Elon Musk was furious after learning that discounts were being offered by the company's salespeople to buyers of pristine Tesla cars.
The Tesla CEO on Wednesday, Sept. 28, felt infuriated upon finding out the discounts and other promotional deals being offered along with the new Tesla cars, when he himself, his family members, friends and other celebrities are paying the full price of every vehicle purchased.
A tweet referencing to a Reddit post apparently caught Musk's attention about the discounts being offered to buyers of new Tesla cars.
The said Reddit post showed that a user called watupmane bought a Tesla vehicle that was not delivered as scheduled. But instead of providing explanation about the delay, the company's salesperson was said to have threatened the customer of not being able to avail of the discounted price if the sale of the vehicle would not be finalized, a statement that could mean that the car is still unavailable but the buyer should still pay for it.
Upon learning this, Musk sent an email to Tesla employees, took a screenshot of the note and posted it on Twitter. According to reports, the company boss cleared that the practice of giving discounts is only limited to a few cases.
"There can never — and I mean never — be a discount on a new car coming out of the factory in pristine condition," Musk said.
Musk hinted that such policy should be taken seriously because that is the reason he always pays in full whenever he buys a car. He also stressed that this is applicable to his family members, friends and celebrities regardless of how famous or influential they are.
Although there are a lot of points that Musk has highlighted on his note, the most significant of these so far was his statement saying his view that giving discounts to customers without any valid reason weakens the integrity of the company.
But aside from showing his disappointment in the practices he recently discovered, Musk's email is also his way of responding to a note from Pacific Crest Securities' analyst Brad Erickson who on Tuesday criticized Tesla for offering discounts specifically to its Model S sedan as a way of boosting the company's overall sales output for the third quarter of the current year.
Because of these events, buyers of new Tesla cars will most likely not experience getting any discount for vehicles that are in pristine condition since such offer will only be available for units that have been damaged, used as floor models and utilized for test drives.
Photo: Dan Taylor / Heisenberg Media | Flickr
