Chargepoint EVSE #3 @ Santa Monica doesn't work

I was reliving my nightmare with Chargepoint yesterday... as no matter what I did to hold my chargepoint card infront of it... it wouldn't activate. The "wonderfully helpful" people at Chargepoint had no luck with it and kept telling me to plug it in and back again and try again.

"You should hear a click in the charger and your car should be charging" "I'm not hearing a click." "Take the plug out and put it back into the charger" this repeated four times.

Then they said "try charger #2". CHARGER #2 IS A PADDLE CHARGER!?!!?! IT'S NOT FREAKING COMPATIBLE! These people are clueless.

Frustrated... and since the parking lot was at the time empty... I just moved over to charger #4. My card activated the charger instantly and it worked instantly. I hung up in frustration on those idiots.



Success!!!



When I got back there were a bunch of Leafs's and some poor guy was on the phone with Chargepoint trying to get #3 to work. I told him it didn't work and gave him the cord from #3.

And to add further frustration to my already horrible viewpoint of Charegpoint... I noticed this e-mail this morning:

Dear Chris,

The station at which your vehicle is charging, SANTA MONICA / G7 #2, has detected that the vehicle is drawing very little power. This typically means the vehicle is fully charged, but may mean it is configured for delayed charging.

Thank you,
The ChargePoint Network!

Click to expand...

I WASN'T AT #2 I WAS AT #3!!! And furthermore.... #1 and #2 are paddle chargers and NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE LEAF! Oh my.. these people are clueless.

cdub said:

When I got back there were a bunch of Leafs's and some poor guy was on the phone with Chargepoint trying to get #3 to work. I told him it didn't work and gave him the cord from #3.

Click to expand...

Hey cdub I was the 'poor guy' you met. Thank you again for helping us out, you saved me from continuing my horrible call with the very nice Chargepoint rep.

For those going to the Santa Monica Place the broken charge station is the first J1772 EVSE on the right. It appears completely operational and will even turn on a light when you plug in, but it as cdub noted, it won't actually turn on to charge. One good thing however is that the cords there all are long enough to reach to the next adjacent parking spots. Also, if you are calling in to turn on a EVSE (as opposed to having their card), I think the numbering on the labels on the EVSEs is wrong, I think the proper numbering is on the display.

By the way the Volt guy, who came in after we did, was very nice (of course a bit upset about the EVSE problem). He told us that he got his car in January and is still on the same tank of gas that came with the car, that is he has never actually filled it up himself.

I sent an e-mail to chargepoint: [email protected]

hopefully they can have some one go out and look at it soon =)


-Matt.

cdub said:

I was reliving my nightmare with Chargepoint yesterday... as no matter what I did to hold my chargepoint card infront of it... it wouldn't activate. The "wonderfully helpful" people at Chargepoint had no luck with it and kept telling me to plug it in and back again and try again.

"You should hear a click in the charger and your car should be charging" "I'm not hearing a click." "Take the plug out and put it back into the charger" this repeated four times.

Then they said "try charger #2". CHARGER #2 IS A PADDLE CHARGER!?!!?! IT'S NOT FREAKING COMPATIBLE! These people are clueless.

Frustrated... and since the parking lot was at the time empty... I just moved over to charger #4. My card activated the charger instantly and it worked instantly. I hung up in frustration on those idiots.

Success!!!

When I got back there were a bunch of Leafs's and some poor guy was on the phone with Chargepoint trying to get #3 to work. I told him it didn't work and gave him the cord from #3.

And to add further frustration to my already horrible viewpoint of Charegpoint... I noticed this e-mail this morning:

Dear Chris,

The station at which your vehicle is charging, SANTA MONICA / G7 #2, has detected that the vehicle is drawing very little power. This typically means the vehicle is fully charged, but may mean it is configured for delayed charging.

Thank you,
The ChargePoint Network!

Click to expand...

I WASN'T AT #2 I WAS AT #3!!! And furthermore.... #1 and #2 are paddle chargers and NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE LEAF! Oh my.. these people are clueless.

Click to expand...

On these Chargepoint EVSEs there are two charge ports. #1 is the 120 volt outlet, and #2 is the J1772 plug. The EVSE you're plugged into is called "Santa Monica / G7." My guess is that there is a G1, G2, G3, etc.

When they were telling you to go to #2, they were referring to the J1772 plug. In Chargepoint's eyes, there is no #3 on their EVSEs. They aren't clueless, they just refer to their EVSEs differently than one might expect.

DarkStar said:

On these Chargepoint EVSEs there are two charge ports. #1 is the 120 volt outlet, and #2 is the J1772 plug. The EVSE you're plugged into is called "Santa Monica / G7." My guess is that there is a G1, G2, G3, etc.

Click to expand...

I don't think that is correct, I think that G7 refers to the entire set of EVSEs there and that each EVSE has its own separate number. In fact I think that G7 refers to Santa Monica Place Garage #7 (they have several separate parking structures there).

BTW - when we were leaving, we were the last EV, and about half of the spots were ICE'd, which I think is rather common there. I have seen clueless ICE drivers simply pull in after an EV leaves. They really need better signage at this location.

LALeaf said:

DarkStar said:

On these Chargepoint EVSEs there are two charge ports. #1 is the 120 volt outlet, and #2 is the J1772 plug. The EVSE you're plugged into is called "Santa Monica / G7." My guess is that there is a G1, G2, G3, etc.

Click to expand...

I don't think that is correct, I think that G7 refers to the entire set of EVSEs there and that each EVSE has its own separate number. In fact I think that G7 refers to Santa Monica Place Garage #7 (they have several separate parking structures there).

Click to expand...

In that case, there is something wrong with their numbering systems... On the EVSE itself, #1 refers to the 120 volt outlet and #2 refers to the J1772 nozzle. Checking the MyChargePoint site, it shows the following EVSEs: SANTA MONICA / G7 #1, SANTA MONICA / G7 #2, SANTA MONICA / G7 #3, SANTA MONICA / G7 #4. Each of them will have two ports each, none of which are a paddle unit.

Yep...That particular unit did not work for me either. I moved my LEAF two spots over, plugged in and it fired right up. Chargepoint still shows it as being operational...... :|

DarkStar said:

On these Chargepoint EVSEs there are two charge ports. #1 is the 120 volt outlet, and #2 is the J1772 plug. The EVSE you're plugged into is called "Santa Monica / G7." My guess is that there is a G1, G2, G3, etc.

When they were telling you to go to #2, they were referring to the J1772 plug. In Chargepoint's eyes, there is no #3 on their EVSEs. They aren't clueless, they just refer to their EVSEs differently than one might expect.

Click to expand...

No actually they are clueless. There are 7 charging stations there. G7 #1 thru G7 #7.

G7 #1 and #2 are paddle chargers for the RAV 4s.

I was at G7 #3 before I moved to #4.