{"id":74360,"date":"2014-04-10T08:42:45","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T12:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=74360"},"modified":"2014-04-10T08:42:45","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T12:42:45","slug":"tesla-fires-back-at-lemon-law-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2014\/04\/tesla-fires-back-at-lemon-law-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla Fires Back at \u201cLemon Law King\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Attorney Vince Megna with the Tesla Model S that is the center of an angry lemon law dispute.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Barely a day after saying it wouldn\u2019t comment on a lawsuit filed by a self-styled \u201clemon law king,\u201d Tesla Motors has reversed course with a stinging blog post that questions attorney Vince Megna\u2019s claims — and motivation.<\/p>\n

Insisting the Silicon Valley start-up does \u201cbelieve in lemon laws,\u201d Tesla insisted there are \u201cgood reasons to be skeptical\u201d about the lawsuit and denied a number of the claims being made against it on behalf of a Wisconsin doctor whose Model S battery sedan is at the center of the controversy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Plug In!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To recap, the suit was announced publicly in a Youtube video by Megna, an attorney specializing in lemon laws and who has taken on some of the biggest names in the automotive business.\u00a0 He represents Dr. Robert Montgomery, of Franklin, Wisconsin, who claims he has had a wide range of problems with his $90,000 Model S battery sedan that led to it being off the road 66 days during the first months after it was purchased in March 2013. The physician wants Tesla to buy it back under a law that takes affect after a vehicles is off the road at least 30 days during the first year.<\/p>\n

But if the good doctor and his attorney thought Tesla would come along quietly, they didn\u2019t check out the maker\u2019s record of using social media \u2013 and the courts \u2013 to get out its own position.\u00a0 Tesla forced an apology out of the New York Times for a bad review, for example.\u00a0 And it has been taking on New Jersey\u2019s blunt Gov. Chris Christie after he approved a rule blocking Tesla from setting up company-owned showrooms in the state.<\/p>\n

(For the original story on the lemon lawsuit, <\/em>Click Here<\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After initially advising TheDetroitBureau.com and other media \u201cWe don\u2019t discuss pending legislation,\u201d earlier in the week, Tesla has now responded to Megna with a blogpost titled \u201cWhen Life Gives You Lemons.\u201d<\/p>\n

It opens up by stating, \u201cwe believe in lemon laws,\u201d adding that Tesla goes \u201cabove and beyond in customer service.\u201d The maker insists it was doing \u201ceverything reasonably possible\u201d to assist Dr. Montgomery get his car repaired before the lawsuit was \u201cfiled with no warning.\u201d<\/p>\n

More significantly, Tesla contends \u201cthere are factual inaccuracies in the lawyer\u2019s story,\u201d starting with the number of times Dr. Montgomery demanded the factory buy back his busted car \u2013 only once, according to the company.\u00a0 The blogpost also roundly hints that either some problems didn\u2019t exist \u2013 such as the malfunctioning door handles \u2013 or might have been caused by the owner himself, as in the case of a repeatedly failing fuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also of interest to note that this particular lawyer filed a lemon law suit against Volvo in February last year \u2013 on behalf of the very same client,\u201d the maker noted, offering a link to a supporting PDF file.\u00a0 The post concludes by suggesting this may be an example \u201cof the potential for lemon laws to be exploited by opportunistic lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

TheDetroitBureau.com immediately contacted attorney Megna and asked him to review and respond to Tesla\u2019s post.\u00a0 And if Tesla thought its post might end matters, the Lemon Law King made it clear the case isn\u2019t about to be closed.<\/p>\n

(Tesla adds titanium shield to protect Model S battery pack. NHTSA ends fire investigation. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Megna vehemently countered Tesla\u2019s comments, citing a number of errors in the blogpost, and claiming to have certified mail receipts to show Dr. Montgomery asked for a buyback three times, not once. But, \u201cTesla did not provide the refund or respond in any way \u2013 no call, no letter, no blog post.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company may respect lemon laws, but it doesn\u2019t seem to understand them, added the attorney, suggesting that little Tesla is taking \u201cthe big corporation approach by attacking its customer, rather than addressing its own failures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Megna does not address the claim that he helped Dr. Montgomery file a previous lemon law suit. But Tesla doesn\u2019t address the peculiar language in its sales contract that would require buyers to sidestep state laws and file suit in California, accepting arbitration if the maker chooses.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s setting up to be the classic he-said\/she-said case that a court somewhere, whether in Wisconsin or California, will likely have to decide.\u00a0 But one thing seems clear: this case has gotten personal.\u00a0 The attack on his own credibility has clearly riled Megna who concludes his response by declaring, \u201cI too, have a Public Service Announcement: There are companies, great companies run by Billionaires, that force consumers to give up their Freedom of Speech and Right to Trial by Jury just for the opportunity to buy an electric car.\u201d<\/p>\n

This could prove to be an interesting ride.<\/p>\n

(New study claims battery cars saved Americans $100 million on fuel bills in 2013. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A day after saying it wouldn\u2019t comment on a lawsuit filed by the \u201clemon law king,\u201d Tesla Motors reversed course with a stinging blogpost that questions attorney Vince Megna\u2019s claims — and even suggests the Model S owner was at fault. Now things get interesting, reports TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74360"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=74360"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=74360"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=74360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}