Yes, and this would also explain the sporadic deliveries in Benelux that
@schonelucht reported: since there's only very few configurations offered, and a lot of software features which can be freely turned on/off, so Tesla can freely "swap" a Benelux delivery for a far-away delivery in Spain or France.
So when a customer confirms to take delivery in Southern France or Italy and there's two such cars that only differ in software features but otherwise have the exact same hardware configuration, they might bump a Benelux delivery down the queue and serve the farther away customer first. Note that the Benelux delivery is still guaranteed to happen, but a few weeks later.
This would explain the prohibition to talk VINs and ships (as you are not guaranteed them until the last minute), but I suspect not all sales staff understands that, plus:
- there might be cars that are unique hardware at this stage (some rare color and Performance)
- or very common configurations and free delivery capacity in Benelux and not enough orders far away to serve,
- or customers indicating schedule inflexibility, i.e. vacation in the last 2 weeks of March. Tesla would still prefer to deliver the car early than after March 31.
... and in these cases the car might be delivered in Benelux earlier already.
From the outside it would look chaotic, random, with unreliable communications - and this sucks for Benelux customers waiting for delivery - but I'd expect this to be smoothed out once Tesla can expend the capital to maintain a continuous logistics pipeline.
Pro tip: if you want the quickest Model 3 delivery then order the Performance model, 20" wheels, Pearl White color and white seats. Also indicate schedule inflexibility for the final 2 weeks of the quarter, but don't push your luck too much.
Or wait 2-3 more weeks for your dream configuration!