Tesla Drops Its 7-Day Return Policy (electrek.co) 95
"Tesla has removed its ballsy 'no questions asked' 7-day return policy that Elon Musk has been pushing as a show of confidence for the automaker," reports Electrek:
CEO Elon Musk often used the policy in marketing Tesla vehicles to potential buyers... Tesla literally wrote in its support page for the policy, "This return policy is intended to give you confidence in your purchase of a Tesla vehicle, and so is in addition to any other rights you may have under applicable law." As long as there was no damage to the vehicle and less than 1,000 miles on the odometer, buyers were able to return the vehicle to Tesla for a full refund.
Now sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that Tesla has discontinued the policy Thursday night. The support page for the policy now redirects to Tesla's general support page without any replacement policy. Sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that dissatisfied buyers will now be referred to Tesla's service department if they express wanting to return a vehicle for whatever reason...
"Normally, we would ask Tesla's PR department about it, but as we recently reported, it has been disbanded."
"Tesla does, however, have dealerships," reports Mashable: So I tried calling one and the salesperson who answered readily confirmed that yes, the seven-day return policy is no more. They told me the policy used to make sense because Tesla didn't have a major presence in many states, and so showrooms and test drives weren't widely available.
That's no longer the case, however. With more than 100 Tesla showrooms in the U.S. alone, it's much easier for a prospective buyer to check out one of the cars before they buy it.
The Motley Fool notes that "In midafternoon trading on Friday, Tesla's shares were down by 1.2%, in contrast to the gains of the broader stock market."
Now sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that Tesla has discontinued the policy Thursday night. The support page for the policy now redirects to Tesla's general support page without any replacement policy. Sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that dissatisfied buyers will now be referred to Tesla's service department if they express wanting to return a vehicle for whatever reason...
"Normally, we would ask Tesla's PR department about it, but as we recently reported, it has been disbanded."
"Tesla does, however, have dealerships," reports Mashable: So I tried calling one and the salesperson who answered readily confirmed that yes, the seven-day return policy is no more. They told me the policy used to make sense because Tesla didn't have a major presence in many states, and so showrooms and test drives weren't widely available.
That's no longer the case, however. With more than 100 Tesla showrooms in the U.S. alone, it's much easier for a prospective buyer to check out one of the cars before they buy it.
The Motley Fool notes that "In midafternoon trading on Friday, Tesla's shares were down by 1.2%, in contrast to the gains of the broader stock market."
Costing them money? (Score:4, Insightful)
So a lot of purchasers were returning the cars?
Re:Costing them money? (Score:4, Insightful)
Same here - it's good PR, so it must have cost too (Score:5, Interesting)
I had the same first thought. Having the policy was good PR.
Dropping the policy after they promoted it is bad PR.
So they must have done so because the number of returns cost too much; it was better to take the PR hit than to continue having that many returns.
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Maybe they weren't "returns"? Maybe there's just too many millenials out there who wanted to get a free car for the weekend?
I bought a new phone last week from a store that's famous for no-quibble returns. It had a sticker on the box saying "we only accept returns in case of defects and we'll only exchange for the same model". I suspect the same thing was happening there.
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Maybe there's just too many millenials out there who wanted to get a free car for the weekend?
Yeah, totally worth a hard pull on your credit which stays there for 2 years, just to rent a Tesla for 7 days. /s
Seriously though, you've also gotta have really good credit to even get approved for a car in Tesla's price range, and generally that does indicate you've probably been smart enough to keep an eye on your credit reports.
It's far more likely Tesla ditched the return period because of legitimate buyer's remorse returns. EV ownership probably takes some getting used to (most of us have gone our ent
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In some states it doesn't matter what the policy is they have to accept returns for 14 days. Or maybe 3 days ago when he picked it up, they were using the old policy. That's what matters during a policy changeover.
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you can't do a walk of shame to a gas station for 5 gallons of electrons).
I sense a business opportunity.
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I can offer some consulting services if you need to purchase custom battery packs specified in coulombs per liter.
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This is the US, so I'll need horses per gallon.
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That's fine, I'm in the US too.
1 HP = 745.7 Watts
1 gallon = 231 in^3
Right now I'm building a 3 horsepower-hour battery pack, it is 15 1/2"x7"x4", so that is 434 in^3
That's 1.6 horses per gallon, or 1.879 gallons per 3 horse-hour battery pack.
That's a premium P20 S13 smart pack with isolated balance charger and load mosfets at each series stage using 18650 cells.
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Well done! Extra credit for showing your work.
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The sad life of consulting; having all those numbers in my calculator history already.
