Last October, Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised to deliver 31 of the company’s luxury, all-electric cars to a lucky group of Chinese customers by April 2014. But these customers now find themselves disappointed—many still have not received their cars after nearly 9 months of waiting.

The long wait time has been caused by a variety of factors: Problems with getting the Teslas through both Chinese and US customs, issues with installing the cars’ critical charging stations in some of China’s more rural cities, and Tesla China’s lack of power in getting the cars into the country.

Xin Quan Yu was one of the first 31 Chinese customers to place an order on a Tesla in October 2013. Since then, he has been one of the 23 car owners who are actively urging Tesla to deliver the car as promised.

On June 18, Mr. Yu received a notification from Telsa China’s sales office telling him that the Model S he reserved was found to have a mismatched serial number at the Tianjin Custom Authority. Because the car’s number didn’t match the one listed on its customs form, it had to be sent back to the US to be processed again. The letter said it would take at least 3 weeks for the car to go through US Customs for a second time. As a result, his pre-ordered Model S could not be delivered until early July 2014.

When Tencent Tech reached out to Tesla for confirmation, a PR person at the company responded, “We’re very sorry that this incidence happened due to issues with the car number.” He claimed that Tesla China was working on this matter so that car owners could get the cars as soon as possible. When asked about car delivery time, this employee could not give an approximate time. He simply said, “We are already in the process of negotiating with him and we’re trying our best to accommodate the needs.”

Another major roadblock for getting the Teslas to their owners has been the installation of charging stations in cities outside of Beijing and Shanghai. There was confusion over who was responsible for installing the stations, and it is more costly for the customers living outside of major cities to install the charging stations themselves.

In early June, Bi Xuan Wu, VP of Tesla China, announced that the company had came to an agreement with the customers outside of Beijing and Shanghai regions, who were previously involved in the dispute, to install electric charger on their own. The Model S cars that they ordered were already in the customs process and would likely be delivered to the prospective car owners soon.

Model S blocked at Customs

Ever since paying a deposit of 250,000 Yuan for Model S in October last year, Xin Quan Yu was under the impression that he would be one of the first customers in China to receive the car. However, when the first delivery of Teslas finally arrived in China, he discovered that the delivery only included a dozen cars, and he would not be receiving one of them.

Another car owner who also felt he was deceived by the company during the car delivery process decided to sue Tesla China. On April 14, 23 Tesla Chinese customers sent a legal notice outlining their grievances to Tesla China. According to the document, the defendants are Deepak Ahuja, CFO of Tesla, and Kuo Xun Le Car Sales Company, Tesla’s sales entity in China. The letter claimed that Tesla broke its promise to the owners by changing the car delivery procedures without their consent, and failed to deliver the cars as promised. Therefore, the behavior met the requirements for “fraudulent promise” to customers.

Mr. Yu told Tencent Tech that among the Tesla car owners participating in the legal action in April, only about 5 buyers had received their cars as of June 20. Some car owners decided to cancel the order. Only Mr. Yu and one or two of the other car buyers continued to defend their rights in court.

As the result of the error made by Tesla in the custom procedures, the car delivery date was delayed. Because all Tesla Model S cars are made in US, every delivery of cars has to go through complicated custom procedures in order to enter the Chinese market.

After Mr. Yu’s car was found to have mismatching serial numbers and was confiscated at the customs, he received inconsistent responses from Tesla regarding whether only one car or a group of cars was affected by the problem.

A woman named Ms. Gu, a Tesla China employee who was in charge of delivering the car to Mr. Yu, said that it was only his car that was confiscated. She was unsure about whether similar incidence had happened before, in which the item failed to pass inspection due to unmatched custom documents.

Meanwhile, a senior executive at Tesla told Mr. Yu that it wasn’t one Tesla, but rather an estimated 20 Teslas, that were confiscated at customs due to problems with their customs forms.

Promises that haven't been fulfilled

What aggravates Xin Quan Yu the most is the fact that Tesla still has not fulfilled its promised date of delivery.

Before April this year, the Tesla car owners that had already paid the 250,000 yuan deposit discovered from the contract signed by Tesla and car owner that the deposit paid by customers is not legally binding and has the following reservation: “Our company can cancel your order. You will receive notification if your order is canceled, and your deposit will be returned.”

