Tesla customer purchase hell on a new car, i need advice please!!

[mctaggart]

I have just had the worst new car buying experience of my life buying from Tesla.

Went to pick up my model x 23rd December at 3:30pm from West Drayton, London. Complete chaos was evident as soon i entered the building, 20-30 customers all just walking around like zombies looking for information, great, no managers, just choas.

I arrived:

* My finance paper work was all wrong, they were trying to charge me £200 a month more than my original agreement, so had to wait an hour for that to be sorted out.
* The car was then not ready for collection
* I had to wait 4 hours before i could even see it!
* It wasn't charged for me to take it home, even though i emailed them and told them i had a 200 mile trip home and asked for this to be done
* Then stupid stuff like no windscreen washer in the washer bottle while driving home

* When i got the new vehicle, it had two kerbed wheels and 1 faulty brake light cluster with it all fogged up with water.

I was in such shock of the whole event i asked to leave and was given the car to go with its defects noted as i had to get home to my kids.

* Got home, no paperwork in the car what so ever except my finance agreement, is this normal? No manuals, nothing.

* THEN IT GETS WORSE!

My friend from DVLA sends me a jokey msg ohhh "nice new 100k car, but shame you didn't tax it" i checked online, car hasn't been taxed, TESLA tell you to insure it which i did, but no mention of TAX, so i drove 200 miles from London with an untaxed vehicle and whats worse i have no V5 doc or anything so i cant even tax it.

So now i have a 100k car on my driveway that i cant drive as its not legal and there is nothing i can do about it until i can get hold of someone in TESLA who dont open now for the next few days.

Am i being mental here or have missed something, if i had crashed on the way home i would have been totally f***ed. i am so angry writing this.

I am going to get blood on the 27th when they open and some sort of compensation for the stress of it all.

 

[MrBadger]

Takes a little while to show on Tax database. V5 took 5 days to arrive from DVLA. May be longer during this seasonal break.

So, has Tesla mucked up or is it just time of year? I wouldn’t bet my license on it.

 

[Rooster6655]

I have just had the worst new car buying experience of my life buying from Tesla.

Went to pick up my model x 23rd December at 3:30pm from West Drayton, London. Complete chaos was evident as soon i entered the building, 20-30 customers all just walking around like zombies looking for information, great, no managers, just choas.

I arrived:

* My finance paper work was all wrong, they were trying to charge me £200 a month more than my original agreement, so had to wait an hour for that to be sorted out.
* The car was then not ready for collection
* I had to wait 4 hours before i could even see it!
* It wasn't charged for me to take it home, even though i emailed them and told them i had a 200 mile trip home and asked for this to be done
* Then stupid stuff like no windscreen washer in the washer bottle while driving home

* When i got the new vehicle, it had two kerbed wheels and 1 faulty brake light cluster with it all fogged up with water.

I was in such shock of the whole event i asked to leave and was given the car to go with its defects noted as i had to get home to my kids.

* Got home, no paperwork in the car what so ever except my finance agreement, is this normal? No manuals, nothing.

* THEN IT GETS WORSE!

My friend from DVLA sends me a jokey msg ohhh "nice new 100k car, but shame you didn't tax it" i checked online, car hasn't been taxed, TESLA tell you to insure it which i did, but no mention of TAX, so i drove 200 miles from London with an untaxed vehicle and whats worse i have no V5 doc or anything so i cant even tax it.

So now i have a 100k car on my driveway that i cant drive as its not legal and there is nothing i can do about it until i can get hold of someone in TESLA who dont open now for the next few days.

Am i being mental here or have missed something, if i had crashed on the way home i would have been totally f***ed. i am so angry writing this.

I am going to get blood on the 27th when they open and some sort of compensation for the stress of it all.

Sounds about right from Tesla, if you didn’t have paint defects then I would double check, don’t bother emailing or phoning them as response won’t happen to your liking. Same with schedule a service you wait 2 months for them to fix delivery issues and then they order the part to take another 2 months, what a joke.

I would advise just return the car under their 7 day policy to be honest as it’s not going to get better

 

[gangzoom]

* The car was then not ready for collection
* I had to wait 4 hours before i could even see it!
* It wasn't charged for me to take it home, even though i emailed them and told them i had a 200 mile trip home and asked for this to be done

Sadly it sounds like scrummage to deliver Model 3s have totally changed the customer service experience.

We had flowers, key fobs cases, an 'unveiling', name plaque, kids colouring set, and all the time we needed.

