Buyers Say Tesla Double-Charged Them, Haven't Given Refunds
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) -- Tesla is under fire after some customers reportedly had payments withdrawn twice.
One Southern California man is among those reporting this issue with the Palo Alto-based car company.
Just before Clark Peterson's Model Y Tesla arrived last Thursday, he didn't think twice about giving Tesla his routing and checking account number for the full payment of more than $70,000.
"It's a very impressive online process where you don't have to speak to a human being. They tell you they are going to bring the car to your house," Peterson said.
Then, he received an unexpected call that he's been double charged.
Peterson said Tesla withdrew more than $140,000 from his bank account.
"And I said well okay, just please put that back and the Tesla person said, oh no, just call your bank and see if they can stop payment. And I said it's a wire transfer, it's already gone and he said no, no call your bank and of course the money had already left our account and was in Tesla's account," Peterson said.
Peterson said he tried repeatedly to speak with someone but got nowhere.
"I did get a call from someone on Sunday who said we just want to let you know we are aware of this and we are gonna be sending it back soon. I asked them to put that in an email but I never received an email," Peterson said.
He posted about the Tesla debacle on social media, and the responses, he says, were many with people who said they experienced the same thing.
Some people have shared their stories to YouTube and other social media sites.
"I'm talking to you guys because I would hope that Tesla fixes this problem and it doesn't happen to any other people in the future," Peterson said.
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, has not publicly commented about the reports.