Blink charges for time plugged in

[davewill]

I do wish they would go to 15 minute intervals. I had a day when I paid for three hours and got about an and hour and 10 minutes worth of charging. I knew I had a challenging day, so I plugged in at a store I was planning to shop at for a while. Of course, as soon as I walk away from the car, my wife calls me asking me to pick up my daughter, so I unplug with just 3 minutes worth of juice and a 1 hour fee. Later in the day, I finally reach a point where I need some charge in order to make it home, so I go to another mall, plug in, and do the Christmas shopping I tried to do earlier. Of course I make it back to the car just after the one hour mark, and pay 2 hours more for essentially one hour of charge.

I have no problems with paying for all the time you're plugged in. That's the only way we'll get people to stop camping out on the EVSE parking spaces, but the one hour increments are a nuisance.

 

[smkettner]

I can see the $1 minimum but the second hour can be a 6 minute or 10 cent intervals without increasing transaction cost.
Right now a 30 minute or 70 minute charge leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Enough to avoid blink when possible.
I have not returned since the charges started six months ago even though there is a very convenient blink close by.

 

[JPWhite]

I have no problems with paying for all the time you're plugged in. That's the only way we'll get people to stop camping out on the EVSE parking spaces, but the one hour increments are a nuisance.

Agreed. If cell phone companies can account for calls in one minute increments, not sure why a 15 minute increment wouldn't be possible with EVSE's.

As for your 3 minute 'rip off' charge, contact Blink, they maybe willing to provide a credit with little or no hassle, just requires a polite email. I've had errors refunded with ease in the past.

 

[davewill]

I can see the $1 minimum but the second hour can be a 6 minute or 10 cent intervals without increasing transaction cost.
Right now a 30 minute or 70 minute charge leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Enough to avoid blink when possible.
I have not returned since the charges started six months ago even though there is a very convenient blink close by.

What transaction cost? They are handling it all themselves, and can easily bundle your charges so avoid making micro transactions to the credit card.

The funny thing is that I'd be more relaxed with 15 minute increments, and wouldn't find myself running to get the car unplugged if I was getting close to the next interval. I'd figure that an extra $0.25 isn't worth rushing.

As for your 3 minute 'rip off' charge, contact Blink, they maybe willing to provide a credit with little or no hassle, just requires a polite email. I've had errors refunded with ease in the past.

It was back in December, and isn't worth hassling about now. I'm sure they would have and maybe I should have done so just to make the point.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I went to Ikea in Emeryville CA last weekend. I used their Blink at $1.5 per hour and I felt it was a total rip-off.

Not only the rate is high (compared to recharging at home) but they also charged me the full hour for the 30 minutes I spent there. Really? Do you know of any gas station that charges by whole gallons?

Ikea : Get out of whatever deal you've got with those thieves.

umm, why plug in if only for a half hour? were you running dry? what you essentially did is the same as going to the gas station and getting a few gallons (i have done that many times in my poorer days)

what we need to realize is that the $$ amount is only part of the equation. you also have time invested and with Ikea, you invested 30 seconds...oh wait, forgot about the zipcode thing. ok, so you invested 90 seconds. if you go get gas, how much time is invested then?

I agree that $1.50 is a rip off. I am a blink supreme member (or whatever they call it) with a $20 bonus balance that I will probably never use. they were supposed to charge me $30 for the privilege but as i suspected, they suspended that charge for this year) and supposed to get charged for a buck an hour but as far as the charge goes; i can see them billing by the hour. there are a few places that bill by the tenths or quarter or whatever but they are few and not blink for the most part.

I talked with an Eco rep who states that they are wanting to roll a subscription for quick charge by the month at a very cheap price but guessing she was not in the position to be privy to the pricing scheme but in the long run, that is basically how they will make their money. big PPU rates or reasonable monthly rates.

keep in mind; you could easily (or at least I could) justify a $30 monthly subscription especially when your other option is dinging you at 10-12 cents a mile

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I do wish they would go to 15 minute intervals. I had a day when I paid for three hours and got about an and hour and 10 minutes worth of charging. I knew I had a challenging day, so I plugged in at a store I was planning to shop at for a while. Of course, as soon as I walk away from the car, my wife calls me asking me to pick up my daughter, so I unplug with just 3 minutes worth of juice and a 1 hour fee. Later in the day, I finally reach a point where I need some charge in order to make it home, so I go to another mall, plug in, and do the Christmas shopping I tried to do earlier. Of course I make it back to the car just after the one hour mark, and pay 2 hours more for essentially one hour of charge.

