Danny Roman runs a sustainable outdoor adventure company that offers cycling and hiking tours in Southern California.
Danny roman
Danny Roman bought a new one Tesla I received a car delivery with Model X on February 28, 2020.
Three days later, he informed the company that Tesla CEO Elon Musk would return the electric SUV under the seven-day question-free policy advertised at the time.
Even today, more than two years after Tesla owns the car, Roman still hasn’t received a refund or access to the car, which had a total price tag of about $ 116,000, including various options and fees. Hmm.
According to records, Tesla received the Model X on March 8, 2020 and loaded it into a tow truck. After that, I expected to receive a refund soon. His bank advised him to ask the EV maker to start a “stop sale”, and he remembers, and his Tesla sales representative tells him his refund will be processed immediately. I told you that it would be.
Instead, a few weeks later, he was still in contact with Tesla about his return situation, so Roman received a service alert from Tesla telling him to come pick up an electric SUV. Alert explained that he had been repaired and was at a service center in Burbank, California, even though he first purchased the vehicle in Century City, which is about 40 minutes by car.
Roman told CNBC that he was surprised at the service alert. He says he never requested or allowed repairs, and Tesla had previously allowed the car to be returned. (The communication between Roman and Tesla he shared with CNBC confirms his account.)
Roman stopped paying by car for a month because he thought everything was going well. The bank then told him that he had missed a payment and that his credit rating had been hit by 30 points. When he called to ask about it, he was told that Tesla did not issue a stop sale.
As the owner of a small business that offers cycling and hiking tours in Southern California, Roman says he needs to maintain a strong credit rating. So, given Tesla’s stubborn stance on the Model X, he decided he had no choice but to keep paying his car to his bank and pay to keep his car insured.
Roman wanted to avoid foreclosures by banks, so he knew that financial institutions could have lost credit if they didn’t keep paying. He continued to pay insurance in case the vehicle was damaged while Tesla owned it.
“If you stop paying your bank, it will destroy you!” Roman said.
As a result, for the past two years, Roman has paid for cars he doesn’t own.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment on the customer’s predicament.
Why he returned the car
Roman says he bought the car because he was a Tesla fan, and the Model X is very safe, driving a battery-powered electric vehicle to minimize the environmental footprint of personal transportation. I thought I could do it.
As the father of an infant at the time, he was very interested in safety. And as the owner of a sustainable outdoor adventure company, he felt that buying a battery-powered electric car was a good way to highlight that effort.
The car is sold with over 400 miles of batteries, essential for driving from Southern California to the San Francisco Bay Area, and points to where he travels frequently and sometimes leads bike tours. I am.
When he first took out the Tesla Model X, the vehicle’s distance indicator showed that Roman had consumed less than 0.5 miles from his home and then consumed 15 miles from the battery.
When trying to charge the car’s high-voltage battery the first day he took the car to Culver City’s Tesla Supercharger Station, Roman said it took much longer than the salesperson promised. — Hours instead of 45 minutes — Charges up to 80% or more of the full range of the battery.
Roman shared a photo of the vehicle’s display and charge from that trip with CNBC. Even before connecting to the charging station, there was a huge line of cars in front of him, so he said he had already waited over an hour to access the food stalls.
“This is LA. Everyone has a Tesla.”
Tesla owner waiting to charge electric car battery in Southern California.
Danny roman
In addition to battery issues, Roman said one of the car’s hawk wing doors was stuck when he tried to open it. And he found that installing a charger in his apartment would cost ten times as much as a Tesla salesperson would claim. A sales person said he could install a charger in his home for about $ 700. They knew he lived in an apartment building, but instead estimated the price of a separate garage charger.
Elon Musk told him in the spring of 2019 Millions of followers on Twitter: “For clarity, even after using Tesla for a week, the order will be fully refunded” and “If someone wants to return the car in good faith on the 8th day, it’s okay.”
So Roman returned his car.
Danny Roman’s Tesla Model X had battery and door issues and will be returned to the electric car manufacturer in 2020.
Danny roman
At some point, a message from Tesla to Rome shows that when he bought his car, the company tried to convince him that he didn’t have a seven-day return policy.
But Tesla had a return policy on its website Until October 2020 — A few months after purchasing and returning the Model X (the return policy was also stated in the sales contract), after three months of interaction with the company, it is said that a refund will arrive shortly thereafter. , I was told that I could choose. Roman filed a proceeding against the company for repairs.
Surprisingly, instead of continuing in court, he was informed that his proceedings would be sent to the alternative dispute resolution process.
Roman agreed to the arbitration clause when he signed the paperwork to deliver Model X.
There is no day in court
Rome’s plight on the Tesla Model X, of course, highlights the vulnerabilities of US consumers being forced into arbitration agreements to buy services and items.
Compulsory arbitration is common in the sale of new and used cars, said Paul Bland, executive director of consumer advocacy group Public Justice.
For all practical purposes, he says, consumers get nothing from agreeing to arbitration. But for businesses, “their motive is to limit liability and make it difficult for consumers to win individual proceedings if they do something illegal,” Brand said. “Because this is a very secretive system, it is much harder for consumers to know what happened to people in previous related cases, and it is much harder for a class action to occur. “
Roman says he didn’t buy the Model X and didn’t agree to arbitration if the company realized in advance that he wasn’t honest with him about the car and the return process. His arbitration is still pending.
Meanwhile, Roman had to lease another car to use in place of the Model X. He told CNBC that he was leasing a hybrid electric Toyota Prius.
“Every time money is sucked out of my account, every month I just crouch,” Roman said. “In addition, I’ve spent over 100 hours of my life fixing this, and I’m just worried.”
In February of this year, Tesla still refused to admit that it had accepted its car as a return, but sent a message to Rome. Service center.
The embarrassed Roman sent them an email saying they would come to pick it up. But Tesla did not promise him to do so. They told him to call his bank instead. It didn’t take him anywhere.
Danny Roman used the Tesla app to find the location of Model X, who returned to the company in 2020.
Lively and wanting to know what happened to Model X, Roman logged in to the Tesla app to see if he could learn anything about its whereabouts. It turns out that the car he paid was sitting in a demolition yard just 11 miles from his home.
“Even after I’ve experienced everything, I still have a lot of faith in Tesla, Elon Musk, and electric cars,” Roman told CNBC. “I want my story to reach the power of Tesla and make the necessary changes to prevent this from happening to future clients.”
