Issues with ChargePoint Flex

[BeachMam00]

Update - I was having trouble with my DVR so I took the box and the modem / gateway to the Xfinity store and swapped both for new units. Once I got everything set up I decided to try connecting the Charge Point charger. It connected to my wifi with no issues. It's been working as it should and I'm hoping it will stay that way. Now I'm waiting for my $500 rebate. That's been a whole separate nightmare'

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[JohnFoxeSheets]

Again, completely lame that they cannot have a developer fix this, but I don't need to go into the charging accounts very often so it's not a big deal.

Almost as lame as SimpliSafe which only allows a single login account per home security system!

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

The Wi-Fi on my ChargePoint Home Flex died about a month ago. I didn’t notice it right away since I don’t always check the online status of the charger. I called them about two weeks ago and after attempting to troubleshoot the problem they told me I’d get an email from second level support within a week. I called again today because I’d heard nothing and this time I was told I’d be getting a replacement unit once the warehouse could send it out. No idea when that’s going to happen. Disappointing to see that Wi-Fi issues are a thing with these units, but luckily the unit still charges just fine.

 

[scoopman]

The Wi-Fi on my ChargePoint Home Flex died about a month ago. I didn’t notice it right away since I don’t always check the online status of the charger. I called them about two weeks ago and after attempting to troubleshoot the problem they told me I’d get an email from second level support within a week. I called again today because I’d heard nothing and this time I was told I’d be getting a replacement unit once the warehouse could send it out. No idea when that’s going to happen. Disappointing to see that Wi-Fi issues are a thing with these units, but luckily the unit still charges just fine.

I've had two of these things, one since July 2021, the other since around November 2021, and I've had no problems with either one. Completely reliable. Sorry to hear it sounds like some have had a less than stellar experience.

I will say that there is one downside with my setup -- Chargepoint only allows one Home Flex per account, and can only have one account signed in to their app at once. I've told them this is excessively lame, but they still have not prioritized improving their software.

The consequence of this is that my Mach-E charger is on my phone, and anything to do with our other Chargepoint is on my wife's phone. Not a huge deal, but still, shows a lack of foresight in designing their account system.

 

[BeachMam00]

Sorry I didn’t update everyone since my post last November. Here is the rest of the story.
Purchased a 2021 Mach e Select November 2021.
Loved the car for about 5 months but totally disappointed with the Dealership.
PAK was a nightmare and my dealer wouldn’t SELL me another one. Ford said “ try a different dealer “. The “different dealer “ asked for my Vin# and had one for me in 2 days. $400 out of my pocket.
Paid an electrician $600 to run a 240 line in my Garage.
Got the Charge Point charger in April of 2022. Similar to a previous owner’s post, it took 3 replacements to finally connect with my WiFi and account.
Finally worked perfectly - for about 2 months. Then it kept shutting off after about 30 minutes and alerted me that the car is fully charged.
So the “finger pointing“ began. Charge Point wanted to send me another replacement. I told them that the charger that came with the car worked fine. So I asked for a refund. It took 4 months of call and emails for them to keep saying my claim will be “escalated “ for approval. I found the email address for the COO and informed him of the runaround. The next day I get a call from a supervisor apologizing and saying a refund check is being processed and mentioning he was going out on a limb approving a refund before I return the charger. He said he was emailing me a shipping label. I asked how long before I receive the check. He said about 10 business days so I corrected him by saying you will get the charger BEFORE I get the check! So who is going out on a limb?
Meanwhile my Ford charger stopped working. I brought the car to the dealership and after 2 weeks they said it was ready. I get there and it took them about 30 minutes to find my car. I start to get in and it shows 41% charged. They apologized and said they would charge it 100% and deliver it to me. After 2 days goes by I check my FordPass app and it shows “plugged in for 27 hours not charging “. And now it’s at 36%. When I called them they said they think it needs a new charging module but I have to submit a warranty claim. However if that didn’t solve the problem I would have to pay for it. And I wouldn’t have use of the car until the back ordered part arrives. Oh, and by the way, they said they have an extra FOB for me because too many customers were having trouble with the PAK.
I’m not the type of person that gives up a fight when you feel like you’re getting screwed but I decided to call the owner of the dealership and asked him to make me an offer to buy back the car. He offered $3,000 less than I paid for it but didn’t realize I got a $7500 tax credit when I bought the car. That’s a win. I got that $792 refund from Charge Point and they didn’t realize I got a $500 rebate from an incentive offered by our Utility company. Another win. And the dealer that sold me the FOB gave me a 50% refund. Slight loss. I’m done with EV’s for now. Whew! Good luck to the rest of you.

