Successful PDR Experience. Saved Rivian $9K (Dent by Service Center)

[JonBoyR1T]

Back Story:

I brought my 1 month old 2023 R1T to Brooklyn Service Center to get the PTC installed and address a couple of minor issues. It took 2 weeks for the PTC to be installed but I eventually get the truck back on a Friday. The next morning I notice that there is damage on the left rear bed panel.

Obviously pretty upset about this, I reach out through the app and still open work order about the damage and upload a photo. That Monday my work order was closed out with no response. I open a new ticket and post the photos and it took about 2 weeks before the supervisor from Brooklyn (Christopher) gets back to me. They go back and look at the photos of the truck when they took it in and confirmed the damage wasn't there so they were accepting liability for it.

Next Steps:
I was told to go to a local body shop for an estimate. I arrive and ask about PDR and they said they didn't think it would be possible. 2 days later I get a quote for around $9k to fix this damage.... I then took it upon myself to research local PDR shops and eventually settled on a local guy here in Morris County, NJ.

PDR experience:
I texted back and forth with Mike from Paintless Dent Repair (973-906-2188 is his cell) who has worked on Rivians in the past, and he felt the damage could be fixed with PDR. After coordinating with Chris, he was able to get this approved on the Rivian side for payment. He was obviously appreciative in that this would save Rivian close to $9k.

Mike came to my house last week in the evening and in 2 hours was able to remove the dent to the point that not even I can see that it was there and I am OCD with this stuff. Fortunately for me, the paint was not damage at all so once the dent was removed it looks perfect again.

I am leaving this picture a little larger so you can see how nice it came out.

End result:
I wanted to share this with you all so Mike gets the credit he deserves and for those in the NYC metro area, I highly recommend Mike for your PDR needs. He has been doing this for over 30 years... he knows what he is doing.

Chris from Rivian for all the headaches and time it took to get this done was very supportive and good willed me a set of Cross Bars which are arriving today. He made the best of a bad situation. Thanks Chris if you see this.

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[Robin]

Back Story:

I brought my 1 month old 2023 R1T to Brooklyn Service Center to get the PTC installed and address a couple of minor issues. It took 2 weeks for the PTC to be installed but I eventually get the truck back on a Friday. The next morning I notice that there is damage on the left rear bed panel.

Obviously pretty upset about this, I reach out through the app and still open work order about the damage and upload a photo. That Monday my work order was closed out with no response. I open a new ticket and post the photos and it took about 2 weeks before the supervisor from Brooklyn (Christopher) gets back to me. They go back and look at the photos of the truck when they took it in and confirmed the damage wasn't there so they were accepting liability for it.

Next Steps:
I was told to go to a local body shop for an estimate. I arrive and ask about PDR and they said they didn't think it would be possible. 2 days later I get a quote for around $9k to fix this damage.... I then took it upon myself to research local PDR shops and eventually settled on a local guy here in Morris County, NJ.

PDR experience:
I texted back and forth with Mike from Paintless Dent Repair (973-906-2188 is his cell) who has worked on Rivians in the past, and he felt the damage could be fixed with PDR. After coordinating with Chris, he was able to get this approved on the Rivian side for payment. He was obviously appreciative in that this would save Rivian close to $9k.

Mike came to my house last week in the evening and in 2 hours was able to remove the dent to the point that not even I can see that it was there and I am OCD with this stuff. Fortunately for me, the paint was not damage at all so once the dent was removed it looks perfect again.

I am leaving this picture a little larger so you can see how nice it came out.

End result:
I wanted to share this with you all so Mike gets the credit he deserves and for those in the NYC metro area, I highly recommend Mike for your PDR needs. He has been doing this for over 30 years... he knows what he is doing.

Chris from Rivian for all the headaches and time it took to get this done was very supportive and good willed me a set of Cross Bars which are arriving today. He made the best of a bad situation. Thanks Chris if you see this.

Awesome ?

 

[JackRussellRacing]

That looks great !

PDR is straight-up sorcery. Anyone who says otherwise is nuts.

 

[NY_Rob]

1) That PDR guy is a master at his craft... do not lose his phone number!

2) The Brooklyn SC is a nightmare to get to from any location... and they are very parking constrained. I've seen lots of people complaining about dents and scratches coming out of that location.

3) Always, always, always.. take lots of detailed photos of your Rivian once you get to the the SC with the SC building clearly visible in some of the photos to document the condition of your vehicle as delivered to Rivian.

 

[Closedquestion]

PDR is amazing! 3 weeks into owning my R1T I dented the center of my tailgate when I did not pay attention to the height of my new hitches ball. I had 2 PDR guys in Portland say it couldn’t be done. My insurance sent me to one of their certified body shops and the estimate was around 10K. A member of the Oregon Rivian FB page suggested a PDR guy who had done several Rivian. He said it would be no problem. Overall it was just under 2K, half of that was the removal and re-application of my PPF wrap. Still amazed that there was no evidence of the dent when done.

 

[350Industrial]

Nice! The Chicago service center was useless in trying to work out a few minor dings that were present upon delivery of my R1T using their PDR guy- said their 'glue' just wouldn't stick to the truck

So I used my own tried and true PDR guy and they came right out. I sent Rivian the invoice, explaining what happened, and they did reimburse me. They also asked for the name of my PDR guy

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

That looks great !

PDR is straight-up sorcery. Anyone who says otherwise is nuts.

But not every PDR specialist is a bonafide sorcerer

 

[R1Sky Business]

Back Story:

I brought my 1 month old 2023 R1T to Brooklyn Service Center to get the PTC installed and address a couple of minor issues. It took 2 weeks for the PTC to be installed but I eventually get the truck back on a Friday. The next morning I notice that there is damage on the left rear bed panel.

