Received an Interesting Call from Electrify America

[SWORDER]

As you can see from my post history, I absolutely love my 2021 TTS while having no fondness at all for Electrify America. They are to EV charging what Internet Explorer is to browsers.

Anyway, there's this app called PlugShare that I use where you can indicate whether particular chargers in the neighborhood are working, at what speed (kW), and leave comments. Since EA fails so frequently, I try to avoid EA and use EvGo and ChargePoint. The latter two work 100% of the time for me so most of my comments on EV chargers are positive.

With EA though -- not so much. I have about a 50% success rate with them. And judging from all of the PlugShare comments I've read, it's clear I'm not alone. With the 50% failed sessions, I typically leave an "EA sucks" remark in the comments [but I also make note of the successful charges too to keep things accurate and balanced].

Anyway, I guess EA does monitor the PlugShare comments. They gave me a call, probably just to chat with the guy who keeps posting "EA sucks" in the comments. The rep was pleasant enough. She suggested calling EA at the posted number whenever I have a problem. I told her that I've tried that but no one ever answers. She said to send an email to them when I'm about to charge at one of the bad chargers so they can see what's going on. I said I might try it. Their chargers over at Caesars Palace Forum Shops in Las Vegas fail 100% of the time for me (and plenty of others) so maybe that'll be a good test case.

I don't flatter myself to think that VW actually cares about a peon car owner like me, but at least they're making an effort to collect info about the constant stream of charge failures.

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[submatrix]

As you can see from my post history, I absolutely love my 2021 TTS while having no fondness at all for Electrify America. They are to EV charging what Internet Explorer is to browsers.

Anyway, there's this app called PlugShare that I use where you can indicate whether particular chargers in the neighborhood are working, at what speed (kW), and leave comments. Since EA fails so frequently, I try to avoid EA and use EvGo and ChargePoint. The latter two work 100% of the time for me so most of my comments on EV chargers are positive.

With EA though -- not so much. I have about a 50% success rate with them. And judging from all of the PlugShare comments I've read, it's clear I'm not alone. With the 50% failed sessions, I typically leave an "EA sucks" remark in the comments [but I also make note of the successful charges too to keep things accurate and balanced].

Anyway, I guess EA does monitor the PlugShare comments. They gave me a call, probably just to chat with the guy who keeps posting "EA sucks" in the comments. The rep was pleasant enough. She suggested calling EA at the posted number whenever I have a problem. I told her that I've tried that but no one ever answers. She said to send an email to them when I'm about to charge at one of the bad chargers so they can see what's going on. I said I might try it. Their chargers over at Caesars Palace Forum Shops in Las Vegas fail 100% of the time for me (and plenty of others) so maybe that'll be a good test case.

lol. Do you leave your phone number on the PlugShare comments? How did EA find you?

I wouldn't say I have 50% success, but it's definitely not 100% either. Probably more like 70-80%, though I haven't done too many charging sessions yet (~15 or so).

Plug and Charge has never worked for me, though I think that's a Porsche problem.

 

[SWORDER]

lol. Do you leave your phone number on the PlugShare comments? How did EA find you?

I wondered the same thing and almost asked. No I don't provide my phone number to public sites, nor do I post it in the comments. One thing I always do post though is the charger number. I think what's happening is they're matching up the time of my post with their own logs that're generated when I use the Porsche Charging app. And Porsche Charging does have my phone number.

They're saying, "OK, the 'EA Sucks' guy posted again. He's complaining about charger 01 at location X. Let's see who was using it then. Oh, it's SWORDER. Let's give this hoser a call."

Plug and Charge has never worked for me, though I think that's a Porsche problem.

She did ask if I were using Plug and Charge. Turns out I'm in the minority of Taycan owners who can't use PnC due to a digital certificate error on the enhanced charger built into the car. So that's a Porsche issue, not an EA one. I didn't bother to explain that to her, mainly because the failures generally occur in the handshake phase before PnC would even be negotiated. Leads to an an "error starting charge" error.

 

[fullmetalbaal]

I wondered the same thing and almost asked. No I don't provide my phone number to public sites, nor do I post it in the comments. One thing I always do post though is the charger number. I think what's happening is they're matching up the time of my post with their own logs that're generated when I use the Porsche Charging app. And Porsche Charging does have my phone number.

