RJ, Rivian Service is Broken

[superfly_snook]

With legacy brands and independent shops you call on Monday and they give you a time usually in the next couple days to bring it in or even better they say “just come in” and I think this is because they have a steady flow of vehicles coming in and work getting done so it’s pretty predictable.
Rivian is trying to schedule everything through an app and quickly built up massive lead times at their service centers. It’s hard to say without data but it feels to me like 90% of their service is for niggly things that are related to manufacturing issues (misaligned doors, panels coming loose, leaky windows etc.). I doubt any shop could accurately schedule someone’s service visit four months out, which is basically what Rivian is doing.

Seems like they could get more to an equilibrium if they can eliminate all the little niggles that may be due to manufacturing processes that need improving. If that significantly cuts their service volume they could start to dig out of the hole they have got in. I don’t think they should start building a ton more service centers until they can fix the manufacturing because they won’t know truly what they need until they can deliver cars free of defects.

Short term why not enable a partner? If a lot of their issues are alignment they could partner with a collision company - Caliber for instance - and send all those cases there. Same for windows or whatever cause is driving their top few case categories and that could be outsourced by sharing some know-how and documentation.

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[Riviot]

The problem is you have to go thru Bellevue scheduling (usually no available appointments)

FACTS. Painful facts. 4 months out to diagnose my random suspension (truly electronic) issue.

 

[Mike Hunt]

Service is terrible.

 

[Epzey]

As others have stated people are expecting legacy automaker service. Not going to happen, that being said a lot of legacy automakers have plenty of shitty dealers with shitty service department.

Tualatin, OR has been amazing honestly the only better service I got was from a dealership that our family had purchased something like 6 vehicles in 8yrs.

Does it need to get better? Yes, but everyone needs to manage their expectations. I don’t think anyone here has a Rivian as their single vehicle because it’s all they can afford. I’m all for lighting people and companies up when they deserve it but I don’t think Rivian does in this case. The one caveat is launching new models when they’ve not proven they can reasonably keep up with customers scheduled maintenance.

 

[TigerWuxia]

I have a parking sensor issue (probably hit by small rock on highway) and the earliest appointment I could get is ~1 month away, which is not too bad compared to some dates in this thread. That being said, sometimes I certainly feel reluctant to take my R1S on the road due to the fear of something may get wrong or my windshield may get hit by a rock then I will face month long waiting. It is a pity since I am supposed to drive this great vehicle, instead of letting it sit in my garage.

 

[kyunam]

..

 

[R1Tom]

I have a parking sensor issue (probably hit by small rock on highway) and the earliest appointment I could get is ~1 month away, which is not too bad compared to some dates in this thread. That being said, sometimes I certainly feel reluctant to take my R1S on the road due to the fear of something may get wrong or my windshield may get hit by a rock then I will face month long waiting. It is a pity since I am supposed to drive this great vehicle, instead of letting it sit in my garage.

You mean they will let you drop it off in a month....never know when they actually will pull it into service bay to look at it.....hahaha!

 

[RivianPVE]

New start-up so we should have lesser expectations - I get that. What I don’t get is how they failed to foresee the SC nightmares that would occur in large metropolitan areas. El Segundo is the only current SC that covers all of Los Angeles and if you try to make an appointment, the first one available is September. I sincerely hope that they can get their act together. All the fellow owners that I’ve talked to have the same opinion - great brand and car but service has substantial problems.

 

[YouKnowWhatsUp]

With legacy brands and independent shops you call on Monday and they give you a time usually in the next couple days to bring it in or even better they say “just come in” and I think this is because they have a steady flow of vehicles coming in and work getting done so it’s pretty predictable.
Rivian is trying to schedule everything through an app and quickly built up massive lead times at their service centers. It’s hard to say without data but it feels to me like 90% of their service is for niggly things that are related to manufacturing issues (misaligned doors, panels coming loose, leaky windows etc.). I doubt any shop could accurately schedule someone’s service visit four months out, which is basically what Rivian is doing.

