SPX Just Awful?

[ChiHusker]

New Volt owner - came over from a 2002 M5 and can't believe how much I enjoy this car!

As much as I love my Volt, I absolutely cannot stand their preferred charging station vendor SPX. Customer service is horrible, their communication is almost nonexistent, and they are more than happy to let you know how little your business means to them. As hard as Chevy is working to promote the Volt and go out of their way to provide dedicated, knowledgeable Volt advisors - SPX is working just as hard to do the opposite. Has anyone else had a bad experience with them - and how do we let Chevy know how their vendor is impacting their customer's Volt experience?

[lnfinity]

Buy an AV (Nissan Leaf) L2 charger, have your own electrician install it. I have been using one for months and it works flawlessly.

[volt3939]

I think we here have learned all we needed to know about SPX, I won't have anything to do with them. My list is a little longer than yours, including inflated prices, lack of basic knowledge, clueless marketing, AND all the things you said!

You can find EVSE's at Home Depot and Lowes now, so there is no need to deal with SPX, although their Voltec has the lowest price out there.

Rather than having them do the install, you can just call and have them send you the unit, then get your local electrician to install it...

[mflstc]

Actually just had a mostly good experience with them. After 6 months my SPX fried. i called and had a replacement in 2 days. I had to call them to get return instructions for SPX because none was included and never got the email with return instructions as they said I would (even checked spam folder). So overall not too bad.

[ChrisC]

We have been recommending against the SPX products here since Day One.

You should definitely look at the FAQ, link in my sig below.

Here is what I tell new Volt owners on my website:

For charging, you can easily get by with just using the 120 Volt ("Level 1") cord that came with the car, and I did exactly that for the first 9 months with my Volt. So you don't need to get anything more than that. However, for faster charging (useful on weekends) you should consider installing a 240 Volt ("Level 2") charger near where you park your car at home. Unfortunately, I personally recommend against the SPX chargers that GM endorses -- in the early days we heard a lot of grief from people who had to deal with them (it may be better now). Instead, spend a little extra and get a Clipper Creek charger (like the compact LCS-25) from a local distributor. They will also get you in touch with an electrician who will already be familiar with the installation process, which often includes pulling a city permit for the outdoor circuit.

Again, though, you don't need to get a Level 2 charger. If you don't get one, I do recommend that you at least get an extra Level 1 charger, just like the one you got with the car. Keep one at your house (garage) and keep one in the car for show-and-tell or using when convenient. It's good to have a backup unit, because if you only have one cord, and it stops working (which has happened to some of us), suddenly you may have no way to charge up!

[Steverino]

Buy the unit from SPX, have an electrician install it or DIY.

[Nrsk4u]

I've had pretty good experience with SPX. the customer service has been great, got a call the other day just to see how everything was doing. Pretty impressed. I did call their vendor who did the install on their INFLATED install prices but they lowered it so I had $0 out of pocket. Seems like from everything I've seen here, you either love em or HATE them........ Much like anything out there really. Good luck, hope your experience improves.

[daninoah]

I have had a great experience with SPX. I did the online survey. A few days later, I was contacted by telephone and email. Not too long after that, I was contacted by a local electrician. They then did a site survey and a contract came to me about one week later. Where I live, I was eligible for a free Blink charger and $1200 towards installation. Since my installation was fairly simple, I had just a couple hundred dollars out of pocket. The Blink charger is up and running now. In fact, it was just installed today. The total time was about 5 weeks from online survey to installation. During that time, I received numerous phone calls and emails from SPX.

What exactly has SPX done (or not done) in your situation?

[davewilks]

I have an SPX PowerXpress EL-50600 set to 16 amps, mainly because my Winter home here in Cathedral City is in an RV park and I am limited by the power available in the electrical box. My Summer home is in Reno, NV. There are 1213 owner owned lots in the park and there is a lot of interest in my new Volt. Everyone here is a "snowbird" like me and they have a second home somewhere else.

The SPX box has been trouble free but if I had to do it over again I would get a Leviton Evr-Green 16-Amp car charging station from Home Depot. Even though SPX is a plug-in portable it does not have the mounting hardware necessary for a second home. Leviton does. I recommend the Leviton to anyone that asks.

See my album here.

[ewiggins]

There does seems to be very mixed feeling about SPX. I have one and I hope it never goes out.