Not a bad idea. If you get Tesla to tell people (Score:2)
That's not a bad idea. About six minutes of charging should be enough to get the customer to a charging station in most cases.
I imagine you could market on Tesla related forums, Facebook groups, etc in your city at first. Then expand to other cites.
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As if external battery packs for phones aren't a brutal enough solution, now you're suggesting them for cars.
What's "brutal" about power bricks for phones? I have one that I take when traveling since I can't rely on access to an out let in an airport or rest stop. And when I'm on a plane I'm much more likely to watch movies for 6 hours straight, which lots of phones will only marginally handle.
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Also, then you have something dangling off your phone all the time.
If I'm sitting in a seat not moving and the phone is plugged in, what difference does it make whether it's plugged in to a brick in my bag or an outlet in the wall?
Why not just have a bigger battery in the phone?
Sure, that would be great. Tell me where I can find one.
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Re: Not a bad idea. If you get Tesla to tell peopl (Score:2)
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Batteries are not meant to charge other batteries.
Is this a new rule? I haven't been keeping up.
Also, then you have something dangling off your phone all the time.
That's a comical situation fer sure, xkcd should do a bit on that.
Why not just have a bigger battery in the phone?
Yeah, I'm for that. I'd be fine with another mm or 2 of battery.
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How big a brick would it have to be for a typical electric? I would think for max convenience nothing over 10 kilos or so, and relatively small. Something like with a lead-cell battery, such that a small person would be able to move around in the trunk.
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> such that a small person would be able to move around in the trunk.
Why are you putting small people in your trunk?
Anyway, about "for max convenience nothing over 10 kilos or so" -
I think the business might be a "roadside assistance" thing, go charge them up for 7 minutes so they get enough charge to make it to a regular charger. Using a pack as large as necessary to do the charging.
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> such that a small person would be able to move around in the trunk.
Why are you putting small people in your trunk?
Drive-ins are back in style, dontcha know.
Anyway, about "for max convenience nothing over 10 kilos or so" -
I think the business might be a "roadside assistance" thing, go charge them up for 7 minutes so they get enough charge to make it to a regular charger. Using a pack as large as necessary to do the charging.
Yeah. Commercial use will come before consumer use. Probably something about the size of a trunk? That might be too big. A suitcase size would mean the usual tow-truck driver can move it around, and can store it easily without having to modify the truck. That doesn't sound big enough, though.
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The model S comes with a 1,200 pound battery pack which provides 370 miles of driving. Which means 60 pounds of battery would provide 18 miles. Half that (discharging the 60 pound battery 50%) would typically provide just enough power to get to a regular 8 kw Tesla charging station. A 100 pound battery pack would provide a margin of safety.
To get to a regular wall plug at the nearest business, 12 pounds of battery would provide about 2 miles of driving.
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Yeah, totally worth a hard pull on your credit which stays there for 2 years
WTF are you even talking about? If you had good credit and also kept an eye on your reports, you'd know that returning an item isn't on there. Sheesh.
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A pull is when they run your credit when you initially but the car.
GP's assumption being that everyone always always goes into debt to buy a car - nobody ever saves up and buys a car they afford.
I guess it's no coincidence that Americans have some of most expensive cars and most debt, on average. In a lot of countries people buy what they afford.
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Maybe there's just too many millenials out there who wanted to get a free car for the weekend?
Yeah, totally worth a hard pull on your credit which stays there for 2 years, just to rent a Tesla for 7 days. /s
Seriously though, you've also gotta have really good credit to even get approved for a car in Tesla's price range, and generally that does indicate you've probably been smart enough to keep an eye on your credit reports.
It's far more likely Tesla ditched the return period because of legitimate buyer's remorse returns.
No, it's because their build quality is shit and Tesla would rather have the buyers deal with the problems through the warranty process.
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So how do you know it was being towed because it ran out of juice? Did it have a neon sign?
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If you won't buy a Tesla because they eliminated the "no questions asked" return policy, then what car are you going to buy? No one else has that policy. If everyone else had a similar policy and Tesla dropped theirs, your declaration makes some sense. But if no one else does, you're not making any sense at all.
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If you won't buy a Tesla because they eliminated the "no questions asked" return policy, then what car are you going to buy?
Literally any other car, I can test drive before I buy it. Tesla won’t even let you test drive it first.
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Test drives are over rated. You can't test drive a Corvette either. They won't even let you sit in one. If lack of a test drive means you won't buy a car, its just an excuse like the fake "range anxiety" which is total BS. Eliminating the 7 day trial does not mean Tesla has lost confidence in their cars; it's the opposite. It shows they are confident. They don't NEED a 7 day trial to sell their cars.
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Literally any other car, I can test drive before I buy it. Tesla won’t even let you test drive it first.
You say that based on what, exactly?
Tesla has 100 dealerships across the country, what do you think they do when a customer shows up? Hand them a brochure and let them order their own car off a tablet?
I wonder why they have a "Schedule a Test Drive" webpage - https://www.tesla.com/drive [tesla.com] - if you can't actually test drive their cars?
Yes, Tesla does test drives (Score:2)
Schedule a Touchless Test Drive [tesla.com]
My folks did a Model Y test drive to see if they'd prefer it over my Model 3. They did and will pick up their Model Y later this week.
This guy posted a YouTube video on how the touchless Test Drive is done - you scan a QR code on the car. Is this the future of Tesla test drives? [youtube.com]
Re: Costing them money? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Follow this logic - I want to buy a $50-100K car, but I refuse to travel to a major city to take a test drive, so no sale.
Yes, its easier to test drive commodity cars, what does that prove?
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There are many reasons why a car might be returned (Score:2)
There are all manner of reasons why Tesla might have to drop the 7-day return policy.
One could be that a "bad apple" minority of customers were abusing it. We all know the stories of people buying tech gear to have the use of it during the period that allows a return.
It could be that this was a kind of sales promotion to goose demand, and they have enough demand that they don't need to bother with it.
The TFA suggests that Tesla has a bigger presence of "showrooms" (cannot call them dealerships becau
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140K teslas sold in Q3. 24% more than their previous record.
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Being that Tesla is building 3 more Factories. In China, Germany and Texas.
It appears that Tesla is trying to keep up with demand. Not sitting on a stockpile of slightly used cars.
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Part of the problem they had was lock of pre-delivery checks. Usually the dealer cleans the car, fixes any issues like scratches and then the buyer has an opportunity to raise anything else with them.
Reports on Tesla hand over are that it's rushed and they are unwilling to fix stuff, telling customers to arrange a service appointment instead.
Used ones are apparently not even cleaned, let alone cosmetically repaired. All they do is check for mechanical issues.
These are not cheap cars and people expect a lot
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I have a hunch that people were taking them for 6 day road trips and then "returning" them with 1,500 miles on the odometer. Hell... that's what I would probably do if I had some vacation time.
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Warentees are a strange marketing tool.
Bad cars with a lot of big issues often have great warentees because they want to sell the crappy car they figure the profit from selling all the cars can offset the 10% that has the major issue.
The 7 day no questions return policy can be saying there is a chance you won't like our car.
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I don't care why they have one, I still want one.
I think a long warranty says you have confidence in your product.
What makes me laugh is when a product has different warranty periods for personal and commercial use. That says "if you really use this, it will break".
Does anyone else have a return policy? (Score:2)
at all? Just curious if any other car manufacturer has a similar policy. Can you take your Ford or Chevy or Toyota back if you donl't like it?
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Ford seems to
https://www.longlewisford.com/... [longlewisford.com]
https://www.saford.com/toyota-... [saford.com]
https://www.sarasotaford.com/S... [sarasotaford.com]
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Only the first is a return policy, the other two only offer exchanges.
Also, the fact that they are different tells you that those are not manufacturer policies.
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Re:Does anyone else have a return policy? (Score:4, Informative)
I believe a car has to break before most (all?) lemon laws kick in. You can't return it just because you found it underwhelming or have buyer's remorse.
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True but there needs to be some level of responsibility on the purchaser.
If you are going to pay over 30k for a car. I would think they would put some thought in a purchase.
The early Tesla's it was tough to decide if you want one or not. Today there is so much more information to decide if it will work for you or not.
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Some of it is controlled as a Regular Sale through the Uniform Commercial Code. I exchange money for a good, and that's it, it's a valid contract. But the little loopholes are things like if I bought it thinking it was something else, or capable of something else, then I could get out of it. Usually I'd have to show the seller misrepresented the product in some way. In my opinion it's a huge waste of time and money to fight in court, but theoretically someone could. Maybe Tesla's quality isn't quite what yo
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Apples and lemons. Lemon Laws are for cars that continually break and have very specific requirements before you can invoke them. Tesla's old policy said you could bring a car back within seven days for any or no reason at all.
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Most dealerships will do a return or exchange but not necessarily for free.
California requires used car dealers to offer a 2 day return policy but it can cost the buyer $250 for such a policy.
