RJ, Rivian Service is Broken

[SPITmadFIRE]

I think I'm just lucky I live near the plant.

You're lucky you live in an area with far fewer Rivians on the road, that's all it is.

Here in the Bay Area we have two service centers, soon to be three. My critical charging error was "escalated" from a 4 month wait for a MOBILE appointment, to a one month wait for a service center appointment.

I've had to ask multiple times whether my warranty will be honored or not if I schedule an appointment during the warranty period but the appointment isn't available until outside of the warranty period. It's bad.

The staff at the service centers seem excellent and incredibly helpful when you can actually talk to them. The phone support is very haphazard and unknowledgeable about even the most basic things.

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[Hereforthesnacks]

You're lucky you live in an area with far fewer Rivians on the road, that's all it is.

Here in the Bay Area we have two service centers, soon to be three. My critical charging error was "escalated" from a 4 month wait for a MOBILE appointment, to a one month wait for a service center appointment.

I've had to ask multiple times whether my warranty will be honored or not if I schedule an appointment during the warranty period but the appointment isn't available until outside of the warranty period. It's bad.

The staff at the service centers seem excellent and incredibly helpful when you can actually talk to them. The phone support is very haphazard and unknowledgeable about even the most basic things.

Yeah this is why folks at the Bay Area spaces tell people not to buy a rivian

 

[t1000mb]

I'll add to the list of service center failures.

- Late September schedule an appointment for recurring damp driver's side carpet and condensation on the underside of my floor mat. First appointment available is a mobile tech in mid-December
- A week or so out, they change my appointment to be at the service center
- Drop off the vehicle and they tell me it will be a 3 week turnaround. I'm shocked. They give me a ride to get a rental car, which had limited options, and then I had to go back to the service center to get everything out of the vehicle. This would've been nice to know at home so I could've done this there and not while in a rush at the service center
- Two weeks after dropping it off, I call the service center and ask for an update. Vehicle hasn't been worked on yet and they then tell me it will be 3-4 weeks. Now I'm starting to get very frustrated
- Today was the 4 week mark so not having heard anything, I call the service center first thing in the morning. They immediately patch me into a manager, which was a sign the call wasn't going to go well, and I'm informed it will be at least until the end of next week, bringing it to 6 weeks from the time I dropped off the vehicle and 4 months since I made the initial appointment. Having lost all patience, I expressed my displeasure to the service manager but they handled my response and frustration (understatement) very well. As a shareholder, I'm furious that Rivian unnecessarily spent who knows how much for a rental car for the last 28 days and is telling me it will be another two weeks. As a customer, I'm furious they keep moving the timeline and there has been zero proactive communication from them throughout.

I told the manager since I no longer trust them, I'm not waiting another 2 weeks and they need to return the car to me this week. The condensation issue can be fixed another time when they can guarantee an actual service date.

Rivian has built a mostly great car and is a company with great potential. What they have done and are trying to do is very hard. But how they have allowed these service center issues to pile up is inexcusable. Not just the long wait times for appointments but the time it takes to get fixed.

When I got it 13 months ago, I smartly decided to lease it as a test run. At this point, why would I stay with Rivian when my lease is up in 11 months? For a $95,000+ vehicle, I have a lot of other options. The overall quality of the vehicle is irrelevant if it cannot be reliably serviced.

The manager informed me they are going to open a new service center here this year but even those two won't be able to service existing vehicles because this is one of their most popular MSAs and regions. You bring in more 1st gen vehicles with the R2 and 3 and you're back to where we are today.

It's frustrating and disappointing they have risked their reputation by not staying ahead of this. How did someone not think to put systems in place, such as having customers drop vehicles off when they can actually be worked on, to alleviate any backups and avoid customers being so angry they would just rather get rid of the vehicle than deal with the service center unreliability? And the service center employees unfairly have to feel the brunt of the angry customers. I know I'm not the first one.

 

[SparkyR1t]

I'll add to the list of service center failures.

