Tesla cancels its ‘no questions asked’ 7-day return policy

Not in EU they didnt <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;europa.eu&#x2F;youreurope&#x2F;citizens&#x2F;consumers&#x2F;shopping&#x2F;guarantees-returns&#x2F;index_en.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;europa.eu&#x2F;youreurope&#x2F;citizens&#x2F;consumers&#x2F;shopping&#x2F;gua...</a><p>&gt;14 day cooling off period<p>&gt;In the EU you have the right to return purchases made online or through other types of distance selling, such as by phone, mail order or from a door-to-door salesperson, within 14 days for a full refund. You can do so for any reason – even if you simply changed your mind.

Tesla wanted to avoid having dealerships and sell cars mostly on the Internet. That requires a lenient return policy. Now Tesla will run into &quot;lemon law&quot; problems.[1]<p>Tesla has exhausted the supply of uncritical fanboys, and is past being the only good electric car manufacturer. Now they have to compete with BMW and Mercedes, who also sell good electric cars. The $50K-$100K &quot;luxury&quot; segment is overcrowded, and those companies are better at fit and finish.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dmv.com&#x2F;ca&#x2F;california&#x2F;lemon-law" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dmv.com&#x2F;ca&#x2F;california&#x2F;lemon-law</a>

I do wonder if part of the reason is abuse by people who wanted to try a Tesla but had no intention of buying.<p>I never did it, because I just couldn&#x27;t have lived with myself[0], but about a year ago a friend and I popped into the Tesla micro-showroom in Cambridge (UK) and I realised I could order the Tesla Model S P100D with self-driving add-on - and otherwise customised to my exact preferences - for what amounts to an extended test drive and then return it no questions asked. It struck me as pretty ludicrous but I won&#x27;t say I wasn&#x27;t tempted.<p>At the time the P100D was the top-end model S, and cost ~£100k. It&#x27;s not a car I could realistically afford although I&#x27;m sure finance would have been approved[1], and they would simply have delivered it to my house. Then I could have driven it around for a week and just returned it: a car I had no intention of paying for in the first place.<p>It&#x27;s really not OK, but I imagine quite a few people have done it, so I can see why that might push them to a policy change, especially if baseline returns for other reasons - such as QC issues - were also high.<p>(One day I&#x27;d still really like a Tesla but even if I could afford the one I&#x27;d most want, for that kind of money an Audi RS6 or one of the AMG estates are more practical propositions. And then for about the same money as the Model 3 there&#x27;s the Volvo V60 hybrid, with 398bhp and plenty of load space. I do like Tesla so I really wish they did an estate&#x2F;station wagon. Wagons are extremely handy, especially with AWD, and especially for people like me who often make use of that cargo capacity but hate SUVs and trucks due to their bulk, and overall poor economy and driving dynamics. Still, I can understand that isn&#x27;t the way the market is going - shame though.)<p><i>[0] Honestly, I was also worried I might want to keep it, and would come up with all sorts of justifications as to why it obviously made sense for me to put myself in a hole for a car. I ride motorbikes. I know what it feels like to go from 0 to 60 in less than 2.5 seconds. I don&#x27;t need a Tesla for that, and bikes are a lot cheaper. But I was concerned that in the heat of the moment I might lose that perspective.</i><p><i>[1] I also worry about residual values at the end of any finance deal due to the batteries and, in general, Tesla&#x27;s reputation for dicey quality, high maintenance costs, and less than stellar reliability.</i>

This is an odd decision, wouldn&#x27;t be surprised if we see them walk this back. I recently purchased a Model Y - and the 7-day return policy had <i>critical</i> influence on my choice to purchase. It makes it clear that they want you to be happy, and that they are confident you will be.<p>It is also a policy that I believe helps with word-of-mouth, I specifically told friends and family about the policy and I also put 900 miles on my Model Y within the first few days to be sure there were no major issues I was unhappy with.<p>Regardless, the Model Y is fantastic, I can&#x27;t wait for there to be more options like it available from all auto manufacturers.

The obvious reason is that there were too many returns. I hope Tesla gets its quality issues under control.

Anyone thinking about buying a Tesla needs to follow r&#x2F;RealTesla for a month before pulling the trigger (unless they&#x27;re worth perhaps more than 10x-20x the cost of the car).

I guess the roof flying off a Model Y on the way home from the dealership isn’t covered under this policy because I would consider that “damage to the vehicle” <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24708233" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24708233</a>

Tesla doesn’t have a PR team and their Berlin factory was recently shutdown because they forgot to pay their water bill. And now this policy is apparently pulled with no notification? What is going on with the management there?

In retail, you know that the handful of garbage people who abuse the return policies ruin it for everybody else and eventually become why good companies ultimately go from having a very loose and customer friendly policy to a strict return policy.<p>I’d fault tesla for not replacing the first policy with something that protects them and the customer in some way though. If customers can’t test drive their actual car before the purchase that makes it really tough to not have some kind of customer friendly return policy, whether it’s conditional or unconditional I&#x27;m not sure. But I think with their business model they would need some way to assure people when they buy.

Don&#x27;t you already have the statutory right in most countries to no-questions-asked return an item that you bought through distance selling? And it&#x27;s normally 14 days isn&#x27;t it?

Do they offer a free test drive anywhere.<p>It I had to guess they&#x27;re starting to lose too much money and this a cost cutting method.

So this is what the hilarious price change to $69,420 was intended to cover. Clever work, Elon.

kind of Marketing 101 - generous policies is a must in the enthusiast luxury goods segment like $100K+ Teslas several years ago while it requires very different approach in the cheapscate mass market of $40K-50K (inflated dollars of today) cars what Tesla is in today.

My guess is it was abused.<p>Cannot have good things because too many people will not just take advantage of the return policy, but <i>take advantage</i> of it.

Just a friendly reminder to any neutral readers: Hacker News is hilariously anti-Tesla and you should keep this in mind while reading.<p>Yesterday was a big day for Tesla - massive range increases across all models, including the brand-new Model Y, new interior and features for the Model 3, price drop for Model S. The top 500 posts on Hacker News contain the following unique Tesla stories:<p>* Tesla cancels it&#x27;s no-questions return policy<p>* Tesla is against Right-To-Repair bill in MA<p>* How to fool Tesla&#x27;s autopilot with images on the road<p>* Tesla has water cut off at Berlin factory construction site<p>Nor should you expect to find much positive sentiment in thread comments. This level of lopsided negativity forms a feedback loop - there&#x27;s little incentive for someone with a positive sentiment to expose themselves to this sort of negativity, so they stay quiet or avoid the thread. This causes the thread to become more negative, and provides even less incentive for the next person to write something. This repeats until only people who wish to be trolls or contrarians remain.