Another Electrify America Gripe

[NY_Rob]

I don't understand the EA hate...

Not everyone hates EA, it's only people who've used them!

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[SANZC02]

I don't understand the EA hate. I've charged probably 50K+ miles (lots of road trips) using EA charging network over the past 4 years and my success rate is close to 100% (this is over 25 states, majority Western US). Besides inner city locations where there may be a queue of slow Bolts charging, I've had no problems with the chargers themselves.

Recently returned from a 4.5K mile trip in a Porsche, charged all using EA except for a single Tesla location on 287 between Amarillo & DFW.

I never really got the EA hate either. Before Tesal opened the SC network I used EA 90% of the time on my cross country trips Never really had an issue, I saw some units down but never found a location I could not charge at.

 

[Dave Cundiff]

My experience with EA on West Coast and East Coast has been generally poor. Not as bad as EVgo, but still pretty bad. My experience with EA in the Midwest was actually pretty good.

Wrestling recently with Portland General Electric's choice of OpConnect for their chargers in downtown Portland. At least you got a human being with EA. OpConnect's customer service is 100% automated and 100% useless. They sure make PGE look bad....

Best wishes!

 

[BigSkies]

I second the @SANZC02 recommendation on using the Rivan's hotspot. I had the same issue with a Tesla SC stop in a very rural section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. My Verizon phone had no service but the car was getting an ATT signal. I was able to connect to the car hotspot and charge using my member rate.
Of course this only works if the car's getting a signal.

I tried. It did not work in this case. The truck showed a single bar, but it was not enough for my phone to get the EA app working.

 

[BigSkies]

I never really got the EA hate either. Before Tesal opened the SC network I used EA 90% of the time on my cross country trips Never really had an issue, I saw some units down but never found a location I could not charge at.

To be clear, I used multiple EA chargers on this trip, and they all worked fine. EA has really upgraded their quality in the last few years. I think they're roughly on-par in reliability/quality with RAN/Tesla/Ionna. Many of their chargers are in good locations. It's a HUGE improvement over where they were a few years ago.

I'm just peeved over feeling like I'm dealing with Comcast when it comes to this stupid Pass+ thing.

My personal preference would be to see these membership/preferred pricing programs disappear. Absent that, I do have the expectation that they just work. And that customer service doesn't feel like getting a root canal on the rare occasions it's needed.

 

[defcon888]

I realize this isn't the biggest of issues, but it ended in one of those infuriating exchanges with EA customer service where the conversation goes in circles and is completely unable to do anything useful. It felt like dealing with Comcast.

I stopped at the EA just south of Garberville CA on a recent roadrip. It was a long stop where we sat down for a picnic lunch and ended up adding 107kWh for over $60.

I purchased the EA+ pass (or whatever they call it) before the trip because it makes financial sense. I used it without issue for several charges along the trip. However, I couldn't use it in Garberville because there's no cell phone service there. I used plug & charge, and it worked fine.

I get home and decide to ask customer service to apply my EA+ pass rate. I feel that's a reasonable request.

Rivian doesn't list any customer service contact on their receipts (I'm open to ideas here?), so I contact EA. EA customer service goes in circles and refuses to do anything about it. They eventually offer a complimentary charge at some point in the future if I deal with their customer service phone tree at the exact moment I need a charge (no thanks).

Am I being unreasonable here? It seems like if I pay for a discount pass, I should actually be able to use that pass, even when bad phone service prevents me from using it at the moment.

What I would’ve asked them is how could there be no cell service in that area but you were able to see the charge?

 

[SwampNut]

I don't understand the EA hate.

Less than half of my EA visits have gone well. Some have fully fucked me over and I had to backtrack to a Supercharger.

 

[SwampNut]

What I would’ve asked them is how could there be no cell service in that area but you were able to see the charge?

There’s no cell service at my house, but I have internet. Explain that.

 

[defcon888]

There’s no cell service at my house, but I have internet. Explain that.

Total magic.

I am surprised the charging stations don’t make a deal with AT&T or T-Mo to add hot spots to the rural charging stations. They have to have some internet connection in order to run the stations

 

[SwampNut]

A lot of PoS systems have very slow but very stable geostationary satellite internet. All banks do.

 

[JacobAZ]

This thread brings up the question of who is your cell carrier. Verizon covers rural/remote areas much better than T-Mobile and ATT. Where I live, mountains in AZ, Verizon is the only carrier with coverage. Some rural charge stations are in areas like this.

 

[SwampNut]

Verizon covers rural/remote areas much better than T-Mobile

Not any more. Specifically around AZ I'm getting better coverage on my T-Mobile phone than on my Verizon iPad, in general. There are obviously specific places where that is the other way. AT&T is certainly far behind. When T bought all the 600MHz spectrum that Verizon underbid, they gained tremendous reach (that signal goes farther and is less affected by obstruction). With the Rivian now I have three carriers and my top choice is T-Mobile for sure. I've found the same in parts of rural PA where I go for a week every year.

 

[VSG]

I tried. It did not work in this case. The truck showed a single bar, but it was not enough for my phone to get the EA app working.

I have noticed that the hotspot is very weak outside of my R1T (Gen 1). I basically have to be leaning on the truck in order to stay connected. So if you have this problem again try using the app from inside the vehicle.

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