Customer Service letter on price rollbacks

[nc10]

I strongly support the idea of a cut off date for changes *after* were told this is your last change. Or perhaps you get one last change, but can use it any time you want?

I agree. I've not seen a vehicle in person, have not seen any indication there will be drive events for someone in the south. I still waver on interior color and wheel choice. Holding off on more changes on the chance of seeing one in person, talking to the "guide" we were promised, and worried I might delay my delivery slot. So yeah, I'd like a chance to finalize my choices taking advantage of drive events, Guide discussions that Rivian has been bragging to us about.

I"m pretty sympathetic about the supply costs, but I'd have expected some warning before price increases

I found the letter had a bit of a threatening tone.... Taking several weeks to update the configurator, " honor(ing) the prices you were given for the options you previously chose.) etc with no acknowledgement of the expectations Rivian has set for us, fine print aside.

The letter was signed by Tony Caravano, Head of Rivian Customer Engagement. Would be interesting to talk to him sometime about customer engagement.

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[Joints4Sale]

I hear everyone’s concern about this letter(which I didn’t get). Fortunately for me, I had my configuration to what I wanted and wasn’t going to change anything since my delivery window is/was March/April. I’m hoping for/expecting Guide contact s00n.

My suggestion is to write an e-mail to CS about your concerns(I think the two week window sounds like a fair solution). In addition to venting here.

It seems that Rivian does listen to what we have to say, if enough of us reach out to them.

 

[AdamsFan1983]

Unpopular opinion. I actually think this makes sense. I’ve always said people should just build the truck they want and leave it alone;

allowing people to make changes at this point allows people to take advantage of Rivians concessions now that we know where the biggest cost drivers are.
I could see allowing people to change their exterior color

 

[crashmtb]

Unpopular opinion. I actually think this makes sense. I’ve always said people should just build the truck they want and leave it alone;

allowing people to make changes at this point allows people to take advantage of Rivians concessions now that we know where the biggest cost drivers are.
I could see allowing people to change their exterior color

I’d agree, if the deposit was on a sold order as is typical when ordering a car/truck. But a rivian preorder deposit of course is only for a chance to order. So why not be able to change configuration details a million times until they actually convert to an order?

 

[Bobthebuilder352]

The more fair thing to do would have been to say you have 48 hours to settle on config to keep old prices. Prior to price jump it was encouraged to have fun and tweak configs.

 

[nc10]

Unpopular opinion. I actually think this makes sense. I’ve always said people should just build the truck they want and leave it alone;

I would generally agree for a typical purchase where we could read real "user" reviews, get Consumer Reports take, etc. But we don't really have the information available that you'd normally have for a major ($80K!) purchase. For me, the lack of hard information available on wheels and tire size, seeing interior and exterior colors, leads to some real doubts about making the right tradeoffs. And none of the "features" are screaming values at even the lower price, I don't feel like I need to "jump" on the $10K max pack now that its going up a lot in price (not that its available for a LE in any case). I'd really like to see real data on the range and life of AT tires in conserve and all wheel mode, seeing how they look in person, similar for 21" wheels, etc. Seems a completely reasonable expectation for a $80k purchase.

 

[Blueassassin]

I find it funny that the price increases all happened in like a day but the roll back will take several weeks. I'm honestly still on the fence about getting the TRX instead.

 

[Rivian_Hugh_III]

I found the letter had a bit of a threatening tone.... Taking several weeks to update the configurator, " honor(ing) the prices you were given for the options you previously chose.) etc with no acknowledgement of the expectations Rivian has set for us, fine print aside.

The letter was signed by Tony Caravano, Head of Rivian Customer Engagement. Would be interesting to talk to him sometime about customer engagement.

I agree the email had a threatening, disconcerting feel. As though the undercurrent was, “RJ promised the store and that’s not happening so suck it up because we’re still going to shake money out of your pockets."

If the plan was to roll back the prices but make changes at the new prices, RJ’s letter should have said or implied that.

This feels like another example of "Ready, Fire, Aim."

Isn’t the goal of Communication clarity and improving confidence? Every time I hear from Rivian I’m left more confused. And now I’m beginning to ask myself after every missive, "What’s not being said, and how might they use that to get more out of me?"

 

[AdamsFan1983]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there isn’t an argument against it, but we all complained about the unexplained email and the lack of context surround the price increase to begin with; this pricing policy just makes a lot more sense to me.

Frankly, it probably would make the most sense for them to publicly say that you can’t (just to discourage the abuse) but give css the power to override if you are “finalizing” your config and understand that any further changes will revert to new pricing.

 

[Rivian_Hugh_III]

Unpopular opinion. I actually think this makes sense. I’ve always said people should just build the truck they want and leave it alone;

allowing people to make changes at this point allows people to take advantage of Rivians concessions now that we know where the biggest cost drivers are.
I could see allowing people to change their exterior color

How could we know what we want if we’ve never seen an R1 in person? I’m not accustomed to spending $80K on something I’ve only seen in pictures.

