New Rivian service center in Gaithersburg MD/experience

[JJE]

I just got my car back from the Gaithersburg service center for a collection of minor issues (door alignment, wind noise, etc.) that had accumulated since I took delivery of the car in October. I had put off taking the car in because until Gaithersburg opened, the nearest service center was in Richmond (and no self-respecting Marylander crosses the Potomac into Virginia, esp if driving on I95 South is involved).

Bottom line: the Gaithersburg folks did a great job on the car. Things took a little longer than expected (10 days) and the customer facing communication could have been better. But nothing worse than the usual minor Generation Z/Post-Covid Social Disfunction syndrome you see everywhere. Great to have a service center in the metro DC area. They comped me a few things that I really appreciated - even took out a small dent on my driver door free of charge.

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[diehlryan]

Did you get a loaner or rental during your service?

 

[tjmsquared]

Glad to hear that they're doing a good job. I'm one of those Virginia people who IS going to cross the river to take my truck there next month.

 

[JJE]

Did you get a loaner or rental during your service?

Comped a rental. But I just used a spare car at home rather than rent.

 

[JJE]

Glad to hear that they're doing a good job. I'm one of those Virginia people who IS going to cross the river to take my truck there next month.

Passport control is pretty quick these days.

 

[Chaos]

Things took a little longer than expected (10 days) and the customer facing communication could have been better. But nothing worse than the usual minor Generation Z/Post-Covid Social Disfunction syndrome you see everywhere.

I have had a less than great experience at the Gaithersburg, MD service center, which Rivian calls the Washington Service Center. I dropped off my R1S first thing Monday for two minor issues (dash rattle and slack cable on one side of lower rear hatch) and one issue I expect is more a design flaw (if a 125lb adult passenger doesn't sit in approximately the center of passenger seat, the passenger air bag occasionally remains off). Called back on Wednesday morning to a Rivian central service number (as best I can determine, owners aren't allowed to speak to service center staff by phone and service center phone numbers are not publicly available) for a status update. I was told I would receive a call back Wednesday afternoon from the service center. No call. I called the central Rivian service number again at 5 pm on Wednesday. The Rivian central service rep claimed to have spoken with someone at the Gaithersburg, MD service center who said they would call me back by 6 pm on Wednesday. No call. I made the same calls on Thursday (morning and afternoon) with the same promises made and unkept by Rivian central service staff (and, according to Rivian central service staff, Gaithersburg, MD service staff). I plan to take my R1S back tomorrow leaving the service tickets open. Rivian has a serious management issue when it comes to service. There are plenty of Gen Z folks in my office. I doubt youth is the problem at Rivian. I did notice the rental agreement that Rivian arranged for me with Enterprise was for 10 days. Maybe 10-day service turn-around is the master plan for Rivian. Very poor time management. It takes the same amount of time for a service person to look at the vehicle, whether they do it on the day of drop-off or 10 days later. Delaying that service look does not give Rivian any more time to do something else. It just pisses off owners.

 

[JJE]

I had the same communication issues with Rivian at Gaithersburg and they annoyed me a lot. Communication was poor. I had to do the same constant calls to the main number at Rivian. But the technical service was fine in the end.

 

[VSG]

I expect is more a design flaw (if a 125lb adult passenger doesn't sit in approximately the center of passenger seat, the passenger air bag occasionally remains off)

Safety feature, not design flaw.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-V/part-571/subpart-B/section-571.208

I believe Rivian sets the weight limit at 110lb which is 5% percentile adult female weight as that is the requirement for automatic airbags in the regulation, and is above the weight of most children 12 and younger who could be injured by an airbag going off (the regulation recommends but does not require children under 13 to ride in back.)

 

[Picard]

I picked up my R1S in Mar and the earliest Rivian could schedule me for the Gaithersburg location was in Oct. I have trim issues and even a due bill item. I am annoyed because they offered to tow me to Capitol heights back in April and I thought I was doing both Rivian and myself a favor by saying I could wait a month or two (since the MD location was "almost ready" in Rivian speak). I guess the joke is on me here and now I wait. The sad part is that I have spoken to no less than 7 different "service advisors" who all empathize with me and repeat "this seems odd, let me look and get you in there sooner" but nothing has happened. Rivian really needs some scale here and fast.

