Hi all,
I'm writing this just for the sake of letting others know what I've experienced re: the delivery of my Model 3. TL;DR: it appears Tesla is moving an enormous number of cars, and is struggling a bit with the volume and some unexpected hiccups, and is working hard to get people their cars as quickly as possible, improvising and adapting in near real-time.
If you want the long version, buckle up:
I paid the deposit for my AWD LR Model 3 via credit card on Oct. 22.
I live in New Hampshire, but I chose to take delivery at Tesla's facility in Mt. Kisco, NY (at the time the approximate wait time for the configuration of Model 3 I wanted was about two months which would put me dangerously close to the end of the year and the expiration of half the tax credit, so I wanted to speed up delivery however I possibly could. The folks at the Boston showroom, my nearest showroom, said that taking delivery in Mt. Kisco would speed up delivery by a couple of weeks, so I chose to do that to make sure I got the car before the end of the year).
I got a call/email/text (I've been communicating with various Tesla folks via all of those methods and they've all blended together in my memory) indicating my car would be available on Nov. 29. This was fantastic because it was a couple of weeks earlier than I thought I'd get it. Nov. 29 was a Thursday though, and given that I'd be traveling a ways from NH to NY to pick it up, I called and asked to change the appointment to the following Saturday, 12/1, so I could do it over the weekend rather than during the workweek. Sure, no problem, my new appointment was set for Sat., 12/1. I planned to take an Amtrak into NYC and then the NYC metro commuter rail to Mt. Kisco.
At about 6pm on Friday, 11/30 (about 12 hours before I was going to get on a train) I got a phone call from a very exasperated, very apologetic Tesla employee who told me that, while my car was in Mt. Kisco and ready to be picked up, several hours earlier the New York state Department of Motor Vehicles had stopped issuing Tesla temporary plates and as a result they wouldn't be able to give me my car the following day as appointed (I'm not trading anything in, so I have no plates from another car to transfer over). The guy said that at that very moment his boss and his boss's boss were meeting with the NY DMV to figure out what was going on and why they wouldn't give Tesla any more temp plates, but it would be a few days at least until the issue got resolved. He was incredibly apologetic and said that Tesla would not only pay me back for the cost of my train tickets but also book me a rental car to drive to Mt. Kisco and even book me a night in a nearby hotel to make the pickup process easier. He said he'd call me by the middle of the following week to reschedule.
When I hadn't gotten a call by the following Wednesday, I called in. I spoke with a different employee in the Mt. Kisco delivery team, who explained that the issue with the NY DMV was still persisting, and that Tesla was now examining other options. She told me that one plan they had discussed was legally (& physically) transferring all of the cars from New York state into New Jersey, then selling the cars to their owners from Tesla's NJ subsidiary rather than the NY one. She told me that they were very aware and cognizant of the fact that owners needed to get their cars by the end of the year to get the full tax credit, and that if all else failed Tesla would legally sell the cars to the owners on Dec. 31 and then store them (without charge) until whenever the owners were able to drive them away. She said to give them a couple days to figure it out. K.
A couple more days go by and on Friday, 12/7 I get a phone call from an incredibly wonderful Delivery Specialist at the Mt. Kisco NY location named Sara (more about her later) who tells me that in order to expedite my delivery and to make my life easier, they've decided to transfer my car to Rhode Island, and deliver the car by truck directly to my home in New Hampshire (this is impressive... transporting a vehicle from New York to Rhode Island then individually transporting it to a customer address in New Hampshire ain't cheap! They're clearly bending over backwards to get me my car). Sara tells me that because home deliveries are handled by a separate department, responsibility for my car has been transferred to a different person, based out of Las Vegas, and that I would be hearing from that person.
