Model 3 Ordering Issues - Help/Advice

RedPaul · Jan 23, 2022

Hi, Newbie member here who is at his wit's end.
Long post, so apologies in advance.

I'm hoping someone can help me. I have been attempting to order a Model 3 since 1 pm yesterday. Once I have filled in the order form and pressed the order button I get a message saying that the payment has been declined and to try another payment method.

I've spoken to my credit card company to find out why the payment had been declined, and they confirmed that no attempt had been made to collect payment and that the issue must have been with the website.
So I then completed the form again and this time used my bank debit card, same error message 😡

So I got onto the chat option on the Tesla website, the girl recommended that I delete cookies and the history and attempt again. You've guessed it, same error message.
It was back onto the chat again and this time the gentleman said he could order on my behalf, took my details and attempted to place the order, he got the same error message. He said he would raise it to IT and get back to me, but to keep trying.
About half an hour later I got a call from Tesla at the Trafford Centre saying they believe I was having issues ordering a car. So I popped to the showroom and we attempted to order from there, same error messages.
We tried inputting the information in different ways, to no avail.
So everyone I had spoken to was baffled and unable to resolve the situation.
The salesman suggested I attempted later that day and or this morning.

So this morning I have attempted again and still got the error message. Payment declined. Please try a different payment method.

So back on to chat once again, this time the gentleman had the idea of ordering one from the inventory and then once that order showed up to change the order details. Again the same error message.
I've tried using my wife's cards, still getting the error. So because our cards are affiliated with Mastercard I thought that this could be the issue. So I rang my mum and asked her could I use her card details (she's with Visa) this didn't work and I am still getting the same error message.

At the dealership yesterday the guy thought the issue was with my address and asked if it was a new build. It's not and the house is over 20 years old. I have even created a new email address thinking that could be the issue. No success.
I've even attempted to pay via Apple pay, again the same error message.
I'm/We are totally baffled, the guy this afternoon is going to raise it to the IT department at Tesla.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has had similar issues when ordering, if so how did you overcome them.
Has anyone got any ideas of other things to attempt?

DanPaul · Jan 23, 2022

I'm guessing at this point it's just for the £100 ordering fee and not a larger deposit?

Is it a new bank account?

With several different methods tried, it's pointing towards an issue on Tesla's website I suspect

Incase anyone is wondering, I'm not related to the OP

RedPaul · Jan 23, 2022

DanPaul said:
I'm guessing at this point it's just for the £100 ordering fee and not a larger deposit?

Is it a new bank account?

Yes, it's just for the £100 ordering fee. And the cards aren't new. Credit card we have had for over 5 years and the bank debit card, we have had for over 4 years

Jeremy Harris · Jan 23, 2022

Happened to me, same symptoms. Turned out to be an address database issue. Although our house is on the PAF, and I paid a hefty fee to the local authority to ensure that the address was on all the databases it needs to be on, the Tesla system uses a bizarre address format, so for whatever reason it failed (somewhere behind the scenes) when it tried to check my details to verify the payment. In the end Tesla managed to sort of partly resolve it, so I was able to order a car and I was then able to send them several payments to pay for it, the problem was still there, I'm sure, as the car was never able to find our address the whole time I owned it.

I also had 11 invoices from Tesla on my account, all for different amounts, with none being for the actual amount I paid for the car. I gave up trying to get an accurate invoice, as it was clear that this just wasn't going to happen. I'm not sure what it is with their back end stuff that deals with invoices and payments, but I do know that I wasn't the only one to have some issues with it, and the people I spoke with at Tesla seemed to be very familiar with the problem. The reason I think it's address-related is because Tesla mentioned it, plus when you use the service app you have to enter your address in an unusual way to get it to work. Took me several goes to work out that it wouldn't accept our post code, and instead needed the village name first.

RedPaul · Jan 23, 2022

Jeremy Harris said:
Happened to me, same symptoms. Turned out to be an address database issue. Although our house is on the PAF, and I paid a hefty fee to the local authority to ensure that the address was on all the databases it needs to be on, the Tesla system uses a bizarre address format, so for whatever reason it failed (somewhere behind the scenes) when it tried to check my details to verify the payment. In the end Tesla managed to sort of partly resolve it, so I was able to order a car and I was then able to send them several payments to pay for it, the problem was still there, I'm sure, as the car was never able to find our address the whole time I owned it.

I also had 11 invoices from Tesla on my account, all for different amounts, with none being for the actual amount I paid for the car. I gave up trying to get an accurate invoice, as it was clear that this just wasn't going to happen. I'm not sure what it is with their back end stuff that deals with invoices and payments, but I do know that I wasn't the only one to have some issues with it, and the people I spoke with at Tesla seemed to be very familiar with the problem. The reason I think it's address-related is because Tesla mentioned it, plus when you use the service app you have to enter your address in an unusual way to get it to work. Took me several goes to work out that it wouldn't accept our post code, and instead needed the village name first.

Thanks for your reply. I did wonder if it was an issue with the address, even the salesman thought the same. I have managed to register for an account and used my address to set that up.
But when I attempted to order the car on my mother's card and different address we still had the same issues.

Model 3 Ordering Issues - Help/Advice

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities