Just thought I'd share with you a recent miserable experience I had with Chargemaster/Polar which gives you a fair idea of the 'quality' of the company. Here's the email I sent them after my misadventure:
They called yesterday and left a message. I called back this morning. They (surprise, surprise) admitted it was their fault, said they'd disciplined the engineer (naughty boy!) but declined to cover my expenses as they claim they, of course, would have 'immediately' despatched an engineer to retrieve my cable and then have returned it to me (at, presumably, far greater time and expense than just sending me a cheque for my miserable hotel room.)
Hmmm ... can you imagine me calling them the next day asking them to retrieve my cable and return it to me? It would either be a no, or cost me more than the cable.
But then again, what did I expect? This is evidently a cynical and small-minded company which has presumably made quite a tidy income until now from soaking up government grants by installing unsuitable EV chargers in (often) unmarked bays and then failing to maintain them, or offering 'free' home chargers to people who don't even have EVs ... well, good luck to them trying to charge EV owners for their 'service.'
I take consolation in the thought that cynical business practices and dubious business models do sometimes (sadly, only sometimes) lead to failure. For example, see their inability to list on AIM in 2013 (unable to find investors who agreed with their valuation). Hopefully, once there are no more low-hanging and ill-advised government grants to be picked off and exploited, they will founder and make room for more genuine market participants, such as Ecotricity.
Finally, a word of warning, if you plan on relying on a Chargemaster/Polar EV charging post, then maybe you'd better carry a cold chisel and a hammer with you to make sure you can get your cable back.
Eugene the disgruntled
Dear Chargemaster,
As you know, last night you kindly remote-controlled the EV charger at Seacourt Park & Ride for me, so that I could charge my Nissan Leaf while I visited Oxford. It was unfortunate that my existing RFID card is no longer valid and no replacement was issued. Anyway, when I returned (as discussed) at 10.30pm I was unable to unlock the cable because of my defunct RFID card. I was also unable to contact customer services to get them to do it for me. I called seven times, between 10.30pm and 11.44pm and each time just went through to an answering machine. I left (increasingly irate) messages each time, including my mobile number. You have to understand that it was literally freezing at that time, zero degrees. In the end, I felt I had no alternative but to give up, abandon the cable, retire to a nearby hotel and try again in the morning. I was not prepared to drive all the way home to the Cotswolds and leave £500 worth of Type 2 cable lying around in the hope that your company would retrieve it and return it to me.
This morning, I returned early to the Park&Ride, called the customer service number again and … amazingly still got no answer. Finally, your engineer Mark called me back at about 7.40am and unlocked the cable remotely.
So, attached is the invoice for the hotel and the call logs. I stayed in a Travelodge to minimise expense. I also had to pay a second parking fee of £2.00 to retrieve the cable. Please therefore send me a cheque ASAP for £81.00 to cover my expenses caused by your company’s inability to operate a 24 hour customer support line as promised by your website, app, etc. As you can imagine this was a very disagreeable and annoying experience.
Regards,
As you know, last night you kindly remote-controlled the EV charger at Seacourt Park & Ride for me, so that I could charge my Nissan Leaf while I visited Oxford. It was unfortunate that my existing RFID card is no longer valid and no replacement was issued. Anyway, when I returned (as discussed) at 10.30pm I was unable to unlock the cable because of my defunct RFID card. I was also unable to contact customer services to get them to do it for me. I called seven times, between 10.30pm and 11.44pm and each time just went through to an answering machine. I left (increasingly irate) messages each time, including my mobile number. You have to understand that it was literally freezing at that time, zero degrees. In the end, I felt I had no alternative but to give up, abandon the cable, retire to a nearby hotel and try again in the morning. I was not prepared to drive all the way home to the Cotswolds and leave £500 worth of Type 2 cable lying around in the hope that your company would retrieve it and return it to me.
This morning, I returned early to the Park&Ride, called the customer service number again and … amazingly still got no answer. Finally, your engineer Mark called me back at about 7.40am and unlocked the cable remotely.
So, attached is the invoice for the hotel and the call logs. I stayed in a Travelodge to minimise expense. I also had to pay a second parking fee of £2.00 to retrieve the cable. Please therefore send me a cheque ASAP for £81.00 to cover my expenses caused by your company’s inability to operate a 24 hour customer support line as promised by your website, app, etc. As you can imagine this was a very disagreeable and annoying experience.
Regards,
They called yesterday and left a message. I called back this morning. They (surprise, surprise) admitted it was their fault, said they'd disciplined the engineer (naughty boy!) but declined to cover my expenses as they claim they, of course, would have 'immediately' despatched an engineer to retrieve my cable and then have returned it to me (at, presumably, far greater time and expense than just sending me a cheque for my miserable hotel room.)
Hmmm ... can you imagine me calling them the next day asking them to retrieve my cable and return it to me? It would either be a no, or cost me more than the cable.
But then again, what did I expect? This is evidently a cynical and small-minded company which has presumably made quite a tidy income until now from soaking up government grants by installing unsuitable EV chargers in (often) unmarked bays and then failing to maintain them, or offering 'free' home chargers to people who don't even have EVs ... well, good luck to them trying to charge EV owners for their 'service.'
I take consolation in the thought that cynical business practices and dubious business models do sometimes (sadly, only sometimes) lead to failure. For example, see their inability to list on AIM in 2013 (unable to find investors who agreed with their valuation). Hopefully, once there are no more low-hanging and ill-advised government grants to be picked off and exploited, they will founder and make room for more genuine market participants, such as Ecotricity.
Finally, a word of warning, if you plan on relying on a Chargemaster/Polar EV charging post, then maybe you'd better carry a cold chisel and a hammer with you to make sure you can get your cable back.
Eugene the disgruntled