Trade-in Bait and Switch

[MP3Mike]

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

No, the offer he had from Tesla expired, they likely would have honored it had the transaction happened during the valid period of the trade-in offer. And it is certainly reasonable to expect that the value of a used car can change after more than 30 days. (market demand and all.)

And then there is the issue that the original offer was the result of a mistake. Does the offer paperwork cover mistakes? (A lot of contracts have language in them that invalidate them when a unintentional mistake is found.)

 

[CrazyCaliLib]

Carvana offered me 12k compared to the 10.7k that Tesla offered me for my trade-in. They even come to your house on the scheduled date to pick it up with check in hand.

 

[Fredneck]

No, the offer he had from Tesla expired, they likely would have honored it had the transaction happened during the valid period of the trade-in offer. And it is certainly reasonable to expect that the value of a used car can change after more than 30 days. (market demand and all.)

And then there is the issue that the original offer was the result of a mistake. Does the offer paperwork cover mistakes? (A lot of contracts have language in them that invalidate them when a unintentional mistake is found.)

Do they also apply that to buying the new car?

 

[Ben10]

Just a quick PSA Carvana offers will not be honored by Tesla. Tesla only honors Carmax offers

 

[adrianp89]

No, the offer he had from Tesla expired, they likely would have honored it had the transaction happened during the valid period of the trade-in offer. And it is certainly reasonable to expect that the value of a used car can change after more than 30 days. (market demand and all.)

And then there is the issue that the original offer was the result of a mistake. Does the offer paperwork cover mistakes? (A lot of contracts have language in them that invalidate them when a unintentional mistake is found.)

The offer expired because Tesla couldn’t deliver on its promise of the original delivery window.

 

[holmgang]

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!!!!

Since culpability doesn't have to be a binary thing:

(1) Trade-in window: 95% Tesla fault. Even if it's universally known that their delivery is slow, they still promised a delivery compatible with the trade-in validity window. They should work to resolve that.

(2) Trade-in value: 65% Tesla fault. You did your part which is to provide the proper car information. It's their responsibility to evaluate it properly. That said, $5000 is a substantial difference, and that that original offer is the best you received, indicates it is a mistake (rather than intentional deceit, i.e. bait and switch). It is reasonable that you should have known the fair ballpark value and that this was an anomalous offer. It is still majority their fault, but it's hard to accept that they eat the cost that error whole.

 

[AZjohnInCA]

Since culpability doesn't have to be a binary thing:

(1) Trade-in window: 95% Tesla fault. Even if it's universally known that their delivery is slow, they still promised a delivery compatible with the trade-in validity window. They should work to resolve that.

(2) Trade-in value: 65% Tesla fault. You did your part which is to provide the proper car information. It's their responsibility to evaluate it properly. That said, $5000 is a substantial difference, and that that original offer is the best you received, indicates it is a mistake (rather than intentional deceit, i.e. bait and switch). It is reasonable that you should have known the fair ballpark value and that this was an anomalous offer. It is still majority their fault, but it's hard to accept that they eat the cost that error whole.

I'm not OP but your conclusions would be false in my case;
1.) Being a new Tesla customer, I had no clue of Tesla's current delivery record and to assume it's "universally known their delivery is slow" (like 3X slower) is wrong. Why would you think everyone would know??
2.) I had Tesla do the only trade in quote. When they came up with what $ number I thought it was fair then there was no need to compare other quotes. Putting blame on me for Tesla screwing up that quote would 100% Tesla's fault.

 

[jmaddr]

Agreed. What Tesla did was entirely within their legal right and they should drop it once the trim problem was found and the 30 days expired. However, it was also entirely wrong from a customer first perspective. Nothing good comes from this policy when the delivery times are commonly beyond 30 days.

The fix is easy IMHO. Tesla should not even quote trade-in values until 30 days before delivery. Do not update the purchase agreement until 30 days before delivery.

 

[MP3Mike]

Tesla doesn't promise a delivery window, they give you an estimated delivery window.

 

[mswlogo]

Sorry but You’re screwed.

