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Rivian's Order Fulfillment Process.

Brian Goodwin

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Some people have their trucks in less than 6 months while other folks with exact same configuration and much older orders are just waiting....and I can find no pattern or logic in it. Talked to several folks who have exact same order as I do, and they got their truck in under 6 months. Talked with Rivian about it, at least the people answering the phone also have no clue why the process of filling orders appears utterly random. On the one hand, I figure more time for them to keep making them better (like the paint orange peel) is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is crazy that customers waiting since 2019 are still waiting while customers with 2022 orders for same color and options are already driving their trucks. I am not a 2019 order, but I really feel for them. I am just one of the orders in the great middle of those waiting and trying to understand the process that seems random at best, and certainly lacking in equity. Rivian should expect another uprising if they don't start giving their older orders priority. Before anyone says it is the color or the package or the state of residence or some other variable....that's just not accurate per the folks I have spoken with in the FB groups that have their trucks while others with same color and same options in the same state locations with older orders are still waiting.

Meanwhile, I have several trucks and own a shop that develops and distributes automotive parts so we are ordering a new truck every year and I can compare the process of recently ordering and getting a super popular truck from Ford. This is the little Ford Maverick, Ford has been selling about 10,000 of these per month. We made our order in November and picked it up this week. From start of the process to finish it was a lot more easy to track the order, we knew when the VIN issued, we knew the week it was scheduled to be built, we knew when there was a little delay in that build week because of a component, and we knew the week it got built with the shortage of items was resolved, and we knew when it was on the way for delivery (and nobody with an order 4 months newer for same package got their truck first). Ford was far from perfect, perhaps 70% of attempts to get update got reply, but overall pretty easy process. This replaces an old 08 Dakota for us, and we will have some fun with it and do our own wheels and sways and springs. When the Rivian gets here it will replace our nicer truck as the one we use for camping and surfing and road trips...which is a Honda Ridgeline.

Rivian talks a good game about transparency but they could do much better or the fact they were first out the gate won't mean much as Ford delivers their Lightning with more efficiency and far more transparency. Nonetheless, will have some fun with this Maverick until our truck shows up from Rivian.

By the way Rivian, this is a CHEAP truck, about ONE THIRD the cost of the Rivian, and yet there is no orange peel in the paint and it has Android Auto! ;)

Rivian R1T R1S Rivian's Order Fulfillment Process. file


As a order holder and shareholder (directly and through my company), I sure hope Rivian can pull it all together. As a guy who also owned car magazines and wrote for them for decades the buzz from friends in the automotive press industry is how fast the automotive press is going to turn on Rivian. So far the reception from the automotive press has been astoundingly positive and willing to give Rivian the benefit of the doubt to a massive extent. But without some cleanup of the order filling process that positivity will turn and customers left waiting for years will be profiled and their stories headlined in the car magazines.
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bmcenaney

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It’s garbage. I only ordered at the beginning of September last year but people who ordered after me are driving their new trucks. Then we get these emails about revised dates and nothing ever shows up. Has anyone even seen this supposed R1 Shop? I can only drive my old Jeep for so long and without knowing when I will receive my truck, it’s give me $1000 back so I can use it for another car.
 

Atlrivian

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You must be new here. At no point has Rivian comms been easily interpretable or reliable.

Edit: To answer your question, the general consensus on this board is that the backend order system is a clusterfuck. It will be changing (for the better???) over the next few weeks.
 

rraj2k81

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You must be new here. At no point has Rivian comms been easily interpretable or reliable.

Edit: To answer your question, the general consensus on this board is that the backend order system is a clusterfuck. It will be changing (for the better???) over the next few weeks s00n.
Fixed that for you :like:
 

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Zoidz

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I get it that you are venting, that’s fine.

Rivian knows the system is broken, that’s why they announced the R1 Shop. Clearly they are making an effort to fix it. It’s reasonable to give that a chance to succeed.

Ford has been building and delivering vehicles to order for decades. Rivian less than a year. IMO expecting Rivian to perform equal to Ford‘s level of order fulfillment in less than a year is not realistic.
 

slawwach

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Whatever they're doing, it's obviously broken.
My coworker, living in same city, received a truck with same color combination as mine. The only difference is LE vs Adventure badging. He ordered 3 months ago.
My estimated delivery window is closing in 3 weeks and they didn't even assign a guide to me yet.
 

