• HikingVet
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    1 day ago

    Lol, they are under investigation for fraud because of this.

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Like, fuck Tesla and Musk in particular, but they paid out the rebates to the customers as they bought vehicles over the year, and put all the rebate requests in on their behalf just before the deadline. This wasn’t fraud in any concievable manner.

      Edit: holee fuk, people are big mad at not blindly condemning one company that does the same thing all the other dealerships do. I look forward to Tesla going tits up, but this is a nothingburger.

      • npcknapsack
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        13 hours ago

        If that’s what happened, they should be able to prove that and the money will go to them. But I’ve certainly heard stories, and I look forward to the results of an investigation.

      • YesButActuallyMaybe
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        11 hours ago

        Please explain how that makes sense: customer buys car, Tesla gives them rebate, Tesla doesn’t collect rebate for months and just sits there with no money. Then tesla decides to call in rebates all at once when it’s announced that they run out?

        • ikidd@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          HR Block does taxes, rebates people immediately out of their pocket. Submits all refund requests at April 30, gets money back.

          Paperwork often gets done in batches. Companies invoice at the end of month but pay their employees weekly or biweekly.

          This isn’t nefarious, no matter how much you (and I) hate Tesla.

          • GreyEyedGhost
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            8 hours ago

            If they were doing this monthly, that assumes they were selling thousands of cars each month. That seems unlikely.

      • Auli
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        10 hours ago

        It was also one location. So did no other location do rebates?

      • Underfreyja
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        5 hours ago

        They’re under investigation because it is believed they boosted sales in their books to get the rebates for cars that were not actually sold…

      • argh_another_username
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        1 day ago

        Considering Tesla did not asked for the rebates themselves, but it was something the buyers had to do, I think it’s fraud.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          Not necessarily, dealerships could take care of it and just give it to the customers in the meantime, a bit like a 0% loan that is being refunded by the government. That’s how pretty much all federal rebates for EV cars were handled because it’s a much less painful experience for the consumers to not have to deal with the paperwork and waiting for the money.

          • argh_another_username
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            1 day ago

            And that’s fraud. I think it’s exactly what they wanted, to ask for as many as they could so they could sell the cars for less than the competition.

            • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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              24 hours ago

              No it’s not, it’s exactly how all dealerships handled the federal rebate, the only weird thing is Tesla not claiming them regularly (from what they’re saying) hence the investigation, but otherwise it’s perfectly normal and legal that the dealerships were taking care of the trouble for their clients.

              Down vote all you want, it was still the way it was done and is why all other dealerships were pissed when they couldn’t submit their paperwork for their recent sales because Tesla submitted enough to empty the pot.