All you can do is goto CarMax and get an appraisal and hope it comes in higher. And they will match it. It probably will be higher but might not be much higher. This came out better for me than selling private. This was on mint 2017 Jeep Summit. I could not get a dime more than what CarMax offered (including tax break).

Tesla screwed up and gave me the wrong quote on Model 3 trade and initially. Looked good until I saw it was the wrong car. They had my car on my account and quoted the wrong car. Wrong trim and year.

There is no guarantee delivery date will lock in trade value. And if it was wrong trim you would have been screwed at delivery anyway if it was on time. So you never really had that deal. 30 day lock is fairly generous to begin with.

It’s frustrating but you have to suck it up and move on, don’t let it spoil your purchase. It’s generally a very pleasant experience. All the people you’re dealing with don’t the have means/authority to override the computer/policies.

selling to anyone but Tesla you lose tax break off new car (in 44 states). So private sale needs to be higher by that amount.

 

[jmaddr]

Tesla doesn't promise a delivery window, they give you an estimated delivery window.

So what's the normal time from delivery date notification to delivery date? For me it was only 7 days but that's because it was an inventory car. Not sure about a build-to-order. If it's still only about 7 days out...or even less...I still think they should then not quote trade-ins until a confirmed delivery date.

I think it's entirely reasonable to tell the customer your trade-in will be evaluated when a delivery date is set. If you want to know current value of your trade-in for an approximation, please consult the available services out there (KBB or Carmax or whatever).
I've never ordered a new car from a dealer...what do they do when you order a new car that has to be built (like Porsche)? I would assume they would not give you a trade-in until likely the day of delivery but those times are usually pretty long between order and delivery.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

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

In this case, the OP was going to get a sweet deal and that's off the table. Other people have fared much worse, with Tesla reducing trade-in offers from reasonable to unreasonable.

The OP should be disappointed rather than upset.

If they want the car and not to take the hit, they need to go for a private sale instead. There's no trade-in credit.

If they don't want the car at the new price, walk away.

 

[MP3Mike]

If they want the car and not to take the hit, they need to go for a private sale instead. There's no trade-in credit.

I think the point is even selling privately he would have to "take the hit" because Tesla quoted on the wrong trim level and his vehicle isn't worth that much even privately.

 

[holmgang]

I'm not OP but your conclusions would be false in my case;
1.) Being a new Tesla customer, I had no clue of Tesla's current delivery record and to assume it's "universally known their delivery is slow" (like 3X slower) is wrong. Why would you think everyone would know??
2.) I had Tesla do the only trade in quote. When they came up with what $ number I thought it was fair then there was no need to compare other quotes. Putting blame on me for Tesla screwing up that quote would 100% Tesla's fault.

(1) It's not incumbent for people to have already known that. But it's established that most people know that. Have you ordered a car made-to-order before? Have you ordered a car Amazon shop-cart style with a changing inventory list, from a manufacturer selling direct with no dealership network before? And as in your admission that you did not know that at all before deciding to buy one, did you still not know that afterwards - the moment after placing order either online or via SA in a showroom? Or did it come as a surprise 3 weeks later when the car still didnt show up in your possession?

Just a reminder I did not at all absolve Tesla for not delivering on time, but with the information sharing that goes on today, I am saying nobody should feign surprise when their vehicle are not delivered on time.

(2) What you thought was fair, means you have a cognition for judging value. So we should value that cognition, no? There are tons of consumer examples of "mistake" air fares, accidental cash deposits in peoples bank accounts, etc, and many of them dont end up siding with the consumer. It's not the consumers error that leads to those scenarios, but its reasonable expectation that consumer recognize those scenarios as erroneous. Your 10k monthly paycheck balloons to 100k in the bank statement because somebody fat-fingered an extra 0, you should know that the 90k doesnt belong to you. (totally different scale, admittedly). Again, the fault here lies on the side of Tesla, but if I was judge i wouldnt force Tesla to eat the entire mistake.

