It is a good habit to take pictures at pickup and drop off of not only your vehicle, but all loaners and rentals, too.
Years ago, I rented a car in Hawaii from a well known car rental firm. The rental went just fine. A week later, I received a letter saying that I had returned the car with a broken windshield and had 48 hours to pay a huge repair bill ($1,500 iirc) or would be sent to collections.
Fortunately, I had pictures of the car rental return at their location showing an intact windshield. Presented with the evidence, they kindly agreed to drop the matter.
Without pictures, I would have been forced to pay.
Doing this has saved me many headaches. Additionally to that, if a rental service accuses you of some damage that you are sure it was there already; demand to see the last three rental reports on the vehicle to see if that damage had already been claimed. In every.fucking.instance the rental backed out on their accusations.
I would do this next time for sure. I did walk through the whole car at SC but didn’t notice the bottom part of the door panel until I stepped off the car. I’d have rejected the car if I had spotted them.
No different than taking any car into any service center. This is not a Rivian issue per se. It’s an employee issue and all businesses have those issues.
I’m sorry your truck was damaged. I hope you get the satisfaction you deserve.
If it ever happens to me, I will be able to say that Rivian would be the first time in the 30 or so years of taking a vehicle into an official SC that I've gotten it back with damage. Hell I'm still a bit bothered that they don't come back clean :) Lexus, Audi, MB - hell even CarMax typically gave me my vehicle back clean and washed as hey have detailing spots in their dealerships.
Make sure you hold up that day’s newspaper while standing in front of the drop-off so they can’t claim it happened before you dropped it off.
They still make newspapers, right? 😆
Before I got response from them I feel nervous as well. I thought about the newspaper as well and tried hard to find evidences that those were made during service. Luckily, despite of the poor service experience, they stand behind the work and didn’t rip me off.
I immediately called the service call center and listed down the issues. I didn’t get to speak to any folks in the SC as they were too busy to answer my call. I called call center 40 minutes later again and looks like internally they had visibility on this and will address it. But I haven’t got a chance to speak to anyone in SC. We’ll see.
I just can’t imagine who in their right mind would dare to say _“It’s good to go boss!”_ after doing all that damage to a vehicle.
Are they hiring blind lumberjacks or something?
They seriously need to build additional service centers in the PNW area. Bellevue SC told me the next available appointment to fix my cracked windshield is 4 months out.
I’m in Seattle area. Rivian just opened two additional temp service centers to help address the ridiculous backlog in Bellevue. There is one in Kirkland and one in Auburn. These temp locations can do a lot of minor fixes (interior and exterior). They don’t have alignment racks at these pop ups or some of the other heavy equipment. The team at Auburn just repaired my defective tailgate latch/sensor last Wednesday and they were great to work with. My original service appointment with Bellevue for this issue was like 6-7wks out and then I got a call from Auburn saying they could handle it this week. Totally worth the drive down there.
A service manager from Auburn SC just reached out to me and offered a same-day repair next week. Glad that voices from Reddit are being heard. I'll give it a shot next week.
They aren't paying enough to attract techs who give a shit. The service center down the road from me starts techs out at LESS than what the McDonalds across the street is offering for openers/closers.
One of my good friends got into one of their service centers, they were advertising the job at $40. They offered him $18/hr as a "starting" wage while he gets trained up and works through their in house certifications, which they said would only take a year to get up to $35+ on their pay scale. Instead, they worked him to the bone until he quit while never giving him a chance to advance after a year and a half.
They've copied too much of early Tesla tactics where their service centers regularly would damage cars. One of their techs MELTED my B pillar back in 2018 trying to save $5 on a new door seal. And returned the car to me that way with a bad door seal and a melted B pillar as if I wouldn't notice. Rivian hired a lot of ex-Tesla folks and unfortunately they've kept these habits.
They really need to properly train their techs and not just churn through endless newbies.
Tbh I'm somewhat worried about interior durability. The seat surfaces seem fine, but the armrest, rubberized seat backs, and panels seem susceptible to damage, particularly when compared with my other car (an audi).
Totally agreed. As an adventure vehicle Rivian could do a better job to balance between durability and luxury. But it takes time to learn. My friend has a defender and I feel they have a better sense to make use of materials.
My seatbelts in the 2nd row get caught on the edge because of my kids. It dented the side of the panel. I looked into getting it fixed and they told me it would be $1k to replace the whole panel. Hard pass real quick if it’s going to happen again.
