How Tesla rewarded me for telling the truth

do you like stories because i like stories and i have a story for you all today today i'm going to talk about tesla the often disputed but clearly the greatest automotive company there ever was and my hilarious relationship with them just to clear the air if you don't know who i am i am nobody okay i like to fix and build things that people would normally throw away because we live in a throwaway society and that bothers me but thanks to the internet you can watch me do said things i do this for three reasons one it's fun two i like to learn how things actually work and three i'm not a millionaire independently wealthy or related to a hip-hop artist i am a tesla fan enthusiast and i'm also a tesla shareholder i own four tesla mugs okay i own several teslas i probably own about 10 or 15 or so maybe more than that but yes i've owned a bunch and i'm also the owner of a repair shop called the electrified garage an independent repair facility where people bring us their teslas to fix run by two tesla former employees and speaking of that we're hiring all right we're based in new hampshire you have to be motivated a self-starter open-minded eager to learn and have a strong automotive electrical background and you might see me a few times a week in which i will demand you buy me lunch so if you're interested send me your resume info electrifiedgarage.com to apply but if you want to hear more about the garage and what we do there's a video in the description box below about what the electrified garage actually gets into on a daily basis now anyways the funniest thing happened all right i've been building tesla's for a while now and it's a very cool car one of my good friends got a job there he brought the car over to my house took me for a ride i fell in love with it i bought a salvage flooded one a year later i thought it was an awesome cool company until i hit my first roadblock when i was trying to buy parts from them to fix my rec car so i had the salvage car right i called tesla for parts because at the time you couldn't get them anywhere else and there were hardly any used parts them online and i called them like hey can i have some parts please and their response was we won't sell you anything because you don't know anything you're a peasant why would you fix one of these yourself what are you poor just buy a new car no they didn't accuse me of being poor all right they didn't do that but they did tell me to buy a new car that struck a nerve at me like literally a throwaway society all right just throw it away and buy a new one for example this california can be right here on ia.com right 10 000 miles it runs and drives no airbags went off it needs a new front bumper rear hatch and rear bumper that's it and they literally threw this entire car away doesn't that make you mad this thing runs and drives there are many out there that would kill to have a car like this and some cars drive like this on a daily basis anyways you know buy this car because it's a model 3 and model threes are cool so go to ia.com and use code save 50 for half off registration and when you do buy it i want you to email me and say wow rich thanks for nothing i am now just like everyone else that owns a model 3. but anyways i was like let's try a new approach with dealing with tesla okay if it pleases the crown may i have some parts please and they're like no because you can't fix this car only us tesla trained texts can do it scram so i'm jumping up and down about this story complaining about this very odd tactic and i get my second roadblock all right and this is the most difficult roadblock to this day it's called the tesla sim sorry other nicknames i've given them are the fedora army elon's musketeers the translucent cave dwellers the fanboys the nerd herd and the dork patrol and the musk mob and i've noticed one thing when you call them fanboys they get irrationally upset and they report your videos on youtube so i'm going to use the term musketeers so i started talking about this story and the musketeers were like whoa tesla's right you don't know what you're doing it's a liability how would you feel for car that someone built caught fire and i'm like well i feel the same way as all the other teslas fresh off the storm floor that caught fire just driving down the road and the response was just like vampires when they see sunlight repaired teslas make up a tiny percentage of cars in the road matter of fact there's a high likelihood you haven't even seen one on before all right the likelihood of blowing up is small just like a regular tesla so anyways the new enemy of the musketeer so now tesla over the years have done some really odd things and the first big bump i experienced was i think the takata airbag recall now if you don't remember that takata had a bunch of airbag recalls where the airbag either wouldn't go off in an accident or it would just be like a bomb and literally explode in your face for no reason and kill you so my friend called me and said hey man i have a salvaged car i went to tesla and they said they won't replace the airbag you know under the recall and they denied the recall my car because it was an accident before and i'm like okay let's think about this logically now maybe when the car was in an accident the airbag went off and it was replaced with a good one and that's probably why they're denying you of your recall work now he's like no it was minor collision no airbags went off i'm like here we go the car is fine he's been driving it and they won't replace the airbag it was a mandatory recall so the national highway transportation association was like hey listen you have to replace these so i scratched my head and i said imagine a company being so literal you have a back room full of new airbags a man walks into the front door and says there's a mandatory recall on my airbags and the company says hey you know what we can't do that and the employee that said that goes home has a great sleep that night knowing there's a chance that airbag may very well explode in that man's face and then that same employee waking up the next morning like babe what's for breakfast it's so i raced how i made a video and i called the nhtsa and within days tesla was like oh hey wait that was wrong we were just playing let's go ahead and replace that airbag we're cool right it's just very different because remember honda they went to the actual salvage jars and physically removed the