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Sgt Beavis

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Looked on the Ford forum and didn't see any updates on online configuration being up yet . Keep me posted on that as I have an early Lighting time stamp
Looks like Ford has been uploading some config files to their Lightning test site. So it seems they're testing,,,,, something.
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Reserverd at the start of the presentation, order # and time stamp should get me in the 2022 group but who knows
GaryL, I also preordered on the launch day, 5/19/21. Based on my reservation number I think is 16,300. What about you? It will be interesting to see if the Lightening will become available to me sooner than the Rivian. I much prefer the Rivian! I haven’t heard anything from Ford about my reservation.
 

cc84

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I support employees getting their vehicles first. Employees make or break a company. Especially true when a company is in a high stress situation.
There are many people that agree with you....RJ, Rivian employees, and many on this forum. It's a reasonable position. I would like to offer a different opinion. Keep in mind, it's only an opinion and not an argument against your position.

While employees are vital to the success of any company, in order to have a business, you need customers. Without customers, you have no need for employees.

We know that an employee can also be a customer, but a thriving business needs more than employee customers.

From my understanding (but may not be confirmed), Rivian employees have been given preferential treatment by discounting their vehicle, up to a maximum of $24,000, or $1,000 per month while employed. Now to me, that's a pretty good incentive. Maybe enough to wait an extra year to get your Rivian, while allowing General Public Customers to get their deliveries first. Would anyone here be willing to wait an extra year, if they knew they could get a $24,000 discount?

Here we have employees receiving their vehicles first, along with a sizeable discount, that we don't get, nor should we. But, what have we, the General Public customer, received so far?

An argument has been presented, saying Rivian is possibly in Beta testing and it's best to let the employees have the vehicle first, to work out the bugs. Could be true, but it hasn't been confirmed either.

Some say deliveries are being made to the General Public customer now. If so, these people are privy to information about the Rivian that we don't know, or have received special incentives. I have a lot of unanswered questions, especially about Membership, that I have been told would be answered shortly.

This quote is from RJ's August update:

We are currently working with various governing agencies on the final approvals needed for us to make the first deliveries to preorder customers in September
.
While the above could probably, or more than likely be true, I find it to be a misleading statement. I believe it was intentionally done. However, if there have been deliveries made to the General Public, as of Sept 30th, then it can't be misleading (to me). We do know there have been deliveries to employees and the quote above should have acknowledged that. Being the statement made no mention of employees, I find it misleading.

I'm from a retail background where the customer is always first and the employees know this. I find it strange, to have the quote above not include employees. Maybe there have been deliveries made to us, the GP. I hope there have been.
 

DucRider

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We do know there have been deliveries to employees and the quote above should have acknowledged that. Being the statement made no mention of employees, I find it misleading.
I think it very likely that the employees getting their vehicles were indeed preorder customers. They are getting LE vehicles that they had to configure - I doubt if there was a separate portal and system set up exclusively for their use.
I don't think Rivian needed to specify all the criteria used to determine first deliveries. For all we know, some employees in CA may feel a little butt hurt that they were not first on the list because they have been employed longer and configured their vehicle before xxx who happened to be near Normal and configured an R1T vs an R1S in a color/wheel combination that got made first.

Many people seem to be reading intent to deceive into some of the decisions made by Rivian. I am one that doesn't assign a nefarious motive, but more of a "figure it out as we go along" scenario. They have a desired plan/path, but are realistic enough to know that things will likely need to be adapted/changed.
As evidenced by many comments on this forum, changing even slightly from what a customer perceives that you meant can be met with outrage. Many argue that if they layed out "this is what we plan to do", and then later say "we had to change because of ...", they would be satisfied. I think the blowback would potentially be worse.
Would I like a little more communication on what they are planning/timelines? You betcha! Do I understand why that may not be forthcoming? Also "You betcha".
 

irfan

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There are many people that agree with you....RJ, Rivian employees, and many on this forum. It's a reasonable position. I would like to offer a different opinion. Keep in mind, it's only an opinion and not an argument against your position.

