Horrible experience with Aerovironment EV charging network

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garylai

Active member
Joined
May 9, 2011
Messages
26
Location
Seattle, WA
I attempted to use the Aerovironment DC fast charger in Burlington, WA today at about noon. I do not have a subscription which is $20 a month since I do not use the network enough. Aerovironment makes you call their customer service to read your credit card over the phone to activate the charger if you do not have a subscription, they do not have pay-as-you-go cards or FOBs like Chargepoint or Blink. Unfortunately, I could not get through to customer service. I tried about 20 times over the course of an hour. Every time when it prompted me to hit "*" if I was by a charger or "1" for customer service or "2" for technical support, it would disconnect the call. It wasn't my phone because I called my wife at home who used our landline to try to contact Aerovironment, and the same thing happened. I thought someone with a subscription key fob might come by and help me out, but after an hour, no one had shown up. There are two Chargepoint Level 2 chargers there too, but they were taken up by Volts. Finally I gave up and had just enough charge to reach a Level 2 public charger in Mt Vernon, where I charged for over 3 hours to get enough range to make it to the Nissan dealership in Everett 40 miles away which is the next closest fast charger to Seattle.

I emailed Aerovironment to find out what the heck happened, why they cannot maintain a working phone system. I will let you know if they respond. I called later in the day too, at about 4 pm, and the automated phone system was still disconnecting calls. Did anyone else have this problem today? If I had been at the Aerovironment charger in Skykomish or Sultan or one of the more remote locations where there are no other public chargers, I would have had to call a tow company. I am sure some poor schmuck up in Skykomish must have gotten stranded.

Why is fast charging still so damn unreliable? Why doesn't Aerovironment link customer credit cards to an RFID card or key fob?

I am not sure I will ever use the Aerovironment EV network again, and Blink is so unreliable too, that I might never use my Leaf for long trips again unless Aerovironment and Blink can get their collective acts together.
 
garylai said:
...I do not have a subscription which is $20 a month since I do not use the network enough. Aerovironment makes you call their customer service to read your credit card over the phone to activate the charger if you do not have a subscription, they do not have pay-as-you-go cards or FOBs like Chargepoint or Blink.
Not sure where you got your information but they most certainly do have pay-as-you-go or at least their website says so and it works for me. They call it "pay per session" (2/3 of the way down on the left side of their home page http://evsolutions.avinc.com/services/subscriber_network).

I got an Aerovironment key fob about three years ago and have used it twice. I subscribed for free when the system was first announced attaching it to my credit card and I am not paying any monthly fee. Apparently there is now a one time $15 fee to get the key fob and attach it to your card for the pay-as-you-go option. Sounds like it would've been worth it for you to get that key fob.

I have used their QC's twice in Oregon once when they first went online and once earlier this year. I had no issues, I just used the key fob and they just charged my card. I don't use them that often b/c they are farther away than I normally take my LEAF. I would note that they fixed the QC handle problems way before Blink and I've never heard of their EVSEs being out of commission (some frends rely on the ones in Mill City, Detroit, and Sisters), whereas the Blink ones almost always seemed to be out of service until very recently, but seem to be more reliable now. I've the last three times I have used Blink QCs without incident.
 
My AV experience has been overwhelmingly positive! I signed up for $20/month unlimited. I have used about 10 differrent AV quickchargers the past 4 months of Leaf ownership. All up and down I-5... Ashland, OR to Seattle, WA. All up and down Hwy 101 on the coast (okay, just Newport,OR north to Astoria, OR). Have had some non-working that a phone call and a reboot fixed. Overall, we need MORE of these. More stalls/chargers per location. I have waited once or twice to get an AV quickcharge, but it sure beats the gas station lines. Blink is randomly working but so are the Chargepoint ones that overheat. Why did the installers/power-to-be think no shade would work??
 
padamson1 said:
Not sure where you got your information but they most certainly do have pay-as-you-go or at least their website says so and it works for me. They call it "pay per session" (2/3 of the way down on the left side of their home page http://evsolutions.avinc.com/services/subscriber_network).

padamson: You are mistaken. If you are not a subscriber, then to pay per session you MUST call Aerovironment every time you want to use a charger to read your credit card information. The FOB does not work. It even says so in the web page you quoted:

"There is also the option of paying per session:
$7.50/Session – DC Fast Charger
$4.00/Session – Level 2 Charging Station
(Per session payment is only available by calling our Customer Service Support Line at 888-833-2148)."

I have spoken to Aerovironment about this about 10 times in the past asking them to link a credit card to a key FOB, and they have said they do not offer this.

