$450 bill from NRG / eVgo

[walterbays]

eVgo told me that they bill separately for subscription and usage. I often receive two charges on my credit card because of their system of billing. However, I also have received a single charge for both subscription and usage.

Maybe they combine them whenever a human has to go into the books and make corrections, which given the state of their books would be pretty frequent. Better yet, maybe they were experimenting with new software that will finally begin billing correctly and on time.

Given their ill advised decision to bill subscription and usage separately, I can see why they might fall behind on billing usage. How badly do they want to bill me for $1.20 if the credit card company is going to charge them $1.00 fee for running the charge? If they really can't figure out how to combine subscription and usage they'd do better to bill like Chargepoint. Buy $25 of credit in a $25 credit card transaction, spend it down over time, and then auto refill with another $25 charge.

 

[Sondy132001]

I just signed up the NRG today, I had to use it 2 times, yesterday and this morning, I was in San Pedro vising friends and I live and work in South Orange County. What a scam they are in all reality, I had to call them because my credit card kept declining in the slot and I know I have money. So then you have to call them and instead of the $5.95 I had to pay $9.95 through them on the phone. On top of it the charge worked yesterday, this morning it would "shut off" every 30% of charging and tell me that there was an error with the car. Very stressful seeing how I needed a full charge to get to work this morning. With all that said I have a couple questions:

My car stops charging at anywhere from 80-90%, why not 100% ?? I checked my timers they are not on and I have them to charge at 100%, so why do they shut off, is there some where else I need to go to set to 100%??

My next question is that I see you guys discussing letting people unplug you if they are in dire need and you are just charging to top yourself off, well if they unplug you and use it then plug you back in, it won't charge cause your car because it's not being paid for, so it really doesn't matter if they plug you back in correct ? I know this should be understood, I'm just trying to understand the reasoning of people saying to please plug me back in when you're done, or if there is a secret thing to make it start charging me again that I am not aware of.

Thanks !

Sondra

 

[davewill]

... My next question is that I see you guys discussing letting people unplug you if they are in dire need and you are just charging to top yourself off, well if they unplug you and use it then plug you back in, it won't charge cause your car because it's not being paid for, so it really doesn't matter if they plug you back in correct ? ...

A significant number of chargers, particularly at workplaces are free and don't require any payment. Plugging people in is simple in those cases. If you really need the charge bad enough to unplug someone, swiping your own card and picking up the person's charge for a couple bucks when you plug them back in could be well worth it. I do wish they had included some sort of authentication directly with the car so that the act of plugging in would also take care of billing.

 

[Sondy132001]

... My next question is that I see you guys discussing letting people unplug you if they are in dire need and you are just charging to top yourself off, well if they unplug you and use it then plug you back in, it won't charge cause your car because it's not being paid for, so it really doesn't matter if they plug you back in correct ? ...

A significant number of chargers, particularly at workplaces are free and don't require any payment. Plugging people in is simple in those cases. If you really need the charge bad enough to unplug someone, swiping your own card and picking up the person's charge for a couple bucks when you plug them back in could be well worth it. I do wish they had included some sort of authentication directly with the car so that the act of plugging in would also take care of billing.

Where I am, I have yet to see anything free, except my house and that's not free either. Where do I find the free chargers ?? thanks for any info =)

S

 

[davewill]

...Where do I find the free chargers ?? ...

Here and there. Use Plugshare to search. Free ones I have used are in Old Town Temecula and downtown Pasadena, provided by each city, and at Qualcomm when I visit there for meetings.

 

[Sondy132001]

...Where do I find the free chargers ?? ...

Here and there. Use Plugshare to search. Free ones I have used are in Old Town Temecula and downtown Pasadena, provided by each city, and at Qualcomm when I visit there for meetings.

Oh right on I will search this one, I haven't driven through Ortega yet and I'd like to visit friends in Murrieta and Temecula !

S

 

[walterbays]

Bad news: they seem to be a month or more behind in getting statements out. And they appear to be charging my credit card only for the monthly subscription, not for the full amount from the billing statement including usage fees. I have a question in to their customer support, in hopes of getting them to charge me the full amount prior to cutting off my access card.

eVgo customer support - excellent as always - checked into it and there are no unbilled charges on my account.

With eVgo, just watch your credit card postings carefully and contact them right away if there's a discrepancy. Among EV annoyances I don't know which I'd rank tops, ICEing, rapid battery degradation, or broken charging stations. But eVgo's poor billing system ranks pretty far down on the list.

