First: thanks to everyone who contributes to the TMC forums. Your sage advice has been very helpful, but a special shout out to those who already own Model S vehicles.
Here's my story in as brief and straightforward manner as I can muster - I purposely waited until now so I had some time to distance myself a bit:
Jan 18: Ordered Model S, black, leather, tech, subzero package, parking sensors, factory pickup indicated.
Jan 19: Confirmed
Early Feb: VIN# plus call from Van Nuys Service Center regarding delivery. Redirect delivery to Factory pickup because we would like to take tour.
End Feb: Factory delivery specialist estimates completion by March 20th. However, we are out of the country March 20-30th, I ask for Friday April 4th.
Nope, Tesla prefers to delivery before quarter end. If I don't, they estimate mid-to-end April. So I re-book international flights into SF for March 31st so we can pick up+tour at 10am. Plan: drive down to LA Monday afternoon using superchargers.
March 10th: Finalize financing thru Tesla/JPMorganChase: 2.39% with 15% down: "Bring personal check for down payment at delivery". Very smooth process.
Saturday March 29th midnight: Call from factory delivery specialist: Down payment policy changed March 24th. Wire down payment immediately or no car. Me: "Why not tell me before? Can't wire at this point. I'm bringing personal check as my paperwork indicates. Please give car." They say ok. [comment: this really pissed me off - would have happily wired if they had contact me 1-2 days prior during the week]
Monday March 31st (BIG DAY): Pouring rain in Fremont all day.
10am Arrive Factory - car not ready. Being detailed. Complete paperwork, hand over personal check, sign all documents (20min). Car still not ready. Start tour.
12.15pm: especially long tour which was personalized to whatever we wanted to ask about. Very enjoyable but could tell it was a delay tactic. Return well after regularly scheduled 11am tour.
12:30pm: Car not ready, firmware corrupt, entire software system needs to be reloaded. "Go have lunch sir and we will call you."
Lunch at Zareen's (http://www.yelp.com/biz/curried-away-catering-mountain-view-3) - excellent.
1:30pm: Call = car will be ready in 2 hours. We head back to Factory since heavy rain causing massive traffic delays.
3pm: Arrive Factory. "While waiting for your car, we will do a walkthrough of someone else's for you." Walkthrough someone else's similarly equipped Model S in our sopping wet shoes.
4pm: Car still not ready, no accurate estimate for completion: "Some time today" [!!!]
Me: "Look, at this point we do not want to drive in the middle of the night in pouring rain to LA. We would fly back but have no ticket."
Delivery specialist: Apologizes profusely: Car will be shipped to LA and delivered to our home. She proceeds to buy us one way tickets to LA, Uber ride to San Jose Airport, and lets us take anything we want from Tesla clothing store. Returns my personal check. Approximate total cost of transport+swag: $1500.
8pm Arrive home
Tuesday Apr1 - Thursday Apr3: logistics of delivery organized although in each situation I had to be the proactive one to ask when my car will arrive. Receive notice that JP Morgan Chase loan has originated even though I do not have car (!)
Friday April 4th: Car delivered to the home by tow-truck driver; no Tesla delivery associate present. Driver: "Wow I've never done this before without a delivery person." All final paperwork is dated 3/31/14 so it counts for the prior quarter.
Car is magnificent as everyone attests. No issues whatsoever so far (2 days & 100 miles into it). :biggrin:
I'm curious to hear how other people would have dealt with this situation.
I believe the Delivery Specialist at the Factory did the right thing by taking care of us. Essentially, if that had not happened I believe we might have possibly asked for our initial $2500 deposit returned to us and walked away. Despite being led on by the delivery specialist for most of that infuriating day, I have to commend her for taking care of us in the end - without her ability to recognize their error and attempt at correcting it, things could have turned out differently. I also think that our experiences with the MiniE and ActiveE programs (and even failures with the Leaf early on) allowed us to patiently wait out this delivery process glitch.
A few nagging questions persist: why demand an arm-twisting wire in the final day before when personal checks were being taken not only from me but others taking delivery? Walkthrough in someone else's car? The varying stories we received about our car that day make me wonder - what exactly was the delay? Software?
