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Tesla Can't Correct MVPA Typos?

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Tesla finally delivered us our MVPA paperwork yesterday. I'm reading through it and I notice this gem:

"Price of motor vehicle and accessories does not include local taxes or government fees. Please refer to your Motor Vehicle Purchase Agreement (MVPA) for your full amount owed. Pricing is only valid until February 18, 2013."

However, the paperwork was prepared February 20th, 2013. This means that the pricing on the MVPA (which is supposed to be binding) was not valid the moment it was sent.

I emailed Tesla at [email protected] and got a response today. It was from their "HQ Product Specialist--Team Lead" and it basically amounted to "this email confirms the pricing in your MVPA"

Here's my issue: the MVPA is supposed to be a legal contract, a binding business agreement. The email that confirms my pricing is well...not. I sent back an email asking for some revised paperwork to sign, but it seems like the dates are auto-generated in the paperwork based on our price deadline (and I'm given the impression that they can't change it).

Am I the only one who is bothered by having to sign a document which has an obvious known error, and is only backed up by an email? Any suggestions?
 
Isn't it standard to make any corrections by hand, and initial and date ... and then sign? I've done that on multiple contracts, whether a date or amount or whatever needs to be fixed.

Unfortunately not something I can do on the electronic document.

Here's the additional problem - this is the response I got when I asked for revised paperwork (copied and pasted from the email):

This email confirms that the pricing in the pre-motor vehicle purchase agreement sent to you on 2/20 is valid, as long as that is signed by the end of the day tomorrow, 2/22.

I'm also not a big fan of what feels like high-pressure sales.
 
I just missed running into the same problem. Finalized on the 18th, and the 21st (today) was my price deadline. Yesterday I called to find out what happens if they don't get me the MVPA in time, and was told not to worry about it. Got the MVPA late afternoon today and signed and got it countersigned, so I didn't run into the price increase.

I'd be nervous about the MVPA having the wrong price - the MVPA contains an "Entire Agreement" clause on page 5 that would seem to make a separate email iffy.

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Unfortunately not something I can do on the electronic document.

If I remember correctly you can physically sign and send via fax or email.
 
My final MVPA still showed 2012 for the model year, even though my VIN wasn't issued until 2013, it contains a 'D' (2013) for the year digit, and the car didn't enter production until 2013. I inquired about it and they had a corrected MVPA to me in a couple of days.
 
Isn't that stretching it a bit? You put down $5k, selected a 100% custom configuration and then signed a binding pre MVPA (basically forfeiting your claim to the $5k and making a commitment to purchase the vehicle), which Tesla then built to your specs, likely making every effort to deliver it in the most timely fashion possible, and only NOW it feels like sale? You already committed and Tesla already built exactly what you asked for... I think from their point of view the sale is done and its time to sign. The purchasing process for this vehicle does not strike me as the kind of deal where you sit around hemming and hawing and thinking things over after they have already built YOUR car.

Lol. +1
 
Hmm. I had assumed, with all the talk of price deadlines, that he was talking about the pre-mvpa (in which case no car was built yet).

That wasn't the impression I got, but looking at his posts he finalized on the 17th so the deadline of the 22nd is to retain the 2012 pricing. Apologies to you gray for being so harsh. Even so, I don't feel that it's unfair or high-pressure to ask people to finalize for that reason, and it seems like a lot of people are backing out because the car is coming sooner than they expected.
 
Pre-MVPA would have been more accurate. That is something I should have been careful to specify. We did configuration when we stopped by the Tesla store the weekend of the 16th. We didn't get any kind of documentation until the 20th.

I think I'm not asking for a lot when I ask that legal contracts that I have to sign (and contain language that they are the complete and only agreement to a transaction) be fully correct before I sign them. If they had simply redone my paperwork with the dates corrected, we would have e-doc signed them immediately. However, that is not what happened - we just keep getting "just trust us" type emails when the contract itself states that:

This Agreement contains the entire agreement between the parties, and no other agreement for the purchase of the Vehicle has been entered into. Prior oral statements, negotiations, communications or representations about the Vehicle sold under this Agreement are superseded by this Agreement.

Honestly, is a complete,correct contract without glaring typos that much to ask for when I'm being put on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars?

When I refer to pressure in this sales situation, I mean to say that I don't like the coercion to sign a contract with known errors (through no fault of mine whatsoever) with a "just trust us" line from the seller with the implied message that if I don't sign, I will be hit with the price increase.
 
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well, you guys should consider yourself lucky as the English version is quite ok. If you look at other versions like for example the German it has a lot more errors in there. I'm not even talking about web site translations and newsletter emails which are usually quite horribly translated.
I guess it is a sign of the time that this is not being considered that important anymore.
 
