FordPass Connected services suspended?

[Patty Wac]

Just tried to charge at an electrify America station and it tells me that it cannot charge my free account for my free kwhs. I’ve never had a problem with charging for this vehicle, FordPass is saying my connected services are suspended but on their end it shows everything is fine. Anyone else have this issue???

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[Nklem]

I have found calling EA from the station usually gets these issues resolved. Great customer service.

 

[hbirring01]

I had this issue the other day when my car was almost dead! I needed to charge and I couldnt because it kept saying payment declined so I figured I would just swipe my card but nope it kept trying to charge my card on the ford account. Not sure why it kept declining payment on that card since it was not expired and I always pay all of my balances off at the end of each month. So I figured I would go into the connected services site and add a new card. The site was down! So I kept refreshing and finally got in to add a new card and the site went back down right after I added my card. Then I could charge

 

[TheVirtualTim]

I had this issue the other day when my car was almost dead! I needed to charge and I couldnt because it kept saying payment declined so I figured I would just swipe my card but nope it kept trying to charge my card on the ford account. Not sure why it kept declining payment on that card since it was not expired and I always pay all of my balances off at the end of each month. So I figured I would go into the connected services site and add a new card. The site was down! So I kept refreshing and finally got in to add a new card and the site went back down right after I added my card. Then I could charge

Early on I wanted to add one particular credit card and it wouldn't accept it (even though the card is fine) -- no matter how many times I tried. Finally I tried a different card and it accepted that card -- no problem. After adding the other card, I tried to add the first card again ... and this time it worked.

BTW, as an alternative you can use the EA app, select the charge station, and activate charging through the app. Since the station is basically now pre-authorized (through the app) it shouldn't attempt to use Plug & Charge to authorize charging. This *should* completely bypass Connected Services / Blue-Oval / FordPass Charging network if Ford is having service outages. (This is also currently the only way to take advantage of EA's Pass+ rates -- about 25% cheaper for $4/month. But on a very low battery charging to 80% that $4 expense would pay for itself on the first charge.

 

[hbirring01]

Early on I wanted to add one particular credit card and it wouldn't accept it (even though the card is fine) -- no matter how many times I tried. Finally I tried a different card and it accepted that card -- no problem. After adding the other card, I tried to add the first card again ... and this time it worked.

BTW, as an alternative you can use the EA app, select the charge station, and activate charging through the app. Since the station is basically now pre-authorized (through the app) it shouldn't attempt to use Plug & Charge to authorize charging. This *should* completely bypass Connected Services / Blue-Oval / FordPass Charging network if Ford is having service outages. (This is also currently the only way to take advantage of EA's Pass+ rates -- about 25% cheaper for $4/month. But on a very low battery charging to 80% that $4 expense would pay for itself on the first charge.

I tried to use the EA app, but no service there lol.

 

[Patty Wac]

That’s crazy. I literally used two other stations and they all said the same thing. Once it bypassed the charging credits I just paid for it out of my own pocket. Called ford connected services and they opened a ticket for me so hopefully it gets resolved soon, I’ll try to do some of the fixes you guys mentioned.

 

[cravacor]

Early on I wanted to add one particular credit card and it wouldn't accept it (even though the card is fine) -- no matter how many times I tried. Finally I tried a different card and it accepted that card -- no problem. After adding the other card, I tried to add the first card again ... and this time it worked.

BTW, as an alternative you can use the EA app, select the charge station, and activate charging through the app. Since the station is basically now pre-authorized (through the app) it shouldn't attempt to use Plug & Charge to authorize charging. This *should* completely bypass Connected Services / Blue-Oval / FordPass Charging network if Ford is having service outages. (This is also currently the only way to take advantage of EA's Pass+ rates -- about 25% cheaper for $4/month. But on a very low battery charging to 80% that $4 expense would pay for itself on the first charge.

Are you saying FordPass charging needs to be deactivated to get the cheaper rate?

 

[EELinneman]

Bear in mind that Amazon Web Services is experiencing a major issue in their US-East-1 region. You can see a lot of info on downdetector.com. I suspect this is affecting a lot of services including Ford and EA. They are working on addressing this - it's some sort of networking in the region. Also, are others seeing long delays in bringing up their car in the ford.com website. I'm guessing it's the AWS problem.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Are you saying FordPass charging needs to be deactivated to get the cheaper rate?

You don't have to "de-activate" it ... but until Ford implements the ability to add Pass+ to your FordPass account you can't take advantage of it through Plug & Charge or FordPass.

You can "authorize" the charge session before connecting to the car. Or... you can connect to the car and let Plug & Charge take care of it. If you connect to the car first ... it is GOING to use Plug & Charge. Electrify America does not currently have a way to determine that your car is owned by someone who is paying for a Pass+ membership ... so you'll be charged the higher pay-as-you-go rate.

When you charge at Electrify America, you have several choices.

1. Use a credit card (on equipped stations) and get the pay-as-you-go rate (usually 43¢/kWh in states where you pay per kiloWatt).

2. Use the FordPass app (must set up Connected Services) and initiate via Plug & Charge ... it's the same pay-as-you-go rate.

3. Use the FordPass app to manually start the charge session (instead of Plug & Charge). Same pay-as-you-go rate.

4. Use the Electrify America app and sign up as a Pass (not Pass+) member, pre-load some credit on the account, and then start the session using the app. You get the same pay-as-you-go rate.

5. Join EA's "Pass+" program ($4/month ... no minimum term. You could just for just one month only if you want). You get the reduced rate which is slightly better than 25% off. It's usually 31¢/kWh in states where you pay by the kiloWatt. I think this is currently the ONLY WAY to get the lower rate (use the EA app).

6. The not-yet-available option to add Pass+ membership to your FordPass / Blue-Oval Charging network account. The announcement said it would be $50/year once available (so you can't sign up for just one month). For those quick to do the math ... $4 x 12 mons = $48/year if you went through Electrify America. But Ford said it would be $50 ... so they're making $2/year on you for the convenience of it working through their infrastructure with Plug & Charge.

For an extended range battery ... if you are at 10% (8.8kWh in the pack) and want to charge to 80% (70.4 kWh) then you'll need to add 61.6 kWh to the car -- I'll round it to 62.

Pay-as-you-go or Pass rate is 43¢ x 62 = $26.66 for the charge.
Pass+ rate is 31¢ x 62 = $19.22 for the charge.

The Pass+ membership saves you $7.44 on your first charge ... so it's already paid back the $4/month membership fee even if you only do the one charge that month. If you're doing a road-trip, it's a no-brainer to sign up for it.

But to take advantage of that Pass+ member rate, you'll need to authorize the charge session BEFORE you connect to the car. Since the session is pre-authorized it wont bother with Plug & Charge.

 

[MustangRio]

So I wanted to add to this because this is something I experienced today.

I went to a charging station that was not EA, but part of the Blue Oval Charging Network. I activated the charger thorough the FordPass app, and figured that I would be charged whatever the amount was to my default card on my Ford account.

I received a payment error, but did not think anything of it, only because I was driving when I saw the error. When I pulled into an EA station to charge for the remainder of my trip, it would not use my free kW that I have, telling me that my account was suspended due to a failed payment. I called Ford and they said it was my bank, but I attempted to process the payment with 3 different cards and it still would not accept (I even called AMEX and they told me they saw no charges from Ford)

Anyone else have this issue?

 

[back_at_it_19]

Yes! were you ever able to resolve this?

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