 

[DaveEV]

What a scam they are in all reality, I had to call them because my credit card kept declining in the slot and I know I have money.

I'm not sure what you mean - you have to have an eVgo card to use their stations, you can't use a credit card.

So then you have to call them and instead of the $5.95 I had to pay $9.95 through them on the phone.

The eVgo a-la-carte QC rate is $4.95 / session + $0.20 / minute. If you pay $14.95 / month, then QC is only $0.10 / minute and there is no session fee. L2 is also only $1.00 / hour instead of $1.50 / hour. I don't know how granular their hourly billing is - do they round to the hour or to the minute?

On top of it the charge worked yesterday, this morning it would "shut off" every 30% of charging and tell me that there was an error with the car. Very stressful seeing how I needed a full charge to get to work this morning.

Do you have all the latest firmware updates on your car? That behavior isn't typical.

My car stops charging at anywhere from 80-90%, why not 100% ?? I checked my timers they are not on and I have them to charge at 100%, so why do they shut off, is there some where else I need to go to set to 100%??

With a 2011-2012, if you start charging from below 50% or so, it will only charge to 80% or so. If you restart the session (ka-ching!) it should QC close to 100%, but if you have to pay a session fee, you're better of moving to the L2 station if you can wait slightly longer. eVgo QC stations will also automatically shut off after 30 minutes, in most cases, too.

 

[Sondy132001]

What a scam they are in all reality, I had to call them because my credit card kept declining in the slot and I know I have money.

I'm not sure what you mean - you have to have an eVgo card to use their stations, you can't use a credit card.

The gentleman (from NRG) told me on the phone I could use my credit card, I called them first before I did anything because I haven't used them before, only have used ChargePoint and EV Connect, my card kept getting denied

So then you have to call them and instead of the $5.95 I had to pay $9.95 through them on the phone.

The eVgo a-la-carte QC rate is $4.95 / session + $0.20 / minute. If you pay $14.95 / month, then QC is only $0.10 / minute and there is no session fee. L2 is also only $1.00 / hour instead of $1.50 / hour. I don't know how granular their hourly billing is - do they round to the hour or to the minute?

I'll have to check my receipt and see on the hour or minute.

On top of it the charge worked yesterday, this morning it would "shut off" every 30% of charging and tell me that there was an error with the car. Very stressful seeing how I needed a full charge to get to work this morning.

Do you have all the latest firmware updates on your car? That behavior isn't typical.

Where do I find this latest firmware ? I wasn't aware of this and thanks for the headsup.

My car stops charging at anywhere from 80-90%, why not 100% ?? I checked my timers they are not on and I have them to charge at 100%, so why do they shut off, is there some where else I need to go to set to 100%??

With a 2011-2012, if you start charging from below 50% or so, it will only charge to 80% or so. If you restart the session (ka-ching!) it should QC close to 100%, but if you have to pay a session fee, you're better of moving to the L2 station if you can wait slightly longer. eVgo QC stations will also automatically shut off after 30 minutes, in most cases, too.

The day before when I used it, it went over 30 mins and no issues, was just the following morning I had all the problems.

On the plus side my roomie borrowed my car to go to Fry's in Fountain Valley, 42 miles round trip, and he got my car to zero and it still got him home, so now I won't have too much anxiety when I get to the low single digits !

S

 

[BlackFeuille]

I don't know how granular their hourly billing is - do they round to the hour or to the minute?

According to the bogus* bill I recently received it is to the hour.

* Why bogus? I was connected for 20 minutes (charging for 18 minutes) and was charged as if I had been connected for 4 hours...

 

[DaveEV]

The gentleman (from NRG) told me on the phone I could use my credit card, I called them first before I did anything because I haven't used them before, only have used ChargePoint and EV Connect, my card kept getting denied

Hmm, news to me, I thought you had to call them up to use a CC on the spot or have an eVgo card.

I'll have to check my receipt and see on the hour or minute.

Would be interesting to know!

Where do I find this latest firmware ? I wasn't aware of this and thanks for the headsup.

You can have your dealer see if there are any outstanding service campaigns on your vehicle. They usually apply them during your annual battery check.

On the plus side my roomie borrowed my car to go to Fry's in Fountain Valley, 42 miles round trip, and he got my car to zero and it still got him home, so now I won't have too much anxiety when I get to the low single digits!