old airbags so people wouldn't reuse them they actually called the yard and says hey listen you can't sell cars with these anymore but anyways that's water under the bridge no big deal that was in the past i called the authorities on tesla and forced their hands to make the right decision now speaking of our decision my best friend in the whole wide world sam just wanted to clarify something he used me in one of his recent videos he used me he said that i got kicked out of an event and people were like yeah rich sucks but if you look carefully actually not even that carefully that is not me this man with a full head of hair is not me i have zero hair this man has ten here and then when i was shaving my face in his bathroom he informed me that he used that shaver for his nether regions which overall was very embarrassing my episode was riddled with things that just plain weren't true but you know what was true about that episode it is in fact very smooth i use it up down north and south so small i use it everywhere it has a built-in led light that shines on grooming areas for closer more precise trimming so you can shave a mohawk down there if you want incomplete darkness it has a 7000 rpm motor with quiet stroke technology who doesn't love quiet strokes it also comes with a ball lotion and deodorant sometimes your balls can get unruly so stop chasing them around throw some lotion on them you need to try them out use my code for 20 off in the description box below thank you manscape for sponsoring this episode so time went on and i finished the car and interestingly enough they gave me something called a referral code now a referral code is something like a perk program that tesla offered so when someone uses your code to buy a car you can get magical things like power walls and tesla power wheels etc etc and what's funny is that i looked in my perk box and i saw that i was entitled to two tesla ride on cars so i'm like perfect i ordered two for my kids for christmas time a few years ago and the funny thing is is that you know when i got them both one was actually flooded it was it was funny one of the batteries must have sat in water somehow and what are the odds of that one of the batteries that i got was messed up but this could be ironic i don't know i'm not blaming this on tesla i just find it was kind of funny so i called radio flyer and they sent me another one and then that battery died a year later but anyways so as things progressed uh they got more difficult with tesla and one of my favorite clips was when i tried to order parts through them i wanted a lug nut cover and then just listen to this conversation real quick oh you know what no no no no just to be clear on something i don't need the uh i don't need the lug nuts too i just need a little tiny plastic covers that go over the look oh oh okay well uh oh what do you need those ones oh i'm sorry what do you need those oh sorry hold on one second hold on that's what it was like two years ago and then vice reached out to me to do a documentary about the whole tesla thing documenting all the issues i've had over the last few years and it raised hell because now it had media attention now people actually started listening to me for a change and as a result tesla made some more changes that wasn't my intention but they started actually selling parts for cars with salvage titles which was huge because they never actually did that before so i felt like it was a win and if you watch the documentary you'll know it's a great car and people just want to keep them on the road but here's where i got into the second coming of the tesla sims uh the supercharging access now supercharging is the ability to use tesla's fast charging network and tesla turns them off on salvaged cars but you can pay them anywhere from a few grand to about twelve thousand dollars or so they recertify the car and turn the supercharging back on well unfortunately later on a couple years later they decided to do a bulk disabling of supercharging so everyone that paid to have it turned back on in a lot of cases was out of luck so if you pay them whatever it was there's a likelihood that they turned it back off again and i was like well well that sucks okay then months later it happened to me as well the car that it bought they turned it off on that car as well so imagine paying to have it turn back on and tesla said hey you know what that's not our policy anymore and their official document if you try to go through a third party it says right here in fine print if you try to turn it back on you can face legal action so basically if you turn it back on you might go to jail does that seem odd to you legal action even if you don't use it just you turning it back on uh it could get you in trouble but also that they also have an email address to snitch on them so if you have any hints or inkling that someone might be doing this illegally you can email this this address right here and you could rat out your friends to tesla and here's where the musketeers come in again now the guys screaming in the comments sections of internet websites many people said it was a liability thing like if you rebuilt the tesla and it blows up the company looks bad but guess what all model 3 supercharged yes all salvage model 3 supercharged even this one superchargers it looks like it fell off a cliff forgive me but how is this not a liability again out of the 30 plus salvage model threes i've come across all of them supercharged so no it's not a liability thing if they care about liability they would have replaced that airbag without the nhtsa getting involved but so during this time my referral code people were actually using it which was awesome the more cars people bought through the program the more perks i would get so i was getting a lot of opposition about my thoughts towards tesla and people were saying i'm setting tesla back and i'm ruining the brand but mysteriously people are still using the referral code so people are watching the videos that i made about a car i endorse and making a conscious decision to buy a tesla based off those videos but somehow according to the sims i'm sending tesla back because their saw captain detectors were broken or something and also with me complaining about the way tesla treats people that aren't their ideal customer but either way people still use them literally hundreds of messages saying why should tesla care about you and your rec car tons and tons of hate so i said