Bellevue-Bellevue Square Bellevue WA — Attraction in Bellevue

Starting to wonder if the only thing Tesla of Bellevue is good at is driving customers away!

I’ll admit, I’m not your typical electric car enthusiast, but as a proud luxury truck owner, I’m no stranger to high-end vehicles. Yes, the Cybertruck has all the aesthetic charm of a polished dumpster (my kids' words), and my wife swears it’s the ugliest thing on the road. Yet, I love its unapologetic "wannabe DeLorean 80s" vibe. It’s got this awkward charm—like a truck trying to cosplay as a sci-fi relic and somehow failing spectacularly at both cosplay and truckhood.

And that’s the thing. Despite its deliberate weirdness, I like the Cybertruck. I even respect the audacity it takes to sell this aggressively unique "best ugly duckling" in the truck market. What I don’t respect, however, is the abrasively hostile experience Tesla Bellevue served me, which makes me wonder if giving them even one star is one too many.

Let’s be clear: I’m fine with the six-figure price tag. I was seriously considering dropping $120k for what’s essentially a tricked-out Seattle dumpster with $5k in wheels—a statement vehicle that doesn’t need to make sense, only an impression. However, the staff at this Tesla location made it clear they weren’t interested in selling me a truck—or treating me with even basic courtesy.

Now, let me tell you about the velvet ropes. Yes, the Cybertruck was roped off like it was the Hope Diamond. I get it—it’s a shiny object with a cult following. But the employee standing guard, wielding the almighty Tesla-branded tablet like a wizard staff, insisted I surrender my personal info before I could even approach it.

Tesla Guy, channeling his inner Gandalf: "You shall not pass!" ...unless, of course, you provide this corporation with your personal information.

Me: "I don’t like sharing my info; I don’t want spam." Tesla Guy: (in the most condescending tone imaginable) "We don’t spam."

Well, fantastic. Except even the mere act of inputting my info means I’ll get some kind of message—a message I don’t want. I typed in a fake name "JC", a string of fives for my phone number, and an email address that was pure nonsense. You’d think that would be enough to unlock the sacred gates, right? —Wrong!

Apparently, my obviously fake info wasn’t "good enough," because I was still denied entry into the Cybertruck’s hallowed interior. I was then asked to leave the illustrious roped-off section because I hadn’t provided “proper contact details.”

At this point, the Tesla employee insisted that proper contact info was necessary—because, apparently, there’s a dire risk of a customer accidentally damaging the vehicle. After all, this must be a completely reasonable explanation for why Tesla demands your personal info exclusively for the Cybertruck before granting access.

And yet, I couldn’t help but laugh. Any vehicle so fragile it might be "damaged" by a potential customer simply sitting in it is not worthy of public sale. For the record, Washington law clearly states that accidental damage to retail merchandise is the retailer's liability—not the consumer's. (Many years ago, I used to sell cars, and never once did I deny anyone access to a vehicle out of fear they might destroy it by breathing too hard.)

But here we are. A trillion-dollar corporation gatekeeping a truck that looks like the love child of a sci-fi prop and a metal trash receptacle, defended by an employee with all the charisma of wet cardboard.

So, I left—with a smirk. I drove home in my luxurious truck, one that performs its intended function without pretense or drama, and I couldn’t help but pity the Tesla guy, doomed to stand in a mall, alienating potential buyers with his abrasively unlikable attitude.

Thank you, Elon, for revolutionizing tech, rescuing Twitter (now X, which is a terrible name), and reaching for the stars. But perhaps spare a bit of that genius to offer six-figure buyers of stainless steel monstrosities a better experience—and spare them the dubious privilege of...

I usually don’t post reviews but wanted to share what a great experience we had with Kelly C. at the Tesla store. As she explained to us during our visit, the Tesla store isn’t just about pushing sales but also about providing an experience for the customers. And she really did this for us! All three of our children are interested in cars, but one of them was especially obsessed with Teslas - as in, talking about Teslas everyday, multiple toy Teslas, learned the letter “T” first in the alphabet because it’s the Tesla logo. Like if being obsessed with Teslas was diagnostic criteria for a disorder, he would be diagnosed in a heartbeat.