 

[AdamsFan1983]

How do you know what you want if you’ve never seen one of these in person? I’m not accustomed to dropping $80K on things I’ve only seen in pictures.

I’m a simple man… I never saw a pair of boobs as a 14 year old, but somehow, I still knew what I wanted...

 

[Rivian_Hugh_III]

Here’s the email we needed to hear at the outset…

Thank you for your commitment to Rivian and our shared mission to keep the world adventurous for ever. Because you matter to us, we’re writing today to give you a heads up. In two weeks our prices will increase due to factors related to supply chain and inflation. Please take the next two weeks to consider your configuration and lock in your selections. After March 10 your then-current configuration will remain at the same price, but future changes will happen at the new prices. This includes everything, including models, packages, paint, wheels and accessories. We’re excited to continue this journey with you, yada yada yada.

Instead we’ve gotten three emails each of which have had their own special level of suckage.

 

[RoadRunner]

Fully agree, some warning would have been nice if they wanted us to finalized the config on a configurator that THEY ENCOURAGED US TO PLAY AROUND WITH, with options that most of us have never seen in person and there is very limited info on. Not to mention the options you choose may drastically change delivery date.

They were obviously planning this price increase for a while, and could have easily told us that prices were going up, you have 2 days/1 week/2 weeks etc to lock in what you want at the old prices - and even said you need to order/commit at that point. Instead, they chose to spring a surprise price hike on us. Then were forced to backtrack, now they are screwing up the backtrack and pissing off a lot of people who were willing to forgive them after RJ's email.

Not a good look from the customer engagement officer.

 

[Autolycus]

In case Rivian is listening to this thread, I think the fair compromise is this:

1) Allow pre-March 1 reservation holders to make a single change to the configuration of the following options and apply the pre-March 1 prices to entire cost of the vehicle itself, as it would have been priced if you made the change on the website on February 28:

• Exterior color
• Interior color
• Wheel choice
• Off-road package
• Maybe Adventure vs. Explore -- I can see a better argument for not allowing this to change than the others, but I also think it's more fair to allow this change, since most people haven't seen a Rivian in person yet.
• Maybe Max pack -- You don't really need to see a large battery pack to decide on that, but the estimated delivery dates did change somewhat recently on that, so I would recommend that they allow it as part of the 1-time change, but perhaps put a short deadline on it.

2) That one-time change should be allowed to happen at some point after there is widespread opportunity to see at least in samples of these options in person

3) I do not think the change necessarily needs to be available through the online configurator. I think it's reasonable to handle this as a manual process done by the Guide at the final stages of the order process. If they need a decision locked in sooner than that for any supply or production reasons, then give us all a deadline and let it be done by CS reps by phone or chat.

4) I think it's fair to charge the new prices for accessories, including even the camp kitchen, spare tire, and home charger.

5) I want to say that people should be allowed to change the model from R1T to R1S or vice versa just one time, but I can understand why that's a potentially much bigger ask. So... I think Rivian wouldn't be completely unreasonable if it said you can make the change, but you'll pay the higher price.

Edit: changed the tone of #5 ever so slightly. Also added Max battery pack to the list as a big maybe.

 

[Sheldor]

In case Rivian is listening to this thread, I think the fair compromise is this:

1) Allow pre-March 1 reservation holders to make a single change to the configuration of the following options and apply the pre-March 1 prices to entire cost of the vehicle itself, as it would have been priced if you made the change on the website on February 28:

• Exterior color
• Interior color
• Wheel choice
• Off-road package
• Maybe Adventure vs. Explore -- I can see a better argument for not allowing this to change than the others, but I also think it's more fair to allow this change, since most people haven't seen a Rivian in person yet.

2) That one-time change should be allowed to happen at some point after there is widespread opportunity to see at least in samples of these options in person

3) I do not think the change necessarily needs to be available through the online configurator. I think it's reasonable to handle this as a manual process done by the Guide at the final stages of the order process. If they need a decision locked in sooner than that for any supply or production reasons, then give us all a deadline and let it be done by CS reps by phone or chat.

4) I think it's fair to charge the new prices for accessories, including even the camp kitchen, spare tire, and home charger.

5) I want to say that people should be allowed to change the model from R1T to R1S or vice versa just one time, but I can understand why that's a potentially much bigger ask. So... I think Rivian wouldn't be completely unreasonable if it said you can make the change, but you'll pay the higher price.

Edit: changed the tone of #5 ever so slightly.

I think battery pack size as well. For those of us with max pack who were considering downgrading, it makes no sense to be locked into the max pack. In fact, previously they were calling people asking them to downgrade to take earlier delivery!

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