No Charge to Charge Just Charged Me

[xboxremote]

Hey guys,

New member here at the forum, and this is my first post, so go easy on me I have had my 2015 Leaf since October, and have been using my EZ-Charge card that the dealer gave me, to charge at various places around the city. One charger in particular, near my work, is a ChargePoint station which I have used several times already for free.

Today, I used my EZ-Charge car, and plugged it in and walked to my office. Not long after, I got an email from ChargePoint saying they funded my account $25 from my payment source! I'm a little annoyed because I was under the impression that I was getting 2 years of charging for free. If I had known this station would have charged me, I would've parked in the garage here and just plugged in to the trickle charger for free (because my employer doesn't care at all if I do that).

I saw some discussion as to whether or not ChargePoint was participating in the program, but it seems like the questions about that are a year and a half year old (http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=17073) and that somebody eventually said ChargePoint was back in the program. And like I already mentioned, I've been charging at this station for free for months now!

Anyone have any idea what's going on, or has anyone had this happen yet? I sent an email to my sales guy at the dealership who has actually been very responsive about my questions, so I will update here when I hear back from him. Thanks all!

 

[asemeco]

Here in Atlanta all Georgia Power charging stations are on the ChargePoint network. I can use my NCTC card to authenticate on those, but I get a very clear message in the beginning stating that this particular station will charge me.

Maybe something similar is happening to you? Next time look carefully before you start the session.

 

[LeafMuranoDriver]

You need to verify each charger is part of the NCTC program. In California, there are not many Chargepoint chargers that are part of the NCTC, it's mostly the NRG EVgo stations.

Chargepoint charges you $25 for your first charge whether it's a $20 charge or $1.

I mostly use the free chargers as well. I had to use a Chargepoint one day, the charge was only for $1.09 but I got charged $25 to my account. I've only used $4 in about 9 months. I'm sure I will use the rest once my 2 years of NCTC is up.

 

[tkdbrusco]

Download Plugshare and select the toggle switch in the app to "show only NCTC" it will display all chargers that are included in the programs. Only those are free. Also when you sign up to the EZ charge program with charge point, they will do an initial charge of $25. I think they use this money as a pre-paid amount in case you use a charger someplace. Unless you use a non-NCTC charger, they won't take any of that money.

 

[caSteve]

Chargepoint's practice of pre-charging you in blocks of $25 is a poor choice on their part, in terms of customer relations. It leaves a bitter taste for the customer, and it's essentially unjustified. It's heavy handed compared to, for example, Uber's or Zipcar's way of charging people for services. It's one of the reasons I canceled my account. Another was, in the case of the specific chargers I would have used, there were also sometimes charges for simply being in the space. I don't know how they reconcile time fees with no-charge-to-charge programs.

 

[LeftieBiker]

When I signed up for Chargepoint (not through Nissan) I was told that I would be charged an initial $25, but that it would stay in my account and used only for non-free stations. So far, the money is still there, AFAIK.

 

[jpadc]

Chargepoint's practice of pre-charging you in blocks of $25 is a poor choice on their part, in terms of customer relations. It leaves a bitter taste for the customer, and it's essentially unjustified. It's heavy handed compared to, for example, Uber's or Zipcar's way of charging people for services.

Some members here at MNL have tried to justify that practice on the basis of saved credit card fees for numerous small charges on a card. However, as you note, lots of other companies have worked this out including Parkmobile where the parking fees can be as small as 50 cents on a card so I think Chargepoint could and should do better. Until they do, I won't be joining. I want to support the expansion of public charging stations, but I also need to balance that against supporting fair business practices and I'm not inclined to believe this one is as fair as it should be.

All that said, I think its a real problem (IMHO) to set up the expectation, as I think the NCTC program does, that charging should be free and it just ends up encouraging people to use charges when they don't need to blocking them for use by others that do.

 

[Firetruck41]

As mentioned earlier, you need to check to make sure the charger is actually participating in NCTC. I do not have NCTC at all, and I have used free Chargepoint chargers. That may essentially be the case for the OP, used a free station, that decided to start charging, for whatever reason, and was never part of the NCTC network.

 

[LeftieBiker]

I suggest that the OP start looking for store chains that offer free EV charging. We have several here, from Chili's restaurants (not terribly handy, and employees tend to park in them) to Price Chopper/Market 32, which now has two or more stations at almost all of its stores, and is very handy. I make a point of picking up some groceries there, and get about 15% worth of free charge in return. You don't need any card at all for the latter, even though they are, IIRC, Chargepoint machines.

 

[redLEAF]

Chargepoint's practice of pre-charging you in blocks of $25 is a poor choice on their part, in terms of customer relations. It leaves a bitter taste for the customer, and it's essentially unjustified. It's heavy handed compared to, for example, Uber's or Zipcar's way of charging people for services. It's one of the reasons I canceled my account. Another was, in the case of the specific chargers I would have used, there were also sometimes charges for simply being in the space. I don't know how they reconcile time fees with no-charge-to-charge programs.

In addition (regarding ChargePoint) once your available balance gets below $10, they will automatically charge another $25 to the credit card you provided, regardless if you need it or not; I'd prefer the charge 'stop' once you got to say $2 or even $0 and give you the option to add more via your mobile device --- just like if using a prepaid debit card (gift credit card) at say a regular gas pump --- the tech exists and with mobile connections don't see why they wouldn't offer it --- some of these charge stations will almost always end up in a less than $10 charge for a close to depleted battery so unless you pre-plan, etc. will assume you always have money on the card that just sits there.

I would assume (but haven't checked) that you could have them refund your 'available' balance if you cancel but haven't gone that route yet; will hang on to it for a bit longer.