Five more days go by and as of today, Tuesday 12/11 I hadn't heard from that Vegas-based home delivery person, and I was now getting antsy. I called the showroom in Boston where my order originally went through, and the sales people there said they were unable to get a hold of this person because the sales side has limited visibility into the delivery side, and they suggested I call a delivery center like Dedham MA or Mt. Kisco NY. I called Dedham and got no answer in three calls (all three eventually went to voicemail). I called Mt. Kisco, and, as luck would have it, my new friend Sara answered. She looked up my account and saw that my car had in fact been transferred to Rhode Island where it is currently located and being prepared for delivery. I told her how I hadn't heard from the Vegas-based person, and while I was on the phone with her she used Tesla's internal computer messaging function to exchange text messages with the person in Vegas and basically straight up ordered her to call me that very minute. Sara told me to hang up because the other person would be calling, and sure enough within 30 seconds a got a call from Vegas. In our brief conversation I explained that I needed the car delivered before I left for a trip, and the home delivery person said because the car was being home delivered rather than picked up I needed to mail the final payment for the car (in my case a bank check from my auto lender) to their Accounts Receivable place in Utah. She said rather than waiting for the check to go through the mail though, if I emailed her scans of the check and gave her the tracking number she'd set the car up for delivery as soon as I sent those things. So I took a trip to the post office and emailed her the scans and tracking number, and five minutes ago I got an email from her saying I should have my delivery date, when the truck is going to pull up to my house and plop my car in the driveway, tomorrow.
So that's where we're at. There have been a few other details I've glossed over (the guy at the Boston showroom screwing up the purchase and sale agreement paperwork so it reflected the wrong amounts, yet a different delivery person sending me what I'm guessing were automated text messages with seemingly random reassigned delivery appointment times that weren't informed by everything I was hearing from the other people, etc.), but they add up to create a picture of a company whose office processes aren't yet quiet as well-oiled a machine as their cars, and that is struggling a bit with the volume of cars they're moving in advance of the tax credit expiring at the end of the year, but that is also doing a completely admirable job of trying to improvise and adapt to unexpected challenges. Additionally, while the person in Vegas hasn't been very communicative up to this point (no doubt due to the volume of work), Sara, even though my case is no longer her responsibility, followed up with me independently, having completely on her own tracked down a different car identical to the one I ordered and offered to get me that one as a worst-case scenario if the person in Vegas wasn't able to arrange delivery of mine before I left for my trip. She really went above and beyond the call of duty and I wish there was a way I could let somebody know how great a job she's done.
Anyway, I'll update this post with further developments. Congrats for making it all the way through this.
I'm writing this just for the sake of letting others know what I've experienced re: the delivery of my Model 3. TL;DR: it appears Tesla is moving an enormous number of cars, and is struggling a bit with the volume and some unexpected hiccups, and is working hard to get people their cars as quickly as possible, improvising and adapting in near real-time.
If you want the long version, buckle up:
I paid the deposit for my AWD LR Model 3 via credit card on Oct. 22.
I live in New Hampshire, but I chose to take delivery at Tesla's facility in Mt. Kisco, NY (at the time the approximate wait time for the configuration of Model 3 I wanted was about two months which would put me dangerously close to the end of the year and the expiration of half the tax credit, so I wanted to speed up delivery however I possibly could. The folks at the Boston showroom, my nearest showroom, said that taking delivery in Mt. Kisco would speed up delivery by a couple of weeks, so I chose to do that to make sure I got the car before the end of the year).
I got a call/email/text (I've been communicating with various Tesla folks via all of those methods and they've all blended together in my memory) indicating my car would be available on Nov. 29. This was fantastic because it was a couple of weeks earlier than I thought I'd get it. Nov. 29 was a Thursday though, and given that I'd be traveling a ways from NH to NY to pick it up, I called and asked to change the appointment to the following Saturday, 12/1, so I could do it over the weekend rather than during the workweek. Sure, no problem, my new appointment was set for Sat., 12/1. I planned to take an Amtrak into NYC and then the NYC metro commuter rail to Mt. Kisco.
At about 6pm on Friday, 11/30 (about 12 hours before I was going to get on a train) I got a phone call from a very exasperated, very apologetic Tesla employee who told me that, while my car was in Mt. Kisco and ready to be picked up, several hours earlier the New York state Department of Motor Vehicles had stopped issuing Tesla temporary plates and as a result they wouldn't be able to give me my car the following day as appointed (I'm not trading anything in, so I have no plates from another car to transfer over). The guy said that at that very moment his boss and his boss's boss were meeting with the NY DMV to figure out what was going on and why they wouldn't give Tesla any more temp plates, but it would be a few days at least until the issue got resolved. He was incredibly apologetic and said that Tesla would not only pay me back for the cost of my train tickets but also book me a rental car to drive to Mt. Kisco and even book me a night in a nearby hotel to make the pickup process easier. He said he'd call me by the middle of the following week to reschedule.
