Trading in my M3 for MY - Sales process is a JOKE!

[dansev]

When I bought a Model 3 in 2019, I met a human being at a Tesla store, and I had access to a phone number allowing me to call people. Granted, they were borderline idiots, but at least they could answer most questions. Now, I seem to have the same type of idiots, but the only way I can reach them is via text. And they barely respond. I don't mind the texting method at all, but at least be responsive. This is ridiculous. Anyone have any advice here?

I have questions about the rebates/credits being taken at POS, whether the car will come with mud flaps and the $50 PPF, and if not, can I pay to have that installed? I'm also trying to download the proper sales documents and the mysterious texter says they are in the "financing" section of the App, but I don't see any docs there to download. Also trying to understand what's going on with my trade-in. No answers. Just confusion--especially confusing as there are at least two people on the receiving end of my texts and they don't seem to share information or even be able to access all of my text history.

Complete joke. Eh, no big deal, just spending $55,000!

 

[fiehlsport]

I have questions about the rebates/credits being taken at POS, whether the car will come with mud flaps and the $50 PPF, and if not, can I pay to have that installed?

Yes, no, no. You can schedule a mobile service appt after taking delivery if you want someone to come to your house to install the accessories.

Everything you've said seems par for the course. Texting Tesla sucks, but someone will call you as you get closer to your delivery date.

 

[Twiglett]

I've got exactly the same issue. Nothing but automated messages in the app and texts.
Last set were "Set delivery date or we will release the car to someone else" - all questions still unanswered.
They're only giving me two choices of delivery date and both are ridiculously close, no way I can get all the things they want, but I can't do insurance until the date is set. So frustrating.

 

[Alonzo]

Over and over I read people bragging about Tesla's sales process and how it is so much easier than a conventional dealership. Nonsense. At a dealership, you go talk to a real person. You can call and talk to that same real person again and again, if you want. You can sit down with a real person and get your questions answered, if you need. You sit down for 15 minutes with a real person and do all the paperwork and payment.

With Tesla, you never see or talk to the same person twice. There's no accountability, they can tell you anything they want and good luck ever finding them again. Tesla employees hide behind emails and texts, when you do get one on the phone they might be anywhere in the country, instead of at your nearest Tesla center.

I've never had an issue with regular dealerships, and I've bought at least two dozen vehicles over the years from dealers. I go in, find a vehicle I like, decide on a price I want to pay, make the offer, and then walk out if they don't accept the offer. Easy peasy, no problem. If they do accept my offer, I go back later (usually the next day) and spend 15 minutes with the finance officer, then drive my new vehicle home. Trade-in process is easy and smooth and doesn't require me taking a dozen photos and sending them off.

With Tesla, it's juggle a variety of documents sent to me via email and text one after the other. Copy, scan, sign, re-scan, send...................pain in the butt. I spent lot's more time buying my Tesla than any car I've ever bought before. I didn't even mention that I had to drive over two hours just to look at a Tesla, with the same trip a few days later to pick it up.

That said, I really do like my MYLR.

 

[chudiddy]

What's the craziest thing to me is that they make you upload all these docs, take pics of trade in, apply for financing, change insurance, schedule delivery appointment...THEN decide to reduce the trade in value by $2k and expect people to just take it up the ass and accept. If not and you decide to cancel, then ur out the $250 order fee. This is criminal and no matter how much you complain, they don't care and won't do a thing about it.

I am literally in the process of purchasing a MY and this exact scenario just happened where my trade lost 2k in value all of a sudden. Fortunately i still had an active appraisal with carvana and they gave me $5k more than tesla. So i pulled the trade and proceeded with the sale. I pick up later today at 5pm. I still don't expect a smooth delivery process but we'll see how it goes.

If not for $3900 inventory discount, $7500 pos tax rebate, $1k cybertruck reservation discount, and transfer of FSD, Tesla wouldnt be getting another dime from me.

For anyone curious, i bought a 2024 MY AWD in Stealth Gray with white interior.

 

[father_of_6]

Over and over I read people bragging about Tesla's sales process and how it is so much easier than a conventional dealership. Nonsense. At a dealership, you go talk to a real person.

Last time I bought an ICE from a dealership, the guy dropped the ball so many times. He wouldn't get back to me for days.