While employees are vital to the success of any company, in order to have a business, you need customers. Without customers, you have no need for employees.

We know that an employee can also be a customer, but a thriving business needs more than employee customers.

From my understanding (but may not be confirmed), Rivian employees have been given preferential treatment by discounting their vehicle, up to a maximum of $24,000, or $1,000 per month while employed. Now to me, that's a pretty good incentive. Maybe enough to wait an extra year to get your Rivian, while allowing General Public Customers to get their deliveries first. Would anyone here be willing to wait an extra year, if they knew they could get a $24,000 discount?

Here we have employees receiving their vehicles first, along with a sizeable discount, that we don't get, nor should we. But, what have we, the General Public customer, received so far?

An argument has been presented, saying Rivian is possibly in Beta testing and it's best to let the employees have the vehicle first, to work out the bugs. Could be true, but it hasn't been confirmed either.

Some say deliveries are being made to the General Public customer now. If so, these people are privy to information about the Rivian that we don't know, or have received special incentives. I have a lot of unanswered questions, especially about Membership, that I have been told would be answered shortly.



While the above could probably, or more than likely be true, I find it to be a misleading statement. I believe it was intentionally done. However, if there have been deliveries made to the General Public, as of Sept 30th, then it can't be misleading (to me). We do know there have been deliveries to employees and the quote above should have acknowledged that. Being the statement made no mention of employees, I find it misleading.

I'm from a retail background where the customer is always first and the employees know this. I find it strange, to have the quote above not include employees. Maybe there have been deliveries made to us, the GP. I hope there have been.
I don’t mean to be rude but this is a laughable position, imo.

Quality employees are harder to replace than customers, and these employees have put much more into the company than your deposit. Ya they get paid, but they also could go get another job elsewhere. I’m perfectly fine with letting employees get them first. To suggest they should wait because they got
A discount and you are a customer is very self centered.

There’s probably less than 1000employee orders anyways.
 

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There are many people that agree with you....RJ, Rivian employees, and many on this forum. It's a reasonable position. I would like to offer a different opinion. Keep in mind, it's only an opinion and not an argument against your position.

While employees are vital to the success of any company, in order to have a business, you need customers. Without customers, you have no need for employees.

We know that an employee can also be a customer, but a thriving business needs more than employee customers.

From my understanding (but may not be confirmed), Rivian employees have been given preferential treatment by discounting their vehicle, up to a maximum of $24,000, or $1,000 per month while employed. Now to me, that's a pretty good incentive. Maybe enough to wait an extra year to get your Rivian, while allowing General Public Customers to get their deliveries first. Would anyone here be willing to wait an extra year, if they knew they could get a $24,000 discount?

Here we have employees receiving their vehicles first, along with a sizeable discount, that we don't get, nor should we. But, what have we, the General Public customer, received so far?

An argument has been presented, saying Rivian is possibly in Beta testing and it's best to let the employees have the vehicle first, to work out the bugs. Could be true, but it hasn't been confirmed either.

Some say deliveries are being made to the General Public customer now. If so, these people are privy to information about the Rivian that we don't know, or have received special incentives. I have a lot of unanswered questions, especially about Membership, that I have been told would be answered shortly.



While the above could probably, or more than likely be true, I find it to be a misleading statement. I believe it was intentionally done. However, if there have been deliveries made to the General Public, as of Sept 30th, then it can't be misleading (to me). We do know there have been deliveries to employees and the quote above should have acknowledged that. Being the statement made no mention of employees, I find it misleading.

I'm from a retail background where the customer is always first and the employees know this. I find it strange, to have the quote above not include employees. Maybe there have been deliveries made to us, the GP. I hope there have been.
I didn’t read every word of your treatise, but it doesn’t reall seem like Rivian is maliciously delivering to employees over regular customers, or purposely misleading people who have preorders. Not everyone is out to get you, a company not telling you everything isn’t lying to you.

