Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO, Elon Musk, showed a bit of his temper after cancelling a blogger’s pre-order. Musk’s move was motivated by a venture capitalist who wrote about what he thought was a bad launch event for the Model X, Tesla’s most recently launched sports utility vehicle. His behavior has been termed petty by some.
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Critical Letter Written
A venture capitalist from California, Stewart Alsop, chose to write an open letter to Tesla Motors CEO on what he thought was a badly run launch event for the Model X back in September. The letter, which was headlined ‘You should be ashamed of yourself,’ listed his issues with the event. That included a late start and the heavy focus on safety. On that day, the showroom was so packed so much that Alsop, who placed an order for the car, failed to get any chance to test drive it.
The Californian venture capitalist deposited $5,000 for the Model X, which was to be shipped in 2013 originally. However, at the end of the last year, 2015, it only delivered 208 cars. Concluding the letter, Alsop wanted Tesla Motors to apologize to consumers who bought the car.
Banned By Tesla
The net effect of the letter was that Alsop’s pre-order was cancelled by Musk personally. However, Alsop relayed his conversation with Tesla Motors’ Musk through the phone in a follow-up post, which was titled ‘Banned By Tesla’. He told Musk that the CEO was not comfortable in allowing Alsop to own a Tesla model car, and, therefore, cancelled his order. He expressed his surprise when he said that he was taken aback at being banned.
Alsp pointed out that an earlier incident involved posting a critical blog on the BMW X1. He said that BMW’s CEO did not take the vehicle back despite his criticism.