you know what you're right i'm gonna support the brand i'm going to buy a model x as a shareholder i'm going to support them and buy a car from them it was september of 2018. i remember like it was yesterday i found a used 90d on tesla.com a used inventory car i won't share the price but it was literally double the price of your average used car sold the united states and they were selling this thing with cryptic online photos and you could barely see the real thing but either way i don't care i wanted it and my word what a story i have a link to that whole series in the description box below but basically they said the car is located in new york and it'll be shipped to massachusetts and i should have it in a few weeks for a used car by the way well long story short i ordered in september and december 24th rolled around and still no sign of the car i said hey any chance of me getting the car this year and they were like sure no problem now remember i said nothing for months finally i got fed up and in january i released a video called elon wears my car and it spread like wildfire tesla saw the video and i still didn't get the car i released a video every week four videos until the car was in my hands and they said they didn't know where the car was i mean i called around found the body shop the car was at they told me the car was ready i drove the rear of my mom they looked me dead in the eye and said no the car isn't ready not only that but they said they had a loaner car for me i went back again no loner car it was the most embarrassing and cringy car buying experience ever but i finally got the car after a few months of back and forth now imagine buying a used car and it taking three months for you to get it a car that already exists and guess who's right behind me the tesla simps tesla was busy with model 3 deliveries you should have known this you shouldn't have ordered the car bro seriously give them a break they're trying bro please but hear me out again i'm a tesla shareholder and i have real money in tesla i handed them several thousand dollars for a car doesn't exist i'm supposed to be like lol it's okay bro i know you're busy it's okay now i don't care that the car took that long i just wish the expectation was set so if i bought the car and they said it was going to take four months i'd be like okay expectation was set no biggie so i'm fighting tesla and the tesla sims once again i finally got the car and then i get this email for my subscribers saying hey man love the vids just try to buy a tesla using your code and they said it doesn't exist so no biggie i emailed tesla and said hello there i hope this email finds you well i've recently discovered that my referral code link has disappeared and the loot box has disappeared as well here's my code i know the program's ending on the first but i'd like to get credit for a roadster if possible thank you then i got this email back from them hey richard thank you for contacting us regarding the tesla referral program we're having a few technical difficulties this will be resolved shortly rest assured you will continue to get credit for any referrals made before february 1st thanks like dude don't even worry about it it's just a glitch you'll get your credit and finally literally three days after my model x was delivered i got this email hey rich sorry for the delay but the request to have your referral link reactivated was denied while your account was initially affected by a technical issue upon further review of your account we believe that actions you have taken on your youtube channel are in bad faith towards the company and contrary to the intent of the program your account has been banned from the referral incentives for violating the good faith policy of the program we will be withholding any awards that you have yet to be fulfilled and that's really it folks now i'm not mad or annoyed or anything i admit i really wanted a tesla roadster but no one needs a tesla roadster it's probably the biggest first world problem there is and boo hoo i'm not getting free perks for selling a whole bunch of cars but this is until everyone know that has purchased the cars the code is no longer valid and since i've made so many youtube videos it's hard to go back and remove the code from the description boxes so i'm going to leave them there like taxidermy it's just a pile of soft tissue of what used to be so i'm not mad right this could have been a lot worse i could have been called a pedo guy or something like that which would ruin my youtube career but either way what really gets me is that a few months later after canceling the code here's what really gets to me and why i feel used tesla came to the grand opening of the electrified garage let us not forget these men and women are my friends my people tesla employees they came to the event they gave test rides people that have never driven a tesla before to help them sell more cars okay i let them in my bed again they laid with me they slept with me and then kicked me out of bed the next day didn't even leave a note okay they came and they literally left i'll say it again i understand i'm not mad either a company and they can do whatever they want remember freedom of speech is not freedom of repercussions there's not much i can do really my main mission is the right to repair to give people the power to repair their own cars i started facebook groups several years ago people that want to sell tesla parts called tesla parts buy sell trade which helps thousands of people and i think i did my part you know i brought attention to the cards people purchased them as a result others decided not to purchase them based on some findings i started a small community of diy-ers and tesla rebuilders i came what i needed to do getting my ass kicked around every corner i realized that my calling is likely the diy community not the tesla community uh for example the diy electric vehicle group on facebook which i'm pretty active on that's more my calling because unfortunately the overwhelming majority of tesla owners aren't really the tinkerers that i thought they would be they're not really willing to push limits on a car that has a warranty and when they make payments on which i get so i'll be doing more diy type stuff and experimenting with different platforms with cars that are a little bit more mature with the larger diy base so that's all i wanted to say thanks for coming to my ted talk and i will see you guys next week

