I am at a loss, Rivian service is broken and I can't take it anymore

[MasterofWilford]

Sorry to hear,

1) Lemon law it

2) sell it

3) gamble and take it to another SC

As an aside, you are clearly invested and biased, saying that this vehicle is the perfect vehicle for you. Wake up, it’s far from a perfect vehicle. It’s a vehicle from hell. Rivian’s service and from time to time, their vehicles, absolutely stink. You are gambling when you decide to buy a Rivian and you must accept that you are gambling. Many stories posted here and elsewhere of their vehicles having multiple issues are NOT normal. It is disgusting and very risky for Rivian to produce such trash and do nothing with their service.

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[Brad Foster]

Lemon Law it.

 

[VNCR1S]

I have the same experience with the El Segundo service center. Poorly managed and have not seen any improvements in the last 18 months since I started bringing my Rivian there for service. Thinking of lemon law based on my car being there for more than 30 days with different issues. If anyone can recommend a lemon law attorney that have dealt with Rivian please let me know.

 

[mkhuffman]

BLUF: Rivian needs to ditch their whisper down the lane service engagement model, and open more damn SCs.

Service is the weakest part of the “direct sales” model. In the dealership model, the SC is meant to be a profit center. They want customers to come & come back. If you have an issue, you can appeal to a Service Manager, executive or the owner to try & get it solved.

With the direct sales model, and in particular, Rivian’s model, no one employee owns your issues. You end up playing whisper down the lane in order to be granted entree to the service center, or an even a more coveted mobile appointment. Every time you call Rivian Service, you speak to a different agent who only can tell you what’s on their screen, or whisper down the lane back to you what they (think) they heard when they talked to the SC. Assuming someone from the SC actually picked up, that is. You rarely get to talk to anyone that’s actually laid diagnostic eyes or hands on your truck. You have no one to appeal to, and if you do the best that they can offer you is another appointment. And they’re secretly hoping that jet packs are actually a thing by that time, so you won’t have to come back and impact their backlog again.

Then there’s the whole SC oversubscription thing. In many areas this is largely out of Rivian’s hands due to obstructive legislation. Some of those barriers are starting to come down now. In all geographies, Rivian should be doubling down on SC site acquisition and construction. They put lots of little yellow dots on their map to placate us, but you can’t take your truck to a group of friendly-colored pixels

I find it amusing that so many people think the dealership model should go away, and it should be replaced with this model instead. And then everything people hate about dealerships would go away, and buying and servicing a car would be a perfect experience. Ha.

If Rivian signed up some independent dealers and service centers, they would reduce the amount of capital investment required and leverage the profit motive each independent dealer and service center has. For a company burning so much cash, it would be a good move. They could focus on training dealers and enforcing standards of conduct required to keep the franchise. Instead, they are buying/running facilities that do nothing but drain their cash.

 

[Zoidz]

How does this help OP?

It may not help OP, but this is a forum of many. It’s valuable in the course of discussion for all to hear different perpectives. That’s what online forums are for.

 

[Captain JB]

I know your issue is extreme but I would use the lemon law and the. get a new one. I live in LA also and my Alexa has never worked in 9 months…useless. I have 8 items to fix (all infotainment and not major) for 2 months and they gave me an appt in November at the ES Service Center!! It is certainly the weak link in the Rivian System. If someone asked me how I like the R1S, I would say I love the car but the service is atrocious….sadly. It needs to get better or they will fail.

 

[Ngkgb]

Lemon it

 

[pkingduk]

I know, coming on to rant is not a great idea (forgive the length). Got my '23 R1T (Quad, large) back last April, vin 23xxx. I knew then, and I still know now that Rivian is a new company, and in a sense I was helping to beta test. Since getting the truck, it has been cumulatively been at the service center for over 60 days (not including mobile visits). Of course not all of that time has the truck been actually in the shop, my service center (El Segundo in SoCal) has a 3 month wait just to get in the shop, once you are there and drop the car of they flat out tell you that it will sit there for a week before it is even looked at. It has been like that for over a year. Fine, they give me rides to Enterprise and pay for a rental. Keeps miles off my truck I suppose.
What gets me is the mismanagement at the facility and the lack of support and frankly knowledge the employees there have. I have had multiple small things come up that I bank together and make one appointment to have them all addressed (speaker rattle, failing window switch, inoperative tailgate, sticking exterior door handle, etc). Things I know need to be addressed, but I can go about my day and live and alone are not worthy of a trip to the service center. On one of these visits I had 6 issues, of which only one was fixed when I picked it up. The other 5 were listed as repaired and signed off on, but had not even been touched. On top of that someone gouged a large hole in one of my door panels. Sigh, I just pointed out the issues before I even left, got an apology and had to make another appointment.
All of the above I can and have actually just dealt with. Here is where I feel it's just madness.
When I took delivery of the truck, the door seal (gasket) on the rear driver door was not completely adhered to the door. It was visibly pulling away and made the door harder to close. I took delivery and made an appointment to have it replaced. Which it was in June of last year. Since then, I have had the gasket replaced 5 times. It keeps pulling away, sometimes it is already beginning to pull away when I pick the truck up from service. It's a revolving line of excuses. It's summer, so the heat weakens it, Rivian is testing new glue, etc. I ask, could it be perhaps door alignment. They never want to investigate, just keep replacing. Meanwhile I am dealing with a door that is hard to close and a gasket that is sometimes literally hanging off (I have kids, so the door is used a lot). How many replacements before someone wants to help me really figure it out?
But it's a gasket, not the end of the world and it's not affecting the drivability. So I live with the cycle.