Seems like they could get more to an equilibrium if they can eliminate all the little niggles that may be due to manufacturing processes that need improving. If that significantly cuts their service volume they could start to dig out of the hole they have got in. I don’t think they should start building a ton more service centers until they can fix the manufacturing because they won’t know truly what they need until they can deliver cars free of defects.

Short term why not enable a partner? If a lot of their issues are alignment they could partner with a collision company - Caliber for instance - and send all those cases there. Same for windows or whatever cause is driving their top few case categories and that could be outsourced by sharing some know-how and documentation.

They wouldn’t need to build out service so quick if they manufactured better vehicles or spent more time on inspections. Every vehicle being manufactured and needing some kind of service is not sustainable. Tesla had the same issue when the model 3 came out. Looked like blind monkeys put it together. This is not a service issue but a manufacturing and shipping problem. I don’t know of anyone that has had nothing wrong. my neighbors R1S wouldn’t ac charge his second day. My R1T has been pretty trouble free but it did come with a malfunctioning rain sensor that took two visits and some loose trim pieces. I have two more issues but I’m hesitant to complain until I have something worse. My other complaints such as the loud motors and suspension aren’t issues according to service yet they seem to have addressed those exact issues in the refresh. This is the stuff that makes me not want to buy another Rivian. Admit you have a design flaw and offer a buy out or trade to gen 1. I don’t think all of you realize yet how much value we just lost when they refreshed the gen1 vehicles so quickly after they come out. It’s not a refresh. It’s a fix for their f up.

 

[ja_kub_sz]

New start-up so we should have lesser expectations - I get that. What I don’t get is how they failed to foresee the SC nightmares that would occur in large metropolitan areas. El Segundo is the only current SC that covers all of Los Angeles and if you try to make an appointment, the first one available is September. I sincerely hope that they can get their act together. All the fellow owners that I’ve talked to have the same opinion - great brand and car but service has substantial problems.

So I'm also a early preorder and stock owner... I'll be honest I can only imagine what you're going through, but I too went through service hell, but it wasn't with my Rivian, it was with my Tesla.

I live 50 min away from the Normal Plant and their factory based service center is well above average approaching excellent in my overall rating. In 2015 I had my Tesla Model S 90D and I had to sue Tesla once my car blew a tie rod and air strut because I flat out new that Tesla would never be able to fix my car despite being drivable.

I told Tesla that I knew my vehicle would not be repaired in less then 6 months (based on forums threads) and that if they were to let me out of my lease I would Immediately lease another Model S, or they would have to provide me with a 90D while my vehicle was being repaired. Tesla told me they absolutely would have my car back to me in a month, despite having to send the it to a authorized third party repair shop since TESLA DIDN'T HAVE ANY SERVICE CENTERS!

Yes you heard that right, Tesla in 2015 had not a single service center, it was all third party service. My Tesla got bumped into while in a parking lot and my car had to be flat bed towed to another state to be repaired and it took 4 weeks. This was just a dent in my rear bumper.

Needless to say Tesla never fixed my car, the repair shop had my car for 8 months and my lease had by then expired and they called me to let me know that they finally fixed my Tesla almost a year later. I had to sue to get all my lease payments back after they vehicle was sent off for service. I've never had a Tesla after that. I loved the car and would happily get one now.

So in retrospect Rivian is miles ahead of Tesla at this stage of the company, but yes, if Tesla had the foresight to establish a charging network Rivian should've seen the service issue as a major bottleneck and found a way to improve it prior to now. Honestly considering the cash crunch, adding trained authorized third party repair partners would be a good idea to better support owners. Not that this would completely solve the issue, but for less involved vehicle issues I feel this would definitely improve availability of service providers and turn around times.

As for Rivian's "mobile service vans" is that even still going on? I had one come to fix my tailgate release once, but now I don't think they're even doing that any more.

 

[runwithscissors]

SC's are full of trucks and hard to get appointments but I blame the factory that rushed out my truck with all kinds of issues. Even if they built a bunch if SC's tomorrow, where would they get the qualified mechanics from?