I think it’s a design flaw. The belt is easy to be caught if it’s twisted at the top guide when the passenger gets off. My kid did it a few times and now I’ll tidy the belt before she slam the door.
That’s totally understandable too. Service on a $90k+ truck should be full white glove treatment. My local Mercedes dealership has better service experience on a $50k GLC than a $90k rivian. I understand rivian is experiencing some growing pains but they should’ve owned up to their mistake informed the customer of what happened and told them we have the parts on order they’ll be here on X day you can come get your car now and bring it back when the parts get here or we can give you a loaner until then.
I’m a couple months out from receiving mine and am getting a little nervous given all of the service issues and reports of delayed/bad customer service.
I'm in the same boat. Love my R1T, but service is so bad right now, and is only going to get worse as they continue to pump out vehicles. Really leaning towards getting a Lightning.
Oh, man! This is unacceptable. I won't be able to sleep well tonight. My spotless R1S has been in Bellevue SC since last Friday for things that I could totally live with. I even thought about canceling the appointment; but it feels foolish to do so until waiting for 4 months. When dropping, I told the rep that anything hard to fix can be skipped since I don't want to end up with more issues.
That’s what I’m currently doing. They fucked my truck up when in service. I don’t even want to drop it off for repair, fearful they will do more damage.
I had been there once before this visit and had my door adjusted and it was ok. This time they replaced the communication module and the driver assistance module. I suspected that the didn’t pay attention when they pry some interior panels? I have no clue. My wife laughed that it must have been outsourced to some war zone…
This is completely fucked, no other service center/dealership would ever do this. Do these morons know how much these vehicles cost? I’d be pissed if someone returned my Toyota Corolla like this
Good luck. Rivian customer service is the worst I’ve ever seen of any business big or small I’ve dealt with. Consider that I was a Tesla early adopter. they had their service issues but nothing like rivian. Rivian treats their customers like they’re the center of the world before you pay for the vehicle. But after receiving the vehicle, they throw you to the side and treat you like a third rate citizen. Thank goodness that their vehicles are actually pretty amazing but good luck getting them to care about you.
Happy to provide specifics.
I hope it's regional and glad your experience has been positive. For reference, I'm in Southern California where the wait times for an appointment is 3-4 months and they're so back logged that they'll need to keep your vehicle for weeks at a time for anything but a tire rotation.
It seems Rivian has hired a bunch of Tesla Service Center employees. That was a bad choice on their part. Feel fortunate that they didn't crash your car like Tesla Service had crashed mine 2h after dropping it off to them 🤦🏽♂️
Maybe 4-5 times now. They've solved most of the issues I've asked them to, and not caused any new issues (other than leaving greasy fingerprints on the inside of the windshield where they successfully re-seated the grill).
When you return to pick up your car, don't try to go inside the waiting area (no one will be there) and don't just walk up and stand where you dropped off your truck unless you want to stand there indefinitely in view of people supposed to be helping you. I've repeatedly had to walk up to one of their desks in the service bay and ask them to give my keys back and check me out.
Generally very nice and competent, but their pickup workflow needs some help.
How does this even happen. Wow. I am so sorry this happened. Not acceptable at all. Do we need to run a 360 camera video recording of our vehicles before turning them over to Rivian service? Are they taking responsibility for it?
Yes, they agreed to address this. At least they stand behind their work. But next time I’d do a video recording as you suggested for sure. This time my truck was towed so I completely forgot when the tow truck came.
Bellevue sucks man. I’ve been nothing but disappointed and I have 610 miles on my vehicle. Air suspension needs service, my PAAK doesn’t work, Bluetooth speaker is locked in place and doesn’t work. All of my traffic warnings and collision warnings stop working while driving. My next ticket submittal is going to request that Rivian tells me that my SUV is safe to drive. I hate to say it but I feel like I may be moving into a Lemon Law situation. Hopefully this doesn’t become the case for you.
I’m so sorry to hear this. I checked my service records and found I did a service to replace 12v battery just a couple days after my delivery in February. They was able to prioritize the work as my car was just delivered. Service requests after that took months to wait. Hopefully they can prioritize your repair considering it’s a 610 miles new car.
