California: Blink Membership Fees Start Wednesday, August 22

Hello Californians,

We recently rolled out our charging fees to Arizona, and now starting this Wednesday, August 22nd, the trial of fee-free charging for California will end as well. - (These fees are for L2 charging, only - DC Fast Charging will still be free!)

[edited to remove commercial offers]

Thanks and please let us know how your charging experience is!

Your account has been banned from the site temporarily per request of the site administrator. You were asked to abide by forum rules on more than one occasion and also to not post commercial postings in this area. You were also asked to remove specific posts which you did not and the admin has purged them from the site.

EVDRIVER said:

Your account has been banned from the site temporarily per request of the site administrator. You were asked to abide by forum rules on more than one occasion and also to not post commercial postings in this area. You were also asked to remove specific posts which you did not and the admin has purged them from the site.

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You know....sometimes Blink amazes me. Last week, due to my poor planning, I ran a little short of juice, so I stopped @ Macy's @ Westfield North County Fair, to pick up a couple KW. The two EVSE's there are posted as "FREE, compliments of Macy's". Well, it wasn't free. My Blink card wouldn't work; and after calling Blink and waiting on the line for 15min. I gave up and made it home anyway with just a couple miles past LBW. No wonder their stock is in the tank. :roll:

Hi Derkraut,

Did you sign up for membership. Membership Fees are waved for this year but you need to be a member to automatically charge on a Blink Charger without having to call in.

Stan

derkraut said:

The two EVSE's there are posted as "FREE, compliments of Macy's". Well, it wasn't free. My Blink card wouldn't work; and after calling Blink and waiting on the line for 15min. I gave up and made it home anyway with just a couple miles past LBW. No wonder their stock is in the tank. :roll:

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Some day the retailers will figure out to just put an unrestricted, unnetworked evse in for half the cost or less.

smkettner said:

derkraut said:

The two EVSE's there are posted as "FREE, compliments of Macy's". Well, it wasn't free. My Blink card wouldn't work; and after calling Blink and waiting on the line for 15min. I gave up and made it home anyway with just a couple miles past LBW. No wonder their stock is in the tank. :roll:

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Some day the retailers will figure out to just put an unrestricted, unnetworked evse in for half the cost or less.

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Is it true what even though the retailer is not charging fees, Blink will start charging fees?

How about the case of Coulomb / Chargepoint? Is it different?

I just upgraded my membership and might regret it. First, now there seems to be no way to return to basic. Second, for several weeks I was getting a charging started (and ending) message to my iPhone for a charger in Santa Barbara--meaning the database was somehow corrupted.

We'll see how this goes. My blink relationship begins with a jaundice eye... I set an alarm in my calendar so I can cancel come January...

greenleaf said:

Is it true what even though the retailer is not charging fees, Blink will start charging fees?

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Strange question. Is it any different to you?

The owner/host/retailer signed an agreement with Blink/Ecotality to host their EVSE and use their infrastructure, and likely share some minimal revenue. (And in some cases, the host may want or need to charge more than the basic pricing... hence the "starting at".)

How about the case of Coulomb / Chargepoint? Is it different?

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Coulomb/ChargePoint charges the owner of the EVSE $.50 per session, takes a cut of any fees they charge the customer... and bills them a monthly "network fee" for every EVSE.

The owner can choose what to charge customer. If they offer charging for "free" to you, they still end up paying Coulomb. FYI: ChargePoint units owned by CarCharging Inc charge either $.50 per kWh (where legally allowed), or $2.40/hr. Units owned by 350Green charge $2/hr, with a $2 minimum. These are the two big "for profit" L2 owners that use Coulomb gear.

smkettner said:

derkraut said:

The two EVSE's there are posted as "FREE, compliments of Macy's". Well, it wasn't free. My Blink card wouldn't work; and after calling Blink and waiting on the line for 15min. I gave up and made it home anyway with just a couple miles past LBW. No wonder their stock is in the tank. :roll:

Click to expand...

Some day the retailers will figure out to just put an unrestricted, unnetworked evse in for half the cost or less.

Click to expand...