I have no problems with paying for all the time you're plugged in. That's the only way we'll get people to stop camping out on the EVSE parking spaces, but the one hour increments are a nuisance.

Blink gives you a 6 minute (or maybe 5) grace period. at least that is what they advertise

 

[JPWhite]

[

Blink gives you a 6 minute (or maybe 5) grace period. at least that is what they advertise

My observation is the grace period is less than that. After 1-2 minutes I see the Blink recording a charge.

 

[braineo]

Found out there are two contracts with Blink as part of the EV project. Regular and fleet. Regular charges per hour connected and Fleet, as long as your card is registered properly as a fleet member, charges are waived. My employer got them with the wrong regular contract due to lack of knowledge, and was able to change it to fleet after two weeks (I never charged using regular, since I would have been charged for over 10 hours when only needing 2. $10 per day is more than I used for gas per day).

There is a 5 minute grace period. Confirmed it at Manuel's tavern, when I checked the charger and I had done 1 hr 4 minutes of charging. Disconnected and only was charged $1 for the hour. I did 62 miles of mostly hwy and made it home before getting Low Battery Warning. Charging in downtown Atlanta made the trip uneventful. Couldn't locate the chargers at IKEA, but I wasn't really needing it there.

 

[Pipcecil]

I can easily confirm the 5 minute buffer. I charge at work every day on Blink and have rushed down to unplug the car (sometimes their reminders are late and I forget or the car is going just up to the hour threashold) and as long as it's not past the X:05 mark, its charged only for the previous hours. The only exception is the initial hour, which starts at 10 seconds.

Because I use it everyday, I am part of the $1 charging system. I do agree its more expensive than at home, but you are paying for the convience, and really, a couple dollars a day is less than a premium cup of coffee - I just cut that out of my budget

In total, the cost raw cost, if I am not mistaken ends up ~50 cents per hour, this includes electricity, maintenance, company employee salary, etc. etc. (you get the idea) - at 12 cents a kWh at home, I am paying ~39 cents for an hour of charging. What is interesting, ChargePoint's ChargeCharging switched to kWh billing, which, is more fair and is $0.49 cents per kW, a leaf still pays more than on Blink's premium service. Add the fact that if you own a 2013 leaf, FFEV, you are only paying ~20 cents more for public charging on Blinks premium service - that is really a steal for the convinence. If you are a Tesla - you are saving money. There are also many ChargePoint stations that charge $2.50 per hour! Holy hell! Yea, $1 an hour is steal compared to that.

I think, like most people, I got addicted to the free charging. Once I starting paying frequently, the cost didn't seem so bad in comparison to many things, and I was more OK with it. While I don't opportunity charge as I used to I have a rule of thumb I go by:

- Station hosted by the place I am frequenting (store, shopping center, etc.), I plug in to charge to support.
- Long distance where charging will give a good buffer or is required, I will plug at any location within 1 mile of walking

I no longer charge at any plug if its within a mile of my destination unless I need it.

 

[Randy]

We've had this discussion so many times...Public charging will never be as cheap as home charging. Commercial electric rates are more than residential in this neck of the woods and may include demand charges above and beyond the kwh rates, and besides, the public charging entity has to make some money on the transaction to pay for expenses.

Bring on more public charging stations...I just got charged my monthly bill from Blink. I think it was $6.

Electric costs for 1 month: Home - $20, Public - $6, Gasoline $0....As Charlie Sheen would say....Winning!

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

[

Blink gives you a 6 minute (or maybe 5) grace period. at least that is what they advertise

My observation is the grace period is less than that. After 1-2 minutes I see the Blink recording a charge.

well mine is different and not really subject to observation BUT... there is another half to the story.

when i first heard about the grace period, I naturally had to run down and test it. so I went to a blink, plugged in for one hour and 4 minutes and unplugged and got no real feedback on what i was charged or missed it... so i did it again and this time for 1 hour and 7 minutes (maybe 8? dont remember) then called blink to verify both charges.

they

1) had no record of the earlier plug in (at different location)
2) said they would waive the 2nd hour of charge since i was so close.

that was about 3-4 months ago and have yet to see a single penny charged to my account...


so, if you feel you got ripped off (considering their billing system seems to follow along with their everything else system...) call them and let them know.

