Many of you know me from this thread: Yellow screen? Force Tesla to Replace it!. In the thread I state very clearly and factually the process I went though to get Tesla to replace my yellowing Model S screen. Nothing I posted was covered under any NDAs. I simply wanted to make sure everyone was aware what the NCDS process looked like as an option to combat warranty denials over the screen. The NCDS procedure I documented there has been invaluable to many customers both on these forums and off.
It turns out, Tesla has banned me from purchasing another vehicle for posting online.
How I found out:
Several months after the yellow screen incident, I contacted the lawyer from Tesla I had been working with.(I will not state his name here, others have stated it in the linked thread) The Model S had a worsening problem with reduced battery life. Averaging ~330KW/h we were only getting about 70-80% of what we should have. On a full 100% charge we would get somewhere in the range of 170-200 miles.
The service centers would not acknowledge the problem. In fact, I could not even get them to write up a service ticket. So, I went to the lawyer at Tesla. I informed him of the problem, and he referred it to an internal engineering department. I was contacted back a couple weeks later (after having to prod for a response)
The engineer informed me that I had an API requesting tool (TeslaFi) constantly hitting my car, and that was the reason for reduced capacity. He recommended changing my password to block the API requests. I thought this sounded odd, but figured it did not hurt to try.
This did not make a difference. I reached back out to the lawyer and got a response of "What do you want me to do?". I informed him I just wanted it fixed. The response I got back was asking me if I wanted to just do a buyback on the vehicle. At first, I baulked at this. I really did love that car, aside from the screen issue (which was ultimately fixed), and now the battery problem.
Ultimately, I decided that this was a good idea. It would allow me to get out of the battery problem, and get a brand new Model S Performance. The offer was at $68,024.75. This is 60-70% over KBB value, it was calculated by the the full price I paid including taxes, fees, etc ($99,563.63) - mileage deduction (-$31,538.88 calculated as $96750 x 39,118miles/120,000).
We placed a deposit on a brand new Performance S to replace it with about two weeks before we had to surrender the car to the Burlingame service center. The day after we provided the car to them and signed all of the documentation we received a phone call from the sales manager at Burlingame. I was told that they would refuse to sell me another vehicle and he refused to provide any more information and simply cancelled the order.
I emailed the lawyer, sure that this was a mistake. I thought that maybe the manager saw there was a buyback and decided that I should not buy another vehicle. The response I got back from Telsa's lawyer was:
"
We aren’t obligated to sell you a car and we don’t believe selling you another car is in either of our interests. You’ve been repeatedly frustrated despite our best efforts and we are not inclined to continue doing business with someone we don’t believe we can satisfy such that they resort to threats repeatedly and/or disparaging us publicly. You ought to consider another EV or other vehicle and perhaps you’ll have a better relationship with their service team. "
This came as quite a shock. I can only assume that the "threats" he was referring to was being willing to file another arbitration case to get the battery issues fixed and that the "disparaging" them publicly was the yellow screen NCDS thread.
During the process, he said they hoped I would go with a different manufacturer for my next vehicle, but never said I could not purchase from them. It turns out, the "hope" was more of a "it will not be possible to buy another vehicle from us".
I tried a few more times to place the order, but it was always ultimately cancelled. We finally gave up on trying to purchase another Tesla, and opted to place an order for a Porsche Taycan.
After this situation I reached out to a few contacts and found that I am not the only one that Tesla has banned for having arbitration / lemon claims. I can't speak for those other (former) owners but It seems that this is a strategy that Tesla legal employs with at least some regular cadence.
I've attached the buy-back paperwork for my vehicle (VIN: 5YJSA1E14HF193196) for any that would like to see what it looks like
It turns out, Tesla has banned me from purchasing another vehicle for posting online.
How I found out:
Several months after the yellow screen incident, I contacted the lawyer from Tesla I had been working with.(I will not state his name here, others have stated it in the linked thread) The Model S had a worsening problem with reduced battery life. Averaging ~330KW/h we were only getting about 70-80% of what we should have. On a full 100% charge we would get somewhere in the range of 170-200 miles.
The service centers would not acknowledge the problem. In fact, I could not even get them to write up a service ticket. So, I went to the lawyer at Tesla. I informed him of the problem, and he referred it to an internal engineering department. I was contacted back a couple weeks later (after having to prod for a response)
The engineer informed me that I had an API requesting tool (TeslaFi) constantly hitting my car, and that was the reason for reduced capacity. He recommended changing my password to block the API requests. I thought this sounded odd, but figured it did not hurt to try.
This did not make a difference. I reached back out to the lawyer and got a response of "What do you want me to do?". I informed him I just wanted it fixed. The response I got back was asking me if I wanted to just do a buyback on the vehicle. At first, I baulked at this. I really did love that car, aside from the screen issue (which was ultimately fixed), and now the battery problem.
Ultimately, I decided that this was a good idea. It would allow me to get out of the battery problem, and get a brand new Model S Performance. The offer was at $68,024.75. This is 60-70% over KBB value, it was calculated by the the full price I paid including taxes, fees, etc ($99,563.63) - mileage deduction (-$31,538.88 calculated as $96750 x 39,118miles/120,000).
We placed a deposit on a brand new Performance S to replace it with about two weeks before we had to surrender the car to the Burlingame service center. The day after we provided the car to them and signed all of the documentation we received a phone call from the sales manager at Burlingame. I was told that they would refuse to sell me another vehicle and he refused to provide any more information and simply cancelled the order.
I emailed the lawyer, sure that this was a mistake. I thought that maybe the manager saw there was a buyback and decided that I should not buy another vehicle. The response I got back from Telsa's lawyer was:
"
We aren’t obligated to sell you a car and we don’t believe selling you another car is in either of our interests. You’ve been repeatedly frustrated despite our best efforts and we are not inclined to continue doing business with someone we don’t believe we can satisfy such that they resort to threats repeatedly and/or disparaging us publicly. You ought to consider another EV or other vehicle and perhaps you’ll have a better relationship with their service team. "
This came as quite a shock. I can only assume that the "threats" he was referring to was being willing to file another arbitration case to get the battery issues fixed and that the "disparaging" them publicly was the yellow screen NCDS thread.
During the process, he said they hoped I would go with a different manufacturer for my next vehicle, but never said I could not purchase from them. It turns out, the "hope" was more of a "it will not be possible to buy another vehicle from us".
I tried a few more times to place the order, but it was always ultimately cancelled. We finally gave up on trying to purchase another Tesla, and opted to place an order for a Porsche Taycan.
After this situation I reached out to a few contacts and found that I am not the only one that Tesla has banned for having arbitration / lemon claims. I can't speak for those other (former) owners but It seems that this is a strategy that Tesla legal employs with at least some regular cadence.
I've attached the buy-back paperwork for my vehicle (VIN: 5YJSA1E14HF193196) for any that would like to see what it looks like
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