Best to try and forget the delivery 'experience' and enjoy the car, it is xmas after all, and just remember most people would love to have a brand new X sitting on the driveway right now .

 

[Tonybvi]

I feel for you - hope all works out ok. Although it won’t help my Raven MX purchase experience was without problem. I deliberately placed my order when I reckoned I wouldn’t be caught in the end of quarter delivery rush (ordered mid August, delivered end October). The car was perfect,I was the only person collecting, it was taxed and even my private plates were in the trunk for me so I could put them on after I had done the reg transfer. Thanks again Edinburgh for such good and attentive service.

 

[MrBadger]

Users delivery experiences between West Drayton and other service centres, especially Edinburgh make you question whether it is the same company at times.

We had a major problem on collection at West Drayton so for first 4 or 5 hours, we were in special care of management and looked after very well. But moment our problems were sorted and we reentered to normal handover process, our experience could not have been more different. 10/10 for first 4 to 5 hours special care, 0/10 for final 15 minutes handover. Neither were down to differences in corporate actions, very much individual actions.

Service followup. 5/10. Lead up, the Tesla way was very disconcerting, but staff attitudes, bar one (who reiterated corporate policy on refunds which was totally opposite to what I had been previously told), on the day great even if the procedures failed them at the end. I very much got the impression that staff were just as frustrated at how they must interact with customers (or not) as many of us are. So front line service seem to be doing their best within the restrictions imposed on them. I bumped into someone from Edinburgh service team. Couldn't have been more polite and helpful even though I was asking him some questions whilst he was on a break whilst supercharging.

Problems still not resolved yet though. Still not got closure on the order/delivery experience.

 

[Rooster6655]

Problems still not resolved yet though. Still not got closure on the order/delivery experience.

Yes agree wholly, apart from the delivery person and his sketchy sign and leave attitude, others I have dealt with have been friendly but had no ability to get things done as having to either rely on policies/processes out of their control or months for parts.

You would think after 12 years they could have sorted a system for express international delivery on parts but no. some strange stuff going on behind the scenes. I think they Tesla deliberately work their factories Over capacity to artificially limit the demand and costs hence these out of control delays on parts.

It’s not good enough to have some people get given a good service and others a poor one. Yes there are plenty of happy customers but what is important is how customers are treated that have a problem

 

[Jason71]

Your friend at DVLA should know better. The Database that the vehicle enquiry uses is not updated until the v5 has been printed. Given the bank Holidays this will be a few days. You cannot register a vehicle without taxing it so as long as its registered its Taxed. If you wish to be sure it's registered you will need to call DVLA. The call centre has access to this information even though it is not on the public enquiry yet.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Just a tid bit. There will be no manual in your glove box as with other cars. It will be stored digitally and presented on your display. More Eco than printing all those manuals. Most companies now going that route.

Sorry you got off on the wrong foot, but things are really crazy right now with so many people wanting to take delivery before EOY.

Cars are fantastic, but the human side of getting them delivered needs lots of work.

 

[CertLive]

="Cars are fantastic, but the human side of getting them delivered needs lots of work.

No the cars are nowhere near this for quite a few. Without proper factory or arrival checks these cars could be leaving the showroom unsafe i.e. without lights working etc. Playing russian roulette with customers here its terrible just to sell as many as possible.

Sorry to read this but it matches my experiences so far.

 

[mctaggart]

Well my car reg was generated probably last week, collected car on the 23rd, if you enter my reg into the DVLA live tax system, its not taxed. This clearly should have been done on the day. I used to work for DVLA and the notion the system is slow to update is unfounded. Its live the moment the data is entered. If its not showing as taxed its as simple as that, the system has not been updated by the dealer.

I am livid i was allowed to drive home in it, essentially uninsured, Tesla put me at risk of not only getting my car pulled off the road by the police, but god forbid i crashed it, they would have an expensive legal case on their lap.

I am going to rinse the management at West Dayton when i get my hands on them, the staff were clearly under huge pressure, not enough of them and poorly managed by top brass, when you spend this level of money you expect a similar level of service, can you image BMW, or Jaguar or any car dealership pulling this *sugar* off, its a complete joke.

On top of that i have got to some how get a new wheel and brake light out of them too.

Worse i actually love the car apart from all this crap above which could have easily been avoided, i intend to keep it but i hope tesla will compensate for it.

 

[pdk42]

Good luck is all I can say. Finding someone to "rinse" will be your first challenge.

