Introduction

If you’ve placed your reservation for a Tesla online and then moved to a new location before taking delivery you may be in need of changing your delivery location. But how does that work? And will it cause any issues? We’ll look at this potential issue in detail and let you know how to go about resolving it without any issues. Be sure to read to the end so you don’t make any mistakes that could delay your delivery for weeks, months, or even years.

What If You Never Got Your Tesla Vehicle Delivered

There are stories online of people who have ordered a car, but selected the wrong delivery destination. This could happen for a number of reasons: maybe they were on a VPN and their online location didn’t match their physical location, they were using Starlink satellite internet and their cell did not match their physical location, they ordered on vacation after being amazed by a Tesla, they moved to a new location after ordering, or they just selected the wrong location. In any case, this can have disastrous consequences if not correctly.

So people who have made this mistake tried to select the date of their pickup only to realize the destination for pickup was too far from them. When they tried to change the pickup location the order was canceled. They had to reorder and get back in the queue waiting for their turn for the car. For one user this was an additional several months of wait time after already waiting.

If you’re one of the roughly 2 million people who have preordered the Cybertruck you don’t want to go to the back of the line after waiting several years for delivery, especially after already having waited for several years. So what can you do to make sure that you don’t have to start all over at the back of the line?

How To Change Your Delivery Location For Your Tesla Vehicle

There are a couple of ways that you can update your delivery location without having your Tesla Vehicle order canceled. First, you login to the Tesla website and go to the chat. Wait for an agent and then give them your Reservation Number (RN). From there they should be able to change your Tesla Vehicle delivery location. This only works if you have access to your RN, which if you can log into the Tesla website should be available to you. Second, you can go into your local Delivery Center and ask one of the Tesla employees to update the location for you. This will only work if you are close to a Delivery Center. Lastly, if neither of those are an option you can try calling Tesla Customer Service, but expect long wait times and it seems like this is hit or miss as to whether they can help you. Only try this if you don’t have the ability to do the first two.

So which option is best? From what we’ve tried, calling is the worst option as they don’t seem to be able to help most of the time. Also, it appears that the chat sometimes isn’t able to help. We haven’t been able to figure out if there are specific reasons when they can or cannot help you with this. So if it’s possible, we strongly recommend going into a Delivery Center and talking to a Sales Agent and asking them to make the update for you.

Why Doesn’t Tesla Let You Change Your Delivery Location

From our research the most common reason Tesla doesn’t allow customers to change their reservation pickup location is due to scalping.Tesla vehicles, especially new ones always have much higher demand than manufacturing ability. So scalpers have found that they can make tens of thousands of dollars by placing an order with as little as a hundred dollar deposit by selling their place in line to others who want the vehicle without the wait. 

This is likely only to get even worse with the Cybertuck, Van, and Economy Car as they are rolled out. With waiting lists in the millions it can be years before people at the end of the line get their vehicle. And if someone needs or wants one of the cars without the wait then scalpers stand to make lots of money. This ultimately hurts Tesla’s brand due to owners talking about markups and inflated prices.

Summary

So in short, if you need to change the location of your Tesla vehicle delivery after placing the order be sure to contact Tesla and ask them to change the location for you. Don’t try to change the pickup location yourself via the app or online portal or you risk losing your place in line and having long wait times.