The worst service experience in the industry

[Dave Cundiff]

Your experience almost sounds like how it used to be in 2023 and 2024 when appointments were months in the future. Nowadays with mobile service they can get to it much earlier. I’ve never had a situation where Rivian did not call me back within 24 hours usually much sooner. Did you call the 800 service number? They can message the service center directly and you will get a call back in short order.

855-RIVIAN-5 can patch you through to your Service Center anytime the Service Center is open.

Mostly they do this willingly, although once in 2024 I had to insist before they would transfer my call.

Best wishes!

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[SwaziCAR]

855-RIVIAN-5 can patch you through to your Service Center anytime the Service Center is open.

This.

 

[cohall]

Service quality is definitely dependent on the SC you go to, and Bellevue seems to be one of the worst in the country based on quite a few posts here. Sorry you're having such a bad experience - it definitely is not good for the brand.

 

[Dark-Fx]

You're getting some pushback because it is a community here. We full well know the good, bad and ugly of Rivian service.

There was a point where I've said the same thing as OP here, that I'd never recommend Rivian to anyone who couldn't tolerate extended service waits on simple issues.

My local service had gotten significantly better, but the times recently have started to creep up again. I'm critical of Rivian where it's deserved, but I also find it funny when people join a fan forum just to complain and not have anything positive to contribute. Once their issue is resolved, we never hear from them again, resolution or not.

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

Your first post and you are blowing up Rivian’s service because YOU have had a bad experience? Cool

Listen, your story sucks and I wish it were going better for you. My experience has been largely top notch. In addition, they are opening new service centers all the time.

Hope your issue gets sorted.

Way to blow up an early Rivian adopter.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Certain Tesla owners...

 

[iansriv]

There was a point where I've said the same thing as OP here, that I'd never recommend Rivian to anyone who couldn't tolerate extended service waits on simple issues.

My local service had gotten significantly better, but the times recently have started to creep up again. I'm critical of Rivian where it's deserved, but I also find it funny when people join a fan forum just to complain and not have anything positive to contribute. Once their issue is resolved, we never hear from them again, resolution or not.

I agree with you. My experience has been mostly positive both with the car and SC. I called Rivian Sunday about a ticking sound near the passenger headrest area. Got through in 2 minutes and they are sending a mobile tech over next Monday. That is the extent of my issues and the level of service I'm getting. I hope everyone has the same great experience.

 

[doubledown]

Your experience almost sounds like how it used to be in 2023 and 2024 when appointments were months in the future. Nowadays with mobile service they can get to it much earlier. I’ve never had a situation where Rivian did not call me back within 24 hours usually much sooner. Did you call the 800 service number? They can message the service center directly and you will get a call back in short order.

I have called the service number, and my turn around time is hit and miss. Most of the time to call back in a few hours, but then say I will get a call from Bellevue, which can take a day or two. Messages are also hit and miss, with about a 24 hour turnaround time, even though my R1T is in the shape it is.

I hope it improves, but for now, this is what I got.

There is no mobile appointments in our area...perhaps its because the Bellevue SC has not capacity.

 

[R1TCntrlMaIzzy]

Is this a rant? Yes.

Is it a valid experience one person and many others have encountered? Yes, just like many have not had the same type of issue(s) and or possibly expectations.

Is the current service philosophy, model, mentality of Rivian scalable? No.

It is great that new SCs are being opened. Will that change the underlying service, communication cadence and the scheduling delays. Maybe the delays will improve. To me, the service mentality needs to improve as well.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Not sure what that means...but I think the cameras could at least pick up the vehicle that is 10 feet away from me in my blindspot, thats all I ask.

I assume Tesla's have much greater range forward, because of the autonomous driving.

I think you're confusing the visualization on the vehicle dash with the front camera.

The 360 surround camera etc thats on the center screen is stitched together using the array of cameras around the vehicle.

The 3D rendering on the instrument cluster is done using the camera(s) in the rear view mirror assembly, sensor data from radars around the vehicle, as well as cameras within the side mirror housing.