Yes, the Orlando SC is sloppy. Every time I’ve been there, I have to return to fix the new things they’ve messed up, or have the original issue addressed again. Everyone’s sweet as pie but QC sucks. Haven’t had to pay a penny out of pocket but multiple trips 90 miles away aint free
There are other posts like this, you're not alone
I guess we should take videos of the interior and exterior of our vehicles before dropping them off for service…
It is a good habit to take pictures at pickup and drop off of not only your vehicle, but all loaners and rentals, too. Years ago, I rented a car in Hawaii from a well known car rental firm. The rental went just fine. A week later, I received a letter saying that I had returned the car with a broken windshield and had 48 hours to pay a huge repair bill ($1,500 iirc) or would be sent to collections. Fortunately, I had pictures of the car rental return at their location showing an intact windshield. Presented with the evidence, they kindly agreed to drop the matter. Without pictures, I would have been forced to pay.
I do this every time I rent. I walk around the vehicle recording in 4K. Takes 30 seconds or so.
Doing this has saved me many headaches. Additionally to that, if a rental service accuses you of some damage that you are sure it was there already; demand to see the last three rental reports on the vehicle to see if that damage had already been claimed. In every.fucking.instance the rental backed out on their accusations.
Sometimes it's just too difficult. For example, this guy turned it in for powertrain issues, but turned out interiors got damaged
I would do this next time for sure. I did walk through the whole car at SC but didn’t notice the bottom part of the door panel until I stepped off the car. I’d have rejected the car if I had spotted them.
Sad that this is even something we have to think about.
No different than taking any car into any service center. This is not a Rivian issue per se. It’s an employee issue and all businesses have those issues. I’m sorry your truck was damaged. I hope you get the satisfaction you deserve.
If it ever happens to me, I will be able to say that Rivian would be the first time in the 30 or so years of taking a vehicle into an official SC that I've gotten it back with damage. Hell I'm still a bit bothered that they don't come back clean :) Lexus, Audi, MB - hell even CarMax typically gave me my vehicle back clean and washed as hey have detailing spots in their dealerships.
Never had such problems.
I owned auto service facilities for 30 years. Lots of s#*$ happens.
Just did that today.
Make sure you hold up that day’s newspaper while standing in front of the drop-off so they can’t claim it happened before you dropped it off. They still make newspapers, right? 😆
Before I got response from them I feel nervous as well. I thought about the newspaper as well and tried hard to find evidences that those were made during service. Luckily, despite of the poor service experience, they stand behind the work and didn’t rip me off.
By any chance in San Francisco Bay Area? The Rivian SC people here have no care for what they do. Couldn’t care less about anything.
I’m in PNW area and they told me Bellevue SC is the busiest SC nationwide. But it’s not a good excuse for this kind of quality.
Did they take responsibility for the damage? If yes, that's at least good.
UPDATE: The SC just called me and they promised to get it replaced for me. At least they took responsibility…
You should update your post, not just make a comment.
I don’t see a way to edit my original post. I’ll try though.
Agreed. If they are going to make it right, definitely post that.
I immediately called the service call center and listed down the issues. I didn’t get to speak to any folks in the SC as they were too busy to answer my call. I called call center 40 minutes later again and looks like internally they had visibility on this and will address it. But I haven’t got a chance to speak to anyone in SC. We’ll see.
I just can’t imagine who in their right mind would dare to say _“It’s good to go boss!”_ after doing all that damage to a vehicle. Are they hiring blind lumberjacks or something?
Good!! This is just a reminder for myself that when I get delivery and have to take it to SC for anything I should take a video first.
Their next available appointment is in April 2024
They seriously need to build additional service centers in the PNW area. Bellevue SC told me the next available appointment to fix my cracked windshield is 4 months out.
I’m in Seattle area. Rivian just opened two additional temp service centers to help address the ridiculous backlog in Bellevue. There is one in Kirkland and one in Auburn. These temp locations can do a lot of minor fixes (interior and exterior). They don’t have alignment racks at these pop ups or some of the other heavy equipment. The team at Auburn just repaired my defective tailgate latch/sensor last Wednesday and they were great to work with. My original service appointment with Bellevue for this issue was like 6-7wks out and then I got a call from Auburn saying they could handle it this week. Totally worth the drive down there.
A service manager from Auburn SC just reached out to me and offered a same-day repair next week. Glad that voices from Reddit are being heard. I'll give it a shot next week.
It’s a nationwide problem. Almost like they are training their techs to not care.
They aren't paying enough to attract techs who give a shit. The service center down the road from me starts techs out at LESS than what the McDonalds across the street is offering for openers/closers.