Like wifi... If someone is spending money, the marginal cost of electricity is nothing... As I have mentioned before, the biggest cost is likely that of the real state of the parking place. Nothing personal against blink, but when I see the signage, my confidence drops, and that is not the case with chargepoint.

derkraut said:

You know....sometimes Blink amazes me. Last week, due to my poor planning, I ran a little short of juice, so I stopped @ Macy's @ Westfield North County Fair, to pick up a couple KW. The two EVSE's there are posted as "FREE, compliments of Macy's". Well, it wasn't free. My Blink card wouldn't work; and after calling Blink and waiting on the line for 15min. I gave up and made it home anyway with just a couple miles past LBW. No wonder their stock is in the tank. :roll:

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It was probably still free. They are just using the opportunity to "encourage" you to sign up for a membership and register a credit card. :roll:

it was nice while it lasted.
As my commute is 50 miles, I can go roundtrip without charging at work.
I was using the blink but, depending on the fee, I will skip that part unless I have some after-work meet ups and dinners that draw my in the opposite direction from my home commute.

it is hard to justify paying a $1 an hour when I can charge 3kWh at home for a quarter.

stanley said:

Hi Derkraut,

Did you sign up for membership. Membership Fees are waved for this year but you need to be a member to automatically charge on a Blink Charger without having to call in.

Stan

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Yup....I signed up, and am a member. :roll:

Blink said:

(These fees are for L2 charging, only - DC Fast Charging will still be free!)
Thanks and please let us know how your charging experience is!

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If ever you install DC fast chargers in my area I will be delighted to continue my Blink membership beyond the first year free period. If it's only L2 I'm not so sure whether there are enough of them to be worth even a small membership fee, given how often they are broken and how often they are ICEd. I guess if it happened once before membership renewal that Blink public L2 made possible a trip that I could not otherwise have done then I'd be inclined to renew.

Now that we are on the verge of exposing the failed ecotality business model and the stock is near zero - I wonder what will happen to all these chargers when Blink goes under.

JimSouCal said:

smkettner said:

derkraut said:

The two EVSE's there are posted as "FREE, compliments of Macy's". Well, it wasn't free. My Blink card wouldn't work; and after calling Blink and waiting on the line for 15min. I gave up and made it home anyway with just a couple miles past LBW. No wonder their stock is in the tank. :roll:

Click to expand...

Some day the retailers will figure out to just put an unrestricted, unnetworked evse in for half the cost or less.

Click to expand...

Like wifi... If someone is spending money, the marginal cost of electricity is nothing... As I have mentioned before, the biggest cost is likely that of the real state of the parking place. Nothing personal against blink, but when I see the signage, my confidence drops, and that is not the case with chargepoint.

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+1. And since they have yet to donate to this forum and only conveniently appear here to promote revenue after all the many issues with Blink units I will not be upgrading to a pay membership nor will I ever pay at one of their stations. I will gladly pay Chargepoint if needed.

Charged at one of the recently installed but very lonely Blink L2 units at Walmart in Mountain View, CA last night. I don't think the typical EV driver around Silicon Valley would seek out an opportunity charge at this particular Walmart.... as such, I might have been the first person to use it. I guess this will be my last "free" Blink charge around here. Worked fine, including the new billing capable UI.

the blink I stopped at today in LA City still charges $0 for a registered user.

walterbays said:

If ever you install DC fast chargers in my area I will be delighted to continue my Blink membership beyond the first year free period. If it's only L2 I'm not so sure whether there are enough of them to be worth even a small membership fee, given how often they are broken and how often they are ICEd. I guess if it happened once before membership renewal that Blink public L2 made possible a trip that I could not otherwise have done then I'd be inclined to renew.

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We have five "operational" Blink DC chargers in the area. I was coming from the east side and the first DC charger at Wood Village Wal-Mart was down for maintenance (no note, but that what I was told when I called), the second one at Hollywood Fred Meyer was completely power down. At that point, I would have done some L2 but the L2 was also down. When I started the car, I got the "---" on the GOM. I drove on the spin of some electrons (~fumes) to an Eaton QC about 4 miles away.

I will give them one year membership, but if they do not improve their up time then I will probably give up.

EVDRIVER said:

Your account has been banned from the site temporarily per request of the site administrator. You were asked to abide by forum rules on more than one occasion and also to not post commercial postings in this area. You were also asked to remove specific posts which you did not and the admin has purged them from the site.

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We feel very privileged and are grateful to be able to be a part of this very enthusiastic, intelligent, and well informed EV community. Our intention has always been to provide Nissan Leaf drivers with the most up to date Blink information, but it appears that our most recent posts may have been deemed a bit too commercial in nature. We look forward to continuing to participate and contribute to this forum and learning more about the needs of EV drivers. Above all, we look forward to being part of an open and candid dialogue about how we can better meet the needs of Nissan Leaf drivers.

JimSouCal said:

I just upgraded my membership and might regret it. First, now there seems to be no way to return to basic.

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I was told by Blink in the similar thread for AZ that I can change back to Basic any time. But I didn't try to verify that.

They also told me that the free membership offer is for a complete 1 year period starting from when you upgrade, not only the end of calendar year 2012.