Tesla purchase is no better than legacy. Financing bait and switch.

[CTFla]

Been a reader of the site since Cybertruck announcement (and learned a lot ty). But not a poster so my acct still says I'm new. So if u think I'm a troll... oh well.

Signed for a AWD Cybertruck last week. Started my pre delivery tasks in the app. All was ok - i guess, got vin and delivery date, except no feedback from Credit/Finance for the 0 apr for ordering FSD. After 3 days I finally got a credit pull on Equifax, but still pending approval. 2 days later the app said i need to finish a few days ahead of delivery date Aug 22. That was the 16th. So i responded back I was waiting on the credit approval.

Just fyi the credit report was 833, no loans, own house outright no mortgage, credit cards always paid off etc. Never even a late payment much less miss one in 50 yrs. So asked what is hold up. Credit app never took more that 3-5 minutes with anyone else.

Within 30 minutes Tesla person sends me an approval at 0% but with 32,999 down from a nearby (but national) bank. I respond that I signed for a 4,999 down payment not 32,999 and the difference would cost me $4500. (28k @ 3% for 60 months by leving my money in a high intrest bank). Then within 10-15 minutes of saying that I got another offer, my status changed to Conditionally Approved, at the 4999 down pay but need proof of income. This from that Santander company. So I immediately sent last 2 years income tax return (since I'm long since retired - no pay stubs or w4 avail).

So 4 more days go by with no feedback of any kind and today I get a message to identify method of payment with a button to start here. Of course it went to the conditionally approved part and could go no further. So I message back that it wont do anything. After an hour or more delay someone replies back saying they are waiting on Lender to get back to them, I ask if they could switch it to Tesla (read here of some at last minute swithing and it goes right through). 10 minutes later he replies do I want to take the other offer. Delivery is day after tomorrow at 10:30 - I dont plan to be taken by Tesla any more than a legacy finance guy.

This is the kind of thing I've experienced in younger life at car dealerships but expected better from Tesla.

And if this is to buy one - I'm now really concerned about service.

Just had to vent - and if someone from Tesla happens to read that would be good - Thanks

/rant off

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[SCTesla]

Tesla doesn't have a financial arm, they use various FIs to finance for them.

 

[acuransx]

This happened to me. They gave me 0.9%. I told them no. Finally they gave me 0.0%. At the end, on the date of pick up I noticed the beast has a lot problems and they took the truck to service center before it left its parking….. I believe it is a lemon truck . I canceled the order and still waiting to have the refund

 

[L3it3R]

hilariously I was denied by the first FI for my Cybertruck loan back in December 2023 because - and I can't believe this to this day: "Already owns a Tesla".

....


What?

It was seamlessly handed off to another FI and it went through without a second issue.

 

[Mattkalin]

I didn't have any issues with Tesla Financing (TD America). Credit worthiness is similar and did 5,000 down. This was back in May. This was for 1.99% which was way better than my old Foundation Loan at 8.1%.

 

[devdrone6]

Hopefully you got it to go through

 

[CTFla]

Having even more fun today. So I used the help link on the finance part at 11:30 - saying less than a day till delivery and I've not heard anything now in 5 days from the lender. Get a response saying my credit is frozen and need to unfreeze.

All three were already thawed and they had done an Equifax pull on the 14th, but I deleted the thaws and unfroze everything anyway. Advisor said resubmit, so I did and the same lender came back with a "conditionally approved" but at 6.52% interest and 84 months and 15k down. I told advisor no way, she said they didn't accept my docs which were last 2 years tax returns.

Really wondering as my accounts were not frozen, why go 5 days without any communication if you don't like the docs, why not accept Tax return statements and then why come back with those numbers. Starting to smell like something to me.

So anyway sent bank statements, Vanguard statements (IRA and Roths etc) and pension letter. That was about two hours ago now.

Oh found an interesting item on the income portion, it asked for retirement monthly income amount which I fill in, after submitting I notice it changed the value to annual (x12) and left it in the monthly income field - great coding there. Wonder what the lenders see/think about those numbers.

At first I was pissed, now it has just become silly. Tesla cars may be great, but this is no way to run a business, especially a technology focused one.

 

[CTFla]

Just to close the loop and leave it on a good note - after more fun last evening it all worked out and we picked her up at 10:30am today at Orlando. Great delivery experience and so glad it worked out.

Like some other threads - we had a last minute save in the form of a 3rd Lender that was presented to us via message for the first time at 9:30 last night. It happened to be a Lender we have accounts with and it was the way it was supposed to be. I immediately messaged back that we would take it. But everyone must have left for the night (or was tired of me) as the "conditional approval" with "documents pending review" was still there at 9:00 am. So after prompting one more time, someone switched it, we accepted and took off to the 10:30 delivery, getting there just in time for an indoor group delivery event of about 10 vehicles. A little presentation followed by a group light show and several Reps showing off features, helping check for flaws and answering questions. Made up for the shortcomings of the app and the inattentive lender. Maybe its part of being an old geezer, but sometimes people just make all the difference.

Cant speak to service (don't need any) but Orlando Delivery center was great imo.

Gotta go burn some of those free watts.

 

[Mattkalin]

Congratulations!! You will be very happy with your decision to persist!

