[SebT2000]

TL;DR: Had someone else's Polestar 2 delivered, didn't get ours until 2 weeks later in "used" condition, limited compensation from Polestar for this f**k up.

I've been meaning to create this post for some time now but only just got round to it. Bit of a long story but I'm curious to know what others would have done in my situation.

I am leasing a dual motor Polestar 2 via work and the company Arval. I was working away when it got delivered so my Wife took delivery of our car in Oct 2021. The delivery guy from BCA mentioned in passing on the day that he had delivered another Polestar 2 that morning to another person in Bristol. Wife failed to notice on the delivery documents that the registration number last 3 characters didn't match of the car delivered (although I think she can be forgiven for this as who realistically would check this - I'm not sure I would have, and would have assumed the delivery driver to do their own checks). I only noticed 3 days after having driven it that the car reg didn't match and the sticker on the side said "single motor". Obviously it was the colour and trim I was expecting and had ordered so it was just the car reg and sticker that were out of place. I assumed the sticker was a mistake, but having checked the DVLA website my worst fears were confirmed... Somehow BCA had delivered my car to the other person in Bristol and I had his! So basically, I had been driving this car without tax and insurance and vice versa for this person with my car. As soon as I found out I had stopped driving the car and notified BCA, Arval and Polestar.

What followed were numerous telephone calls and emails to all 3 parties trying to work out where my actual Polestar 2 was and what could be done to arrange a swap. This was made more difficult as I was still travelling away with work so my wife was having to communicate a lot on my behalf. Polestar essentially spent the next 2 weeks trying to locate my car as it transpired the other person who took deliver of my car was not an Arval lease customer. After they located it, it was finally delivered and swapped with my wife. The BCA driver mentioned the other person was not a happy chappy having to return the car to me (the cheek!). It arrived with over 300 miles on the clock and it was very dirty as it turned out the other guy had contacted polestar for emergency insurance to drive my car to and from Swindon for work (apparently he absolutely needed to). This also seemed a bit cheeky as Polestar at the time said they were still trying to locate my car when in fact they probably already knew as they were allowing the other person to drive my car with their temporary insurance.

I was happy to have the correct car in my possession (my wife and I were both very stressed by this ordeal and not helped that we both have busy lives and wife is heavily pregnant, and hormonal!) but what would others have done in my position? Polestar initially were only going to cover the cost of a valet to bring the car into back to new condition, but they obviously couldn't do anything to turn back time and remove the 300+ miles that the person had put on it. There didn't appear to be any damage to the car but I never got a full inspection of it. Had I not been leasing the car, the car would have essentially been delivered to be "used" (anyone know what the actual definition of a used car is, in terms of miles on clock?) and probably would have lost a lot of its value compared to a new car with next to zero miles on the clock. Additionally, I don't really know how much care the other person took driving my car but I imagine if I had ordered a single motor car and had a dual motor delivered, I probably would ragged the crap out of it, knowing it wasn't mine, AND polestar had given me temporary insurance to drive it.

Basically, it seemed no one wanted to take responsibility for this and really it was probably BCAs fault, having not checked they were delivering the right car (?!). I suppose my wife shouldn't have signed the form accepting the delivery but she didn't really have any idea of what to look for or what the reg should have been. After a bit more complaining Polestar offered £250 worth of charging vouchers for InstaVolt, which after weeks of poor communication and stress, my wife and I were happy with. Do people think this was acceptable? Am I blowing this out of proportion or should I have caused more of a fuss? Anyone else with similar experiences?

 

[Icesingh]

TL;DR: Had someone else's Polestar 2 delivered, didn't get ours until 2 weeks later in "used" condition, limited compensation from Polestar for this f**k up.

I've been meaning to create this post for some time now but only just got round to it. Bit of a long story but I'm curious to know what others would have done in my situation.