When I hadn't gotten a call by the following Wednesday, I called in. I spoke with a different employee in the Mt. Kisco delivery team, who explained that the issue with the NY DMV was still persisting, and that Tesla was now examining other options. She told me that one plan they had discussed was legally (& physically) transferring all of the cars from New York state into New Jersey, then selling the cars to their owners from Tesla's NJ subsidiary rather than the NY one. She told me that they were very aware and cognizant of the fact that owners needed to get their cars by the end of the year to get the full tax credit, and that if all else failed Tesla would legally sell the cars to the owners on Dec. 31 and then store them (without charge) until whenever the owners were able to drive them away. She said to give them a couple days to figure it out. K.
A couple more days go by and on Friday, 12/7 I get a phone call from an incredibly wonderful Delivery Specialist at the Mt. Kisco NY location named Sara (more about her later) who tells me that in order to expedite my delivery and to make my life easier, they've decided to transfer my car to Rhode Island, and deliver the car by truck directly to my home in New Hampshire (this is impressive... transporting a vehicle from New York to Rhode Island then individually transporting it to a customer address in New Hampshire ain't cheap! They're clearly bending over backwards to get me my car). Sara tells me that because home deliveries are handled by a separate department, responsibility for my car has been transferred to a different person, based out of Las Vegas, and that I would be hearing from that person.
Five more days go by and as of today, Tuesday 12/11 I hadn't heard from that Vegas-based home delivery person, and I was now getting antsy. I called the showroom in Boston where my order originally went through, and the sales people there said they were unable to get a hold of this person because the sales side has limited visibility into the delivery side, and they suggested I call a delivery center like Dedham MA or Mt. Kisco NY. I called Dedham and got no answer in three calls (all three eventually went to voicemail). I called Mt. Kisco, and, as luck would have it, my new friend Sara answered. She looked up my account and saw that my car had in fact been transferred to Rhode Island where it is currently located and being prepared for delivery. I told her how I hadn't heard from the Vegas-based person, and while I was on the phone with her she used Tesla's internal computer messaging function to exchange text messages with the person in Vegas and basically straight up ordered her to call me that very minute. Sara told me to hang up because the other person would be calling, and sure enough within 30 seconds a got a call from Vegas. In our brief conversation I explained that I needed the car delivered before I left for a trip, and the home delivery person said because the car was being home delivered rather than picked up I needed to mail the final payment for the car (in my case a bank check from my auto lender) to their Accounts Receivable place in Utah. She said rather than waiting for the check to go through the mail though, if I emailed her scans of the check and gave her the tracking number she'd set the car up for delivery as soon as I sent those things. So I took a trip to the post office and emailed her the scans and tracking number, and five minutes ago I got an email from her saying I should have my delivery date, when the truck is going to pull up to my house and plop my car in the driveway, tomorrow.
So that's where we're at. There have been a few other details I've glossed over (the guy at the Boston showroom screwing up the purchase and sale agreement paperwork so it reflected the wrong amounts, yet a different delivery person sending me what I'm guessing were automated text messages with seemingly random reassigned delivery appointment times that weren't informed by everything I was hearing from the other people, etc.), but they add up to create a picture of a company whose office processes aren't yet quiet as well-oiled a machine as their cars, and that is struggling a bit with the volume of cars they're moving in advance of the tax credit expiring at the end of the year, but that is also doing a completely admirable job of trying to improvise and adapt to unexpected challenges. Additionally, while the person in Vegas hasn't been very communicative up to this point (no doubt due to the volume of work), Sara, even though my case is no longer her responsibility, followed up with me independently, having completely on her own tracked down a different car identical to the one I ordered and offered to get me that one as a worst-case scenario if the person in Vegas wasn't able to arrange delivery of mine before I left for my trip. She really went above and beyond the call of duty and I wish there was a way I could let somebody know how great a job she's done.
Anyway, I'll update this post with further developments. Congrats for making it all the way through this.
