
Update on Tesla Stores and Pricing - jcor
https://www.tesla.com/blog/update-tesla-stores-and-pricing
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TheLoneAdmin
IMO, the bigger issue is the flip-flopping. It shows that not enough thought
was put into the initial decision to close stores. How many other, non-visible
decisions are being made on a whim?

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DIVx0
I think I understand the reasoning for closing down most store but I simply
don't get the "buy it maybe return it" thing.

I recently was shopping for a new car, Tesla Model S was on my list of
potential vehicles. I test drove one and knew within a few minutes it was not
the car for me.

If I had bought the car without a quick shakedown I would have certainly
returned it but then I'd be stuck without a car for several days or even weeks
since my credit/funds would have been tied up.

Why didn't they instead offer the 7 day try out but hold the car on some sort
of deposit? This way if I returned it I'd only be out that deposit for the
time being and would be free to immediately buy the car I wanted. If I chose
to keep the car they would follow up with purchase.

Or for areas that are more dense with available cars to rent. Offer a rental
Tesla for a day for some discounted rate to be refunded if you bought a car.

I don't think they thought this through very well.

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NullPrefix
>Why didn't they instead offer the 7 day try out but hold the car on some sort
of deposit? This way if I returned it I'd only be out that deposit for the
time being and would be free to immediately buy the car I wanted. If I chose
to keep the car they would follow up with purchase.

Same car can be used for test drive by a lot of people, while you can only
have one buyer of a new car. If they give you a new car and you return it with
200 miles on the clock, is it really new anymore? How many of those returns
'till it's second hand?

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dragontamer
One theory I'm seeing floating around is that this whole event was
orchestrated to remove sales commissions from the sales staff. Which would
reduce margins for sure, but piss off the work force. Work force is still
pissed off, but maybe less so, because they aren't getting laid off. Still,
this whole even seems very bad for sales morale.

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EDIT: "The looks like a duck / quacks like a duck" simple explanation is that
leadership expected the retail store leases to be cut out from their expenses.
But then those store locations were going to be forced to stay open.

[http://fortune.com/2019/03/08/tesla-close-retail-stores-
laws...](http://fortune.com/2019/03/08/tesla-close-retail-stores-lawsuit-
retail-landlords/)

In combination with some pretty big loans (Deutsche Bank, China Gigafactory 3,
Model Y Deposits), Tesla now has a bit more money than it was expecting, so
they can pay their sales staff and such a bit longer than they initially
thought.

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mc32
My guess, which isn’t based on anything is that Tesla got pushback from
potential buyers who didn’t like the idea of having to buy outright and then
having to return an item for a refund if it wasn’t to their liking (that’s a
pretty big hump).

There is much more peace of mind knowing that there is zero monetary
commitment when going for a test drive. That’s not to say there aren’t other
pressures, but that’s more psychological than anything else.

~~~
dragontamer
> There is much more peace of mind knowing that there is zero monetary
> commitment when going for a test drive.

Yeah. If I were buying a Tesla (which btw... I don't plan to buy any vehicle
for another ~5 years or so...), then I'd be wondering if the return would
refund my deposit... or if it'd refund the "delivery charge". Etc. etc.

There is a lot of fine-print there: I have severe doubts that the full price
would be refunded. I mean, lets say I test drove the vehicle for 147 miles and
then returned it. Who the heck would buy a "new" Tesla with 147 miles on it?
So I know the value of the car has dropped significantly. I can't believe that
Tesla would accept the car back without taking some cost to recoup the lost
value.

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On a true test drive, there's no documents to sign. And the test drive is for
a very short are (just a couple of miles). Its expected for vehicles to have
~20 to 40 miles on them due to test drives when you get them from a
dealership, so the short test drives aren't a big deal at all.

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ocdtrekkie
Generally, companies evaluate the impact of a potential decision, and then
announce the decision publicly. It seems like Tesla likes to announce
decisions publicly, and then evaluate the potential impact.

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almost_usual
On March 8th it was reported they wouldn't be able to exit many of their store
leases.

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/landlords-to-tesla-youre-
still-...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/landlords-to-tesla-youre-still-..).

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smackfu
What a mess. Wait a week, maybe the price will go up or down another 3%. Who
knows!