I am leasing a dual motor Polestar 2 via work and the company Arval. I was working away when it got delivered so my Wife took delivery of our car in Oct 2021. The delivery guy from BCA mentioned in passing on the day that he had delivered another Polestar 2 that morning to another person in Bristol. Wife failed to notice on the delivery documents that the registration number last 3 characters didn't match of the car delivered (although I think she can be forgiven for this as who realistically would check this - I'm not sure I would have, and would have assumed the delivery driver to do their own checks). I only noticed 3 days after having driven it that the car reg didn't match and the sticker on the side said "single motor". Obviously it was the colour and trim I was expecting and had ordered so it was just the car reg and sticker that were out of place. I assumed the sticker was a mistake, but having checked the DVLA website my worst fears were confirmed... Somehow BCA had delivered my car to the other person in Bristol and I had his! So basically, I had been driving this car without tax and insurance and vice versa for this person with my car. As soon as I found out I had stopped driving the car and notified BCA, Arval and Polestar.

What followed were numerous telephone calls and emails to all 3 parties trying to work out where my actual Polestar 2 was and what could be done to arrange a swap. This was made more difficult as I was still travelling away with work so my wife was having to communicate a lot on my behalf. Polestar essentially spent the next 2 weeks trying to locate my car as it transpired the other person who took deliver of my car was not an Arval lease customer. After they located it, it was finally delivered and swapped with my wife. The BCA driver mentioned the other person was not a happy chappy having to return the car to me (the cheek!). It arrived with over 300 miles on the clock and it was very dirty as it turned out the other guy had contacted polestar for emergency insurance to drive my car to and from Swindon for work (apparently he absolutely needed to). This also seemed a bit cheeky as Polestar at the time said they were still trying to locate my car when in fact they probably already knew as they were allowing the other person to drive my car with their temporary insurance.

I was happy to have the correct car in my possession (my wife and I were both very stressed by this ordeal and not helped that we both have busy lives and wife is heavily pregnant, and hormonal!) but what would others have done in my position? Polestar initially were only going to cover the cost of a valet to bring the car into back to new condition, but they obviously couldn't do anything to turn back time and remove the 300+ miles that the person had put on it. There didn't appear to be any damage to the car but I never got a full inspection of it. Had I not been leasing the car, the car would have essentially been delivered to be "used" (anyone know what the actual definition of a used car is, in terms of miles on clock?) and probably would have lost a lot of its value compared to a new car with next to zero miles on the clock. Additionally, I don't really know how much care the other person took driving my car but I imagine if I had ordered a single motor car and had a dual motor delivered, I probably would ragged the crap out of it, knowing it wasn't mine, AND polestar had given me temporary insurance to drive it.

Basically, it seemed no one wanted to take responsibility for this and really it was probably BCAs fault, having not checked they were delivering the right car (?!). I suppose my wife shouldn't have signed the form accepting the delivery but she didn't really have any idea of what to look for or what the reg should have been. After a bit more complaining Polestar offered £250 worth of charging vouchers for InstaVolt, which after weeks of poor communication and stress, my wife and I were happy with. Do people think this was acceptable? Am I blowing this out of proportion or should I have caused more of a fuss? Anyone else with similar experiences?

I’m really sorry to hear what you and your wife went through. That has been a total nightmare for you both.

I purchased my car outright and have never leased a car before so am not 100% sure of what you can and can’t do. As a owner I would have rejected the car the day they delivered it (the correct one) and would also have dropped off the wrong one to the nearest Volvo dealership when I spotted the error.

As you stated you don’t know how the car was treated, it could have been used for nefarious means etc, just having it cleaned and given 250 isn’t enough for me. I don’t hold Polestar Responsible for this screw up but I do hold them accountable as it is they who sub contract out everything, why we can’t pick up at a Volvo dealer I will never know.

In terms of what is acceptable in delivery mileage I hear anything up to 200 miles is considered acceptable, with average delivery mileage of 50 miles or less. I wouldn’t personally find that (59 miles+) acceptable but it all depends on where you live etc. In terms of depreciation the additional 300 miles won’t make much of a difference as, the second a persons name is entered on the log book it’s been devalued.

Hope you have no issues with the car going forward

 

[cvflowe]

A few things, this is not yours or your wife’s fault. Polestar should have done everything to make you whole.