Obviously pretty upset about this, I reach out through the app and still open work order about the damage and upload a photo. That Monday my work order was closed out with no response. I open a new ticket and post the photos and it took about 2 weeks before the supervisor from Brooklyn (Christopher) gets back to me. They go back and look at the photos of the truck when they took it in and confirmed the damage wasn't there so they were accepting liability for it.

Next Steps:
I was told to go to a local body shop for an estimate. I arrive and ask about PDR and they said they didn't think it would be possible. 2 days later I get a quote for around $9k to fix this damage.... I then took it upon myself to research local PDR shops and eventually settled on a local guy here in Morris County, NJ.

PDR experience:
I texted back and forth with Mike from Paintless Dent Repair (973-906-2188 is his cell) who has worked on Rivians in the past, and he felt the damage could be fixed with PDR. After coordinating with Chris, he was able to get this approved on the Rivian side for payment. He was obviously appreciative in that this would save Rivian close to $9k.

Mike came to my house last week in the evening and in 2 hours was able to remove the dent to the point that not even I can see that it was there and I am OCD with this stuff. Fortunately for me, the paint was not damage at all so once the dent was removed it looks perfect again.

I am leaving this picture a little larger so you can see how nice it came out.

End result:
I wanted to share this with you all so Mike gets the credit he deserves and for those in the NYC metro area, I highly recommend Mike for your PDR needs. He has been doing this for over 30 years... he knows what he is doing.

Chris from Rivian for all the headaches and time it took to get this done was very supportive and good willed me a set of Cross Bars which are arriving today. He made the best of a bad situation. Thanks Chris if you see this.

Witchcraft

 

[DD4ST]

You’re lucky. A lot of PDR folks won’t guarantee working on aluminum panels (like Rivian’s) as they don’t have “memory“ like steel. A lot more work. Also the metal is thinner and can easily crack, especially if there is a crease. That guy was a real artist. As an aside, the same goes for actual body shops. Most won’t even try to straighten/fix but will want to replace a whole component. This happened to me in my eTron with a dent and small 1/4 in tear at the edge of the liftgate. Searched around and found ONE body shop that was willing to weld aluminum and they fixed it at a much lower cost.

 

[AlexTFLee]

Back Story:

I brought my 1 month old 2023 R1T to Brooklyn Service Center to get the PTC installed and address a couple of minor issues. It took 2 weeks for the PTC to be installed but I eventually get the truck back on a Friday. The next morning I notice that there is damage on the left rear bed panel.

Obviously pretty upset about this, I reach out through the app and still open work order about the damage and upload a photo. That Monday my work order was closed out with no response. I open a new ticket and post the photos and it took about 2 weeks before the supervisor from Brooklyn (Christopher) gets back to me. They go back and look at the photos of the truck when they took it in and confirmed the damage wasn't there so they were accepting liability for it.

Next Steps:
I was told to go to a local body shop for an estimate. I arrive and ask about PDR and they said they didn't think it would be possible. 2 days later I get a quote for around $9k to fix this damage.... I then took it upon myself to research local PDR shops and eventually settled on a local guy here in Morris County, NJ.

PDR experience:
I texted back and forth with Mike from Paintless Dent Repair (973-906-2188 is his cell) who has worked on Rivians in the past, and he felt the damage could be fixed with PDR. After coordinating with Chris, he was able to get this approved on the Rivian side for payment. He was obviously appreciative in that this would save Rivian close to $9k.

Mike came to my house last week in the evening and in 2 hours was able to remove the dent to the point that not even I can see that it was there and I am OCD with this stuff. Fortunately for me, the paint was not damage at all so once the dent was removed it looks perfect again.

I am leaving this picture a little larger so you can see how nice it came out.

End result:
I wanted to share this with you all so Mike gets the credit he deserves and for those in the NYC metro area, I highly recommend Mike for your PDR needs. He has been doing this for over 30 years... he knows what he is doing.

Chris from Rivian for all the headaches and time it took to get this done was very supportive and good willed me a set of Cross Bars which are arriving today. He made the best of a bad situation. Thanks Chris if you see this.

 

[AlexTFLee]

Thank you for sharing Mike's information. He was a very nice guy. My dent was a little too large for him and he referred me to a shop in NJ that did a great job. For those living near the New York tri-state area, I had a similar experience. Our parking garage put a dent in the back right corner of our R1S. The Rivian-approved body shop in NYC said it would cost at least $13,000 after seeing the photos. They said they needed to order the entire right-side panel of the car from Rivian. Cut off the back quarter and replace the back quarter of the car, then bondo and paint. After some research, I managed to find a PDR shop in New Jersey that could handle the task. They held our car for 5 days and did a fantastic job. See before and after photos. The company name is DentCo Paintless Dent Removal, 973 903-0826. The owner's name is Anthony.

 

[AlexTFLee]

Thank you for sharing Mike's information. He was a very nice guy. My dent was a little too large for him and he referred me to a shop in NJ that did a great job. For those living near the New York tri-state area, I had a similar experience. Our parking garage put a dent in the back right corner of our R1S. The Rivian-approved body shop in NYC said it would cost at least $13,000 after seeing the photos. They said they needed to order the entire right-side panel of the car from Rivian. Cut off the back quarter and replace the back quarter of the car, then bondo and paint. After some research, I managed to find a PDR shop in New Jersey that could handle the task. They held our car for 5 days and did a fantastic job. See before and after photos. The company name is DentCo Paintless Dent Removal, 973 903-0826. The owner's name is Anthony.

By the way, the job cost just around $3,000. At least a $10,000 saving.

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