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Walgreens responds to complaint about expensive $2/hour 350Green charging stations

22K views 15 replies 12 participants last post by  drbruns 
#1 · (Edited)
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. Text Font Paper




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!
 
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#3 ·
Thanks for the update. I have also sent emails to 350green, Chargepoint and Simon Company (which runs the Pentagon City Mall). I have heard back from none of them and I haven't sent foot in Pentagon City Mall since.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Thanks for the post! I just visited a charging station in Aurora, IL at an outlet mall. I didn't have my Volt but was curious of the cost to charge. It was the same thing. It was $2.00/hr to charge with a one hour minimum. I believe that is way too high to even consider. I would definitely being be sending a letter about the cost if I lived in this area. This was a 350Green charging station as well.
 
#9 ·
I went to North Aurora and back and still had battery to spare. No way would I pay that kind of price for a charge. I'd have to be out of battery AND out of gas. Was this the Farnsworth outlet mall?
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the update.

Seems like 350Green is trying to see how many stupid business ideas to try before bankrupting themselves. Offering a free service sets up unrealistic expectations. The first dot.bomb crash proved the concept of "we lose money on every sale but make it up on volume" is not a sustainable business plan. To then turn around and charge Tiffany prices has destroyed any possible goodwill. The only customers they seem to cater to are the pure EV owners in desperate need of juice. Like the predatory garage charging big money to sell a desperate traveler a tire after a flat, people leave feeling cheated. Thankfully Volt owners can vote with their feet... er.. tires and fall back on gas.

Why not charge a fair and predicable price? As others have said, 50 cents per hour is a good price point. I wouldn't think twice about "topping off" at that rate. The execs at 350Green need to get off their butts and negotiate with the utilities to get themselves a favorable to make a sustainable profit.
 
#8 ·
Why not charge a fair and predicable price? As others have said, 50 cents per hour is a good price point. I wouldn't think twice about "topping off" at that rate. The execs at 350Green need to get off their butts and negotiate with the utilities to get themselves a favorable to make a sustainable profit.
The catch is that electricity rates vary tremendously across the country(s). In 1 hour at 240V, the Volt stores about 2.3kWh, which is perhaps 2.5 or so kWh taken from the charger. Here, that would be about $.45, leaving just $.05/hr to pay for the other costs. Even if they got 10 hours a day out of it (unlikely, even with a substantial EV base), that's $.50/day or $180/year. If they are paying $5K for the unit, that's over 25 years to pay for it. At $2/hr and 5 hours/day, they could pay for it in under 2 years (of course, the higher the price, the less usage it would get, so 5 hours is likely unrealistic).
 
#10 ·
Blink is $1 - $2 per Hour

Heres the deal, Blink offers the same $2 for non-members and if you sign up as a member for free it's reduced to $1.50 per hour. If you sign up as a premium member for $30 per year, it's $1 per hour. Right now you can sign up as a premium member and they waive the yearly $30 until Jan. 2013.
 
#14 ·
good news here i am working on a deal for volt owner ! with carcharging.com !!!!! we need to get together and buying bundle of hours at a super discount price $$$$$ a lot cheaper .... i will announce the good news soon !
hmm... intriguing. Having a bundle of pre-purchased time, would work with me... as long as it's at a discount.
 
#13 ·
The few places I have seen carcharging.com managed level 2 EVSE's they were charging $2.49 per hour. Not a step in the right direction if this is a global policy.
 
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