Years ago, I had something similar happen after purchasing a car from Chevy. I was sitting home (2nd day after delivery) reading the manual and looking over the paperwork and realized the vin numbers were off. I call the salesperson the next day and they offered to swap out the car. So it happens. I’m fact, I bet many on this forum will be checking the vehicle they purchased to see if the same thing happened to them.

The second point, it sounds like you are struggling with your decision you made? Unless, this purchase happened within the last few days and you haven’t driven the car I would let go of the undue stress. Sure I would have been totally unhappy receiving a car in that condition. However if nothing can be done now, it sounds like you have better things in life ( new baby) to put your energy into. That’s way more important than 300 miles you probably would have put on the car a week later.

 

[lilstevie]

Years ago, I had something similar happen after purchasing a car from Chevy. I was sitting home (2nd day after delivery) reading the manual and looking over the paperwork and realized the vin numbers were off.

I’ll add a fun one to this. I move through cars quite frequently, if I didn’t, I might have never discovered it or found out.

My last car, a 2017 Mazda 3 was registered to me with the vin on the car delivered, but the car wasn’t the one I was sold. My sales contract, car loan, insurance, etc. were all on the one I was sold, which very much wasn’t the one I had.

Only found out because I was upgrading early at 3 years instead of the 5 planned, and was selling the car. Dealer I sold it to was trying to process clearing the security from the vehicle only to find there was no security on the vehicle. So my loan had a security registered against some other persons (identical) car for 3 years 🙃

 

[matthew.wj]

After a bit more complaining Polestar offered £250 worth of charging vouchers for InstaVolt, which after weeks of poor communication and stress, my wife and I were happy with. Do people think this was acceptable? Am I blowing this out of proportion or should I have caused more of a fuss? Anyone else with similar experiences?

I would have asked them to comp me the performance upgrade. To me, that would have more than settled things.

 

[cvflowe]

I’ll add a fun one to this. I move through cars quite frequently, if I didn’t, I might have never discovered it or found out.

My last car, a 2017 Mazda 3 was registered to me with the vin on the car delivered, but the car wasn’t the one I was sold. My sales contract, car loan, insurance, etc. were all on the one I was sold, which very much wasn’t the one I had.

Only found out because I was upgrading early at 3 years instead of the 5 planned, and was selling the car. Dealer I sold it to was trying to process clearing the security from the vehicle only to find there was no security on the vehicle. So my loan had a security registered against some other persons (identical) car for 3 years 🙃

OMG, that must have been a paperwork nightmare. 😃

 

[ishiyakimo]

I'm going down to the garage to check vin just in case...

 

[KRS]

It's easy at this point to "back seat drive" and say what we would do but here it goes.

• $1000 refund off the cost ( know you leased but $250 in charging is weak)
• A full interior/exterior detailing by a quality detail shop (probably about a $3-500 job).

 

[matthew.wj]

TL;DR: Had someone else's Polestar 2 delivered, didn't get ours until 2 weeks later in "used" condition, limited compensation from Polestar for this f**k up.

I've been meaning to create this post for some time now but only just got round to it. Bit of a long story but I'm curious to know what others would have done in my situation.

I am leasing a dual motor Polestar 2 via work and the company Arval. I was working away when it got delivered so my Wife took delivery of our car in Oct 2021. The delivery guy from BCA mentioned in passing on the day that he had delivered another Polestar 2 that morning to another person in Bristol. Wife failed to notice on the delivery documents that the registration number last 3 characters didn't match of the car delivered (although I think she can be forgiven for this as who realistically would check this - I'm not sure I would have, and would have assumed the delivery driver to do their own checks). I only noticed 3 days after having driven it that the car reg didn't match and the sticker on the side said "single motor". Obviously it was the colour and trim I was expecting and had ordered so it was just the car reg and sticker that were out of place. I assumed the sticker was a mistake, but having checked the DVLA website my worst fears were confirmed... Somehow BCA had delivered my car to the other person in Bristol and I had his! So basically, I had been driving this car without tax and insurance and vice versa for this person with my car. As soon as I found out I had stopped driving the car and notified BCA, Arval and Polestar.

