Tesla
reviews and complaints

I’m a TeslaY owner and I totally happy with the product! Except, I must complaint about the replying process and feedback on my request on the next new model which I wanted to order. Unfortunately, my sales and customer service personnel never responded…. I mean never never and I have prove of evidence! This will definitely jeopardizes your brand image. And I have numerous Tesla owners having this issue.

My 2022 Model 3 is the first brand new car I have ever owned. I am still amazed even a year later at how innovative and awesome these cars truly are, and now here comes the BUT...I am disappointed in the fact that Tesla forces the owner to rely on the dealership for everything. No spare tire, really? Secondly, the paint quality is by far lacking. It scratches so easily, as if paint hardeners were left out of the process. I understand that dark colors show more imperfections, but I can't even run it through a car wash anymore because the soft scrub rollers leave swirl marks. It's to the point where I want to have the car wrapped just to cover up the shotty paint job. Thirdly are the lack of federal tax credits in the state of TN, granted it varies from state to state, I guess I drew the short straw on that one and now I am seeing articles on price drops for models? $54k for the model I bought, no rebates and no discounted sticker price leaves me feeling like I bought at the wrong time and that I made a poor choice in selecting an EV, with the demand up and more automakers going the EV route it just leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. I have no doubt that it is a far more superior product compared to say a Nissan Leaf, with that being said, the quality of everything surrounding the Model 3 should be top notch...that's my two cents. Thanks for letting me bend your ear.

Tesla service center tried to sell me an almost $2000 upgrade to fix my slow starting Model S. They told me degrading electronics are not covered under the extended warranty.

I discovered a solution on the Tesla Motors Club Web site to switch off my Energy Saver to check the Always connected. It worked.

Tesla never told me to try this first to see if it fixed my issue nor did they tell me to bring it in or them to diagnose.

This seems to me like a SCAM to sell customers unnecessary equipment.

Dear Tesla,

My name is Jamie Rosario, I purchased my model yes a year ago and have loved my car until two days ago, when I learned there was no spare and I was stranded. On 23 Jan 2023

my family and I took a trip to Forks, WA and we left our Airbnb and hit a rock after it fell out the back of a truck. The rock punctured my side wall which meant I needed a replacement not repair. Upon calling roadside assistance they told me I only get 50 miles, the issue with this is that I called 7 tires shops and not a single one had a tire that would fit and that I would have to wait two days to get it. I then called roadside assistance back and let them know, I was informed that I would have to be towed to a Tesla dealership to get a tires as they were the only ones with my tire. I was then informed that it would cost 700+ to get to the Tesla in fife but that it would take 8hrs to get someone to us. This is unacceptable especially if you aren’t gonna offer roadside for the entire tow because you failed to put a spare on the car for emergencies, had this occurred at night when businesses were closed we would have been stranded until the following day. I used my AAA as they offered 100 miles and paid out of pocket for the remaining miles which cost 350. Then I get the estimate from services and was told it would cost 436 to get a single tire replacement and as I had no spare I had no other options but to spend money that I didn’t have so I had a car.

This emergency cost me 700 and was very financially damaging to my family as you don’t offer a spare and the towing policy offered me no solution to my situation.

Something needs to be rectified on your roadside policy/ spare tire issue.

I would like a response on what will be done to solve issues like this. This is unacceptable as I might as well have rented a car and left my Tesla at home because you’re current solutions are impractical to customers who travel and are outside the mileage radius, leaving them stranded on financially burdened in order to get back home.

Jamie Rosario

Sent from my iPhone

I took possession 12/17/22. I’ve not purchased a new car in 20 years! I even took possession before the rebate in Jan ‘23. I had so much confidence in this company, in Musk.

Imagine my astonishment to learn my Model Y, within one month of delivery, reduced over 15,000! Im middle class!

Elon, you’re better than this! How can you do this to loyal customers who bought even before Jan 2023 rebate? How can I recommend your car to anyone?

