A Beautiful Disaster — Rivian Is Not Ready for Prime Time

[Spazz27]

Rating: 0/5

I regret ever trusting Rivian. My experience has been nothing short of infuriating—and if anyone at corporate is paying attention, this should deeply concern you. Your vehicles may be innovative, but your service—especially at the Miami Service Center—is a complete embarrassment.

My Rivian has been plagued with constant issues. It’s unreliable, buggy, and far from the premium product it’s marketed to be. But what’s even worse is the way your service team handles these problems: with politeness masking total incompetence. They are inept at best. No accountability. No follow-through. No communication.

Most recently, my vehicle was in for service—again—and I waited over six days without a single update. Nothing. I only found out the car was ready because the app changed status. That’s how I found out. Not a call. Not a message. Nothing from your staff. That level of disregard is unacceptable.

I’ve been treated with condescension and brushed off like my time, money, and trust mean nothing. I feel mocked. It’s exhausting, it’s insulting, and it’s clear no one at the Miami center is actually empowered—or trained—to deliver the kind of service Rivian promises.

To anyone considering a Rivian: don’t be fooled by the glossy marketing. This company isn’t ready. Not for your money, not for your trust, and certainly not for scale.

Rivian corporate: you should be alarmed by how many customers are quietly losing faith. If you want to survive, fix your service centers—especially Miami. I didn’t buy a $100,000+ vehicle to feel disrespected, unheard, and stranded.

Do better. Fast.

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[Jonger1150]

Did you hit a pothole or was this the vehicle on a smooth surface?

 

[Spazz27]

Did you hit a pothole or was this the vehicle on a smooth surface?

That was a very smooth service... It happens while slowing down and specifically the regenerative breaking to break... It was this video that Rivian saw and said it was "dangerous to drive", so they came to pick it up via tow... but no communication to tell me "hey we figured it out, the car is safe" or anything...

 

[COdogman]

Since we are sharing anecdotes, my 2023 R1T has been extremely reliable. In almost 2 years of ownership it has only been back to the SC twice and the first time was for it's 7500 mile maintenance. The other time it had to be at the Denver SC for 6 days, I was treated like royalty and communication was top notch.

Anyone considering Rivian should be realistic, not believe "glossy marketing" or FUD reports.

 

[DuoRivians]

My service center visits have been fantastic. Own two Rivians. Looking forward to the third

 

[Spazz27]

Since we are sharing anecdotes, my 2023 R1T has been extremely reliable. In almost 2 years of ownership it has only been back to the SC twice and the first time was for it's 7500 mile maintenance. The other time it had to be at the Denver SC for 6 days, I was treated like royalty and communication was top notch.

Anyone considering Rivian should be realistic, not believe "glossy marketing" or FUD reports.

Glad your experience has been positive—genuinely. But one good anecdote doesn’t erase systemic problems in other regions. I’m not spreading FUD, I’m sharing firsthand experience as a paying customer who spent over $100,000 and has been met with repeated failures and silence from Rivian’s Miami service team.

This isn’t about “being realistic”—it’s about holding a company accountable for subpar execution after making luxury-level promises. When your communication is nonexistent and the only way to find out your car is ready is through an app status change, something’s broken. And it deserves attention, not deflection.

I want Rivian to succeed. But ignoring real, repeated service failures just because your truck was fine helps no one—not future buyers, and not Rivian itself.

 

[Spazz27]

My service center visits have been fantastic. Own two Rivians. Looking forward to the third

That’s great—for you. But owning two Rivians and getting good service doesn’t negate the very real, very frustrating experiences others are having. I didn’t post to debate how great your visits were—I posted to highlight a serious service gap that Rivian corporate needs to address.

When a six-figure vehicle sits in service for nearly a week with zero communication, and the only notification that it’s done is through a status change in the app, that’s a major failure. You may be “looking forward to your third,” but some of us are seriously questioning ever buying again.

If Rivian wants long-term success, it needs to deliver a consistently high level of service across all locations—not just yours.

 

[PaythePiper]

You won’t get sympathy from this fanboy-centric community. Not gonna happen. I’ve got issues as well, that I honestly don’t want to wait 2 to 3 months to wait for lol.

Rivian isn’t last in reliability for nothing right?

 

[Spazz27]

You won’t get sympathy from this fanboy-centric community. Not gonna happen. I’ve got issues as well, that I honestly don’t want to wait 2 to 3 months to wait for lol.

Rivian isn’t last in reliability for nothing right?

Right haha, but you're exactly right, and I appreciate you saying it.

It’s wild how quickly people rush to defend a brand like it’s a religion instead of holding it accountable. I’m not here to trash Rivian for fun—I actually want them to succeed (I even have an R2 reservation), which is why this stuff needs to be called out.

If they’re already struggling this much with service now, imagine what happens when volume doubles!

You’re right—they didn’t earn their “last in reliability” badge by accident. They’ve got real problems, and pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

did they fix it? What did your work order say they did to resolve the issue?

