Tesla applied my payment to principal and repossessed my car

I’m so glad to live in a country where we have rules for formal reminders about late payments etc.

I'm no lawyer, but if you can sue them in small claims court for your losses due to their error (car rental costs, loss of use, etc), I bet you would win and that would be a sweet victory.

Wouldn't they force him to go to arbitration?

People throw “sue” around casually and usually have no idea what’s involved.

Look, it's simply not reasonable to force Tesla to follow pesky things like "regulations" and "laws." Do you want Elon Musk to be ever so slightly less rich?

Surely payment to principle would also reduce the balance? More to this than meats the eye.

Get a lawyer and take them for everything you can get. There is no reason you should be paying for their mistakes, and if anything they now owe you something for the great inconvenience caused as well as owing you a car.

The irony here is his biggest fortune was made as one of the founders of a financial company. Imagine how messed up it would have been without his partners pushing him out of the way.

Thankfully, I had opted out of arbitration pursuant to my purchase agreement clause.

ChatGPT says that in many cases you can sue in small claims court even with an arbitration clause in the contract as many contracts exclude small claims from arbitration (wouldn't be worth it to arbitrate disputes under $10k I think).

A payment to principal is exactly that. A straight early payment. It doesn’t affect the monthly balance due. I had to manually pay in the app when my auto pay was discontinued (bank change). But regardless, my payment was communicated by Tesla that it would be corrected towards my monthly payment. Of course this is done over the phone and I have no written record of this assurance. That mistake will never happen again.

Different accounting practices in the uk obviously, I worked for a finance company and thus would have came off the balance.

No, what you’re saying makes perfect sense. The problem starts there, so much of this is utter nonsense.

I envy your consumer protection.

i AsKeD ChAtGpT… This world is fucking cooked.

What bank you have loan with?

I’m getting my legal resources in order now. I’ll be sure to update here as things go on.

Ya they should have went and paid a lawyer so they could comment on a Reddit post :/

Tesla finance. If I had gone through my credit union (slightly higher rate) this nightmare would’ve never happened. This was all a backend issue on teslas part.

It's always good to see people willing to stand up for themselves.

Full Self Driving is all about the cars repossessing themselves.

So you don’t receive any monthly statements from Tesla?

You will be far more pissed when you see what just happened to your credit score

It’s correct tho

This is the way

Imagine trusting tesla enough to buy one

They don’t even need to tow the car, they can just engage the FSD remotely to bring the car back to their lot. E: /s

I wonder how often this has been discussed as a business idea within the halls of Tesla corporate.

And contact your local media outlets!

They love running stories like this.

Check your credit report and score and get a lawyer .

Another one who believes Elon's self driving lies.  The reason they need a driver for "full self driving" isn't because of regulations, it's because Tesla would be fully liable for all the accidents, of which there are too many.

Pretty easy small claims for damages. I've been through the process once in CA. It differs depending on your state. You have all the proof, just need to show your expenses for their mistake. Not sure if your time is recoverable as an expense but you should be able to recover all your other lost expenses. Line item it and explain to the judge, they can decide on what to strike out and what to award you.

And the NAZI said "VER ARE YOUR PAPERS".

Zero times. Nobody at Tesla actually believes FSD will ever work.

Call the Department of Automotive Billing Efficiency.

As if googling things was better? Are you a tech doomer? Robots and AI overlords and such?

Counter: Elon has discussed if laws apply to him after he buys the US presidency and if he will also be able to murder people on 5th Avenue with FSD and not lose any votes.

Absolutely. Thanks for this.

It *was* better. Primary and secondary sources are always better than a hallucinating chatbot.

Conman screws over customer who should have known better; details at 11

Haha, bite me. Already on the Lexus website choosing my next real car.

Ask them for money for us too! We deserve something for readibg and replying to your post!

The arbitration clause allows small claims court.

That is funny and probably true.

Submit a complaint to your local state banking regulator and contact your local news outlets. Make it painful for them.

Unbelievable will not to Tesla finance

More like Elon says it, the board says, “you can’t do that” and he fires them and brings in his friends

Message [Steve Lehto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Lehto), he's a lawyer largely focused on vehicle related cases. While be may not be able to represent you, he has a good youtube channel and may do a piece

Did....did your car drive itself away to Tesla? That would be wild.

What a POS company. I once was a big fan. The first model s felt so great. My assumption they will go belly up sooner or later and scam ppl for every penny. I really wanted to buy a S after 12 years. They lost most of their value. But now I walk, sold my car and got public transport flat rate.

There was a time where it was the other way round. E.g dieselgate. German customers did get far less reimbursement than us customers.

