Tesla’s customer service keeps surprising us in a bad way, and the latest example of that is possibly the most absurd to date. Gjermund Olstad send his Model X for repairs. Out of the blue, he was warned that he would not get his car back. The reason was that the previous owner still had debts with Tesla.
Olstad received this message on December 3. It said this: “Hello, Gjermund. You left your car for service, but the previous owner still has an outstanding invoice with Tesla Skøyen. They are arranging it with him. Unfortunately, we cannot deliver the car when it is finished for service before this invoice has been paid. Hopefully, the previous owner will be able to fix this soon, so it works out. Sorry for the inconvenience this caused you. Thanks. Regards, Tesla Porsgrunn.”
The story was first published by the Norwegian website Motor.no. Olstad told them that his first reaction was to ask Tesla if they were sure this was even legal. He also asked the company what it wanted him to do: threaten the previous owner?
Motor.no talked to NAF (Norges Automobil-Forbund, or the Norwegian Automobile Association) and Forbrukerrådet (the Norwegian Consumer Council). Both entities said that what Tesla did was illegal. NAF even recommended that people submitted to similar situations should call the police.
Photo: Gjermund Olstad
Olstad also talked to autoevolution and told us more about the whole situation. The Tesla customer said that Tesla apologized for the problem around two hours after sending him the message. Although Olstad thought the apology was enough for that specific situation, he is not so pleased about how Tesla is dealing with the car defect.
Olstad bought his 2016 Model X P90D about one year ago. The car currently has only 55,000 kilometers (34,175 miles) on the odometer, and its warranty expired about two months ago. On November 26, he woke up to see the car’s wheels sunken inside the wheel wells, with just 5 millimeters between the tires and the EV. The vehicle was diagnosed with problems in both the front and rear air suspensions, but Olstad is not convinced by the explanation he received.
“Tesla claims it wore out, but all four air dampings broke on the same night. The temperature dropped like 6ºC (42.8ºF) that night, so I wonder if the car is not built for freezing temperatures. They claim it is, but…”
Photo: Gjermund Olstad
Olstad then sent it to the Tesla Service Center. A while before they started fixing his Model X, he received the weird message about the former owner’s debt. Apart from the SUV, the Tesla customer also has a Model 3. He now fears that he’ll have to pay about 71,000 kroner (around $8,000) to fix his car because it failed two months after the warranty expired.
Olstad is now willing to contact the former owner of his car. The idea is not to ask them to pay the pending debt but rather to understand why they refused to pay Tesla. It may have to do with recurring suspension issues, for example. Apart from being related to the problem with his car, it could make this Model X eventually fit as a lemon.
Tesla has sold cars eligible to be considered lemons in Norway more than once. The stories of Ola Spakmo, Jens Petter Lund Sommerlade, and Marius Andrè Langø are now worldwide famous precisely because Tesla wanted to sell their vehicles without properly fixing them. Olstad fears that his Model X may have a similar story to share. If you can help locate the previous owner so that they can share this Model X story with us, you are more than welcome to do so.
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