[EA SOP] - 28 minute phone call for a 15 minute charge

[DerekS]

I see a hotel stop in there.

True. But my first day was ~1000 miles.

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[Jhenson29]

True. But my first day was ~1000 miles.

You’d make it t further if you don’t have to spend so long charging. ?

 

[Tooney]

$368 for a night at a Doubletree? lotsa mini-fridge?

 

[Jonathan S.]

You’d make it t further if you don’t have to spend so long charging. ? [...]

Impressive!

Along those lines, this was accomplished in August without getting out of my car.
(I would have written, without stopping, but alas I was often at a full-stop on I-95, from Richmond VA to Deerfield MA, trying to arrive at our daughter's summer camp performance on time after visiting friends & family in DC & VA during the preceding days.)

Meanwhile, although I received an email about the heater replacement, I do not have any such message in the app or on the website.

 

[DerekS]

$368 for a night at a Doubletree? lotsa mini-fridge?

I got SOOOOOOO screwed. I tried to book that in advance and ended up going through one of those fake sites that adds their own upcharge.

 

[DerekS]

Let this be a lesson! Make sure you're on the real site when booking a reservation!
Thanks, "HotelValues.com"

 

[whitex]

Alameda, CA Target EA charging location…Oct. 19th, 2023 - 10 am local time - attending BMW driving event @ Alameda…

arrived on site - 7 stations - 5 occupied, 1 "unavaiable" - one stall "open" - 350 kW (balanced)

the one stall that was open had a functional screen - pulled in - plugged in - no responses - 3-5 minute screwing arround I determine the stall is "hung/frozen" - needs a reboot…

call the EA help line
on hold for 10 minutes
agent connects at the 11 minute mark
I tell him I need a station rebooted - he ignores me
runs a script trying to diagnose problems with my car, vin, year, make, model, purchase history, IRS tax records, vaccination status, sexual partner history, credit history, family medical history…
eventually determines I might be "right" - reboots the station - I plug in and proceed to get a Porsche app based charging session activation
I then charge from 2x% to 85% in less than 16 minutes

time spent dealing with a dead station - 5 miinutes
time spent trying to get EA to do one simple thing - 28 minutes
time spent actually charging my Taycan - 15 minutes

the only thing wrong with the Taycan is the charging network.

Taycan is the fastest charging EV I've owned, and has the best charging taper curve that I've ecountered in real life - the car was a champ yesterday - started out at 120 kW ramped up to 180 kW, and then settled into 150 kW until 50% and then slowely ramped down from 150 kW to 100 kW @ 80% SOC - and finished @85% at 90 kW when I unplugged - 15 minute charging session - but I had to work for it - it took me 2x longer on the phone with EA that the car spent actually charging.

EA needs to die in a lightening induced ball of fire and be reborn as a company that actually cares about their product/service offerings.

Hmmm..... one way to improve this phone-call:charging ratio would be to trade your Taycan for a Chevy Bolt ?

 

[daveo4EV]

Hmmm..... one way to improve this phone-call:charging ration would be to trade your Taycan for a Chevy Bolt ?

I"ve owned 2 Bolt's - good cars - terrible fast charging - only get 50 kW until about 35% SOC - then it's 24 kW and eventually 14 kW for most of the charging session {sigh}

 

[DerekS]

I"ve owned 2 Bolt's - good cars - terrible fast charging - only get 50 kW until about 35% SOC - then it's 24 kW and eventually 14 kW for most of the charging session {sigh}

Well that certainly explains why they park at the EA chargers FOREVER.

 

[whitex]

I"ve owned 2 Bolt's - good cars - terrible fast charging - only get 50 kW until about 35% SOC - then it's 24 kW and eventually 14 kW for most of the charging session {sigh}

I am aware. As 28 minutes to start the charging session becomes negligible, the talking-to-charging ratio improves tremendously.

 

[Tooney]

call the EA help line
on hold for 10 minutes
agent connects at the 11 minute mark
I tell him I need a station rebooted - he ignores me

"The [EA] Contact Center can resolve most customer-related issues by receiving and
triaging phone calls from customers. Ultimately, while total operating costs are increasing, the
business continues to achieve operating leverage as the total usage grows much faster than
costs. Since its inception, the average wait time to speak with a Charging Specialist was just
over one minute."
page 34: EA report https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...v-investment-plan-oct-2023.17555/#post-269886

 

[whitex]

"The [EA] Contact Center can resolve most customer-related issues by receiving and
triaging phone calls from customers. Ultimately, while total operating costs are increasing, the
business continues to achieve operating leverage as the total usage grows much faster than
costs. Since its inception, the average wait time to speak with a Charging Specialist was just
over one minute."
page 34: EA report https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...v-investment-plan-oct-2023.17555/#post-269886

It would behoove EA to automate reboot of the charging station while customer is on hold. Simply authenticate the customer based on their incoming phone number, then let them enter charging station ID into an automated system which would reboot the charger as long as that charger is not actively charging (prevent customers to reset each other, intentionally or by accident). If that works, save the time they have to pay a human to talk to the customer. They could add the same to the EA app, so customers could try it even before they call in. The app could have additional guards based on GPS location (no rebooting chargers more than some radius away from your current location).

 

[Tsingtao]

Alameda, CA Target EA charging location…Oct. 19th, 2023 - 10 am local time - attending BMW driving event @ Alameda…

arrived on site - 7 stations - 5 occupied, 1 "unavaiable" - one stall "open" - 350 kW (balanced)

the one stall that was open had a functional screen - pulled in - plugged in - no responses - 3-5 minute screwing arround I determine the stall is "hung/frozen" - needs a reboot…

call the EA help line
on hold for 10 minutes
agent connects at the 11 minute mark
I tell him I need a station rebooted - he ignores me
runs a script trying to diagnose problems with my car, vin, year, make, model, purchase history, IRS tax records, vaccination status, sexual partner history, credit history, family medical history…
eventually determines I might be "right" - reboots the station - I plug in and proceed to get a Porsche app based charging session activation
I then charge from 2x% to 85% in less than 16 minutes

time spent dealing with a dead station - 5 miinutes
time spent trying to get EA to do one simple thing - 28 minutes
time spent actually charging my Taycan - 15 minutes

the only thing wrong with the Taycan is the charging network.

Taycan is the fastest charging EV I've owned, and has the best charging taper curve that I've ecountered in real life - the car was a champ yesterday - started out at 120 kW ramped up to 180 kW, and then settled into 150 kW until 50% and then slowely ramped down from 150 kW to 100 kW @ 80% SOC - and finished @85% at 90 kW when I unplugged - 15 minute charging session - but I had to work for it - it took me 2x longer on the phone with EA that the car spent actually charging.

EA needs to die in a lightening induced ball of fire and be reborn as a company that actually cares about their product/service offerings.

EA does indeed need to die. I seldom use DC fast charging, but when I do EA chargers never seem to deliver anything close to their rated power output. Example, I stopped at an "Electrify Wal*Mart" last weekend to top off the tank on the way home from a little sojourn. After waiting on Mr. Ford F150 Lightning to unplug from the sole 350kW charger, I hooked up only to find that EA's 350 kW charger was delivering a mere 65kW. WTF is wrong with EA?

 

[HWY]

Just made a trip from central Washington to Depoe Bay Or, and not one EA charging location had all plugs functioning, let alone delivering the charge indicated on the terminal. One had been down for over 3 weeks according to someone that said they lived nearby. I hope they figure it out or it will help kill interest in electric vehicles.

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