Clarified: Rivian Service and Towing Policy Changes (10/07/2022)

[connoisseurr]

Since my last post was misleading, I am reposting a new thread with more clarity on the topic of no-cost vs fee-based towing services, offered by Rivian. My original post pertaining to the experience I encountered, has been restructured and is available as the second comment in this thread

I was provided this information by Chris, my Rivian Guide (RG), and Zach, a lead Service Advisor (SA), located in Normal, IL. Rivian has been rather flexible on providing no-cost towing services vehicles needing a visit to a Rivian Service Center (SC), which is now a more strict policy.

Effective 10/06/2022, Rivian’s policy for providing no-cost towing services for vehicles has changed to support the following:

• Free flatbed towing services will only be offered for vehicles that are INOPERABLE and need repairs due to warranty-related issues
• No-cost towing is offered to-and-from the SC
• Towing services are typically arranged through trained third-party carriers that are trained on how to properly load, secure and transport Rivian vehicles, but on occasion a Rivian SC will facilitate the tow

Rivian’s advertised towing fees are: $55.00 base fee + $6.50/mile.

Any vehicles that are drivable and DO NOT exhibit a safety concern, are no longer offered a no-cost towing service. The owner may elect to pay the towing fee or drive the vehicle themselves to the SC.

While Rivian acknowledged my comments and is apologetic about vehicles being delivered with issues such as out-of-spec alignments, suspension sagging issues, and wheel balance issues, as being unacceptable, these are all service-related items that a SC will be addressed through a SC visit. These issues are a byproduct of Rivian’s growth in the production process and will be mitigated in the near future. My RG stated that all issues, no matter of size or relevancy, should be shared with Rivian, with as much detail as possible. Feedback will be circulated to the relevant stakeholders.

Rivian is updating their service and warranty agreements to include the change in their policy, which will be published to replace the current version on the website and in the Rivian app. My RG and the lead SA told me that all Guides and SAs are up to speed on the new policy change and can address any additional comments or questions by other owners, directly.

Last, Rivian also acknowledges the lack of convenient SCs and expressed the company’s larger focus for Q4 is to fast-track the opening of planned Service Centers throughout the country and enable a broader access to authorized mobile services – very vague, but I appreciated the feedback. We do need many more SCs and mobile service operators.

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[connoisseurr]

More feedback on my specific service incident which led to this post. I received delivery of an R1T on 9/30/2022. The vehicle was delivered with the following issues: front wheel out-of-balance, front end alignment out-of-spec, possible suspension issue in front-right corner, compressor running excessively, paint damaged in two spots on the driver-side rear door, driver-side gear tunnel missing PPF (not a big deal as I’m adding PPF), center display glass bezel not fully-attached and has glue/sealant around the entire screen, driver-side front and rear door out of alignment, frunk getting stuck in the closed position.

I had the opportunity to drive a Launch Edition R1T over Labor Day weekend that exhibited none of these issues, however it did exhibit the drive axle “tock” issue. We also participated in a test drive a few months back, so we knew what to expect when delivery time was upon us.

On 09/30/2022, I logged all service-related items in the app. I was then contacted on 10/03/2022 and 10/04/2022 regarding the issues submitted within the app, and a SC appointment was created for Thursday 10/13/2022. Rivian arranged a pick-up for the R1T from my home on 10/12/2022. I knew 10/13/2022 may not work and I did let my SA know about this. They told me to call back when I knew for sure. Later the same day, I called to reschedule and spoke with a different SA. They were having trouble getting an appointment at the Richmond SC, and told me they would call me back by close of business. No response. I called again the next day – same issue.

I called in once again on 10/06/2022 and was finally able to get a new service date. This is when I was informed of the changed policy for towing and that my “new” (not rescheduled, but new) service appointment would incur this towing fee, should I elect to have the Rivian picked up. Yes, I was heated in the moment, but was able to work with Rivian on this later in the day. I’m happy to say my SA and a manager in the SA department waived the towing charge, as I started the service request process before the notice was released to all SAs and RGs. They made good on their part, for which I am very thankful. I also wouldn’t have reacted this way if Rivian kept the much closer Rockville SC open, while also gearing up to open the new Gaithersburg SC.

To clarify, I was not being charged a “rescheduling” fee. For some reason, the previous SAs I worked with were unable to reschedule the appointment… they were cancelling the old and scheduling new.

 

[R1Tom]

Delivery inspection just got alot more important.

 

[Rivian_Hugh_III]

If you do an intense inspection upon first receiving your Rivian, and if you find some of these problems, I wonder if you should refuse delivery until they’re fixed.

Do they still drive or flatbed the vehicle to your house? Maybe you say “fix it and bring it back when it’s ready and I’ll sign”?

I hate to be a douche but taking days off of work to drive hours away to get a problem fixed that never should have happened at assembly, never should have passed factory QC, never should have passed Service Center QC, and never should have been delivered in such a state, is pretty bad.

