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A Warning About Pod Point Installation Services

2K views 12 replies 11 participants last post by  Ethanedwards  
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

Wanted to share a quick warning about Pod Point. Our experience with getting an EV charger installed has been dreadful. Full payment was made, including for additional groundwork. However, installation is still incomplete after several months. Their management is now asking for more fees. Communication is a nightmare. Would think twice before using their services.

Each of these reviews provides a concise summary of your negative experience, aiming to inform others about the potential issues they might encounter with Pod Point.
 
#2 · (Edited)
I completed a PodPoint online application when I was first getting a home charge point installed. However, I refused to hand over ÂŁ1K when, to my mind, it seemed very likely that our installation was going to be complicated. They rang me back and asked why I hadn't 'completed' the application. After asking the same questions as on the web form they said, sorry, but they weren't interested in doing the job at all, because it would involve running under the floor part of the way - mine was a 'non-standard' installation.

But my in-person conversation didn't give them any more information than was in my online application. Yet they would happily have taken my ÂŁ1K. And then what? Presumably, their subcontractor would have arrived and done the sharp-intake-of-breath thing, and the fun would have started.
 
#3 ·
Recently there are several FIRST posts warning us about this or that, strangely enough the OP never shows back again.... I thought that the forum moderators/admin had a system in place to prevent this from happening....obviously not.
 
#4 ·
This forum has a very open and seemingly uncontrolled new membership system. As a consequence there are a fair number of members that join every day, many with somewhat oddly constructed user names, and who don't post. Some will return and just add adverts and dodgy links to their profile, so may make a couple of fairly benign posts then edit them later to insert dodgy links.

I guess it's fair enough for someone to join to highlight poor customer service, though. Not that hearing of poor service from PodPoint is particularly new, but nevertheless it may well be helpful for anyone who is looking to choose an installer.

My advice for anyone looking to have a charge point installed would be to avoid manufacturer installation services like the plague. Instead, choose a well-respected and properly qualified local electrician, one that has a good reputation. Might not always be the cheapest, but the chances are that the service will be a lot better and if there are any issues you can be pretty confident that someone local will want to resolve them quickly, as they will be trading very much on their reputation.

I should add that I have a degree of bias, having seen a fair few pretty dire charge point installs undertaken by national installers over the years.
 
#7 ·
Without wishing to sound like a promotional service for local electricians and electrical contractors it would be really good if anyone looking to get a charge point installed were to seek out someone local to them and both get advice and an undoubtedly better service most of the time.

One of the things that has really buggered up the reputation of trades over the years has been the way national companies have moved in and employed barely competent people to do an often poor job, whilst they skim the cream off the price for their profit. We used to joke about the big national kitchen fitters, who are notoriously dodgy when it comes to electrical work, but this disease has spread, first to solar installations and now to charge point installations.

The national installers all work to the same basic model. They advertise a price that is for the most straightforward install imaginable, get the attention of potential customers, then they either walk away if they don't think they can make enough profit or start upping the price to an often ludicrous degree. Worst part is that they often seem to employ those keen to work for low rates. Sometimes these are potentially good people trying to get a foot on the ladder, sometimes they are people too incompetent to work outwith the safety net of a big company. Either way the chances are fairly high that they aren't going to provide a good value for money job to the customer, given that there's someone above them creaming off a fat percentage.
 
#8 ·
Whilst the bottom part of the OP post does read like it's been copy/pasted from another site, it matches our own unfortunate experience with Podpoint too (discussed on here, elsewhere)

Fortunately they were very rapid with issuing a full refund when we finally reached the point of having had enough
 
#9 ·
A post made on TrustPilot 3 hours ago by Mr Ahmed


Shaheen Ahmed
1 review
GB

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

3 hours ago
Disappointing Experience with Pod Point
I’ve had a frustrating experience with Pod Point’s service for EV charger installation. Despite full payment upfront, including extra for groundwork, the installation remains incomplete months later. Communication is poor, and they recently demanded additional fees unexpectedly. Urgent resolution and better customer service are needed. Not what I expected from a company of this standing.
Date of experience: 07 October 2024
 
#10 ·
The OP looks incomplete to me.

However, Podpoint are a bit of a waste of space.

The way they do things is perhaps not unique but rather bizarre.

