Tesla Not Allowing Order Hold for M3LR

[brojas10]

I currently have an M3LR with an EDD of 9/15-10/14 and requested a hold, as is tradition. Online chat was absolutely useless as it is 90% of the time and just straight up didn’t answer my question before disconnecting. Called a SC and the TA said “order holds are a service we used to offer, but due to the backlog we no longer do”.

Horsepoop. They said that I have to wait for a VIN to be assigned then just unmatch - but that counts as a rejection so you better hope the car that’s delivered is flawless or you can kiss your order goodbye.

Insane.

 

[jjrandorin]

We are starting to see how tesla is going to deal with all the people who are going to try to find a way to delay their orders into next year for "reasons". I dont have any inside knowledge whatsoever, but fully expected them to be very "hard / inflexible" on this, as if they are flexible, people will try to find a way to say "whatever"to get their orders delayed.

Im not surprised by this, and expect a lot more posts / threads from people about how inflexible tesla is on holds, delivery, etc.

 

[voxel]

I currently have an M3LR with an EDD of 9/15-10/14 and requested a hold, as is tradition. Online chat was absolutely useless as it is 90% of the time and just straight up didn’t answer my question before disconnecting. Called a SC and the TA said “order holds are a service we used to offer, but due to the backlog we no longer do”.

Horsepoop. They said that I have to wait for a VIN to be assigned then just unmatch - but that counts as a rejection so you better hope the car that’s delivered is flawless or you can kiss your order goodbye.

Insane.

Just cancel and re-order when you are ready to take delivery.

Tesla changed their policy in late 2021. Any order older than a certain number of days could not be put in hold and if they were on hold somehow after that age - auto-canceled. Now it seems they don't allow any holds

 

[Big Earl]

I currently have an M3LR with an EDD of 9/15-10/14 and requested a hold, as is tradition. Online chat was absolutely useless as it is 90% of the time and just straight up didn’t answer my question before disconnecting. Called a SC and the TA said “order holds are a service we used to offer, but due to the backlog we no longer do”.

Horsepoop. They said that I have to wait for a VIN to be assigned then just unmatch - but that counts as a rejection so you better hope the car that’s delivered is flawless or you can kiss your order goodbye.

Insane.

Tradition? Since when is it tradition to order something costing tens of thousands of dollars, wait several months for it to get built, then not accept it when it's finally ready?

The order backlog is huge. As of yesterday, Tesla has suspended new orders for the M3LR. If you don't want the car, someone else will. Take delivery or give it up to someone else.

 

[fishy21]

If the backlog was “huge”, then holds would actually help ensure everyone who wants one now to get their car.

Let’s be honest, they don’t want everyone to hold until 2023 for the EV credit. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to sell any cars in 2022 Q4.

 

[FLMan]

They had this issue at the end of last year... people kept pushing their orders hoping for the "imminent" January 2022 tax credit that never materialized. If you don't like the policy this year you have the people who did this last year to blame.

Personally, I don't understand it. If you want and need the car then buy it and take delivery when you can. Since there's a backlog and people are gaming the system to try and time out a delivery to some magical date, they're just clogging up the queue.

I also disagree that they wouldn't be able to sell any cars in 2022 Q4. I bought one in 2021 Q4 while others tried to push their orders to January for the "upcoming tax credit" or for the 2022 features. I was without a car and driving a rental so I needed a car ASAP, and I'm sure others were in the same situation and were happy to take a November / December car.

 

[dmurphy]

I currently have an M3LR with an EDD of 9/15-10/14 and requested a hold, as is tradition.

“As is tradition?”

No, tradition would be taking the product you’ve ordered.

Funny thing - both Teslas I’ve ordered, I took delivery when the car was ready.

I don’t know how, when or where the “I’ll order a car and just plan to push it off for years at a time” thing started, but that’s really difficult for a business to have to manage. Looks like that game’s over.

 

[AndrewZ]

“As is tradition?”

No, tradition would be taking the product you’ve ordered.

Funny thing - both Teslas I’ve ordered, I took delivery when the car was ready.

I don’t know how, when or where the “I’ll order a car and just plan to push it off for years at a time” thing started, but that’s really difficult for a business to have to manage. Looks like that game’s over.

You’re acting like this type of ordering/delivery system has been the norm in car buying, the factory order system has people all messed up and seems to have caused a sort of amnesia.

Its not like Teslas have a lot of unique personalized features that absolutely require individual factory orders. And it’s not as If Tesla will stop producing cars if people cancel orders, they’ll continue pumping out the different range of specs and then they will just go into inventory. And then when you actually do want to grab the car and maybe take advantage of new perks that may be available, it’ll be sitting there waiting for you.

This ^^ was the tradition in car buying. You went to a car lot and picked up something that was already sitting there, you didn’t place a special order except maybe for highly individualized Porsches or other very high end low run vehicles.

 

[Quagmire2]

Cancel the order to then discover the LR does not qualify for the credit anyway and you just screwed yourself.

Or take delivery of the vehicle. In what other world can you order something and tell the company to not deliver it simply because you want it on this date vs the other date.

You delayers are the freaking reason why the hold policy has gotten worse and worse and worse. Making it harder for someone who actually needed to use the hold due to a life event.

I have no sympathy. ZERO. What is insane is your belief that you think what you're doing is right. It's not, it's just being a difficult customer. Just like rejecting a car because it doesn't have matrix headlights, biodefense mode, or whatever small and incremental change Tesla did that quarter.

 

[dmurphy]

You’re acting like this type of ordering/delivery system has been the norm in car buying, the factory order system has people all messed up and seems to have caused a sort of amnesia.