MNLightning

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I get it that you are venting, that’s fine.

Rivian knows the system is broken, that’s why they announced the R1 Shop. Clearly they are making an effort to fix it. It’s reasonable to give that a chance to succeed.

Ford has been building and delivering vehicles to order for decades. Rivian less than a year. IMO expecting Rivian to perform equal to Ford‘s level of order fulfillment in less than a year is not realistic.
Effort? What is happening is just stupid. A freaking Excel spreadsheet and a full time 5th grader could sort and select better.
 
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Brian Goodwin

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I get it that you are venting, that’s fine.

Rivian knows the system is broken, that’s why they announced the R1 Shop. Clearly they are making an effort to fix it. It’s reasonable to give that a chance to succeed.

Ford has been building and delivering vehicles to order for decades. Rivian less than a year. IMO expecting Rivian to perform equal to Ford‘s level of order fulfillment in less than a year is not realistic.

See comments of
MNLightning


The word 'venting' suggests I am steamed and angry...and that's not actually the case here. I have been part of the auto industry in one capacity or another for decades and what I see here is apparently irrational execution on fulfillment despite an amazing execution on design and construction. That leaves me baffled and searching for some reason in the apparent madness that we see. I don't care if my own order doesn't happen until sometime in 2023, I figure my truck will be better than any built this year thanks to the wait as process is improved and improved with experience.

The story of slawwach above, there are hundreds more just like it in the FB groups for Rivian products ...like the guy that convinced his neighbor to order the same truck and that neighbor's newer order for the same truck got filled first and the first neighbor is still waiting...that makes no sense. There are a ton of similar stories out there, and from my experience making automotive product for decades you just cannot ignore your old orders to fill your latest orders....it is customer relations suicide. If you can't do the one wood interior right just yet, that's different and that's not what we are talking about. We are talking about blue truck with black interior order this year getting filled before same order made a year or two ago and that's screwed up. I am really just trying to understand it, and talking out loud about how irrational it appears from where I sit. No doubt there are some elements that I am not aware of, that hopefully explain what we see going on, but it is hard to imagine a set of facts that would rationally explain it.
 
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crashmtb

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This thread reminds me to order more miata parts, to distract from Rivian waiting
 

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Blaine

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Ford has been building and delivering vehicles to order for decades. Rivian less than a year. IMO expecting Rivian to perform equal to Ford‘s level of order fulfillment in less than a year is not realistic.
Ford certainly isn't anywhere near perfect at communication or ensuring "fairness" of delivery order, either.

They added a way for dealers to allow people to cut the reservation line at the last minute.

They ignored demand and their own hype around the Lightning Pro and built just a few hundred of them for MY2022.

As a result, numerous people who had tens of thousands of people "in front" of them as far as reservation timeline are getting their trucks first.

It's all very similar, IMO.
 

Sgt Beavis

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I get it that you are venting, that’s fine.

Rivian knows the system is broken, that’s why they announced the R1 Shop. Clearly they are making an effort to fix it. It’s reasonable to give that a chance to succeed.

Ford has been building and delivering vehicles to order for decades. Rivian less than a year. IMO expecting Rivian to perform equal to Ford‘s level of order fulfillment in less than a year is not realistic.
Totally agree with this. Though I would say that after looking at all those dealer markups, Ford’s system is very much broken as well.
 

Gator42

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Ford certainly isn't anywhere near perfect at communication or ensuring "fairness" of delivery order, either.
…part of the issue is an expectation of that from Ford and the dealership distribution model. The new guys don’t have the legacy issues so in that sense its surprising and of course pressure to prove you can produce in quantity take priority but I might disagree with others here- one big spreadsheet to match inventory with customers would be superior to the free for all they’ve been doing…
 

Rivian_Hugh_III

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Whatever they're doing, it's obviously broken.
My coworker, living in same city, received a truck with same color combination as mine. The only difference is LE vs Adventure badging. He ordered 3 months ago.
My estimated delivery window is closing in 3 weeks and they didn't even assign a guide to me yet.
Do we think Rivian is purposely mixing their deliveries between pre-March orders and post-March orders? Someone had guessed they would do so to achieve a higher profitability. Perhaps they actually have a percentage they are shooting for which may be 50-50 or even more, favoring post-March orders. Wouldn’t surprise me.
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