- Late September schedule an appointment for recurring damp driver's side carpet and condensation on the underside of my floor mat. First appointment available is a mobile tech in mid-December
- A week or so out, they change my appointment to be at the service center
- Drop off the vehicle and they tell me it will be a 3 week turnaround. I'm shocked. They give me a ride to get a rental car, which had limited options, and then I had to go back to the service center to get everything out of the vehicle. This would've been nice to know at home so I could've done this there and not while in a rush at the service center
- Two weeks after dropping it off, I call the service center and ask for an update. Vehicle hasn't been worked on yet and they then tell me it will be 3-4 weeks. Now I'm starting to get very frustrated
- Today was the 4 week mark so not having heard anything, I call the service center first thing in the morning. They immediately patch me into a manager, which was a sign the call wasn't going to go well, and I'm informed it will be at least until the end of next week, bringing it to 6 weeks from the time I dropped off the vehicle and 4 months since I made the initial appointment. Having lost all patience, I expressed my displeasure to the service manager but they handled my response and frustration (understatement) very well. As a shareholder, I'm furious that Rivian unnecessarily spent who knows how much for a rental car for the last 28 days and is telling me it will be another two weeks. As a customer, I'm furious they keep moving the timeline and there has been zero proactive communication from them throughout.

I told the manager since I no longer trust them, I'm not waiting another 2 weeks and they need to return the car to me this week. The condensation issue can be fixed another time when they can guarantee an actual service date.

Rivian has built a mostly great car and is a company with great potential. What they have done and are trying to do is very hard. But how they have allowed these service center issues to pile up is inexcusable. Not just the long wait times for appointments but the time it takes to get fixed.

When I got it 13 months ago, I smartly decided to lease it as a test run. At this point, why would I stay with Rivian when my lease is up in 11 months? For a $95,000+ vehicle, I have a lot of other options. The overall quality of the vehicle is irrelevant if it cannot be reliably serviced.

The manager informed me they are going to open a new service center here this year but even those two won't be able to service existing vehicles because this is one of their most popular MSAs and regions. You bring in more 1st gen vehicles with the R2 and 3 and you're back to where we are today.

It's frustrating and disappointing they have risked their reputation by not staying ahead of this. How did someone not think to put systems in place, such as having customers drop vehicles off when they can actually be worked on, to alleviate any backups and avoid customers being so angry they would just rather get rid of the vehicle than deal with the service center unreliability? And the service center employees unfairly have to feel the brunt of the angry customers. I know I'm not the first one.

Fully agree. Not sure how anyone would think that they are satisfying customers by taking away their vehicle, letting it sit out in the weather, occasionally allowing batteries to become depleted, and supplying in many cases an ICE rental just to be able to lock in an appointment and give the appearance they can service your vehicle in a reasonable time frame when it just sits. I believe setting up a diagnostic lane at the service center to determine what parts appear to be in failure mode and then releasing the vehicle back to the owner to the owner if still drivable with a second firmly scheduled date for the actual repair would be a better system.

 

[ElGuano]

I'm scheduled to drop my new trimax off at service this morning for some relatively minor delivery issues. You guys are giving some serious anxiety

 

[ShadowFx]

LOL. Sadly, they are not overstating the issues.

 

[Rivianero]

I totally agree that there are plenty of rough edges in the Rivian service world. Can't imagine how difficult it must to expand capacity, train and onboard staff, and refine solutions as a new company... all while striving towards profitability. It is definitely not efficient and not a great customer experience.

I do want to add, in the interest of balance, that I had a pretty great experience in the new San Antonio SC, with major hydraulic repair on my R1T taking only 10 days (including both Christmas and New Years). Had to wait on parts a bit and it took a while to fully validate the hydraulic systems post repair, but the team there was great from start to finish. They even offered to wash my car, but I told them I was just going to get it muddy anyways.

We did have a rough start with support via chat and phone setting up the appointment. When I contacted them mid December, they scheduled me for January 31 in Austin. I had to call out that the new SA SC was open and is a 5 minute drive from an apartment we keep in the city. That got me an appointment for the following week.

Reading some of the other posts here, perhaps I should consider myself lucky. I do. I also recognize that folks come here to vent and that the many good service experiences do not get equally represented here.

IMHO, it is important to recognize how hard it is to establish new service capabilities at scale. I do think it would be tons better for Rivian to fully embrace DIY, "right to repair", and 3rd party repair practices. However, since the vast majority of Rivians on the road are under warranty, there are influences that drive most work the the OEM service centers. Rivian is incentivized to pay their own SC staff rather than bleed warranty covered repair costs to independents. Understandable. Perhaps short-sighted. It does prevent service capacity from scaling fast enough to cover existing customer demand and it will probably continue to do so in the future.

