New Tesla owners in Republic of Ireland - few questions

Hi folks, recent new member on here from Galway. I have my Model 3 Highland ordered since 20th October 2023, VIN assigned and estimated delivery is now 22nd January to 6th February (changing every couple of days it seems).

Anyway, maybe some of you are in the same boat as me (excuse the pun) and I was looking for more information if anybody can answer these questions. These may help others too as I can't see any of these answered on Tesla site.

1. I've heard some bad stories of service when collecting from Dublin, and some very positive ones from Cork, so likely I'll opt for Cork. Do ye know is it possible to collect on a Saturday?
2. Can you request a minimum battery % prior to collection?
3. How soon are you all paying in full? I've logged the Tesla account as a payee on my online banking, but haven't paid any more since deposit.
4. If you can't request minimum battery %, does both collection points (Dublin and Cork) have chargers onsite?

Thanks for any help, Col.

 

[Oxid8ter]

Hi ColR,

I can't speak specifically of ROI, but the generic (UK) answers would be:

1. Tesla offer collection on weekends, my collection from Birmingham is on a Saturday, but I can't speak specifically for Belfast/Cork. Your best bet is when you are asked to schedule an appointment for collection, check the dates available on the calendar. You also cannot change collection location in the app, so will need to speak to a delivery agent, so maybe best to check with them.

2. No, The cars are generally delivered with whatever is in the battery as they come from the factory. Tesla cannot feasibly charge all of these cars due to the sheer volumes passing through the collection hub.

3. Generally the app will tell you when it is time to pay. Some people pay asap so as to not delay the process, others leave it until as late as possible.

4. Normally the hubs are in pretty good locations, best bet is (as with 1) ask when you speak to a delivery agent. Alternatively, put the address of the collection centre into something like A Better Route Planner or ZapMap.

 

[WannabeOwner]

(I'm not in ROI either)

2. Can you request a minimum battery % prior to collection?

I've only collected from the 200+-cars-a-day sites, and the cars have had either quite-a-bit or hardly-any-at-all, but I have read of folk collecting from the Provinces, i.e. locations only handling a few cars a day, where a more personal service was provided - and cars were charged-up. So might be worth asking (if Cork is one of the "not-many-cars-a-day" locations?)

3. How soon are you all paying in full? I've logged the Tesla account as a payee on my online banking, but haven't paid any more since deposit.

I've read of some people paying much sooner than they needed to (and much sooner than Tesla were expecting), so beware of their system requesting payment too soon.

Also beware that your bank may have a daily payment limit, in which case it may take multiple-days to complete the payment.

On one occasion (because Tesla repeatedly got the invoice wrong - it was just Deposit and Trade In, can't be that hard surely ...) where I paid at 17:29 for collection at 08:00 the following day (slight exaggeration, but not much ... but you get the idea ) Once you are sure that they have payment, and that payment is registered against your account (i.e. you can see the balance is zero in MyTesla) then IME they will release the car to you without any further proof (i.e. you only need appropriate ID). In my case, despite "Our system allocated the money to the transaction instantly it is received" [provided you put the correct reference in the online payment] that never happened, and I sent them proof-of-purchase (to their satisfaction), and once they OK'd that then the "purchase" was approved, and my pick-up next day didn't need any proof-of-payment paperwork (but worth taking proof with you for belt-and-braces)

 

[Oxid8ter]

Also beware that your bank may have a daily payment limit, in which case it may take multiple-days to complete the payment.

This is a top bit of advise. I tried to pay mine from my laptop and wasn't allowed so amended my limit - this still only went up to 20k. I needed to pay 35k.
What is useful to know is that, depending on your bank/their app, if you do the payment on your mobile you can press to proceed for a "one time high value transfer".

 

[ColR]

Thanks for the feedback, some good tips there. Will be interesting to see if Ireland is different to your experiences in UK.

I see my online banking app is saying €20k limit per day, so I can do it over three transactions. Maybe to ensure there's no issues with transferring to Tesla account, I'll transfer €100 this evening to test it out.

If there's only a 15 minute slot to collect, is there even much time to properly inspect prior to driving away?

 

[spdpsba]

f there's only a 15 minute slot to collect, is there even much time to properly inspect prior to driving away?

I don’t think they stick to that atleast not in England. That maybe your arriving time - you have 15mts from 1200-1215 to arrive or something like that as they have to allocate time for other drivers to collect theirs. You still can pick up your keycard and then go and inspect your car leisurely and then come back and finish the formalities.

 

[Oxid8ter]

Interesting to see mention of 10 min slots. My delivery co-ordinator screwed up my appt date/time and when he set it back he set it to 10am. When I told him it should have been 10:30 he told me "to be honest, as long as its collected on the right date, its pretty fluid" -though I'm a stickler for time management, so I'll be there for 10 now!

 

[CDB_]

Thanks for the feedback, some good tips there. Will be interesting to see if Ireland is different to your experiences in UK.

I see my online banking app is saying €20k limit per day, so I can do it over three transactions. Maybe to ensure there's no issues with transferring to Tesla account, I'll transfer €100 this evening to test it out.

If there's only a 15 minute slot to collect, is there even much time to properly inspect prior to driving away?

Dublin collection point is fine, I wouldn't worry about it. Yes it can be busy but you'll be given a time slot for collection. You'll be near to the 250kw in Sandyford (if needed) otherwise the superchargers in Kinnegad and Atheny are on your route to Galway.
The payment is best dobe in branch as the app limits don't apply. Call your local branch to confirm.
Best of all, enjoy your new car!

 

[WannabeOwner]

If there's only a 15 minute slot to collect, is there even much time to properly inspect prior to driving away?

I think that's so that people arrive spread out through the day. Inevitably some will get held up in traffic etc. if you are early I am confident they won't turn you away

I've been there at least an hour checking stuff, moving all my mess from Trade-in to New Car, and then doing the CONFIG before I set off (although if it was a Supercharger site I would have moved there fore that bit)

 

[hsilgnede]

Paid for mine over a week ago and then they cancelled my collection the night before citing some issue with revenue not updating the stat code. Bit of digging tells me the stat code is assigned to every combination of make and model and defines the market value of the car. This in turn drives the amount of VRT payable. Revenue haven't caught up with the reduced price of Tesla. I think I've paid the vrt at the new value which must have been a tesla guesstimate.

Up to yesterday the ROS calculator was offline for "essential maintenance" with a predicted restoration of the 8th Feb. It looks to be back online this morning but the VRT calculation is about €400 more than what Tesla billed me for.

Caused a bunch of grief with the insurance as well because I don't have the reg number yet. It was difficult to get the insurance squared away for our existing Nissan Leaf whilst also wanting to have the existing policy transferred to the model 3. Got there in the end but it took a lot of explaining to their customer service and ultimately I had to make a complaint to get it sorted.

Anyway that's all been a faff, I'll get over it if I have to pay a bit more VRT. I'm not impressed with the lack of response from Tesla. They were all over me until I paid them and now I can't get a response from them for any sort of update. Its annoying that they gave me a collection date and I made arrangements to leave work etc and then they pulled it when they knew there was an issue with revenue.

Sorry...no real point to that other than being a bit of a rant. Still excited to get the car and I'm sure I'll forget all the faffing in a matter of minutes once I have it.

 

[lfc200]

Paid for mine over a week ago and then they cancelled my collection the night before citing some issue with revenue not updating the stat code. Bit of digging tells me the stat code is assigned to every combination of make and model and defines the market value of the car. This in turn drives the amount of VRT payable. Revenue haven't caught up with the reduced price of Tesla. I think I've paid the vrt at the new value which must have been a tesla guesstimate.

Up to yesterday the ROS calculator was offline for "essential maintenance" with a predicted restoration of the 8th Feb. It looks to be back online this morning but the VRT calculation is about €400 more than what Tesla billed me for.

Caused a bunch of grief with the insurance as well because I don't have the reg number yet. It was difficult to get the insurance squared away for our existing Nissan Leaf whilst also wanting to have the existing policy transferred to the model 3. Got there in the end but it took a lot of explaining to their customer service and ultimately I had to make a complaint to get it sorted.

Anyway that's all been a faff, I'll get over it if I have to pay a bit more VRT. I'm not impressed with the lack of response from Tesla. They were all over me until I paid them and now I can't get a response from them for any sort of update. Its annoying that they gave me a collection date and I made arrangements to leave work etc and then they pulled it when they knew there was an issue with revenue.

Sorry...no real point to that other than being a bit of a rant. Still excited to get the car and I'm sure I'll forget all the faffing in a matter of minutes once I have it.

I was patient with Tesla to a point. They looking for payment for a car which I duly paid for in early January. Sent them a message asking a straightforward question 10 days ago, got no reply. Sent a follow up 2 days ago again without reply.
They have over €40k of my money and they don’t even respond to simple question.
Patience well and truly gone.

 

[WannabeOwner]

no real point to that other than being a bit of a rant.

You are not alone

Still excited to get the car and I'm sure I'll forget all the faffing in a matter of minutes once I have it.

You are not alone ...