Some Tesla customers have been sharing horror stories of being double-charged for their new electric vehicles up to $71,000, and then having their pleas for refunds ignored.
CNBC, which first reported on the story, has spoken to multiple car buyers in Southern California, who were said to have had large sums of money improperly withdrawn from their bank accounts by the automaker, ranging from $74,000 to $142,000.
To add insult to injury, the customers in question, identified as Christopher T Lee, Clark Peterson and Tom Slattery, said that when each of them complained to the Palo Alto-based company and demanded their money back, they were given the runaround.
Tom Slattery (left) said he was double-charged $53,000 for his 2021 Model Y, and Clark Peterson (right) said Tesla charged him $142,000 instead of $71,000
YouTuber Christopher T Lee released a video on March 27, recounting how Tesla double-charged him more than $56,000
More than a week later, some were said to still be waiting for their refunds.
And it is believed the trio of owners are not the only people to have encountered this problem: CNBC reported that at least two other customers, who chose to remain anonymous, told the news outlet that they, too, had been double-charged for their new vehicles, leaving at least one of them facing steep overdraft penalties and credit card fees.
DailyMail.com reached out to Tesla on Wednesday seeking comment on the scope of the problem and the company’s efforts, if any, to address it. Tesla did not immediately respond.
Clark Peterson, from suburban Los Angeles, said he was excited to finally get his 2021 Tesla Model Y crossover SUV, which comes with a hefty price tag of $71,000.
Before the vehicle could be delivered to his home last Thursday, Peterson said he was instructed to provide his driver’s license, proof of insurance, as well as his routing and checking account number, so that the cost of the vehicle could be withdrawn as part of Tesla’s contactless service.
‘It’s a very impressive online process where you don’t have to speak to a human being. They tell you they are going to bring the car to your house,’ Peterson told CBS Los Angeles.
But Peterson said he later received a phone call that he has been doubled-charged, with Tesla taking $142,000 directly from his bank account without authorization.
Peterson said he has been doubled-charged for his 2012 Model Y crossover SUV, with Tesla taking $142,000 directly from his bank account
This is Peterson’s new Tesla vehicle that cost him $142,000
‘And I said well okay, just please put that back and the Tesla person said, oh no, just call your bank and see if they can stop payment. And I said it’s a wire transfer, it’s already gone and he said no, no call your bank and of course the money had already left our account and was in Tesla’s account,’ Peterson said.
Peterson said after multiple failed attempts to get someone from Tesla on the phone to secure a refund, he finally got a call on Sunday from a company representative, who told him they are aware of the issue and will be sending him the funds back ‘soon.’
‘I asked them to put that in an email but I never received an email,’ Peterson said.
Peterson is not alone: Tom Slattery and his family were excited to receive their new Model Y Tesla last week.
Slattery has been tweeting at Tesla and founder Elon Musk about his woes
Slattery, like Peterson, was instructed to provide his driver’s information and complete the payment through Tesla’s contactless delivery program, which the company has adopted during the coronavirus pandemic.
Slattery selected the ACH direct debit payment option, put in his account and routing numbers, and authorized the payment, only to discover the following day that Tesla double-charged him $53,000, withdrawing a total of $103,000 from his account without permission.
Slattery, who is currently in the process of moving his family to another state and is in need of available funds to qualify for a mortgage on a house, said he spent a day trying to get someone from Tesla to give him a refund, but to no avail.
After getting the runaround on the phone, Slattery drove to the Tesla Burbank location and spoke to staff in person.
Lee, whose YouTube channel is called Everyday Chris, said he had been saving up for a Model Y for two years
He paid for the vehicle by providing his account and routing numbers
Video shows a beaming Lee picking up his brand-new ‘dream car’ last week
“They told me to call my bank and have my bank reverse the charge. That was not acceptable. When you debit more than $50,000 and tell a customer to solve it on their own? I kept pushing.”
Slattery has been airing his grievances against Tesla on Twitter and tagging Elon Musk in his sarcastic posts.
‘Things @Tesla has done for me in the past 2 days: 1) stolen 5 figures directly from my bank account, and that of at least 400 other buyers 2) not delivered the car that was promised yesterday and paid for (TWICE, as it turns out) 3) provided zero contact. Thanks, @elonmusk,’ he tweeted.
On Tuesday, Slattery tweeted that he filed a fraud complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, and was planning to file a complaint with the state attorney general as well.
When Must tweeted on Tuesday that he was donating a total of $30million to California schools and an urban revitalization project, Slattery shot back: ‘it’s nice to know my stolen money is going to a good cause.’
Another unhappy Tesla customer, part-time consumer tech vlogger Christopher T Lee, went a step farther, producing a video documenting his woes.
In a March 27 YouTube video, titled ‘Did I just get SCAMMED by Tesla???!’ Lee, who has a channel called ‘Everyday Chris,’ explains how he saved up for two years to buy his ‘dream car,’ the 2021 Tesla Model Y.
After picking up his new vehicle, Lee said he paid with ACH through an app on his phone by providing his account and routing numbers to complete the transaction.
Lee stresses in the video that he pressed the ‘Pay’ button ‘just once,’ waited for the conformation number and accepted delivery.
‘I slept like a bay, dreaming of my new Tesla…and having it for the rest of my life,’ Lee says.
Instead of paying $56,578.73, Lee ended up paying double that amount
But when he woke up the next morning to check whether Tesla had withdrawn the funds, his dream has turned into a nightmare.
‘Oh, they removed the money, alright! They removed it real good!’ He exclaims in the video. ‘I was supposed to only pay $56,578.63 for my Model Y. …. They ended up charging me twice for the car.’
He added: ‘I’m not a famous YouTuber. I don’t have that much money lying around. So I literally have no more money on my bank account now.’
Lee said he spent hours trying to reach someone at Tesla. When he finally got through to a representative, he was told that there was no record that he had been double-charged.
Lee said he was urged to contact his bank, even though the funds were withdrawn instantly from his account.
He was later provided with an email address to Tesla’s finance department and eventually got an employee on the phone to explain what happened. He is still waiting for a refund.
‘It was so quick for them to take the money out of my account, however, to get the money back into my account is going to take much longer,’ Lee said.
