Tesla makes it hard to get $50,000 Roadster deposit refunded after 8 years (Updated)

Tesla Roadster reservation holders describe the frustrating process of getting their $50,000 deposit reimbursed after the automaker delayed the vehicle’s release by five years.

Update: the article previously mentioned that Tesla didn’t reimburse the $5,000, as per Brownlee, who now said that Tesla sent him the $5,000.

The next-gen Roadster has been sort of a running gag in the Tesla community for a while now.

Tesla first unveiled it in 2017, started taking reservations for it, and said that it would go into production in 2020.

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Eight years after the start of reservations and five years past when it was supposed to enter production, the next-gen Tesla Roadster is still nowhere to be seen.

Tesla charged between $50,000 and $250,000 in deposits for the Roadster, depending on whether customers opted for the “Founders Series” or not. Some people had placed that money in Tesla’s hands for eight years without the automaker delivering anything.

Marques Brownlee, a popular tech Youtuber, was one of those people, and he announced on his podcast last week that he finally decided to cancel his reservation after 8 years:

I’ve had two Tesla Roadsters in my Tesla account. one that I paid for. And the way that worked is you pay the $5,000 payment immediately for the reservation. And then within 10 days, you net $50,000 to Tesla. And then when they deliver the car, whenever that is, you will pay the rest of it. I think totaling $250,000. So Tesla has been sitting with my 50 grand for eight years and hasn’t done anything with it, obviously. Meanwhile, the other one in my account is a referral reward.

He is referring to a referral program that Tesla had at the time. If you helped Tesla sell enough cars, you could get discounts on the new Roadster or even free ones.

Brownlee had made enough referrals to receive a free Roadster and a second one at half price, so he decided to place a reservation for his second one.

He described a painful cancellation process:

You go to manage your reservation, and there is no cancel button next to the Roadster. You have to go in and hit manage. And when you hit manage, it goes, here’s a phone number. Here’s an email address. And you call that phone number. And I actually did this for a couple days and just got voicemail, which was great.

When he finally managed to talk to someone, it was a sales staff member who didn’t know how to cancel the Roadster, but assured him it would be taken care of.

He waited a while, but nothing happened, so he called back, and this time they could finally get him done and reportedly sent a check in the mail.

However, the wildest part is that Tesla is only reimbursing $45,000 out of the $50,000. Brownlee said:

I’ll get 45 grand back. The first 5K I don’t get back.

Update: Brownlee now says that Tesla ended up also sending him the $5,000.

The latest information from Tesla on the Roadster comes from CEO Elon Musk, who says that Tesla will unveil an updated version by the end of the year.

However, he said that almost every year for the last 5 years, and it never happened.

Here’s the relevant podcast episode: