[Jeremy Harris]

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.

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.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

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.