Greg's Corner

Tagged: Tesla Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• 

  Geebo 8:00 am on October 16, 2020 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Scams ( 1,354 ), Tesla, used car ( 33 )   

  The police often can’t help with online fraud 

  

  A man from Glendale, Arizona really had his heart set on buying a Tesla. He even went to a car classifieds site that has a pretty stellar reputation. However, even the best sites can have a scammer or two in their midst and the victim of this story happened to run into one of them.

  The car supposedly being put up for sale was not local to Glendale. The Tesla was also listed at a bargain of a price. Of course, the reduced price had a story to go along with it. The seller claimed he was getting rid of the car because he was a pilot and moving to Canada for training. Unfortunately, the victim wired $30,000 to the scammer and never received the Tesla of his dreams.

  This man was not to be undaunted though. Even with his financial loss, he still had it in his mind that he was still going to purchase a Tesla. He either ran into the same scammer online or another scammer who using the same Canadian pilot story.

  Both times, the victim notified his local police and was rather abruptly told “We do not have the time or resources to go out and proactively pursue other fraud schemes on the internet.”

  While the Glendale Police have since apologized to the man for their reaction to his request, that is, unfortunately, the case for most people who are defrauded on the internet. The majority of these fraudsters live and operate overseas which leaves U.S. law enforcement little power to apprehend these scammers. However, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t report online fraud to your local police so they could at least warn the local community of fraud happening in their area.

  Also, always avoid any potential sale that comes with a story about why the item is at such a reduced price. You should also never buy a car without inspecting it yourself or by a trusted mechanic before making the purchase. And lastly, never pay for any item online with a form of payment that can’t be traced like gift cards or wire transfers.

   

  Leave a ReplyCancel reply
• 

  Geebo 9:00 am on July 11, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Elon Musk ( 2 ), Tesla, X.com   

  X marks the spot for Elon Musk 

  

  One school of thought in online business is to have the shortest domain name, or URL, possible. This way it’s supposedly easier for customers to remember how to find you online. For example, even large companies like Amazon and Google have the shortcut URLs of a.co and g.co, respectively. What about the top-level domains like .com though? In the early 1990s, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the non-profit organization that oversees domain names, reserved single character domain names for future use. Only a handful that had already been registered were allowed to remain, one of those was X.com.

  Previously X.com was owned by a newcomer to the tech scene by the name of Elon Musk. Yes, the same Elon Musk who currently runs Tesla Motors and The Space-X program. X.com’s original intent was to be an innovative online banking service. Here is a video of a much younger Elon Musk talking about X.com.

  For the record Mr. Musk admittedly wrecked that McLaren and did not have the car insured, but even back then he was rich enough to not need it. Also, he has never been on the cover of Rolling Stone as far as I can tell, but he has been on the cover of a multitude of other magazines.

  X.com eventually merged with another company that became PayPal. It was at that point that X.com then pointed to PayPal’s website. Musk was PayPal’s CEO until he was ousted in October of 2000. Now it is being reported that PayPal has sold X.com back to Elon Musk for an unspecified amount, and who better to have it than Elon Musk? For example, Tesla Motors makes the Model X which is an electric crossover SUV, and he has the aforementioned and much-lauded Space-X program which is a huge innovator in commercial space flight.

  Currently, X.com will only produce an error message in your browser saying the site can’t be reached, however, it will be interesting, to say the least, to see what Elon Musk will do with it.

   
• 

  Geebo 9:02 am on June 6, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: AAA, insurance ( 8 ), Tesla   

  Car insurance for Teslas is about to go through the roof 

  

  So you finally made it to the point in your life where you can purchase a Tesla as your primary vehicle. Good for you. They’re great for the environment and they surpass most, if not all, of the safety standards put forth by the government and consumer groups. Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that you may be paying another arm and a leg for the insurance. AAA has come out and said they are raising the rates for insurance on the Model S and the Model X. So if the cars are so safe why are the rates being raised?

  It comes down to the fact that in this case, Tesla is a victim of their own success. Their manufacturing process is so unique that not only are the parts prohibitively expensive, but so is the cost for specially trained mechanics. You can find many stories on the internet where Tesla owners ended up paying thousands upon thousands of dollars for something as routine as a blown tire. In AAA’s eyes this means even though the safety standard is high for Teslas, the cost of replacement parts is so astronomical it has to raise their rates to properly insure these uncommon vehicles. Other insurance companies are expected to follow.

  Do you think AAA is making a cash grab by raising the rates of one of the safest vehicles of all time, or are they justified due to the costs of parts and labor even for the most minor of items?