Really long Service Issue

[Jomoflymo]

I wanted to post to talk about my service experience i hopes that others could maybe shed some light on this or maybe just even sympathize I suppose. We have 2023 R1T which we go in March of 2023. Love the truck but the passenger door was poorly aligned from new and so rubbed the paint off the door as it hit the quaterpanel. We made appt to take in and have it fixed along with a clonking from suspension in May 2023. They had truck for a couple of weeks and supposedly fixed both issues. However door was poorly painted and clicking from wheels came right back after half shafts were repaired. So I made an appt to take it back in, howver this was September 2023 and they couldn't get us in until December. I took the truck in December 7 and its still there. We have had a loaner from them this whole time and they just called yesterday to tell us that they needed to switch the loaner because a month is the longest they can let one out. So tomorrow they are delivering a different loaner.

The service center in Gaithersburg MD tells us that they have the engineering team looking at the suspension noise and wind noise from the poorly aligned door and they are replacing things (wont tell us what) but that they have not been able to make the noises disappear. Have others had this issue ? I am almost wondering at this point if we ask them to simply swap out the vehicle as they cannot fix the issue and of the 9 months I have owned the car it has been with them for almost 4 for these issues and other things like center consoles material tearing.

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[COdogman]

That sounds pretty frustrating. Sorry that has been your experience. I doubt Rivian will swap out your vehicle voluntarily at this point - it’s just been too long. If that is something you are thinking about, you should look into the lemon laws for your state. Most have specific requirements for the amount of time the vehicle has spent being repaired for the same issue.

 

[Jomoflymo]

Thanks I I will look into it. Honestly I just want my truck back

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Man I am sorry to read this. I would be fuming if this were my truck.

My experience with the folks at Gaithersburg has been good. They are very thorough.

With that said, you have a couple of options as I see it.

1) You can give them more time to see if they can resolve it. When they involve the regional engineer it can take longer (based on what I know of other brands). In Maryland it has to be out of service for 30 days before lemon law kicks in.

2) You can invoke lemon law and try to get them to buy it back. They will not replace it. I had to do that with Tesla and what I did... Not an attorney here... But I did double what the lemon law said I needed to do.

I took that car in six times before I gave up.

Rivian is a new brand and a lot of this stuff they are still trying to figure out. They did give you a loaner so if this were me I would give it some more time to see if they can fix it. It sounds like they are doing everything they can to figure it out for you this time.

 

[Jomoflymo]

I will agree that they have very nice the entire time but the amount of time it has spent there is insane

 

[Yossarian]

Very sorry that you need to cope with these issues. Rivian really should do better, and certainly some of what you're experiencing should have been addressed before the vehicle was delivered. In Rivian's defense, they are a new company, still figuring things out to some extent. These kinds of issues are not unknown at legacy automakers either. At least the SC personnel are sympathetic (often not the case at traditional dealerships) and Rivian is providing you a loaner.

Hopefully you get your R1T back soon, and in much better condition than when you dropped it off.

 

[Greg Chick]

To me the loaner is the factor that makes this tolerable. No, the loaner is not yours, but if it's a Rivian then think of it as free mileage on tires and battery etc!
I doubt anyone at the dealership has bad intentions, they want to get the vehicles in and out fast to meet the quotas they set for themselves.
The wind noise issue is an issue going back to the 50's when cars had "Wind wings" the triangle windows that were to let the cigarette smoke out. Those things "whistled dixie " Sory I sound old and suggest we are spoiled "these days" but there is a thing called Triage. I may be an easy pushover but I chose my troubles wisely. Back to the free tire wear and vehicle mileage...

 

[Jomoflymo]

I agree at it helps however. We tow a camper and you cannot tow with the loaner. The fact that they have had it for 5 weeks now over the school holidays meant that we had to cancel a lot of camping trips which is not great.

 

[KeithPleas]

I agree at it helps however. We tow a camper and you cannot tow with the loaner. The fact that they have had it for 5 weeks now over the school holidays meant that we had to cancel a lot of camping trips which is not great.

As someone who has had a loaner twice for multiple weeks, you also can't carry a pet (dog) in the loaner. Plus it doesn't connect to Alexa, it doesn't connect to the app (no pre-warming for example), and it doesn't work with PaaK. And - for my wife in particular - it doesn't have the running boards (I heard about this every time I had to pull her up into the vehicle...it also doesn't have a usable handle on the A-pillar but that's another rant).

I strongly prefer a Rivian loaner over getting an Enterprise vehicle - which I would have to drive 20 minutes each way to retrieve and drop off. We are fortunate that we have two other vehicles to use instead of dealing with a (no cost) rental.

 

[KootenayEV]

I agree at it helps however. We tow a camper and you cannot tow with the loaner. The fact that they have had it for 5 weeks now over the school holidays meant that we had to cancel a lot of camping trips which is not great.

Oh I didn’t know that! I’m currently in a loaner while my truck has a 12v gremlin found and removed. I’m unlikely to tow in the middle of winter here… but good to know for future.

 

[Yossarian]

As someone who has had a loaner twice for multiple weeks, you also can't carry a pet (dog) in the loaner.
. . .

Wait, what? You can't use the loaner to transport a pet? That's a pretty serious issue for folks like me with two dogs and only one vehicle. I don't yet have my R1S, but think that if it was down for repairs for a substantial period, I'd really have not choice but to violate that rule.

 

[KeithPleas]

Wait, what? You can't use the loaner to transport a pet? That's a pretty serious issue for folks like me with two dogs and only one vehicle. I don't yet have my R1S, but think that if it was down for repairs for a substantial period, I'd really have not choice but to violate that rule.

Correct - and you also can’t carry a dog in an Enterprise rental. You might be able to take a pet to the vet in an Emergency but if you’re thinking daily runs to the dog park you will need another solution.

 

[Jomoflymo]

Funny update. They still have the truck but have switched out the loaner and now I have this. Discontinued color and discontinued wheels. Maybe its a loaner because it was a combination most didn't want

 

[jjswan33]

Correct - and you also can’t carry a dog in an Enterprise rental. You might be able to take a pet to the vet in an Emergency but if you’re thinking daily runs to the dog park you will need another solution.

That is an interesting (and unfortunate) change in policy. Hauling a dog used to be fine, I asked specifically when I had a loaner. In fact that is why they gave me one instead of an Enterprise on a couple of occasions when I said I needed to transport my dog.

 

[Greg Chick]

How about transporting the dog in a kennel box? Some pets even like traveling that way.. They feel safer.

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