Thanks for breaking it down. You'd think more people in this market segment would be paying cash, but that's a whole different subject.As it happens, I managed to do this *twice* this calendar year, on separate vehicles.
Investor TLDR: A simple confirmation screen would go a long way towards making this function like virtually all other online "Pay" buttons and avoid such issues, but Tesla appears to build their systems with the mindset of "Let's make this super easy assuming everyone does the 'typical' thing (small downpayment with loan) and not bother implementing management tools for the team to use in the less-typical cases."
It's not just your credit union, it's that these are a small enough percentage of Tesla's sales that Tesla does not invest in the experience (or in management tools for this experience).
Issue #1 is that they no longer allow manually entering in checking account information, at least not in the US....everything must be entered via providing one's bank login credentials to PLAID. For security reasons, I generally refuse to do any such thing...but for Tesla, on a prior purchase, I had relented and allowed it to access a minor account at a bank I had previously used primarily but lately do little business with, with a changed password just for it, etc. The first time I made this error I was in the Tesla delivery center, showing the delivery center person that it did not allow entering in a routing / account number manually, and accidentally tapped "Pay".
Issue #2 is that unfortunately, the delivery center person checked and they CANNOT cancel it on the back-end, and it was now showing 'Paid in full' for him. Everything got gummed up from there, as he stated he could not take any other payment to finish processing delivery until the PLAID payment officially failed. It took days before the delivery center reached back out and gave me wire transfer information to complete the transaction.
Issue #3 is that when sending in a wire transfer, Tesla's website notes to include the RN# with the wire transfer. With Fidelity, that actually cannot be done - there isn't an editable memo field. Tesla was, however, able to match it up quickly from the wire transfer confirmation number.
Issue #4 is that when pivoting from Car A to Car B in the order-and-delivery process, I was initially told that the original wire transfer funds could not be transferred from A to B, so to simply wire the funds for B while cancelling A would be processed over the next few days. With a cap on the amount of a single wire transfer via Fidelity's website, this would have to be broken into two.
Issue #5 is that while switching between the Tesla app (to check the amount) and Fidelity's wire transfer screen, I accidentally hit "Pay" on Car B. <sigh> This time, the bank actually reached out to me to say they were simply covering it as a courtesy (and, I assume, to encourage me to return to using them more extensively), but I assured them there was no need, so they canceled the temporary approval they'd given to PLAID. However, see Issue #1 for how long things take...
Issue #6 is that after sending the first wire transfer for B, even before waiting for #5 to be resolved, the app refresh didn't show the payment, and when provided the wire transfer confirmation #, the Tesla rep identified that it had been errantly credited towards A, even though A had already been paid for in full. At this point, he was able to get someone on the phone who was able to move the new wire transfer to B *and* was going to work on moving the original wire transfer over to B as well, and would credit back the leftover once the two wire transfers were both applied to B (as opposed to me sending a third wire transfer for the remainder of B, and getting a refund of the full amount of the original wire transfer for A).
Issue #7 is that some weeks later Tesla's collections team reached out to me, because I was happily driving around in my new X but their screen showed it not paid for. After walking her thru the process and her seeing that, yes, in fact I had far OVERPAID, the woman was incredibly polite and apologetic for having reached out, and promised to resolve it and get me my refund ASAP. I followed up with her repeatedly over the next few weeks, and the timeline for receiving the refund has continued to stretch out. Most recently she stated that it would be a paper check but could take up to 8 weeks before that gets printed (we are almost at that point). I did enquire if she could simply have those funds credited towards the solar panels I am guiding my sister thru purchasing, but she stated that no, she could not transfer the excess funds from automotive to energy, although if I were to buy yet another vehicle she could get that transfer done. Having typed all this up, I suppose I should reach back out to her for another status update...
I have to say if Tesla does have any shortfall of willing buyers what it takes to navigate the digital buying experience could use further introspection, particularly if the goal is to broaden the pool beyond the existing fan base. Say what you will about the dealership model, while they may be screwing you at least they talk you through the process.