Perhaps the partnerships with Discount Tire and the like (which I know is a whole other nightmare due to many shops not knowing how to use jack pucks) is the beginning of how Rivian can sub-out non-exotic service tasks to established provider networks. Would be awesome if they deepened the partnership with VW, for instance, to train up those mechanics.

TLDR (at the end of course): Everyone at Rivian is really trying to do their best. Vent if you must. Try to be kind and be part of the solution. It will likely result in faster and better service if Rivian isn't wasting scarce resources fielding complaints all day.

 

[Rivianero]

OK, at the risk of offending some here, I also have to remark that my visits to Rivian SCs have given me a glimpse at some fellow/sister Rivian owners. I saw a number of owners demanding what I would call "white glove" service experiences. I suppose that is a predictable attitude given the current price of the vehicles. It seems a bit out of touch, given they bought vehicles from a startup company.

Frankly, that's just not where I'm coming from. Outside of anything exotic, I'd rather have the tools and parts in hand to maintain and repair my own vehicle. I hate to be at the mercy of the manufacturer/dealer. It's more a matter of control and being able to fix things in the field than of expense. I was raised to do what I can by myself and not waste money unnecessarily. Have I fallen in with the wrong crowd?

From what I observe, it seems we have an intersection of owners who have come to Rivian from both the off-roading/adventure/DIY tribe and the luxury/elite set. (OK, it's probably more like a convergence of several streams, but I'm keeping it simple. Also grouping people by singular characteristics repudiates intersectionality. Again way over simplifying here in trying to make a point. Bear with me a minute.)

I don't know if Rivian can be all things to all people. That's usually not very easily achievable.

When the R2 comes out, it will bring a more price-conscious and value-driven population of Rivian adventurers who are neither elites nor serious off-roaders. I can only imagine there will be a cultural shift in the Rivian vehicle and service experience going forward.

My hope is that Rivian will treat each and every owner with efficiency, dignity and respect. I imagine that will be off-putting to those expecting elevated privileges.

 

[Dave Cundiff]

@ElGuano: Wishing you the best at your Service Center. Everything seems to depend on the local center.

Portland (Oregon) SC was so fast on my last visit, they had our truck finished before I was ready to leave!

In Portland, we couldn't be more pleased. Good leadership and good staffing seem to be the keys.

Very best wishes!

 

[tjrivian]

My hope is that Rivian will treat each and every owner with efficiency, dignity and respect. I imagine that will be off-putting to those expecting elevated privileges.

Elevated privileges? I don't think I'd describe owners having to wait two months for a service appointment for issues that WERE PRESENT AT DELIVERY, and then for the car to sit in the shop for 3 weeks before it even gets looked at, all while Rivian puts you in a POS Enterprise ICE rental as owners expecting "elevated privileges". For someone who leased this $100k vehicle for 24 months, a significant fraction of their lease duration is spent WITHOUT the vehicle they leased. That's unacceptable.

 

[Rivianero]

That was my concern about upsetting people. I'm sorry if it upset you. It was not directed at you.

What I observed at my SC were a some owners who were exasperated at having to wait at all, complained about the lack of the specific gear shop item they wanted in the SC that had just opened (couldn't possibly wait for it to be shipped to them for free), and complained about the unavailability of a Rivian loaner vehicle when free rental or ride share credits were offered for the 2 days their R1S would be in the shop for free warranty work.

I'm certainly not making any excuses for slow repairs, vehicle reliability issues, or competency.

My observation was only that there appear to be some R1 owners who expect a luxury brand experience and are pissed for not getting one.

 

[disneydad]

Speaking from 24+ years of professional automotive industry experience, there is no easy fix to this issue. Technician positions are quite a bit more difficult to fill than they were even 5 years ago. The applicant pool of "competent, trained" technicians is maybe 10% of what it was even 5 years ago. Many have retired and/or moved out of the industry altogether and on to greener pastures. Industry analysts cite (among other factors) a dramatically lower pay scale for certified technicians across the automotive service industry. The fix is to raise the pay scale and improve entry-level training or face the music. Bring back flag hours and get rid of salaried technicians.

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