Like, fuck Tesla and Musk in particular, but they paid out the rebates to the customers as they bought vehicles over the year, and put all the rebate requests in on their behalf just before the deadline. This wasn't fraud in any concievable manner.

[–] YesButActuallyMaybe@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Please explain how that makes sense: customer buys car, Tesla gives them rebate, Tesla doesn’t collect rebate for months and just sits there with no money. Then tesla decides to call in rebates all at once when it’s announced that they run out?

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

HR Block does taxes, rebates people immediately out of their pocket. Submits all refund requests at April 30, gets money back.

Paperwork often gets done in batches. Companies invoice at the end of month but pay their employees weekly or biweekly.

This isn't nefarious, no matter how much you (and I) hate Tesla.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago

If they were doing this monthly, that assumes they were selling thousands of cars each month. That seems unlikely.

[–] argh_another_username@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Considering Tesla did not asked for the rebates themselves, but it was something the buyers had to do, I think it’s fraud.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not necessarily, dealerships could take care of it and just give it to the customers in the meantime, a bit like a 0% loan that is being refunded by the government.

[–] argh_another_username@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And that’s fraud. I think it’s exactly what they wanted, to ask for as many as they could so they could sell the cars for less than the competition.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

No it's not, it's exactly how all dealerships handled the federal rebate, the only weird thing is Tesla not claiming them regularly (from what they're saying) hence the investigation, but otherwise it's perfectly normal and legal that the dealerships were taking care of the trouble for their clients.

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Could you show where other dealers have done this?

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

When the news came out all the other dealers were complaining that they couldn't submit the paperwork for the rebate.

It's not the clients that pay the bill and then get a cheque back, it's included on their bill when they purchase the car and in the loan they take if they need one.

It's not Tesla pretending to have purchased cars and submitting the paperwork under false client names, it's them submitting the paperwork for cars they (allegedly) sold to get the refund for the rebate they (allegedly) passed on to the client. As if they had accumulated the paperwork for months without submitting it to the government to get the refund they're owed for a rebate they gave their clients.

https://insideevs.com/news/752820/tesla-accused-of-gaming-rebates-canada/

Dealerships provide rebates of up to $5,000 at the point of sale and then the government reimburses them.

[–] UnderFreyja@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago

They're under investigation because it is believed they boosted sales in their books to get the rebates for cars that were jot actually sold....

[–] npcknapsack@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago

If that's what happened, they should be able to prove that and the money will go to them. But I've certainly heard stories, and I look forward to the results of an investigation.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago

It was also one location. So did no other location do rebates?

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago

That sounds like a fraud scheme.