satisfaction team while I was on the phone so I wouldn't have to call back the following week). He even stated he was able to convince the Customer Satisfaction staff to waive the fee. Overall I was very pleased with him. Ironically it was the Customer Satisfaction team who ruined the experience.

 

[Sunny5280]

I was actually "ok" with teslas actions in your story, up until they required more than one piece of proof a new car purchase by you. Like you, I think that asking for some kind of proof that you bought a new car was "ok" in this situation, but for the dollar amount in question, shouldnt have been necessary. After the multiple requests from them to you, however, that was totally out of bounds.

I was fine with the request for the initial document as it was a matter of timing. The charge was incurred on the day I purchased the car. Specifically at 11:16 am. I didn't take delivery of the car until approximately 2:30 pm.

As part of the sale I had to obtain a cashiers check for the cash portion of the purchase (they wouldn't accept a personal check for such a large amount). The receipt I had for the bank withdrawl was timestamped 1:21 pm. However that was just a receipt for a withdrawl from my bank account, nothing to indicate it was part of the car purchase. They asked for, and I felt it reasonable, for something to show that amount was due to dealer. Which I provided. However they indicated that was insufficient and wanted something showing the VIN and the dollar amount on the same document. I have said document but by this time was fed up, told them to F-off, that I would pay for the charge and ensure everyone and anyone who would listen would hear about this poor customer experience.

And yes, I make considerably more than $17.10 / hr.

 

[WhiteWi]

I was fine with the request for the initial document as it was a matter of timing. The charge was incurred on the day I purchased the car. Specifically at 11:16 am. I didn't take delivery of the car until approximately 2:30 pm.

As part of the sale I had to obtain a cashiers check for the cash portion of the purchase (they wouldn't accept a personal check for such a large amount). The receipt I had for the bank withdrawl was timestamped 1:21 pm. However that was just a receipt for a withdrawl from my bank account, nothing to indicate it was part of the car purchase. They asked for, and I felt it reasonable, for something to show that amount was due to dealer. Which I provided. However they indicated that was insufficient and wanted something showing the VIN and the dollar amount on the same document. I have said document but by this time was fed up, told them to F-off, that I would pay for the charge and ensure everyone and anyone who would listen would hear about this poor customer experience.

And yes, I make considerably more than $17.10 / hr.

I would try to get the money back from the place you bought car from seems they charged it up for you before delivery.

 

[Sunny5280]

I would try to get the money back from the place you bought car from seems they charged it up for you before delivery.

They did but I don't believe they knew it was going to charge back to the car. Since they covered the cost of the 14-50 adapter (which wasn't part of the sale) I'm willing to let it slide with them.

 

[WhiteWi]

Got ya.