Why is Rivian giving me the run around?!?

[calpharo]

Long time lurker here on the site. Took delivery of a White R1S back in August 2023 and have had a very frustrating experience with multiple things. But probably most frustrating is trying to get a refund back from Rivian for an overpayment made during the vehicle purchase.

To summarize, I was trading in my Model Y. I received the trade in quote approx 6 weeks prior to delivery. Had a bit of negative equity (~$100) that was going to be rolled into the new financing on the Rivian. Since it was 6 weeks until the delivery of the Rivian, I ended up making a payment on the Tesla and ended up having some positive equity on the vehicle at time of Rivian delivery/trade-in.

I reached out to my guide to let him know at the time the payment was due prior to taking delivery. His response was “go ahead and make the payments as what it shows online and any overages would be refunded back to you by the lender on your trade-in”. So my 3rd party lender ended up making a wire for the financed amount and I used Plaid to pay the remaining down payment.

Fast forward to 2 weeks post delivery. Rivian accounting only sent the current payoff amount to the Tesla lender. Long story short, I am owed back nearly $600.

I reached out to my guide and let him know, after some back and forth emails he acknowledged the amount and advised that accounting will process the refund an issue a check in 6-8 weeks.

So now it has been 5 months with no check. I have been reaching out to my guide and/or customer service at least every couple weeks with false promises that it should be soon.

At this point, it is more the principle than the amount of money. I am getting very frustrated and want to take this to someone is customer service management but trying to speak to someone in management is nearly as difficult as getting on the phone with the president!

does anyone have any suggestions??

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[ksujeff99]

I have no suggestions, but I had a similar issue related to getting a refund for registration fees when I bought in June 2022. It took several months. It seems not much has changed in the last 20 months!

As much as this sucks, I think it's still better than going to a dealer. My father recently bought a Lightning. The Ford dealer called him about a week after he bought it and said he needed to come in and finance an additional $7,500 because it was going to take too long for them to be reimbursed by the IRS for the instant EV rebate. They even threatened him and said he wouldn't be able to register his new truck until he did this.

 

[COdogman]

There have been multiple people who struggled to get refunds from Rivian for various things in a timely manner. So it’s not you, they just seem to be bad at this particular part of customer service. Everyone going through something similar eventually received their refund, so just keep bugging them until you get it. Request that it get escalated if necessary. That seemed to work for most folks…

 

[MidnightRivian]

 

[Prime]

Long time lurker here on the site. Took delivery of a White R1S back in August 2023 and have had a very frustrating experience with multiple things. But probably most frustrating is trying to get a refund back from Rivian for an overpayment made during the vehicle purchase.

To summarize, I was trading in my Model Y. I received the trade in quote approx 6 weeks prior to delivery. Had a bit of negative equity (~$100) that was going to be rolled into the new financing on the Rivian. Since it was 6 weeks until the delivery of the Rivian, I ended up making a payment on the Tesla and ended up having some positive equity on the vehicle at time of Rivian delivery/trade-in.

I reached out to my guide to let him know at the time the payment was due prior to taking delivery. His response was “go ahead and make the payments as what it shows online and any overages would be refunded back to you by the lender on your trade-in”. So my 3rd party lender ended up making a wire for the financed amount and I used Plaid to pay the remaining down payment.

Fast forward to 2 weeks post delivery. Rivian accounting only sent the current payoff amount to the Tesla lender. Long story short, I am owed back nearly $600.

I reached out to my guide and let him know, after some back and forth emails he acknowledged the amount and advised that accounting will process the refund an issue a check in 6-8 weeks.

So now it has been 5 months with no check. I have been reaching out to my guide and/or customer service at least every couple weeks with false promises that it should be soon.

At this point, it is more the principle than the amount of money. I am getting very frustrated and want to take this to someone is customer service management but trying to speak to someone in management is nearly as difficult as getting on the phone with the president!

does anyone have any suggestions??

you have to keep up with it, I had a few items returned to the Rivian shop on 2 separate occasions. Both times items were received after months not refunded. I emailed tracking to my guide demonstrating receipt of return to Rivian and received my refund shortly after bringing it to their attention. It has been extremely rare for this to happen at any other company (not getting a refund until bringing it to their attention), but twice in a row at Rivian plus these other issues I am hearing about, def needs improvement.

 

[calpharo]

So on a separate note, when my vehicle was in for a HV battery replacement back in November I was told by my service advisor that they would reimburse me for a vehicle detail up to $200 since they were not able to get my vehicle cleaned up for me after the long service visit. Long story short still waiting on that too….and continuing to get the run around from the service dept.

So I decided to drop in on the service department in Costa Mesa to see what the hold up is and hopefully get this resolved. But from my conversation with them, turns out that the check is also coming from corporate.

more info once I get it. But this is no way to treat your early adopters and build a brand…

 

[calpharo]

So Costa Mesa service did the right thing and had the regional manager who was on site Venmo me the reimbursement. Unfortunately, he now has to deal with getting reimbursed from Rivian.

 

[240vPlug]

Call them daily and ask for status updates, ask for a tracking number, if all else fails small claims court. Folks have done that with Tesla when they couldn't get anything from them. It took me five months to get several hundred back from Tesla when they made an error with my registration and failed to transfer my tags. Eventually they mailed me a check.

 

[goldburger]

I’ve been waiting 3 months for a refund check for a charged service appointment I never gave authorization for. Rivian is somehow bad at refund checks and getting in touch with anyone is a nightmare. Guide is the only one who helped move it along.

 

[Zoidz]

Email the following, this has worked for some in the past.

RJ Scaringe, no intro necessary - [email protected]
Tony Caravano, Head of Customer Engagement - [email protected]

 

[calpharo]

Finally got the check after sending an email to demands@Rivian threatening with a small claims suit if I did not get the check by the end of February. Lo and behold it shows ups this last week. It’s been 6 months since I took delivery.

not a way to treat customers. Again, like I mentioned in my first post, we are all brand ambassadors. I love the R1S but hate the lack of customer service from Rivian as was as the lack of QC at the factory

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