 

[davewill]

We've had this discussion so many times...Public charging will never be as cheap as home charging. Commercial electric rates are more than residential in this neck of the woods and may include demand charges above and beyond the kwh rates, and besides, the public charging entity has to make some money on the transaction to pay for expenses.

Bring on more public charging stations...I just got charged my monthly bill from Blink. I think it was $6.

Electric costs for 1 month: Home - $20, Public - $6, Gasoline $0....As Charlie Sheen would say....Winning!

I quite agree, I just think that 15 minute intervals would work better. Might even bring in more revenue as people stop worrying about exactly how long they're plugged in, and use it more freely. No "grace periods" or concerns about getting back before you click over to the next hour.

There is a 5 minute grace period. Confirmed it at Manuel's tavern, when I checked the charger and I had done 1 hr 4 minutes of charging. Disconnected and only was charged $1 for the hour. I did 62 miles of mostly hwy and made it home before getting Low Battery Warning. Charging in downtown Atlanta made the trip uneventful. Couldn't locate the chargers at IKEA, but I wasn't really needing it there.

All I know is that the time on the Blink showed 3min and change when I unplugged, and I definitely got charged for it.

 

[nater]

I really think the Chevy Volt is going to drive down charging prices. After all, they HAVE to compete with gas in order to convince someone to charge a Chevy Volt. Honestly, why can't we just pay for the Kwh? Put each charger within reach of four parking spaces, and put them WAY out in the backlot where they won't get iced.

I doubt I will ever pay for public charging unless they can undercut gasoline.

Nate

 

[DaveEV]

I really think the Chevy Volt is going to drive down charging prices. After all, they HAVE to compete with gas in order to convince someone to charge a Chevy Volt. Honestly, why can't we just pay for the Kwh? Put each charger within reach of four parking spaces, and put them WAY out in the backlot where they won't get iced.

I doubt I will ever pay for public charging unless they can undercut gasoline.

With that mind-set why compare with the Volt @ 40 MPG when you can compare to the Prius @ 50 MPG? Let's say you have a PiP - let's be generation and assume it takes 1 hour to charge up on L2 for about EV 12 miles (note that it really takes close to 1.5 hours and EPA range is 11 miles). On a Blink, you'll be charged anywhere from $1-2 for 12 EV miles or a cost of about $0.08-0.17 / mile. Gas is around $4/gallon right now, so it costs about $0.08 / mile to drive on gas.

So right there, on the cheapest public charging available besides free charging, it will cost you more to drive on electricity rather than on gas.

But you know what? If I had a PiP, I wouldn't care!

I didn't buy a PiP to save money - I would have bought a base-model Prius or even better, a used Prius or some other used car. I bought a PiP to reduce my fuel consumption and as such, I'd be willing to pay a premium to drive on electricity whenever possible - even if it costs more than gas.

Now if you're such a tight-wad that it doesn't sit right with you - then you probably don't own a plug-in anyway.

 

[Randy]

Any time now Tony is going to pop in and say it....

Wait for it.....


"I'll Just Drive The Prius".....

 

[Pipcecil]

All I know is that the time on the Blink showed 3min and change when I unplugged, and I definitely got charged for it.

If it is your first hour, you will be charged within 10 seconds. its ONLY after the first hour that the 5 minute grace period kicks in. So if you charged for 3 minutes (not 1 hour 3 minutes, just 3 minutes). You will be billed for one hour. I have sat in my car at work for those few minutes after a couple of hours to make sure I don't get charged for 3 hours. It happens about once a week. Today I pulled my car off at 2:02 and was charged 2 hours.

 

[walterbays]

Here's some good news. Chargepoint and Blink networks are linking up.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...t-to-link-electric-car-charging-networks.html

 

[JPWhite]

Here's some good news. Chargepoint and Blink networks are linking up.

Very interesting!!

If the new billing network is based on ChargePoint web servers it'll be a great bonus for us all. If it's based on the blink web servers , Chargepoint users just got scr$%ed.

Charge-point have a much better web platform.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Here's some good news. Chargepoint and Blink networks are linking up.

Very interesting!!

If the new billing network is based on ChargePoint web servers it'll be a great bonus for us all. If it's based on the blink web servers , Chargepoint users just got scr$%ed.

Charge-point have a much better web platform.

wont be based on either one. 3rd party billing company who probably specializes in such stuff.

 

[LEAFfan]

Someone posted that CP bills by the kWh, but some states disallow kWh billing (only Utilities can) so those CPs can only bill by time.