 

[MaDProFF]

Let alone compensation, fact is I bet you have read of numerous people before you having problems with a pick up, I went with open eyes expecting the worse planning the whole day around it. West Drayton are probably the worse, but the busiest.

 

[Rooster6655]

Well my car reg was generated probably last week, collected car on the 23rd, if you enter my reg into the DVLA live tax system, its not taxed. This clearly should have been done on the day. I used to work for DVLA and the notion the system is slow to update is unfounded. Its live the moment the data is entered. If its not showing as taxed its as simple as that, the system has not been updated by the dealer.

I am livid i was allowed to drive home in it, essentially uninsured, Tesla put me at risk of not only getting my car pulled off the road by the police, but god forbid i crashed it, they would have an expensive legal case on their lap.

I am going to rinse the management at West Dayton when i get my hands on them, the staff were clearly under huge pressure, not enough of them and poorly managed by top brass, when you spend this level of money you expect a similar level of service, can you image BMW, or Jaguar or any car dealership pulling this *sugar* off, its a complete joke.

On top of that i have got to some how get a new wheel and brake light out of them too.

Worse i actually love the car apart from all this crap above which could have easily been avoided, i intend to keep it but i hope tesla will compensate for it.

Although I agree with you on most parts I am pretty sure the car is taxed and it is a system delay showing online as it is not meant to be real time for the general public as it’s been discussed before.

 

[UrbanSplash]

It’s an odd experience collecting a Tesla. Collected from Leeds on 23/12 and it was pretty chilled. Car seems fine which is the main thing. Only issue was tow hitch was missing but they will send it out. Any big issues and I would of walked away.

Overall, it’s not a great experience when you’re handing over £50k.... but what matters is the car itself. It really is amazing. Totally smitten.

Oh, there was a manual in my glove box. Odd

 

[Avendit]

Sounds horrible :-(

* When i got the new vehicle, it had two kerbed wheels and 1 faulty brake light cluster with it all fogged up with water.

But these are the only real problems. DVLA will come through in Jan, not sure about the X, but the 3 is tax free in year 1 anyway, and you have number plates so Tesla have registered the car. Manual is on the screen or in your Tesla account, or search on here for the EU specific one.

Give the car a good wash, checking your paint as you go (tho I believe the X's don't have the reputation for problems the 3's do) then raise a service request in the app for all your problems. Take photos, note that they were pointed out and agreed at delivery and they will sort them all out. Up to you of you want to get angry at them about the service and try getting some free super charger miles out the or something, people's success rate with this is pretty poor tho.

Better just to fix the actual problems and move forward with the car, or decide to return it. It's not ok for Tesla to be like this with service, but one more customer raging at them is not going to suddenly make them see the light and stop rushing their quarters unfortunately :-(

People say to tweet Elon, but my expectation for that having any impact would also be pretty low.

 

[madcal]

My West Drayton experience was terrible too. Fortunately the only issue I have is the “leather” coming apart on the driver’s seat for which I have an appointment in January to get fixed. But I did hang around for 4+ hours generally being ignored by everyone.

When you spend over £100,000 on a car you expect good service, this does not seem to be a core value for West Drayton, but I do hear that most other collection centres are much better. If I buy another I will travel elsewhere to collect.

As others have said you can turn up there and try to find someone to roast, but it is unlikely you will even find anyone and if you do they probably would not have had anything to do with your experience so you will just be whipping someone for sport.

I am sure in a couple of months you will have an appointment for a new wheel and light cluster and then a few weeks after that this will just be a bad memory.

I did go in with eyes open after having read all the horror stories but was still irate after all the waiting and especially being ignored for so long. However 2,600 miles in I love the car and whilst I have not forgiven I have forgotten-ish.

 

[Artiste]

Sadly this is just indicative of Tesla’s appalling lack of infrastructure. I actually can’t remember when I last had to collect a car - I’m used to having them delivered to my home. And I’ve never had to wait several weeks for a service appointment, and I’ve never had to drive 40 miles to get to a service centre.

 

[Rooster6655]

You shouldn't judge a company on problems as they can happen to the best of us, what matters is how they resolve the issues.

I can see why many people are looking at the new EVs that may have a lower range but they can have a competitive advantage in customer service.

 

[mctaggart]

I can live with the a kerbed wheel and a defective light until its fixed, rest of car is great, what i cant live with is having my new new model x sat on my drive because DVLA says this and Tesla are so incompentent having done it for me and i also have no way to tax it my self.

I haven't been able to drive it for 3 days since i got home because i cant tax it.

Shocking