 

[Chaos]

Safety feature, not design flaw.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-V/part-571/subpart-B/section-571.208

I believe Rivian sets the weight limit at 110lb which is 5% percentile adult female weight as that is the requirement for automatic airbags in the regulation, and is above the weight of most children 12 and younger who could be injured by an airbag going off (the regulation recommends but does not require children under 13 to ride in back.)

I have learned more from you in a few minutes than I have learned from Rivian all week. Thank you for the information.

 

[Chaos]

I had the same communication issues with Rivian at Gaithersburg and they annoyed me a lot. Communication was poor. I had to do the same constant calls to the main number at Rivian. But the technical service was fine in the end.

I have one more amusing service story to share. On the day of drop-off, prior to drop-off I added one more service request: confirm the horn is making the sound intended. To my ear, it sounds like a belch or, if pressed lightly, a weird whimper/sigh. People outside the vehicle don't realize the sound is a car horn and look at you like "you must be joking." I wasn't able to finish the "full" Rivian service request process/handshake prior to drop-off (Rivan calls you back after you create a service ticket to confirm the issue and then calls you back a second time to schedule service for the issue). However, when I dropped off the vehicle, the Gaithersburg, MD service vehicle receiving person made a note and confirmed they would look at the horn. Later that day, I received a call back from Rivian "central" indicating he was aware my vehicle was in for service, but he said Rivian could not add the horn test to the service ticket due to time constraints. In other words, Rivian doesn't have time to press my horn. I let that one roll off.

 

[Steve A.]

Safety feature, not design flaw.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-V/part-571/subpart-B/section-571.208

I believe Rivian sets the weight limit at 110lb which is 5% percentile adult female weight as that is the requirement for automatic airbags in the regulation, and is above the weight of most children 12 and younger who could be injured by an airbag going off (the regulation recommends but does not require children under 13 to ride in back.)

I don't believe it's a weight issue. My wife noticed *several* times that the passenger airbag remains off. Don't know if it was a coincidence but the last time this happened, she unbuckled her seat belt and retracted it all the way and then buckled her seat belt again, and it worked, so just a theory so far but perhaps the seat belt sensor is part of the equation. It hasn't happened again, but we'll be testing this hypothesis when it does.

 

[VSG]

You could have a problem with your specific vehicle, of course. There was even a recall a year ago for a small number of vehicles for the passenger seat sensor.

But almost every report on this forum is about a light-weight person in the passenger seat. The relevant information is that there IS a weight cutoff used to determine if the airbags should be enabled, and it IS there for safety reasons because children and small people can be seriously injured or killed by an airbag even on a low speed collision which would not otherwise result in injury. That's what all those airbag warnings on the visors are there for. If your passenger is near the weight limit, then this would seem to me the most likely cause.

 

[vinypat]

I am picking up my R1S soon. And it is true that once your ticket is created and even if you notify them before your scheduled SC date and add any additional items you want them to take a look they will say that they can't add because they keep the vehicle based on # of issues you have and they allocate the time according to that which is kind bs to me. First of all the wait time is like 4+ months to schedule appointment, and when you mentioned small small items that you want them to take a look when you drop your vehicle their standard answer is we can't add them. And I am like you are going to keep the vehicle for 2 weeks and you don't have time to look at this new items? And its not like we predicted this new issues. Also things are getting lost when you send an e-mail with pictures/videl etc to vehiclesupport e-mail address. Rivian needs to step up their game and do something about ticketing system. Any tickets created by you/them, when you check them in app you don't see any description or heading or title and no details inside ticket at all, so if you have more then 1 ticket open you have no idea which one is for what issue so if you need to upload or provide some more info you have to find right ticket or call 800# and find it out, what is pain in rear.

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