I have otherwise have had a positive experience with Aerovironment, but I think reasonable people can agree that if you force non-subscribers to call to use a charger and then you don't answer the phones, that is a problem.
 
padamson1 said:
Not sure where you got your information but they most certainly do have pay-as-you-go or at least their website says so and it works for me. They call it "pay per session" (2/3 of the way down on the left side of their home page http://evsolutions.avinc.com/services/subscriber_network).

Apparently there is now a one time $15 fee to get the key fob and attach it to your card for the pay-as-you-go option. Sounds like it would've been worth it for you to get that key fob.
Pay-per-session requires that you call them to charge your credit card and activate the charging station, every time. Your fob requires that you pay the $20 per month subscription, otherwise it doesn't work. You cannot attached the fob to your credit card for pay-as-you-go.
 
Yeah, needing to call in to get a charge is not acceptable to me, and I refuse to do it, which actually works in AV's favor since I pay for an unlimited subscription that I rarely use.

However, I don't really mind since when I _do_ use it, it's been wonderful. I've taken no-gas road trips all over the Northwest using their network and I've never had even the slightest hiccup. If I don't go anywhere for a couple months, I consider it a donation to a very worthy cause.
 
pkulak said:
Yeah, needing to call in to get a charge is not acceptable to me, and I refuse to do it, which actually works in AV's favor since I pay for an unlimited subscription that I rarely use.

I use the AV network about 6-8 times per year at most. Subscribing to a $20/month unlimited plan would be like $30-$40 per charging session. I simply cannot justify this. If I am to use the AV network at all instead of driving my ICE car, I must rely on calling them and paying per session. But then I need to rely on them to pick up the phones, which I cannot any longer, not unless they have a good explanation for why they had this failure. I emailed Aerovironment and am waiting to hear back.

I think that probably most Leaf owners in Washington/Oregon are in my situation - want occasional (a few times a year) fast charging on the AV network, and do not want to go through the hassle and now, risk, of needing to call Aerovironment when they need to do it.
 
garylai said:
If I am to use the AV network at all instead of driving my ICE car...

If I had a second car with a gas engine in it, I wouldn't subscribe to the AV network because I would never use it. :D I pay $20 a month to AV because it means I don't lose thousands a year on depreciation and maintenance on a second car. If I had a second car just sitting there, I would sure as hell use it for any trip over about 50 miles.
 
pkulak said:
If I had a second car with a gas engine in it, I wouldn't subscribe to the AV network because I would never use it. :D I pay $20 a month to AV because it means I don't lose thousands a year on depreciation and maintenance on a second car. If I had a second car just sitting there, I would sure as hell use it for any trip over about 50 miles.

Like many families, we have a second car because we need a second car, not because we need a backup to the Leaf. There are two drivers in the family and both need to get to places. Both cars get used nearly every day. One is a Leaf, the other is an ICE car. However, we almost never need to drive both cars more than 50 miles in one day. I would prefer to take the Leaf on the occasional long trip, I just wish I could depend on the fast charging infrastructure to support that without paying for an unlimited subscription that I would only occasionally use.
 
Only AV brand fast chargers available out on the Oregon coast. Having to call is BS, so for the last weekend we just took my wife's ICE car when I could have readily taken the Leaf if the AV system was convenient. At most we go to the coast 2-3 times a year, so 6-10 charges a year is not worth $20/mo. It is a shame they have no pay-as-you-go option without calling in. Oh well.
 
The one nice thing is that you can sign up and cancel freely without any extra fees. They only charge the sign-up fee if you don't already have an RFID tag. For example, my wife and I went to Seaside one weekend and Lincoln City three weeks later, this allowed me to only have to pay for a single subscription ($20). Saved quite a bit by doing that...
 
DarkStar said:
The one nice thing is that you can sign up and cancel freely without any extra fees. They only charge the sign-up fee if you don't already have an RFID tag. For example, my wife and I went to Seaside one weekend and Lincoln City three weeks later, this allowed me to only have to pay for a single subscription ($20). Saved quite a bit by doing that...

That is quite good to know. I thought they might charge you the $15 setup fee every time you cancel and then reactivate your account. If this is the case then I just might sign up for an unlimited subscription during the summer which is when I tend to drive the Leaf long distance.

I got a response to Aerovironment a few minutes ago. It's not a full explanation I was after, but at least they have acknowledged that they had a problem.

"Hi Gary,

I apologize in regards to our service this weekend. I glitch in our phone system caused our calls not to come through.

Your information is a value to us and I have forwarded to our key departments.

We have restored access and working with our vendor on future solutions.