They're saying, "OK, the 'EA Sucks' guy posted again. He's complaining about charger 01 at location X. Let's see who was using it then. Oh, it's SWORDER. Let's give this hoser a call."

If that's how they got your number, that's all kinds of shady IMHO.
This particular use case is probably fine, but Porsche shouldn't be handing out your phone number to third parties without your consent and awareness, period.

 

[SWORDER]

If that's how they got your number, that's all kinds of shady IMHO.
This particular use case is probably fine, but Porsche shouldn't be handing out your phone number to third parties without your consent and awareness, period.

They aren't. As far as I know the Porsche Charging app is actually maintained by Porsche. Or VW more accurately. They own that data. They have my number by virtue of the fact that my sales rep entered it in there when registering my for free charging.

I could tell from the EA rep's hesitancy that she wasn't 100% sure I was the same guy that was posting to PlugShare. Since I list the exact time and charger number on PlugShare, it's not hard for EA/VW to look at their logs to see who was using that specific charger at that specific time. They can see the failed session so they deduced it was me. At least that's my thought process.

 

[TycanNewHampshire]

have you ever posted a picture with your car at a EA station on the PlugShare App? I know you can message other users and see their profile, but I don't ever recall having to put in my phone number for the app. Perhaps I did in the beginning for code verification? I am just wondering if they figured out your car and personal info then used the web's 'shadow profile' to link across marketing tools and consolidate a profile to get your number?
Or, they are randomly reaching out to users and it was coincidence to get ways to improve and part of their checklist is asking if you use PlugShare.....did they ask about any other apps or ways to improve your experience?
I posted more in PlugShare in the beginning and will restart this habit as it is good to know that they are indeed monitoring this. It is a capitalism market and if enough post about EA and they see a push to their competition for market share, they will respond. If we call the phone number or send them an email, there is no action for them to respond or make a change. Money talks, complaints walk.
Thanks for the experience and reinforces the need to post on PlugShare every time I have an issue with EA. I also, fortunately, have PnC working (and also have the 19.2kW on-board charger) and know that I am in the minority here, but it started working a little over a month ago and now is about 90% active when I plug in at EA. I almost don't have to use the Charging NA app anymore!

 

[kort]

She did ask if I were using Plug and Charge. Turns out I'm in the minority of Taycan owners who can't use PnC due to a digital certificate error on the enhanced charger built into the car. So that's a Porsche issue, not an EA one. I didn't bother to explain that to her, mainly because the failures generally occur in the handshake phase before PnC would even be negotiated. Leads to an an "error starting charge" error.

I wish you guys with this issue would bring to porsche's attention, they seem to believe that I am the only one with this "handshake" issue.

 

[kort]

have you ever posted a picture with your car at a EA station on the PlugShare App? I know you can message other users and see their profile, but I don't ever recall having to put in my phone number for the app. Perhaps I did in the beginning for code verification? I am just wondering if they figured out your car and personal info then used the web's 'shadow profile' to link across marketing tools and consolidate a profile to get your number?
Or, they are randomly reaching out to users and it was coincidence to get ways to improve and part of their checklist is asking if you use PlugShare.....did they ask about any other apps or ways to improve your experience?
I posted more in PlugShare in the beginning and will restart this habit as it is good to know that they are indeed monitoring this. It is a capitalism market and if enough post about EA and they see a push to their competition for market share, they will respond. If we call the phone number or send them an email, there is no action for them to respond or make a change. Money talks, complaints walk.
Thanks for the experience and reinforces the need to post on PlugShare every time I have an issue with EA. I also, fortunately, have PnC working (and also have the 19.2kW on-board charger) and know that I am in the minority here, but it started working a little over a month ago and now is about 90% active when I plug in at EA. I almost don't have to use the Charging NA app anymore!

yes. you were going to share with me how you accomplished getting the car to charge better.

 

[thecoloradokid]

As you can see from my post history, I absolutely love my 2021 TTS while having no fondness at all for Electrify America. They are to EV charging what Internet Explorer is to browsers.

