800 Number On Blink Electric-Car Charging Stations? Useless, Don't Bother
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You'd think a company awarded $115 million by the Department of Energy to build electric-car charging stations would make them accessible to every single driver, wouldn't you?
Apparently, you'd be wrong.
At least, that is, in the case of Ecotality's Blink network.
Any plug-in driver arriving at a Blink station who hasn't previously signed up as a Blink member is out of luck.
Useless 800 number
As we've confirmed with several drivers, calling the 800 number on a sticker now added to the side of Blink stations is useless.
Ecotality's operators cannot take a credit-card number and activate the charging station remotely--unlike those of Blink's competitor, Coulomb Technologies' ChargePoint network.
Nor can operators enroll new customers in the Blink network, since the company must first mail out the RFID card required to charge at a Blink station.
On February 28, Chevy Volt driver Jeff U'Ren and his son pulled up to a Blink station at the Ikea store in Carson, California.
"We were going to an event in Long Beach from Santa Monica, and we had planned go a little early, stop at the Ikea, charge, have a snack and browse the store," U'Ren said.
"I didn't know the chargers there were from Blink; it didn't occur to me that I'd have a problem."
"When we got there, it was apparent I'd need a RFID card to start a charging session," he continued. "So I called the 800 number on the Blink charger, as I'd done before with Coulomb, to get them to turn it on."
No remote control
"To my surprise," U'Ren said, "the operator had no way to turn the station on remotely, and couldn't even sign me up and send me a card, as Coulomb did."
"The guy on the phone was no help, and sounded as if he couldn't care less about my problem," U'Ren concluded. "He did offer some explanation as to how I could get an RFID card, but it didn't sound easy."
At that point, U'Ren gave up, found a nearby hospital with a Level 2 charging station--offering free electricity, as it turned out--and relaxed at a nearby coffee shop while recharging his Volt.
It appears that Blink operators aren't entirely powerless, though.
"I called the 800 number because it wouldn't accept my wife's unregistered RFID card," related Tom Saxton. "The rep was able to assign her card to my account."
GreenCarReports reached out to Ecotality yesterday to confirm these accounts; the company has not replied.
Reliability challenges
Saxton is the author of a recent study by Plug-In America that compared the reliability of Blink stations to that of Coulomb's CharePoint locations.
It found that an average of 25 percent of Blink stations were offline at any given time, versus 10 percent for ChargePoint stations, and that more than half stayed offline for a day to a week--versus downtimes of an hour or less for two-thirds of ChargePoint locations.
Ecotality has received more than $40 million of a $115 million Department of Energy grant to install 14,000 electric-car charging stations in five states, of which it has so far installed roughly half.
The company has had challenges on a number of fronts lately.
Slammed in Romney ad
In Syracuse, New York, a nonprofit organization tore out the 68 Blink stations it had installed and sued Ecotality for $6 million, claiming that after a year, the charging stations still don't track and bill users correctly as required under the installation contract.
It's also under investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission for possible insider trading, and received subpoenas in October 2010 and December 2011.
Last month, Mitt Romney named Ecotality (along with bankrupt solar-panel maker Solyndra) in a campaign ad, "Not Even Half," that slammed what it said was the Obama Administration's pattern of picking winners and losers in renewable energy and investing in companies that failed.
Ecotality and another company named, First Solar, fought back by issuing statements that pointed out inaccuracies.
Politico termed the Romney ad a “mixed bag on facts”; it was also criticized by The Street and FactCheck.
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Have an opinion?
He was very polite.
The card showed up in the mail about a week later, I activated it and used it the same day at a IKEA in Fountain Valley. Here 4 out of the 5 chargers were online.
Just remember, no American soldier has ever died fighting for electricity.
The problem is that the Government should have proper oversight of how our money is being spent. If companies like Blink knew from the beginning that they would be audited and inspected regularly they might have a better operation going. They would even think of scamming the taxpayers.
Furthermore, when you and I spoke on the phone roughly 4 hours ago, I asked you *specifically* if you felt the story contained any factual errors. You told me it did not.
All the rest, below, is useful additional information that I would have liked to have known, had you responded to my inquiry. Thanks for adding the further context.
Accepting Credit Cards via Telephone - The EV project is a test and data collection program. As such there are certain limitations to what we can do. For instance, because of customer security and privacy concerns, The EV project determined that we cannot take credit cards over the phone. Mr. Voelcker would have known that had he spoken with us. By mid-Summer, and with the implementation of payment systems, you will be able to charge immediately by activating a BLINK guest code through either the BLINK network Web site or the BLINK app via your smart phone.
Reliability Challenges - As with all emerging technologies, challenges are going to present themselves along the way. The advanced technology in our chargers allows us to push software updates to increase reliability and functionality. We are addressing reliability issues internally and are currently in the process of rolling out new software. Where the software has been deployed, we are seeing reliability rates in excess of 97%.
Call Center/Customer Service - While we stand behind the professionalism of our call center, we sincerely apologize to Mr. U’Ren if he felt that the service he was provided was less than stellar. To date, the vast majority of feedback we have received in regards to our call center has been positive. We take input from our customers very seriously, and will continue to improve our processes ensuring every BLINK user has a positive experience with our customer service personnel.
Mitt Romney Ad - As mentioned in the article, the Mitt Romney article was thoroughly discredited by Politico, The Street and FactCheck. Including an ad that has by most accounts been deemed factually inaccurate, is tantamount to throwing the kitchen sink at us…and a non-functional one at best.
Would you NOT describe that ad as a challenge for the company?
Regarding the Irrelevant and off Topic Reference to Synapse
ECOtality clearly delivered a product that met the specifications of the agreement with Synapse Sustainability Trust Inc. In addition, ECOtality fulfilled its requirements under the terms of the contract and stands behind its product and performance. The company denies that it made any false representations, believes these allegations to be unfounded and will defend its position vigorously.
SEC - ECOtality is not under investigation by the SEC. There is an ongoing fact-finding inquiry that dates back to the 2008/2009 timeframe. The SEC has advised it should not be construed as determination; it is an inquiry into activities that occurred at that time. We are cooperating fully with the SEC and are complying with SEC rules; we have no further disclosures or updates that we are able to provide beyond our public filings.
ECOtality is committed to building sustainable EV infrastructure that will help reduce our countries dependence on foreign oil. We would like to think a publication that calls itself Green Car Reports would be interested in strengthening the industry, instead of seeking to selectively tear down one of its pioneers. We look forward to working with Mr. Voelcker’s publication in the future to show the progress we are all making in the EV industry.
"It appears that Blink operators aren't entirely powerless, though.
"I called the 800 number because it wouldn't accept my wife's unregistered RFID card," related Tom Saxton. "The rep was able to assign her card to my account."
Whenever a customer calls a customer service department with a specific need or demand, and if the rep can't deliver on the customer's demand, does that make the customer service department "useless" for all customers?
I'm surprised the article didn't praise the one liner about ECOtality having installed 50% of the units for with only drawing 35% of the funds.
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