Sincerely disappointed, Jodi Loeffler

I have been waiting for nine months for my 2023 Tesla Model Y LR and finally received it in November - I'm sick to my stomach that I had to pay full price and not the $7,500 discount! That's insane. Is there a way that Tesla can compensate for those of us who bought the 2023 at full price? Someone on the thread suggested maybe AutoPilot download? Just a suggestion as we are all very frustrated.

I was planning to buy a Tesla 3 in January 2023 to get the federal tax rebate. On December 1, 2022, I received a call from a Tesla representative. He said the 2023 Model 3 Tesla I was interested in would not qualify for the tax rebate but if I bought and received delivery before the end of 2023, I would get a $3,750 discount. I followed his advice and bought the car on Dec 1 and took delivery on Dec 8 2022.

Then Tesla significantly decreased the prices of the 2023 Model 3 (up to 14%) and it is now eligible for a $7,500 tax rebate.

There’s no doubt that the management knew they were considering a significant price reduction in 2023 but they offered a small discount in December 2022 to encourage customers to buy before the end of the year.

There are a lot of customers just like me who feel they have been dupted and taken advantage of.

I think Tesla should consider giving customers who purchased a 2023 car in December a free upgrade to Enhanced Auto Pilot or Full Self Driving and possibly some free charging.

Point of Conflict: Given the confusion of the written pricing misquote, I believe my $250 deposit should be refunded to me. All of the Tesla people with whom I have communicated with have stuck to the company policy that the deposit is non-refundable.

Details:

Friday, January 13, 2023 I had discussions with Cherith Tsukada, a Tesla Sales Advisor in Tesla's Walnut Creek showroom. Our discussions were solely about the Model 3 Long Range vehicle (dual motor All Wheel Drive (AWD), better battery, 19"tires and sport wheel covers). In her written quote (attached) the subject line says,"Model 3 Long Range". However, the pricing is actually for a less expensive Rear Wheel Drive (RWD), single motor vehicle.

On Saturday, January 14th, using the Tesla inventory Mobile App/website, I placed and order for Model 3 Long Range, AWD, white exterior, black interior. The exact same vehicle configuration I thought Cherith Tsukada had quoted for me. Note; all similarly configured Model 3s have the price. Also, note: Tesla mobile app is notoriously poor and difficult to use. Because of this on Sunday, January 15th, I telephoned a number Tesla provided if you were had questions. I talked to a [protected]@tesla.com in their Fremont Customer Service Center. When I asked him about payment methods, he suggested a certified check in the amount of $58,184.88Point of Conflict: Given the confusion of the written pricing misquote, I believe my $250 deposit should be refunded to me. All of the Tesla people with whom I have communicated with have stuck to the company policy that the deposit is non-refundable.

Details:

Friday, January 13, 2023 I had discussions with Cherith Tsukada, a Tesla Sales Advisor in Tesla's Walnut Creek showroom. Our discussions were solely about the Model 3 Long Range vehicle (dual motor All Wheel Drive (AWD), better battery, 19" tires and sport wheel covers). In her written quote (attached) the subject line says, "Model 3 Long Range". However, the pricing is actually for a less expensive Rear Wheel Drive (RWD), single motor vehicle.

On Saturday, January 14th, using the Tesla inventory Mobile App/website, I placed and order for Model 3 Long Range, AWD, white exterior, black interior. The exact same vehicle configuration I thought Cherith Tsukada had quoted for me. Note; all similarly configured Model 3s have the price. Also, note: Tesla mobile app is notoriously poor and difficult to use. Because of this on Sunday, January 15th, I telephoned a number Tesla provided if you were had questions. I talked to a [protected]@tesla.com in their Fremont Customer Service Center. When I asked him about payment methods, he suggested a certified check in the amount of $58,184.88Point of Conflict: Given the confusion of the written pricing misquote, I believe my $250 deposit should be refunded to me. All of the Tesla people with whom I have communicated with have stuck to the company policy that the deposit is non-refundable.