Because of the customs delays and other issues, the car owners who were supposed to become the first group of Tesla owners in China were not able to receive the first delivery of cars. These disgruntled customers decided to voice their grievances to Telsa CEO Elon Musk.

On April 21, Musk made an appearance at the car delivery ceremony in China, where he met with the 31 car buyers. He promised that Tesla would conduct inspections on car owners’ local charging stations in May and deliver the cars in 8 weeks.

In late May, the car owners who were taking legal action against Tesla again discussed the car delivery date with Tesla China VP Bi Xuan Wu. Ms. Wu said that the cars would be delivered in 6 weeks.

Mr. Yu recalled that when the car owners’ representatives met with Ms. Wu to renegotiate the car delivery date, Wu’s harsh response to the car owners turned them off. She told them, “Whenever we said it would be delivered, that’s when it would be delivered.”

Another dispute arises from Bi Xuan Wu’s recent emphasis that car owners have to install Tesla charging stations—a crucial device since the cars are all-electric—themselves. Tesla originally said it would send specialists to install the charging stations.

Based on Tesla China’s electric charger installation policy, Tesla will provide car owners a holistic package of charging devices valued at $1,200 and will also send a third-party specialist trained by Tesla to install the charger for them. The car owners cover the installation cost. Tesla also mentioned that it would drive a Model S to every car owner’s charging station to conduct in-field test in order to ensure the quality of the installation.

Due to variance in installation costs in different regions, Beijing and Shanghai regions enjoy cheaper installation cost whereas other regions face higher cost. Car owners in those regions can choose to install the electric chargers themselves.

Xin Quan Yu considered it unacceptable that Tesla China originally promised to send specialists to install charging stations but then ended up asking car owners to install the chargers themselves.

It’s notable that even though Tesla promised to conduct in-field tests at each car owner’s charging station location, it does not mean that they will send specialists to install charging stations.

Tesla China's Limited Decision Power

Tesla China’s continued failure to deliver the cars might be attributed to its limited decision power and incomplete service network in the Chinese market.

Initially, the dispute between the two parties arose from different expectations—Tesla owners believed that Tesla needed to deliver the cars first, whereas Tesla insisted on delivering the cars only after the charging stations and service networks outside of Beijing and Shanghai became more established.

Later on, it became apparent that Tesla China's had little power to make decisions on behalf of the US company.

According to Xin Quan Yu, before the April 19 meeting with Elon Musk, the Tesla owners’ legal representative had a long discussion with Bi Xuan Wu in a hotel in Beijing.

That night, Bi Xuan Wu, two other Tesla China employees, and the Tesla owners’ representatives tried to negotiate the details of car delivery. The negotiation continued into next morning and finally Bi Xuan Wu said, "I really have no cars. I don't have any solution to this problem."

After this meeting, some of the Tesla car owners gave up on taking legal action and continued waiting for Tesla to deliver the cars. Other car owners decided to cancel the order.

At the time, the car owners that took legal action requested several things from Tesla, including a public apology, immediate production and air delivery of the cars to China, specialists to install the chargers, and the first group of car owners plates. Yet, none of the demands listed above was fulfilled by Tesla.

Before the meeting with Elon Musk, another senior executive from Tesla China had made efforts to provide the car owners opportunities to attend the car delivery ceremony. However, when Elon Musk met with the representatives later on, he declined their request to attend the car delivery ceremony and receive the plates.

Tesla’s China region cannot influence U.S. headquarters’ car production and transportation time. This led to the 2-month impasse with rounds of futile negotiations between protesting car owners and Tesla China from April to June.

In June 18, Xin Quan Yu found out that his pre-ordered car was confiscated at the customs. On the following day, a sales representative from Tesla China suggested that he could pick out a display car as a solution to the problem. The sales representative emphasized that the car looked the same as the car ordered by Xin Quan Yu and it’s brand new.

However, Xin Quan Yu thought that as one of the first group of Tesla car owners, he’s been waiting for too long and that second-hand car was unacceptable. He declined the solutions proposed by Tesla and insisted on having his lawyer defend his right.

This article was originally published by QQ.com and translated by Rachel Hong. Copyright 2014.