On March 11th I placed a "refundable deposit" of $1,000 for a reservation on Tesla's new Model S Plaid Plus vehicle. This reservation was to secure my place in line for the production of my Plaid Plus vehicle in Fall of 2022.
On March 31st I changed the color of my vehicle, and the order was updated.
On June 6th, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced that the Plaid Plus version of Model S was cancelled. Despite this announcement, the company itself had no awareness of this cancellation happening. My order was also still available on the website, and was still fully accessible. Mr Musk has a proven history of telling lies about his company, despite fines and warnings from the Security Exchange Commission, on social media platforms, and so as a result, I kept my reservation.
On June 8th, I received a call from Tesla, asking if I would like to change my Plaid Plus reservation to a regular Plaid Model S. I declined this offer, and said I would like to keep my Plaid Plus reservation. My reasoning behind keeping my Plaid Plus reservation was that the Plaid Plus model would have 130 more miles of range than the regular Plaid version of the vehicle, as well as increased horsepower. This was more lucrative to me and beneficial, as it would allow me to save a lot of time on trips I have to make for work, and also give me the capability to stop flying to make specific trips for work as well.
On June 19th (a Saturday), I received a message that my Plaid Plus order had been changed to regular Plaid without my consent. No contact was attempted, and I was never made aware that this change was going to happen to my reservation. I contacted Tesla Sales and was told that this change was permanent, and that if I cancelled, my "refundable deposit" would no longer be returned to me, as it was no longer considered a "Reservation", and instead was now considered an "Order".
This absolutely confused and infuriated me, and I inquired further. The representative I spoke to claimed to have "no control" over the situation, and despite my pressing for a manager or attempt at a refund on my claimed "refundable deposit", all attempts to escalate were rebuked.
Online, it also shows that Tesla is now charging a supposed $1,000 "Order Fee" if I was to place the regular Plaid Model S, effectively negating the $1,000 "deposit" that was put on the reservation in the first place. This "Order Fee" is only being charged to Plaid Plus members that have been switched to regular Plaid models, and is a clear attempt at holding my deposit hostage.
This is a clear breach of contract from the original agreement between Tesla Motors Inc and I. I placed a "refundable deposit" for a reservation place for a product that is no longer being delivered to me in the condition or form originally agreed upon. Tesla seemingly believes they can ignore US Code 15 U.S. Code § 7001, Section C, Part 1, Sub-Section B - General rule of validity, which prevents the changing of electronically recorded contracts without the consent of the consumer and also Uniform Commercial Code § 2-209 supplemented by the US Restatement (Second) of Contracts §89(a) that states that the modification of a contract does not require its own consideration ONLY IF the modification was made in good faith and was voluntarily accepted by both parties.
I have placed a chargeback through my credit card company to recover my funds from this fraudulent breach of contract, JP Morgan Chase, and have ceased all further communication about this issue with Tesla.
