MarvGordon
Active member
I live about 45 minutes west of the Twin Cities and have a daughter with special needs that resides in a suburban group home. My daughter spends every other weekend with me and Sunday I took the usual trip back to the cities with the usual plan of stopping at Lund's in Downtown Minneapolis so I could charge the Leaf enough to make it home.
TheI prefer Lund's because i can shop, have coffee and read during the 90-120 minute charge time.
I left the group home and checked the Chargepoint app which showed an available station with the other in a "grey" status. I assumed the "grey" status was "out of commision" I had reported to a Lund's employee a few weeks earlier that stations #1 needed repair.
I arrived at Lund's to find an ICE vehicle at #2 with #1 open. I pulled into #1 seeing that the station was still online. However, I discovered that there was still a problem with the seating washer in the plug unit. The plug would not fully insert into the Leaf recpetacle. So... i entered the store to seek out a staff member that could page the ICE driver. Timing was such that I needed to plug in ASAP.
I found an employee and explained the situation. She in turn tracked down an on-duty manager and came back with the following information.
"We are unable to page the customer because we don't want to UPSET THEM" and "the parking spaces are NOT reserved". "If you wait 10 minutes I'm sure the customer will be gone"
Needless to say my bloodpressure spiked. I explained that the spots SHOULD be reserved because people like me depend on the chargepoint network being accurate. I also explained that EV stations should have posted signs stating that parking is for EVs ONLY.
It's Sunday and the lot is busy. I go back outside (of course it's cold and rainy) to find the original car gone.... only to be replaced by ANOTHER ICE driver....arrgghhhh.. Screw it. I went back to the defective station and removed the rubber seating washer (didn't appear to function as an electrical insulator). I was then able to plug in and charge.
I e-mailed Lund's customer service Sunday night (with gratidute and complint!) and received a response yesterday. It was from the general manager of the store and he was very apologetic. He stated that he scheduled repair on station #1 today and signage is already scheduled for install (waiting for the ground to thaw).
Lund's is one of a few retailers in Minneapolis that has installed free L2 chargers at their location.
Be vocal and support retailers that are on the leading edge supporting us!
TheI prefer Lund's because i can shop, have coffee and read during the 90-120 minute charge time.
I left the group home and checked the Chargepoint app which showed an available station with the other in a "grey" status. I assumed the "grey" status was "out of commision" I had reported to a Lund's employee a few weeks earlier that stations #1 needed repair.
I arrived at Lund's to find an ICE vehicle at #2 with #1 open. I pulled into #1 seeing that the station was still online. However, I discovered that there was still a problem with the seating washer in the plug unit. The plug would not fully insert into the Leaf recpetacle. So... i entered the store to seek out a staff member that could page the ICE driver. Timing was such that I needed to plug in ASAP.
I found an employee and explained the situation. She in turn tracked down an on-duty manager and came back with the following information.
"We are unable to page the customer because we don't want to UPSET THEM" and "the parking spaces are NOT reserved". "If you wait 10 minutes I'm sure the customer will be gone"
Needless to say my bloodpressure spiked. I explained that the spots SHOULD be reserved because people like me depend on the chargepoint network being accurate. I also explained that EV stations should have posted signs stating that parking is for EVs ONLY.
It's Sunday and the lot is busy. I go back outside (of course it's cold and rainy) to find the original car gone.... only to be replaced by ANOTHER ICE driver....arrgghhhh.. Screw it. I went back to the defective station and removed the rubber seating washer (didn't appear to function as an electrical insulator). I was then able to plug in and charge.
I e-mailed Lund's customer service Sunday night (with gratidute and complint!) and received a response yesterday. It was from the general manager of the store and he was very apologetic. He stated that he scheduled repair on station #1 today and signage is already scheduled for install (waiting for the ground to thaw).
Lund's is one of a few retailers in Minneapolis that has installed free L2 chargers at their location.
Be vocal and support retailers that are on the leading edge supporting us!