Tesla Blacklist

[HankLloydRight]

Im not sure if that would work...

How would they know it's you? Like I said, create a two member LLC -- "San Jose Turo Rentals, LLC" (or something like that).. with you and someone you trust. You can make the ownership split 99%/1%. Buy the cars for the LLC with the other person signing and taking delivery. The LLC then rents them out on TURO. Hold the cars for at least 6 months before the LLC sells them. In reality, you should be doing all of this under and LLC anyway to avoid personal liability if something goes wrong with a rental. You might have to pay a little more for rental insurance though.

 

[roblab]

Yea that’s the thing. They banned me for life and are not letting me appeal the decision or gave me a warning or anything.

Furthermore the Tesla dealership and rep and his manager knew exactly about the Turo thing and encouraged me to buy more cars and kept selling them to me. No one told me this would happen. Yes it’s my fault I didn’t read the fine print. :/

I think you knew what the "fine print" said and figured you'd do it anyway. I've lived a good long life watching people working the edges of what's wrong and then complaining when they get shut down, and you definitely fit the profile. And the same slime is on the dealers who figured you could buy more Teslas from them, whether right or wrong. Looks like you'll have to find another way to make money. I'd suggest education that would let you find a job in some good field, but it probably won't pay enough to interest you.

 

[swiftd03]

Im not sure if that would work...

Why not? I have bought cars through an LLC when I ran my own business, it was never my name on the title, only the company name,

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I think you knew what the "fine print" said and figured you'd do it anyway. I've lived a good long life watching people working the edges of what's wrong and then complaining when they get shut down, and you definitely fit the profile. And the same slime is on the dealers who figured you could buy more Teslas from them, whether right or wrong. Looks like you'll have to find another way to make money. I'd suggest education that would let you find a job in some good field, but it probably won't pay enough to interest you.

Is this really an edge case though?

To my knowledge the fine print doesn't explicitly state a length of time, miles or hours of usage.

It simply says that you can't buy the car with the intention of reselling or acting as a dealer.

If it stated a time then a Turo business owner would know what the boundary conditions were to stay outside of them. What was happening likely wasn't the intention of buying the cars, but the reality of the situation when so many people were willing to pay insane amounts for used vehicles.

 

[outdoors]

I think you knew what the "fine print" said and figured you'd do it anyway. I've lived a good long life watching people working the edges of what's wrong and then complaining when they get shut down, and you definitely fit the profile. And the same slime is on the dealers who figured you could buy more Teslas from them, whether right or wrong. Looks like you'll have to find another way to make money. I'd suggest education that would let you find a job in some good field, but it probably won't pay enough to interest you.

Wow you bring up someone's education you know nothing about. Use the word slime in the same paragraph. Surely in all your great years you could be nicer to someone trying to solve a problem. A problem you may not wish to help in, but really?

LLC. Preferably not same address etc as you have used before. Suggest seeking legal help as others have suggested. There are other risks you could be taking, but that is a different story.
You pay cash so credit shouldn't be an issue for new formed company.

 

[Rishabh0428]

Wow you bring up someone's education you know nothing about. Use the word slime in the same paragraph. Surely in all your great years you could be nicer to someone trying to solve a problem. A problem you may not wish to help in, but really?

LLC. Preferably not same address etc as you have used before. Suggest seeking legal help as others have suggested. There are other risks you could be taking, but that is a different story.
You pay cash so credit shouldn't be an issue for new formed company.

Man this roblab guy is harsh. Commenting on someone in a fourm he has no idea who that person is or what they do. He needs help. I hope he gets well soon.

@outdoors, thanks for the suggestion. I am gonna try it. Another person actually posted on FB they got banned too, so this seems to be like a more recent thing.

 

[Rishabh0428]

Has anyone else experienced this or know anyone else who has?

 

[NickInLab]

Is this really an edge case though?

To my knowledge the fine print doesn't explicitly state a length of time, miles or hours of usage.

It simply says that you can't buy the car with the intention of reselling or acting as a dealer.

If it stated a time then a Turo business owner would know what the boundary conditions were to stay outside of them. What was happening likely wasn't the intention of buying the cars, but the reality of the situation when so many people were willing to pay insane amounts for used vehicles.

Not really practical, unfortunately. The problem is that any published “n day & x miles” safe harbor policy will inevitably lead to people who intend to resell cars to hold cars for n+1 days after driving exactly x+1 miles. So it doesn’t stop unscrupulous dealers. Tesla does need to ensure that nobody “accidentally“ becomes a dealership because many states have laws that make it almost impossible to fire a dealership and/or apply different rules to automakers who have ever had a 3rd party dealership.

At the same time, Tesla would need to strictly enforce the n day policy to have any hope going after dealers. That itself poses a problem because it probably runs afoul of various “first sale” statutes.

The other thing (this probably makes me sound like a Tesla apologist) is that we are really only hearing one side of the story. OP initially withheld certain info that made his story more sympathetic (such as the fact that at least two cars were almost immediately resold)-I wonder what other pertinent info might have been left out.

 

[SilverString]

It seems like Tesla is pretty good at stating terms and conditions which put them in control to arbitrarily judge what they consider "edge" situations with no recourse to the buyer. This is no different than what happens on social media when Facebook or Twitter bans someone, is it? The fact of the matter is that corporations of all types are capable of this when selling goods or services, and they get to make the rules, and there is no remedy, legal or otherwise. Irritating to be sure, but any company other than public utilities can choose not to sell or provide service to anyone they choose for any reason. As it should be.

 

[StealthP3D]

I don't know the details but if the cars were being turned over quickly with low miles and being sold for thousands above the purchase price, well, then that's scalping. It's not illegal but it is against the purchase agreement that was signed with each new car purchased.

Ford let's their dealers do this and it adds $5K-$10K or even more to the price each new Mach-e. Tesla doesn't want to have dealerships marking up the prices so it's not surprising they shut down someone who fits that sales profile. I'm sure Tesla looks the other way if it's just one or two vehicles but if there is a long history or pattern of it, then, yeah, it looks like they are going to shut you down.

 

[jboy210]

I don't know the details but if the cars were being turned over quickly with low miles and being sold for thousands above the purchase price, well, then that's scalping. It's not illegal but it is against the purchase agreement that was signed with each new car purchased.

Ford let's their dealers do this and it adds $5K-$10K or even more to the price each new Mach-e. Tesla doesn't want to have dealerships marking up the prices so it's not surprising they shut down someone who fits that sales profile. I'm sure Tesla looks the other way if it's just one or two vehicles but if there is a long history or pattern of it, then, yeah, it looks like they are going to shut you down.

Good points. The part in the agreement section "No resellers, Discontinuation, Cancellation" that says Tesla is selling to end users is all that one needs to know about their viewpoint on the issue. Frankly, I applaud Tesla for focusing on the end-users of their vehicles.

 

[Unclepaul]

Perhaps it would have been better to discuss with Tesla directly regarding your business plan, and see if there was a way to structure it that would be satisfactory to them.

Tesla is not doing this because they don't want you to make money, but to protect themselves against state dealership regulations.

After making this post, it might not be a great idea to try to game the system by going around the stated Tesla policy. In the case of an LLC, showing this post to a Judge would not end up well for the OP.

 

[Voodoocar]

Why not? I have bought cars through an LLC when I ran my own business, it was never my name on the title, only the company name,

This won’t work tesla actually asks to see your relationship to the llc on the paperwork. I know a guy that just got banned as well who was also doing Turo and had 40 reservations cancelled. He sold two 2022 teslas once he realized Turo would not allow him to rent them because the vins were not in there database.

I would like to know the exact criteria they are using. I need to sell one to get my loan on the llc for the other one that they pulled financing on (TD bank). I asked Tesla if they were sure there would be no issues on my approved loan from same lender 3 weeks previous and they said not to worry I was all set. This happened to another friend two weeks previous. I have been using th car for 6 weeks

 

[swiftd03]

This won’t work tesla actually asks to see your relationship to the llc on the paperwork. I know a guy that just got banned as well who was also doing Turo and had 40 reservations cancelled. He sold two 2022 teslas once he realized Turo would not allow him to rent them because the vins were not in there database.

I would like to know the exact criteria they are using. I need to sell one to get my loan on the llc for the other one that they pulled financing on (TD bank). I asked Tesla if they were sure there would be no issues on my approved loan from same lender 3 weeks previous and they said not to worry I was all set. This happened to another friend two weeks previous. I have been using th car for 6 weeks

Any decent attorney would work around this for $350. The problem isn't that people are doing this, the problem is the scale in which people are doing this. If you own a company and are buying cars for use through the company I don't think Tesla is going to freak out about that. If you have 40 reservations at the same time then that is probably the issue. Consult with a decent attorney though, I am sure there are work arounds.

 

[MP3Mike]

I don't know the rules in California but in Oregon if you sell more than 5 cars in a year you are required to be a dealer:

You must have a valid Oregon car dealer certificate if you sell, display, offer for sale, trade, or exchange more than 5 motor vehicles in 1 calendar year.

Oregon Car Dealer Licensing Requirements | DMV.ORG

Auto dealer license requirements and regulations in Oregon. Learn about the procedures, forms, and fees associated with applying for a OR dealer license.

www.dmv.org

 

[HankLloydRight]

He sold two 2022 teslas once he realized Turo would not allow him to rent them because the vins were not in there database.

Sorry, that sounds like total BS. One email or call to Turo to update their VIN database for a new model year would take 5 minutes.

 

[Rishabh0428]

Tesla won’t listen. I’ve provided them proof of my Turo history, explanation on why I sold them and everything. What sucks is that’s it’s a lifelong ban.

 

[Rishabh0428]

Any decent attorney would work around this for $350. The problem isn't that people are doing this, the problem is the scale in which people are doing this. If you own a company and are buying cars for use through the company I don't think Tesla is going to freak out about that. If you have 40 reservations at the same time then that is probably the issue. Consult with a decent attorney though, I am sure there are work arounds.

Attorney would cost a fortune

 

[swiftd03]

Attorney would cost a fortune

Have you contacted any attorneys on the matter?

 

[swiftd03]

Sorry, that sounds like total BS. One email or call to Turo to update their VIN database for a new model year would take 5 minutes.

I tend to agree with this, Turo wants your money and isn't going to turn away a car from being listed on their platform because a new model year rolled out and they didn't have it in their system yet. I was quoting insurance for my 22 model Tesla and State Farm did not have the 22 in their system yet. The agent hung up the phone, called their support line who had pricing by the end of the day and had the 22 model Y in their system the very next day.