Some of you might recall from this thread that I sent a correspondence via USPS mail and Email to Walgreens, 350Green and Chargepoint about the expensive charging stations that actually cost more than gas to power-up my Volt. I have received responses from both Chargepoint and Walgreens. I have yet to receive any response from 350Green.
Chargepoint responded quickly both via phone and email, informing me that the station is independently operated by 350Green and that they have nothing to do with the price points set by the station operators. They went on to explain that the Chargepoint network allows someone thinking of setting up a charging station to easily have a way to get a return from their investment. So, after a charging station was already setup, Chargepoint basically runs the network and only handles the money transactions... nothing more.
As for Walgreens, I didn't get a response on my emails to Walgreen co staff. They did reply a couple of weeks later from a "Customer Relations Specialist" to the letter they received via USPS mail delivered to their corporate headquarters. In the Walgreens reply (which appeared to be mostly template based,) they basically said the same thing as Chargepoint, but offered up a little better of an explication as to why they allowed 350Green to operate freely as well as offered a $10 gift card for all the confusion. In that reply(below), Walgreens explained that the charging stations are not-unlike other "kiosk" of services they offer, like DVD rentals and propane distribution. They simply allow another company to offer their services at Walgreens locations as a convince to shoppers who might be stopping by Walgreens. They did reference multiple EV Charging companies as well as a possible subscription service for charging at their stations. As far as I understand... 350Green offers no such subscription service. (I don't know if that is a limitation from 350Green or Chargepoint.)
What baffles me about all this is that 350Green has yet to respond to any of my correspondences. (Via email or the Letter I sent) I originally was thinking that I might be interested in a subscription, if they offered one... but their lack of response has me questioning that.
So, Walgreens paid for my hour long charge with that $10 giftcard, but I honestly didn't think they should have. It was a nice gesture to keep me as a customer, but Walgrens is too far out of the way for me to think to keep going there. Like I said in my original thread, I only went to Walgreens because charging was free. Forcing me to wait at a 350Green charging station for an hour is absurd, unless there was actually an hour worth of something to do at such location. If anyone should have replied with a $10 gift card, it should have been 350Green.
Here is a LINK to the letter I received from Walgreeens. It is also attached.
So, What do you all think?
EDIT 1(07/11/12) 350Green Responded to this on the Gm-volt.com forums. To see their response, CLICK HERE!
Chargepoint responded quickly both via phone and email, informing me that the station is independently operated by 350Green and that they have nothing to do with the price points set by the station operators. They went on to explain that the Chargepoint network allows someone thinking of setting up a charging station to easily have a way to get a return from their investment. So, after a charging station was already setup, Chargepoint basically runs the network and only handles the money transactions... nothing more.
As for Walgreens, I didn't get a response on my emails to Walgreen co staff. They did reply a couple of weeks later from a "Customer Relations Specialist" to the letter they received via USPS mail delivered to their corporate headquarters. In the Walgreens reply (which appeared to be mostly template based,) they basically said the same thing as Chargepoint, but offered up a little better of an explication as to why they allowed 350Green to operate freely as well as offered a $10 gift card for all the confusion. In that reply(below), Walgreens explained that the charging stations are not-unlike other "kiosk" of services they offer, like DVD rentals and propane distribution. They simply allow another company to offer their services at Walgreens locations as a convince to shoppers who might be stopping by Walgreens. They did reference multiple EV Charging companies as well as a possible subscription service for charging at their stations. As far as I understand... 350Green offers no such subscription service. (I don't know if that is a limitation from 350Green or Chargepoint.)
What baffles me about all this is that 350Green has yet to respond to any of my correspondences. (Via email or the Letter I sent) I originally was thinking that I might be interested in a subscription, if they offered one... but their lack of response has me questioning that.
So, Walgreens paid for my hour long charge with that $10 giftcard, but I honestly didn't think they should have. It was a nice gesture to keep me as a customer, but Walgrens is too far out of the way for me to think to keep going there. Like I said in my original thread, I only went to Walgreens because charging was free. Forcing me to wait at a 350Green charging station for an hour is absurd, unless there was actually an hour worth of something to do at such location. If anyone should have replied with a $10 gift card, it should have been 350Green.
Here is a LINK to the letter I received from Walgreeens. It is also attached.
So, What do you all think?
EDIT 1(07/11/12) 350Green Responded to this on the Gm-volt.com forums. To see their response, CLICK HERE!