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- Tesla customers told CNBC they were charged twice by the company for new cars.
- This left them with total bills of up to $142,000 for their cars, they said.
- They had not received refunds from Tesla nearly one week after the double charges, they said.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Tesla charged some customers twice for brand-new electric cars, leaving them with expensive credit-card bills, five people told CNBC on Monday.
Nearly one week after the double charges, Tesla had still not given out refunds, the people said.
Tom Slattery, Christopher T. Lee, and Clark Peterson from southern California told CNBC they had bought Teslas ranging from $37,000 – the cost of a Model 3 sedan – to $71,000, the price of a Model Y crossover SUV with premium features.
They were all doubled charged without authorization, they said, leaving them with bills ranging from $74,000 to $142,000.
CNBC said its journalists had reviewed purchase agreements, correspondence with Tesla, and bank statements to confirm the stories. Tesla didn't respond to CNBC's request for comment, nor did it immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Slattery told CNBC he received a text from Tesla on March 24, saying the $53,000 Model Y he ordered would be delivered via "contactless" delivery in one to three days. Slattery authorized the payment of the car through ACH direct debit, but the next day found that he had been charged double, leaving him an extra $53,000 out of pocket.
Slattery said he tried to call Tesla, and then drove to the Tesla Burbank in California to try to speak to someone.
"They told me to call my bank and have my bank reverse the charge. That was not acceptable," he told CNBC. "I had almost $53,000 unauthorized stolen from my bank account. And nobody, nobody has called me, emailed me, there's no sense of urgency in resolving this."
A Tesla employee at the Burbank store told Slattery that other customers had experienced the same thing, according to Slattery.
Five days later, Slattery was still waiting for any sign of a refund from Tesla, he said. He would refuse to accept delivery of the car until he was paid back, he said.
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Peterson, from Los Angeles, told CNBC that he was charged twice for a $71,000 Model Y after paying for it on March 24. The next day, Tesla told Peterson the expected delivery time of the vehicle, and acknowledged he'd been double-charged, but urged him to contact his bank and stop the payment, Peterson said.
"He was insistent I should call my bank. So I did. They confirmed like no, the money is in Tesla's account now. We cannot do anything about that until we hear from them," Peterson told CNBC. He still hadn't received a refund from Tesla on Monday afternoon.
Lee told CNBC that Tesla charged him twice for a Model Y costing $56,578. Lee said the company told him there was no record he had been double-charged for the car, and that he should call his bank.
Along with Slattery and Peterson, Lee was still waiting for a refund from Tesla, he said.
Two other buyers, who asked CNBC to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, said they were charged twice for Tesla cars and were in financial difficulty as a result. One of the people said they had overdraft fees and hefty credit card bills due at the end of March.