What followed were numerous telephone calls and emails to all 3 parties trying to work out where my actual Polestar 2 was and what could be done to arrange a swap. This was made more difficult as I was still travelling away with work so my wife was having to communicate a lot on my behalf. Polestar essentially spent the next 2 weeks trying to locate my car as it transpired the other person who took deliver of my car was not an Arval lease customer. After they located it, it was finally delivered and swapped with my wife. The BCA driver mentioned the other person was not a happy chappy having to return the car to me (the cheek!). It arrived with over 300 miles on the clock and it was very dirty as it turned out the other guy had contacted polestar for emergency insurance to drive my car to and from Swindon for work (apparently he absolutely needed to). This also seemed a bit cheeky as Polestar at the time said they were still trying to locate my car when in fact they probably already knew as they were allowing the other person to drive my car with their temporary insurance.

I was happy to have the correct car in my possession (my wife and I were both very stressed by this ordeal and not helped that we both have busy lives and wife is heavily pregnant, and hormonal!) but what would others have done in my position? Polestar initially were only going to cover the cost of a valet to bring the car into back to new condition, but they obviously couldn't do anything to turn back time and remove the 300+ miles that the person had put on it. There didn't appear to be any damage to the car but I never got a full inspection of it. Had I not been leasing the car, the car would have essentially been delivered to be "used" (anyone know what the actual definition of a used car is, in terms of miles on clock?) and probably would have lost a lot of its value compared to a new car with next to zero miles on the clock. Additionally, I don't really know how much care the other person took driving my car but I imagine if I had ordered a single motor car and had a dual motor delivered, I probably would ragged the crap out of it, knowing it wasn't mine, AND polestar had given me temporary insurance to drive it.

Basically, it seemed no one wanted to take responsibility for this and really it was probably BCAs fault, having not checked they were delivering the right car (?!). I suppose my wife shouldn't have signed the form accepting the delivery but she didn't really have any idea of what to look for or what the reg should have been. After a bit more complaining Polestar offered £250 worth of charging vouchers for InstaVolt, which after weeks of poor communication and stress, my wife and I were happy with. Do people think this was acceptable? Am I blowing this out of proportion or should I have caused more of a fuss? Anyone else with similar experiences?

Seems like this was squarely on the BCA delivery man, not Polestar? But yes, Polestar should have worked with BCA to make it right.

 

[Rollermonkey]

I didn’t see an answer to the OP question of what defines a “new car”.
Firstly, unless you can take delivery at the factory, a new car never has 0 miles on it when you first get your keys. Just off the top of my head, I’ve received an Infiniti with 7 miles, and Nissans with 16 and 21 miles. I’m not 100% certain about the other Nissan, but i think it was new with 31 miles?
anyways, there are a few sources of miles before delivery, particularly if the car is imported from elsewhere. It gets driven onto a ship, onto trains, and onto trucks along its journey to the dealership.
With delivery and use by another customer, though, that “new” description is still valid, if the car has been thoroughly inspected by the dealership before handing it over to you, to verify that the vehicle is still in pristine condition. 300 miles is a lot of miles, though, and should have been price adjusted more like a demo or dealer-only used car

 

[Dark-Fx]

Hard to really damage an EV from hard driving. Expecially not in only 300 miles. Since it's a lease, I would just not care beyond the annoyance.

How did you not notice the first drive that the car you got was only a single motor?

 

[SebT2000]

Thanks for your replies everyone, you've all been incredibly helpful.

Hard to really damage an EV from hard driving. Expecially not in only 300 miles. Since it's a lease, I would just not care beyond the annoyance.

How did you not notice the first drive that the car you got was only a single motor?

Well, having never driven an electric car before (and actually not test driving any either(!) I was more than impressed with the performance of the first car. I was like wow, this is amazing! Instant acceleration etc was leaps and bounds better than my previous car so I didn't really know what a dual motor version would feel like. In hindsight I think I would have been more than happy with a single motor but its nice to have the extra overtaking power when I need it.