Anyway, there's this app called PlugShare that I use where you can indicate whether particular chargers in the neighborhood are working, at what speed (kW), and leave comments. Since EA fails so frequently, I try to avoid EA and use EvGo and ChargePoint. The latter two work 100% of the time for me so most of my comments on EV chargers are positive.

With EA though -- not so much. I have about a 50% success rate with them. And judging from all of the PlugShare comments I've read, it's clear I'm not alone. With the 50% failed sessions, I typically leave an "EA sucks" remark in the comments [but I also make note of the successful charges too to keep things accurate and balanced].

Anyway, I guess EA does monitor the PlugShare comments. They gave me a call, probably just to chat with the guy who keeps posting "EA sucks" in the comments. The rep was pleasant enough. She suggested calling EA at the posted number whenever I have a problem. I told her that I've tried that but no one ever answers. She said to send an email to them when I'm about to charge at one of the bad chargers so they can see what's going on. I said I might try it. Their chargers over at Caesars Palace Forum Shops in Las Vegas fail 100% of the time for me (and plenty of others) so maybe that'll be a good test case.

I don't flatter myself to think that VW actually cares about a peon car owner like me, but at least they're making an effort to collect info about the constant stream of charge failures.

I was wondering if you could elaborate on your 50% failure rate at Electrify America locations? Like provide details and expand on what went on when trying to charge? There are quite a few members of this group that have had much better luck than you at EA locations - including two recent posts about successful road trips between LA and SF. I have put 18,000 miles on two different Taycan's since May of 2020 and charged in 12 different states and have never had a location fail to provide a charge. So, that you share that you have a 50% failure rate at EA locations might mean you have bigger problems than just EA. Have you had your car inspected by Porsche techs and had the data sent to Atlanta for review to see if you have faulty charging comports on the vehicle?

I am hoping that EA calling you to ask why you are having such challenges at their locations will prompt you to expand your comments beyond "EA sucks" on Plugshare. We all know they have room for improvement, but without details of why your charging sessions fail nothing will improve.

In the meantime, I hope you have better luck at EA locations.

 

[SWORDER]

I don't ever recall having to put in my phone number for the app. Perhaps I did in the beginning for code verification? I am just wondering if they figured out your car and personal info then used the web's 'shadow profile' to link across marketing tools

No, you never enter your phone number into PlugShare. In fact, I don't believe they ever ask for it. The phone number is stored in the Charging NA app, which VW and EA have access to.

So let's say I were to comment:

Charger 01 at Las Vegas Forum Shops still completely unusable. EA Sucks.
posted by: SWORDER at 5/5/21 @ 10:04am.

Well, from that all they have to do is look at the EA logs and see who was charging at 10:04am on charger 01. They'll see it was me and they'll see my phone number. That's how they got it. The date and time stamp of my comment is public so not too hard to reverse engineer if you work for VW/EA.

I also, fortunately, have PnC working (and also have the 19.2kW on-board charger) and know that I am in the minority here, but it started working a little over a month ago and now is about 90% active when I plug in at EA.

Now that is really interesting! As far as I knew, this bug was unsolvable.

 

[kort]

I was wondering if you could elaborate on your 50% failure rate at Electrify America locations? Like provide details and expand on what went on when trying to charge? There are quite a few members of this group that have had much better luck than you at EA locations - including two recent posts about successful road trips between LA and SF. I have put 18,000 miles on two different Taycan's since May of 2020 and charged in 12 different states and have never had a location fail to provide a charge. So, that you share that you have a 50% failure rate at EA locations might mean you have bigger problems than just EA. Have you had your car inspected by Porsche techs and had the data sent to Atlanta for review to see if you have faulty charging comports on the vehicle?

I am hoping that EA calling you to ask why you are having such challenges at their locations will prompt you to expand your comments beyond "EA sucks" on Plugshare. We all know they have room for improvement, but without details of why your charging sessions fail nothing will improve.

In the meantime, I hope you have better luck at EA locations.

while the EA chargers can be challenging, I find that about 25% of the units are down,
the problem some of us are having is not an EA issue it is related to the car.

I believe that the affected cars have the 19.2 kw onboard charger, the one that limits the plug and charge features, and that there is some sort of software bug that causes the car not to complete the handshake with the EA charger, and are not caused by user error.

so regardless of the fact that the majority of people are not having issues, there is a small subset of cars, like mine and his and others that DO have connection issues with the EA chargers.

