Official Rivian Email: A Look Ahead to 2023. Rivian Membership cancelled and unbundled into subscription services

[the long way downunder]

R1T to owner: "I see you activated the headlights function: do you want to use your headlights today Mr Bowman"
Owner: "Yes, it's getting dark..."
R1T: "great, that will be 50 cents. Please tap or insert a valid credit card in the reader under the dash. Please note that continued use after midnight local time will require an additional payment."
Owner: "it's getting very dark... can you just turn the lights on and I'll pay you when we get home?".
R1T: "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that".
Owner finds his CC and make payment.
R1T: "thank you for payment, I will now enable headlights function.
Owner: "thanks a lot "
R1T: "you're very welcome Dave.. stay adventurous!"

"card declined" … "headlight feature removed"
"you vehicle has experienced a sudden deceleration event and airbag deployment"
"would you like me to call 911?"
"please provide a valid credit card number to use "911" feature"

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[R1Sky Business]

R1T to owner: "I see you activated the headlights function: do you want to use your headlights today Mr Bowman"
Owner: "Yes, it's getting dark..."
R1T: "great, that will be 50 cents. Please tap or insert a valid credit card in the reader under the dash. Please note that continued use after midnight local time will require an additional payment."
Owner: "it's getting very dark... can you just turn the lights on and I'll pay you when we get home?".
R1T: "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that".
Owner finds his CC and make payment.
R1T: "thank you for payment, I will now enable headlights function.
Owner: "thanks a lot "
R1T: "you're very welcome Dave.. stay adventurous!"

Twilight Zone

 

[Headingley]

Rivian really needs to set a price on new vehicles that will make them profitable (eventually). Going back and removing features and charging for previously included items just makes them look desperate and clueless.

If my vehicle, without a subscription, is not close to what was previously stated by Rivian, in terms of functionality then I'll move along. I think there are a lot of people like me with a long-time ago reservation that are very much still on the fence.

 

[dfx]

Rivian really needs to set a price on new vehicles that will make them profitable (eventually). Going back and removing features and charging for previously included items just makes them look desperate and clueless.

If my vehicle, without a subscription, is not close to what was previously stated by Rivian, in terms of functionality then I'll move along. I think there are a lot of people like me with a long-time ago reservation that are very much still on the fence.

To your point, the sticker price on my R1S is too low. It's what I had budgeted 3 years ago and I'm glad that I got this price but having driven it for a month, there is simply no SUV at this price point that can come anywhere close to what the R1S offers. There are some issues that need to be worked out and I expect they will. But one consistent theme over the last 2 years is that their customer relations suck. Their messaging has been awful as well as some of their decisions.
Simply give every LE owner 1 year of membership from when they take delivery and include everything in that membership that they had originally offered. The goodwill is worth more than the few dollars it might cost them in the short term.

 

[av8or]

At least in the short term this announcement has/will cost Rivian far more dollars than it will generate. It’s probably the absolute worst time to break a promise they made to their customers, with the economy on very shaky legs, the stock down ~90% and people are questioning if they should spend 80k+ on a truck right now, Rivian decides to alienate more customers and give fuel to the short sellers.

 

[jebinc]

Complain on forums like this and reddit.

And FB and Twitter...

 

[Olsonsolar]

There aren't any operational within a day's drive of me. Pretty disappointing. Should be April 2024 at least.

Edit: Was just estimating, but it is actually 26 hours to the closest one. I would have to make 8 other charging stops just to get to it.

It should be x number free KWH’s.

 

[Olsonsolar]

I’m a huge supporter of Rivian and their future, and could arguably be considered a fanboy. But good lord this email is hopeless.

There is zero information anywhere on what is actually in the “bundle” today. WTF are they expecting us to pay for going forward, besides charging and LTE? Also, will maps and traffic work without paying for a subscription? Charging locations? Tony really whiffed on this one, IMO. Leaves more questions than I would otherwise like.

Paying monthly for Nav and charging availability would be bullshit. I’m happy to pay for charging and streaming/wifi in-car.

Most of their emails have a lot of words but no real information. Tony seems to have an advanced degree in such.

 

[crashmtb]

Most of their emails have a lot of words but no real information. Tony seems to have an advanced degree in such.

Welcome to marketing and “communications”

 

[SANZC02]

Surprised how upset so many are on this message. This is just a heads up that they are getting ready to implement what we knew they were going to do all along.

Maybe before everyone falls off the ledge, we should wait and see what the specific details are going to be.

Kind of makes me chuckle, everyone says they should communicate more and not wait until all the details are done, then complains they communicated before the details were done.

 

[av8or]

It’s Rivian’s MO……….send out an email with information on their intentions and see how far they have to backtrack. They told all their preorder holders on 3/1 that the price is changing and then realized it was a mistake and took it back.
They floated this out in an email and I think they probably know by now it was too much too soon and they will modify it to be more acceptable. The thing that concerns me the most is they don’t even hide the fact that they are always looking for ways too screw the customers out of giving what was promised and get more money out of them instead.
If they didn’t want to give me free membership “for and extended period of time after purchase”, then they shouldn’t have told me that when trying to convince me to buy it. Now the year I’ve waited for my truck also happens to be my free membership year!?

GTFO………….you don’t see why people are upset?

 

[freshpow]

It’s Rivian’s MO……….send out an email with information on their intentions and see how far they have to backtrack. They told all their preorder holders on 3/1 that the price is changing and then realized it was a mistake and took it back.
They floated this out in an email and I think they probably know by now it was too much too soon and they will modify it to be more acceptable. The thing that concerns me the most is they don’t even hide the fact that they are always looking for ways too screw the customers out of giving what was promised and get more money out of them instead.
If they didn’t want to give me free membership “for and extended period of time after purchase”, then they shouldn’t have told me that when trying to convince me to buy it. Now the year I’ve waited for my truck also happens to be my free membership year!?

GTFO………….you don’t see why people are upset?

I’m with you. This is egregious and probably worth reporting to the better business bureau. In my life, I don’t think I’ve seen a business try to get additional revenue from their customers. They will never recover from this.

The good news is that since you haven’t even been in line for a year and don’t have your truck yet, you can just cancel your pre-order and move along

 

[TxBeachRivian]

At least in the short term this announcement has/will cost Rivian far more dollars than it will generate. It’s probably the absolute worst time to break a promise they made to their customers, with the economy on very shaky legs, the stock down ~90% and people are questioning if they should spend 80k+ on a truck right now, Rivian decides to alienate more customers and give fuel to the short sellers.

This is done to address the stock prices. They are focused on cutting costs and getting closer to profitability. Eliminating costs associated with the free membership is one of the simplest knobs to turn. And there are very few uses of anything but LTE, so they will get rid of those first. Then turn LTE into a revenue stream as it was always planned. I don’t really like it that much, but I think I would rather have them continue to operate and grow versus continue to loose money and go out of business.

 

[TxBeachRivian]

While this upset me some, if I am honest with myself, I didn’t factor the membership benefits in my decision to purchase and would sign again even if the membership didn’t exist or required a cost.

 

[Caleb S]

Non-Rivians can't charge at all on RAN at the moment. They can only use the Level 2 Waypoint network right now.

Maybe instead of trying to charge membership fees they should stop giving away free electricity at the waypoint chargers? Currently it seems they are always occupied by non Rivian cars, what is the benefit of these chargers if you as a Rivian owner can’t access them?

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