Your Rivian Guide Experience- Meet Expectations or Less Than Stellar? (Knowledge, Helpful, Responsiveness?)

[Count Orlok]

for clarity - i'm the buyer.
anxiously awaiting your apology. cheers.

cool. I hope it works out for you soon. It's a great vehicle.

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[COdogman]

for clarity - i'm the buyer.
anxiously awaiting your apology. cheers.

Apology for what? Not awarding you “2023’s Worst Karen” award in February? You have another 10 months and I have a feeling you’re just getting started.

 

[gvtucker]

My guide was/is KatyG, and she was/is fantastic. My delivery was during the quarter-end push at the end of September and I was impressed at the level of personal attention that she was able to provide despite the fact that they were deluged trying to push vehicles out. I requested delaying my delivery until the first week of October for personal reasons, and Katy graciously resolved that issue for me also in spite of the SC pushing for me to travel to Brooklyn to pick up in October. I still have occasional email interactions with her regarding my Rivian experiences.

I think some of my positive experience was due to scheduling calls with my guide using Rivian's Calendly app. I might have waited a day or two for a mutually available time slot, but I had 30 minutes of predictable undivided attention from Katy every time. My summary is that my guide provided a tremendous added value to the Rivian customer relationship and buying experience.

KatyG was also my guide, and I concur. She is fantastic. For most emails, she usually replied almost immediately, and always within a couple of hours. I had one minor issue where Rivian forgot to charge the sales tax for the wall charger, and she handled it great.

 

[0=====0]

My Guide was on vacation this week and the R1S reached the SC. Guides on call were following up on my questions. I still got my schedule delivery email and I could pick a time on Monday!

I don't think Guides experience changes that much. It's all about expectations, they obviously have a backup process in place just in case your guide is unavailable. I mean, any basic CRM system can enable that redundancy.

There will always be corner cases.

 

[Sevn86]

I’ve had a very positive experience with my guide. I’m sorry to see some of y’all haven’t. Taylor is awesome to talk to and very responsive. I think the longest I’ve gone between my text to her and her response is probably 2-3 hours. She’s kept me in the loop and has had a positive attitude this whole time. Great energy!

 

[Ripped]

I haven't received my R1T yet (maxpack version) but I would say that outside of maybe one or two emails, all communication has been very good. This is inclusive of my First Mile drive (which was today) and went about 45 minutes overtime (I was early to arrive and a little long in the tooth chatting)
So apologies to the next people as I was about 3 minutes past their start time.
The person doing my test drive was probably my delivery person, so all good, and handled the tough questions inclusive of the vampire drain.

 

[Rainman]

My guide (Ruby) has been fantastic. Very communicative and if she doesn't have an answer she gets it for me. She also had updates for me on my R1T's status with fairly accurate timing.

 

[sub]

First time I reached out to my guide was by email - multiple emails sent with no response. After two weeks I gave up on email, I tried a text message, and my guide was very prompt and helpful and responding - at first. Text messages seem to be going to a black hole too.

 

[SACDFJC]

I've owned my R1T for a year now and I'm on guide number 3. Guide number 1 quit in the middle of my original 8-step process, so he gets a score. 2nd guide was awesome, she rocked on responsiveness and information, but I think she quit too, but she gets score. Guide number 3 was just assigned a week or so ago. We'll see how he works out, if he's still around, when my R1S order comes up in a few months.

 

[md2023]

My guide (Sara) was/is great in all respects (helpful, responsive, knowledgeable, etc.)

 

[someallenguy]

My guide (Aaron A) has been fantastic. We’re on a primary text basis (my choice) and I don’t think I’ve waited more than 30 minutes for a response. Most of the time he gets back to me in 10-15

 

[Killer95Stang]

My guide Zach has been amazing! Took care of all my needs in a timely manner. Still stay in contact with him even after my R1T was delivered in June and consider him a friend. Have plans to hopefully meet up with him again when I am in SoCal

If it is Zach from Costa Mesa you are talking about , he was our guide for delivery day of our R1S. He was very knowledgeable, and had great personality. Really made the experience of delivery day great one.

I'll admit, like every other tech savy person in the forum, I've been researching everything about Rivian for the past 2 years prior to delivery. I even had a Rivian employee neighbor I pestered, so aside from basic setup related items, I already knew most of what was said

 

[Swezey]

My guide, Brooke, has left me wanting more.

1. Never reached out to me when I was assigned to her (kinda implied in the title: guide)

2. I've had to repeat myself now 3 times that I cannot make final payment until my check clears (sold my RAM for $33K, takes 7 biz days to clear all the funds). I'm pretty sure she has our chat history. Please don't be lazy, scroll up, and complete your context switch before messaging me. She asked again this morning, unprompted, wondering if I was able to make final payment. I'm leaving that one on read. I still have a day left (tomorrow) to pay by, which I will be doing so when my check clears.

3. Didn't follow up as she promised to confirm my lender's check was processed successfully. I found out myself by logging in and seeing it reflect on my account.

I won't be using my guide and will rely on my local SC instead after delivery.

The bar isn't set that high. Nagging me about final payment is very off putting. Only my wife can nag me about money, which she doesn't because we both work.

 

[Deacon]

Wondering about overall experience others have encountered with guides.

Our first left us underwhelmed and a tad concerned. Had our first guide call on their initative. Found that answers to two questions i posed during the call were simply incorrect. Guide's answers didn't match with what could be found on publically facing Rivian web site after the call, left me more confused than informed. Also our first attempt with post call contact was less than stellar. After first guide contact i called number we were given, went to voicemail which promised a call back "within one business day". Almost 4 business days later, no callback or response.

We're not close to delivery yet, so guessing they are focused on more short term needs which is fine, but didn't build confidence. Inaccurate information on first call and slow/ lack of responsiveness has me questioning and concerned about value add we can expect from guides.

Would love to hear experiences from others who have engaged with Guides. Also wondering if anyone has requested a change in guides mid process if perhaps the assigned guide needs more ramp up and training time? Thanks in advance for sharing!

R1S, Large Pack, 21 " Wheels, Ocean Coast with Dark Ash Wood, Red Canyon
Preorder date: 5/17/2020
First Guide Contact: 1/11/2023
Delivery Date: Unknown

My guide is Pam and she has been awesome. Anytime I want to speak with her I would send her a text and she would call me within 10 minutes. I agree that Rivian probably doesn't give them all the information they need to address all the issues we come across. I don't know if that is by design or not. Anyway, my guide has been awesome.

 

[Litup]

Is it me as I go through this process feeling like Rivian isn't so forthcoming with information related to my purchase. Maybe it is just my guide that I feel needs some education in customer service.

Brings me to the question.. Once I actually take delivery how big of a roll does the guide play? Is he forever attached to the vehicle and my point of contact if and when I have any issues?

Maybe it is just me as I am pretty particular about details and during this process I shouldn't have to be the one that initiates (more then once..) an answer to a concern.

Love to hear your experience for those that are much further down the road then I am.

Thanks for any input.

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