 

[RivianPVE]

So I'm also a early preorder and stock owner... I'll be honest I can only imagine what you're going through, but I too went through service hell, but it wasn't with my Rivian, it was with my Tesla.

I live 50 min away from the Normal Plant and their factory based service center is well above average approaching excellent in my overall rating. In 2015 I had my Tesla Model S 90D and I had to sue Tesla once my car blew a tie rod and air strut because I flat out new that Tesla would never be able to fix my car despite being drivable.

I told Tesla that I knew my vehicle would not be repaired in less then 6 months (based on forums threads) and that if they were to let me out of my lease I would Immediately lease another Model S, or they would have to provide me with a 90D while my vehicle was being repaired. Tesla told me they absolutely would have my car back to me in a month, despite having to send the it to a authorized third party repair shop since TESLA DIDN'T HAVE ANY SERVICE CENTERS!

Yes you heard that right, Tesla in 2015 had not a single service center, it was all third party service. My Tesla got bumped into while in a parking lot and my car had to be flat bed towed to another state to be repaired and it took 4 weeks. This was just a dent in my rear bumper.

Needless to say Tesla never fixed my car, the repair shop had my car for 8 months and my lease had by then expired and they called me to let me know that they finally fixed my Tesla almost a year later. I had to sue to get all my lease payments back after they vehicle was sent off for service. I've never had a Tesla after that. I loved the car and would happily get one now.

So in retrospect Rivian is miles ahead of Tesla at this stage of the company, but yes, if Tesla had the foresight to establish a charging network Rivian should've seen the service issue as a major bottleneck and found a way to improve it prior to now. Honestly considering the cash crunch, adding trained authorized third party repair partners would be a good idea to better support owners. Not that this would completely solve the issue, but for less involved vehicle issues I feel this would definitely improve availability of service providers and turn around times.

As for Rivian's "mobile service vans" is that even still going on? I had one come to fix my tailgate release once, but now I don't think they're even doing that any more.

I agree with you 1000%. Third party repair partners is what they need to do until they have cash to create more SCs. What is ironic is every single person that I have interacted with at Rivian has been nothing but polite, sincere and wanting to help. I’ve made it a point to tell anyone I speak to at Rivian that I apologize in advance if I sound rude or overbearing but it’s because I’m frustrated. I’ve had possession of my car for 3 days and it’s been in service for 10 days and counting.

 

[RivianPVE]

SC's are full of trucks and hard to get appointments but I blame the factory that rushed out my truck with all kinds of issues. Even if they built a bunch if SC's tomorrow, where would they get the qualified mechanics from?

Good point. It’s the quality control at the factory that is causing these initial problems. My SA mentioned that the recent layoffs also affected the SCs so I doubt that Rivian is immediately looking to revamp their service for customers.

 

[quartz]

Been like this in Southern California pretty much since 2023. All the service centers are absolutely swamped. The only fix is to build more, but that costs a lot of money.

The issue isn't necessarily money, but time.. it can take 12-18 months just to get all the required permits..

 

[CANCERDOC]

Those of us in Southern California where the Rivian density appears higher than average might be closer to a service center (el Segundo, eastvale, Costa Mesa) they are all backed up for many months and the common experience appears to be a very long 1-2 week wait time before they even take a look at the vehicle after you drop it off for an appointment you might have waited months for.

And yes there are catastrophic failures such as motor units, batteries, collapsed suspension, and I’d even argue that AC that doesn’t work is something that makes the car undrivable.

It just seems to me that the predelivery inspection needs to be beefed up to avoid failures that happen so soon after the owner picks up the vehicle. These are supposed to be tough off roady vehicles. The motor units and suspension should be able to take a beating and the interior shouldn’t rattle itself loose for an adventure vehicle.

I’m on my second R1S and my read is that the employees at the service center are overworked and under resourced. Part of the crunch might also stem from the fact that labor isn’t exactly plentiful now and wages are higher than ever, limiting the ability to hire skilled workers to service these complex machines. I wonder if this also affects whether they can adequately staff their QC team at the factory.

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