Trade-in Bait and Switch

[TCMommy]

Please tell me if I am being unreasonable......

I ordered my Model 3 SR+ (black/black with FSD) on 10/16/19. At the time, I did a trade-in value for my existing vehicle (Range Rover Velar) and received a trade in value and Tesla even approved it in my delivery profile. At the time of my order it was supposed to be a 2-3 week delivery.
Fast forward almost 7 weeks later. After communicating with my Delivery Center, I asked about my trade-in value as it has now at this point gone past the 30 days even though I am still under the 1000 miles. I felt they should extend my approval since they initially gave me a 2-3 week delivery. Long story short, they actually came back and now are saying that their trade-in valuation online didn't evaluate the correct trim of my car EVEN THOUGH I PUT IN MY VIN....AND the person that approved it didn't look at that. So NOW, they want to give me OVER $5,000 LESS for my trade in!!!!!!
Now that the cars are finally coming in, they are telling me this now! They will not budge!! How is this RIGHT????
They are saying, I can take it or just cancel my order to get my $2500 back.....GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE! NOT!!!!

 

[Tdriver]

Sell the car yourself. Trade-ins are never ever a good deal for the owner. Velar is a beautiful car.

 

[TCMommy]

Sell the car yourself. Trade-ins are never ever a good deal for the owner. Velar is a beautiful car.

I would have done that 7 weeks ago if they didn't approve this value back then!! Now its too late!

 

[Ben10]

Please tell me if I am being unreasonable......

I ordered my Model 3 SR+ (black/black with FSD) on 10/16/19. At the time, I did a trade-in value for my existing vehicle (Range Rover Velar) and received a trade in value and Tesla even approved it in my delivery profile. At the time of my order it was supposed to be a 2-3 week delivery.
Fast forward almost 7 weeks later. After communicating with my Delivery Center, I asked about my trade-in value as it has now at this point gone past the 30 days even though I am still under the 1000 miles. I felt they should extend my approval since they initially gave me a 2-3 week delivery. Long story short, they actually came back and now are saying that their trade-in valuation online didn't evaluate the correct trim of my car EVEN THOUGH I PUT IN MY VIN....AND the person that approved it didn't look at that. So NOW, they want to give me OVER $5,000 LESS for my trade in!!!!!!
Now that the cars are finally coming in, they are telling me this now! They will not budge!! How is this RIGHT????
They are saying, I can take it or just cancel my order to get my $2500 back.....GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE! NOT!!!!

Try Carvana or KBB instant quote and if anything go to Carmax and get an appraisal and Tesla will honor it.

 

[MP3Mike]

I would have done that 7 weeks ago if they didn't approve this value back then!! Now its too late!

There are plenty of services like CarMax that will generally pay more for your car and do it quickly. (Tesla will often even match a CarMax quote.)

 

[RangerMac]

I would have done that 7 weeks ago if they didn't approve this value back then!! Now its too late!

Not too late. I sold mine in a few days for 20% more than there offer. They will also match Carmax offer and you get the trade in credit to taxes that way.

 

[George75]

I went to Carmax and Tesla matched it. Tesla's valuation was a good $3,000 less than Carmax. Also tried Carvana and Vroom. In my instance it was a better deal to have Tesla match Carmax and save some more on taxes. OP is correct though, Tesla does give us the paying customer the short end of the stick on trades when they (Tesla) change the rules mid game and we're left to cover the cost.

 

[AZjohnInCA]

Please tell me if I am being unreasonable

You are not and that experience would tip me over the edge.
Between what I read here and my own experiences I’m like WTF is going on with Tesla????

 

[jmaddr]

I'm hearing about this more and more. Tesla's trade-in is only good for 30 days and many times it takes more than 30 days to deliver your car. @TCMommy you have a unique situation where they actually made a mistake (wrong trim) when initially evaluating your car. Tesla (I hope) would have honored that quote for 30 days but has every right to drop it back down especially if the original quote was obviously above standard values.