 

[mxs]

Hey OP, that is insane….I would be livid, probably threatened them legally since what they offered cannot be considered fair. It’s unheard of where I live.

 

[Rollermonkey]

That’s quite the ringing endorsement of the single-motor version, if the performance was so much improved over your ICE. 😬

 

[Icesingh]

That’s quite the ringing endorsement of the single-motor version, if the performance was so much improved over your ICE. 😬

The single motor is quick, especially over ICE cars in the 0 to 30 bracket. It will tail off compared to performance ICEs in the 30 to 60mph range but 7 seconds is not slow, compared to normal ice cars. The instant torque and power and lack of gear changes gives EVs serious advantages.

 

[Elayais]

I'm leasing through Arval too. Luckily I could see what my license plate would be way before I ever got the car (and the license plate in the Netherlands is connected to a car, not a person, so we also don't have vanity plates). So it was very easy for me to see whether I got the right car or not .

It sucks that this happened. Personally I understand that mistakes happen and to me it's more important how Polestar then deals with it. In my opinion they should have offered more than only the valet service from the get go. Although, I probably would also have made this Arval's problem to fix it for me.

I wouldn't worry too much about the 300 miles, hell I put 3000 km on mine in the first 3 weeks. I understand it takes away a little from that brand new feeling, especially as it wasn't clean (personally I would have made sure to have cleaned the car inside and out before it was picked up, seems like the right thing to do).

In the end, I would focus on having the car that you ordered and the joy you and your wife are about to receive, just make sure the hospital doesn't mix up an VIN numbers in that case.

 

[lilstevie]

OMG, that must have been a paperwork nightmare. 😃

The short version is yes, it was an absolute nightmare.

 

[Bl4ckD0g]

Oh my that is not nice. I can see how this can “easily” have happened. It’s painful enough when you get four parcels delivered and 3 of 4 is missing and the other half doesn’t check it properly.

I think there is some blame with all involved to be honest. However from what you reported the driver who got your car sounds a bit like a dick.

I think I would just reject the vehicle now.

 

[GHF]

The other driver who received SebT2000's car was a work colleague of mine. I have responsibility for allocating the grade of company car in our Company and we took the decision to move our fleet to electric in late summer last year. There are 9 of us who have chosen the Polestar 2 and probably 50 or so who chose to go with the Tesla Model 3. Our company cars are leased from Lex Leasing and in truth, the experience of ordering electric vehicles between Polestar/Tesla and Lex has been mixed. I have had a company car since 1988 and my personal experience this time around was certainly different but overall, good. As EVs are new to all of us, I formed a Polestar User Group (PUGs) in the hope of us being able to learn together and hopefully enjoy the huge change from ICE to EV. Once we found our common interest in the Polestar 2, we encouraged each other to share our experience of the whole process from ordering our cars, having our home charger units fitted, to the delivery of our Polestar 2s.

My Bristol colleague was the the first to receive his Polestar and there couldn't have been a happier person. When the transporter turned up at his house that morning, it was carrying two void Polestars, one on top and one on the bottom. My colleague 'joked' with the driver that he would take the one on top. The driver gave him the one on the bottom. In his excitement, my colleague didn't check the vin against the delivery document (which he subsequently admitted was "stupid") and he didn't then know his new registration number (it hadn't been on his Polestar owners order page, as mine had been). He simply trusted the driver to deliver his new company car as had happened with all his previous company cars. Within an hour of receiving the Polestar, he sent me and the other PUGs his photos of the transporter turning up, unloading the car, and of the car on his drive. A couple of days later, he reported to me how he'd been contacted by someone from Polestar saying he'd been given the wrong car. Initially, my colleague thought it was one of the Tesla driver colleagues winding him up (which the Tesla drivers seem very keen to do) but ultimately, the awful truth soon struck home, as did the fact that he had been driving around uninsured in someone else's car. As SebT2000 said, no one took responsibility for the mistake and my colleague seemingly had to settle with a valet as compensation. Stranded away from home, he obviously sought emergency, temporary insurance and liaised with the other parties to get the stupid situation corrected.

