Horrible first EA experience today

[DevSecOps]

As to putting chargers at the rear of the stores, that's a horrible idea. I would call most back of strip mall parking lots "very unsafe".

Umm, a bad area doesn't become magically safer with a parking stall near an entrance. No one is saying to put them in an alley way hidden from society. "The back of the lot" in California is, 90% of the time, along the side where the major street is with high visibility. We have a HUGE issue with people fighting for the closest parking spot and illegally parking in handicap stalls and many times right in the fire lanes. If they will do that, they will park in an EV spot.

Law enforcement in California won't do Jack ? about someone stealing $950 or less, they surely won't do anything about an EV stall.

Like the OP said, we do have many locations where the stalls aren't at the entrance, and we never have issues with those. It's all about laziness and disrespect.

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[DevSecOps]

As for the vagrant living out of his van, one would expect the shopping center to evict him as it's not good for business.

This is 100% a California thing... They have a lot of protections in this state. I'll just leave it at that.

 

[scoopman]

I don't think your analogy is the right one.

Darren Palmer has been very vocal in interviews about how Ford has been pushing EA to do better in having greater availability at their charging locations and a good experience. He has also stated that they do not want to send Ford customers to problematic chargers that get bad reviews for uptime or safety. As I read on PlugShare after my visit, what I experienced is typical at this location.

Ford reads reviews like we do that basically all say it's a great car, but when comparing to the Model Y, that the charging infrastructure is not as good as Superchargers. Ford has said they are pushing EA to do better, and this location has to be an example of one EA needs to work to improve.

Moreover, EA's response to me when I called them about this was not that they would take the report and follow-up on it, but that this poor experience, including safety issues, was not really something they cared about. If Ford is listening, perhaps they will use this as another example of how EA needs to improve for their mutual customers.

Ford should hopefully understand that EA's success will inure to them.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Ford. Telling Ford that they need to stop people from being a$$holes at an EA station is just silly. Would you get mad at Budweiser if someone robbed a convenience store while you were trying to buy a 12 pack? I suspect your comments were born of frustration, which I too would have after being accosted like that. Can you let us know what happened to start that confrontation? Did you say something to the guy?

 

[AZBill]

This is 100% a California thing... They have a lot of protections in this state. I'll just leave it at that.

All my friends in California tell me what a sheethole it has become. Elon was smart to leave.

 

[Kevin P]

I don't think your analogy is the right one.

Darren Palmer has been very vocal in interviews about how Ford has been pushing EA to do better in having greater availability at their charging locations and a good experience. He has also stated that they do not want to send Ford customers to problematic chargers that get bad reviews for uptime or safety. As I read on PlugShare after my visit, what I experienced is typical at this location.

Ford reads reviews like we do that basically all say it's a great car, but when comparing to the Model Y, that the charging infrastructure is not as good as Superchargers. Ford has said they are pushing EA to do better, and this location has to be an example of one EA needs to work to improve.

Moreover, EA's response to me when I called them about this was not that they would take the report and follow-up on it, but that this poor experience, including safety issues, was not really something they cared about. If Ford is listening, perhaps they will use this as another example of how EA needs to improve for their mutual customers.

Ford should hopefully understand that EA's success will inure to them.

Fair enough. I agree that someone should be able to help. I guess Ford can pressure EA who can pressure local authorities. Except its California where it sounds like you don't have any local authorities that are interested.

 

[scoopman]

I wasn't expecting this response at all from someone who has a Plaid, but I agree I'm going to be much more reticent to engage with anyone parked at a charger. I'm also never going back to that location (which I typically wouldn't need to do anyhow).

If someone parks in an EV spot and isn't charging, or takes multiple spots, it's easy to realize that they're not only an a-*ole, but they also know it. Therefore, engaging in conversation of any type is simply not a good idea.

 

[scoopman]

Fair enough. I agree that someone should be able to help. I guess Ford can pressure EA who can pressure local authorities. Except its California where it sounds like you don't have any local authorities that are interested.

Let's see what Walmart does when their leadership is made more aware of this situation.

 

[timbop]

I don't think your analogy is the right one.

Darren Palmer has been very vocal in interviews about how Ford has been pushing EA to do better in having greater availability at their charging locations and a good experience. He has also stated that they do not want to send Ford customers to problematic chargers that get bad reviews for uptime or safety. As I read on PlugShare after my visit, what I experienced is typical at this location.

