In 4th year of waiting ... beginning to question if the wait is worth it

[Cosmacelf]

Given that Rivian is supposedly making 200 trucks a week now, whey haven’t we seen any new posts here or elsewhere of new owners getting their deliveries? Or am I just blind and missing those posts?

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[stynes]

You're right, and that applies to everyone, including you. You have to get used to this being the new normal.

Right now, what is normal is for operations to suffer double-digit percentages of man-hours lost to lack of workers or workers out sick due to COVID. This impacts everything from the rate of production on an assembly line to how many trucks drive across the country hauling freight.

It's asinine to expect companies to be delivering to you at the rate/schedule of the old normal given the above is their new normal. Sure, they need to adjust their expectations - but so do you.

Funny... I thought as I typed that that someone would respond along those lines. And it's a fair point that frankly, I think I've already mostly conceded earlier: " I let my expectations get too high." So you're right - I do need to readjust and I think mostly have.

What I won't compromise on though... it's not right. Everyone may be doing it but the old school in me, you tell me you're going to deliver me something on this date or with this set of features or at this price... you do it. And Rivian has been a very changing landscape there. And I will also dispute that it's solely (or maybe even mostly?) due to Covid at this point. But otherwise, yeah... I agree with you.

 

[stickyfingers]

When I spoke to CS 3 weeks ago they told me that by Jan 31st my configuration will be locked ie I can't go back to the MAX Pack however I can still select it. Have received nothing else from CS since that last conversation. As many have said their communication department needs an overhaul.

 

[harkco]

The continued lack of communication at this point is insanely concerning and frustrating. It just seems like someone should have reached out about installing the Rivian charger I placed the order for at this point. A little communication (like RJ promised they would be much better at) goes a long way.

 

[SASSquatch]

Given that Rivian is supposedly making 200 trucks a week now, whey haven’t we seen any new posts here or elsewhere of new owners getting their deliveries? Or am I just blind and missing those posts?

You are assuming: a.) everyone who buys a Rivian is registered on a forum and b.) they are going to want to post about their R1T instead of, you know, actually getting out and enjoying it.

I suspect that for many of the early reservation holders who have been waiting for years they are tired of posting and jonesing to get out and have fun with their new truck.

 

[stynes]

It's also not unreasonable to have difficulty projecting a situation that is in a constant state of variance and flux. Just look at the case rates for the last month since Omicron hit the scene.

If you were projecting trends based on the data before Omicron, you'd be up a creek right now. Nobody is perfect, and nobody is prescient.

Also, forgot to add this earlier... 100% fair points you raise. No argument from me. But...

Covid hasn't prevented Rivian from communicating and it's the lack of communication and/or incomplete, inaccurate communication that's frustrated many people the most.

 

[paariv]

You are assuming: a.) everyone who buys a Rivian is registered on a forum and b.) they are going to want to post about their R1T instead of, you know, actually getting out and enjoying it.

I suspect that for many of the early reservation holders who have been waiting for years they are tired of posting and jonesing to get out and have fun with their new truck.

This is silly. Nobody is assuming that everyone is a registered poster and nobody said that. What we are saying is that if there are actually 200 non-employee deliveries a week, you’d think there would be more than one poster on the forums who’s taken delivery in the last month.

 

[Iwantatesla]

This is silly. Nobody is assuming that everyone is a registered poster and nobody said that. What we are saying is that if there are actually 200 non-employee deliveries a week, you’d think there would be more than one poster on the forums who’s taken delivery in the last month.

They could also just be too busy enjoying their trucks and not a loser like me ))))))

 

[bowhunter]

This is silly. Nobody is assuming that everyone is a registered poster and nobody said that. What we are saying is that if there are actually 200 non-employee deliveries a week, you’d think there would be more than one poster on the forums who’s taken delivery in the last month.

Yeah, with ~1000+ completed deliveries there are several people on this forum (including myself) who are within the first few hundred LE pre-order reservations still waiting.

 

[Bullitt]

Random thoughts for the mix…

In the Decembers email, RJ noted that employee purchases represented ”several hundred”… by all accounts even if it is double that, they would have finished employee deliveries before EOY since they delivered plenty over that per the earnings call in Dec. At that point (not knowing the split between R1 and EDV), one could assume that 2022 would be only customer deliveries (and EDV)… perhaps they’re sitting on a bunch of deliveries to finalize something found. When I bought the Tesla last year I was one of the first people to get an M3 with CATL made battery. All our cars were held up for a month waiting for a new Mulroney sticker.

Im in LA county, so its hard to know if its just because its a main hub, but I have seen enough of them in the wild to move to 2 hands to count.