Today I just picked up the truck from another visit. Last fall I began to notice that when I turned the wheel in reverse while moving it would make some clicks. I made a note of it on a visit. I was told it was normal and all was within spec. A few months later the clicks got louder. I took it in with other issues (maybe the ac recall?) and they said they lubed a bolt causing it. It clicked before I even got home. But lived with it. I began to hear it while driving forward and it got louder. It would click going straight at this point. Went in again, this time they replaced the half shafts, which did not line up with the symptoms, but I got it back and the clicks were gone. A few weeks later the clicks reappeared and were really loud and frequent. Waited 3 months again for an appointment, they replaced the control arms. Said that was for sure the fix. A few weeks later the clicks came back and soon after loud pops began every time I turned the wheel. Pops so loud they would startle people in a parking garage. I would feel it in the steering wheel. I made an appointment for 3 months out as that was the first avail. The service center converted it to a mobile visit because it could happen sooner. The tech came and verified something was for sure up. But he could not do anything (of course) and said he would escalate it to management to get my car in asap. 2 weeks go by I hear nothing. I call Rivian. They have no notes on the car needing anything. They make notes and tell me I will hear back within 2 days. A week later I call again, this time they see notes, but noting has been done. So again I am promised a call asap. A week later I get a call and finally get an appointment a few weeks away (for sure a win). I drop it off, of course being told they won't be able to get to it for a week, and pray this time it will get fixed. I had 3 items that were concerns. The front noise, again my friend the door seal, and a clunking that had been happening for the last few months a low speed. It's coming from the rear, it's rhythmic with wheel rotation, and I only hear it until about 15 mph. I did a test drive with a tech who heard all the front end noise, as well as confirmed the rear noise was not normal. I am updated through the process via the app that the fix is to replace the front subframe. Truck is in the shop for 2.5 weeks. I receive a text yesterday AM that the subframe and gasket were replaced and my truck will be ready by 3p and to respond if I had any questions. I respond, and ask if the rear clunking noise was addressed. I get no response, then at 6p I get a call from the service center my truck is just now ready. I asked if the rear noise was addressed as well and the woman on the phone said yes and that it was caused by the subframe. I clarified that it was the front subframe replaced, and the noise was in the rear. She told me it was all related. She then asked if I wanted my car washed and charged. I had never been asked that, and my car had never been washed after a visit. I gladly accepted and was told it would be ready for pick up by 10a. Here we go...
I arrive at 1:30pm, well over 3 hours after the time I was told the car would be washed and charged. Had my kids with me. I run in, check in with the same woman I talked to on the phone the night before. She tells me she will have the truck pulled around. I go outside and pull the car seats and kids out of the rental. After it's unloaded, the employee comes out and asks how far I live. I tell her that I don't live that far (it's about 40 min away). She tells me that apparently my truck had just finished being worked on so there was no time to wash it or charge it, and it had only 90 miles on it. I was confused but told her I should be fine on 90 miles. She offers to charge it, but I tell her that I have my kids and assumed I the car would be charged. She then turns it on me and tells me that I should wait for a call and not rely on the app to tell me the car is ready. I explain to her that she had called me last night and told me it was ready then and was the very one who told me to come at 10 and it would be charged. She was confused, but apologetic.
10 min later they pull the truck around. I load up and leave. I turn the wheel, not clicks and pops! I get out of the parking lot. Clunk....clunk....clunk from the rear.
I turn around. The employee is confused and tells me they replaced the whole subframe including the rear. I explain to her the subframe is only the front and there is a separate one for the rear. She rebuffs me and tells me the whole underside of the truck was replaced. I tried to explain, but she goes to get a manager. We go for a drive, he confirms the noise. But because it's not crazy loud, and because it goes away at higher speed they recommend I live with it and when it gets louder bring it back in because right now its not a "big issue". I explain this is the same road I had went down the past 10 months with the front subframe. I just wanted out of there, and not to have my kids have to be tortured any longer in the back seat. So I left with a headache.

The problem for me is this, I know the R1T is great and the perfect truck for me. But I keep getting bit by issues that I think would not cause me such overall problems if the service side was more in line with the product. I live in LA, and there are quite a few Rivians. Especially with the lease deals earlier this year. The service centers are overrun. They can't keep up, and when you get in, I feel you are rushed through and not really given complete service.

