Wooly
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- #1
I took delivery of a 2026 Rivian R1S Trimax a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, I had a Really poor leasing and delivery experience. It started with the sales associate at Rivian being very difficult and unhelpful as I tried to navigate the order/transfer/incentive process. In general the sales associate was what I would call a “Dr. No” type, which is not what you want in a sales person. Saying no to everything, and not offering alternative solutions.
Then the leasing process was very difficult. First they would not allow me to lease the car to my business even though I personally was a co-applicant on the car with 824 credit. I could never get an answer why, it was just no. I would Have walked away if not for the current and soon to be gone leasing incentives.
So after relenting to just doing a personal lease that will now cost me thousands more, at the last minute they changed my residual value on the car a couple thousand dollars, causing my payment to increase. This was the day before delivery. I was not happy and pointed it out to them and they just said ”yes that happens sometimes at the end of the month” Keep in mind, this was in the first couple days of September. They said if I had redone my financing 2 days earlier I would have gotten the higher residual value and thus lower payment. Now I was really upset as I had already done my financing a week earlier under my business and me personally which they had denied me on.
Nobody called me and said that my payment could go up if my new financing under me personally was not done by the end of the month. When I asked why someone had not made me aware of the upcoming change in value, they just kept saying, “Do you want to move forward or not”. As I have been researching the car for a while and had seen dozens of people online get “customer accommodations“ for $2-3,000 dollars as incentives to purchase, I asked her for a customer accommodation to make up for the last second price/payment change. She just said ”no, do you want to move forward or not”. I asked to speak to a manager and she said ”I am the manager”. I was in a tough spot as I would normally walk away in such a situation, but as I said the incentives pushed me forward.
When I arrived for delivery, no one was there to greet me. After waiting for about 5 minutes, a woman came out and I told her my name and that I was there for a delivery. She turned around and walked right back into her office and another woman came out to do the delivery. Turned out the first woman was the manager. She did not engage me in any way. No conversation or apology. No attempt to smooth out what had been a very rough experience.
Now I am dealing with some of the more normal problems I have read about online. Hood not aligned correctly, misaligned carpet, rattle in one speaker, and missing 25 miles of range.
I’m sure like many of you I am rooting for Rivian to survive, but as a young struggling car company, they need to create good will and long term customers. There is no room for this type of treatment or transaction. In addition, just for the record I never yelled or screamed or carried on with their sales people. I just don’t do that. I was always respectful even when really unhappy.
Hopefully, I can get the fixes on the car taken care of and will have a good ownership experience going forward, but it’s been a very rough start. Rivian, you must do better
Then the leasing process was very difficult. First they would not allow me to lease the car to my business even though I personally was a co-applicant on the car with 824 credit. I could never get an answer why, it was just no. I would Have walked away if not for the current and soon to be gone leasing incentives.
So after relenting to just doing a personal lease that will now cost me thousands more, at the last minute they changed my residual value on the car a couple thousand dollars, causing my payment to increase. This was the day before delivery. I was not happy and pointed it out to them and they just said ”yes that happens sometimes at the end of the month” Keep in mind, this was in the first couple days of September. They said if I had redone my financing 2 days earlier I would have gotten the higher residual value and thus lower payment. Now I was really upset as I had already done my financing a week earlier under my business and me personally which they had denied me on.
Nobody called me and said that my payment could go up if my new financing under me personally was not done by the end of the month. When I asked why someone had not made me aware of the upcoming change in value, they just kept saying, “Do you want to move forward or not”. As I have been researching the car for a while and had seen dozens of people online get “customer accommodations“ for $2-3,000 dollars as incentives to purchase, I asked her for a customer accommodation to make up for the last second price/payment change. She just said ”no, do you want to move forward or not”. I asked to speak to a manager and she said ”I am the manager”. I was in a tough spot as I would normally walk away in such a situation, but as I said the incentives pushed me forward.
When I arrived for delivery, no one was there to greet me. After waiting for about 5 minutes, a woman came out and I told her my name and that I was there for a delivery. She turned around and walked right back into her office and another woman came out to do the delivery. Turned out the first woman was the manager. She did not engage me in any way. No conversation or apology. No attempt to smooth out what had been a very rough experience.
Now I am dealing with some of the more normal problems I have read about online. Hood not aligned correctly, misaligned carpet, rattle in one speaker, and missing 25 miles of range.
I’m sure like many of you I am rooting for Rivian to survive, but as a young struggling car company, they need to create good will and long term customers. There is no room for this type of treatment or transaction. In addition, just for the record I never yelled or screamed or carried on with their sales people. I just don’t do that. I was always respectful even when really unhappy.
Hopefully, I can get the fixes on the car taken care of and will have a good ownership experience going forward, but it’s been a very rough start. Rivian, you must do better
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