"Never attribute to malice, that which is better explained by stupidity." (Or incompetence)
Some fun tidbits: Tesla wants to tell the customer that the estimates are "legally binding when approved" yet they can change them after the fact and don't seem to care. ALSO and this is probably worse - they have said directly that anything that THEY say in the messaging is NOT legally binding on THEM.... So everything is always in their favor. This right here is the biggest reason to avoid doing anything with them, without recording EVERYTHING. They WILL lie to your face in person, make stuff up in the messaging, and just change the facts (and prices) to suit them whenever needed. Since it's near impossible to get an actual human to talk directly with, this is virtually impossible to work around.
Having a giant conspiracy take place undetected within an organization that has such dysfunctional communication practices.... Is far too plausible. Most of the employees haven't even been there very long, b/c if they are, they get caught up in the quarterly purges. Certainly anyone that shows ANY vestiges of customer service, is likely to have their time in the guillotine moved up considerably.
Yeah, I'm a lot cynical about it... But these are the same assholes that decided months after the fact (and with a completely different owner of the car!) that they saw an opportunity to lock the battery and hold the balance for ransom to make a quick profit. Trust them I do NOT.