First use of public EV charger...MASSIVELY overcharged £
Discussion
Help! Yesterday was my first experience of using public fast EV chargers. It has gone massively wrong.
FIrst charger, I tapped in with credit card for fast charge. It seemed to start, then stopped after about 2 minutes. I tried again, same happened. I could not figure out what happened so abandoned and left to go to a park and ride on another site.
The first place was PoGo. Checking my credit card tonight, I was billed 2 × £30....for no electricity. I should add that both attempts were on the same charger. Charges started, blue light on car, screen on charger seemed to randomly reset, cable was released from car.
Second place...BP chargers. I pulled up to a charger, tapped my card and it told me to plug in. The cable was shorter than expected so my wife started to move the car forward whilst I held the plug. The charger timed out and said wait 2 minutes. Big red cross on the screen. After 2 minutes, no change. Some other chargers were like that. I moved to another charger, plugged in and got a 30 minute charge £19.40. On credit card tonight...I have been billed 2 × £60 plus the £19.40.
So all in all, my top up charge last night cost a grand total of £180 plus the real £19.40.
These charges are marked as "pending" so is that a credit card recharge and you get the money credit back?
I hope so! EV motoring is supposed to be cheap!
If these are pre-charges, then if I charge using things like Electroverse RFID or the charger provider app, do they work in a different way? I don't like the potential for so many credit card transactions really....more to check and reconcile.
FIrst charger, I tapped in with credit card for fast charge. It seemed to start, then stopped after about 2 minutes. I tried again, same happened. I could not figure out what happened so abandoned and left to go to a park and ride on another site.
The first place was PoGo. Checking my credit card tonight, I was billed 2 × £30....for no electricity. I should add that both attempts were on the same charger. Charges started, blue light on car, screen on charger seemed to randomly reset, cable was released from car.
Second place...BP chargers. I pulled up to a charger, tapped my card and it told me to plug in. The cable was shorter than expected so my wife started to move the car forward whilst I held the plug. The charger timed out and said wait 2 minutes. Big red cross on the screen. After 2 minutes, no change. Some other chargers were like that. I moved to another charger, plugged in and got a 30 minute charge £19.40. On credit card tonight...I have been billed 2 × £60 plus the £19.40.
So all in all, my top up charge last night cost a grand total of £180 plus the real £19.40.
These charges are marked as "pending" so is that a credit card recharge and you get the money credit back?
I hope so! EV motoring is supposed to be cheap!
If these are pre-charges, then if I charge using things like Electroverse RFID or the charger provider app, do they work in a different way? I don't like the potential for so many credit card transactions really....more to check and reconcile.
Edited by TUS373 on Sunday 26th October 21:19
As above don't panic. You have now also learnt that you have to start the charge relatively promptly. Read the instructions first and have your card ready. Some cars will time out if the charger is not started within 30 seconds and as you have found the charger will also time out. It's a real pain that just about every charger and network is different. Over a period of 5 years I still reckon half my public charges are not wholly successful.
It helps if you have the app for the charger being used (although many need you to add some credit first).
I had the same issue as you with BP as they replaced their app with a new one which won’t load on to my iPhone so I tapped a credit card to try to get the charger working (that didn’t work either) - the pending funds were reimbursed within 12 hours. Not sure how BP Pulse is staying on business with the number of customers they must have lost with the transfer to the new app.
I had the same issue as you with BP as they replaced their app with a new one which won’t load on to my iPhone so I tapped a credit card to try to get the charger working (that didn’t work either) - the pending funds were reimbursed within 12 hours. Not sure how BP Pulse is staying on business with the number of customers they must have lost with the transfer to the new app.
OP, get yourself an Electroverse card, no pre-authorisation charges, covers the majority of suppliers and is discounted.
https://electroverse.com/
https://electroverse.com/
Mammasaid said:
OP, get yourself an Electroverse card, no pre-authorisation charges, covers the majority of suppliers and is discounted.
https://electroverse.com/
Despite owning a leccy car for a year I never knew this app existed, so thank you. Granted I've only charged publicly twice in that time but it looks like a very handy app. https://electroverse.com/
Thanks everyone.
It was my first time...it had to have some drama attached to it all. I was unsettled when my very first attempts did not work at the charge points for Holiday Inn Lancaster. We paid £6 parking as well - and got 0 miles. Steep learning curve all round I think.
I have an Electroverse card. Cannot remember now whether I tried that with the BP charger. I think I did and it was not recognised, but cannot be sure.
The pending payments are still showing on my credit card today -so looking forward to those coming off. Bit alarming when I saw the additional £200 and was thinking of the hours I was going to spend on the phone arguing to get it back!!
It was my first time...it had to have some drama attached to it all. I was unsettled when my very first attempts did not work at the charge points for Holiday Inn Lancaster. We paid £6 parking as well - and got 0 miles. Steep learning curve all round I think.
I have an Electroverse card. Cannot remember now whether I tried that with the BP charger. I think I did and it was not recognised, but cannot be sure.
The pending payments are still showing on my credit card today -so looking forward to those coming off. Bit alarming when I saw the additional £200 and was thinking of the hours I was going to spend on the phone arguing to get it back!!
My first serious away from home charging experience was a flippin' nightmare too.
In my case, I rocked up at a non working charger, and tried too many times. This not only put charges on my card, but also tripped it into needing to be pin activated, but I couldn't tell from the charger display.
So, I drove round the A25 and tried two more chargers, obvs they wouldn't work as the card needed pin verification, but didn't tell me. Eventually I rocked up at a Shell recharge, and thought I'd load the app and set my card as payment. When that failed, I got a message saying card declined. Rang the bank, got told to go into the shop and buy something and pay by chip and pin to reset the card.
