Consumer complaint received 2025-03-11 00:00:00
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Lease
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease — Excess mileage, damage, or wear fees, or other problem after the lease is finished
Company: Tesla, Inc.
State: MA

Complaint narrative:
I leased a XXXX Tesla XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXX/XX/XXXX. I turned in the car at the end of my lease on XXXX. Since then, I received a " FINAL '' bill for {$920.00} that included {$470.00} for repairing scratches, and a {$390.00} " disposition fee. '' While this " disposition fee '' is a common gouge on the part of a leasing company, it is included in my lease agreement. I paid this bill. 

Since then, I received a notice on XXXX indicating the following : " Property Tax has been applied to your XXXX XXXX XXXX. Make payment now. You can also review a breakdown of charges within Documents in the Financing section of your Tesla App. '' I tried to contact Tesla in regards to my account, but their website makes it impossible to find a phone number you can call to contact them in regards to your account. I literally had to go onto XXXX and search for a Tesla support number. When calling that number, I had to call 6 times before I could make contact with a human - each automated path was seemingly designed to drop me out of the system with a " go to our website '' response. When I finally reached a human, they could not access my account information and required that I call a different number, Tesla finance, during a 4-hour window XXXX XXXX, XXXX. 

I tried to connect to Tesla finance several times over the course of a few weeks. Each time I was met with hour-plus wait times to get in touch with a person. Unfortunately my job doesn't allow me to sit on hold for an hour, so I kept trying to call every couple days to get a time where there were shorter waits. 

I eventually got an email from Tesla saying the bill was overdue for an amount of {$430.00}. This " Property Tax '' is likely a XXXX excise bill which was levied against Tesla, the current owner of the car, after ownership was transferred to them. There is no reason why I should be paying XXXX taxes on a car I returned to them in XXXX. Additionally, I already have included in the lease payments a " Monthly Sales/use Tax '' of {$19.00}, and no statements on additional property taxes. 

They prompt you to email them via PaymentResolution@Tesla.com, so I did, sending the following text on XXXXXXXX XXXX  " Hello, I have been trying to contact your team for a while now but have not been able to get through ; calling the Tesla number gets me stuck in an automated loop that hangs up before resolving. 

Please provide an invoice that outlines the costs and why they are being levied- I had a ridiculously high final payment and it is unreasonable that you are continuing to bill me even more after I paid that FINAL bill when I turned this vehicle in over 3 months ago. I will not pay this bill unless you can provide me a detailed invoice. Happy to submit it to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for resolution. 

XXXX XXXX  After waiting 4 days for a response, I tried calling again and requested a call-back, but unfortunately could not be available when the call finally came an hour later. I have scoured the Tesla website for detailed information on this mysterious bill but have had no luck in locating an invoice, just an option to pay the bill. Ultimately, Tesla seems to have set up a system where they try to create enough frustration that people will just pay random bills sent their way.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation