[UPDATES IN NEW THREAD] Tow to Rivian Service Centers is now a Charged Fee (as of 10/6/22) ?

[R1Tom]

Or right side sag. Or pulls right. Or noisy front ends. These repetitive issues need to be solved at factory, and so many costs would be eliminated.

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[Khaneric]

My ticket 54### has 6 things to get fixed on it. One ticket number.

I have 8 things on my current ticket at the SC.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

I called Rivian service, this afternoon, to check on my ticket status. I have tickets that are 2.5 months old and still waiting scheduling. They confirmed I would either need to bring them the vehicle, or pay for transport. I pointed out that I've been waiting on THEM for multiple months. They said they'd escalate the issue up but couldn't promise anything.

I am not happy. Things are only going to get worse.

For context, you have tickets that are 2.5 months old, but you are currently driving the vehicle, correct? Had you had a drive unit fail, I could see them dealing with that, not that I'm belittling your issues, just saying it didn't warrant immediate attention apparently, so was deemed minor until a part/time was available.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

For context, you have tickets that are 2.5 months old, but you are currently driving the vehicle, correct? Had you had a drive unit fail, I could see them dealing with that, not that I'm belittling your issues, just saying it didn't warrant immediate attention apparently, so was deemed minor until a part/time was available.

Okay, so you think it's minor... Over a dozen "minor" things starts to not feel too minor, to me.... But whatever, let's say they're minor... That means I should pay hundreds or even a thousand or more dollars so Rivian can fix their mistakes? I do not agree.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Okay, so you think it's minor... Over a dozen "minor" things starts to not feel too minor, to me.... But whatever, let's say they're minor... That means I should pay hundreds or even a thousand or more dollars so Rivian can fix their mistakes? I do not agree.

As I said, it wasn't meant to belittle your issues, I was highlighting the vehicle is drivable. A dozen issues that do not affect your ability to drive it to a service center.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

As I said, it wasn't meant to belittle your issues, I was highlighting the vehicle is drivable. A dozen issues that do not affect your ability to drive it to a service center.

So you think it's reasonable that my wife and I have to both take two days off work and drive 14.5 hours with a vehicle that pulls hard to the right?

But it's technically "drive-able" right? Just gotta trash those tires and get that left arm nice and swole.

And of course it doesn't matter that I've already driven it to the SC once before for this same issue... And it should totally fall on me to drive it back a second time because Rivian failed to fix the issue. Totally minor. Totally falls to me.

 

[Engi_Nerd]

IMO, no one should be towed anywhere on the company's dime unless the vehicle is undrivable. Towing vehicles to and from customers for alignment, cosmetic issues, or secondary functions was a nice idea, but not exactly scalable at the current rate of defects. Nor is it particularly good business when you're already losing money on every truck you sell.

I view the additional consumer-side friction as a good and necessary thing to help the company survive. People will more closely inspect vehicles knowing it will cost time or money to get it fixed, which will hopefully drive Rivian to reduce defects. And folks who live far from service centers (like myself) will have to ask themselves if they're willing to purchase an unproven vehicle that requires 4+ hours each way to get serviced. Expecting them to tow this distance is absurd.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Expecting them to tow this distance is absurd.

Then they shouldn't have told us they would.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

To be brutally honest I don't recommend the R1T/R1S at this time to anyone who is more than 100 miles or so to a SC.

It will remain that way until Rivian can reach the point where 95% (approx) of the vehicles sold don't require multiple SC visit within the first year of ownership.

The SC near me is so backed up that I'm still still waiting to see when my service appointment will be for the latest issue. It doesn't require a tow as a I can just clackidy clack my way to the SC.

 

[ohseedee]

I was talking about the same thing here where I thought it would help Rivian to ask remote people which they prefer: faster delivery or better service? https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/where-the-hell-is-my-r1t.8611/post-211973

You forgot the probably more common 3rd option "accept faster delivery with poor service, then complain to CS for better service." It's better for Rivian to just make the call and not do deliveries to those a couple hours away from service centers.

I happened to be in LA, which as a service center (painfully location with traffic however), but I couldn't see taking delivery if I was a couple hours away or more.

 

[jjswan33]

To be brutally honest I don't recommend the R1T/R1S at this time to anyone who is more than 100 miles or so to a SC.

It will remain that way until Rivian can reach the point where 95% (approx) of the vehicles sold don't require multiple SC visit within the first year of ownership.

The SC near me is so backed up that I'm still still waiting to see when my service appointment will be for the latest issue. It doesn't require a tow as a I can just clackidy clack my way to the SC.

I fully agree with this. Even before this ’new’ policy it was a PIA having to deal with towing from Portland to Bellevue multiple times and I didn’t have to pay.

I had the impression when I bought the Rivian would be able to service my truck in Portland but the SC here apparently isn’t able to do much

 

[atebit]

This is tremendously disappointing.

My R1T has a misinstalled panel between the windshield and glass roof that is causing loads of wind noise. At the rate posted in the first post, it would cost me NEARLY $1,800 to get it towed in to be fixed. Rivian can't even open a service center in PA.

I've already received the $0 estimate as it was setup last week, but this makes me worry about the tow back.

This is fucking ridiculous.

They may not be able to open a sales center, but are we sure that they couldn’t open a dedicated (at least for now) SC?

 

[s4wrxttcs]

This is disconcerting news for anyone who doesn't live within an hour of a service center. I don't have proof, but I have definitely been told and seen something along the lines of "if something goes wrong, we'll either fix it with mobile service, or tow your vehicle to the service center and back for you".

I'm currently waiting on a callback from service for an issue I've had since last week. Actually, there's several issues, but the one last week is the first serious one, which is my communications module (GPS, Cellular, & WiFI) is dead. I also cannot reboot the vehicle (and they won't/can't walk me through a 12V disconnect, either). The other ones are the well-known u-joint squeak, and a minor but annoying rattle in the driver's door or B pillar.

I held off getting service scheduled last week because my other vehicle needed some work, and I wanted to make sure I had one fully functional vehicle before sending the truck off, because my nearest service center is the factory, where I picked the truck up. Which is 300 miles away.

For the squeak & rattle, I was planning to wait until they opened the Nashville center, which is about 200 miles away. Even with Nashville, this change is not an acceptable situation. We have a second truck on order (R1S), and if they persist with this, it might make owning these vehicles impossible for us.

Tesla never charged me to tow the vehicle to Cincinnati (~100 miles) while it was under warranty, but they also fixed most things with the ranger. Once the warranty expired, it became a very expensive vehicle to own due to towing costs, and is one of the (many) reasons we were planning on swapping it for an R1S.

I'm really hoping this is a miscommunication, or there's more to this.

I don't mean to disrupt the thread, but I had the same connectivity issue.

There is a communications module they have to swap out so it requires a service center visit. If I recall correctly it takes nearly the entire day to do.

 

[atebit]

That will start in March when peoples first year of ownership and included Rivian membership ends. That was always an expectation at least that was my understanding. No one knows for sure what it will cost and what will be included though.

In the seven years & two Tesla’s I owned, I was never charged for the M2M cellular connection. I think the value of the telemetrics alone was worth it to Tesla. So maybe Rivian willdo the same.
Wait, I forgot that we’re not allowed to compare Rivian to Tesla here…

 

[ohseedee]

So you think it's reasonable that my wife and I have to both take two days off work and drive 14.5 hours with a vehicle that pulls hard to the right?

But it's technically "drive-able" right? Just gotta trash those tires and get that left arm nice and swole.

And of course it doesn't matter that I've already driven it to the SC once before for this same issue... And it should totally fall on me to drive it back a second time because Rivian failed to fix the issue. Totally minor. Totally falls to me.

It sounds like you feel your car cant be safely driven. If that's the case, I'd suggest you stop driving it immediately and tell them that. If you can't safely drive it, then they should pay for the tow.

If you can drive it safely I think it makes the most sense for their policy to be for you to drive it even in this special situation (where they failed to fix it the first time). From a cost/resource perspective (excluding your time or lost wages) it would be a small fraction of the cost for you to drive it than the cost for them to tow it. Now your specific facts might warrant an exception to that policy.

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