The worst service experience in the industry

[Dave Cundiff]

I have to wonder if there's any service center that doesn't leave the cars sitting a week before doing any type of work. That certainly is a pain point, they don't even order parts ahead. it's insane that they back fill the huge waiting area for what seems no logical reason at all.

Our work at Portland (Oregon) SC has always been completed the same day. Once when we had an appointment across the river and they didn't have a loaner, they gave Uber credits that lasted until afternoon when the car was ready. More than once they've let us keep our Zoom schedule from the SC conference room.

We have never arrived with either vehicle at Portland SC and found them unready to work on it.

Service Centers differ. I suspect some of that is about resources and workload, and some is about leadership. The Portland/Tualatin Service Centers' manager appears humble, and he seems to build and lead an extremely good team.

Best to all!

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[SkiDoc]

I’ve had only positive service interactions, with the exception of long waits for routine appointments.
Had a Rav4EV. I can tell you the experience of owning a car that neither Toyota or Tesla wants to maintain or repair is easily 20 times worse.

imagine if you have a Fiskar Ocean?

 

[Eticket99]

Their service centers are a large part why I wouldn't buy Rivian again, until it gets fixed its a non-starter. Either create a vehicle that doesn't require such post-delivery repairs or provide a better experience, one of the two. Don't care about he excuses from the fanboys, if you're offended by that and feel the need to justify a company you don't work at nor contribute too probably should look in the mirror as to why?

 

[Zorg]

Their service centers are a large part why I wouldn't buy Rivian again, until it gets fixed its a non-starter. Either create a vehicle that doesn't require such post-delivery repairs or provide a better experience, one of the two. Don't care about he excuses from the fanboys, if you're offended by that and feel the need to justify a company you don't work at nor contribute too probably should look in the mirror as to why?

Seems reasonable. FYI, I just booked service and currently it's 2 weeks out from my service center. Seems to me that they are staffing up and opening new service centers. As usual YMMV.

 

[grass man]

Dunno about worst... My Volt's EGR valve seized while I was on a trip out of state. I had to call around to about ten different dealers until I found one that had a Voltec-certified technician on staff so they could even look at the car later in the week. The dealer claimed that mice had chewed up the entire wiring harness (high and low voltage) and that the car wasn't worth repairing and that I should buy a Suburban from them as a replacement. I had to push back on them multiple times before they plugged in an OBD-II scanner (or maybe they had already and just wanted to sell me more service time or an entirely new vehicle). Four hours of service time later, they finally did what I could have done if I'd had my bluetooth dongle with me. A quick search on the codes reveals "Oh hey, EGR valve has an issue, which is a known thing for these cars". Fun part of the design is that the thermostat and the actuator for the EGR is on the same fuse, and the thermostat rests in the shut position, which was what caused the car to overheat.

Now, that's shitty, but the thing that made it even worse is that GM was refusing to actually have the part produced, so it was on a nationwide backorder. It took 13 months to acquire the part. When contacting GM directly, they wanted me to just rent a car at a cost of about $1200 per month and maybe possibly get reimbursed. (The dealer refused to give me a loaner).

Getting a rental car to get home and then having some more time to research the issue once they told me it was the EGR valve, I came to realize that the valve could just be unplugged and the fuse could be replaced, and that's how the car has been operating since then. (I drove back out of state to get the car after a month and it's been fine ever since). Oh, and guess what, there was no chewing of any wiring harness anywhere; the dealer just straight up lied in an attempt to push me into something new. Meanwhile, the dealer and GM kept playing the blame game at each other about why the part wasn't there.

Is Rivian service awesome? No clue, I haven't taken my R3X in for service yet.
Are they the worst in the industry? Dunno, I do most service stuff myself on the cars I've had, but my run-in with Chevy service would have had me paying $15,600 in rental car fees while my car was trapped at the dealer lot for 13 months if I hadn't taken it into my own hands, which sounds a lot worse than this.

(edit: spelling)

Sounds like we've had a similar situation regarding the Volt. Still loved the two Volts we had, but man, when you're in the sticks, there aren't going to be any Voltec Certified Techs for miles.
To GM's credit, they put us up for the night, paid for the rental car for two weeks, then had the car driven the 200 miles to our home when it was ready.
Nothing I've experienced with our R1T since October 2022 makes me think Rivian would do otherwise in a case like that.
I have noticed that the Portland SC continues to get busier, or maybe they're just triaging more carefully now? Either way, when Bend opens up, things should become a bit more manageable.
Sad to hear about OP's experience. I would be motivated to insist on a sit-down with the SC manager to determine what the issues are and how to expedite all repairs asap.
Lastly, I sure wish the SC's could manage to provide loaners to anyone with service beyond same day. I don't mind a rideshare for same day services.