Ford reads reviews like we do that basically all say it's a great car, but when comparing to the Model Y, that the charging infrastructure is not as good as Superchargers. Ford has said they are pushing EA to do better, and this location has to be an example of one EA needs to work to improve.

Moreover, EA's response to me when I called them about this was not that they would take the report and follow-up on it, but that this poor experience, including safety issues, was not really something they cared about. If Ford is listening, perhaps they will use this as another example of how EA needs to improve for their mutual customers.

Ford should hopefully understand that EA's success will inure to them.

The broken chargers are absolutely an EA problem. The vagrant that not even law enforcement will do anything about, and the douchebag tesla owners (isn't that redundant?) can't be stopped by Ford or EA.

What specific action would you like EA and Ford to take to correct the chargers being blocked? By specific action I mean exactly that, not a vague platitude of "make better infrastructure"?

 

[SeattleMachE]

In Arizona we have open carry laws, the vagrant would not last long in that spot. All my friends in California tell me what a sheethole it has become. Elon was smart to leave.

So you’d threaten someone with a gun to get them to move out of a parking stall?

 

[karioka]

I'm sorry about your experience. I would call Electrify America and complain about it. They are supposed to have people going around checking these chargers.

AS san alternative, try using EVGo, it's a bit slower but works very well.

 

[DevSecOps]

AS san alternative, try using EVGo, it's a bit slower but works very well.

Carlos,

You live in San Jose, you should know how bad it is regardless of the brand. Just look at any Westfield mall (mostly chargepoint). The ones on the lower parking garage closest to the entrance are always full of Tesla's not charging and ice vehicles. Go to the upper deck and it's wide open. My experience is that it's always more EVs not charging than it is ICE.

https://www.plugshare.com/location/113212

 

[SnBGC]

I have thought about converting one of our F450 to electric and put a tow body on it. Then cruise around the town looking for illegally parked cars. I can think of half a dozen instances where Teslas park and don't even charge.

I can start my own Tesla collection.

Here are two Teslas using EV spaces while not even charging. This was a couple weekends ago...

 

[scoopman]

There was one down charger. I'm not focused on that here right now, I get it, it happens. There were 6 chargers at the location, 5 could work if I could get to them.

As for the other unique problems at this EA location, I could think about several actions to follow-up here:

1. First and foremost, the management of Walmart (from whom EA is leasing space in my understanding) should police these spots right outside the entrance to the store to ensure they are not blocked in this manner, and there are not hostile people hanging out there.

2. EA should evaluate the usage engagement on these chargers, which I bet they will discover are left unused most of the time due to this issue. This is the main charging location for the heart of Silicon Valley next to Palo Alto for EA, and I would suggest it's probably a super non-ideal location for them.

3. This is where my Ford nav system sent me. I submit that Ford should pull this location from its FordPass database as you're probably guaranteed to have a poor time here.

The broken chargers are absolutely an EA problem. The vagrant that not even law enforcement will do anything about, and the douchebag tesla owners (isn't that redundant?) can't be stopped by Ford or EA.

What specific action would you like EA and Ford to take to correct the chargers being blocked? By specific action I mean exactly that, not a vague platitude of "make better infrastructure"?

 

[DevSecOps]

I just went to grab Starbucks and low and behold at 8:30am there's a leaf pretending to charge just to avoid walking a few extra steps into the grocery store. This is far more common than most people think it is, at least in California. Pretty sad, in my opinion, when you find it more compelling to go through the effort of plugging in and being an a$$ hole over walking a little further. Even when I'm not charging I still park at the back of a lot. Less shopping carts, little kids throwing doors open and chances of damage, plus walking is healthy!

 

[SnBGC]

The broken chargers are absolutely an EA problem. The vagrant that not even law enforcement will do anything about, and the douchebag tesla owners (isn't that redundant?) can't be stopped by Ford or EA.

What specific action would you like EA and Ford to take to correct the chargers being blocked? By specific action I mean exactly that, not a vague platitude of "make better infrastructure"?

Back when I had my Focus Electric, I needed to use an EVgo station and a Tesla was parked in the space so I flagged down the security patrol guy in his golf cart and convinced him to call a tow truck. The Tesla was on the hook when the owner came running out.

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