I'm not anti-Rivian. I know I have a first run truck and most likely a bad single example as many people on this forum have had little to no issues. I want to have the R1T. A few months ago I went to the Rivian Center in Venice and talked to them about the Gen 2. I know most of the issues I have experienced are rectified with the redesign (front suspension, rattles, etc). So I went in thinking I would maybe trade in my truck for a Gen 2. At that point, my truck was 1 year old and had 10k miles on it. I paid 95k plus tax for it, and was offered 60k from Rivian. This is the most I have ever spent on a vehicle and don't want to lose 35k in one year. So I decided to keep it, but now this is my situation. Constant service sorrow.
Sorry for the long rant. I just need to get it off my chest. I can't complain too much to my spouse too much since I paid so much for the truck....
I'm not sure there is much advice out there for me besides live with it, or get rid of the truck. But throwing it out there if anyone else is fed up with service, you are not the only one.
John

Take it to Costa Mesa, and theres another 2 in the IE..... thats what I would do. Riv SC's are notoriously problematic, but from what I can tell El Segundo takes the prize for the worst one. Just bail on them and make your appointment at a different SC and let them know how badly ES SC failed you. Oh also I have read a few post where someone just took it in first thing in the AM and they accepted it. I would go full entitled-white-man on them.. they've earned it.

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

It may not help OP, but this is a forum of many. It’s valuable in the course of discussion for all to hear different perpectives. That’s what online forums are for.

I think people find it pretty frustrating when they describe what - in this case is an objectively ridiculous and unacceptable situation to vent - and someone says “everything is going great for me, FYI.”

It’s like going on a forum to describe how you were unfairly terminated from work, and having someone comment “I’m still employed and got a promotion from the same company!”

 

[COdogman]

I find it amusing that so many people think the dealership model should go away, and it should be replaced with this model instead. And then everything people hate about dealerships would go away, and buying and servicing a car would be a perfect experience. Ha.

If Rivian signed up some independent dealers and service centers, they would reduce the amount of capital investment required and leverage the profit motive each independent dealer and service center has. For a company burning so much cash, it would be a good move. They could focus on training dealers and enforcing standards of conduct required to keep the franchise. Instead, they are buying/running facilities that do nothing but drain their cash.

In my life I’ve been screwed over by more dealer service departments (not including sales) than I can recall. The only advantage they have over Rivian in my opinion is the convenience of being local to more of the population. But if most of them are incompetent and fail at communications and overcharge, is it really better? I think Rivian is suffering through the same thing most businesses have been suffering through over the last 10 years. Staffing and the economy and everything else…. That being said, it’s not an excuse. They have to solve this problem.

Rivian has a long way to go but I’ll roll with them vs. a dealer any day.

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

I find it amusing that so many people think the dealership model should go away, and it should be replaced with this model instead. And then everything people hate about dealerships would go away, and buying and servicing a car would be a perfect experience. Ha.

If Rivian signed up some independent dealers and service centers, they would reduce the amount of capital investment required and leverage the profit motive each independent dealer and service center has. For a company burning so much cash, it would be a good move. They could focus on training dealers and enforcing standards of conduct required to keep the franchise. Instead, they are buying/running facilities that do nothing but drain their cash.

I live in an area where there I can go to multiple dealers. There are 3 Chevy, Audi, Benz, etc in a 20 mile radius. There’s multiple rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Porsche, etc…. If you have a bad experience at one, you can go to another. And they compete for your business. I have had few bad experiences at a dealer. Most go out of their way to help me out. Friendly. Pick me up at my house. Take my car and service it and bring it back. Or just do a remote service.

So, I like the dealer model. The one issue is buying. It’s annoying to have some charade to get to the price I want. I know what I want to pay, I know it’s fair but a good deal, and I am getting that price. Which I do. But, I’d rather just push the button and order it on day 1 than have a this whole game and get my price on day 30. Waste of time…

 

[iforbes]

Wow! That is terrible. I truly wish there was a way to go up the ladder with this type of issue. No advice, just here wishing you luck!

 

[Zoidz]

I think people find it pretty frustrating when they describe what - in this case is an objectively ridiculous and unacceptable situation to vent - and someone says “everything is going great for me, FYI.”

It’s like going on a forum to describe how you were unfairly terminated from work, and having someone comment “I’m still employed and got a promotion from the same company!”

My following comment is not reflecting on the OP's experience, only on the value of discourse on the forum.

As a forum user, it makes a difference to me, and most others, if 1 person posts a complaint but 100 post postive comments vs. 100 people complaining and only 1 positive post. It helps everyone see the broader situation, including the OP.

 

[MidnightRun]

OP… I can empathize with your situation. That’s terrible.

I really like the R1S but I have been extremely hesitant to buy one with quality control and service center issues deterring me the most. I think it’s a huge issue for Rivian and not one that’s easily solved.

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