Details:

Friday, January 13, 2023 I had discussions with Cherith Tsukada, a Tesla Sales Advisor in Tesla's Walnut Creek showroom. Our discussions were solely about the Model 3 Long Range vehicle (dual motor All Wheel Drive (AWD), better battery, 19"tires and sport wheel covers). In her written quote (attached) the subject line says,"Model 3 Long Range". However, the pricing is actually for a less expensive Rear Wheel Drive (RWD), single motor vehicle.

On Saturday, January 14th, using the Tesla inventory Mobile App/website, I placed and order for Model 3 Long Range, AWD, white exterior, black interior. The exact same vehicle configuration I thought Cherith Tsukada had quoted for me. Note; all similarly configured Model 3s have the price. Also, note: Tesla mobile app is notoriously poor and difficult to use. Because of this on Sunday, January 15th, I telephoned a number Tesla provided if you were had questions. I talked to a [protected]@tesla.com in their Fremont Customer Service Center. When I asked him about payment methods, he suggested a certified check in the amount of $58,184.88 (rather than the $51,413.25 in the written quote). I told Anthony this was not correct and our subsequent conversation led to the discovery of the written misquote. Late Sunday afternoon, I verbally cancelled the order in a conversation with a Ray from the Walnut Creek showroom.

All of the Tesla people I talked to parroted the company policy, i.e. my $250 deposit was non-refundable. None of them had the authority to make an exception to policy. Given the circumstances of the misquote, I believe the $250 deposit should be promptly refunded to me...

I took delivery of a Tesla Y on December 16, 2022, just to find out that in January 2023 there was a 20% price drop, this is unacceptable, and I should have been informed of this and given the option to purchase it two weeks later at $7,500 less than what I paid for it.

If not resolved by Tesla, I will never buy any Tesla products again and make sure that others are aware of Tesla's business practices.

Took delivery of my 2023 Tesla Model Y from Burbank Sales Office on 12/11/2022 with Order no. RN118171236 to avail of the $3,750 discount. After a week or so Tesla announced a $7,500 discount. Then this day 01/13/23, Tesla dropped Model Y price by almost $13,000. I feel like been cheated by Tesla 2x in a row. It's a total rip-off for selling me a car which is 20% more of it's actual selling cost.

I had numerous problems with the tesla model x. When I take it to service they say there going to diagnostic to find the problem. They have one problem than after fixing the first problem even know they already done the diagnostic and said this was the only problem there several overs. This is the second time in less than four months this has happened to me. When my father and got the car used in July of last year this car has gone to the shop already three times in less than three months warranty has done to cover any problems. The service department charged a double diagnostic and said there was one problem now there three.

I purchased my Tesla and was advised to take delivery of vehicle on 12/13/2022 and I complied with the date and took delivery on the 13th of December, 2022.

8 days later Tesla gave an additional discount of $7500 and 10k miles free charging to customers who took delivery between December 21st and 31st of 2022. As such I feel cheated or discriminated against. Tesla could have advised me a pick up date of 21st December, 2022 but instead they provided me with a delivery date of 13th December, 2022 so that they could avoid giving me the $7500 discount.

I feel cheated and am a very unhappy customer,

I purchased my Tesla and was advised to take delivery of vehicle on 12/19/2022 and I complied with the date and took delivery on the 19th of December, 2022.

Two days later Tesla gave an additional discount of $7500 to customers who took delivery between December 21st and 31st of 2022. As such I feel cheated or discriminated against. Tesla could have advised me a pick up date of 21st December, 2022 but instead they provided me with a delivery date of 19th December, 2022 so that they could avoid giving me the $7500 discount.

I feel cheated and am a very unhappy customer, I would expect the Tesla management to consider this and provide me the discount.