 

[Effopec]

My recent service experience is very, uh, middle of the road. I started getting a front parking sensor alarm when I slowed down below ~5 mph, but only when it was over about 90F (which in Texas in the summer is any time between noon and midnight). Called Dallas service in June and had a remote truck come out 10 days later. They tried to diagnose sitting in my driveway, but decided that they needed to pull the front bumper and they were better equipped to handle that at the SC so I needed to make an appointment to bring it in (they did replace my 12V there, which I hadn't even asked for). The wait was 2 months to get in the SC. When I brought it in on the Sept. 15th they said it could be 2 weeks before they could even get to it, so like the OP I was wondering why they didn't ask if I wanted to wait a week to bring it in to save them some money on the rental. Last Friday the 19th they messaged and said that they would diagnose by tuesday the 23rd and to expect a message then. On Monday the 22nd they messaged that it was all done and I could pick it up, so total time at the SC was one week. While there they replaced the sensor, replaced some dash components to fix a rattle (third time they've tried to fix this, still rattles), replaced some washers to smooth out suspension (seemed to help a bit), did an all points inspection (I figured at 24k miles I might as well have it gone over), rotated my tires and fixed my non-charging flashlight.

So overall I'd give them a solid OK. The two month wait to get it in worries me with the R2 coming next year, but they did say they were opening a new SC not too far away in Frisco soon. If I was driving a rental for 2 months I would have been much more disappointed.

 

[lefkonj]

Hey I have a BMW I4 that suddenly stopped charging at home. They examined it and said nothing was wrong call and electrician. Took 3 visits to service and plenty of bitching which ended in me making a video of my Rivian, a different I4 and my own using 4 different chargers for them to agree to look at the charge control unit, which was faulting and needed to be replaced. Really annoying but eventually solved.

What about when I had a Passat for a few months and it was dead in my garage. They took and spent two weeks on it replacing all sorts of things to figure out it was a crank shaft sensor that was faulty. The entire time 'We aren't sure what to do' is all they would offer.

 

[doubledown]

I think you're confusing the visualization on the vehicle dash with the front camera.

The 360 surround camera etc thats on the center screen is stitched together using the array of cameras around the vehicle.

The 3D rendering on the instrument cluster is done using the camera(s) in the rear view mirror assembly, sensor data from radars around the vehicle, as well as cameras within the side mirror housing.

That's fair, but the 3D rendering stopped functioning once I got the errors from the front camera. Other than the backup camera, and some front and backup sensors, I don't notice anything from the rendering.

 

[doubledown]

Is this a rant? Yes.

Is it a valid experience one person and many others have encountered? Yes, just like many have not had the same type of issue(s) and or possibly expectations.

Is the current service philosophy, model, mentality of Rivian scalable? No.

It is great that new SCs are being opened. Will that change the underlying service, communication cadence and the scheduling delays. Maybe the delays will improve. To me, the service mentality needs to improve as well.

Yes, 100% its a rant, and its 100% what my last 8 months of ownership have looked like with zero embellishment. Sadly, without real humans to talk to in the data center, i was told this might be one of the only ways to get their attention. I like the truck(when it works), its the service (at least in the great Seattle area) that needs help, and a shop that will be honest, transparent, commit to dates, and admit when they were wrong. I get it...missing one estimate is one thing, but missing multiple with almost zero communication is frustrating. The only way I knew my Rivian wasn't going to be ready for pick up on Saturday is because the app said it was still in service.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Good point, just Bellevue. I have not tried Seattle (are only other SC according to the Rivian website)... from where we are, that would be a trek, especially through traffic, but I would easily do it if this issue was isolated to Bellevue.

On your 12v battery issue, I likely would have done the same and cut my trip short, but given you're in Washington, and were in Canada, you probably could have reached out and had the Richmond BC service center do the repair while still north of the border.

On service, I hear you, I can point to a bunch of other examples of poor experiences from start to finish and I personally feel they can only get better by having a wake up call of the negative. You don't get better by hearing "you're amazing" all the time, it's when you get called out for something that needs work or is unacceptable that you reflect and try to do better as a whole, not just in part.

My own experiences have honestly been over and above my expectations, but I know it's not the same for all. I will note that often the complaints that appointments are months out, is typically overblown, and often those issues or appointments are given priority based on the severity of the issue at hand within hours of the request being initiated. I know not always ideal, but it's a reality when building out a service network from scratch, over only a few years.

Tesla is the only other direct to customer OEM I can think of, that also has had, and can continue to have even today, it's own share of those same issues. Not all people are the same, some tolerate a delay better than others, same goes for employees, not all are representative of the company for which they're employed.

Hopefully things go better once you get your Rivian back.

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