Tesla should provide a $2000 hand-holding service for purchasing. The $2k goes straight to the salesman helping.

 

[Alonzo]

Last time I bought an ICE from a dealership, the guy dropped the ball so many times. He wouldn't get back to me for days.

Tesla should provide a $2000 hand-holding service for purchasing. The $2k goes straight to the salesman helping.

That's just it, never needed hand holding with regular dealership. Go there, pick a vehicle, make an offer, go pick it up. If I had questions about features included or purchase process, I had someone to call and ask. Unlike Tesla, where you talk to a different person each time and they can lie to you or misrepresent things with no accountability.

I think part of the problem is that in Texas, Tesla does not have dealerships or sales locations. You can't go and sit face to face with a salesman and discuss a specific vehicle. Evidently, in NY you can, since you refer to Tesla salesman. No such thing in TX.

When I went to Houston to demo a MYLR, I sat down with a very knowledgeable Tesla Rep who answered lot's of generic questions. I went home and ordered a vehicle. I had specific questions about that vehicle, so I called the number that the Rep had given me, even with his extension. A guy in Denver answered the phone and lied repeatedly to me. Subsequent calls to that phone number got answered from Florida and California and Texas and Colorado, but never by the same person. They all had a different take on the process.

 

[Harriscott]

If not for $3900 inventory discount, $7500 pos tax rebate, $1k cybertruck reservation discount, and transfer of FSD, Tesla wouldnt be getting another dime from me.

Did you also get 10k "loyalty" credits? That is worth a few $, or quite a few if you want acceleration boost.

 

[chudiddy]

Did you also get 10k "loyalty" credits? That is worth a few $, or quite a few if you want acceleration boost.

Oh for sure!!! Wasnt letting that one go!

 

[dansev]

Oh for sure!!! Wasnt letting that one go!

Yes, I’m allegedly getting that too. Although, at this point, I’ll believe everything when it actually happens. The acceleration boost does seem to be a good deal. Any other things in there that seem like they’re valued well with the loyalty points? Can I put them towards the winter tire package?

 

[chudiddy]

Yes, I’m allegedly getting that too. Although, at this point, I’ll believe everything when it actually happens. The acceleration boost does seem to be a good deal. Any other things in there that seem like they’re valued well with the loyalty points? Can I put them towards the winter tire package?

My 10K loyalty points are showing pending on the app, they should clear once i take delivery. Lots of decent stuff on the "Redeem" section of the app from accel boost to accessories. I may do the acceleration boost myself. One step at a time. Let's just hope the delivery goes smoothly.

 

[dansev]

….Unlike Tesla, where you talk to a different person each time and they can lie to you or misrepresent things with no accountability.

Yes, there is no accountability whatsoever. When I bought my Model 3 in 2019, the sales associate told me that the 5000 free supercharging miles I was getting never expired. We had a whole conversation about it. Functionally speaking, that was going to last me the life of the car, because I knew I wouldn’t use the supercharging all that often. Of course, after hardly using any of the miles, I found out they expired, and I freaked out. And it just didn’t matter. No one cared. Phone calls and emails went unanswered. The guy completely lied to me, and there was no accountability.

 

[Alonzo]

My 10K loyalty points are showing pending on the app, they should clear once i take delivery. Lots of decent stuff on the "Redeem" section of the app from accel boost to accessories. I may do the acceleration boost myself. One step at a time. Let's just hope the delivery goes smoothly.

The Premium Connectivity is 2500 points and worth $100. The CCS adapter is 4000 points and worth $250. I'd like to have the CCS adapter, but won't pay $250 when there are aftermarket ones for $100. It seems the charging stations give stiff warnings about using a non-Tesla adapter. So, I guess I need to earn some points.

 

[zoomer0056]

When I bought a Model 3 in 2019, I met a human being at a Tesla store, and I had access to a phone number allowing me to call people. Granted, they were borderline idiots, but at least they could answer most questions. Now, I seem to have the same type of idiots, but the only way I can reach them is via text. And they barely respond. I don't mind the texting method at all, but at least be responsive. This is ridiculous. Anyone have any advice here?