For what it’s worth, I asked the last Rivian customer service person I talked to if they are getting an R1, as I’d read they get a good deal. They told me they hadn’t preordered yet but were thinking about it. Yes, they have to put an order in just like everybody else. But their ”early adopters” program with its discount, and vehicle monitoring gets them a vehicle earlier.

Not unlike other early access or private beta programs.

The customer is always right in matters of taste.
Caveat emptor.
 

stynes

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Only comment I'll add to the thoughtful and respectful discussion between @cc84 and @DucRider - I thought I specifically recalled, although I can't find a record of it now, a comment RJ had made months ago that said employees wouldn't be prioritized. That he and all of the other employees would be waiting in line just like everyone else. And maybe that is true, maybe that was the thinking at the time and, to your point, now they're just figuring it out as they go, or maybe I'm completely misremembering the comment or didn't get the full context of what he said. Or it's possible that these employees are being treated as beta testers for something they're not sure is quite right yet. Whether the motivation is nefarious or not, and I'm not suggesting that it is, I just feel like a single public statement could provide sufficient clarity for everyone and make the whole issue go away. RJ could say - hey, we thought we'd be ready in Sept but we're not, give us another 6 weeks, or hey, we delivered a few, found some issues, give us another month to resolve that before we start shipping more, or hiring has been more difficult than anticipated we're not able to sufficiently staff the line the way we need to reach the volumes we want. Whatever the case may be, a little communication makes it go away.

I plopped down $1K nearly 2 years, 10 months, and 10 days ago (not that I'm counting :)) and it's been literally months with no word. The last official communication I've seen on delivery timing was from RJ's email of July 16 which said, "the first deliveries of the R1T has shifted to September, with the R1S shortly thereafter in the fall." The last day of fall is December 21 so in addition to scaling the R1T, he's got 69 days left to deliver the first R1S in time to make the 3rd published date (R1S in early 2021, then 2 months after R1T in July, then the above statement). Meanwhile, the website still says, "If you have a Launch Edition preorder, your Rivian Guide will reach out to you by November with expected delivery timing. All other configurations for both the United States and Canada will begin as early as January 2022." So to me, something there just doesn't add up. And I feel like Rivian could address the issue with just a bit of communication that unfortunately, just isn't happening. So while I'm thrilled at the prospect of the R1S, the lack of communication, which incidentially RJ references in that same email where he writes, "I have spoken with a number of you and know we need to do a better job at communicating specifics around deliveries."

I'm sure I sound grumpy about all this, and for that I apologize. I'm not grumpy - I'm a blessed man living in a blessed world where my biggest problem today is how much longer am I going to have to wait for an $80K SUV that's doesn't run on gas and goes 0-60 in 3 seconds. Like... the surrealness of this whole thing isn't lost on me. To the contrary, that's probably why I'm as invested as I am. A little communication would go a long way, though.
 

cc84

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I think it very likely that the employees getting their vehicles were indeed preorder customers......
And I agree. I think you're correct that some employees were preorder customers.

Many people seem to be reading intent to deceive into some of the decisions made by Rivian. I am one that doesn't assign a nefarious motive, but more of a "figure it out as we go along" scenario.
I consider deceive a little stronger message, than mislead. I think, as I've said many times, they choose to use wording in sentences, that can be interpreted in more than one way, by different people. All they had to do was include the word employee preorder holders. It's not that difficult. It would have immediately cleared up any confusion.

I don’t mean to be rude but this is a laughable position, imo.
It's not rude at all. It's your opinion, in which you're entitled. We just disagree.

I didn’t read every word of your treatise, but it doesn’t reall seem like Rivian is maliciously delivering to employees over regular customers, or purposely misleading people who have preorders. Not everyone is out to get you, a company not telling you everything isn’t lying to you.
Thanks. My reply to DucRider above is the same response for your comment. As far as "The customer is always right" worked for me, but may not work for everyone. I stand by it.
 

