[Bikerchickone]

Ok so I know I don't have my car yet (3 sleeps to go for anyone who didn't know) but the charger at my local Sainsbury has been broken for a month or more. Asking in store for repair we've been told it's not their job to fix it, so I've taken the battle online to social networking, both Twitter and Facebook. Several times now the Manager has promised to fix in 24hrs and still nothing. The store manager seems to have no intention of repairing it, as we've been told by staff, yet keeps feeding the social network customer service teams this rubbish about being on the case!

When my car arrives (3 sleeps and all that) I'll be one of 3 Leafs in the area that want to use that charger, and who are happy to shop in the store for the priviledge, what can we do? Anyone?

 

[Brooktop]

Contact Head Office. Often gets results.

 

[Bikerchickone]

Contact Head Office. Often gets results.

I'd thought that was what I'd done via social media but I'll give that a go too. So frustrating when the closest fast charger to us is not working, and my home charger isn't being fitted for almost a week after I get the car

 

[Paul]

I'd thought that was what I'd done via social media but I'll give that a go too. So frustrating when the closest fast charger to us is not working, and my home charger isn't being fitted for almost a week after I get the car

When you tweet cc/mention Speak_EV and I'll give it a retweet too.

 

[Bikerchickone]

Thanks Paul, will do

 

[Brooktop]

Depends how much power the social media team has. Give 'em a 3 pronged attack.

 

[Lee Dalton]

Presumably the charging post is supplied by pod-point / chargemaster, so it might be better to call them when on site next and ask them to repair it ?

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

I'd thought that was what I'd done via social media

It is normally never a good idea to try to contact a large organisation through social media for official communications or if you want something done. They often use PR agencies to run their social media and so the people you are actually communicating with are not actually at the company concerned and so the message can get delayed or lost.

It is always best to communicate these sorts of issues via phone or email direct to the customer services of the company directly.

 

[Sussex Trug]

I would echo the suggestion of giving Pod point a call. I assume they will have some diagnostic link to the post to know if there is a defect or if someone has just thrown a switch at night and forgotten to switch it on in the morning. If they can tell you about the status then you have some ammunition to talk to Sainsburys with. (I use the term ammunition in a purely metaphorical sense. I do not want it to sound confrontational. )

btw,Is the post showing red lights or no lights?

I looked at the Pod point "live" map yesterday (late) and a substantial number of Sainsburys chargers were shown as red on the map. This morning most are back as blue apart from Weymouth and Maidstone in the South. I wonder if the guys at the stores shut down all power at night and need to remember to switch it back on? I have faced the same twice recently at another pod point in a Station. No power in the morning. Okay in the afternoon.

 

[Bikerchickone]

Thanks all. I will try contacting both podpoint and the store directly too.

I honestly can't remember if the lights were on or not, but I know one of my friends with a Leaf tried to charge there yesterday and it still wasn't working

Will keep poking until we get somewhere

 

[h8ten]

I mentioned the Longstone Road in Edinburgh to both customer service desk and Podpoint, no response from Podpoint but the next time I visited it was showing as working, then I plugged my cable in and it went offline, tried the other socket and the same. Reported it again to customer services. I have not had a chance to check it again.

 

[Duncan]

I got fed up with the Pod-Point in Sainsbury's Bicester store not working so I contacted Pod-Point. Here is the response I received:

Hello Duncan,

We are currently finalising a maintenance and service contract with Sainsbury's head office. When this is agreed we will contact you to begin the process of resolving your issue.

Kind Regards

Simon Liu

Customer Support Manager

POD Point

Tel: 020 7247 4114

Web: www.pod-point.com

So it would seem that for now the chance of getting a working post in a Sainsbury car park is approximately 0.

 

[Lee Dalton]

I got fed up with the Pod-Point in Sainsbury's Bicester store not working so I contacted Pod-Point. Here is the response I received:



So it would seem that for now the chance of getting a working post in a Sainsbury car park is approximately 0.

 

[planetf1]

It is normally never a good idea to try to contact a large organisation through social media for official communications or if you want something done. They often use PR agencies to run their social media and so the people you are actually communicating with are not actually at the company concerned and so the message can get delayed or lost

I've had good results in the past (non EV) with social media... but it does vary a lot. As you say sometimes they're purely a PR skin, othertimes they are more empowered. As was suggested I think multipronged is the best approach - social media, email, phone, and possibly email to ceo if no results obtained.

 

[Sussex Trug]

@Bikerchickone I managed to charge there on Saturday. Socket nearest the road showing red lights but socket on South side was operational. The post is very wobbly and not sure if this is related to the fault (cause rather than an effect) but it seems like a rush job. Some good wine offers too.

I got fed up with the Pod-Point in Sainsbury's Bicester store not working so I contacted Pod-Point.

I have previously had temporary success on another issue by going to Pod-Point directly so I have reported this one. Not least because the map status is misleading. It shows permanently "in-use".

I do have a slight concern about the number of non-operational pod-points at both Sainsbury's and at Stations. I anticipate that "maintenance and service contract" involves money somewhere and what seems free now may be charged in future. For a Supermarket this may be commercial suicide for their EV customer base who can go where it is free but in reality we are still a tiny minority of their customers. (Most of whom drive petrol cars and block the charge points!)