Tesla "Used" buying nightmare

[Big Toys]

You might want to be flexible in you purchase location, I am flying to Las Vegas to pick up my car after dropping off my trade in in Seattle. I was looking at cars in San Fran, San Diego and even Chicago. Tesla will ship a car to you for up to $2000.00 (I've heard of people only paying $1000.00 at the time of sale, but having said that you would be the guy who pays 2k to get your car shipped from Chicago) Find YOUR unicorn, get pictures, and put your deposit down, and wait a few days. You will be contacted shortly after that and then the real fun begins...will it be ready in time, should i go get it or ship it.. will it go off with out a hitch or will it be not ready.. remember for every 100 people who have great preowned Tesla experiences there is that 1 person who feels they are being screwed and they tell us ALL about IT!! IF my delivery goes great on Saturday, Order to pickup for me was 20 days. Is that normally how I have bought cars in the past? NO, but Teslas are not normal cars, and I have built on line a Tesla 3-4 times a year for over 6 years before I purchased this 2016 TMS 90D. I found my unicorn on EV-CPO.com before I looked at it on Tesla.com. We will get to learn about our car on a 1412 mile road trip!

Teslas are not normal cars? What does a battery powered *car* have to do with customer service or ease of purchase?

 

[nativespinner]

I found mine on onlyusedTesla and it had the 4 year, 50k mile CPO warranty. You might give that a try at least you'll know the location. I live in the middle of the country and drove mine back from NYC.

 

[jcy1012]

Not abnormal at all. I was frustrated with the poor quality phots and lack of communication and missed out on a few cars I had my eye on. Finally got a call back and Samantha said all of the things I wanted to hear, so I clicked on the buy button. I'm in LA and the car was in Fremont. It wasn't a smooth transaction, and the ppl I talked to had conflicting answers, but they weren't bad enough to be dealbreakers. Now I have a 2016 midnight silver metallic MS 70D in my garage and I'm a happy camper.

 

[dark cloud]

And yet we get a phone call last week: "are you still looking at buying a Tesla? we have your information on file..." "actually we already bought one thank you". "Oh, ok, are you interested in trading it in yet?"

So there are some people at Tesla doing their job.

 

[tdbostic]

In the process of buying used and got a call from a Tesla a couple minutes later.

What was interesting for me was the car shipping. Most of the cars I’m looking at are in San Diego. Well my agent guy said that they will ship it for free all the way to Phoenix which I made him have to repeat to make sure I heard it correctly.

 

[Birdluck1]

I had an easy experience when I was shopping just before the holidays in 2018. I spoke with both my local sales rep and a rep from Fremont about a specific out of state vehicle and put down a deposit within the hour on 12/22/18. The car was ready on 12/28, but I requested a 1/3/19 pickup. I spoke to a total of 4 different Tesla reps over that time. I don't think it's necessarily a personnel issue, but a process and procedure issue. It seems rather redundant to talk to 4 people, many of whom are limited in knowledge about the car, answers to your questions, and personal knowledge of the specific car itself...it's kinda of a crapshoot. Fortunately for me, I really lucked out because the car was in great shape and the only issue I had was the rear defroster need repair.

Rumors over the last few months was that Tesla has trimmed it's delivery staff, and perhaps I was car shopping during a slow period. I'd recommend 2 of the reps who helped me from the start:

Lance Xie (Fremont) - Inside Delivery Advisor, (510)602-3814

Sean Singh (Costa Mesa) - Used Vehicles Sales, (714)215-2798

Hopefully they are still working for Tesla and can help you.

I had great help from Nick Faz 510.362.2060 in Fremont, CA I got an 85 D in perfect condition except for a scrape on the bottom of the front, which they painted before delivery.

 

[Candyman]

How does the sales tax work! I was under the impression that you paid it where the car was titled, but I’ve seen people on this forum say don’t pick it up in California. I’m confused. And of course Tesla is no help.

Lawrence

 

[tdbostic]

How does the sales tax work! I was under the impression that you paid it where the car was titled, but I’ve seen people on this forum say don’t pick it up in California. I’m confused. And of course Tesla is no help.

Lawrence

I've reached out again to my CPO agent who has not responded to me in 5 days about the shipping/not buy in Cali question. I swear my boy Bill said not to purchase the car in Cali. Now I was dumb enough not to ask him how that process works etc. May just inquire about another CPO and have a different person call me.

