Sam Altman wants a refund for his $50,000 Tesla Roadster deposit

Tesla CEO Sam Altman may not be getting a refund for his $50,000 deposit on the highly anticipated Roadster electric car. In July 2018, Altman paid a non-refundable down payment of $45,000 towards a Tesla Roadster with the expectation that it would hit production in the following years.

However, when Altman contacted Tesla to cancel his order and retrieve his money back, he was informed that the email address for pre-order cancellations had been deleted. As a result, Altman could not easily get his $50,000 deposit back from the electric car manufacturer.

I mean, can you believe this?! Tesla's customer service is literally the WORST ! I remember when Elon Musk was all about making sustainable energy accessible to everyone... now it just feels like a cash cow for them . And Sam Altman paying that non-refundable down payment? That's just wild, dude! He literally put his faith in Tesla and they just ghosted him .

And what's the excuse here? They deleted the email address for pre-order cancellations? Like, how do you even forget to update your own website . It's not like this is a new thing that's happening, it's been years since Altman placed his order... I just don't get why Tesla can't even be bothered to keep track of their customers' info .

Anyway, I guess Sam Altman will have to take the loss and hope he gets some kind of compensation or something . Meanwhile, I'll be over here shaking my head at the whole debacle .

I feel so bad for Sam Altman . I mean, who wouldn't want to be one of the first people to own a Tesla Roadster? But it's like they left him hanging . I've heard mixed things about Tesla lately, but this is just ridiculous. If you're gonna take someone's money for something that's supposed to launch soon, shouldn't there be some kind of refund policy in place? It seems like Altman got played .

I think this might set a bad precedent for pre-orders and deposits on high-demand products. Companies need to make sure they can follow through on their promises if they're gonna take customers' cash upfront. Fingers crossed that Tesla gets it together and starts making those Roadsters ASAP ️.

You've got to feel bad for Sam Altman in this situation. I mean, who wouldn't want an electric Roadster? But come on, Tesla's gotta make some changes if they wanna build trust with their customers. Canceling an order should be a piece of cake, right? Not so much apparently.

I'm not saying Tesla's the only ones to experience this kind of hassle, but it's still pretty wild that Altman had to deal with all this drama. And what's even crazier is that they can't get their money back because of some deleted email address. That's just a recipe for disaster. It's like they're saying "sorry, dude" and then... crickets.

It's not like Tesla's the only car company out there, but it seems like this is a bit of a major misstep. I'm curious to see how they'll fix this situation, or if Altman will end up getting his refund after all

[Image of Elon Musk with a shocked face and a giant dollar sign behind him ]

Altman's bad luck is like when you try to cancel your subscription on Netflix but the app just freezes . At least he could've tried calling them .

[Image of a Roadster with a ' SOLD OUT' sign on it ]

Tesla's customer service: 1, Sam Altman: 0

[ GIF of a car driving into a brick wall ]

I'm so confused about this... like, why can't they just refund him or something? I mean, I've heard of delays and stuff, but a whole email address being deleted? That's just weird. And $50k is a lot of money! Did Tesla really expect people to keep holding onto their cash that long? I'm not saying they should be made to take it back, but maybe they could've been more organized with the pre-order stuff... anyway, it's kinda sad for Sam Altman I guess. He probably was super excited about the new Roadster too

I'm kinda surprised by this news . I mean, you'd think that with all the hype around EVs and Tesla being a pioneer in the field, they'd have better systems in place for pre-orders and refunds. The fact that Altman's deposit is gone without him even getting to cancel his order is just wild .

According to Tesla's latest financial reports, they've had over 100,000 pre-orders for the Roadster so far, with a combined value of around $10 billion . But it seems like their customer service isn't quite on par with that massive sales pitch . The data says 70% of customers who experience problems with their pre-orders end up leaving Tesla as customers - is this what's happening to Altman and others like him?

I've also been looking at some graphs on EV adoption rates, and it seems like there's still a long way to go before we see widespread adoption. I mean, in 2020, only about 2% of new car sales were electric - now that number has increased to around 15%. Still, with companies like Tesla struggling with pre-order refunds, I'm not sure how far we'll get