BJGuillot
Member
I really hate posting this because I see Siemens is an advertiser at MyNissanLeaf.com, but don't purchase one of these units if you expect to get any kind of customer support from Siemens.
I've had one of these units for just a a few months now. It's been working flawlessly until this past week.
For whatever reason, it will no longer charge my Leaf. When I plug it in, the halo on the Versicharge lights up green, but the car never starts charing (no blue lights on the car, no beeps on the car, no "thunk" sound from the Versicharge). I can plug in the L1 charger that came with the car and works just fine.
I've read on the troubleshooting forums about a particular problem related to GE charging stations that caused a diode in the car's charging circuits in fail, with the odd behavior that made the GE equipment not charge, but the included L1 to work, and oddly enough, would allow a handful of other L2 chargers to work. This sounded remarkably like what was happening with my Siemens, because I was able to to L2 charging on a Blink station and the L2 chargers at Nissan worked, too.
I took the car into the Nissan dealership this afternoon to check it checked out. They did what they claim to be a test on the diode, by hooking up a multimeter on two of the pins on the L1/L2 charging port to confirm they measure a resistance in one way, but when they flip the leads on the multimeter around, on the same two pins, it then showed no resistance. I was standing next to the tech as he showed me this on the car. I have no idea if he was testing the right thing, but he went out of his way to show me. And I did see the L2 charger at Nissan work. He said, his best guess was it was the charging station at home.
OK, I was afraid to hear that, but you know, sometimes things break. So I called the Siemens phone number on the manual of the VersiCharge (800-241-4453). I was surprised to actually speak to someone since it was Saturday. She said if it was a warranty issue, I'd need to take it back to the place I bought it to get a RMA--that they didn't give them out directly. She asked where I bought it from, and I told her the HomeDepot.com website. I told her I wasn't sure if it was a warranty issue yet, as I didn't know for sure whether the unit was broken or not, and wanted to talk to someone about support and troubleshooting first before sending it in. She said the techs are only in Monday-Friday 8-5 am Eastern. I understood that, but then she said I wouldn't be allowed to talk to them anyway. That's when I started to get agitated. "Who do I talk to for support then?" And she said it would need to be who I bought it from or the electrician who installed it. I lost it at that point. I really don't see either Home Depot or the electrician having any clues about very specific vehicle charging issues like this. Nissan and Siemens are probably going to be the only organizations that have any ideas.
Anyway, just really upset Siemens won't even talk to me to troubleshoot. I'll try taking the unit to a Home Depot store and seeing if they can RMA it (even though it was a HomeDepot.com purchase). Just hate doing this when I'm not even sure if the EVSE is defective or not as it might all be a waste of time.
Do the other EVSE vendors out there (GE, ECOtality, Coulomb, Leviton, etc.) actually let customers talk to them about issues? Maybe I'm overreacting if this is standard industry practice to not talk to customers, but it sure is awful customer service in my opinion.
NOTE: Changed title of thread due to resolution of issue.
I've had one of these units for just a a few months now. It's been working flawlessly until this past week.
For whatever reason, it will no longer charge my Leaf. When I plug it in, the halo on the Versicharge lights up green, but the car never starts charing (no blue lights on the car, no beeps on the car, no "thunk" sound from the Versicharge). I can plug in the L1 charger that came with the car and works just fine.
I've read on the troubleshooting forums about a particular problem related to GE charging stations that caused a diode in the car's charging circuits in fail, with the odd behavior that made the GE equipment not charge, but the included L1 to work, and oddly enough, would allow a handful of other L2 chargers to work. This sounded remarkably like what was happening with my Siemens, because I was able to to L2 charging on a Blink station and the L2 chargers at Nissan worked, too.
I took the car into the Nissan dealership this afternoon to check it checked out. They did what they claim to be a test on the diode, by hooking up a multimeter on two of the pins on the L1/L2 charging port to confirm they measure a resistance in one way, but when they flip the leads on the multimeter around, on the same two pins, it then showed no resistance. I was standing next to the tech as he showed me this on the car. I have no idea if he was testing the right thing, but he went out of his way to show me. And I did see the L2 charger at Nissan work. He said, his best guess was it was the charging station at home.
OK, I was afraid to hear that, but you know, sometimes things break. So I called the Siemens phone number on the manual of the VersiCharge (800-241-4453). I was surprised to actually speak to someone since it was Saturday. She said if it was a warranty issue, I'd need to take it back to the place I bought it to get a RMA--that they didn't give them out directly. She asked where I bought it from, and I told her the HomeDepot.com website. I told her I wasn't sure if it was a warranty issue yet, as I didn't know for sure whether the unit was broken or not, and wanted to talk to someone about support and troubleshooting first before sending it in. She said the techs are only in Monday-Friday 8-5 am Eastern. I understood that, but then she said I wouldn't be allowed to talk to them anyway. That's when I started to get agitated. "Who do I talk to for support then?" And she said it would need to be who I bought it from or the electrician who installed it. I lost it at that point. I really don't see either Home Depot or the electrician having any clues about very specific vehicle charging issues like this. Nissan and Siemens are probably going to be the only organizations that have any ideas.
Anyway, just really upset Siemens won't even talk to me to troubleshoot. I'll try taking the unit to a Home Depot store and seeing if they can RMA it (even though it was a HomeDepot.com purchase). Just hate doing this when I'm not even sure if the EVSE is defective or not as it might all be a waste of time.
Do the other EVSE vendors out there (GE, ECOtality, Coulomb, Leviton, etc.) actually let customers talk to them about issues? Maybe I'm overreacting if this is standard industry practice to not talk to customers, but it sure is awful customer service in my opinion.
NOTE: Changed title of thread due to resolution of issue.
I imagine the powers-that-be @ Siemens aren't aware of the poor customer service you've received. I would call them back first thing Monday morning and ask to speak to a supervisor. But, don't lose your temper; that never helps. I've had my Blink for over 2 years now. during that time I've had to call them twice, and always received prompt, courteous service--albeit it was not on a weekend. In one instance, a technician was at my house within 3 hrs.
