? RJ's Letter -- Making it Right -- REVERSING THE PRICE CHANGE FOR PREORDER HOLDERS

[Canthoney]

Soooo, does anyone else have whiplash? Lol

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[AdamsFan1983]

I agree that the ability to reverse makes the initial decision questionable. But, I don't think sales at the reservation prices will still earn the expected revenue. I think they made the choice to take a financial hit (or at least accept much smaller profit margins) on the existing reservations to save face and maintain the brand loyalty.

Question though: If your reservation was restored to the original price and you ended up paying the amount you had planned to pay, in what way would you not be financially whole? Or are you referring to other non-financial aspects?

I didn’t say financially whole. There is an emotional cost to all this that is very real. It’s fucking exhausting.

Secondly, as I’ve said, I immediately changed my plans. Partly because they idea of them changing course after such a move seemed so unrealistic, partly because the brake line on my 2004 f-150 sprung a big leak yesterday and I almost completely lost brakes while driving; I immediately went to my loca Ford dealer and put a deposit on a very low mileage 22 F-150.

I readily admit that was my choice, but I now have to chose to eat that deposit or try to resell that vehicle if and when Rivian delivers.

Lastly to specifically answer your question, a great many Rivian pre-order holders are also stock holders.

This whole debacle wiped ~15% of our investments out; so no, we are not financially whole.

 

[lefkonj]

sometimes just being patient and allowing things to happen is a good thing. Wonder if those who cancelled are trying to get back in line.

 

[888tom888]

Wow, RJ got it right! I was gone for $91K but I will be reactivating my launch edition R1S once the email comes in. The power of the customer speaking out lives on at Rivian. Honoring builds from customers that believed in Rivian for YEARS. is the right thing to do in my opinion. I’m grateful RJ could read and feel the shock a $16K bomb created. Still keeping my Fisker Ocean deposit …..just in case Rivian goes off the rails again.

 

[Forager]

I'll say this again. This is not how the equities market works -_-
The only people it screwed were the ones that had knee jerk reactios and sold their shares at a loss.

I’m not so sure. There’s a boat load of employee stock that vests quarterly and is eligible for sale starting in May. Many employees (90% of their corporate force) that joined in the last year were fed a story about how their stock options would be worth 3-4x its initial value ($75-100/share). Most of them live along the CA coast and need to sell significant amounts of stock to live there. Low stock prices will start to drive away talent if it doesn’t appreciate or hold its value.

 

[Ralph]

After all the shit @Administrator had to go through consolidating threads 2 days ago, now there are like 6 for the RJ letter to do it all over again. Earning your keep this week!

I suspect that traffic compensated very well.

 

[rivianado]

This is a good move by Rivian to reinstate the trust among their loyal customers. Hope they don't compromise on the quality of the vehicles they deliver to the customers.

 

[Tschu12]

Bought some swag from their gear shop as a way to say thanks from us preholders!

 

[Larry]

Not sure what I’ll do. What happens to 5 seat R1S preorders? They’re only going to make the 7, right?

 

[kylealden]

I'm not sure that this was JUST business. RJ is a human, too. I suspect he cares A LOT about what people think about his company that he has built from the ground up. I doubt the backlash was easy for him from that standpoint.

But you're also right - if there was not a reasonable business reason to reverse this, it wouldn't have been reversed.

You know, this is interesting. If this was a pure sober business decision, not way it happens in less than 36 hours like that. For a total about face concerning tens of millions of dollars of revenue, this was absolutely an emotional RJ call and nobody else’s. I shudder to imagine the conf-call frenzy in the wee hours over the last two days.

Of course it likely (hopefully!) makes business sense and if anything makes me a bit concerned that they didn’t due their homework before the initial price change, which isn’t a great sign. But part of why I’ve loved the company is the sense that the CEO gives a shit. I think that’s a very big part of what happened here.

Whew, what a week. Earnings should be interesting.

 

[scholin]

OMG - I was so bummed yesterday and for sure was going to cancel my order. I also had a standing order for the Lightning and was trying to convince myself that would be okay instead of the Rivian. But for 3 years I since I ordered the Rivian, that is all I have been thinking about and now I know what will be sitting in my driveway in a few months! Woohoo!!

 

[Friscorays]

I haven't read though all seven pages but will. I did not cancel mo order in the unlikely event of this happening. I am very pleased that Rivian came to their senses but they needlessly burned an immeasurable amount of good will towards their company on March 1. Speaking for myself, they will never get that back.

 

[StanLee]

It was something Rivian had to do. Kudos to them for owning up to their mistakes.

Even though the price increase didn't effect my R1T since my truck is in the "queue", I was looking to downgrade to a dual motor on my R1S reservation to save money. So glad I didn't have to do that..

 

[Texasrivian]

Yes I was a complainer about the price hikes, but I think all the backlash resonated with RJ and Rivian. Therefore, I will reinstate my R1S order that I cancelled. Ordered the Model Y yesterday but probably keep that too now.

 

[kylealden]

This whole debacle wiped ~15% of our investments out; so no, we are not financially whole.

Well. I bought another 150 shares when that happened. We’ll see what happens. ?

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