 

[Alset4S]

How does the sales tax work! I was under the impression that you paid it where the car was titled, but I’ve seen people on this forum say don’t pick it up in California. I’m confused. And of course Tesla is no help.

Lawrence

In Cali you buy it there you pay the tax there. If your home state doesn't credit you and makes you pay again oh well

 

[AlexP]

Try Lang Gao. He helped me purchased 2 Teslas over the last 7 months.

The process was painless for me.

[email protected]
+1 (650) 445-2593

Regards,
Alex

 

[NickleNiceness]

I live in Florida and bought a SF car and paid the $2k to ship. Since I took delivery in FL, and had a trade, paying to ship it unfortunately made sense. The trade value comes off purchase price and I pay my sales tax locally only. You need to do the trade and pick up car in person.

It takes a leap of faith if you are trying to jump on a deal. If you are watching a car on a daily basis where the price goes up and down, you can hopefully at least get the 1 mega pixel potato cam pictures ahead of time. I saw P12948 San Diego 27,600 Y 72,767 2013 sell in less than one day, so someone took a leap on that.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

Thanks buddy, that is the sight I use religiously. The problem I am running into is when they don't list a location. There have been a few I would put an immediate down payment on but I have absolutely no idea if they are even in the US. If they'd simply list a contact number, or if someone legitimately called me back ever, I'd be happy. I sincerely have requested a "call back" on their form 5 times with 0 responses over the last month. It's not like I am buying and old civic on craigslist and the guy doesn't want to call me back because he's busy. I want to give them $60K plus for a car. They are in the business of selling, but suck at it.

Yet another customer service failure at Tesla.

Frankly, it's Unsatisfactory, by any measure.

It is an odd thing: Tesla wants to sell cars, but they make it very hard to actually buy one . . . ELON, PLEASE FIX THIS INSANITY!

Not only does it look bad, IT IS BAD.

Jeesh.

 

[dannycamps]

Even if you find a car locally, you will not be able to see it in person before purchasing. I will not in any way advocate spending an additional up to $2,000 to ship a car but if you find your perfect car and it's located across the country it might be worth having it shipped.

 

[Ad Astra]

In Cali you buy it there you pay the tax there. If your home state doesn't credit you and makes you pay again oh well

This is accurate. I’d advise to opt for shipping the vehicle if it’s located in CA and you are registering in a different state. Otherwise, you run the risk of double taxation (once in CA and again in home state)* I’m assuming that the cost to ship is less than what you’d potentially pay in total taxes across both states.

*varies, check reciprocity laws in your state

 

[TripleTrucker]

If you're in NE Ohio and don't need CPO try Bedford Auto Mall. They usually have a few S's at decent price and mileage.
I got mine there and have been very happy with it.
I still have almost a year on the bumper-to-bumper also.

 

[Vitold]

Are the CPO sales people on commission? If not, maybe they should be.

Sales commissions are the problem. Sales people do not want to waste their time on creating leads or work with demanding customers.

What Tesla needs is managers who care more about customer service.

 

[TripleTrucker]

If you're in NE Ohio and don't need CPO try Bedford Auto Mall. They usually have a few S's at decent price and mileage.
I got mine there and have been very happy with it.
I still have almost a year on the bumper-to-bumper also.

OOPS, wrong name. It was North Coast Auto Mall in Bedford, OH

 

[Alset4S]

OOPS, wrong name. It was North Coast Auto Mall in Bedford, OH

Thanks TT, now you tell me after I spent 1/2 a day running around NE Ohio looking for Bedford auto mall.

 

[whitex]

Sales commissions are the problem. Sales people do not want to waste their time on creating leads or work with demanding customers.

What Tesla needs is managers who care more about customer service.

I'm not sure I follow. Are you saying that having sales commissions disincentives sales people from creating leads or working with demanding customers? Or did you mean to say that "lack of sales commissions is the problem"?

 

[Vitold]

I'm not sure I follow. Are you saying that having sales commissions disincentives sales people from creating leads or working with demanding customers? Or did you mean to say that "lack of sales commissions is the problem"?

Sales people on commission will do what makes them money. Sure, if you pay them enough they will create leads but it’s too expensive. It is better to pay $20/h person to operate phone and press buttons than pay $50/h car sales person to do the same.