 

[Sando]

Been a reader of the site since Cybertruck announcement (and learned a lot ty). But not a poster so my acct still says I'm new. So if u think I'm a troll... oh well.

Signed for a AWD Cybertruck last week. Started my pre delivery tasks in the app. All was ok - i guess, got vin and delivery date, except no feedback from Credit/Finance for the 0 apr for ordering FSD. After 3 days I finally got a credit pull on Equifax, but still pending approval. 2 days later the app said i need to finish a few days ahead of delivery date Aug 22. That was the 16th. So i responded back I was waiting on the credit approval.

Just fyi the credit report was 833, no loans, own house outright no mortgage, credit cards always paid off etc. Never even a late payment much less miss one in 50 yrs. So asked what is hold up. Credit app never took more that 3-5 minutes with anyone else.

Within 30 minutes Tesla person sends me an approval at 0% but with 32,999 down from a nearby (but national) bank. I respond that I signed for a 4,999 down payment not 32,999 and the difference would cost me $4500. (28k @ 3% for 60 months by leving my money in a high intrest bank). Then within 10-15 minutes of saying that I got another offer, my status changed to Conditionally Approved, at the 4999 down pay but need proof of income. This from that Santander company. So I immediately sent last 2 years income tax return (since I'm long since retired - no pay stubs or w4 avail).

So 4 more days go by with no feedback of any kind and today I get a message to identify method of payment with a button to start here. Of course it went to the conditionally approved part and could go no further. So I message back that it wont do anything. After an hour or more delay someone replies back saying they are waiting on Lender to get back to them, I ask if they could switch it to Tesla (read here of some at last minute swithing and it goes right through). 10 minutes later he replies do I want to take the other offer. Delivery is day after tomorrow at 10:30 - I dont plan to be taken by Tesla any more than a legacy finance guy.

This is the kind of thing I've experienced in younger life at car dealerships but expected better from Tesla.

And if this is to buy one - I'm now really concerned about service.

Just had to vent - and if someone from Tesla happens to read that would be good - Thanks

/rant off

I'm having the EXACT same experience. Pre-qualified with Tesla for $2600 per month, then with great credit score and no debt, they say 'the banks' will not approve 0%. I challenged them and they eventually said one bank offered 0% with a $52,000 down payment. I am convinced it is bait and switch.

 

[BlueRocket]

I had a similar experience. Placed my order on Sep 30 to take advantage to Fed Tax Incentives and 0% offer with FSD. Got my "loan offer" at 2.5%. Dropped a quick text message to Tesla "Contact Us". John sent me a text the next day saying he'll fix it -- which he did. I accepted the loan agreement at 0% 3 weeks ago and took screenshots on my iPhone (just in case). Tomorrow (Nov 5) I pick up my CT and when I checked the "Documents" area of the Telsa app I found the loan agreement was set to 2.5% again. I texted John again and he fixed it within an hour. No big deal, but glad I caught it before taking delivery. Mistakes happen, especially when dealing with 3rd party finance organizations. My experience with Tesla customer service has been very good.

 

[Jones 1]

Been a reader of the site since Cybertruck announcement (and learned a lot ty). But not a poster so my acct still says I'm new. So if u think I'm a troll... oh well.

Signed for a AWD Cybertruck last week. Started my pre delivery tasks in the app. All was ok - i guess, got vin and delivery date, except no feedback from Credit/Finance for the 0 apr for ordering FSD. After 3 days I finally got a credit pull on Equifax, but still pending approval. 2 days later the app said i need to finish a few days ahead of delivery date Aug 22. That was the 16th. So i responded back I was waiting on the credit
approval.

Just fyi the credit report was 833, no loans, own house outright no mortgage, credit cards always paid off etc. Never even a late payment much less miss one in 50 yrs. So asked what is hold up. Credit app never took more that 3-5 minutes with anyone else.

Within 30 minutes Tesla person sends me an approval at 0% but with 32,999 down from a nearby (but national) bank. I respond that I signed for a 4,999 down payment not 32,999 and the difference would cost me $4500. (28k @ 3% for 60 months by leving my money in a high intrest bank). Then within 10-15 minutes of saying that I got another offer, my status changed to Conditionally Approved, at the 4999 down pay but need proof of income. This from that Santander company. So I immediately sent last 2 years income tax return (since I'm long since retired - no pay stubs or w4 avail).

So 4 more days go by with no feedback of any kind and today I get a message to identify method of payment with a button to start here. Of course it went to the conditionally approved part and could go no further. So I message back that it wont do anything. After an hour or more delay someone replies back saying they are waiting on Lender to get back to them, I ask if they could switch it to Tesla (read here of some at last minute swithing and it goes right through). 10 minutes later he replies do I want to take the other offer. Delivery is day after tomorrow at 10:30 - I dont plan to be taken by Tesla any more than a legacy finance guy.

This is the kind of thing I've experienced in younger life at car dealerships but expected better from Tesla.

And if this is to buy one - I'm now really concerned about service.

Just had to vent - and if someone from Tesla happens to read that would be good - Thanks

/rant off

I got a Ridiculous down payment for a Y one time. I didn’t accept it. Waited a few weeks. The offer was totally different. I believe it’s all automated. So you have the mishaps. Most of the time it just works.

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