Call Eleanor Musk

Good luck suing a massive corporation. They have teams of lawyers on their payroll and are going to win 99.9% of the time. Better off taking it as a lesson learned in giving Elon your money. Could have taken a thousand warnings that he literally doesn’t give a fuck about anything but scamming and defrauding people but nobody seems to listen until they’ve suffered a personal loss

Yes, it drove itself on the back of a tow truck.

Like you?

Happy cake day

Often, companies don’t show up to small claims court I’ve read.

Which you can also fight, esp if you win in small claims court

I’m familiar. I’m also well aware of what’s involved and when it’s practical/relevant and when it’s not. Are you?

Lol

This totally breaks accounting practices.

Buy stupid cars, win stupid prizes

Most likely you can't and have to go through arbitration with Tesla

The small bit of advice I would give you is that when dealing with Tesla, always record your conversation with screen shots or a voice recorder. If you could prove they said they would take care of it, you'd have a simple case. But they won't turn over that data without a fight now. Don't ask me how I know.

The worst part of this is the repossession will show up on your credit report unless you can convince Tesla to reverse it. This is what you're going to need the lawyer for.

The best part is once they BK, their stock will hit an all time high…

Why would they even bother to sell the cars? Just download the Tesla app and a car will pick you up… Subscription is the same as a lease. If a tire goes out while you are in it, you owe them more.

This story doesn’t make sense how it was told. Did you skip the last two payments? You mention making a payment a few months ago, and then you mention they want you to pay for a few payments. Did you make the subsequent payments or not?

I feel like they just no show and you get default judgement. I mean I figure you do have to pay the back payments but the impound fee etc I would definitely go for. Possibly even calculate the time it took you to go through all this and charge hourly for that and any Uber rides or missed work related

What do you expect from a scam company?

Everyday there is a new reason to hate this company and felon owner more. And sadly I bought my MYP on August 2022.

His involvement with the creation of PayPal, like all things musk, is fictitious.

Unfortunately that’s not how credit scores work…. It took me five years to clear off a claim for someone else with the same name (different middle name) in the same state.  The credit agencies don’t care about fixing it at all.

Musk provided funding on condition he be made CEO. He was so incompetent, he was fired and replaced while away on his honeymoon

All pre-paypal as well. He made his money when PayPal sold to eBay, since he still had stock from the previous iterations after his ousting for said incompetence/no value.

Exactly.

Yeah none of this makes sense. OP would have already had to be behind on payments. No way the repossessed after a single late payment.

I bought the same myp in early 23. I love my Tesla. Absolutely detest this company and owner.

Can you explain what principal and balance are? Coming from a country where a payment is a payment, I’m not familiar with those terms and don’t understand what went wrong.

Change your car to another brand 🤣

damn, did they come and tow it, or did it drive itself?

The bigger issue is not that they are asking for two months payments. You should be concerned that you are going to have a repossession in your credit file. I would try to negotiate with Tesla to see if they can not get it reported

Tesla did this once, i requested a QUOTE for a part off them, they sent the quote. Then at 8pm the same day they put a pin to lock my car saying i had to pay for the quote in order to use my car again. Yeah i was not happy on the phone as you can imagine.

You'll love it

Good luck fighting the government

Nope, not on Tesla. They get a pass from the media.

Something seems to be missing from this case.

Uhhhh what!!!

I hope you don’t have Tesla insurance (just ‘cause it sucks).

Legit question I have a M3 LR. If you all hate Elon so much… why not sell the car?😬🤣

Wow... its not just you, I've also seen this in another post. I bet its happening to everyone that day or during the software bug. Its not ok that they aren't trying to help, thats the real issue. A good company would correct it and be nice about it, maybe even let you skip a month. Hope it get figured out.

The cRaCKed devs

Enjoy your Toyota.

Isn't Tesla great? /s

The good news is the FSD(Supervised) worked great to drive your car from the driveway to the repo office. /s If you called to correct a billing problem, why didn’t you insist that they send you a corrected statement? The Tesla employee just wanted to get off the phone, it’s like getting a receipt.

And if they’re slow to pay any judgement, some stations have consumer protection reporters, Tesla wouldn’t want the publicity so they’d settle.

This story makes no sense. What about the last few months? Why did you not make any payments for the last few months? What did your monthly statements show? It sounds like you haven’t made any payments on your car for at least two months so they repossessed it. While that sucks it’s also pretty normal. What does your payment applied to principal have anything to do with this?

Reminded once again that Tesla isn't a car company. They are a tech company.

I think Ford has the patent on that action. Guess could ask it to drive somewhere, and then ....

