Tesla Cancelled My Order - Am I right to be upset?

[FirstInTown]

Atleast you got 6 days. I've had a M X on order since 1/10/2021. Got a text on a Saturday at end of March 2022 saying 'schedule delivery'. Was working, like Elon, 18 hours a day engineering in a factory at the time, no time to think about getting financing and the like in short notice. I have real work to do after all.

26 hours after the first text, on Sunday afternoon, I got one that said, 'no reply, so you you lost this one and will get back to you later'. EDD, which was still 3 months out before this, went to TBD.

Very sour on the whole thing, It had been 15 months since order placed and I was given 26 hours on a Saturday into Sunday while busting ass working to think about this and NOPE, you are too slow.

Man, I can't wait for real competition, then being treated like this would be a no-go.

 

[Hiline]

Atleast you got 6 days. I've had a M X on order since 1/10/2021. Got a text on a Saturday at end of March 2022 saying 'schedule delivery'. Was working, like Elon, 18 hours a day engineering in a factory at the time, no time to think about getting financing and the like in short notice. I have real work to do after all.

26 hours after the first text, on Sunday afternoon, I got one that said, 'no reply, so you you lost this one and will get back to you later'. EDD, which was still 3 months out before this, went to TBD.

Very sour on the whole thing, It had been 15 months since order placed and I was given 26 hours on a Saturday into Sunday while busting ass working to think about this and NOPE, you are too slow.

Man, I can't wait for real competition, then being treated like this would be a no-go.

This may be a consequence of their dealership-free distribution model. They don’t have space at the service center to hold your car for too long especially when the order and production volume is high. Dealerships, annoying as they are, do have a lot of space in their yard and can hold their inventory for months.

 

[Proppilot]

Other than going down to a tesla location (where they are unlikely to do anything, but you never know), or tweeting at elon (which for a "I cant buy my car at the old price because I pushed it off once, then was not available the second time" reason is unlikely to get a response... no, there is no other escalation path we are aware of.

I have had success connecting with higher positioned people in Tesla via LinkedIN and getting action. This is a very effective channel.

 

[Frank Langella]

While they likely would not have kept your car they likely would have given you another one much sooner and you would have kept your original price and not had to start over again.

Would they have? I thought it was two strikes and you're out? He declined the first car, this was his second.

 

[jjrandorin]

Would they have? I thought it was two strikes and you're out? He declined the first car, this was his second.

Thats what ended up being communicated. The OP in later posts stated they had already declined one appointment. That would be why it was "cancelled order" vs "back in the queue". Reasons for canceling the first delivery are immaterial from tesla's point of view, its just "you canceled delivery".

 

[Hiline]

Thats what ended up being communicated. The OP in later posts stated they had already declined one appointment. That would be why it was "cancelled order" vs "back in the queue". Reasons for canceling the first delivery are immaterial from tesla's point of view, its just "you canceled delivery".

I think this is also a learning experience for all of us. EDD is what it is supposed to be - an estimate, without any guarantee of accuracy. You might get your car the day after you order or a year after, despite what your EDD states; extreme events are unlikely, but not impossible. You need to be ready to take delivery any time after ordering. Tesla may bend the rules the first time you can't take delivery, but they won't cut you any slack the second time around.

 

[tm1v2]

This may be a consequence of their dealership-free distribution model. They don’t have space at the service center to hold your car for too long especially when the order and production volume is high. Dealerships, annoying as they are, do have a lot of space in their yard and can hold their inventory for months.

@Hiline No dealer is going to hold onto a car you ordered for months just for you.

The situation with dealers is not necessarily any better, just bad in slightly different ways. My friend custom-ordered a car via a dealer and ultimately had to give up on buying it. Thankfully another very similarly-spec'd car arrived on the same boat and went to a different dealer - further away, but still within a reasonable drive - who was actually interested in selling him the car. Then when he had a minor new car issue with it, he had to go for a long drive out to that further away dealer, because the close in dealer wouldn't help with a car they didn't sell.

The Tesla order/delivery situation definitely sucks in some ways but with everything I hear about dealers lately, on both sales and service sides, I'm very very glad to be avoiding dealerships.

 

[tm1v2]

I ordered my M3 in September.
I did defer delivery 3/2 because the delivery date jumped up suddenly and I wasn't ready financially. 3/17 I said I was ready.
New projected delivery date was more than a month out.
3/22 I went on vacation to Big Bend National Park for a week and disconnected from technology.

@MrTanner I have to say, this does seem mostly on you. @jjrandorin has some sharp instincts on this stuff. You took your order off hold then 5 days later went on a week long vacation without any connectivity. Taking it off hold means you're ready...I think the wording around it is pretty clear. Since you weren't going to be ready, you needed to put it on hold, or at least let a local Sales Advisor know so they could assist or guide you in handling the situation.

I'm definitely sympathetic to the issue of Tesla taking an indeterminate amount of time then demanding immediate action/acceptance. But you chose to remove the hold before your connectivity-free vacation and - I assume - without communicating the vacation to a Sales Advisor.

 

[thill444]

Most dealers (any other brand) are not going to hold a vehicle for very long either, not based on the current lack of inventory for new cars. The difference though is most people put down $250 to order a Tesla. Many other brands/dealers require a larger deposit when ordering a custom car (this varies from dealer to dealer). Most dealers also will state what the charge will be per day if they store/hold a car for you. It's typically like $25-50 per day.

Yes Tesla is a little pushy and somewhat inflexible, but communication is a two way street. Once you get the VIN you really need to be on top of things, whether it be insurance, financing, or delivery pickup.