Rivian Rewards Rant! Rivian needs to do better!

[Electrified Outdoors]

Rivian doesn’t allow referrals on custom builds only shop orders. I had a referral who was told they would be given credits and free RAN if they switched to a shop order. I contacted Rivian to make sure they would be given credits only to be told they weren’t eligible because they originally had a custom order (even though they switched to shop and were told otherwise). I was then told they “can’t fix it now”.

it’s embarrassing to refer someone to Rivian thinking/expecting they would get the free charging and gear shop credit to then have Rivian say they can’t honor it.

to make matters worse their Gen2 had to go into service almost immediately after delivery.

Anyone else have referral problems?

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[ORFynder]

2 referrals down and no problems, has gone pretty smooth for me

 

[Forager]

My only problem with referrals was that I generated them before this program existed so I got zilch ?

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Rivian also was missing another one of my referrals. All good on that one though I had to call in and give them the persons name.

It would seem referrals are getting conveniently lost in the system and then by the time you realize something is amiss its too late to do anything about it. ??‍

 

[DuoRivian]

Exactly and if they are spending $80k+ to just get a small bonus then they need to cancel their order.

 

[EastSider]

Does anyone know if this referral rewards program will last into 2025?

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Yeah I get that it needs to be a shop vehicle but the person switched and was told that they would get the rewards by a Rivian employee. Then, yet another referral wasn’t in the system and had to be fixed ?

the person wasn’t complaining at all. I just feel badly about the situation and feel like Rivian should have made it right.

i digress

 

[Dark-Fx]

Yeah I get that it needs to be a shop vehicle but the person switched and was told that they would get the rewards by a Rivian employee. Then, yet another referral wasn’t in the system and had to be fixed ?

the person wasn’t complaining at all. I just feel badly about the situation and feel like Rivian should have made it right.

i digress

The Rivian employee probably didn't understand or communicate it well. The orderer would have had to cancel their existing deposit and buy something out of the shop.

The T&C's are pretty clear but no-one ever reads those apparently.

 

[EastSider]

Does anyone know if this referral rewards program will last into 2025?

Just found the answer to my own question....
Rivian reserves the right to modify, substitute, or discontinue the Rivian Experience at any time and may replace it with a different reward or experience.

 

[bfilippo]

I think they’ve said it will change from the current offering at end of year.

I am hoping mine come through still within the quoted “2 weeks”, I’m at 9 days post delivery, no sign yet. Obviously not a deal breaker but it would be really nice to get nearly all of my utility mat and cross bars purchase covered.

 

[dj200]

As a fan of your YouTube channel, I tried using your referral code for my gen 2 reservation. DENIED.

I really don’t understand how Rivian, as a new company, doesn’t do everything it can to make sure it‘s customers (new or existing), are provided the best possible experience. Restrictions, limitations, poor communication, non-refundable deposits, poor quality control, service center wait times, etc, all combine to create a less than ideal experience.
I don’t know what Rivian’s priorities are, but customer service doesn’t seem to be high on their list.

-end of rant-

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

As a fan of your YouTube channel, I tried using your referral code for my gen 2 reservation. DENIED.

I really don’t understand how Rivian, as a new company, doesn’t do everything it can to make sure it‘s customers (new or existing), are provided the best possible experience. Restrictions, limitations, poor communication, non-refundable deposits, poor quality control, service center wait times, etc, all combine to create a less than ideal experience.
I don’t know what Rivian’s priorities are, but customer service doesn’t seem to be high on their list.

-end of rant-

I’m sorry to hear this ??‍.

 

[BananaBoat]

Same! This just happened to us on delivery last week. It was a custom switched to shop order and they told us yes, you will get the referral bonus at delivery and guess what - now there is no such thing. They told us we would get it too! So annoying - honor what you said!

 

[SASSquatch]

As a fan of your YouTube channel, I tried using your referral code for my gen 2 reservation. DENIED.

I really don’t understand how Rivian, as a new company, doesn’t do everything it can to make sure it‘s customers (new or existing), are provided the best possible experience. Restrictions, limitations, poor communication, non-refundable deposits, poor quality control, service center wait times, etc, all combine to create a less than ideal experience.
I don’t know what Rivian’s priorities are, but customer service doesn’t seem to be high on their list.

-end of rant-

While I sympathize with you and the OP @Electrified Outdoors, Rivian is losing $40K per unit sold on R1 vehicles and they are desperate to conserve cash and cut costs. They need to finish the extension to the Normal plant so that they can begin and then ramp R2 production because if they don't launch R2, they are dead in the water and they know it.

Your experience is extremely frustrating and it reflects poorly on Rivian who is making their demand problems for R1 worse by not focusing enough on customer satisfaction.

As a shareholder, I am deeply skeptical they will achieve net profit before R2 launches because they just don't have the demand and they can't utilize plant efficiencies at the scale they need in order to reduce costs because of it. Maybe they are skeptical as well which is why they partnered with VW and are doing their best to secure a DOE loan for north of $6B to get them through R2 ramp.

It is frustrating, and Rivian should do better, but I think they have much bigger fish to fry and I don't know that this is going to change in the short-term.

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