Tesla was not only slow to refund the full price of cars that some customers returned, but it has also been slow to return reservation fees on canceled orders, according to customer accounts and documents reviewed by CNBC.
In one case, Ramiz Babar paid $1,000 to reserve a Model 3 in August 2017, making his payment by credit card. But before the version of the Model 3 that he wanted was available, he bought a Model S instead from an individual seller and sought a refund for his reservation.
A Tesla support specialist e-mailed him on Sept. 12, 2018, promising a refund check would be sent to his mailing address in Georgia in 30 to 60 days. In fact, Tesla didn’t issue his refund check until Jan. 23, 2019, more than four months later.
Babar deposited it, then found the next day that his bank had charged him a $12 fee. The bank confirmed to Babar that Tesla had stopped payment on the check.
He is still sorting out his refund with Tesla.
CNBC has reviewed documentation that supports Babar’s story. Tesla blamed payment processing issues and miscommunications for the delay, and says it sent a new check, including the amount of the $12 fee, in February.
In a similar case, Dennis Hegstad, a self-proclaimed Tesla fan and shareholder based in Los Angeles, says he’s waited more than 100 days to get his money back for a canceled reservation.
He reserved a Model 3 in the spring of 2016 when Tesla first hyped the forthcoming electric sedans. When he went to pick up the car in mid-October 2018, he said, he found air bubbles in the paint. He rejected the delivery and requested a refund.
Hegstad bought a different Model 3 in November 2018, but says Tesla still owes him the $1,000 reservation fee on the vehicle he rejected earlier. Tesla says it is looking into the matter.
“I wish I could have just put that $1,000 into shares of the company,” Hegstad said, “because we both would have benefited, and I wouldn’t be dealing with this hassle to get my money back.” Tesla’s stock has increased almost 30 percent since April 1, 2016.
The dispute may be a result of poor record-keeping on Tesla’s part. In a strange turn of events, Hegstad says Tesla sent him a check for $40,000 in December 2018, after he accepted delivery of the second Model 3 — money he says he’s been trying to return for weeks. Apparently, they thought he had taken possession of the Model 3 he rejected in October. He never did. But they were mistakenly sending him money for that car, which he had financed with a loan. Hegstad says when he sent the check back to Tesla, it got returned.
CNBC has reviewed documentation that corroborates Hegstad’s communications with Tesla and the company’s response. Tesla confirmed they had made mistakes with Hegstad, and are looking into what went wrong and how to fix it.
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