… I am, because it is. You’ve always been able to walk into a traditional dealer and place a factory order. Typical delivery time was 8-12 weeks. That has been, for many many decades, a completely normal process.

Once you placed that factory order, the car was coming, whether you liked it or not. And because it was a custom order, it wasn’t cancelable — at a bare minimum, the down payment was non refundable.

So yeah - Tesla’s Model isn’t really all THAT different from the old school factory order process.

Now yes - dealers had cars on lots too. But that was a “take what you find” deal. Same is true for Tesla …. But it’s online under their “existing” inventory list…. If they can keep up with demand.

 

[AndrewZ]

… I am, because it is. You’ve always been able to walk into a traditional dealer and place a factory order. Typical delivery time was 8-12 weeks. That has been, for many many decades, a completely normal process.

Once you placed that factory order, the car was coming, whether you liked it or not. And because it was a custom order, it wasn’t cancelable — at a bare minimum, the down payment was non refundable.

So yeah - Tesla’s Model isn’t really all THAT different from the old school factory order process.

Now yes - dealers had cars on lots too. But that was a “take what you find” deal. Same is true for Tesla …. But it’s online under their “existing” inventory list…. If they can keep up with demand.

These aren’t “custom orders“, Tesla merely has regular people putting in spec orders rather than dealerships placing/receiving allotments or whatever else and then selling those after the fact.

Thus there doesn’t need to be any commitment to these orders because it’s not like you’re ordering some one-off car or a Porsche with highly individualized trims/colors/features that might not sell quickly otherwise. With Tesla or other competitors following this model, you’re just picking from a relatively narrow range of options and that can possibly help inform the factory runs.

Again this has people all buggered up. There should be no harm in cancelling or delaying orders because Tesla will keep the factories running and vehicles will just go into inventory and we can return to the regular auto market. Whatever build you want, Tesla will still produce it with or without your order.

 

[voxel]

These aren’t “custom orders“, Tesla merely has regular people putting in spec orders rather than dealerships placing/receiving allotments or whatever else and then selling those after the fact.

Thus there doesn’t need to be any commitment to these orders because it’s not like you’re ordering some one-off car or a Porsche with highly individualized trims/colors/features that might not sell quickly otherwise. With Tesla or other competitors following this model, you’re just picking from a relatively narrow range of options and that can possibly help inform the factory runs.

Again this has people all buggered up. There should be no harm in cancelling or delaying orders because Tesla will keep the factories running and vehicles will just go into inventory and we can return to the regular auto market. Whatever build you want, Tesla will still produce it with or without your order.

Teslas system is not that much different from Toyota, Hyundai, Kia where orders are matched to factory builds… not custom built like Porsche.

But the main difference is Tesla honors order time protection. This might sound horrible but I think Tesla should dump order time pricing and allow for holds/delays and charge the customer whatever the “MSRP sticker” is when he/she picks up the car which is exactly how Hyundai/Kia work (and they silently bump prices without media fanfare too).

 

[ucmndd]

I’m glad they’re taking a hard line with all the speculative BS. ‘Bout time.

 

[VT_EE]

It's interesting how everyone in this thread is assuming the OP wants to delay because he is waiting for a price reductions, more features, or tax credit. What if he/she was planning on the original Oct-Dec EDD and can't take delivery a month early for whatever reason? I could understand being upset if the OP was asking for a long hold that extended past his original EDD window, but there should be no issue with a hold that takes you to the end of the original EDD.

It probably doesn't matter anyway since his EDD was likely just pushed out two months like mine.

 

[jjrandorin]

It's interesting how everyone in this thread is assuming the OP wants to delay because he is waiting for a price reductions, more features, or tax credit. What if he/she was planning on the original Oct-Dec EDD and can't take delivery a month early for whatever reason?

I specifically said "reasons" in quotes because it could be anything.

We are starting to see how tesla is going to deal with all the people who are going to try to find a way to delay their orders into next year for "reasons"

Its not going to matter what the reason is, however. All the people last year who tried to delay for "reasons" caused tesla to insert the cancelation policy. Its going to impact people no matter what their reason is (wether its "wait for tax credit" or "I am out of the country when this is being delivered" or "my job changed and I cant take delivery now" or any other of the many reasons people have posted here).

 

[ucmndd]

It's interesting how everyone in this thread is assuming the OP wants to delay because he is waiting for a price reductions, more features, or tax credit. What if he/she was planning on the original Oct-Dec EDD and can't take delivery a month early for whatever reason?

It’s a pretty classic “this is why we can’t have nice things” situation. There are undoubtedly people with genuine intentions that end up with the dirty end of the stick, but the policy exists because those people are outnumbered significantly by speculators trying to secure yesterday’s prices with tomorrow’s potential features and benefits.

 

[AndrewZ]

Teslas system is not that much different from Toyota, Hyundai, Kia where orders are matched to factory builds… not custom built like Porsche.

But the main difference is Tesla honors order time protection. This might sound horrible but I think Tesla should dump order time pricing and allow for holds/delays and charge the customer whatever the “MSRP sticker” is when he/she picks up the car which is exactly how Hyundai/Kia work (and they silently bump prices without media fanfare too).

Yup I ordered a Genesis this way, it’s very similar to Tesla

This should never have even become an issue to address. If vehicles of various builds/specs were sitting in stock and people were picking from that inventory rather than putting in backordered factory allocations, I think everything would be priced pretty consistently per their current MSRP.

A true custom order for something unique and very expensive, that should take a few months. There should be no stress about receiving a typical car off the line, being able to choose when you get it shouldn’t be a luxury that can be stripped away by some bad apples lol

There shouldn’t be all this stress about EDDs and deliveries popping up unexpectedly and needing to delay and everything else, if things were just on the shelf when you wanted to buy them