Channel: Rich Rebuilds

Views: 2,084,854

Rating: 4.9004164 out of 5

Keywords: tesla, cars, teardown, mechanical, salvage, rebuild, how, to, fix, whats, inside, ev, repair, electric, vehicle, how to fix a tesla, salvage repair, shave, manscaped

Id: 1PWlkAZCojg

Length: 17min 36sec (1056 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 19 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/lovely_sombrero]

LOL he sold a bunch of new Tesla cars and Tesla killed his referral code before he could use it.

[u/dothedew94]

Damn the worst part is that they kicked him out of the referral program and then showed up at the Electrified Garage opening.. to sell more cars.. at his behalf. Jesus christ Tesla get your shit together and give this guy the roadster he deserves.

[u/Rodrigolmbr]

Rich is so funny and informative.

[u/kdjfsk]

wow. after all the shit this guy has been through, im amazed he would even have the slightest interest in Tesla.

after hearing all the crap about Tesla after they tried to screw over the guy who bought one at auction, i suspected this is exactly the type of company Tesla is, but now i know for sure.

[u/Senor_Taco29]

I'm pretty sure I saw one of his original videos about the flooded one when he first got it but never remembered to follow up on the series.

Can't believe the shit show he's put up with

[u/[deleted]]

Money over morals

[u/xdr01]

Love Rich's videos, shines a light on some seriously shitty business practices by Tesla and funny as hell.

[u/celicaxx]

Yesterday I paid $7 on ebay for a coolant temperature sensor for my Nissan Sentra. Sometimes I feel sad I'm not ballin' and drivin' a Tesla. But then I see videos like this and suddenly my life seems so simple.

[u/overandunder_86]

I don't have too many issues with the cars it's mostly the company and the fans