Thanks

I purchased a home with a leased solar panels through Tesla. It's a great solution to energy cost especially in very hot climates like Nevada. I recently had an issue with the panels producing energy during the hottest months of the year 115 degrees heat. What's good that when the solar panels stop the energy will produce from the local power service. But the problem is you'd get a huge bill at the end. Because my monitor was not comminating it alerted me to contact Tesla customer service to trouble shoot it. I've used the app and find it so useless as I've submitted my request numerous times with countless missed calls by Tesla support. Mind you that you cannot contact the support team with a call nor can you send an email. You'd submit through the app and they'll call you. It took 2 weeks to finally speak to someone live. We did some testing and the trouble-shooting did not work. So we had to schedule a maintenance tech to investigate it. But had to wait 2 weeks... once the problem detected. I had to schedule the repair... and waited an additional 3 weeks... so this is a month and half of not having solar energy. Why am I picking up the bill for a faulty product?

I have had your company come out to my house twice in the last 2 1/2 years to try to find out where the leak is coming on my roof by my solar panels. I had a roofing company come out and they explained to me that my roof is not leaking anywhere else except under the solar panels where the lag bolts are located. For the second time your company sent out five guys and two trucks about a month ago to assess my problem, one guy sprayed water down the roof under the solar panels and stated that it's coming from a leak. I have a dilemma, Tesla states that the problem is with my roof and the roofing company states the problem is under the solar panels. My dilemma is I am not able to have the roofing company repair the leak because they stated the leak is coming under the solar panels and the lag bolts. Your company states that the leak is coming from somewhere else so imagine my frustration as my roof continues to deteriorate and I'm unable to repair it it's causing me a lot of frustration.

Purchased Tesla new in September 2022. Performed first tire rotation in December 2022. Both front tires were severely worn around the inside of each tire. The rear tire wear was ok - even wear. The excessive inside wear on the front tires damaged the tires to the point they will need to be replaced - after only 10,000 miles! I've contacted Tesla service in Kansas City and they are telling me that alignment isn't covered under warranty - even though it is obviously a defect from the factory. The person from Tesla service even had the gull to say to me that "Tesla tires only last 10,000 miles, due to high torque"! Tesla does not include replacing tires every 10,000 miles in their cost savings calculation on the Tesla website! If this were the case, nobody would purchase a tesla (based on EV cost savings) as the cost to replace tires every 10000 miles would far exceed any fuel purchase savings. Not only is there technical incompetence from the factory, but also false advertising on their website. Tesla has to be held accountable to repair and replace incompetence from their factory. See attached pics of front wear

I received my Tesla on 11/22/22 and payed cash and I needed a new decal for my tag because it was damaged but my dealer said that they could not give me one. I went to DMV and was told that the title was still pending dealer transaction and on their website it still has the same answer. I have been texting the sales person at the Miami gardens dealer who told me their team would expedite the matter but she has not responded for the last week. Can someone please help me and call me [protected]. Jose Perez

I bought a car from my boss. This car I have personally put 210,000 miles on. It came with free supercharging. Before I decided to purchase it from him I chatted with Tesla on my husbands phone (I was on mine trying to call, chat answered first). I specifically asked if this car had free charging attached to the car or to the ownership of the car. The rep told me that the car had free supercharging. I then asked so if I transfer the car the free supercharging will transfer with it and the rep said yes. Well I transferred it and now I don’t have free supercharging. If I had known I wouldn’t have bought the car and I certainly wouldn’t have transferred it. Tesla you need to make this right. I did my due diligence and was told I was good to go and that I wouldn’t lose it you need to honor that.

In 2014, I signed up with Solar City (now Tesla) to install solar panels. Instead of purchasing the panels, I signed up for a twenty (20) year lease commitment for the power generated by the solar panels to fix a portion of my utility cost. Until now, everything has worked fine. However, it's time to replace the shingles on my roof, and I signed the solar panel removal and reinstallation agreement on August 19, 2022. Almost three months later, I still do not have a date, delaying a vital home improvement project.

After signing paperwork (which, surprisingly, I had to snail mail to Tesla) and repeatedly emailing the only contact person provided for my project (Courtney Williams, who lives in Arizona while we reside in NY), there has been no response or update on the status for over three weeks. The lack of communication and the long delay in scheduling this work is unprofessional and problematic because we may have to wait until spring.

When we signed up for the service, we were told that removing and reinstalling the panels was simple and easy. It turns out this is not the case.