Whilst I have been a member for some months, this is my first post - I felt compelled to write the other part of this sorry tale. I was extremely sorry to hear of the stress and concern that SebT2000 and his poor wife were forced to go through, particularly in her pregnant state. I had never heard of such a mix up happen before and we were just glad that the whole sorry mess did not end up with our colleague in trouble for lack of insurance. As it happens, misfortunate continued to follow my poor colleague as, after only two days in his proper car, a transit van drove into the back of him whilst he was stationary at traffic lights. Typically, my colleague's first action was to check on the transit van driver (he is a REALLY decent person). The transit driver was holding his chest, as if injured by the impact, and the guy's phone was in the driver's footwell! Photos of the front of the transit van showed that it came off much worse in the collision and points favourably to the safety of the Polestar. My colleague picks up his repaired Polestar on Friday.

 

[Elayais]

The other driver who received SebT2000's car was a work colleague of mine. I have responsibility for allocating the grade of company car in our Company and we took the decision to move our fleet to electric in late summer last year. There are 9 of us who have chosen the Polestar 2 and probably 50 or so who chose to go with the Tesla Model 3. Our company cars are leased from Lex Leasing and in truth, the experience of ordering electric vehicles between Polestar/Tesla and Lex has been mixed. I have had a company car since 1988 and my personal experience this time around was certainly different but overall, good. As EVs are new to all of us, I formed a Polestar User Group (PUGs) in the hope of us being able to learn together and hopefully enjoy the huge change from ICE to EV. Once we found our common interest in the Polestar 2, we encouraged each other to share our experience of the whole process from ordering our cars, having our home charger units fitted, to the delivery of our Polestar 2s.

My Bristol colleague was the the first to receive his Polestar and there couldn't have been a happier person. When the transporter turned up at his house that morning, it was carrying two void Polestars, one on top and one on the bottom. My colleague 'joked' with the driver that he would take the one on top. The driver gave him the one on the bottom. In his excitement, my colleague didn't check the vin against the delivery document (which he subsequently admitted was "stupid") and he didn't then know his new registration number (it hadn't been on his Polestar owners order page, as mine had been). He simply trusted the driver to deliver his new company car as had happened with all his previous company cars. Within an hour of receiving the Polestar, he sent me and the other PUGs his photos of the transporter turning up, unloading the car, and of the car on his drive. A couple of days later, he reported to me how he'd been contacted by someone from Polestar saying he'd been given the wrong car. Initially, my colleague thought it was one of the Tesla driver colleagues winding him up (which the Tesla drivers seem very keen to do) but ultimately, the awful truth soon struck home, as did the fact that he had been driving around uninsured in someone else's car. As SebT2000 said, no one took responsibility for the mistake and my colleague seemingly had to settle with a valet as compensation. Stranded away from home, he obviously sought emergency, temporary insurance and liaised with the other parties to get the stupid situation corrected.

Whilst I have been a member for some months, this is my first post - I felt compelled to write the other part of this sorry tale. I was extremely sorry to hear of the stress and concern that SebT2000 and his poor wife were forced to go through, particularly in her pregnant state. I had never heard of such a mix up happen before and we were just glad that the whole sorry mess did not end up with our colleague in trouble for lack of insurance. As it happens, misfortunate continued to follow my poor colleague as, after only two days in his proper car, a transit van drove into the back of him whilst he was stationary at traffic lights. Typically, my colleague's first action was to check on the transit van driver (he is a REALLY decent person). The transit driver was holding his chest, as if injured by the impact, and the guy's phone was in the driver's footwell! Photos of the front of the transit van showed that it came off much worse in the collision and points favourably to the safety of the Polestar. My colleague picks up his repaired Polestar on Friday.

Shit experience all around, for everyone involved. How is your colleague dealing with going from a Dual Motor to a Single Motor? Has he recovered from that specific trauma?

I jest, I understand it's shitty for everyone involved. But mistakes are bound to happen.