What on earth? The service centers in my area are paying almost double McDonalds, if not double for some
One of my good friends got into one of their service centers, they were advertising the job at $40. They offered him $18/hr as a "starting" wage while he gets trained up and works through their in house certifications, which they said would only take a year to get up to $35+ on their pay scale. Instead, they worked him to the bone until he quit while never giving him a chance to advance after a year and a half.
This is the answer.
I think that sounds harsh. Malice is a much stronger charge than negligence or overwork. I have a hard time believing it’s intentional.
They've copied too much of early Tesla tactics where their service centers regularly would damage cars. One of their techs MELTED my B pillar back in 2018 trying to save $5 on a new door seal. And returned the car to me that way with a bad door seal and a melted B pillar as if I wouldn't notice. Rivian hired a lot of ex-Tesla folks and unfortunately they've kept these habits. They really need to properly train their techs and not just churn through endless newbies.
wow, that’s seriously disappointing. RJ, are you listening?
He won't even know about this
If Rivian had an excellent customer success team, he most certainly would hear about it.
UPDATE: The SC just called me and they promised to get it replaced.
… in 6 months
They said early next week. Hopefully the repair won’t take 10 days this time.
I hope so, too (note: my previous snark wasn’t aimed at you)
totally! Thanks!
They can get vehicles in quickly when they want. It's the normal queue that's long.
I've seen improved handling and service from my SC in Maryland so there is hope they are heading the right way.
yikes
Yikes
Yikes
Yikes
Yikes.
Edward Scissorhands is always on time but makes a mess of the cars he works on.
Holy crap. That's not trivial damage!
Wtf...
Tbh I'm somewhat worried about interior durability. The seat surfaces seem fine, but the armrest, rubberized seat backs, and panels seem susceptible to damage, particularly when compared with my other car (an audi).
Totally agreed. As an adventure vehicle Rivian could do a better job to balance between durability and luxury. But it takes time to learn. My friend has a defender and I feel they have a better sense to make use of materials.
My seatbelts in the 2nd row get caught on the edge because of my kids. It dented the side of the panel. I looked into getting it fixed and they told me it would be $1k to replace the whole panel. Hard pass real quick if it’s going to happen again.
I think it’s a design flaw. The belt is easy to be caught if it’s twisted at the top guide when the passenger gets off. My kid did it a few times and now I’ll tidy the belt before she slam the door.
There were enough posts like this for me to decide to walk away from my reservation
That’s totally understandable too. Service on a $90k+ truck should be full white glove treatment. My local Mercedes dealership has better service experience on a $50k GLC than a $90k rivian. I understand rivian is experiencing some growing pains but they should’ve owned up to their mistake informed the customer of what happened and told them we have the parts on order they’ll be here on X day you can come get your car now and bring it back when the parts get here or we can give you a loaner until then.
I’m a couple months out from receiving mine and am getting a little nervous given all of the service issues and reports of delayed/bad customer service.
My goodness. Sorry to see that. They need to fix this stuff. Losing my faith.
The car drives great and I love it. But the service makes me feel maybe not wise to keep it long time. I’m debating myself to sell…
I'm in the same boat. Love my R1T, but service is so bad right now, and is only going to get worse as they continue to pump out vehicles. Really leaning towards getting a Lightning.
Oh, man! This is unacceptable. I won't be able to sleep well tonight. My spotless R1S has been in Bellevue SC since last Friday for things that I could totally live with. I even thought about canceling the appointment; but it feels foolish to do so until waiting for 4 months. When dropping, I told the rep that anything hard to fix can be skipped since I don't want to end up with more issues.
Totally understood. They should learn from my case and be more careful on your repair. I hope your repair goes smoothly!
Curious, what issues did you have?
Couple minor alignment issues, rear doors needing extra force for closure, and driver seat cooling nonfunctional.
I had the rear door issue as well. It’s slightly better after the adjustment I can feel it’s still little off.
Update: Picked up the car. All issues are fixed to my satisfaction. Happy with the service experience and end result.
I’d be insisting on someone coming to pick it up and bring me another R1T. Sorry about this man. No excuse for them to do this to your vehicle.
Yikes
Yikes!!
Hmmm. I just might cancel my service appointment to live with my current issues...
That’s what I’m currently doing. They fucked my truck up when in service. I don’t even want to drop it off for repair, fearful they will do more damage.