As a former repossession agent, get a lawyer, and sue them for wrongful repossession. By the time it's over, you'll probably own your car free and clear. Make sure you have dates/times/person you talked too.

Especially cable tv “Chan 5 Investigates” news segments. Both this and Small Claims court for all expenses, including the repossession fee.

In simple terms. Principal is the balance borrowed. Interest is the banks portion of your payment. Each payment pays both principal and interest… each which varies greatly based on your interest rate.

Contact an attorney this is exactly the moment it’s warranted; as soon as you bring in anyone worth their salt legally you will hold the leverage… not them. It costs them astronomical internal legal fees to deploy resources against you vs. just giving you what you want. Hit them hard… with a GOOD lawyer… trust me

I was going from the mall to a local grocery chain here in Houston. My car was on autopilot. As the car pulled into the front of the store, a Nissan was parked by the front door with the read door fully opened. My Teslas a bit more than grazed her door. It apparently bent about a small party where it was difficult to lock her door, but my car sustained a huge scratch, 4 inch by 3 feet more scratch from her door and, a 2 x 4 inch hole next the door handle etc She called the police, the police arrived, told me I don't have to say anything if I choose. He was very helpful and said that since this is private property that can't issue a ticket or discuss faults etc. Got her I'd and insurance etc, but this doesn't feel right. I was supervising on the autopilot, my hand was as always on the wheel, it just looked like there was plenty of room. So any suggestions would be incredibly appropriate. All of this on New Year's Eve. What a stressor.

I know this is a Tesla hate sub, so if you want actual advice you should probably go somewhere else. The reality is what happened to you is super common. If you pay on a loan early, the default is not necessarily that it goes towards your next month's payment. They don't have to fix it either, so it was on you to keep on top of it. If you want to know whether it was valid or not, read your contract. I'm also SUPER doubtful they didn't send you several past due notices that you either ignored intentionally or threw away unintentionally.

You're probably already there, but never buy from this trash company again

Actually no, they came out when smart summon crashed my car

This is such a corrupt company and product. I wish people would STOP buying this POS. The headlights are the worst to blind you also. Gee he owns Neuralink. chip in eye??? I HATE all Tesla products with passion and conviction!!!!

That’s my question, how did 2 payments get missed? Usually banks are hounding you day and night after that first missed payment.

Shady company doing shady things. Imagine that lol. Sucks Elmo ruined the company because he possibly the greediest person on earth.

Something is missing here.... Months later it was repossessed. Did you not make another payment?

OP tried to not pay for a car that can repossses itself.

I think this is a problem with the bank that legally still own the car, not Tesla.

Sue them

Absolutely talk to a lawyer.

What do you mean the payments went towards the principal and not the balance?

Damn I don't have any advice except check if you have that communication in writing then you can use it to sue them. How did they repo it, tow truck or did it self drive back to their lot?

How did you do that? Is it something your state law requires to ask you?

And look up FCRA to see what they’ve violated there

We had consumer protection until 10 months ago when Elon took over our government and laid them all off. I am not joking. That happened.

What does the paperwork you signed say and when you made the payment what type did you select?  ai says about Tesla’s contract: 1. The Default: Principal Reduction Unlike many traditional banks that default to "advancing the due date" (prepaying next month), Tesla Financing's default for excess funds is Principal Reduction. • The Rule: Any amount paid in excess of your current amount due is applied directly to the principal balance.   • The Result: This shortens your loan term and saves you interest over time, but it does not skip next month’s payment. You will still owe your full regular payment on your next due date. 2. The Tesla App Toggle (Crucial) Tesla recently updated their app (version 4.33.0 or higher) to give you explicit control, which effectively removes the "assumption" risk. When you go to make a payment in the app, you will often see two distinct paths: • Standard Payment: Covers your monthly bill (Interest + Principal). • Principal Payment: A specific option to remit funds purely to the principal. If you use this specific button, it is legally and contractually bound to hit the principal balance only.   3. Does the Contract require them to ask? Legally, no, they do not have to ask you. However, the Retail Installment Sale Contract (which you can find in your Tesla Account under "Documents") contains a "Prepayment" clause. • Most Tesla contracts state: "You may prepay all or any part of the unpaid part of the Amount Financed at any time without penalty."   • The hierarchy listed in the contract usually dictates that payments are applied to: 1) Earned Finance Charges (Interest), 2) Principal Balance. ### 4. Important Exception: Third-Party Lenders If your loan is technically through Wells Fargo or JP Morgan Chase (even if you applied through Tesla), their banking portals may behave differently than the Tesla app. • Wells Fargo: Often defaults to "advancing the due date" for up to 3 months of payments unless you specifically select "Principal Only." • Chase: Usually allows a principal-only toggle, but if you just "push" a payment from your own bank's Bill Pay, they may just treat it as an early regular payment.