If Tesla ever responds, I am now concerned about how long it will take them to reinstall the panels. Our contractor only needs a day to do the work but Tesla has delayed this work by months. Help!

Complaint:

Tesla's Fort Lauderdale retail/service location ignored our presence at their show room this past Monday.

There were 4 Sales Advisors behind a desk to the left of the glass door to the showroom.

All four were busy looking at pc and or iPad screens, and none of them acknowledged our presence for about 5 to 7 minutes of us standing about 8 feet from them.

Then, Mustafa, who in the end was polite, asked what he could do for us.

Here is what we explained to him:

"When we leased our first model S in 2016, we were provided with two key fobs upon delivery.

When we returned it the Dania Beach Tesla dealership asked us for the two key fobs that we provided.

We purchased at the same dealership another Model S, the one we currently have, and they have only provided us with one single key fob. Having lost that one, which was always hanging around our neck from a fabric string,

which is somewhere home but not yet found, we reached out to Service via the Tesla Application setting up an appointment. We were surprised that the Dealership in Fort Lauderdale was charging us $217.75 for the replacement key fob.

By speaking later, the day with our neighbor who also has a Model S, he told

me that I should have received two key fobs when the delivery of our Model S. As we are super organized and have folders for the many cars we own, we were surprised that the second unused fob was not there.

This indicated that we did not receive that second fob upon delivery. We reached Tiffany at your customer service #, and she “made a note within our account”, asking us “to go to the local Dealership/Service where they would provide us free of charge for the replacement key fob”."

Here is Mustafa’s response:

He looked at the account but did not see any notes.

He said, “he would reach out to Tiffany to confirm what he did in front of us but no response from her”. He asked me to “call her back and make sure the note was placed authorizing the free key fob”. I called her as soon as I was leaving the dealership and another Tiffany responded and said that she would instruct them on providing the free replacement key fob and that the prior Tiffany had not placed any notes regarding that.”

Issue of complaint:

Well, last night I received a message, from Mustafa, in which he said they would not do that “because he could not see any authorization on that and that his Management did not want to provide the replacement key fob for free as the “too much time had passed since we purchased the Model S”.

Principal:

We have been a long-time loyal Tesla owner since 2016, with the plans to exchange our owned Model S for a Plaid Model in the first QT of 2023. The very poor and unthought-out decision by the Fort Lauderdale Manager, as we were told, is so unfortunate!

On our business we serve about 3,500 customers as tenants, and we strive to provide Customer Excellence to each one of them whenever needed.

It is not business oriented at all that a Tesla Dealership Manager would not provide his customer with a free key fob which at cost for Tesla would represent less than 0.04% of the price of the car we intend to buy!

Well, the price that they would charge of $217.75 is not the question here, we can afford it of course, but the fact is that we were not provided with the second fob at delivery of our brand-new Tesla Model S at that time, therefore we should not be incurring in this expense at all. It is a question of principle, not money!

For a long time, we have been noticing that Tesla is declining their customer service as originally experienced by us in 2016. It was awesome until we believe 2018!

Since them we waited at times almost one hour on the phone to get a representative over the phone, and we were treated with disrespect at least 2 times at the North Lauderdale Service/Retail branch.

At a time in which serious competition, not too much for the model S, is knocking on Tesla’s doors day by day louder and louder it does become crucially important that Tesla pays attention and moves their service to one of the utmost Excellence.

We would like the Management at Fort Lauderdale to be aware of what they are doing in terms of customer service, both on the retail and on the service side. On our last visit the speakers were blasting with rock music, so loud that the service representative behind the counter needed to scream at so that we could understand him and vice versa.

The service center looked disorganized, cars out of place, entrance dirty, counter full of stuff, and we were ignored also by one of the persons on the second roll of counters, which was a female.

She never acknowledged our presence as well. This is unacceptable!

We would like to get this situation resolved and obtain the key fob which was never provided to us at delivery by the Dania Beach location (they were awesome to us on any encounter). Too bad that they are now closed!

Thank you very much.

Sam Dias

[protected]@aol.com