Krom2040
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Dave
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2023
- Threads
- 7
- Messages
- 51
- Reaction score
- 90
- Location
- Central Florida
- Vehicles
- 2023 MME Premium SR LFP
- Occupation
- Software Guy
- Thread starter
- #1
I apologize for making a post that's probably been made a million times by now, but I felt like I would share it anyway as it's a first for me.
I just bought my MME last month and I've been enjoying it, but it's almost all been charging at home. I took it out for a fairly quick day trip yesterday, and decided that I would top it off just to avoid getting home at <5%. I looked up chargers in the FordPass app and found an Electrify America charger stop at a Walmart that was basically on my route.
I get there and it's empty, with six stations. One of them was offline, but the rest were at least nominally functional. I had 250kW of free charging through the FordPass app, so I tried to use that - I activated the charger through the app, and was prompted to put the handset in and start charging, which I did. After 30-60 seconds, it just failed, with an error like "charger fault" or something, and the charger ring on the MME port started flashing orange. and the app notified me of the failure. Tried again, same result.
Moved to a different station and repeated, and same result.
Tried a third station, and again, same thing.
At this point, I thought that maybe the problem was with the FordPass app, so I started the process of downloading the app, setting up an account, entering billing info, etc. I have my wife and my mother and my newborn with me, so this is starting to feel like an ordeal - after all, I was the one who pushed for an EV when my wife was more hesitant about it.
I get the app set up and go about the same basic process of activating the charger, and starting charging. This time it actually seems to start working! Except... then it fails. The app reports a failure and suggests retrying. But I take a look at the charger port and see that it looks like it's still charging. I look over at the station and verify that it does indeed seem to still be going, even though the app thinks otherwise.
But I look at the station, and notice that it's already charged me $13 before I've really even started charging. The screen literally shows me that it knows my battery was 30% at the start of charge, but for whatever weird failure of code, it's decided that I owe them money for the 30% of the battery that was already charged when I showed up.
Anyway, I charge to about 50% (from starting at 30%) and stop charging. It charged at a rate of around ~100kW, which is fine. I thought maybe it was just a UI glitch, but sure enough, I proceeded to get a bill for $22 for charging 20% of my battery.
I called Electrify America and find that their billing department is closed. I've called back today and I've had to spend like a half hour on hold - I started talking with a guy, I explained the situation, he put me on hold, came back, put me on hold again, and then came back and explained that it was actually MY FAULT, and then I had to explain again what happened and offer to send photo evidence. I'm on hold yet again and still not sure whether this is going to get resolved.
This is frankly just a nightmare scenario and honestly makes me feel like I may have inflicted a big a impediment on my family by buying an EV if this is going to be a recurring theme. I'm optimistic that the Tesla integration will help to avoid this kind of BS, but just feeling pretty uncertain about the whole highway charging experience now.
I just bought my MME last month and I've been enjoying it, but it's almost all been charging at home. I took it out for a fairly quick day trip yesterday, and decided that I would top it off just to avoid getting home at <5%. I looked up chargers in the FordPass app and found an Electrify America charger stop at a Walmart that was basically on my route.
I get there and it's empty, with six stations. One of them was offline, but the rest were at least nominally functional. I had 250kW of free charging through the FordPass app, so I tried to use that - I activated the charger through the app, and was prompted to put the handset in and start charging, which I did. After 30-60 seconds, it just failed, with an error like "charger fault" or something, and the charger ring on the MME port started flashing orange. and the app notified me of the failure. Tried again, same result.
Moved to a different station and repeated, and same result.
Tried a third station, and again, same thing.
At this point, I thought that maybe the problem was with the FordPass app, so I started the process of downloading the app, setting up an account, entering billing info, etc. I have my wife and my mother and my newborn with me, so this is starting to feel like an ordeal - after all, I was the one who pushed for an EV when my wife was more hesitant about it.
I get the app set up and go about the same basic process of activating the charger, and starting charging. This time it actually seems to start working! Except... then it fails. The app reports a failure and suggests retrying. But I take a look at the charger port and see that it looks like it's still charging. I look over at the station and verify that it does indeed seem to still be going, even though the app thinks otherwise.
But I look at the station, and notice that it's already charged me $13 before I've really even started charging. The screen literally shows me that it knows my battery was 30% at the start of charge, but for whatever weird failure of code, it's decided that I owe them money for the 30% of the battery that was already charged when I showed up.
Anyway, I charge to about 50% (from starting at 30%) and stop charging. It charged at a rate of around ~100kW, which is fine. I thought maybe it was just a UI glitch, but sure enough, I proceeded to get a bill for $22 for charging 20% of my battery.
I called Electrify America and find that their billing department is closed. I've called back today and I've had to spend like a half hour on hold - I started talking with a guy, I explained the situation, he put me on hold, came back, put me on hold again, and then came back and explained that it was actually MY FAULT, and then I had to explain again what happened and offer to send photo evidence. I'm on hold yet again and still not sure whether this is going to get resolved.
This is frankly just a nightmare scenario and honestly makes me feel like I may have inflicted a big a impediment on my family by buying an EV if this is going to be a recurring theme. I'm optimistic that the Tesla integration will help to avoid this kind of BS, but just feeling pretty uncertain about the whole highway charging experience now.
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