Destination Fee

[Riviot]

To quote you, it's

typically a dealership.

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[Donald Stanfield]

Shrink, you don’t have to be a jerk about it. I understand completely. It’s just a bit of a grey area, since they won’t deliver the vehicle. No need to respond.

It's not at all a grey area. It's a fee that applies to every car sold by every manufacturer is not a grey area it's just the way things are.

 

[Stickboy46]

This type of question/attitude is why I will never work in sales again.

 

[AbhorViolence]

Agree it's frustrating to have to pay this, but I long since just accepted it was part of the vehicle cost. What annoys me is that over the last couple years that I've been waiting I've seen it inflate from I believe around $900 originally to maybe $1200 and now the current $1800. It's a sneaky ~$1000 price increase (including for us early pricing holders who were promised otherwise) that most people won't even notice till they get to purchase time because they aren't as crazy as me checking these kinds of details meticulously beforehand.

And it's not the only one Rivian has pulled by and means.

I'm a sucker l stockholder and from a business perspective I understand why they are doing it. But still frustrating as a customer.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

I get where your coming from. $1,800 is high IMO. Last year when I bought my Tesla Y it was less than $1,200.

The other problem is it's not included in the advertised price. When it shows up on the final bill along with a DOC fee os $225 it has a tendency to rub buyers the wrong way.

All extra charges should be up front and transparent.

With that said, destination is one of those charges that everyone complains about but cannot be reduced or eliminated (except across the board for everyone).

Unfortunately the only options are accept the fee or cancel the order.

 

[mrpl]

I get where your coming from. $1,800 is high IMO. Last year when I bought my Tesla Y it was less than $1,200.

The other problem is it's not included in the advertised price. When it shows up on the final bill along with a DOC fee os $225 it has a tendency to rub buyers the wrong way.

All extra charges should be up front and transparent.

With that said, destination is one of those charges that everyone complains about but cannot be reduced or eliminated (except across the board for everyone).

Unfortunately the only options are accept the fee or cancel the order.

Thanks 240. I understand what you are saying and appreciate the tone by which you say it. Because of my location, Rivian will not deliver to me. I would have to pick a destination further South, to satisfy their ridiculous delivery radius. Otherwise, i have no other option than to pick it up at Normal. My thought was an additional $1800 seems egregious, (standard or not). I guess I’ll pick a place further South to have it delivered if I have to pay the Dest fee.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Thanks 240. I understand what you are saying and appreciate the tone by which you say it. Because of my location, Rivian will not deliver to me. I would have to pick a destination further South, to satisfy their ridiculous delivery radius. Otherwise, i have no other option than to pick it up at Normal. My thought was an additional $1800 seems egregious, (standard or not). I guess I’ll pick a place further South to have it delivered if I have to pay the Dest fee.

Not that it's any consolation but I think Rivian is trying to reduce costs. They told me they are trying to avoid flat bedding vehicles for delivery now as it reduces their carbon emissions. I suspect it also has something to do with cost as well.

Rivian has some temporary non customer facing service centers and the only way they will allow vehicles in/out I'm told is a flat bed.

Strange thing is they will allow customers to come to the same place to take delivery.

In the end it's an extra $600 over what I paid on the Tesla and it's an awesome machine...so I chose to take it and enjoy the truck.

 

[E-lectric]

Thanks 240. I understand what you are saying and appreciate the tone by which you say it. Because of my location, Rivian will not deliver to me. I would have to pick a destination further South, to satisfy their ridiculous delivery radius. Otherwise, i have no other option than to pick it up at Normal. My thought was an additional $1800 seems egregious, (standard or not). I guess I’ll pick a place further South to have it delivered if I have to pay the Dest fee.

Picking it up in Normal gives you the opportunity to tour the factory. I would have loved to do that, would be worth the fee just to tour the place. I have had Museum delivery of a Corvette before where the factory is right across the street and like everyone has said in this post, I paid the same destination fee as everyone else in the US. Enjoy the experience of being right there where it was made!

 

[Feetdry]

My delivery will take a month to arrive at my home here in western WA. Mine was put on a train yesterday and will arrive in Seattle about 7/19/2023. Then I'm 130 miles north, so add that to the delivery time. I guess I'm getting my $1800 delivery fee used completely.

 

[Jiji]

Pick it up in Normal, you get a free factory tour (priceless if you are into that sort of thing).

There is also a checkout drive that can include the off-road track but it was closed when I picked mine up (windmill installation).

 

[moosetags]

We took Factory Delivery of our R1T on April 26th. Of course, we paid the $1800 destination fee. We were aware that all new vehicles purchased in the country come with destination charge. This charge is uniform to each manufacturer regardless of where the vehicle is delivered. This has been required by Federal law since 1958. If you want the car, you pay the fee.

Brian

 

[swflor]

I have bought 2 R1Ts. One pre-increase and 1 post increase. I live in NC and the closes SC is 2.5 hours away in Richmond. Both times, Rivian delivered to my driveway via flatbed.

Rivian also moves vehicles around all the time to consolidate and get them centrally located. The truck I got 2 weeks ago I got from the Shop. I asked the Guide the history of the truck because its a 2023 Launch Edition with a Feb 23 build date. She looked and say it had been delivered to Brooklyn NY and the vehicle was there waiting for the customer and their financing fell through. Rivian then moved the truck to Richmond as that is their main stocking location on the East Coast.

The moved the truck 3 times including delivering it to my door....never a question. They gave me the choice.....pickup in Richmond on a Saturday or we will deliver to you the next Tuesday. Made sense to wait 3 days.

Overall my experience has been great with them. Their customer service is really good and frankly I could not ask for anything better. I had some small punch items from my Dec 22 delivery. Nothing that made the truck unusable....they sent a flatbed to my door, picked it up, and returned it via flatbed 3 days later.....for PUNCH LIST items....nothing mechanical.

You asked about the fee....

There was a very well known dealer in Raleigh that got in a lot of trouble a few years ago. He was charging a $599 doc fee. This is the same situation....if you charge the fee, you have to charge everyone. They could have certainly lowered the vehicle price by $599 to offset it, but on ONE transaction, they did not list the Doc Fee. They made the dealer REFUND every customer who ever bought a car from him their Doc Fee.

 

[vordo]

If it helps: it is also to assuage the costs of prepping the car for delivery, which I would take to mean the final test drive and inspection BEFORE you get there - I'm assuming your vehicle should have the same attention as any other at any other CS, and yes its expensive but actually makes sense - maybe you don't want them to inspect? - just toss the keys your way and its up to you to let them know everything they missed.

 

[EBEG]

I might. At least they will deliver the vehicle to a nearby dealer. In this case, Rivian will not deliver it. I was simply looking to see if anyone else was in the same predicament.

I took factory delivery. I paid the destination fee. Unavoidable on a new vehicle in the US.

 

[ironpig]

Thanks 240. I understand what you are saying and appreciate the tone by which you say it. Because of my location, Rivian will not deliver to me. I would have to pick a destination further South, to satisfy their ridiculous delivery radius. Otherwise, i have no other option than to pick it up at Normal. My thought was an additional $1800 seems egregious, (standard or not). I guess I’ll pick a place further South to have it delivered if I have to pay the Dest fee.

Just google "destination fee" to understand what it is. If this is your first time buying a new car it may seem confusing, but it has nothing to do with what you may have confused with a "delivery fee", it's a mandatory fee on all new car sales.

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