Tesla won't give 'super rude' customer his preordered car

By Matt McFarland

Washington Post·

3 Feb, 2016 08:30 PM2 mins to read

Tesla's Model X sedan. Photo / Bloomberg

The customer is always right, goes the saying. But if you're rude, don't expect that maxim to apply universally as one man found out.

Earlier this week Stewart Alsop, a San Francisco venture capitalist, shared that his order of a Tesla Model X was canceled after he wrote a blog post that criticized chief executive Elon Musk for starting a company event late.

Alsop titled his late September post, "Dear @ElonMusk: You should be ashamed of yourself."

"For you to stand up at 8:52 p.m. and not even acknowledge that you have wasted your own customers' time was insensitive and poor judgement," Alsop wrote.

Alsop said that he'd placed a $5,000 preorder for the Model X and expected to test drive it at the launch event on Sept. 29 in Fremont, California.

But then the event started later than expected. The invitation noted that doors would open at 7 p.m., and encouraged guests to arrive by 7:30 p.m. A clear start time wasn't specified, but according to Alsop, Musk conceded in a phone conversation that the event began 30 minutes late.

For you to stand up at 8:52 p.m. and not even acknowledge that you have wasted your own customers' time was insensitive and poor judgement.

When Musk arrived on stage he opened with what Alsop described as "an amateur slide show." Alsop, angry and hungry, stormed out before the event ended.

In a follow-up post this week Alsop said he'd been banned from ordering his Model X, and expressed shock given critical posts he'd authored on other companies such as BMW.

He will be stuck continuing to drive his "irritating BMW X1."

Musk weighed in on the episode early Friday morning. "Must be a slow news day if denying service to a super rude customer gets this much attention," he tweeted.