 

[19White3]

Did Tesla actually see and inspect the Rover? If so, I would be upset, but you are beyond the 30 day window and that is really the end of the story. My SA told me he would need to inspect my trade in and the quote was only good for 30 days - if Carmax was above Tesla, he would honor it, but only within 30 days of delivery so play the game wisely he said. This is the reason I sold my car a few days after ordering my 3 to Vroom. Vroom was 3k more than Carmax and $2500 more than Carvana. I knew Tesla wouldn't come close to those numbers and didn't want to risk late delivery and depreciation. It's all a game.

 

[ucmndd]

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

So what you’re saying is yes, Tesla’s initial offer was above market value. There’s absolutely no reason they would “have to honor it” - a mistake was made, your car was evaluated and valued based on options/trim it doesn’t have, and the mistake was corrected.

You say you “gave them the VIN”, but VINs rarely include information about trim levels and options these days. Did you initially report the correct trim and options to Tesla during the trade eval? Did you catch the discrepancy and hope they just wouldn’t notice?

 

[George75]

Be careful if your dealing with Tesla and Carmax. I had my vehicle appraised in one of their stores. The appraisal expired, called Carmax as they said they'd update it for free. They had me do their online appraisal sent that to Tesla and they just denied it today, said I needed it printed. Called Carmax then sent the full/complete appraisal via email and so far no response from Tesla. To be safe when it comes to appraisals. Tesla want us to waste half a day over there before they'll honor the price match. My options right now are take time off to meet Tesla's demands or push back delivery.

 

[JohnnyBoy011]

Just throwing in my experience getting rid of my current vehicle. Seeing as it is a lease that I still had several payments on (but needed to get rid of it cause it was way over miles) I knew I was going to have negative equity on the car, so I had to find which would be the cheapest way to get rid of the vehicle. (The lease expires in July, given the mileage rate it would be the most expensive option to wait till the lease is done and pay for the extra miles.)

Tesla offered me the least amount for trade-in at ~$4,000 less than payoff, Carmax came next with ~$3,500 less than payoff, Carvana came next with ~$2,800 less than payoff, and finally Vroom came next with ~$2,300 less than payoff. I currently just need to fill out the contract that Vroom just sent me by mail and once they have the car I will get a link to pay the negative equity.

Always worth it to shop around, I feel.

 

[mreynolds767]

If I were in the OP's shoes I would be upset at Telsa.
If I look at it objectively not as the OP ; I don't entirely blame Tesla for over valuing a trade in and then correcting it as the time got closer which is what happened in my eyes.
If this scenario played out at point of delivery and not days prior, I would side more with the OP.

The OP is getting likely a fair trade value just not the high offer they initially had and were expecting be honored.
There is no legal reason for Telsa to overpay for your trade-in. They want to sell you a car but not if it means taking a loss on your trade in.

 

[AZjohnInCA]

(1) It's not incumbent for people to have already known that. But it's established that most people know that. Have you ordered a car made-to-order before? Have you ordered a car Amazon shop-cart style with a changing inventory list, from a manufacturer selling direct with no dealership network before? And as in your admission that you did not know that at all before deciding to buy one, did you still not know that afterwards - the moment after placing order either online or via SA in a showroom? Or did it come as a surprise 3 weeks later when the car still didnt show up in your possession?

Just a reminder I did not at all absolve Tesla for not delivering on time, but with the information sharing that goes on today, I am saying nobody should feign surprise when their vehicle are not delivered on time.

(2) What you thought was fair, means you have a cognition for judging value. So we should value that cognition, no? There are tons of consumer examples of "mistake" air fares, accidental cash deposits in peoples bank accounts, etc, and many of them dont end up siding with the consumer. It's not the consumers error that leads to those scenarios, but its reasonable expectation that consumer recognize those scenarios as erroneous. Your 10k monthly paycheck balloons to 100k in the bank statement because somebody fat-fingered an extra 0, you should know that the 90k doesnt belong to you. (totally different scale, admittedly). Again, the fault here lies on the side of Tesla, but if I was judge i wouldnt force Tesla to eat the entire mistake.

Let's just agree that we greatly disagree