There have been reports from new Tesla owners of Model 3s and Ys shipping out without USB ports, coming with empty holes instead. Although some buyers got a heads-up, there have been multiple reports of buyers getting no warning at all.
The issue was first spotted on November 11th, starting a huge discussion on Reddit where many others shared similar experiences. For some cars, only the USB-C ports were missing, but there have been cases of the rear seat USB-A ports being missing as well as wireless charging not working.
Tesla says that the global chip shortage is to blame for the lack of USB ports, and customers can make an appointment to get them installed possibly by next month, but they did not guarantee that the ports will be available.
This is not uncommon for automotive manufacturers, as brands like BMW, Chevrolet, and Ford have all omitted features due to the chip shortage. The problem is that Tesla did not warn some buyers before shipping out the car, leaving many of them annoyed and disappointed.
Although some have gotten advance notice from their delivery specialist, many customers only noticed the missing USB ports after reading articles or forum posts online. For such an expensive car, I think it’s reasonable to at least expect a notice, as well as some compensation. The same thing happened when Tesla removed the adjustable lumbar support from the same models this year without any notice beforehand. The reasoning was unclear, but CEO Elon Musk said that the decision to remove it was due to “almost no usage”.
I understand that the chip shortage is affecting many firms and manufacturers, but Tesla should do better when it comes to customer support and communication.
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