Man purchases used Tesla unknowingly banned from all Supercharger stations

Maybe he’ll boycott.

An unlucky man purchased a Tesla from a used car dealership only to learn that it was nearly impossible to charge the electric vehicle after driving it off the lot.

Daniel Boycott was enjoying his spick-and-span 2022 Tesla Model 3 after purchasing it at a used car dealership in Illinois last month.

It rode smoothly, purred like a kitten, and didn’t have any apparent issues flagged during test drives or by the dealership itself. That was, until he tried to use a Tesla Supercharger to refill its juice.

When the first charger didn’t work, Boycott sought out a few more stations. When none of them worked, he turned to the Illinois dealership and Tesla.

“I was told it was clean. The CARFAX said it was clean, and I trusted that,” Boycott told CBS News.

A Tesla representative eventually got back to Boycott and let him know that “the car is currently unsupported for supercharging and warranties are voided due to [it being a] salvaged vehicle.”

Boycott admittedly neglected to look into the CARFAX vehicle history report until he purchased the vehicle, so at first glance, the word “salvage” didn’t make sense, he said.

Then, he took an actual look at the report, which noted a “minor accident” before it was turned over to the dealership.

The damages looked minuscule in the provided photos, but a Tesla technician later told Boycott the repair wasn’t done well — deeming his car a damaged vehicle.

The Elon Musk-owned company said connecting a damaged vehicle to the Superchargers is a safety issue, which is why his car was removed from the network.

“It was bad enough where they flagged it,” Boycott told the outlet.

He added that the whole reason he sought to purchase a Tesla over other EVs in the first place was for the wide network of Superchargers, which could support the car on long trips.

Now, any and all trips, regardless of distance, are nearly impossible.

Tesla does offer an inspection option for customers trying to get their Tesla back on the Supercharger network, but for a fee of a couple thousand dollars.

“You know, I don’t want to pay like, $10,000 extra on a car that I already agreed to,” Boycott lamented to the outlet.

He is still locked in negotiations with the dealership that sold him the vehicle, but the owners noted that the Illinois Secretary of State Police apparently investigated and confirmed that the car was never officially labeled as salvaged.