Contact your attorney general. Does your local TV news program have a consumer advocate? Contact them.

It seems like they may be committing Internet fraud. They made the mistake. Is it through a local dealer?

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Yeah duh. I know what interest is. But the terms principal and balance are confusing.

How anyone can be surprised by these actions from Tesla is beyond me. You had plenty, plenty of warning.

Hard lesson. Tesla is a fraud operation.

And on top of all that, PayPal doesn’t follow banking laws very well, and it caused a lot of their customers to have their money frozen. PayPal is a clown show just like Tesla.

That’s not FSD. That’s FSM! 😂

Yep. None of these tech lords know anything, they borrowed other people's ideas and got lucky.

You need to hire the credit cleaning service. They removed multiple incorrect records from mine very quickly, but I paid them to chase it down. Mine was part of a data breach back when they cared a tiny bit about those and gave services in response. I can’t remember the name. But it was the same company that did the credit monitoring. They also do history tracking and can back trace the records. They removed multiple records from someone with same name but different SSN for me.

I have no idea why people purchase cars from this company.

It wasn’t always like this in tech. But after the internet landed, the finance bros realized there was more money stealing data from the rage posters on FuckBook than there was trying to cold call rich folks with stock tips. And so here we are.

Consumer Finance laws would apply. Arbitration cannot be forced.

Also 7 on your side?

At last check, a few months ago, he owned 12%, in stock.

Demand a recording of the call. An attorney can do this. A repo ruins you. Pay the attorney and have it over with, not chasing you down for life. Get the media on it too.

Tesla applied his money to the balance he owed, not to his monthly payments, which include principal and interest. He must have sent an odd amount, thinking it would cover his monthly payments because he did not specify where to apply it.

Yep! They'd rather pay than have to pay a lawyer to go to court for them.

Everything I hear about Tesla is terrible. My friend has a new one and so many little plastic things have broke and the windows are having an issue.

We got it cleared (lending bank paid for it), but the issue is the credit agencies won’t fix the credit score. Once the damage is done, you need to wait for it to correct itself (normally takes two years for full correction). Other issue is the dude keeps popping back up even though there’s a flag stating it’s not the same person.

Tesla actually did the correct thing by applying to principal if you had another payment within the statement period. You will have to prove they said they would “fix” it. They don’t have to. It seems like there is more to this story

Seems like it should be easy for grok to undo that. jk ai is worthless.

Dude I have a model Y myself the payments $1,030 a month I missed December payment and they hit me with a $600 repo fee even though my car is still in the garage and operable. I’m really curious if they’re able to waive that $600 for you. I doubt it though. So if I make my Dec and Jan payment $2,060 in one shot does that satisfy me for Dec & Jan or I’m wondering if they apply some of those funds to that stupid ass $600 repo fee

Once you get it back, get rid of it. The guy in charge is a fascist.

Moral of the story, don't finance through Tesla?

Maybe they just shouldn't have posted at all if they have no fucking clue.

Do you have documentation that says they will apply it to monthly payments? Truly over payments are only applied to the principle and an adjustment Would be a courtesy so with out proof they would convert the principle payment to monthly payment I doubt it stands up in court.

But they literally did have a clue, that being that it maybe possible to sue in small claims court. People just hate that they asked ChatGPT but like anything on the internet you need to further verify it, and in this instance that would require taking the contract to an actual lawyer, all anyone else can do is speculate which is as valid as ChatGPT.

I don't hate that they asked ChatGPT. I hate that they did so completely uncritically and acted like it was a real answer.

Damn, I'm so sorry to hear this. Make sure you sue for sure. Take it with small claims and use ai to make a battle plan do not let this slide, make noise and try to get money back for all damages that's absolutely bullshit.

💯 my thoughts exactly.

Sounds like you were super far behind and it got repossessed I kind of happens if you don't pay your bills on time

Not true. For example, former employees sue my company frequently, and we almost always settle. You forget, but for massive, massive companies, fighting tiny lawsuits is usually not worth it, and often more expensive than it’s worth and a waste of lawyer resources that could be handling more important cases. Truth is, they settle most of the time.

Reminder to self: record all phone calls when reporting errors to company (if you’re in a single party state)

That would be a complete waste of money given they already charge the customer for the manual repo process.

Apparently a lot of people do given the Model Y was the top selling car globally 3 years in a row.

SE Michigan!

Just get a court order…

I wonder if they just activated full self driving and it repossessed itself 🧐

You bought a Tesla? LMAO