I was an early investor in Tesla (pre IPO).
On April 17 of 2014, I purchased a Model S for $80k+. I currently have 31k miles on the car.
When I purchased the car, I decided to not pay the $2.5k for unlimited Supercharging (SC) since I installed a home charger and was planning on only using the car locally. I was the first Tesla in my small city of Cottage Grove, Oregon and most people at the time had no idea about Tesla. (A few months after I bought the car, Tesla included unlimited SC for free...)
At that time, the Tesla SC network was not fully developed and only offered unlimited SC; they had not implemented pay-as-you-go (PAYG) SC. (I understand Tesla is now trying to eliminate unlimited SC.)
Fast forward 9 years. The Tesla network is mature and PAYG is the standard way to SC. As far as I can tell, all Model X, 3 & Y have SC enabled. So, I decided to see if I could PAYG. It would be nice for me, since I could then drive to Portland OR for the day, charge my car, and return home. I added a credit card to my account and went to a Tesla charging station in Springfield OR to see what would happen. The SC failed and the car tells me SC is disabled (I know the car supports SC, if enabled.) So, I thought I would ask Tesla to enable it.
I tried to call the service center, but I don't think you can talk to anyone without an appointment. So, I made an appointment to enabled SC. This allowed to to chat with a mechanic:
ME: I don't think you need the car to fix the issue...
TESLA Estimate: $2,500
ME: When I bought the car, the charge for unlimited supercharging was $2,500. Are you saying that if I give you $2,500 I get unlimited charging? If not, why is there a large fee at all?
TESLA: That is correct. It is $2,500, then Unlimited Supercharging would be active within 2-4 business days.
ME: If I wanted that, I would have done it 9 years ago. I just want pay as you go. How much is that?
TESLA: Unfortunately, there is not an option for that on this VIN.
...
Am I the only one that thinks this is a crazy situation?
Why would they stop me from paying for energy using PAYG SC? They don't like unlimited SC and I don't need it. I figure I would use maybe $100 a year on SC. Just enable the feature!
There are 100's, or maybe a few 1000, people in this situation. They have sold millions of Teslas and the early adapters should be treated better. I can't see how it would be an issue for Tesla to do the right thing.
I think that for Tesla should ENABLE the SC feature on all the older Model S cars that don't have Unlimited Supercharging.
On April 17 of 2014, I purchased a Model S for $80k+. I currently have 31k miles on the car.
When I purchased the car, I decided to not pay the $2.5k for unlimited Supercharging (SC) since I installed a home charger and was planning on only using the car locally. I was the first Tesla in my small city of Cottage Grove, Oregon and most people at the time had no idea about Tesla. (A few months after I bought the car, Tesla included unlimited SC for free...)
At that time, the Tesla SC network was not fully developed and only offered unlimited SC; they had not implemented pay-as-you-go (PAYG) SC. (I understand Tesla is now trying to eliminate unlimited SC.)
Fast forward 9 years. The Tesla network is mature and PAYG is the standard way to SC. As far as I can tell, all Model X, 3 & Y have SC enabled. So, I decided to see if I could PAYG. It would be nice for me, since I could then drive to Portland OR for the day, charge my car, and return home. I added a credit card to my account and went to a Tesla charging station in Springfield OR to see what would happen. The SC failed and the car tells me SC is disabled (I know the car supports SC, if enabled.) So, I thought I would ask Tesla to enable it.
I tried to call the service center, but I don't think you can talk to anyone without an appointment. So, I made an appointment to enabled SC. This allowed to to chat with a mechanic:
ME: I don't think you need the car to fix the issue...
TESLA Estimate: $2,500
ME: When I bought the car, the charge for unlimited supercharging was $2,500. Are you saying that if I give you $2,500 I get unlimited charging? If not, why is there a large fee at all?
TESLA: That is correct. It is $2,500, then Unlimited Supercharging would be active within 2-4 business days.
ME: If I wanted that, I would have done it 9 years ago. I just want pay as you go. How much is that?
TESLA: Unfortunately, there is not an option for that on this VIN.
...
Am I the only one that thinks this is a crazy situation?
Why would they stop me from paying for energy using PAYG SC? They don't like unlimited SC and I don't need it. I figure I would use maybe $100 a year on SC. Just enable the feature!
There are 100's, or maybe a few 1000, people in this situation. They have sold millions of Teslas and the early adapters should be treated better. I can't see how it would be an issue for Tesla to do the right thing.
I think that for Tesla should ENABLE the SC feature on all the older Model S cars that don't have Unlimited Supercharging.