Maybe they need a “mileage radius” variable in the decision. If I’m 30 minutes away, sure. If I’m 600 miles away? Nah, that’s not okay.

 

[jjswan33]

Still really conflicted here. As an owner that lives 4 hours from a SC I am frustrated, especially considering I had the impression they could provide service in Portland OR. As a stock owner I can see the business reasons behind this, I am sure tow charges and service are killing the bottom line.

So thinking about selling my truck, sure it will be the lowest priced resale offering yet based on my 18k miles. Not sure what I would replace it with, I do love the truck when it works. I could always consider a Rivian again in a few years, maybe they can actually sort all this out by then.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Do they still drive or flatbed the vehicle to your house? Maybe you say “fix it and bring it back when it’s ready and I’ll sign”?

Rivian wouldn't even schedule my delivery until I signed all the paperwork. Legally, I owned it before I even saw it with my own eyes.

I hate to be a douche but taking days off of work to drive hours away to get a problem fixed that never should have happened at assembly, never should have passed factory QC, never should have passed Service Center QC, and never should have been delivered in such a state, is pretty bad.

Yep. Even worse when some of us HAVE driven our vehicles many hours to the SC and the vehicles were given back to us without being fixed.

 

[mkg3]

All of this is sound and reasonable to me.

The only thing I would add to Rivian approach is that they need to significantly improve final inspection and not deliver vehicles with so many issues, regardless of the owners desire to get the vehicle in their hands.

I guess the rub is for those that live much distance away from their SC may have bought into the vehicle service approach based on they'll come to me notion.

At some point, when Rivian builds up their service mobile fleet, they can make more "house calls" but for now, they are ramping up everything - not just production, including SC, mobile service, RAN and so on.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Still really conflicted here. As an owner that lives 4 hours from a SC I am frustrated, especially considering I had the impression they could provide service in Portland OR. As a stock owner I can see the business reasons behind this, I am sure tow charges and service are killing the bottom line.

This is why Rivian shouldn't have IPOd when they did. Being publically-traded forces them to do things that hurt their brand.

RJ once said something about only getting one chance at their handshake with the world. Well, you brought in public shareholders and now your handshake is limp as F.

They had money from Ford and Amazon. They could have delivered excellence then IPOd in a year or two. They decided to sell out early.

 

[connoisseurr]

Delivery inspection just got alot more important.

Here is a checklist I created based upon another that was available on the forum. This is cleaner, and has more defined inspection items.

 

[Rivian_Hugh_III]

Remember this from two weeks ago? RJ's pretty excited about this service van. That's where the energy needs to go. Unless they're planning to nix them too?

 

[connoisseurr]

Remember this from two weeks ago? RJ's pretty excited about this service van. That's where the energy needs to go. Unless they're planning to nix them too?

Amazon pays more for the vans. That's why Rivian isn't using them yet.

 

[EBEG]

This is why Rivian shouldn't have IPOd when they did. Being publically-traded forces them to do things that hurt their brand.

RJ once said something about only getting one chance at their handshake with the world. Well, you brought in public shareholders and now your handshake is limp as F.

They had money from Ford and Amazon. They could have delivered excellence then IPOd in a year or two. They decided to sell out early.

My guess is that Ford and Amazon (along with other significant investors) pressured the IPO. Ford dumped a bunch of stock as soon as they were able.

 

[Dark-Fx]

This is why Rivian shouldn't have IPOd when they did. Being publically-traded forces them to do things that hurt their brand.

RJ once said something about only getting one chance at their handshake with the world. Well, you brought in public shareholders and now your handshake is limp as F.

They had money from Ford and Amazon. They could have delivered excellence then IPOd in a year or two. They decided to sell out early.

Rivian had to IPO when they did. They didn't have the VC or cash on hand to execute the R2 line. They have no chance of surviving long term without it.

 

[PastyPilgrim]

I feel like this breaks down when you consider that Rivian chose to deliver vehicles to people that are hours from a service center, and people that accepted those vehicles did so under the impression that Rivian would take care of their own quality and production issues. Or at the very least that their promises of mobile servicing and rapidly expanding service center presence were genuine.

I don't expect to be especially effected by this policy in the near-term since I live close to a service center, but it certainly doesn't reassure me that Rivian will go the distance when it comes to maintaining these early vehicles and honoring warranties.

The actual policy aside, wtf is with their rates? A cursory google search indicates that average flatbed towing rates are about $3/mi. If anything, Rivian should be subsidizing the towing service (and/or doing it at cost since they own/operate many of their own flatbeds), but it seems like they're choosing to make it prohibitively expense and/or make profits on it.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Remember this from two weeks ago? RJ's pretty excited about this service van. That's where the energy needs to go. Unless they're planning to nix them too?

Fun fact. Rivian actually had a special Model code for vehicles destined for Rivian Service.
https://vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/mid/home/displayfile/5dbfb0a3-48cd-40ff-96f2-510e28b639ec

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