 

[astrorob]

I’m not the type of person that gives up a fight when you feel like you’re getting screwed but I decided to call the owner of the dealership and asked him to make me an offer to buy back the car. He offered $3,000 less than I paid for it but didn’t realize I got a $7500 tax credit when I bought the car. That’s a win. I got that $792 refund from Charge Point and they didn’t realize I got a $500 rebate from an incentive offered by our Utility company. Another win. And the dealer that sold me the FOB gave me a 50% refund. Slight loss. I’m done with EV’s for now. Whew! Good luck to the rest of you.

that is quite an ordeal and i'm glad it worked out for you. too bad you got hit with both a defective car and defective EVSE.

on the thread topic, i have a "chargepoint home" which i bought in 2015. it might be the same thing as the Flex but i assume the hardware is older/different. it has been very reliable and i think there was just 1 time over the last 8 years that it failed to initiate a charge.

a few months back it faulted somehow and IIRC it was flashing yellow. after a while i power cycled it and it reconnected with wifi, the light turned solid green, and all seemed well until i found that it was not connected with my charge point app anymore. the app wants to add the EVSE to the account as though it was new/unprovisioned. the app gets to the same point OP was having problems with - the final step - and it can't add the charger to the cloud account.

that's because it's already in the cloud account and when i use it, it reports in to chargepoint just fine, logging the details of the charge. it even shows up in the banner at the bottom of the app. but i can't change the configuration of the EVSE from the app. i'm hesitant to involve their customer support since they do seem to just be reading scripts. i don't know what will happen to all my charge history if they remove the EVSE from the server, which is probably what they are going to have to do to make the app happy again. so i guess i have to hope PGE doesn't radically change the off-peak times again or else i'll be forced to fix this issue, since i have my charging schedule in the EVSE.

anyone else faced something like this with chargepoint?

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

that is quite an ordeal and i'm glad it worked out for you. too bad you got hit with both a defective car and defective EVSE.

on the thread topic, i have a "chargepoint home" which i bought in 2015. it might be the same thing as the Flex but i assume the hardware is older/different. it has been very reliable and i think there was just 1 time over the last 8 years that it failed to initiate a charge.

a few months back it faulted somehow and IIRC it was flashing yellow. after a while i power cycled it and it reconnected with wifi, the light turned solid green, and all seemed well until i found that it was not connected with my charge point app anymore. the app wants to add the EVSE to the account as though it was new/unprovisioned. the app gets to the same point OP was having problems with - the final step - and it can't add the charger to the cloud account.

that's because it's already in the cloud account and when i use it, it reports in to chargepoint just fine, logging the details of the charge. it even shows up in the banner at the bottom of the app. but i can't change the configuration of the EVSE from the app. i'm hesitant to involve their customer support since they do seem to just be reading scripts. i don't know what will happen to all my charge history if they remove the EVSE from the server, which is probably what they are going to have to do to make the app happy again. so i guess i have to hope PGE doesn't radically change the off-peak times again or else i'll be forced to fix this issue, since i have my charging schedule in the EVSE.

anyone else faced something like this with chargepoint?

Bummer. FWIW I would contact ChargePoint and explain the issue you're experiencing. It sounds like the only way to reconnect the EVSE with the CP app is to have CP corporate fix it on their end. Can you download the charge history so that you'll have it in case you need it?

Regarding your charging schedule, I used to use my CP Flex to manage the charge schedule but found that I liked it better managing it from the car since I can make any adjustments needed using FP (or inside the car) for things like preconditioning and such. It's more flexible to manage it in the car (at least for me).

I was experiencing a different problem where the CP-F wouldn't connect to Wi-Fi anymore and I thought CP Corp was going to send me a new unit. However today I got an email from them asking me to try the following steps first. I'd tried them previously so didn't have high hopes. But they worked! I suspect the key change was connecting to an SSID with a password that didn't have special characters (I have several SSIDs for my Wi-Fi).

*** Even if you have already taken these steps previously, we ask that you please try them again as this fix was just recently implemented:

1. Reboot the Modem/Router, make sure there are no special characters in the SSID / Wi-Fi Password.
2. Verify connecting to 2.4GHz and not the 5.0GHz Wi-Fi Network.
3. Power station Off/On via circuit breaker or by unplugging the power cord from the outlet. Please wait at least 30 seconds before switching the breaker back on or plugging the station back in the outlet.
4. Attempt to connect to your Wi-Fi signal.

I presume it won't help you in your situation, but I thought I'd put it here in case it can help someone.

 

[astrorob]

Can you download the charge history so that you'll have it in case you need it?

i suppose so, though i did notice that they just revamped their web UI, so i'd have to go poke around.

for now it's not a huge issue, but if i wanted to change SSIDs or get a new access point i'll have to call in for support.

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