How to / Where do I request a buyback?

[Djinn]

Hello everyone,

I've had a bunch of issues with my M3P that have not been resolved with several service center visits. During my last appointment, the technician actually hinted at I might be able to request a buyback; although he said he will deny ever mentioning it.

I am in California. I did some research and wrote a letter requesting a buyback. What I don't know is how to actually going about the process. Do I ask my service center or do I send the letter to the address provided, which I found was as follows:

Tesla Motors, Inc.
3500 Deer Creek Road
Palo Alto, California 94304
Attention: Vehicle Service
1-877-77-TESLA (1-877-778-3752)

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[EVRider-FL]

You should probably contact an attorney. Most of the information I found when googling this came from attorney websites.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Hello everyone,

I've had a bunch of issues with my M3P that have not been resolved with several service center visits. During my last appointment, the technician actually hinted at I might be able to request a buyback; although he said he will deny ever mentioning it.

I am in California. I did some research and wrote a letter requesting a buyback. What I don't know is how to actually going about the process. Do I ask my service center or do I send the letter to the address provided, which I found was as follows:

Tesla Motors, Inc.
3500 Deer Creek Road
Palo Alto, California 94304
Attention: Vehicle Service
1-877-77-TESLA (1-877-778-3752)

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

Presumably you want to make a lemon law claim and you qualify? If so look on your Tesla account on a computer for your paperwork (or if you have paper copies, look through those) and one of the pages should have a disclosure that tells you how to make a claim in your given state.

 

[Jangy]

I've done a few Lomon law and have never hired an attorney. You need to understand the law and collect the evidence. Once you have the evidence and it is presented, they won't fight it. But it's on you to prove it and show the evidence. If they don't respond, then you should hire a lawyer. I always got 100% of any money I spent back. I have NOT done it with a Tesla, though. I would mail it in and document it thgrough the service on the app. Do it through the app. Talking will not be documented. Each time you go in for service/repair, you should tag the service request with an attempt #. When I put 3rd attempt, someone called me from Tesla and the service rep was vigilant. The evidence MUST be in the service records, or you can't claim it. It must be 3 failed attempts for a defect or a cumulative OUT OF SERVICE impact.

 

[jjrandorin]

I've done a few Lomon law and have never hired an attorney. You need to understand the law and collect the evidence. Once you have the evidence and it is presented, they won't fight it. But it's on you to prove it and show the evidence. If they don't respond, then you should hire a lawyer. I always got 100% of any money I spent back. I have NOT done it with a Tesla, though. I would mail it in and document it thgrough the service on the app. Do it through the app. Talking will not be documented. Each time you go in for service/repair, you should tag the service request with an attempt #. When I put 3rd attempt, someone called me from Tesla and the service rep was vigilant. The evidence MUST be in the service records, or you can't claim it. It must be 3 failed attempts for a defect or a cumulative OUT OF SERVICE impact.

Thats all really good advice, thanks for sharing it.

The only thing I would add based on the OPs question is, a "buyback" can be different from a Lemon Law claim. One is voluntary by the car company, and one is a legal proceeding with stipulations etc like you mention.

I did a buyback once on a brand new BMW X5 I had that had electrical gremlins, and the service center manager at the BMW center that was attempting to repair the electrical issue is the one who I worked with to request a buyback.

No Idea how it works with Tesla, except that with all the cost cutting they are doing, it would probably be better for someone to skip thinking about a buyback, and proceed forward with a lemon law claim (following your excellent advice here).