A day of epic FAIL charging away from home L1 & L2

[kylemcooper]

Just like GM's intended audience for the Chevy Volt, I primarily charge my car at home during the evening. In fact, my first experience with L2 charging was with my Blink when it was installed a couple weeks ago (since I didn't get chargepoint/blink cards til recently). I live in the city and rarely exhaust a full charge except on busy days between offices....

L1: Shortly after noon today I decided to plug my car into an outlet in my work parking garage, as I had recalled that I parked near one of the new open outlets. This was the first time in the three months that I owned my Volt that I partook in an "opportunistic charge". Around 3:00 PM I get an irate phone call from our building manager citing parking violations and that our "infrastructure" doesn't support electric cars. Besides barely letting me even speak, she mentioned that they unplugged it and that I need to take care of it because its "honking". Honestly, I am not even bothered as much about the fact that they don't want me plugging it in as was her horrible attitude and sheer rudeness to me. That doesn't even play into the fact that my role with the institution is Network Architect. I didn't get a response from her when I articulated that most ceramic heaters half the ladies on every floor use takes more juice then my car (did I mention I even had it in 8amp mode).

L2: After being perturbed about the day, I thought I would reset myself a bit and go for a run at Memorial Park. Here in Houston, Memorial park has a large lot of EV chargers and its perfect for topping your car off with an hour run or so. I park, swipe my blink card, validate and plug my j1172 into my car. Wait... won't latch... hmm.... interesting... pull out...

WTH...

photo 3.jpg

photo 2.jpg

Add that was the icing (or rather D-bag spearmint) on my day...

Needless to say, I apparently put too much faith in the general public to think that I need to inspect the plug before inserting (perhaps its my limited use of "untrusted" chargers). What I used to hate about the chargepoint chargers I know value.

So a tedious 45 minutes later with tiny screwdrivers, rags, goo-gone, and the appreciation of de-activated EVSE equipment, my charge port is clean again.

There's no place like home... home charging.

[Toasty]

OMG, is this our first case of EV Vandleism?

[drbruns]

Where is the Texas forum member who said "don't mess with my ride" or I will stand my ground?

[mhoepfin]

The stress of public charging sometimes isn't worth it. I usually would just rather burn some gas that day than go through the trouble.... Also I do fear someone stealing (or damaging with something like a lawn mower) my Voltec charger if just plugged in.

Man I would have been super-mad about the gum. Like ready to hurt someone mad....

[EZ Volt]

Wow. Either one of those would have caused me to blow my top. But twice in one day! Maybe you'd be able to calmly and politely educate someone higher up than the building manager about the real facts on the Volt and its "infrastructure impact."
Thank you for sharing the photo on what happened with the public charger. I had never even considered that. But now I will always make it part of my routine to check it.

[PatsVolt]

I would e-amil here supervisor, with a calm logical wording and file a complaint.

Pat

[bonaire]

Wow, interesting. I guess this "public EV infrastructure could indeed be decimated by something as simple as chewing gum."

Wonder if DNA analysis of said-gum would reveal any particular political party affiliation?

[DonC]

So sorry to hear about this. I think this may be our first case of EV vandalism. Hopefully it's easy enough to clean up.

Of course your irate building manager has basically admitted liability. Since your car wasn't honking before they unplugged it, no one else unplugged it, and therefore the vandalism occurred after they had unplugged it, potentially by some irate building maintenance person taking their tenant relation cues from their supervisor. LOL I'd give her a call and ask her how she planned on paying for the damage her people caused.

Then I'd not plug in there again! Either that or negotiate doing it again with her permission (in exchange for not pushing the vandalism issue).

[Mybatcar]

Cost usually seems to be their excuse, or the "unfairness" that you plug in for free while other drivers are not compensated for the cost of "their" gasoline. So, how many of those unfairly treated workers plug in their phones, their iPads, their laptops, etc at work and get some of that unfair free electrical charging ? MANY ? MOST ?
It's good to let the "powers that be" know that a "full ten hour charge" cost as little as a donut or large chocolate chip cookie, so on most 8 hour days your electrical costs are too minor to even be considered. It's time for all of us to educate the ignorant. Their impoliteness is another story !
BTW,.....as I write this I am plugged into a FREE 240v charger provided by a grocery chain store located in Fort Lauderdale ? I use them quite often while I wait for my girlfriend to arrive at the airport, I have coffee and shop while they give me a free charge which eliminates the use of gasoline on this 50 mile round-trip....a great relationship and I continually thank them.

[Dan & Nan]

I'm guessing that whoever stuck the gum in there probably didn't think beforehand about the consequences to them. That could have been an expensive repair at the dealer and the incurred costs may have reached the monetary level requiring felony charges.

If a nutty EV enthusiast damaged a gas pump in protest it'd be a crime. But, with so many ignorant folks out there, I'm guessing this guy got a high five from possible onlookers.

One more reason RLBEV need to stay within range of their charger.

I'd definitely send a message to the employees boss if she didn't calm down and apologize.