I just had a pretty awful experience with my early lease termination so I figured I'd share.
With my P90DL lease ending in mid December, I was looking at a P3D as a replacement and was trying to make up my mind before the Model 3 supercharger referrals were set to end. Shortly before I was ready to pull the trigger I got the full court press from Tesla to consider picking up an inventory vehicle in exchange for them covering my full lease termination expense of 3 months + disposition fee. They found me a barebones S in the right color (a car which I actually preferred to the 3 after I took a P3D for a drive) so I placed my order. They suggested I contact US Bank to begin the early lease return process. I called the bank and they said they'd have AutoVIN contact me to arrange the inspection. I waited a week and didn't hear from AutoVIN.
In the meantime, my new S was at the SC within 10 days and I started getting hounded to schedule my delivery. I told Tesla I really wanted to wait for my inspection since I'd never done a lease in my life before this car. Although I'd heard over the years that other manufacturers can be fairly lenient, I didn't want to get shafted with a picky inspection. My car was in perfect shape inside and great shape outside except for one wheel with a small rash, and a small dent in one quarterpanel from a recent "ding and run" in a shopping mall parking lot. If I was going to pay through the nose for those items, I said, I'd prefer to keep the car a little longer and put in an insurance claim while I still held it. They said "Well we'll handle all that coordination for you and the inspection will be on our lot so it will save you time, and besides we will pro-rate your lease payment to the day of turn-in." I cave and set up my delivery a week sooner than planned.
So my day comes, and I arrive to the usual Tesla cluster**** zoo. The first delivery person says my car isn't ready. Maybe 45-60 min. later a new delivery guy approaches me and says he's ready to begin. He takes me outside to the front parking lot where my new Model S is parked tightly between two random cars. It's starting to rain. I protest and we head inside while a gopher brings the car into a bay that just opened up. On the way, I stop to walk him around my lease return and show him the 2 areas of damage in the spirit of full disclosure. We get inside, and I hand him both key fobs to the lease as we start my new delivery. 60-90 minutes later I'm logging in to do my final payment on the Tesla portal. As he hands me my new keys, I ask him what else I need to do with my lease return. He looks at an iPad and says it looks like your inspection is done. I ask if there's anything I need to worry about and he said no, so I drove away a happy camper as my autopilot calibrated.
Maybe 2 weeks later I come home from work and get a letter from AutoVIN saying that the inspection was actually performed a week later with $1400 in damage noted, including $350 for the two areas I pointed out, but also including a supposedly missing key fob (almost $400), a windshield that supposedly needed a total replacement (almost $600), and a "1 inch scratch" on the front bumper ($100). The letter referred me to a tesla.com email address if I had any questions or concerns, and not to US Bank or AutoVIN. I was beyond pissed and called my SC that evening. I started to explain the situation and the first thing out of the guys' mouth was "Well didn't you complete the self-inspection?" NONE of the many people I had interacted with at Tesla in the previous weeks had said anything about a self-inspection, and like I mentioned above, my delivery guy had told me the inspection was completed same-day and I didn't have anything to worry about. This new guy on the phone said something like "Yeah it involves taking pictures of the entire car and going through a checklist, etc." I had been totally bamboozled.
So words to the wise if you're doing a Tesla lease return:
1. take high-resolution pictures of the entire car on your return day, both interior and exterior
2. bring your own written agreement and make Tesla sign that they have received both key fobs from you
3. insist on being present for any official inspection that will take place at a later date
4. most importantly, don't trust anything that you're told!
I summarized all of this in an email to my loyalty advisor, but he never replied. All I have from my SC at this point is a vague mention of Tesla possibly considering reimbursing me for the fob, but again it's not in writing so I don't believe them. At this point I feel like all I can do is slam them on my Tesla delivery survey as well as the Maritz survey I just received for my Model X purchase in July. I have tried so hard to be a Tesla booster and put my money where my mouth is to the tune of $300K over the past 3 years, along with 5 official and 10+ unofficial referrals. But these ongoing failures in business processes and customer service have almost pushed me over the edge.
