As if he wasn't already filthy rich enough (monetarily speaking, anyway...), Elon Musk of Tesla is now stealing even more money from people who were dumb enough to purchase his overpriced deathtraps by charging them for "software upgrades" they never agreed to buy.
New reports indicate that Tesla owners are receiving bills for anywhere from $4,000 to $10,000 for unintentional and unwanted "upgrades" that one Tesla owner compared to a "butt dial," i.e. when your smartphone accidentally calls someone from your pocket.
It would be one thing if Tesla was honoring refunds for these accidental, and very expensive, purchases. But reports are flooding the media about Tesla owners who say that the Musk empire is refusing to rightfully give them their money back.
One Tesla owner by the name of Jon McLaughlin says that his wife suddenly noticed one day that her Model 3 had the ability to take advantage of Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) functionality, for which he was billed $9,700. But there was just one problem: Neither McLaughlin nor his wife actually made this purchase.
"This prompted me to look at the 'upgrades' section of the mobile app," McLaughlin recounts about the discovery process.
"Interestingly, the app said I had purchased all the eligible upgrades. Odd, I haven't purchased anything. So, I proceed to click on the 'purchases' within the mobile app only to see two invoices. One for the new performance boost and the other for FSD."
Like with smartphone app purchases, Tesla recently introduced a "one-click" option that allows Tesla owners to make a purchase, no matter the cost, with the simple touch of a button. There are no further screen prompts asking are you sure?, nor are there any requests for payment information.
Consequently, Tesla owners are discovering outrageous charges on their credit card bills for "upgrades" that they claim they never actually agreed to buy. Perhaps a child picked up their phones and hit the one-click, or maybe there's a "glitch" in the system. Either way, Tesla is refusing to refund its customers, claiming that these unintended purchases are "non-refundable."
One prominent Tesla customer with a large social media following tweeted about how he became a victim of Tesla's one-click scam, to which he received a direct response from Elon Musk that the issue "[w]ill be addressed." As of this writing, however, there have been no reports of anything being addressed.
Meanwhile, lower profile Tesla owners without celebrity status are being ignored by Musk and his company, which only feeds into a growing sentiment that Tesla only cares about the rich and famous, and not the rich and unknown.
Why are taxpayers still subsidizing the garbage cars made by Tesla?
It's difficult to decipher why anyone would even want to own a Tesla in the first place, seeing as how they could "brick" themselves at any moment, leaving their drivers stranded with few, if any options.
There's also the very real risk that a Tesla might veer off the road at any moment, or perhaps explode for no apparent reason.
Tesla vehicles really are deathtraps that put not only their drivers but also everyone else out on the road at risk of serious injury or death. Their production also contributes to child slave labor in Africa, where little kids are working in dangerous cobalt mines – cobalt being one of the materials necessary to produce "green" batteries for Tesla.
"The whole thing is a scam," wrote one Breitbart News commenter about Tesla, responding to another commenter who wrote about Tesla's business model:
"Sell a car full of electronics, then profit from endless software upgrades to fix glitches, real or imagined. Don't pay and the car doesn't run. Continuous blackmail. Forget it."
"Tesla started in 2003 and the government is still funding them with tax rebates, etc.," the responding commenter further added.
For more related news about Tesla, visit ElonMuskWatch.com.
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