Rivianmd

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stynes, great post. Sums it up perfectly for me. I am sure those that bless communication are working long hours now, but would love a little more transparency at this point. For a company that said they want to under promise and over deliver, you may want to consider setting more attainable deliverables and communicate more frequently.
 

dfx

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stynes, great post. Sums it up perfectly for me. I am sure those that bless communication are working long hours now, but would love a little more transparency at this point. For a company that said they want to under promise and over deliver, you may want to consider setting more attainable deliverables and communicate more frequently.
Indeed! I'm a big pro-Rivian enthusiast, but having been in other launches with pre-orders, I can say categorically that the communication by the company has been subpar and almost unacceptable. Nissan did a far better job with the communication to customers prior to the launch of the first, mass-produced EV, and that was over 10 years ago!
 

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Lil'O Annie

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I've been feeling this way for awhile now, as I know all the long-time pre-order folks have been too. But recently, this damn song keeps running around in my head--when will it end!?!?

But, of course, I'll still wait...and wait...and wait... ? ? ?

 

harkco

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Only comment I'll add to the thoughtful and respectful discussion between @cc84 and @DucRider - I thought I specifically recalled, although I can't find a record of it now, a comment RJ had made months ago that said employees wouldn't be prioritized. That he and all of the other employees would be waiting in line just like everyone else. And maybe that is true, maybe that was the thinking at the time and, to your point, now they're just figuring it out as they go, or maybe I'm completely misremembering the comment or didn't get the full context of what he said. Or it's possible that these employees are being treated as beta testers for something they're not sure is quite right yet. Whether the motivation is nefarious or not, and I'm not suggesting that it is, I just feel like a single public statement could provide sufficient clarity for everyone and make the whole issue go away. RJ could say - hey, we thought we'd be ready in Sept but we're not, give us another 6 weeks, or hey, we delivered a few, found some issues, give us another month to resolve that before we start shipping more, or hiring has been more difficult than anticipated we're not able to sufficiently staff the line the way we need to reach the volumes we want. Whatever the case may be, a little communication makes it go away.

I plopped down $1K nearly 2 years, 10 months, and 10 days ago (not that I'm counting :)) and it's been literally months with no word. The last official communication I've seen on delivery timing was from RJ's email of July 16 which said, "the first deliveries of the R1T has shifted to September, with the R1S shortly thereafter in the fall." The last day of fall is December 21 so in addition to scaling the R1T, he's got 69 days left to deliver the first R1S in time to make the 3rd published date (R1S in early 2021, then 2 months after R1T in July, then the above statement). Meanwhile, the website still says, "If you have a Launch Edition preorder, your Rivian Guide will reach out to you by November with expected delivery timing. All other configurations for both the United States and Canada will begin as early as January 2022." So to me, something there just doesn't add up. And I feel like Rivian could address the issue with just a bit of communication that unfortunately, just isn't happening. So while I'm thrilled at the prospect of the R1S, the lack of communication, which incidentially RJ references in that same email where he writes, "I have spoken with a number of you and know we need to do a better job at communicating specifics around deliveries."

I'm sure I sound grumpy about all this, and for that I apologize. I'm not grumpy - I'm a blessed man living in a blessed world where my biggest problem today is how much longer am I going to have to wait for an $80K SUV that's doesn't run on gas and goes 0-60 in 3 seconds. Like... the surrealness of this whole thing isn't lost on me. To the contrary, that's probably why I'm as invested as I am. A little communication would go a long way, though.
Perfectly put! Agree 100%! And I have been waiting 2 years 9 months and some change (not that I'm counting either.... :)
 

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It's very frustrating that in RJ's July email he specifically notes that communication is lacking, and they're going to do better. We got a decent August update, which was great.

But then September and October happen, right when the most exciting time for the company begins and deliveries are supposed to start, tons of reviews come out, etc...and we don't get a single substantive update regarding production or preorders or anything.

