1/ Several weeks back, @orthereaboot & I published a piece @SeekingAlpha detailing how $TSLA has a persistent pattern of classifying warranty expense as goodwill. We detailed how that practice inflates both gross margin AND net income. Link later. Summary points here: 
2/ Inevitably, the usual swarm of $TSLA shills, some likely paid, swarmed to the comments section to challenge our evidence, to deny it was happening, to put forward lame excuses, etc. New to the swarm was this guy, who left dozens of innumerate posts.
3/ Lo and behold, @ElectrekCo is out with a stunning article today on the same topic, with even more evidence than @orthereaboot collated for our piece. It is a Must Read. insideevs.com/news/392913/te…
4/ I say this sincerely: I salute Gustavo Henrique Ruffo for a deeply-researched, courageous piece of work. Researching & writing an article like this takes great effort & time.
5/ And to publish it in the Number One $TSLA Fanzine, well, that's a credit to the editors, @FredericLambert & @llsethj. I've had plenty of criticism for both, & still do, but this was gutsy. No doubt they'll get plenty of incoming from the $TSLA faithful (welcome to my world).
6/ The Ruffo piece not only confirms in spades everything @orthereaboot & I claimed, but goes further, and underlines two key reasons why $TSLA treats warranty as goodwill.
7/ First, classifying the work as goodwill is an end-run around lemon laws. The story quotes attorney Edward C. Chen, who represents clients suing $TSLA for OTA updates that materially decreased their cars' range:
8/ Second, and more insidiously, by classifying repairs of serious problems as goodwill rather than warranty, $TSLA avoids having to issue Technical Service Bulletins or issue recalls:
9/ In other words, $TSLA 100% absolutely knows these problems exist for many of its customers, handles only the most persistent complainers, and keeps most of its customers in the dark about significant potential defects & safety issues.
10/ Where does this policy originate? It is made locally, at each Service Center?
11/ Nope. "If this is a strategy, it only makes sense from the automaker’s perspective. Were Service Centers independent, they would lose money by treating a warranty issue as goodwill. In other words, the decision must come from above."
12/ Ruffo asked Tesla to comment. The result? Predictable. "In previous efforts, Tesla has failed to give us any reply, such as to the MCUv1 logging issue or to a recent Model X accident. In this specific case, Tesla has not replied to our request for comment until [as of] now."
13/ Again, excellent job, Mr. Ruffo. We need to hear much more about this from the mainstream business press. And, someone tell me, where are the regulators, state, federal, and overseas?
14/ I'll put the link to the piece Luis and I published (now, alas, behind a paywall) in the 15th & final post of this thread, simply because I fear some Twitter algo may prevent you from seeing it.
