Tesla gave 1 day to schedule delivery and then cancelled order, contract says we have 3 days

[Vladimir*22]

In cases where agreement says 30, 60 or 90 days. Early deliveries often pass the time limit due to production delay, then it’s Tesla taking advantage of customers’ generosity on allowing longer wait times.

So not only Sales and Delivery Operation team’s civil war sucks, the Legal team could have a much better Agreement built to clarify the rules.

I agree the wording could be a lot better - maybe if people would quit putting cars on hold for every little possible upgrade Tesla could give a better estimate of delivery times.

 

[Eskimo YoYo]

Ya snooze ya lose, sounds like you got a few attempts to go get the car

 

[Physicslawyer]

But at least you didn't lose the order; that's what I'm afraid of. I'll be glad if I can make it into the new year then I think they'll be reasonable again.

Exactly. I ordered mine around the same time and they cancelled the order.

 

[Wigan]

I agree the wording could be a lot better - maybe if people would quit putting cars on hold for every little possible upgrade Tesla could give a better estimate of delivery times.

I'm at the point where I think it would be better if, yes, you put an order on hold you'll come off at the end of the line, no questions asked. Then if you have a personal situation where you absolutely, no kidding have to go on hold for an extended period of time, ok, you go on hold and make it work. But if you're just jerking everybody around waiting on new headlights or a tax credit that weren't part of the 'deal' when you ordered, then at least there's some opportunity cost to it. And of course, the 'penalty' won't always be six months, once Austin opens it'll probably be back to a more normal two months or something.

But to do that you'd also have to combine it with more flexibility in the pickup window--more than three days. So maybe three days 'free', and something like $50/day for 'storage' after that if you have to push it off a week or something for vacation.

 

[agooditguy]

Ya snooze ya lose, sounds like you got a few attempts to go get the car

We only had one attempt to get the car and then our order got cancelled

 

[StoXto3toY]

Tesla keeps on crappin' on the very people that are supporting them.
Ceases to surprise me at this point.

Because the people they crap on, and complain, are offset by the people who seem as if Tesla can do no wrong and almost fetishize bending over backward to accommodate their oftentimes lackluster performance. This distortion (IMHO) gives people @ Tesla the wrong impression and leads to blind spots.

As brilliant as they are they could become true leaders in the customer service space by developing an ML NPS (net promoter score) or similar model to optimize service. Its a tired observation sure, but imagine what they COULD be if they sorted this out...

 

[Wolfhausen]

I don't blame Tesla at all. They have many "buyers" postponing orders to wait for new incentives or features. You can't run a manufacturing business that way. The business needs to have a reasonable timeline to deliver product in order to manage production. The OP already put his order on hold (for some reason) long enough for Tesla to contact him and urge delivery. OP removed the hold and Tesla matched him with a car, scheduling a delivery date. The OP contacted Tesla once again and attempted to put his delivery on hold. I'd cancel his order too. Tesla needs customers that buy cars, not sit on the fence. OP has nobody to blame but themselves.

 

[Vladimir*22]

I'm at the point where I think it would be better if, yes, you put an order on hold you'll come off at the end of the line, no questions asked. Then if you have a personal situation where you absolutely, no kidding have to go on hold for an extended period of time, ok, you go on hold and make it work. But if you're just jerking everybody around waiting on new headlights or a tax credit that weren't part of the 'deal' when you ordered, then at least there's some opportunity cost to it. And of course, the 'penalty' won't always be six months, once Austin opens it'll probably be back to a more normal two months or something.

But to do that you'd also have to combine it with more flexibility in the pickup window--more than three days. So maybe three days 'free', and something like $50/day for 'storage' after that if you have to push it off a week or something for vacation.

I would like to see, if you put on hold its $30 a day until you release it. you want new headlights in 2 months hold - you pay $1800 for that upgrade. you want to hold for 3 months for tax break $2700 for that, you want to hold a month because the headrest is now going to have 1203 stiches vs 1200 stiches $900 for that upgrade.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I don't blame Tesla at all. They have many "buyers" postponing orders to wait for new incentives or features. You can't run a manufacturing business that way. The business needs to have a reasonable timeline to deliver product in order to manage production. The OP already put his order on hold (for some reason) long enough for Tesla to contact him and urge delivery. OP removed the hold and Tesla matched him with a car, scheduling a delivery date. The OP contacted Tesla once again and attempted to put his delivery on hold. I'd cancel his order too. Tesla needs customers that buy cars, not sit on the fence. OP has nobody to blame but themselves.

The OP wrote that they delayed a "late December" delivery to 1/1, after a vacation.
That's not a long delay.
They did that after Tesla was unable to deliver on the original September delivery date.
And according to the OP, Tesla canceled before the 72 hours were up.

The sad thing is that this is just about making their 2021Q4 numbers look good, not about getting a sale.

 

[captanzuelo]

The sad thing is that this is just about making their 2021Q4 numbers look good, not about getting a sale.

And even sadder, it worked. TSLA went up 13% on the first day of trading this year due to record sales, last quarter.

