All automakers find ways to get a little extra dough out of their customers, but Tesla may be the league leader among competitors. It has raised the cost of its “Full Self-Driving” considerably over the past few years, the Model Y has priced itself out of contention with several of its rivals, and now the company is reportedly charging $100 if owners decide to cancel service appointments within 24 hours of their scheduled times.
The extra charge first came to light on Twitter, posted by @BLKMDL3. It then came to the attention of the Teslamotors subreddit. Since then, other owners have reported it on social media. The response, of course, has been overwhelmingly negative.
https://twitter.com/BLKMDL3/status/1564992164240637952
The new policy doesn’t seem to be 100% reliable on Tesla’s end, though. Many owners on Reddit claim that, although they were told they would be charged $100 for rescheduling their appointment, no charge ever came. Others used the opportunity to vent about the seemingly poor state of Tesla’s service in general. No loaner cars, false claims of completed service, cancellations on the part of the automaker, and more were mentioned.
This latest inconvenience to Tesla owners is just the latest in a stream of other inconveniences, then. It’s worth mentioning that many other automakers are struggling with their consumer-facing operations as of late, even legacy brands. That may be due to the dealer-franchise model that Tesla has avoided. If the young California automaker had to deal with markups, we would never hear the end of it. Luckily that’s not the case.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has not publicly commented on the new policy.
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