I just don't get it. IMO, communication continues to be the weak link for Rivian. I love everything else they're doing, but their comms team is destroying my goodwill, as well as the goodwill of the other preorder holders I know.
 
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wizard467

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It's very frustrating that in RJ's July email he specifically notes that communication is lacking, and they're going to do better. We got a decent August update, which was great.

But then September and October happen, right when the most exciting time for the company begins and deliveries are supposed to start, tons of reviews come out, etc...and we don't get a single substantive update regarding production or preorders or anything.

I just don't get it. IMO, communication continues to be the weak link for Rivian. I love everything else they're doing, but their comms team is destroying my goodwill, as well as the goodwill of the other preorder holders I know.
The lack of communication is partially due to the IPO. All communication during the IPO period has to be controlled or the SEC can fine Rivian, delay the IPO, etc. Giving forward-looking guidance such as "we are delayed a week because of XYZ, or we are producing and delivering 10 vehicles a day to early order holders (presumably still employees)" provides additional detail that isn't in the IPO and would be punishable by the SEC.

More details here. TL;DR During this time, the company must not release any new info about the business.

If the supply chain and production ramp-up had been slightly faster a decent number of R1Ts might have been delivered BEFORE the IPO and we wouldn't be in this position. The problem now is the R1Ts are being delivered slowly (slower than hoped/expected) AND the IPO is limiting any further marketing communication.

The quiet period extends 40 days after the stock starts trading so unfortunately it will be another couple months.
 

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Only comment I'll add to the thoughtful and respectful discussion between @cc84 and @DucRider - I thought I specifically recalled, although I can't find a record of it now, a comment RJ had made months ago that said employees wouldn't be prioritized. That he and all of the other employees would be waiting in line just like everyone else. And maybe that is true, maybe that was the thinking at the time and, to your point, now they're just figuring it out as they go, or maybe I'm completely misremembering the comment or didn't get the full context of what he said. Or it's possible that these employees are being treated as beta testers for something they're not sure is quite right yet. Whether the motivation is nefarious or not, and I'm not suggesting that it is, I just feel like a single public statement could provide sufficient clarity for everyone and make the whole issue go away. RJ could say - hey, we thought we'd be ready in Sept but we're not, give us another 6 weeks, or hey, we delivered a few, found some issues, give us another month to resolve that before we start shipping more, or hiring has been more difficult than anticipated we're not able to sufficiently staff the line the way we need to reach the volumes we want. Whatever the case may be, a little communication makes it go away.

I plopped down $1K nearly 2 years, 10 months, and 10 days ago (not that I'm counting :)) and it's been literally months with no word. The last official communication I've seen on delivery timing was from RJ's email of July 16 which said, "the first deliveries of the R1T has shifted to September, with the R1S shortly thereafter in the fall." The last day of fall is December 21 so in addition to scaling the R1T, he's got 69 days left to deliver the first R1S in time to make the 3rd published date (R1S in early 2021, then 2 months after R1T in July, then the above statement). Meanwhile, the website still says, "If you have a Launch Edition preorder, your Rivian Guide will reach out to you by November with expected delivery timing. All other configurations for both the United States and Canada will begin as early as January 2022." So to me, something there just doesn't add up. And I feel like Rivian could address the issue with just a bit of communication that unfortunately, just isn't happening. So while I'm thrilled at the prospect of the R1S, the lack of communication, which incidentially RJ references in that same email where he writes, "I have spoken with a number of you and know we need to do a better job at communicating specifics around deliveries."

I'm sure I sound grumpy about all this, and for that I apologize. I'm not grumpy - I'm a blessed man living in a blessed world where my biggest problem today is how much longer am I going to have to wait for an $80K SUV that's doesn't run on gas and goes 0-60 in 3 seconds. Like... the surrealness of this whole thing isn't lost on me. To the contrary, that's probably why I'm as invested as I am. A little communication would go a long way, though.
Good comments. People are tired of “groping “ in the dark for answers. The Covid context has not helped either, stressed as we are by shortages on almost every shelf.
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