Tesla has a referral program where if the referred does the following:

• Orders a Tesla product

• Test drives a product

• You order a product using your own referral

you get credits (both you and the buyer get extra bonuses, but that doesn't matter rn). I don't know what any of these give except for test driving, which gives 1k until March 1st.

https://www.tesla.com/support/refer-and-earn

You can use these credits to redeem different items, such as crappy merch or accessories for your car. Recently, though, Elon secretly dropped a reward that allowed you to skip the Cybertruck queue completely. That meant you could just get a reservation today and get your truck before the multitude of people who reserved day 1. As you guessed, many people were not happy about this. Some other things to note:

• This doesn't give you the truck for free

• You still have to pay the extra $20k fee for getting a "foundation series" upgrade

• Limited quantity

For the non-tesla nerds, here's how the queue system works:

The queue doesn't actually go in order; it puts people in batches. The deciding factors are currently unknown, but some guesses have been that being near a factory, being an employee, or being famous influences your place in the queue. Reservation numbers follow the format of RNXXXXXXXX, with the earliest cybertruck order being around RN1127XXXX. Currently, Tesla is processing batches within 1128. Once your batch is processed, you have the option to order. If you get the cheapest one, you're waiting until next year; if you get the most expensive one, you're also waiting until next year (due to last-minute issues). The only trucks that are being shipped out are the mid-tier ones. Not only that, but early adopters have to pay an extra $20k for the foundation series version of their chosen model. Having a FS model has a couple of perks, but it is mostly useless. If you don't want a foundation series model, you have to give up your place in the queue. After ordering, you get placed into another queue to wait for a VIN assignment (this one might be an actual queue). Once assigned a VIN, you'll finally get your "truck."

Redeeming this referral reward lets you skip all this madness, which is why Tesla nerds are angry.

Anyone marked with a is someone who is constantly active on the forums

Anyone marked with a is a popular Tesla content creator

SolarWizard said:

this seems like a really shitty way for more youtube troglodytes to get a truck faster

SolarWizard said:

didn't take too long for my post to be proven accurate

https://x.com/DirtyTesLa/status/1758348053092725157

(dirtytesla is a popular tesla content creator fyi)

Jhodgesatmb said:

That sucks. The only ‘people' with so many credits and a reservation have probably already gotten an invite, but I HATE the idea of more people jumping in front of me. Shame Tesla, SHAME.

cybertruckgg said:

This feels a bit off to me, after waiting for four years, and now waiting for my Cyberbeast.

I actually got a family member to get a Tesla Model Y just months ago, it was going to be my first referral, but my family member forgot to mention it / enter it along the way. When they tried to fix that error they were told that it wasn't possible to give referral credit post-sale. So no points for me.

But yeah, kinda bummed, the Cyberbeast wait has already been quite long, would feel like a kick in the cyberballs if a bunch of people jumped forward due to some points.

greggertruck said:

I see the concerns. Very very few people have 30k credits. Let's say 50 tops.

That's a day or two of production

this is nothing other than Tesla clearing the credits off the books. Don't worry guys :)

CyberFreak said:

“A day or 2”?!?

there's been like 60 CyberBeasts produced in 4 months bro…🤡

CYBEAST said:

Doesn't that mean Tesla showed their cards? It didn't say AWD or Beast. So that means they are shipping beasts to average people in the next 45 days. Complete bs to let people with referral credits to skip over buyers that configured already.

(a few posts later, the same dude came back whining abt this)

I wonder how many people will cancel because of this. I don't see the point in letting your already customers skip the line to piss off most likely a lot of your new customers.

stevegshi said:

Meanwhile, correct me if wrong, that's like a straight middle finger to CT reservation holders in Virginia (and maybe Ohio?), because we don't even get referral credits by law. 45 days from RN to a CT on the driveway? I have been waiting for 63 days for a VIN here in VIRGINIA (and I know 4 other people who ordered 12/15 or 12/16 in the same situation), while seen poeple in CA/TX/FL with later RN AND later orders (design dates) either got their VINs or in some cases took delivery.

KEENEY said:

So Tesla can restrict resellers from scalping while they themselves make special deals with favored customers to cut line? Sounds like clear cut restraint of trade / illegal tying / anti-competitive behavior.

DumpsterFire said:

Yeah I don't know anything about the restraint of trade or those other things but it does seem like a clear cut case of douchebaggery….

MajorVictory said:

This would be my fourth Tesla. Big supporter and share holder as well. I don't know all the details yet but this just stinks from all angles.

BARTMAN said:

Heck, you just need one person because if you refer someone and they do a do a demo drive (by the end of March), you get 10X, or 100K referral credits for that one person. Yeah you could easily go down to the Tesla Showroom and talk to people who are there to test drive a vehicle and "work something out with them" for a relatively cheep price to go straight to the front of the line.

(this dude is an r-slur, don't listen to him)

CybertruckOwnersClub is tame because the admins remove wrongthink comments and edit wrongthink posts (i would've posted on here abt that drama but lost the og post that sparked the flame)

On twitter, you got r-slurs calling other r-slurs r-slurs for being r-slurs.

(note: i am too lazy to copy the links to all this hatespeech so just find it urself)

https://x.com/DirtyTesLa/status/1758348053092725157

Ok Tesla! I'm a sucker! Take me for everything!

(photo of redeemed reward)

(this drew guy replied 3 different times lmao)

https://x.com/DirtyTesLa/status/1758849558178566353

(tesla connects you with your own assistant when purchasing the truck with the referral reward lmaooo)

>content

>tax write-off

https://x.com/DirtyTesLa/status/1758987274182602976

https://x.com/DirtyTesLa/status/1758337321072513091

(just fyi this guy was also complaining about this until he checked his referral balance )

https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1758329469658706217

https://x.com/jeremyjudkins_/status/1758494472218767725

Same people who harass car dealers for putting markup on vehicles are gladly paying $20,000 extra for the Tesla Cybertruck AND coughing up 30,000 referral credits.

Tesla can do no wrong.

that's basically it, got bored half-way. if you even consider getting an electric truck please keep yourself safe. i'd understand an electric sedan or even an suv, but an electric truck is probably the most r-slurred decision ever. your truck is going to die the second you get onto the highway if you're carrying anything heavy. drama alr died down so dni until the program gets restarted again. if u want u can make an account on the ctoc forums to age it, as the dwellers on there are smart enough to check account creation date before feeding trolls. typed this out during the night so please ignore the shitty formatting or any mistakes.