I have questions about the rebates/credits being taken at POS, whether the car will come with mud flaps and the $50 PPF, and if not, can I pay to have that installed? I'm also trying to download the proper sales documents and the mysterious texter says they are in the "financing" section of the App, but I don't see any docs there to download. Also trying to understand what's going on with my trade-in. No answers. Just confusion--especially confusing as there are at least two people on the receiving end of my texts and they don't seem to share information or even be able to access all of my text history.

Complete joke. Eh, no big deal, just spending $55,000!

Can you give us some screen shots of the texting back and forth?

 

[RickCRNA]

Took delivery of an inventory 2024 MYLR Stealth Grey/White seats/tow today with a trade-in of 2022 Model 3 LR in pristine condition with 22K miles on it. Initial trade in estimate was $28,100 but final amount was $25,500 since the techs had to remove frontal PPF to get the car back to factory spec or that is what I was told. Very disappointing. Very happy with the vehicle, but the transaction was less desirable.

 

[popgodazipa]

Moral of the story...private sale or other 3rd party dealership but never trade in to Tesla. Check

 

[Twiglett]

Yes, I’m allegedly getting that too. Although, at this point, I’ll believe everything when it actually happens. The acceleration boost does seem to be a good deal. Any other things in there that seem like they’re valued well with the loyalty points? Can I put them towards the winter tire package?

The wall charger is 9000 points, much better than paying for it, at least for me. I need to install one out side now our Model 3 is relegated out of the garage.
Do you have to request the loyalty points or do they just show up?

 

[chudiddy]

Completed my delivery yesterday at 5pm and it ended up going super smooth and extremely fast. I was in and out in less than 20 mins. Car looked perfect to me and when I hit accept delivery on the app..BOOM.. everything was there including the FSD transfer.

Loyalty points showed up as well and I didn't have to do anything. Post sales process is great, can't say the same for the actual buying process.

For reference, I ordered at 4:52pm EST on Feb 8, 2024 and took delivery at 4:45pm EST on Feb 10, 2024. Almost exactly 48 hrs.

 

[PineNut]

The wall charger is 9000 points, much better than paying for it, at least for me. I need to install one out side now our Model 3 is relegated out of the garage.
Do you have to request the loyalty points or do they just show up?

In my case, the points just showed up after I picked up the new Tesla MY.

Similar to the OP, I was given a trade-in price by Tesla for my previous MY. The price was of course lower than I wanted, but I decided to accept it and I ordered a new 2024 MY from inventory that same day. The very next day, Tesla lowered the quoted price for my MY by $2900. I would not accept that so I cancelled my order from the previous day and lost out on my $250 deposit.

However, the following week the inventory price for a Model Y was lowered by $1000. So I ordered another one, after being assured I would get 10,000 loyalty points, and placed another $250 deposit. This time I shopped my MY around and got an offer from CarMax which was about $3600 better than Tesla's last offer. I traded in my MY a couple days before pickup of the new MY. While resetting my MY to factory conditions at CarMax I saw a message that any loyalty points were deleted. That message caused me to worry that the 10,000 loyalty points for the new MY were assigned to the MY I traded in because it did not have any loyalty points that I was aware of. But that turned out to not be the case, I did eventually get the 10,000 in my Tesla account for the new MY after I picked it up.

Anyway, all this hassle and Tesla's lowering my trade-in offer not only got me a new MY for much less net cost than the original deal (I netted a savings of $1000 lower price plus $3600 trade-in minus $250 lost deposit), but Tesla also lost out on $750 they could have had ($1000 lower price minus my previous $250 deposit).

 

[PoitNarf]

I ordered a new inventory Y on Saturday, took photos of my trade-in 3 in the app the same day and I’m still waiting to hear back with their final offer for the trade-in. I don’t want to proceed with the remaining steps until that part is finished. Sent multiple text messages and messages in the Tesla app at all. Nothing but crickets. I’m scheduled for delivery on Thursday, but unless they get back to me about my trade-in soon and my questions about the FSD transfer I’m not so sure the original delivery date will hold.

As the others have said, this was a much more pleasant buying experience back in 2018 when I got my 3. I talked to a live person on the phone several times. If they want to improve their sales numbers for the quarter then addressing these communication issues during the purchasing process seems like it should be at the top of their list.

Edit: Literally the second after I posted this I got a reply back from Tesla saying that they’re reaching out to the trade-in team for an update. So given the speed of things so far, I’m not expecting to hear back until tomorrow…