There is also always the option to sell it back to the dealer or to an individual.
If you've only owned it for a couple days, the depreciation is likely only a few thousand dollars at most
if you can find a buyer especially for a car that has a waitlist.
Most legitimate dealers want their customer to be happy so are usual
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No, they don't have dealerships. (Score:5, Informative)
Dealerships are owned by individuals and have people that work in them that work on commission, based on sales figures. The dealerships also take ownership of vehicles and then sell them to you as new. The dealer has to move a certain number of vehicles in order to meet payroll for the month.
Tesla has showrooms, just like Apple. The showrooms are owned by Tesla, Inc, and the employees are not commission-based.
I like the showroom model and wish other vehicle manufacturers went the same way.
Re:No, they don't have dealerships. (Score:4, Interesting)
Dealerships are owned by individuals and have people that work in them that work on commission, based on sales figures. The dealerships also take ownership of vehicles and then sell them to you as new. The dealer has to move a certain number of vehicles in order to meet payroll for the month.
So, wait . . . it sounds like dealerships are similar to Uber gig workers . . . ?
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Kinda.
But you want to have a mechanic shop as part of the outfit, so you can fix low hanging fruits. Or moderately high fruits to turn scrap into art.
At some point into the economics of scale, its turns into collective gig work, at such a scale where a buffer is eventually made, and people can get wages for normal work despite small bumps in the economic year.
If you are just running a dealship via a online service, that is a lot of risk. The mechanic shop adds the real value.
Re:No, they don't have dealerships. (Score:4, Interesting)
The nearest showroom to me is a couple of hours drive away. The idea with the 7 day return policy was that you could forego the test drive.
Anyway since it's the UK the law says you can return it within 14 days for a refund, main problem being you have to get it back to them.
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They may not pay their employees on commission, but they responsible for sales numbers.
If as an employee you won't keep your job long if you don't sell as many cars as the others.
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I like the showroom model and wish other vehicle manufacturers went the same way.
As much as some people hate car dealerships, the competition between dealers generally means you can haggle your way to a better deal. I've never paid anywhere close to full sticker price for any car I've ever bought.
Though, I suppose folks who are shopping in Tesla's price range probably aren't overly concerned about saving a few bucks, otherwise they'd probably be shopping less expensive cars to begin with.
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The thing is that I don't find any car offering the same than a Tesla for less. My 2 and only criterion: Electric and Full Autonomous Driving down the road with buying a new car.
Most other car company propose electric car now, and autonomous one later but not the one you can buy now...
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"My 2 and only criterion: Electric and Full Autonomous Driving down the road with buying a new car."
Well I only buy cars from Trolly at "Discount Motors" under the bridge because he's the only one that offers free resurrection if i die in an a car accident.* Nobody else is making that promise, so he gets my money!!
(* strictly speaking, he actually doesn't currently offer ressurection services either; although he will throw some water on your face and if you are just sleeping it'll wake you up; but i
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I liked that model at first too, but after being a customer since 2013 and owning a few Teslas since, I am no longer a fan of the direct sales and service (and while I still own 2 of them, I am not eager to buy more, mainly due to this service model). The primary reason why this doesn't work well for consumers is that Tesla gets a monopoly on servicing the cars, which they can and have abused. Competition is good for the consumer, the Tesla model removes that. Tesla model creates a conflict of interest. Whe
That's one way to address the fit and trim issues (Score:2)
Standards (Score:2)
That's a shame, but maybe a 7 days return period should really be the industry standard instead of Tesla rolling it back. I mean, it's very difficult to test everything relevant on a test drive before making such a large purchase. Lots of cars give me knee or back pain issues, but that takes at least 4-5 hours of driving to crop up. And at least around here test drives are 30 mins max.
Re:Standards (Score:4, Informative)
knee/back pain after 4-5 hours of continuous driving is just known as "you're not as young as you used to be" where I come from
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knee/back pain after 4-5 hours of continuous driving is just known as "you're not as young as you used to be" where I come from
As true as that is, if there's one seat that gives me knee/back pain after a day of driving and one seat that doesn't, I still want the better seat. And that's not something I'll identify on a test drive.
Bounced again (Score:2)
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Why would he want to cash his own checks?
The law (Score:2)
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Where do you have 14?
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European consumer protection laws
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Crater (Score:1)
Did the Tesla stock crater?
If you installed the autopilot software... (Score:3)
wait what but the reservation fee was not refundab (Score:2)
wait what but the reservation fee was not refundable? what gives? did they actually even honor this and how much money would they return if you used this option? delivery fees deducted?