Here's my story in as brief and straightforward manner as I can muster - I purposely waited until now so I had some time to distance myself a bit:
Jan 18: Ordered Model S, black, leather, tech, subzero package, parking sensors, factory pickup indicated.
Jan 19: Confirmed
Early Feb: VIN# plus call from Van Nuys Service Center regarding delivery. Redirect delivery to Factory pickup because we would like to take tour.
End Feb: Factory delivery specialist estimates completion by March 20th. However, we are out of the country March 20-30th, I ask for Friday April 4th.
Nope, Tesla prefers to delivery before quarter end. If I don't, they estimate mid-to-end April. So I re-book international flights into SF for March 31st so we can pick up+tour at 10am. Plan: drive down to LA Monday afternoon using superchargers.
March 10th: Finalize financing thru Tesla/JPMorganChase: 2.39% with 15% down: "Bring personal check for down payment at delivery". Very smooth process.
Saturday March 29th midnight: Call from factory delivery specialist: Down payment policy changed March 24th. Wire down payment immediately or no car. Me: "Why not tell me before? Can't wire at this point. I'm bringing personal check as my paperwork indicates. Please give car." They say ok. [comment: this really pissed me off - would have happily wired if they had contact me 1-2 days prior during the week]
Monday March 31st (BIG DAY): Pouring rain in Fremont all day.
10am Arrive Factory - car not ready. Being detailed. Complete paperwork, hand over personal check, sign all documents (20min). Car still not ready. Start tour.
12.15pm: especially long tour which was personalized to whatever we wanted to ask about. Very enjoyable but could tell it was a delay tactic. Return well after regularly scheduled 11am tour.
12:30pm: Car not ready, firmware corrupt, entire software system needs to be reloaded. "Go have lunch sir and we will call you."
Lunch at Zareen's (http://www.yelp.com/biz/curried-away-catering-mountain-view-3) - excellent.
1:30pm: Call = car will be ready in 2 hours. We head back to Factory since heavy rain causing massive traffic delays.
3pm: Arrive Factory. "While waiting for your car, we will do a walkthrough of someone else's for you." Walkthrough someone else's similarly equipped Model S in our sopping wet shoes.
4pm: Car still not ready, no accurate estimate for completion: "Some time today" [!!!]
Me: "Look, at this point we do not want to drive in the middle of the night in pouring rain to LA. We would fly back but have no ticket."
Delivery specialist: Apologizes profusely: Car will be shipped to LA and delivered to our home. She proceeds to buy us one way tickets to LA, Uber ride to San Jose Airport, and lets us take anything we want from Tesla clothing store. Returns my personal check. Approximate total cost of transport+swag: $1500.
8pm Arrive home
Tuesday Apr1 - Thursday Apr3: logistics of delivery organized although in each situation I had to be the proactive one to ask when my car will arrive. Receive notice that JP Morgan Chase loan has originated even though I do not have car (!)
Friday April 4th: Car delivered to the home by tow-truck driver; no Tesla delivery associate present. Driver: "Wow I've never done this before without a delivery person." All final paperwork is dated 3/31/14 so it counts for the prior quarter.
Car is magnificent as everyone attests. No issues whatsoever so far (2 days & 100 miles into it). :biggrin:
I'm curious to hear how other people would have dealt with this situation.
I believe the Delivery Specialist at the Factory did the right thing by taking care of us. Essentially, if that had not happened I believe we might have possibly asked for our initial $2500 deposit returned to us and walked away. Despite being led on by the delivery specialist for most of that infuriating day, I have to commend her for taking care of us in the end - without her ability to recognize their error and attempt at correcting it, things could have turned out differently. I also think that our experiences with the MiniE and ActiveE programs (and even failures with the Leaf early on) allowed us to patiently wait out this delivery process glitch.
A few nagging questions persist: why demand an arm-twisting wire in the final day before when personal checks were being taken not only from me but others taking delivery? Walkthrough in someone else's car? The varying stories we received about our car that day make me wonder - what exactly was the delay? Software?