Last week, some buyers of Tesla vehicles reported having been double-charged upon delivery of their purchases. Some of the extra charges took an additional $71,000 out of their bank accounts. Now Tesla has issued a refund and offered $200 in store credit that can be spent on accessories and branded items on its website.
While it may be tempting for the impacted customers to have a drink after dealing with the double-charge issue, the store credit cannot be redeemed for Tesla Tequila, a new brand that proved to be so popular that it briefly sold out shortly after its introduction last November. The $200 is enough to get an extra key fob or some apparel, but won’t cover some of the higher end accessories. The credit expires on January 30, 2022.
Customers who spoke to the media say that they appreciate the offer, but said it took too long for the refund to go through. They could have disputed the charge with their bank, but it could have taken at least a week, plus the time taken by the bank to investigate, to get their money back.
One banking executive who, incidentally, bought a Tesla and was impacted by the problem did acknowledge that it does not have to take more than a week for customers to get their money back if there’s been a mistake. The problem could have been resolved more easily with some communication between banks and a reversal of the charge in their ledgers. However, the problem seems to have been on Tesla’s end and not the bank’s.
According to the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), which develops and maintains the standards that make debit card transactions possible, double charges for high priced items like Tesla vehicles are uncommon. However, customers could take some steps to avoid dealing with the stress that comes with having that much money taken out without the account holder’s authorization.
On his YouTube channel, “Everyday Chris” advised using a cashier’s check rather than allowing Tesla to debit the customer’s bank account directly. Everyday Chris had been impacted by the double-charge problem, as well.
Tesla customers can also pay with Bitcoin, which is designed to make it impossible for the recipient to take out any more funds than the amount specified by the sender. Because errors on the part of the sender are not unheard-of, it is usually recommended to scan a QR code if possible or do a pure copy-and-paste operation when sending Bitcoin to pay for something. Many longtime cryptocurrency insiders will recommend transferring your cryptocurrency holdings to your own device rather than keeping it on an exchange before you use it to buy something.
The below video shows the basics of how to make a Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash transaction. (Note: Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are incompatible. If you send Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to a Bitcoin (BTC) address, you will lose your funds.)
Even so, Tesla customers say that they should not have had to deal with the hassle that came with attempting to get their money back. They called the effort overly disruptive and stressful.
One Tesla owner, Tom Slattery, told CNBC that he had planned to travel to another state to look at houses for sale, but had to deal with the extra money being taken out of his account instead. It may be some time before he redeems the $200 credit, as he does not want to walk around wearing Tesla’s logo right now.
“Anything reasonable done quickly would have been completely fine. But I’ve learned that Tesla’s culture is that they care about the stock price and not customers,” he said.
Clark Peterson was also less than impressed: “While happy to have the whole situation sorted, I still feel that the response time was inadequate. It took days before Tesla had any kind of response, and they were holding our significant funds the whole time. And it took them five minutes to take those funds from our account.”
As is typical for Tesla and its lack of a PR department (and apparent lack of a functional customer service department), the company did not issue a statement or respond to a request for comment.
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