Yes, it's poor form b/c they are taking advantage of a situation where there is not another EV option out there even close (technologically) to a Tesla. Alway remember...you can walk away. These practices will bite them when the other manufacturers catch up in a few years. Incidents like these and other poor customer service burn owners for years. Those owners give negative reviews to their friends and turn off prospective buyers.

@TCMommy, is Tesla's current trade-in (the one that is $5000 less) a fair one? Was the original trade-in a cherry deal and over-valued the market? If so, it does make sense (financial - but not customer service wise) for Tesla not to honor it. I concur with others that you should take it to Carmax and other locations for a quote and see how it compares to Tesla's new one. Maybe you can recover some of that 5 grand by taking that quote to Tesla and if they honor it, you can subtract that from your taxes in many states.

As this is happening more and more, new buyers with >30 days delivery time need to be more aware this can happen. I really wish Tesla would not quote trade-in value until 2 weeks before expected delivery and stupid incidents like these would disappear.

 

[Skitt]

Tesla offered me 15k for my 2017 Crosstrek and Carvana only offered 14700. I am just hoping my car gets here before their quote disappears.

 

[adrianp89]

I would push it up the chain of command. That is messed up on all fronts.

 

[jjrandorin]

Not too late. I sold mine in a few days for 20% more than there offer. They will also match Carmax offer and you get the trade in credit to taxes that way.

We dont have trade in credits in CA so no need for a person to focus on trading in a car for tax credits for OP.

 

[bpobill]

Get a trade in value from Carvana and Vroom. It takes a couple minutes and tends to be higher than most others.

 

[TCMommy]

Thank you everyone for your responses....unfortunately the quote they gave was the best and better then CarMax etc....most likely due to the trim but my point is that they approved it and if it didn’t expire they would have to honor it and probably wouldn’t even have taken a second look at it. I was happy with the higher value but didn’t know it was because of the trim thing so I didn’t pursue any other avenues such as selling privately....I have run it up the chain but they are unwilling to honor that. I agree that if there were other EV manufacturers that compared to Tesla at this time they would be more interested to help me out. But I know that once I cancel my order they have a long list of buyers to take the car I ordered. And they would pay more for it since I ordered before the increase. So disappointed.

 

[jmaddr]

Yes, disappointing for sure. Sorry for your troubles. I hope Tesla watches these and uses instances such as these to fine tune their practices.

 

[JBailey895]

I got a really low trade in estimate from Tesla, got a higher one from Carmax, they agreed to match, then got an even higher one from Carvana, but haven't presented it, as I know I can get more on the open market. JJ is correct, there is NO tax advantage for trade-ins in CA, so there is no incentive to give it to Tesla, other than ease of transaction. You'll get more from CL or Autotrader, but with additional hassle.

 

[Tigerkc]

Many ways to sell the car, no need to trade in, and no need to get upset about.

 

[adrianp89]

Many ways to sell the car, no need to trade in, and no need to get upset about.

Tesla basically told him here’s the deal. Then they couldn’t deliver on the promise and essentially took 5 grand from him. He has every right to be upset. Way too many people defend Tesla’s *sugar* service on this forum

 

[AZjohnInCA]

I tried CarMax and it was almost $1K less than Tesla.

Because of posters on this thread I just tried Carvana and they were alsmost $1K higher than Tesla.

I never heard of Carvana before and I have no idea how they work out. But, just downloaded everything they wanted and they said they will be back in touch within 1 or 2 days.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! This is a great web community
Cheers,
John

 

[George75]

I tried CarMax and it was almost $1K less than Tesla.

Because of posters on this thread I just tried Carvana and they were alsmost $1K higher than Tesla.

I never heard of Carvana before and I have no idea how they work out. But, just downloaded everything they wanted and they said they will be back in touch within 1 or 2 days.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! This is a great web community
Cheers,
John

I sold my last car to Carvana, quick and easy! They where here picked up the car and gone within no more than 15 - 20 minutes and left me with payment.