Rivian deposit refund refusal

[billycox]

I put a deposit on an R1S in 2021. for quite a while my delivery window showed an estimate of 4th quarter 2023. In July 2023 my delivery estimate disappeared from my order. On 8/24/23 I received an email with a heading: "Action required: Please confirm your order". I assumed (wrongly) that my delivery was drawing near so I confirmed the order. The new delivery estimate did not appear until 11/30/23. It was for the 4th quarter of 2024! You can imagine my disappointment. I assume the delay was due to geographic undesirability ( I live in Bishop,CA). I gave up on the Rivian dream and bought a PHEV from the only car dealer in town. When I tried to get my deposit refunded, they refused saying I had confirmed my order. This seems extremely unfair as my delivery was well over a year (and who knows how much longer) away. This does not seem right and gives Rivian a poorer image than I once thought they deserved. I have sent an email similar to this post to Rivian and we will see what happens.

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[Dark-Fx]

Gotta read the fine print next time.

 

[cjbot3000]

Yeah that really sucks but you gotta read the email before getting excited and click happy. Not sure that Rivian gets blame here but I feel your pain

Big ol' d'oh moment

Hopefully there's a way they can back you out of it for the sake of (potential) customer satisfaction

 

[lefkonj]

Stinks but it is well documented that once you confirm you can't get a refund on the deposit.

 

[Nacho Rivian]

Yeah... sorry for your loss but we cannot just walk away from legal obligations whenever we want.

 

[beawareindn]

Wow tough crowd... I think its unfair that they asked the op to confirm an order 1 year out... If they offered a vehicle in the next 1-2 months. That would be reasonable, but, 1 year out. No one even knows if they would even offer the same vehicles a year out.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Wow tough crowd... I think its unfair that they asked the op to confirm an order 1 year out... If they offered a vehicle in the next 1-2 months. That would be reasonable, but, 1 year out. No one even knows if they would even offer the same vehicles a year out.

It's unfortunate that Rivian is operating like a publicly traded company in some ways.

I expect the OP also got the email explaining why they keep getting delayed and that they could ask for access to the R1 shop to get a vehicle sooner, just that they are gonna kind of be on their own for getting the vehicle in if they have warranty issues that aren't drivability related.

 

[SciGuy]

I remember seeing the message repeatedly about how confirming my order means the deposit is non-refundable. They make no promises on delivery date unfortunately. I’m sorry to hear about your experience though.

 

[Socalx]

Rivian can’t give you the money back, They gave you the option of making the agreement binding so you could get the 7500 tax credit to satisfy irs rules. You could of decided at that point to not make the agreement binding and if you did you would still get 900 back.

 

[mkennedy1996]

Rivian can’t give you the money back, They gave you the option of making the agreement binding so you could get the 7500 tax credit to satisfy irs rules. You could of decided at that point to not make the agreement binding and if you did you would still get 900 back.

Did he do the binding agreement (different than order confirmation)? But, even if he did, I believe only $100 becomes non-refundable.

Rivian, if you are listening, asking for an order confirmation and only after they confirm, telling them it will be over a year to get the vehicle is very Bait and Switch. Fine print or not, this is swarmy!

 

[ndmiller]

Keep pushing, you'll get your money back, it will just take some effort on your part. You live in CA and laws definitely benefit consumers.

When I cancelled my XM subscription I just mentioned I was calling from CA and they said thank you it's cancelled. Otherwise it's a 30 minute sales speech.

 

[Jumacao]

I ran into the same issue, but instead of a severely delayed delivery date, Rivian decided to drop some options from my pre-order AFTER I confirmed it. The first person I spoke with also told me that I couldn't get a refund. However, I also wrote an email explaining the situation, it got escalated, then I got my money back.

You may still get a refund. I think the deciding factor in my case was that Rivian decided to change my options after I configured it, which is kind of like changing your delivery date after you confirmed it. A bit of a stretch, but not a huge leap of an analogy to make.

 

[SANZC02]

I’d be surprised if they do not reverse the decision, if I was Rivian I would prefer selling the vehicle at current pricing than keeping 1k of a price protected delivery.

If they won’t refund the money don’t cancel, who knows what will happen during 2024, you might be back in the market by then with a great price.

 

[bummin]

I would see if they will keep your order in play as you confirmed. You would get updated version of vehicle with many enhancements for preorder pricing. Would be worth asking, may not be as bad as it seems

 

[CrazyOne]

Confirming order can incur some costs for Rivian, like delivering it to the SC. Let's ignore the fact that they may be able to sell to so eone in same SC. In this case it is fair for Rivian to not refund the $1000. Refusing to refund a delivery that is 1 year out is soo Elon/Slimy dealer, if that really happened. I don't believe things I read on internet easily.

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