Quick query about Gridserve

[Ted the dog]

Quick question … as you guys and girls might know the answer..
So stopped at Toddington services and popped the MG on charge - just a short burst as I have never used a ccs charger before.
This was a gridserve unit
Absolutely no issues and was on there for about 15 mins and bill came to £3.90 (see picture)
Checked my bank account tonight and they have taken £20!
What’s that all about?

 

[pjmuk]

I believe they "reserve" £20 to cover the charge costs, then take the actual amount. It depends on your bank how this is shown, but they should only take the amount used.

 

[Jomarkh]

Some charge networks take a pre authorisation fee.
Have a look at the Electric Juice card from Octopus energy they don't charge thiscfee and the cost goes onto your Octopus account.

 

[Alun26]

This is also done with Petrol/Diesel pay at the pump, but I believe £99 is ring fenced. We always use Credit Cards so it not my money that's being ring fenced.

 

[biffo]

I used a Gridserve on Saturday and only the £8.39 unused has come out my account - but that was contactless.

I don’t have an receipt like you’ve shown - was this through a registered account or RFID card?

 

[supermegamonkee]

Instavolt do the same, think thats a £5 pre authorisation charge, shakes itself out in a couple days. I always keep a credit card handy for the chargers, just in case you have any issue along the the way.

 

[Les burrows]

Hi Ted the dog,this is quite commonplace with quite a few networks in my experience.
The picture you have posted is a VAT receipt and it is to claim the VAT back if you are VAT Registered of course, Gridserve took over Ecotricity a few months ago and they had the same systems what tends to happen is you will get a refund in a couple of days of £16:10 so your charge is £3.90 so don’t worry,but as Biffo pointed out I don’t think this happens if you use contactless payment

As stated instavolt take a £5.00 charge but I must admit this only happen the first time I used one of thier chargers used them several times since without the £5 charge

In my local Tesco’s there are four free chargers Pod point 2 @ 7kw and 2@ 22kw these are free to use but, also there is a 50kw ccs rapid which takes £30 to cover your charge and again refunds in a few days

Ospreys charge me £5 only ever used them once

Anyhow that’s my experience and these cost seem to be applied each time you charge I:e the pod-point one in Tesco had £60 of my money once when I had to charge there twice on a long trip but I got it back soon after.

These charges can be very annoying and I think I read somewhere some body in government was looking in to it there are many others about but I have not use them so can’t comment.
Les

 

[Ted the dog]

I used a Gridserve on Saturday and only the £8.39 unused has come out my account - but that was contactless.

I don’t have an receipt like you’ve shown - was this through a registered account or RFID card?

Hi Biffo. Yes I just used my standard contactless card. I will wait to see what happens via the bank

 

[SteveMP]

Yesterday was my first "long" trip as I need to drive in on a Sunday for my 12 hour day shift.
On the way way back up the M1 heading home I thought I would pop in to Toddington Services to both locate the chargers and have a go as I was down to 48%.

These chargers are very much an afterthought in there placement!

The downside was the charge was unsuccessful as it was waiting power that I think was down t the Fiat 500 that had just started next to me. So stopped the screen and departed to Milton Keynes (that was very busy and another story!).

As you can see on my Monzo account they took £20 and about 2 hours later had given it back.

In the end a it was Instavolt that gave me a top up and that was £5 pre charge.

 

[Gomev]

Quick question … as you guys and girls might know the answer..
So stopped at Toddington services and popped the MG on charge - just a short burst as I have never used a ccs charger before.
This was a gridserve unit
Absolutely no issues and was on there for about 15 mins and bill came to £3.90 (see picture)
Checked my bank account tonight and they have taken £20!
What’s that all about?View attachment 5199

My doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself. You said you were about 15 mins and the invoice says 34:27 mins.

 

[pjmuk]

Very slow charge on a rapid then 13Kwh in 35 minutes!

 

[Ted the dog]

My doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself. You said you were about 15 mins and the invoice says 34:27 mins.

Lol yes it does!
So it’s got a bit stranger … they haven’t taken the £20 out … but I have been billed £4.80?!?
Receipt says £3.90…
I guess I will need to phone them and have a conversation… no number on the receipt… doh!

 

[Ted the dog]

Very slow charge on a rapid then 13Kwh in 35 minutes!

Do you know I hadn’t noticed that … first time and all. Anyone know why it was so slow. I’m sure it was a 50kwh CCS charger. There was no one else charging at the same time…

 

[5teep]

Do you know I hadn’t noticed that … first time and all. Anyone know why it was so slow. I’m sure it was a 50kwh CCS charger. There was no one else charging at the same time…

Do you remember how much was in the battery when you started?

 

[Ted the dog]

It’s getting stranger… so I emailed customer services at Gridserve and they have emailed back. Just asking what date and time I used the charger and first and last 4 digits of card used, with a screen shot of the banking transaction…
Well I didn’t notice that the receipt that was generated is dated 14/08/2021 at 2.04pm
I’ve only had an EV since 07/10/2021!
The card details are correct (last 4 digits)
They are investigating….

 

[5teep]

It’s getting stranger… so I emailed customer services at Gridserve and they have emailed back. Just asking what date and time I used the charger and first and last 4 digits of card used, with a screen shot of the banking transaction…
Well I didn’t notice that the receipt that was generated is dated 14/08/2021 at 2.04pm
I’ve only had an EV since 07/10/2021!
The card details are correct (last 4 digits)
They are investigating….

Sounds like the pc that runs the charger is out of sync, has the wrong date set.

 

[mystreet]

Sounds like the pc that runs the charger is out of sync, has the wrong date set.

You forgot to say the Windows 95 pc

 

[5teep]

You forgot to say the Windows 95 pc

More likely Linux

 

[mystreet]

More likely Linux

If its like a lot of chargers, raspberry Pi

 

[Ted the dog]

Mystery solved - here is the answer from Gridserve

It seems our portal has pulled up another customer's receipt with the same last 4 digits as yours. Typically, the next prompt in the portal would ask for the exact amount charged, and your specific receipt would pull up. Since your receipt was not yet available, it pulled up the only option in the portal at that time.

Currently, it does take 3 days from the time of charge for the receipts to be available, we are working on making them accessible immediately but until we do, we ask for your understanding.