 

[mkg3]

This is silly. Nobody is assuming that everyone is a registered poster and nobody said that. What we are saying is that if there are actually 200 non-employee deliveries a week, you’d think there would be more than one poster on the forums who’s taken delivery in the last month.

Two things:
1) the story said there were producing 200/wk (R1T, R1S AND EDV), not deliveries
2) Deliveries are happening in certain areas first so the population of this forum from certain areas are meaningful but not all areas

I live in SoCal (south OC) and I see R1T just about every day on the road. Since these happen during the middle of the day and not around Irvine, I cannot believe they are all employee vehicles (though some may be).

 

[paariv]

Yeah, with ~1000+ completed deliveries there are several people on this forum (including myself) who are within the first few hundred LE pre-order reservations still waiting.

Exactly. We have plenty of people in the first 1000 orders on the forums, many of whom live in major enough markets and should get one of the first non-employee 1000 trucks. I get that not everyone wants to make their life, or brand new truck, an open book. I don't either! And I won't be posting a detailed review when I get my R1S. But I will let people know if my delivery is on track or not, to the extent that's still an issue by my May/June delivery date.

We don't even have any of the early order holders posting about having gotten firm(ish) February delivery dates. All we hear from people with guides is... not encouraging. Contrast that with May 2021 guide contacts - we knew immediately when people started hearing even though not everyone who heard from a guide is a poster. We knew people with "November" delivery dates too.

That there are crickets now is a bad sign. And the counterarguments that things may still be on track aren't great. They all seem to be variations on "you can't prove a negative." That's not a great response to the core of my position, which is: given our track record of hearing at least something about outreach and deliveries as they happen, and Rivian's track record of silent delays, don't you think the most likely conclusion based on what we (haven't) seen this year is that the ramp up continues to be very slow?

 

[EVTrucking]

Exactly. We have plenty of people in the first 1000 orders on the forums, many of whom live in major enough markets and should get one of the first non-employee 1000 trucks. I get that not everyone wants to make their life, or brand new truck, an open book. I don't either! And I won't be posting a detailed review when I get my R1S. But I will let people know if my delivery is on track or not, to the extent that's still an issue by my May/June delivery date.

We don't even have any of the early order holders posting about having gotten firm(ish) February delivery dates. All we hear from people with guides is... not encouraging. Contrast that with May 2021 guide contacts - we knew immediately when people started hearing even though not everyone who heard from a guide is a poster. We knew people with "November" delivery dates too.

That there are crickets now is a bad sign. And the counterarguments that things may still be on track aren't great. They all seem to be variations on "you can't prove a negative." That's not a great response to the core of my position, which is: given our track record of hearing at least something about outreach and deliveries as they happen, and Rivian's track record of silent delays, don't you think the most likely conclusion based on what we (haven't) seen this year is that the ramp up continues to be very slow?

I agree that the production ramp and deliveries are probably slower than communicated but I believe Rivian is doing everything possible to increase production and deliveries.

 

[KiloV]

Funny... I thought as I typed that that someone would respond along those lines. And it's a fair point that frankly, I think I've already mostly conceded earlier: " I let my expectations get too high." So you're right - I do need to readjust and I think mostly have.

What I won't compromise on though... it's not right. Everyone may be doing it but the old school in me, you tell me you're going to deliver me something on this date or with this set of features or at this price... you do it. And Rivian has been a very changing landscape there. And I will also dispute that it's solely (or maybe even mostly?) due to Covid at this point. But otherwise, yeah... I agree with you.

I get the frustration with delays (I'm impatient too); but I don't understand when people say, "Rivian promised me that they would...." I've been a pre-order holder since 11/26/2018. Rivian has never once promised me a delivery date. They said that they hoped to start producing vehicles in December of 2020. They slipped that date during the height of the pandemic impact to July 2021. They then slipped the beginning of production two more months to September 2021. None of those dates (12/2020, 07/2021, 09/2021) were guarantees that I would get my truck by those dates. Those were the timeframes to begin production. The closest that Rivian has given me to a delivery "guarantee" was March/April 2022...and in fact, they explicitly identified that timeframe as an "estimate" and not a "guarantee." I don't get why people feel that they were promised something and that Rivian has broken said promise. I've never been promised anything. I've been given estimates that have slipped (for pretty good reasons, I think). I'm frustrated that I don't have my truck. I think Rivian is not good at communicating with its customers. But no one at Rivian has broken any promises to me.

 

[paariv]

I agree that the production ramp and deliveries are probably slower than communicated but I believe Rivian is doing everything possible to increase production and deliveries.

I bet all of us agree that Rivian is all hands on deck to ramp up. Why wouldn't they be? And I think most (or all) of us understand that covid+new company+ambitious multi-vehicle launch+omicron means delays are inevitable. I'm really only pushing back on those who seem to believe the ramp up is going as planned.

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