I have had my car inspected, data shipped to germany, at least that is what the dealership claimed, and there was no flaw found and no fix made. I will continue to repeat having the flaws, documenting them better when they happen and then I will take the necessary measures with porsche.

 

[kort]

Well, from that all they have to do is look at the EA logs and see who was charging at 10:04am on charger 01. They'll see it was me and they'll see my phone number. That's how they got it. The date and time stamp of my comment is public so not too hard to reverse engineer if you work for VW/EA.

this is the correct answer

 

[SWORDER]

I was wondering if you could elaborate on your 50% failure rate at Electrify America locations? Like provide details and expand on what went on when trying to charge?

There's not really much to share. I plug in, the white light on the car flashes, the EA terminal shows a spinning icon, and eventually an "error starting charge" or "error initiating charge" appears.

So, that you share that you have a 50% failure rate at EA locations might mean you have bigger problems than just EA.

Certainly possible, but quite unlikely given that:

• All other AC/DC chargers from other vendors work flawlessly.
• Other PlugShare users report failures at the same chargers.
• EA, who can also post comments of their own to PlugShare, often posts things along the lines of "charger at location X now working"

There are quite a few members of this group that have had much better luck than you at EA locations - including two recent posts about successful road trips between LA and SF.

I've had numerous road trips between San Diego and Las Vegas and charged at EA. Would I consider those trips successful from a charging perspective? Well, I guess it comes down to definitions.

If I see an unused charger flashes unavailable on the screen or in the EA app, I treat it as a non-event. Machines break. No biggie. No comment on PlugShare.

But the more typical case is a machine shows as being online in the app and in person and then fails on attempted use. I then have to check with other users, either on PlugShare or in person, to determine which of the 4/5 chargers actually work and then wait for that one to become available. Or just randomly start trying the other chargers.

So, is that a success or a failure? To me, that warrants an "EA Sucks." Others might view it as a success. They did charge after all. It may have taken an extra hour or two out of their day but technically, they left with a full battery.

I am hoping that EA calling you to ask why you are having such challenges at their locations will prompt you to expand your comments beyond "EA sucks" on Plugshare.

You might think so but you'd be wrong. My earlier comments when first getting the Taycan were quite detailed. No one from EA ever responded. Only the "EA Sucks" comments warranted a response apparently. Remember, the idea behind the "EA Sucks" messages isn't just to tweak EA or prompt a courtesy call from a half-interested CS rep; It's to help other users to know which chargers are failing that day. And I appreciate when other users do the same for me.

 

[thecoloradokid]

while the EA chargers can be challenging, I find that about 25% of the units are down.

the problem some of us are having is not an EA issue it is related to the car. I believe that the affected cars have the 19.2 kw onboard charger, the one that limits the plug and charge features, and that there is some sort of software bug that causes the car not to complete the handshake with the EA charger, and are not caused by user error.

so regardless of the fact that the majority of people are not having issues, there is a small subset of cars, like mine and his and others that DO have connection issues with the EA chargers.

I have had my car inspected, data shipped to germany, at least that is what the dealership claimed, and there was no flaw found and no fix made. I will continue to repeat having the flaws, documenting them better when they happen and then I will take the necessary measures with porsche.

Kort, you have known issue, which sucks since the 19.2kw onboard charger was supposed to give you faster charging options at home, not limit charging features at EA locations. So, when you go to EA locations do you initiate charging through the Charging NA app then?

I am not sure if Dixon has shared if he has the 19.2kw charger on his Taycan, so who knows why he has such a high failure rate at EA locations.

 

[kort]

Kort, you have known issue, which sucks since the 19.2kw onboard charger was supposed to give you faster charging options at home, not limit charging features at EA locations. So, when you go to EA locations do you initiate charging through the Charging NA app then?

I am not sure if Dixon has shared if he has the 19.2kw charger on his Taycan, so who knows why he has such a high failure rate at EA locations.

oh my, a known issue? who knows what the issue is other than you?
porsche doesn't seem to know, and I am offering the best hypothesis that I can come up with.

it sure beats your user error theory

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