Photo: Tesla
We’ve all had regrets about ordering some of the stuff we’ve ordered online, but not like this man from Germany, albeit briefly. A future Tesla Model 3 owner ended up buying 27 more cars than the one he needed by mistake.
Of course, when you’re buying a car online, there are extra costs and the process is not as straightforward as, say, when you’re shopping for a new pair of jeans. You can’t just add to cart, select pay upon delivery and be done with it.
In Tesla’s case, there’s a €100 ($100, depending on location) non-refundable fee per order, which is charged to the buyer even if he or she changes their mind and cancels the order. Tesla is also somewhat famous for refusing to refund this fee, which means this particular man should have been charged €2,800 in total – in fees alone. The cars he ordered by mistake amounted to €1.4 million, which is roughly $1.574 million at today’s exchange rate.
But there’s a happy ending to the story, as the man’s son, Ballon Man says in an update to the original reddit story from a couple of weeks ago.
Here’s how it all went down: he and his father wanted to replace the old family car, a Ford Kuga, and because Germany had doubled the cashback incentives for EVs, they had settled on a Model 3 with Autopilot.
They went online and placed the order, filled every field correctly and pressed “Confirm.” Nothing happened, which made them think the order didn’t go through, so they went over the form again and pressed the button once more. They continued like this for two hours, until confirmation of the order finally came through: a total of 28 Teslas worth €1.4 million.
Naturally, they decided to cancel the orders for the 27 Model 3s they didn’t want, but then they realized they still had to pay €2,700 in fees for them. This is the moment when something similar to panic and anger set in: why should they have to pay when it had been Tesla’s mistake, since it was a malfunction on their page that had caused the multiplied order?
This was why he went to reddit in the first place, apparently: to lament the fate of the poor Tesla customer, for being forced to pay for something that went wrong because the site failed to process the order the first time around. Then, there’s the issue pointed out by other users from Germany: apparently, the €100 non-refundable fee per order is not legal in the country, so all you have to do is ask for your money back and you’ll get it.
The same happened with this customer turned unexpected potential owner of 28 Model 3s: after some time, support contacted them and informed them that all 28 orders had been canceled and the refund would be issued. They were also instructed to place another order, which presumably went off without a hitch.
In Tesla’s case, there’s a €100 ($100, depending on location) non-refundable fee per order, which is charged to the buyer even if he or she changes their mind and cancels the order. Tesla is also somewhat famous for refusing to refund this fee, which means this particular man should have been charged €2,800 in total – in fees alone. The cars he ordered by mistake amounted to €1.4 million, which is roughly $1.574 million at today’s exchange rate.
But there’s a happy ending to the story, as the man’s son, Ballon Man says in an update to the original reddit story from a couple of weeks ago.
Here’s how it all went down: he and his father wanted to replace the old family car, a Ford Kuga, and because Germany had doubled the cashback incentives for EVs, they had settled on a Model 3 with Autopilot.
They went online and placed the order, filled every field correctly and pressed “Confirm.” Nothing happened, which made them think the order didn’t go through, so they went over the form again and pressed the button once more. They continued like this for two hours, until confirmation of the order finally came through: a total of 28 Teslas worth €1.4 million.
Naturally, they decided to cancel the orders for the 27 Model 3s they didn’t want, but then they realized they still had to pay €2,700 in fees for them. This is the moment when something similar to panic and anger set in: why should they have to pay when it had been Tesla’s mistake, since it was a malfunction on their page that had caused the multiplied order?
This was why he went to reddit in the first place, apparently: to lament the fate of the poor Tesla customer, for being forced to pay for something that went wrong because the site failed to process the order the first time around. Then, there’s the issue pointed out by other users from Germany: apparently, the €100 non-refundable fee per order is not legal in the country, so all you have to do is ask for your money back and you’ll get it.
The same happened with this customer turned unexpected potential owner of 28 Model 3s: after some time, support contacted them and informed them that all 28 orders had been canceled and the refund would be issued. They were also instructed to place another order, which presumably went off without a hitch.
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