Rivian Delivery Fiasco

Fun story - looking for other experiences as well:

Couldn’t pass up on the amazing R1T deals out right now and placed an order for a forest green R1T large pack Adventure off road package, included stealth xpel. This was my first color choice and xpel just happened to be included.

Portland, OR SC

  • Ordered June23rd, 2024
  • Got a text, app notification for 8steps and scheduled delivery for Saturday June 29th!
  • was called by a guide (no contact until) on June 26th that the truck had been put on rail instead of truck and it would be another 4 weeks. This was all good, shit happens. I had put my deposit in and finished all the steps by this point.
  • tried for the next 4 days to get in touch with a guide about getting gear shop items included in the order - was really difficult to get in touch with anyone. Never got a solution and slightly gave up as life was busy and the holiday, July 4th was coming up.
  • got a call on July 2nd: “we hate to tell you this, but the train had an issue and your truck was destroyed in an accident” 🤣 like seriously?! A derailment. Not only that, but I was required to make an in the spot choice on available options and my original choice was not available at all. The guide was pretty emotionless and couldn’t find a second color choice at all (El Cap) so I settled for LA Silver. Same other specs. I was a little miffed that I couldn’t look at the options online and that on that call I had to choose.
  • the kicker, sending by rail again. Another 4-6 week window.
  • 8 steps have been slightly saved, but trade in is voided, financing has to be redone and delivery isn’t open.

Given the frustration, I looked around and found a couple El Cap variants in various zip codes to choose from - something the guide was doing over the phone so it seemed like an option to do. I also didn’t want my deposit in limbo and the app showed no sign I had paid it, ~ 10k, so I asked for a return since I grabbed it out of a liquid investment pool that earns interest. The guide got kind of weird from here. Treated me like I was insane, that all the options I gave weren’t remotely possible to choose from and said if I want a refund, that was fine but he’d have the sales team call. Ok, ok, so I get what I get and don’t throw a fit. Jeez. For a 80k vehicle, where they over promised and under delivered (literally), I’d expect a lot more understanding.

  • July 8th, got a call from sales reaching out about the refund. Really nice person. They stated that I wanted to cancel the order and get a refund…uh no. Explained ALL of what occurred and he said he would explore this more.
  • July 9th, got a call from my advisor with two final options: cancel the order and get a refund (which he said would take 12 weeks and then a paper check would come via mail) or keep what I have and wait it out.

Let’s say at this point I was more…emphatic.. about the fact that they can draft money out of my account within 48 hours but it takes 3 months for me to get it back???? I flat out told him no, it’ll come in 48 hours and I want to keep my order.

We navigated that conversation really well together, I kept my order, they kept the money (which still doesn’t show again in the transaction receipt) and he gave me some discounts and upgraded the wheels to dark wheels at no cost to me. Cool!

Now crickets.

I know I’m only three weeks in at the moment from order, but WTH. Feels like I’ve been coordinating with Rivian for months.

Any thoughts out there or experiences on timing that y’all have would be insightful. What a fluke accident/order issue.