Then, it worked. There was a LOT of swearing that day! But now 30 months later, I'd almost forgotten it.
In my case, I rocked up at a non working charger, and tried too many times. This not only put charges on my card, but also tripped it into needing to be pin activated, but I couldn't tell from the charger display.
So, I drove round the A25 and tried two more chargers, obvs they wouldn't work as the card needed pin verification, but didn't tell me. Eventually I rocked up at a Shell recharge, and thought I'd load the app and set my card as payment. When that failed, I got a message saying card declined. Rang the bank, got told to go into the shop and buy something and pay by chip and pin to reset the card.
Then, it worked. There was a LOT of swearing that day! But now 30 months later, I'd almost forgotten it.
Why people don’t do a local test charge before they need to in anger to know how things work is beyond me. Maybe hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think we forget that the first time we visited a petrol station wasn’t 200 miles from home with a need to fill up, we generally grew up watching our parents or friends fill up. Imagine turning up to a petrol station for the first time and being confronted with 3 different nozzles knowing the wrong one could be an expensive mistake.. EV charging is relatively easy in comparison.
In our house, things must just work, first time and as expected otherwise SWMBO will have an event. She is right too. Send her off with the EV and verbal instructions as to what to do, and it will never be used again if it doesn't work right.
Im still puzzled why my attempts at charging failed. Car seemed OK, fast charger seemed OK but clearly something was amiss. Now the billing on my credit card has sorted itself out, it cost me £0.24 for charge 1 and £0.24 for charge 2. That is as much as I could get, despite the battery being depleted to 17% and set to charge to 75%.
Its a whole new game and practically the opposite to running an ICE car.
Im still puzzled why my attempts at charging failed. Car seemed OK, fast charger seemed OK but clearly something was amiss. Now the billing on my credit card has sorted itself out, it cost me £0.24 for charge 1 and £0.24 for charge 2. That is as much as I could get, despite the battery being depleted to 17% and set to charge to 75%.
Its a whole new game and practically the opposite to running an ICE car.
Gone fishing said:
Why people don t do a local test charge before they need to in anger to know how things work is beyond me. Maybe hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think we forget that the first time we visited a petrol station wasn t 200 miles from home with a need to fill up, we generally grew up watching our parents or friends fill up. Imagine turning up to a petrol station for the first time and being confronted with 3 different nozzles knowing the wrong one could be an expensive mistake.. EV charging is relatively easy in comparison.
I get that, to an extent. My first journey was one of discovery alright. The car was delivered with 90% charge. First experiments were home charging. Then wanted to take it on the motorway, burn some electrons and get an idea of range and performance. Also...to use a proper fast charger. I am none the wiser why the chargers failed though. Anyway....it is key experience and next weekend I'm off on a 250 mile round day trip that I am now prepared for.TUS373 said:
Thanks everyone.
It was my first time...it had to have some drama attached to it all. I was unsettled when my very first attempts did not work at the charge points for Holiday Inn Lancaster. We paid £6 parking as well - and got 0 miles. Steep learning curve all round I think.
I have an Electroverse card. Cannot remember now whether I tried that with the BP charger. I think I did and it was not recognised, but cannot be sure.
The pending payments are still showing on my credit card today -so looking forward to those coming off. Bit alarming when I saw the additional £200 and was thinking of the hours I was going to spend on the phone arguing to get it back!!
Same thing has happened to me twice with PoGo, first time was £210 across two cards. Second time I rang them after the first £30 came out without the unit working. I'll give PoGo excellent credit for customer service. They reset the machine, told me to lift the cable a tiny bit once it was plugged in and all good. Took 10 days for the pending debits to disappear.It was my first time...it had to have some drama attached to it all. I was unsettled when my very first attempts did not work at the charge points for Holiday Inn Lancaster. We paid £6 parking as well - and got 0 miles. Steep learning curve all round I think.
I have an Electroverse card. Cannot remember now whether I tried that with the BP charger. I think I did and it was not recognised, but cannot be sure.
The pending payments are still showing on my credit card today -so looking forward to those coming off. Bit alarming when I saw the additional £200 and was thinking of the hours I was going to spend on the phone arguing to get it back!!
I had a few failed charges the other day on my e-5008 with my electroverse card, it would charge for 2 minutes then stop. which was quite annoying as i didnt realise. Now learned to sit and wait to make sure it is solid and check in on it via the app.
Is there a pattern to plugging in and authorising etc? I.e. authorise and then plug in?
The charger screen said 'Internal charging error' 3 times out of 5 attempts , resolved by moving charger on both visits (return trip to gatwick at Cobham) so perhaps just issues with the chargers.
Is there a pattern to plugging in and authorising etc? I.e. authorise and then plug in?
The charger screen said 'Internal charging error' 3 times out of 5 attempts , resolved by moving charger on both visits (return trip to gatwick at Cobham) so perhaps just issues with the chargers.
Mammasaid said:
OP, get yourself an Electroverse card, no pre-authorisation charges, covers the majority of suppliers and is discounted.
https://electroverse.com/
Why don't they just accept a credit card, just like when one buys petrol or diesel?https://electroverse.com/
The Mad Monk said:
Mammasaid said:
OP, get yourself an Electroverse card, no pre-authorisation charges, covers the majority of suppliers and is discounted.
https://electroverse.com/
Why don't they just accept a credit card, just like when one buys petrol or diesel?https://electroverse.com/
Mammasaid said:
OP, get yourself an Electroverse card, no pre-authorisation charges, covers the majority of suppliers and is discounted.
https://electroverse.com/
thats brilliant thank you https://electroverse.com/
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