 

[Zebelkhan]

We ordered our Model Y Long Range on 6/16/2021 at 52.5k base price. Estimated delivery was originally September 2021 but they kept delaying at no fault of ours. Finally, estimated delivery landed on late December and we planned a vacation to Colorado at that time so we put it on hold until 1/1 as that was the day that we would return. On 12/2, Tesla emailed us to release hold or they would cancel order so we released the hold on 12/8 expecting a January delivery date. On 12/9 at 7:32 PM, they notified us through text that car was ready and VIN was assigned. We called them on 12/10 afternoon to delay the order due to our prior vacation plans and they told to have someone else take delivery for us and talk to our local sales manager. We emailed and called our local sales manager but he didn't respond. Contract says we have 3 days from when they notify us that car is ready to schedule delivery so we planned to schedule on 12/11 after my son's ACT because we didn't want to stress him out before his big exam. However, at 8:41 PM on 12/10 night, they said to take delivery by tonight or car would move on to next customer. I already was asleep by this time as I had to wake up early the next morning to drop my son for his ACT exam and didn't see the message. By 12/11 morning, within 40 hours of the first notification, we received a text that the car moved on to next customer and our order was automatically placed on hold until April 2022. One week later, they automatically cancelled the order without telling us. When we called, they claimed that they gave us 3 days to schedule delivery and we didn't respond to their messages when we actually did reply to their email notifications and leave multiple messages to our local sales advisor. This was supposed to be a gift for my son to drive to school. Now, he has a parking pass for school but no car and he is very disappointed. What should we do? We have screenshots proving that we had less than 40 hours to schedule delivery and our order was automatically placed on hold on 12/11. We also have proof that we replied to both of their email notifications and that our local sales manager didn't reach out to us or respond to our calls and emails.

Walk away from Tesla. That’s what I would do if they did that to me.

 

[Billmister]

This is a very interesting post with many good comments. One thing that keeps popping in my head is this “there are always two sides to every story”. To the OP I hope everything works out in one or another in the end.

 

[afscotch]

They DGAF

That's an understatement. I don't think tesla could literally care less how they treat their prospective customers and the buying experience. Zero.

 

[eeee-meeee]

Tesla is reminding of the soup guy on Seinfeld, "No soup for you!" ..just out of the blue!

 

[doozenberg]

That's an understatement. I don't think tesla could literally care less how they treat their prospective customers and the buying experience. Zero.

Further testimony. Father in law’s MY order was cancelled a few days ago. I referred him based on my experience driving my 3. He has always been interested, but no longer after they kept his order deposit. Lots of first time customers on principle alone will say never again to Tesla, which does not bode well from a retention and long term perspective. They’ll need to start marketing in a few years if they keep these antics up

 

[doozenberg]

The OP wrote that they delayed a "late December" delivery to 1/1, after a vacation.
That's not a long delay.
They did that after Tesla was unable to deliver on the original September delivery date.
And according to the OP, Tesla canceled before the 72 hours were up.

The sad thing is that this is just about making their 2021Q4 numbers look good, not about getting a sale.

Exactly. Like traders, too many at Tesla acting on short term metrics instead of 10-20 years from now. Loyalty and customer service go a long way and this is eroding before our eyes at Tesla

 

[eeee-meeee]

Yes, I almost canceled my order when they wouldn't let me add a referral code, literally 2 hours after I ordered the car. I'm like for real?! I didn't see it in the steps. (All 3 of my siblings have Teslas so I had always planned to use one of their codes. I was like the customer service here is way different than any other car dealer-- and not in a good way! I had to stew for a few weeks, then decided to keep the order since the cars seem awesome, had to eat some humble pie of not being fawned over as a customer, but also I didn't think my request was unreasonable and the person at the local office seemed a bit robotic (at least to my histrionics due to my frustrations, heeheehee)! Ugh. But agree, they should definitely work on being kindler and gentler, will be great for them in the long run.

 

[STS-134]

Yes, I almost canceled my order when they wouldn't let me add a referral code, literally 2 hours after I ordered the car. I'm like for real?! I didn't see it in the steps. (All 3 of my siblings have Teslas so I had always planned to use one of their codes. I was like the customer service here is way different than any other car dealer-- and not in a good way! I had to stew for a few weeks, then decided to keep the order since the cars seem awesome, had to eat some humble pie of not being fawned over as a customer, but also I didn't think my request was unreasonable and the person at the local office seemed a bit robotic (at least to my histrionics due to my frustrations, heeheehee)! Ugh. But agree, they should definitely work on being kindler and gentler, will be great for them in the long run.

When was this? I called my sales rep after having placed the order and he added the code for me. This was in January of last year.

 

[eeee-meeee]

When was this? I called my sales rep after having placed the order and he added the code for me. This was in January of last year.

Aug of last year. They said the policy recently changed at that time.

 

[doozenberg]

If anyone has used Amazon customer service (esp back in the early days), zappos, or chewy, you know what I’m talking about. Tesla kinda had it in the early S/X only days. After the model 3 and increasing profitability pressures, this got lost.