 

[Zorg]

Seems reasonable. FYI, I just booked service and currently it's 2 weeks out from my service center. Seems to me that they are staffing up and opening new service centers. As usual YMMV.

Actually called Rivian service line and they scheduled me for Wednesday. Can't complain

 

[richguess]

Apparently you failed English. Quite marks indicate a direct quote, regardless of what came before them. Either way, my Rivian experience has been flawless. Sorry theirs sucked, but that’s life.

Maybe was a B student. But getting an A at Stanford while doing typical college stuff wasn’t that easy. At least for me.

 

[Acoustic71]

Maybe was a B student. But getting an A at Stanford while doing typical college stuff wasn’t that easy. At least for me.

Well that explains a lot. Harvard BS, followed by Berkeley MBA. The disdain for Stanford is equal or greater than my disdain for Tesla.

 

[portdirect]

Its odd correcting someone's English @Acoustic71 when using such bad spelling and grammar - and I say this as someone who is highly dyslexic. Spell checking goes a long way to landing a point, as does comprehending the impact of the "in effect" that was used by @richguess to signal summary and interpretation of the conveyed sentiment without attribution.

Anyway - Rivian sucks, but the folks on the ground are trying - and thats what counts.

 

[emoore]

Their service centers are a large part why I wouldn't buy Rivian again, until it gets fixed its a non-starter. Either create a vehicle that doesn't require such post-delivery repairs or provide a better experience, one of the two. Don't care about he excuses from the fanboys, if you're offended by that and feel the need to justify a company you don't work at nor contribute too probably should look in the mirror as to why?

Not offended. I’ve had great same day service the few times I’ve been to the Denver SC. The one time they told me it would be a few days they actually got it done by the end of the day. Best service I’ve ever had with a car.

 

[Zorg]

Anyway - Rivian sucks, but the folks on the ground are trying - and thats what counts.

That's a bit of a broad brush. They certainly don't suck where I am, and based on a cursory review of this thread, they do fine in many places. Though, I am sure they suck in certain areas.

What's for sure is that they gonna have to up for their game if they want the R2 to be successful.

 

[BunsenHoneydew]

Sounds like we've had a similar situation regarding the Volt. Still loved the two Volts we had, but man, when you're in the sticks, there aren't going to be any Voltec Certified Techs for miles.
To GM's credit, they put us up for the night, paid for the rental car for two weeks, then had the car driven the 200 miles to our home when it was ready.
Nothing I've experienced with our R1T since October 2022 makes me think Rivian would do otherwise in a case like that.
I have noticed that the Portland SC continues to get busier, or maybe they're just triaging more carefully now? Either way, when Bend opens up, things should become a bit more manageable.
Sad to hear about OP's experience. I would be motivated to insist on a sit-down with the SC manager to determine what the issues are and how to expedite all repairs asap.
Lastly, I sure wish the SC's could manage to provide loaners to anyone with service beyond same day. I don't mind a rideshare for same day services.

wait, Bend is getting a service center?

 

[Acoustic71]

Its odd correcting someone's English @Acoustic71 when using such bad spelling and grammar - and I say this as someone who is highly dyslexic. Spell checking goes a long way to landing a point, as does comprehending the impact of the "in effect" that was used by @richguess to signal summary and interpretation of the conveyed sentiment without attribution.

Anyway - Rivian sucks, but the folks on the ground are trying - and thats what counts.

Thank you, master. May I please have another!

 

[portdirect]

That's a bit of a broad brush. They certainly don't suck where I am, and based on a cursory review of this thread, they do fine in many places. Though, I am sure they suck in certain areas.

What's for sure is that they gonna have to up for their game if they want the R2 to be successful.

I'll just link back to my comment here: https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...-experience-in-the-industry.50792/post-873742 and here: https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/58k-miles-34-issues.50968/post-875845, which are compounded by doing a 11 hour round trip recently (accounting for the time waiting for the loaner R1T to recharge at the SC, as well as the time spent waiting to see if folks would turn up) to find a truck that was not ready to be picked up. I'm not going to use this thread to grind an axe - but do feel my opinion is justified and well backed with data.

100% agreement re R2.

 

[ozziegt]

I'm so fascinated when people get defensive or attack someone who has had a bad service experience. The shitty service experience provided by Rivian is pretty well established at this point.

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