I usually estimate about 12 miles from first low battery warning and 4 miles from the 2nd very low battery warning (when the GOM goes to ---).

 

[Sondy132001]

The gentleman (from NRG) told me on the phone I could use my credit card, I called them first before I did anything because I haven't used them before, only have used ChargePoint and EV Connect, my card kept getting denied

Hmm, news to me, I thought you had to call them up to use a CC on the spot or have an eVgo card.

I'll have to check my receipt and see on the hour or minute.

Would be interesting to know!

Where do I find this latest firmware ? I wasn't aware of this and thanks for the headsup.

You can have your dealer see if there are any outstanding service campaigns on your vehicle. They usually apply them during your annual battery check.

On the plus side my roomie borrowed my car to go to Fry's in Fountain Valley, 42 miles round trip, and he got my car to zero and it still got him home, so now I won't have too much anxiety when I get to the low single digits!

I usually estimate about 12 miles from first low battery warning and 4 miles from the 2nd very low battery warning (when the GOM goes to ---).

Have you ever seen the turtle??

 

[AlanSqB]

Just got my NRG eVgo card this week. I would guess I'm the first, or close to it, user in Colorado. It's very odd to do business in this day with a company that has no online billing/account management system. Seems like it would be in their best interest to hire some programmers and eBiz people to get working on that

Anyway, I used one of their stations for the first time two weeks ago (one time use) and the speed of the charge is amazing. No other L3 here in Colorado comes anywhere close. Next runner up in my opinion would be the Longmont Museum unit so I feel like it's worth it to pay for eVgo L3 even though most in the state are still free. Also nice not to have to hang out at a car dealer to charge for a change.

 

[Valdemar]

Anyway, I used one of their stations for the first time two weeks ago (one time use) and the speed of the charge is amazing. No other L3 here in Colorado comes anywhere close.

It is because they use top tier purified electrons that carry the same charge as regular electrons but thanks to their smaller diameter they can push through about 25% more of them through the wires in the same time :lol: Seriously, why do you think others are slower? Are they 25kW chargers?

 

[Levenkay]

Anyway, I used one of their stations for the first time two weeks ago (one time use) and the speed of the charge is amazing. No other L3 here in Colorado comes anywhere close.

It is because they use top tier purified electrons that carry the same charge as regular electrons but thanks to their smaller diameter they can push through about 25% more of them through the wires in the same time :lol: Seriously, why do you think others are slower? Are they 25kW chargers?

Actually, I believe the difference has to do with the changeover from winter-formulation electricity to summer-formulation. The OP just happened to have that coincide with his use of a different charger, and mis-atttributed the increase in performance.

 

[DaveEV]

Have you ever seen the turtle??

Yes, though it was from the safety of my garage. Drove it a couple miles past VLBW then ran the heater on max for another 5-10 minutes.

Are they 25kW chargers?

I believe that many of the QCs in Colorado are low power units. So perhaps instead of making fun of people we could give him the benefit of the doubt?

http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/45220" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;: Foothills Mall, Fort Collins, CO: 20 kW, 50A max
http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/1975" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;: Greeley, CO - same GreenLots QC as above, so very likely 20 kW, 50A
http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/51633" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;: Loveland, CO - same GreenLots QC as above, so very likely 20 kW, 50A
http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/6164" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;: Denver, CO - same GreenLots QC as above, so very likely 20 kW, 50A

 

[DesertSprings]

Seems like it would be in their best interest to hire some programmers and eBiz people to get working on that

I know a couple college kids who would do it for free to get some experience on their resume for when they graduate with their CS degrees.

 

[Valdemar]

Seems like it would be in their best interest to hire some programmers and eBiz people to get working on that

I know a couple college kids who would do it for free to get some experience on their resume for when they graduate with their CS degrees.

We actually want this system to work, don't we?

 

[DesertSprings]

You'd be amazed at some of the stuff that a motivated CS intern can come up with. The secret is finding someone who lives/breaths computers, rather than someone who only knows what they've learned in class.

 

[Slow1]

You'd be amazed at some of the stuff that a motivated CS intern can come up with. The secret is finding someone who lives/breaths computers, rather than someone who only knows what they've learned in class.

Exactly. Once they start it is hard to get them to stop sometimes.... Then again, in my experience often it is rather difficult to maintain their code...