by Michael Gauthier
- Rivian customers have been offered cash in exchange for signing away certain rights.
- They include suing for breach of warranty as well as the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
- One R1S owner was offered $2,000 after their new EV spent weeks at a service center.
Getting a new vehicle is exciting, but those feelings can quickly change if something goes wrong. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to one customer who recently took delivery of a Rivian R1S.
In a Reddit post, they explained that they picked up their electric crossover on August 4 and the air conditioner failed less than two weeks later. Even worse, the EV reportedly spent three weeks at a service center with “almost no communication or transparency.”
The Goodwill Offer
While it sounds like Rivian is taking customer service cues from Jeep, the company eventually sent the owner a “goodwill” offer after roughly a dozen inquiries. In exchange for signing away their rights to sue, they’d get a cool $2,000.
More: Rivian Owner’s Quality And Service Nightmares Expose The Pain Of Being A ‘Beta Tester’
The Redditor then posted part of the agreement, which reads: “In exchange for the cash amount above, you hereby release Rivian, and its affiliated entities, from all causes of action you may have for breach of warranty, breach of state lemon law, and breach of the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act relating to your Rivian vehicle to date.”
Others In The Same Boat
Despite sounding unusual, several other commenters chimed in and said they were also presented with the same document and ended up signing it. One even said they presented it to a lawyer, who told them they were just waiving their previous rights, not their future ones. This seems to make sense as the document says “to date.”
In effect, it sounds like Rivian is playing it safe and wants to avoid expensive lawsuits or buybacks. A few thousand dollars doesn’t get you very far in court, so the cash is presumably a win-win for both sides as long as nothing seriously bad happened.