 

[Braumeister]

That’s great—for you. But owning two Rivians and getting good service doesn’t negate the very real, very frustrating experiences others are having. I didn’t post to debate how great your visits were—I posted to highlight a serious service gap that Rivian corporate needs to address.

When a six-figure vehicle sits in service for nearly a week with zero communication, and the only notification that it’s done is through a status change in the app, that’s a major failure. You may be “looking forward to your third,” but some of us are seriously questioning ever buying again.

If Rivian wants long-term success, it needs to deliver a consistently high level of service across all locations—not just yours.

Rating: 0/5

I regret ever trusting Rivian. My experience has been nothing short of infuriating—and if anyone at corporate is paying attention, this should deeply concern you. Your vehicles may be innovative, but your service—especially at the Miami Service Center—is a complete embarrassment.

My Rivian has been plagued with constant issues. It’s unreliable, buggy, and far from the premium product it’s marketed to be. But what’s even worse is the way your service team handles these problems: with politeness masking total incompetence. They are inept at best. No accountability. No follow-through. No communication.

Most recently, my vehicle was in for service—again—and I waited over six days without a single update. Nothing. I only found out the car was ready because the app changed status. That’s how I found out. Not a call. Not a message. Nothing from your staff. That level of disregard is unacceptable.

I’ve been treated with condescension and brushed off like my time, money, and trust mean nothing. I feel mocked. It’s exhausting, it’s insulting, and it’s clear no one at the Miami center is actually empowered—or trained—to deliver the kind of service Rivian promises.

To anyone considering a Rivian: don’t be fooled by the glossy marketing. This company isn’t ready. Not for your money, not for your trust, and certainly not for scale.

Rivian corporate: you should be alarmed by how many customers are quietly losing faith. If you want to survive, fix your service centers—especially Miami. I didn’t buy a $100,000+ vehicle to feel disrespected, unheard, and stranded.

Do better. Fast.

 

[endress14]

I’ve had my share of small issues as well, but on the whole the Denver SC has been wonderful. Sounds like a Miami problem. That being said I’ve heard other SC have some issues as well, but by and large I’d say your experience is not the norm.

 

[PaythePiper]

Right haha, but you're exactly right, and I appreciate you saying it.

It’s wild how quickly people rush to defend a brand like it’s a religion instead of holding it accountable. I’m not here to trash Rivian for fun—I actually want them to succeed (I even have an R2 reservation), which is why this stuff needs to be called out.

If they’re already struggling this much with service now, imagine what happens when volume doubles!

You’re right—they didn’t earn their “last in reliability” badge by accident. They’ve got real problems, and pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone.

Just cracks me up with some comments: my Rivian has been in the shop 72 times, but hey they were nice and Rivian is the best I’ve ever owned!!! GTFO with that crap. Like CoDogman. Your Rivian was in the shop for 6 days? Bro my 4 Toyotas over 30 years together weren’t in the shop 6 days lol

 

[Killer95Stang]

So... you never answered whether the shudder was fixed or not? If they fixed the problem and then wrote in the service notes what was replaced or fixed, then what is the issue.


The vehicle to hold car manufacturers accountable is called the lemon law. About a 150,000 cars per year are considered defective and lemon lawed in the US. Maybe you got one. Also, six days isn't that bad... especially since you got a free loaner or rental.

 

[SoCal Rob]

That shudder was bad and I’m glad they fixed it. Unless I’m misreading, misunderstanding, or both, it sounds like you’ve have several problems which required service and ultimately got resolved to your satisfaction. That leaves us with two major issues:
1. You had a bunch of problems with a new car which the average person would consider to be an expensive vehicle. I’d be frustrated, too, had that been my experience.
2. The communications have been poor compared to other brands you’ve purchased. Also annoying and I hope you provided feedback on the survey at a bare minimum so they know the service center needs to do better.

I would like to address some common themes regarding your perception of Rivian service:

…

That level of disregard is unacceptable.

I’ve been treated with condescension and brushed off like my time, money, and trust mean nothing. I feel mocked.

…

I didn’t buy a $100,000+ vehicle to feel disrespected, unheard, and stranded.

I think it’s worth considering that your perceptions of being mocked, disrespected, unheard, and disregarded may not be the result of intent by Rivian employees but really an assumption on your part that there are no benign reasons for being treated this way.

When faced with situations like this, where there are problems but the people working on them are polite, and reasonably empathetic, I go on the assumption that there are probably factors I don’t know about which are causing the perceived disconnect. I try to work with people rather than be angry at people.

I’m not saying that they couldn’t have done better or that Rivian shouldn’t improve, but it may be that your service center has their own frustrations and they aren’t intentionally trying to make you feel as you do.

Ultimately, there probably isn’t much which will come from voicing frustrations here. I’d definitely provide direct feedback on the post-service survey and explore other official means of providing constructive criticism.

I hope that your next service experience is at least as good as mine have been and you end up enjoying your Rivian as much as I enjoy ours.

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