Thanks again for your input,

George M Jurado
AeroVironment, Inc.
Customer Service Technician
Efficient Energy Systems"
 
garylai said:
padamson1 said:
Not sure where you got your information but they most certainly do have pay-as-you-go or at least their website says so and it works for me. They call it "pay per session" (2/3 of the way down on the left side of their home page http://evsolutions.avinc.com/services/subscriber_network).
padamson: You are mistaken. If you are not a subscriber, then to pay per session you MUST call Aerovironment every time you want to use a charger to read your credit card information. The FOB does not work. It even says so in the web page you quoted:
But the fob has worked both times for me, without calling them, including a few months ago. Maybe b/c I enrolled when the system first came out? Weird.

I just assumed that's the way it worked for everybody else. I guess there is a bug in their billing system, but I will not be complaining anytime soon about my apparently enhanced keyfob...
garylai said:
I have otherwise have had a positive experience with Aerovironment, but I think reasonable people can agree that if you force non-subscribers to call to use a charger and then you don't answer the phones, that is a problem.
I wholeheartedly agree. It is totally bogus that they give out what is basically a ID card and it doesn't work unless I waste money on a subscription.
 
padamson1 said:
But the fob has worked both times for me, without calling them, including a few months ago. Maybe b/c I enrolled when the system first came out? Weird.

I just assumed that's the way it worked for everybody else. I guess there is a bug in their billing system, but I will not be complaining anytime soon about my apparently enhanced keyfob...
I've had a fob since the first station went in (back when there were no fees). Once they flipped to a payment system, my fob stopped working as expected. Someone is paying $20 per month for your fob to be active... You might want to log into their website and double-check your fob status.
 
garylai said:
That is quite good to know. I thought they might charge you the $15 setup fee every time you cancel and then reactivate your account. If this is the case then I just might sign up for an unlimited subscription during the summer which is when I tend to drive the Leaf long distance.

I think the intention was always to have a $15 setup fee so that you have to keep it active long term. However, I have also canceled and re-enrolled, but never been charged the $15. I remember when they first switched to non-free, they ran a promotion saying that if you signed up (with your existing fob), in the first month, they would waive the $15. Looks like they just never ended that promotion. They may at some point, though.
 
I use one of three different AV quick chargers almost on a daily basis. Sometimes I have to call them to reset a QC because it won't start, but I can always get them on the phone within a few minutes. Sorry that the OP had such a bad experience but that is not the norm for AV response. Too bad you can't load a specific amount of money onto an account which doesn't expire.
 
Aerovironment has long been a company that survives on government grants. They don't need to have a traditional customer service department or to make the public happy. I doubt anyone there gives a crap if the charge station payment system is user friendly or not.
 
Mrelectric said:
Aerovironment has long been a company that survives on government grants. They don't need to have a traditional customer service department or to make the public happy. I doubt anyone there gives a crap if the charge station payment system is user friendly or not.

I partially blame Washington and Oregon DOT. They funded the creation of the system and the first two years of operation. Then they just vanished, and left Aerovironment completely on its own. When Aerovironment came out with this ridiculous scheme that you have to call every time you want to use a charger unless you are an unlimited subscriber, I contacted Washington DOT and they basically said there is nothing they can do about this one except forward my feedback to Aerovironment. You would think that Washington DOT could enforce some basic standard to continue to encourage useage of the system. I also get the sense that Aerovironment really doesn't care that much.
 
DarkStar said:
The one nice thing is that you can sign up and cancel freely without any extra fees. They only charge the sign-up fee if you don't already have an RFID tag. For example, my wife and I went to Seaside one weekend and Lincoln City three weeks later, this allowed me to only have to pay for a single subscription ($20). Saved quite a bit by doing that...

I emailed Aerovironment about this very issue, and they confirmed what you said - that if you have an existing FOB, you do not need to pay the account setup fee, and you can freely activate and cancel your membership for just the months that you intend to use it without incurring any additional setup fees. So this is what I'll probably do.

"If you already have a key fob then you will just need to activate the monthly service $19.99 month then cancel when needed. There is no cancellation fee and the only time you will need to pay the $15.00 is when you loose the key fob. We have a few customer using he key fob activating the key fob on the months needed then canceling.

I hope this information is helpful.

George Jurado
AeroVironment, Inc.
Customer Service Technician
Efficient Energy Systems"
 
The $20/month plan works well for me and the Burlington DCQC worked great for the rest of us that had fobs during your problem timeframe per PlugShare. I'm sure if the phone hadn't had problems you would have gotten your charge.

The AV network gets me to many places in Oregon and up to the Canadian border. I've met George Jurado and he is a fine hands on technician and now a great problem solver on the phone. I have a literal handful of cards and fobs to maneuver around Oregon, Washington, and BC, but the AV DCQC system is my reliable mainstay. I feel $20/month is well spent to keep a good system up and available for all of us. :)
 
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