This is only my opinion.... If you have read my other posts and disagree with me there please do not read this one.


Tesla has a problem on the business side. The Apple "this is the price, order it, pay for it and do not ask questions" approach is not going to work well on $50K to $100K capital transactions. And before I get blasted, yes, I have discussed this in detail with Tesla.

There is no "Sales Manager" like there is at a franchised dealer with the authority to make decisions and get deals done. The inability or unwillingness to correct simple paperwork mistakes is but one small symptom of a larger problem.

Lastly, before anyone misreads this a defending the Dealer model or singing the praises of the Sales Manager, I AM NOT DOING EITHER. I think Tesla is on to something with thier delivery model. They are just missing a key element and the lack of this capability will hinder forward progress as they move from early adopter fans that will put up with a lot to the "normal" car buying public that will require more attention to business details.



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It will become important when it affects Telsa sales or bites them in the butt.
 
There is no "Sales Manager" like there is at a franchised dealer with the authority to make decisions and get deals done. The inability or unwillingness to correct simple paperwork mistakes is but one small symptom of a larger problem.

This is just my experience, but Tesla was quite able and willing to quickly correct a simple paperwork mistake on my final MVPA. Also, they worked closely with me to provide an MVPA that didn't show the deposit so I wouldn't have any issues getting a check for the full 100% amount from my bank. Finally, they got me a check back for my deposit amount after I paid for the car in full with the bank check.

Tesla may not have Sale Managers, but their Product Specialists work extra hard to make sure everything is 100% with the sale. Again, in my experience.
 
This is just my experience, but Tesla was quite able and willing to quickly correct a simple paperwork mistake on my final MVPA. Also, they worked closely with me to provide an MVPA that didn't show the deposit so I wouldn't have any issues getting a check for the full 100% amount from my bank. Finally, they got me a check back for my deposit amount after I paid for the car in full with the bank check.

Tesla may not have Sale Managers, but their Product Specialists work extra hard to make sure everything is 100% with the sale. Again, in my experience.

I have had the same experience - 3 days prior to delivery, when talking to my DS about plates, he was able to correct the final MVPA to credit my choice of electric plates instead of the standard ones; the corrected MVPA was emailed to me within 2 hours and I had it back to them shortly afterwards.
 
This is only my opinion.... If you have read my other posts and disagree with me there please do not read this one.


Tesla has a problem on the business side. The Apple "this is the price, order it, pay for it and do not ask questions" approach is not going to work well on $50K to $100K capital transactions. And before I get blasted, yes, I have discussed this in detail with Tesla.




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It will become important when it affects Telsa sales or bites them in the butt.

What's to negotiate? As long as the cars are made to order there's no wiggle room in the price. Franchise dealer prices fluctuate based on a ton of variables that simply don't exist in Teslas sales model... adding more variables doesn't sound like a good thing to me.

I strongly dislike the standard car purchasing process, and so does every single person I've ever discussed it with... literally. Haggling is only fun if you're good at it, and the majority of people are not.
 
Haggling also only works if the customer has options for buying the car at another dealer which isn't the case with Tesla.

I agree that if Tesla can fix the MPVA when issues arise, I don't see the need for a sales manager in the dealership model.
 
As far as I know, the sales manager is only there so that the salesperson can use him as a haggling resource, "I'll have to check with the manager". They don't have any public-facing function. Tesla is far better off without them.
 
Isn't it standard to make any corrections by hand, and initial and date ... and then sign? I've done that on multiple contracts, whether a date or amount or whatever needs to be fixed.

When I had two errors on my MVPA , the outcome was very much as you described, Bonnie.

I live in an area where there are some odd tax districts. My original MVPA included a regional tax that did not apply to me, but it would apply to someone who lives 1/4 mile down the road. I called my contact at Tesla and informed him that I was not subject to that particular tax and followed up with an e-mail showing the links to government website that defines the taxable districts. (I think that they have a permanent fix for this situation now.) Also, I mentioned that I had specified gloss obeche but it showed matte obeche on my MVPA. (This was very early on during the transition from configuring by phone and configuring on the website.)

Tesla verified the tax situation and sent me a new MVPA a couple of days later. The new MVPA had corrected the tax by eliminating it, but it still showed "matte" instead of "gloss" for my interior. My on-line configuration showed "gloss" but my MVPA did not reflect that. So, I printed out the MVPA, crossed out "matte" and inserted "gloss", initialed it, dated it and then signed the rest of the MVPA and faxed it back to Tesla. I got back a copy of my faxed MVPA with counter signatures next to mine regarding the correction via e-mail a few days after that.

It seemed like a routine method of correcting a document to me and it worked out fine.
I just made sure that I had a correct signed and initialed copy in hand in the end.
 
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