Kelly was so gracious and warm with all of the children, explaining how the cars work, answering their questions, providing cool trivia, showing them features. She showed us the different models and shared her own experience with Tesla. She was very knowledgeable; not only about the cars but also about what a family might need from its vehicle. She also provided a lot of tips (like about Tesla’s referral program), answering my husband’s more technical/practical questions about the cars while also fielding our children’s more… um… whimsical questions. Obviously, Tesla Stores work on a different business model than the stereotypical old-school dealership (eg slightly uncomfortable, aggressive salespeople, aesthetically challenged) and has always been very sleek, educational and pleasant but Kelly took it to another level.

Our kids still talk about their amazing adventure at the Tesla store, and everything they learned. The Tesla-obsessed one has a new life hero in Kelly because he can imagine nothing better than being surrounded by Teslas at all times and teaching people about them.

Kelly encouraged us to demo the cars, and shared all of the positive aspects of them without making us feel uncomfortable or pressured at all; she had the perfect balance of offering helpful information and also understanding our needs.

We had already warned our kids prior to going to the Tesla store that we wouldn’t be letting them crawl all over the cars (it seems like some people use the Tesla store like a daycare or playground and we didn’t want to do that) but Kelly was so kind and relaxed with them, letting them sit in the cars and giving them what amounted to be a personal, child-friendly tour of each and every model. She also gave them some Tesla gifts which are now among their most prized possessions.

This was originally just a routine trip to the local mall so the wonderful experience at Tesla came as a surprise. The only bad side effect of this visit is that my Tesla-obsessed son talks about Tesla even more than before, which we didn’t think was possible. But on the bright side, we can apparently visit the Tesla store instead of Disneyland for our next vacation because the kids were equally impressed by both. Thank you...

Dear Elon Musk,

I know you might never see this but I have to share some bad experiences with Bellevue Square Store location. As a long time fan of Tesla, I bought my Model 3 because of the two years of free supercharge promotion and got my car delivered on Sep 21st.

I am frustrated to get the Free Supercharge as promised and feel I am into a promotion SCAM promotion from Tesla. It brought me a lot of pain during communication, as a full time professional, I spend too much time and energy asking for what Tesla has promised me.

10/16/2019 After 1 month with no updates, I contact my salesperson directly for the 1st time, no reply.

10/19/2019 Text his 2nd time, no reply.

10/19/2019 I contacted Tesla support directly, they said only the salesperson can check my status. I then contact the store manager, I finally got my first update.

10/25/2019 Even though they said my case is waiting for approval, after 1 week, still nothing happened. I called and talked to my sales directly. He said he is waiting for his manager for approval and will get back to me soon.

10/26/2019 Text w/Salesperson, no reply.

10/28/2019 Text w/Salesperson, no reply.

10/31/2019 A msg from sales said approved by manager and waif for Order Admin Team for approval.

11/6/2019 Text w/Salesperson, no reply.

11/12/2019 After a long time with no reply/no callback, I walked into Bellevue Square Store and talk with the sales in person, his attitude is polite and said the SuperCharge team keeps denying his requests, he is still working on it. He said I will get reimbursed for my past supercharge fee.

12/3/2019 I called sales directly and he said he will working on this as his top priority.

12/3/2019 My sales apologizing on the text again and promised some supercharge credits for me.

12/6/2019 Got last text from sales regarding my reimbursement check mailing address.

12/13/2019 Text w/Salesperson for updates, no reply.

12/16/2019 Promised Supercharge credits, not received. Reimbursement check, not received.

I am so tired of this communication and have to write down my whole experience. I am truly thankful for all the polite services from the Bellevue Square location but this problem...