They get the customer to do a self survey.
The customer takes the number of pictures asked for but then when submitting them they find it difficult to upload them as they are either too many or too large which is odd as PP ask for good quality pictures.
Some things they ask prove quite difficult like taking pictures of the water and gas bonding although every home is different.
When I submitted my stuff it took several hours and they refused to accept that bonding was unnecessary and would not clarify with an answer to why was it anything to do with them anyway.

Ordeal over when everything is done for the nth time to produce the right balance of detail, quality and clarity by numbers but for the submission to actually work this time.
At least the ordeal is paused anyway.

After answering further questions to clarify exactly what you have already described to them they give an install date.

If an engineer turns up they have exactly no information which you provided and only a vague note to say you are having a fresh install or something else.

The engineers are as pissed off with the company as many of their customers are. The Podpoint way of doing things is to move the focus of where an engineer needs to be at very late notice but not bother to inform the customer until the very last minute and do that by email.
A customer could for example take a half day or full day off work and sit there waiting, finally chasing them up only to find out an email was sent at 11am claiming the engineer was off sick whereas in fact they told the engineer to do a different job at 9am.

It can be a toss up between getting a decent engineer who will be working to PPs list of requirements against what the engineer knows to be best practice or a complete muppet who works for a third party company used when the PP engineers are a bit stretched.

I had issues where PP needed to come back to move something they had put in the wrong place. It took some convincing to get them back but PP got caught out telling me lies. Weeks later they sent a muppet round who nearly electricuted himself but was too useless to know why. However the item was moved and I could then get things moved forward.

In my view if ypu're a large company and you need to mess people around you phone them at the earliest opportunity and apologise while also rescheduling.
PP however send an email full of lies and state that they'll be in touch to reschedule which takes a further number of weeks.

Although I did get things resolved and PP had to cough up for messing me around I think its probably one case out of 100s where things could have gone much better had the people one spoke to listened properly, the engineer was furnished with full details and allowed the freedom to do their job properly rather than cutting corners which they might get away with to some extent.

I've had no dealings with them now for a few years apart from last week when I needed to speak with them on the phone about something.
I got through within a couple of minutes.
I explained what needed to be achieved.
It was done without jumping through any hoops and the chap I spoke with seemed decent and entirely competent.
Maybe it was luck of the draw, perhaps they have pulled their socks up.
More likely it's the different departments being in different leagues but I still recall the complete farce they made of things which on the face of it was a standard install.

I hope all the examples of them putting on a poor show just seem numerous because very few bother to write about things which went as expected.

Gaz
 
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#11 ·
That very much chimes with our experience of trying to get a home charger fitted.

Appalling communication post-self-survey, chasing them up over a number of weeks to get confirmation that it was all good and get an install date
Two weeks before the install date, they call up, offering a sooner date on a Saturday. We accept
Saturday, nobody turns up. No communication
It's a bank holiday Monday, so Tuesday morning I email them. Generic response, promising a reply within 3 working days.
So I call them (still Tuesday morning). Person takes details, promises to get back to me later that day. Nothing
Call Wednesday afternoon after work. Person promises to get back to me. Which they do, offering me an installation date for the Saturday that's just been, so going back in time to accomplish
Call Thursday, explain this slight problem. Soonest they can offer an install date is 3 weeks away
Call Friday, demand money back.

If a company can't even manage to arrange a simple installation, then I don't want to be trying to chase them up in the event of problems or warranty issues
 
#12 ·
Is this a new phenomenon? When I bought my first EV 3 years ago the dealer had an "arrangement" with Podpoint which meant that I got a good deal at the time (and I believe the dealership got a cut as well), and I must say the charging point installation was quick and efficient. I live on the Isle of Wight and I recall that the engineer had come over from the mainland. From start to finish - taking photographs and sending them off, completing the application and arranging for the installation - the whole process was completed in a fortnight. The engineer took about 2 hours to actually do the installation. It has worked flawlessly ever since, so I ask again, are Podpoint troubles something new?
 
#13 ·
My experience three years ago with podpoint was similar to the ones above. Painful, shambolic, time wasting etc. Eventually I ditched them, got the dealer to apply the 500quid as a discount to the car. Then got a mate/ local sparky to install an EVSE. He'd just done the training course, I was his third install. Did a superb job. Pp were going to demand additional thousands for groundwork too. Turned out to be completely unnecessary. I would not recommend them.