The controversies surrounding Tesla continue to pile higher and higher. Aside from Tesla’s Full Self Driving technology debut which turned out to not be full self driving at all, and the numerous consumer complaints about flying roofs, detached bumpers, and other quality control issues, the electric carmaker is embroiled in yet another problem: the company has allegedly double-charged customers for new cars.
As reported by CNBC, numerous Tesla customers revealed they were charged twice for the purchase of a new car, resulting in “tens of thousands” of dollars being withdrawn from their accounts without their knowledge. The real kicker though? The customers are still struggling to get their refund from the automaker. When they attempted to get their money back, they were instead sent on a “frustrating runaround.”
One Tesla customer, Tom Slattery, told CNBC that his bank account was depleted by an extra $53,000, after he agreed to pay that sum for a long-range, all-wheel-drive 2021 Tesla Model Y. However, after five days of running around and making calls to his bank and Tesla, he is still waiting on a refund. “It’s hard to imagine sales and service getting worse. I had almost $53,000 unauthorized stolen from my bank account. And nobody, nobody has called me, emailed me, there’s no sense of urgency in resolving this,” he explained.
Another customer, by the name of Clark Peterson, echoed identical frustrations to CNBC. He found out his account had been double-charged and after expressing his frustrations to Tesla, he was given a similar dead-end response. “He told me to call the bank and stop payment on that. I said the money has left my account. I’m pretty familiar with the way wire transfers work. When the money’s gone the money’s gone! He was insistent I should call my bank. So I did. They confirmed like no, the money is in Tesla’s account now. We cannot do anything about that until we hear from them,” he said.
Indeed, it is odd for a company of that size and technological capabilities to have such an error like that happen to multiple people. Several other customers made similar revelations to CNBC, stating they too, experienced “duplicate debit charges” from the car maker. One customer even said they now face extensive overdraft charges and impending financial fees stemming from Tesla’s double charge.
However, even more stunning than the fact that some American consumers have enough money in their accounts to essentially pay for two Teslas (must be those stimmy checks), is the fact that such additional charges are even happening at all. Given that Tesla’s new cars fall between a price range of $37,000 to $71,000, it is fair to assume that a purchase of that calibre should be handled with the utmost attention to detail, rather than disorganization and chaos.
Information for this briefing was found via CNBC. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