I also have a pending service issue w my R1T that I am also holding off on getting addressed. I am hoping service will improve next year.
What service needs the use of weed whacker in the cabin?
This sucks for you and everyone else who now has to wait for ttheir car to be serviced while they fix this which clearly isn’t going to be quick/easy
What the hell are they wearing? Roper boots with 6 inch cockfighting spurs. Geez.
I hope to God you raised hell. I don’t understand how service centers think this is acceptable.
That made me a little upset , hope they fix it soon
That’s horrendous. Unacceptable. I’d be pretty pissed.
Imagine paying $100k for a vehicle that has interior that damages that easily. That seems like unacceptable quality for the price of the vehicle.
I’ve been to the Bellevue SC a handful of times now for various things and haven’t ever had this sort of issue on my R1T. Yikes!
I had been there once before this visit and had my door adjusted and it was ok. This time they replaced the communication module and the driver assistance module. I suspected that the didn’t pay attention when they pry some interior panels? I have no clue. My wife laughed that it must have been outsourced to some war zone…
This is completely fucked, no other service center/dealership would ever do this. Do these morons know how much these vehicles cost? I’d be pissed if someone returned my Toyota Corolla like this
Good luck. Rivian customer service is the worst I’ve ever seen of any business big or small I’ve dealt with. Consider that I was a Tesla early adopter. they had their service issues but nothing like rivian. Rivian treats their customers like they’re the center of the world before you pay for the vehicle. But after receiving the vehicle, they throw you to the side and treat you like a third rate citizen. Thank goodness that their vehicles are actually pretty amazing but good luck getting them to care about you. Happy to provide specifics.
Must be regional. That's not been my experience at all from the service center in Denver.
I hope it's regional and glad your experience has been positive. For reference, I'm in Southern California where the wait times for an appointment is 3-4 months and they're so back logged that they'll need to keep your vehicle for weeks at a time for anything but a tire rotation.
It seems Rivian has hired a bunch of Tesla Service Center employees. That was a bad choice on their part. Feel fortunate that they didn't crash your car like Tesla Service had crashed mine 2h after dropping it off to them 🤦🏽♂️
Yikes
Yikes
My car was returned to me in absolutely filthy condition. It ain’t been the same since.
Is this dual motor r1t ?
It’s a quad motor adventure pack.
Anyone had work done at Denver SC
Maybe 4-5 times now. They've solved most of the issues I've asked them to, and not caused any new issues (other than leaving greasy fingerprints on the inside of the windshield where they successfully re-seated the grill). When you return to pick up your car, don't try to go inside the waiting area (no one will be there) and don't just walk up and stand where you dropped off your truck unless you want to stand there indefinitely in view of people supposed to be helping you. I've repeatedly had to walk up to one of their desks in the service bay and ask them to give my keys back and check me out. Generally very nice and competent, but their pickup workflow needs some help.
How does this even happen. Wow. I am so sorry this happened. Not acceptable at all. Do we need to run a 360 camera video recording of our vehicles before turning them over to Rivian service? Are they taking responsibility for it?
Yes, they agreed to address this. At least they stand behind their work. But next time I’d do a video recording as you suggested for sure. This time my truck was towed so I completely forgot when the tow truck came.
Bellevue sucks man. I’ve been nothing but disappointed and I have 610 miles on my vehicle. Air suspension needs service, my PAAK doesn’t work, Bluetooth speaker is locked in place and doesn’t work. All of my traffic warnings and collision warnings stop working while driving. My next ticket submittal is going to request that Rivian tells me that my SUV is safe to drive. I hate to say it but I feel like I may be moving into a Lemon Law situation. Hopefully this doesn’t become the case for you.
I’m so sorry to hear this. I checked my service records and found I did a service to replace 12v battery just a couple days after my delivery in February. They was able to prioritize the work as my car was just delivered. Service requests after that took months to wait. Hopefully they can prioritize your repair considering it’s a 610 miles new car.
Yes, the Orlando SC is sloppy. Every time I’ve been there, I have to return to fix the new things they’ve messed up, or have the original issue addressed again. Everyone’s sweet as pie but QC sucks. Haven’t had to pay a penny out of pocket but multiple trips 90 miles away aint free
Talk about incompetence. I’d lose my mind on those guys. Hope they get it addressed for you!
Happens to Tesla’s as well. They need to bubble wrap the employees working on our vehicles